3. Eastchurch was in London as the agent for Albemarle. The people were paying him to procure the assent of the Proprietors to some remission in the hard measure of the navigation laws; also for the abrogation of the Fundamental Constitutions. He and Miller betrayed their trusts, and became the willing tools of Lord Shaftesbury and the Board of Trade.
4. As the price of their subservience, Eastchurch was appointed Governor of Albemarle and Miller was made Secretary of State. The authorities in London were fully resolved that the New England vessels should be excluded from Carolina waters and that the Fundamental Constitutions should be accepted as the system of government.
5. This betrayal of a high trust was to bring its own punishment on the heads of both Eastchurch and Miller. On their way to America they stopped at the Island of Nevis, where the new Governor of Albemarle met a Creole lady. His conduct in London had been weak enough, but complete insanity seemed to have fallen upon him at Nevis. For two years he was oblivious to all the disorders and distresses of the people committed to his government; and he surrendered everything else to his lovemaking.
1677.
6. Miller went on to Albemarle, and in July, 1677, assumed control of public affairs. There were then in the colony two thousand taxpayers. Besides Indian corn, which was the staple production, eight hundred thousand pounds of tobacco were made that year. The whole colony was enjoying such prosperity as a fertile soil and good climate always give.
7. The new Governor conducted matters in an outrageous manner. He imposed taxes upon all goods sent to other colonies, and in this way soon realized five thousand dollars on the tobacco which was sent to Virginia and Boston.
8. He was particularly emphatic in his orders forbidding trade with New England vessels. George Durant, with a large majority of the people, was determined to thwart him in this matter. Governor Miller, on the other hand, was so determined in enforcing his orders that he in person boarded a Boston vessel and arrested the skipper.
1678.
9. Thereupon John Culpepper, with his followers, seized Miller, and having put him in prison, assumed the government himself. He imprisoned all the deputies of the Lords Proprietors. The king's revenue, also, amounting to fifteen thousand dollars, was appropriated by him; Culpepper, like Gillam, the skipper who had caused the outbreak, was from New England.
1680.