School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PIRATES AND OTHER ENEMIES.

A. D. 1748 TO 1754.

During the government of North Carolina by Gabriel Johnston, there was still much trouble from the buccaneers. These were pirates who chiefly infested the West Indies, where they were sometimes congregated by thousands at a single place. They were daring enough to invade cities and countries, and caused great terror and danger to all honest people within their reach.

2. In 1748 a fleet of the pirates, under the pretext of a war between England and Spain, sailed into the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Instead of the plunder they expected to obtain from firms and towns, they were bravely met by the people, as the fleet lay off the village of Brunswick, and after a bloody fight, were driven back to sea with the loss of one of their ships. From this demolished craft were taken a number of negroes and valuables. These spoils which rewarded the gallant defence of the men of Cape Fear were, by act of Assembly, given to the churches in Wilmington and Brunswick.

[NOTE—The pirate chief left his vessel and crew off at Brunswick, and in a small boat, with a few men, ascended the Cape Fear River to ravage the farm of Maurice Moore. Col. Moore learned of the coming of the robbers and boldly met them on the shore with gun in hand, and compelled them to return without even landing. While the chief was up the river the fight occurred off Brunswick, his vessel was captured, and forty men, comprising the crew were sold by the victors at public auction. ]

1749.

3. The year 1749 is memorable because then, for the first time, a printing press was erected in North Carolina. James Davis brought this press to New Bern from Virginia, and began, years later, the publication of a weekly newspaper, called The North Carolina Magazine or Universal Intelligencer. This occurred in 1765, and the press was used until that time in printing the laws and proceedings of the General Assembly.

4. The first movements toward peopling the western sections of the province were seen this year in the purchase, by the Moravians, of a large tract of land from Earl Granville. They called it Wachovia, in compliment to Count Zinzendorf's estate in Germany. The same region was peopled rapidly by other German Settlers, with a large addition of Scotch-Irish emigrants. Their town was named Salem, and is now the county seat of Forsyth.

1752-53.

5. Upon the death of Governor Johnston, President Rice was in charge until the next year, when, upon his death, Colonel Matthew Rowan succeeded to the place thus made vacant. Colonel Rowan lived in Bladen, and was a planter of large means. He was greatly valued, and his name is perpetrated in a county which has long been important in North Carolina.

1754.

6. At this time there was great rivalry between France and England for supremacy in America. Large as was the area of unoccupied territory for division between them, they were fast maturing schemes for each other's expulsion from the Western Continent.

7. All around the English settlements, from New England along the great lakes, and down the Mississippi River, a chain of forts was being constructed by the French, and the aid of all the Indian tribes had already been secured except in the instance of the Iroquois or Six Nations in New York. Lord Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, sent a messenger to say that these enemies were even encroaching upon the Old Dominion and erecting a fort at the junction of the two streams which form the Ohio River.

8. Pittsburg stands upon the spot where this famous Fort Du Quesne was constructed. His lordship applied for aid from North Carolina in an expedition which he proposed to send against these intruders. Governor Rowan and the General Assembly responded nobly and promptly to the call.

9. Colonel James Innes, who had served gallantly under Lord Vernon at Carthagena, in South America, was put in command of a regiment mustering more than nine hundred men. Two hundred thousand dollars was voted for their equipment and supplies, and with high hopes, the long march for the Ohio River was begun.

10. When the army reached Winchester, in Virginia, Colonel Joshua Fry, who was in command of all the forces, died, and Governor Dinwiddie appointed Colonel Innes his successor. But this appointment gave offence to the Virginians, who wished Colonel George Washington, already a favorite of the people, to take command. The Virginia Legislature, under the circumstances, would make no provision for the support of Colonel Innes' regiment, and it was forced to return home. In this way the generous purpose of North Carolina was completely thwarted.

11. Colonel Innes died at Winchester soon after. The French occupied their fort and perfected those arrangements which resulted, shortly afterwards, in the terrible defeat of the army commanded by General Braddock.

12. Another army of Virginians and North Carolinians, about thirty years after these occurrences, was assembled to attack Colonel Patrick Ferguson's British and Tories at King's Mountain. A very different spirit prevailed there. The North Carolina officers, who greatly outnumbered those of the Old Dominion, insisted that as they were at home, Colonel Campbell, of the latter State, should assume command, and their knightly courtesy was followed by a glorious victory.