RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES.

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In this conflict the Huguenots performed well their CHAP part. An unusual number of them had settled in Charleston; here they founded a church, its forms of worship, the 1693. same as those to which they were accustomed at home, This church still remains, the only one in the land that has preserved inviolate these pristine forms.

A general effort was now made to extend the influence of the Church of England in the colonies. The politic William of Orange looked upon the project with a favorable eye. A “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts" was formed in England. Its object, the 1701. conversion of the Indians, was worthy; but at this time, by means of worldly men and politicians, its influence was directed to the establishment of the Church of England in all the American colonies. The project everywhere met with great opposition except in Virginia; there the dissenters were few in number. This society founded many churches in the colonies, which remain even to this day.

North Carolina was called the "Sanctuary of Run- 1712 aways," a "land where there was scarcely any government," with a population made up of "Presbyterians, Independents, Quakers, and other evil-disposed persons." Such was the language of royalists and those opposed to freedom in religious opinions. The proprietaries determined to establish the Church of England, and maintain it at public expense. Those who refused to conform to this law were debarred from holding offices of trust. The people did refuse, and soon there "was but one clergyman in the whole country;" and those in favor of freedom in religious opinions, were stigmatized as a "rabble of profligate persons." These tyrannies finally led to open rebellion on the part of the people, who wished to govern themselves, and when unmolested did it well.

Thus far North Carolina had escaped the horrors of Indian warfare. There were many tribes west and south of their territory. The greater part of the region now

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CHAP. occupied by the States of Georgia and Alabama, was the home of the Creeks or Muscogees, numbering nearly thirty 1712. thousand.

The territory of the Yamassees lay immediately west of the settlement on the north bank of the Savannah. In the vicinity were the Catawbas, on the river which perpetuates their name. West of these, a mountaineer tribe, the Cherokees, roamed through the beautiful valleys of the upper Tennessee, while they claimed as their hunting grounds the regions north of them to the Kanawha and the Ohio.

A great change had come over the powerful tribes along the coast. The Hatteras tribe, which, in Raleigh's time, one hundred and twenty-five years before, numbered nearly twenty thousand, was now reduced to less than one hundred. Some tribes had entirely disappeared; had retired farther back into the wilderness, or become extinct. Vices copied from the white man had wrought this ruin.

The Tuscaroras, a warlike tribe, whose ancestors had emigrated from the north, became alarmed at the encroachments of the colonists upon their lands. They determined to make an effort to regain their beautiful valleys.

A company of German exiles from the Rhine had come under the direction of De Graffenried. The proprietaries assigned them lands that belonged to the Indians. Lawson, the surveyor-general of the province, and Graffenried, when on an exploring tour up the Neuse, were seized by a party of Tuscaroras, who hurried them on, day and night, to one of their villages. There several chiefs of the tribe held a council, and discussed the wrongs they had suffered from the English. They finally determined to burn the man, who with compass and chain had marked out their lands into farms for the settlers. When Graffenried made known to them that he had been only a short time in the country; that he was the "chief of a differ

THE TUSCARORAS EMIGRATE.

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ent tribe from the English," and moreover promised to CHAP. take no more of their lands, they did not put him to death with Lawson. He was kept a prisoner five weeks, and 1712. then permitted to return home. During this time, the Tuscaroras and their allies, the Corees, had attacked the settlements on the Roanoke and Pamlico sound. The 1711. carnage continued for three days, and many of the poor people, who had fled from persecution at home, perished by the tomahawk in the land of their adoption.

The people appealed to Virginia and to South Carolina 1712. for aid. Only a part of the Tuscaroras had engaged in the attack. With another portion of the tribe, Spotswood, governor of Virginia, made a treaty of peace,—the only assistance he could give. Governor Craven of South Carolina sent to their aid a small force, and a number of friendly Indians. These drove the Tuscaroras to their fort, and compelled them to make peace. These same troops, as they were returning home, basely violated the treaty just made; attacked some Indian towns, and seized their inhabitants to sell them as slaves. The war was of course renewed. The Tuscaroras, driven from one place of concealment to another, and hunted for their scalps or for slaves, finally abandoned their fair lands of the south; emigrated across Virginia and Pennsylvania to the home of their fathers, and there, at the great council-fire of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, on Oneida lake in New York, were admitted into that confederacy, of which they became the sixth nation. At this time, the people of 1713 Pennsylvania complained of the importation of these captives into their colony. A law was therefore enacted, forbidding the introduction of "negroes and slaves, as exciting the suspicion and dissatisfaction of the Indians of the province."

The war seemed to be ended, and the traders of South Carolina especially, extended their traffic with the tribes who lived in the region between that colony and the Mis

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CHAP. sissippi. Soon after, these traders were driven from the villages of some of the more western tribes. This was 1713. attributed to the influence of the French of Louisiana.

1715.

The Yamassees, whom we have seen in alliance with the colonists against the Tuscaroras, when they hoped to obtain captives, now renewed their friendship with the Spaniards, with whom they had been at variance, for they hated the priests, who attempted to convert them. They induced the Catawbas, the Creeks and the Cherokees, who had also been allies of the colonists against the Tuscaroras, to join them. This alliance was likewise attributed to Spanish and French influence. Governor Spotswood seems to have revealed the truth, when he wrote to the "Board of Trade" in London, that "the Indians never break with the English without gross provocation from persons trading with them." These tribes had been looked upon as a tame and peaceable people," and fair game for unprincipled traders.

The savages cunningly laid their plans, and suddenly, one morning, fell upon the unsuspecting settlers, killed great numbers and took many prisoners. The people fled toward the sea-shore. A swift runner hastened to Port Royal and alarmed the inhabitants, who escaped as best they could to Charleston. The Indians continued to prowl around the settlements, and drove the inhabitants before them, until the colony was on the verge of ruin.

The enemy received their first check from forces sent from North Carolina. Governor Craven acted with his usual energy, he raised a few troops and went to meet the savage foe. The contest was long and severe; in the end the Indian power was broken. The Yamassees emigrated to Florida, where they were welcomed with joy by the Spaniards at St. Augustine. The other tribes retired further into the wilderness. Yet war-parties of the Yamassees continued, for years, to make incursions against the frontier settlements, and kept them in a state of alarm.

CHARTER OF THE PROPRIETARIES FORFEITED.

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The proprietaries made no effort to protect the colo- CHAP nists or to share the expense of the war. They at length determined, as they must defend themselves, also to man- 1715. age their own affairs, and they resolved "to have no more to do with the proprietaries, nor to have any regard to their officers." On the other hand, the proprietaries complained that the "people were industriously searching for grounds of quarrel with them, with the view of throwing off their authority." The matter was brought before Parliament, which declared the charter of the proprietaries to be forfeited.

Francis Nicholson, who for many years had been experimenting as a colonial governor, and, as he said, "been falsely sworn out of Virginia and lied out of Nova Scotia," was appointed provisional governor. He was not an exam- 1720. ple of good temper, and much less of good morals. He made a treaty with the Cherokees, who were to permit only Englishmen to settle on their lands; and with the Creeks, whose hunting-grounds were to extend to the Savannah. He had battled against popular rights in the north, now he thought best to make his path easy, and he confirmed all the laws passed by the revolutionary Assembly. However, when he left the country he mourned over the "spirit of commonwealth notions which prevailed," as the result, as he said, of intercourse with the New Englanders, who, at this time, were busily engaged in trading with the Carolinas.

These disputes were at length ended by an act of Parliament. Seven of the proprietaries sold out their claims to the government of England. The two Carolinas were 1729 now separated, and a royal governor appointed for each.