Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/147

] Cape Fear did not prove successful, and fresh emigrants from New England were not attracted to the new province.

Towards the Virginia settlers on the Sound, which, with the surrounding district, now received the name of Albemarle, and who were supposed by the proprietaries to be "a more facile people" than the New Englanders, Berkeley, upon whom the jurisdiction had been conferred, was instructed to be somewhat less liberal in his concessions. But to a body, many of whom had fled malcontent from Virginia, and with whose temper he was well acquainted, he judged it expedient to behave with caution. Making therefore the tenure of land as easy as possible, and appointing as governor the popular William Drummond, the same who afterwards shared and suffered death in Bacon's rebellion, he made no attempt at further interference in the concerns of the settlers. We are sorry to say that the noble proprietaries made no provision for the spiritual interests of the colonists, or for the conversion of the Indians, although the spread of the Gospel had been one of their professed objects in asking a grant of the territory.

Some planters from Barbadoes, having examined the coast of Carolina, entered into an agreement with the proprietaries to remove to the neighborhood of Cape Fear River, near the neglected settlement of the New Englanders. Sir John Yeamans, one of their number, was appointed governor of the new district, which received the name of Clarendon. He was especially directed to "make things easy to the people of New England, from which the greatest emigrations were expected;" an instruction which he carried out so wisely, as soon to incorporate the remains of the old settlement. He also opened a profitable trade in boards and shingles with the island whence he had emigrated, and arranged the general affairs of the little colony with great prudence and a fair measure of success.

The proprietaries of Carolina, on further acquaintance with the geography of that region, were desirous of making still larger additions to their territory. Accordingly, in June, 1665, they obtained a second charter which extended the limits of Carolina both northwardly and southwardly; and by an additional grant in 1667, the Bahama Islands were also conveyed to the same proprietaries. Accessions from Virginia and New England continued to be made to the settlement at Albemarle; and under Stevens, who succeeded Drummond as governor, the first laws were enacted by an Assembly composed of the governor and council, with twelve delegates chosen by the settlers.

A few years afterwards, the proprietaries, by a solemn grant, confirmed the settlers in the possession of their lands, and gave them the right to nominate six councillors in addition to the six named by the proprietaries. About the same date, the famous George Fox, the founder of the Quaker sect, visited the settlement at Albemarle, and by his preaching and efforts, he gave a strong impulse to Quakerism in that vicinity.