Meanwhile in 1660 a party from New England made a settlement at the mouth of Cape Fear River; or perhaps we ought rather to call it a visit. It lasted no longer than Thorfinn Karlsefni’s visit to Vinland,[259] for the settlers had all departed by 1663. There is a tradition that they were sorely harassed by the natives, in revenge for their sending sundry Indian lads and girls aboard ship, to be taken to Boston and “educated,” i. e. sold for slaves.[260] This is not improbable. At all events, these New Englanders went off in a mood not altogether amiable, leaving affixed to a post, at the mouth of the river, a “scandalous writing ... the contents whereof tended not only to the disparagement of the land ... but also to the great discouragement of all such as should hereafter come into those parts to settle.”[261]
The Clarendon colony.
But this emphatic warning did not frighten away Sir John Yeamans, who arrived at Cape Fear early in October, 1663, and ascended the river for more than a hundred and fifty miles. Sir John was the son of a gallant Cavalier who had lost life and estate in the king’s service, and he had come out to Barbadoes to repair his fortunes. His report of the Cape Fear country was so favourable that by the end of May, 1665, we find him there again, with several hundred settlers from Barbadoes, to make the beginnings of the new colony of Clarendon, of which the lords proprietors had appointed him governor. In the same year the colony of Albemarle elected its first assembly.
The Ashley River colony.
Founding of Charleston, 1670.
In 1667 William Sayle, a Puritan from Bermuda, explored the coast, and reported the value of the Bahama Islands for offensive and defensive purposes in case of war with Spain. These islands were accordingly appropriated and annexed to Carolina, as the Bermudas had once been annexed to Virginia. It was decided to make a settlement at Port Royal; the venerable Sayle, whose years were more than three-score-and-ten, was appointed governor; and on March 17, 1670, the first colonists arrived on the Carolina coast. On further inspection Port Royal seemed too much exposed to the attacks of Spaniards from St. Augustine, and accordingly the ships pursued their way northward till they reached and entered the spacious bay formed by the junction of two noble rivers since known as Ashley and Cooper. They proceeded up the Ashley as far as an easily defensible highland at Albemarle Point, where they began building a village which they called Charles Town. Their cautiousness was soon justified. Spain and England were then at peace, but no sooner were the Spaniards notified of these proceedings than a warship started from St. Augustine and came as far as Stono Inlet, where it learned the strength of the English position and concluded to retreat.[262] The next year Governor Sayle died, and was succeeded by Sir John Yeamans, who came in 1672, bringing from Barbadoes the first negro slaves ever seen in Carolina. In 1674 Yeamans was superseded by Joseph West, under whom the first assembly was elected.
Thus there were three small communities started on the coast of Carolina: 1. Albemarle, on the Virginia border, constituted in 1664; 2. Clarendon, on the Cape Fear River, in 1665; 3. The Ashley River colony, in 1670.
First legislation in Albemarle.
For a moment we must follow the fortunes of Albemarle, where in 1667 Drummond was succeeded in the governorship by Samuel Stephens. Two years later there was passed a statute which enacted that no subject could be sued within five years for any cause of action that might have arisen outside of the colony; that all debts contracted outside of the colony were ipso facto outlawed; and that all new settlers should be exempted from taxes for one year.[263] Moreover, all “transient persons,” not intending to remain in the colony, were forbidden to trade with the Indians. It was furthermore provided that, since there were no clergymen in the colony to perform the ceremony of marriage, a declaration of mutual consent, before the governor and council and in the presence of a few acquaintances, should be deemed a binding contract.[264] These laws were of course intended to stimulate immigration, and the effect of the first two was soon plainly indicated in the indignant epithet, “Rogue’s Harbour,” bestowed by Virginia people upon the colony of Albemarle.[265]
Troubles caused by the Navigation Act.