Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/328

304 life was afterwards vindictively shortened by the executioner, instead of being charitably prolonged in a lunatic asylum, alleged that he was commissioned by Heaven to deliver the whole world from oppression, and specially directed to commence his work in North Carolina. After various outrages, the Regulators, assembling in the present year to the number of two thousand, declared their purpose of abolishing courts of justice, exterminating all lawyers and public officers, and prostrating the provincial government itself beneath some wild and indeterminate scheme of democracy, which, doubtless, its abettors as little comprehended as they were qualified to accomplish. All the sober and respectable part of the community perceived the necessity of defending themselves against the folly and fury of the insurgents, whom Tryon was soon enabled to oppose with eleven hundred of the provincial militia.

In a battle at Almansee, May 16th, the Regulators were completely defeated, with the loss of three hundred of their number, who were found dead on the field. Seventy of the militia were killed or wounded. Twelve of the defeated insurgents were afterwards tried and condemned to die for high treason, in June; six of these were executed; the rest of the fugitives, except some of their leaders who escaped from the province, submitted to the government and took the oath of allegiance.

Tryon, though he had dissolved an Assembly for imitating the Virginian resolutions in 1769, was yet in the main popular with all the most substantial and respectable inhabitants of North Carolina. This advantage he owed to the diligence with which he avoided to provoke or aggravate disputes with the Assembly, and to the zeal with which he opposed a proposition of Lord Charles Montague, the governor of South Carolina, for establishing a boundary line very unfavorable to the northern province. Nevertheless, only a short time after he had suppressed the insurrection of the Regulators, Tryon was removed to the government of New York, and succeeded in North Carolina by Josiah Martin, a vain, weak, and insolent man, who endeavored to lower the character of his predecessor by defending and countenancing all; who were supposed to have aided or befriended the Regulators; and to recommend himself to the British ministry by seizing every opportunity of disputing with and complaining of the provincial Assembly.

Notwithstanding the active hostility of the Indians, there were daring men on the frontiers who persisted in exploring farther and farther into the unsettled regions of western districts. Daniel Boone was such a one, and by long residence in the woods, he had become excellently fitted for the toil and privation of a pioneer life. Attracted by the descriptions of John Finley, a trader, who had already caught a glimpse of the land of promise, Boone eagerly joined in an exploring expedition in company with Finley, John Stuart, and three other companions.