— 82

Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

satisfaction with the regulations of the Proprietors, and espe-
cially because the colonists were not allowed to elect their own
governor, as the people of Massachusetts did. Sir John soon
left the colony and returned to Barbadoes; and as some of the
Proprietors had died, and, England being at war with Holland,
the others were too busy to attend to the affairs of the infant
colony, for more than a year Vassall’s appeals to the Proprietors
received no answer. The settlers becoming disheartened, Vas-
sall did all he could to satisfy them, but they felt cut off and
abandoned. After they had found a way to reach Albemarle and
Virginia by land, he could no longer hold them. On October 6,
1667, Vassall wrote from Nansemond, Virginia, a touching
account of the failure of the colony.

After the departure of the colonists from Charlestown in

1667, Clarendon County again became a solitude. A few years .

later a new Charlestown was begun farther south, and in the
management of this new settlement Sir John Yeamans proved
himself a wise and efficient governor and a meritorious and
beneficent administrator. After his death the settlement was
removed to the junction of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, where
it flourished and endured.

SANDFORD’S ACCOUNT OF CONDITIONS ON
CHARLES RIVER.

(Colonial Records, Vol. I, page 119.)

The Right Honoble the Lords Proprietors of the Province of
Carolina in prosecucion of his sacred Ma“* pious intencons of
planting and civillizing there his domin* and people of North-
erne America, w® Neighbour Southward on Virginia (by some
called Florida (found out and discovered by S* Sebastian Cabott
in the year 1497 at the charges of H: 7: King of England co)
Constituted S". John Yeamans Baronet their L' Generall with
ample powers for placing a Colony in some of the Rivers to the
Southward and Westward of Cape St Romania who departing
from the Island Barbadoes in Octob: 1665 in a Fly boate of
about 150 Tonns accompanyed by a small Friggatt of his owne
and a Sloope purchased by a Comon purse for the service of the
Colonyes after they had been separated by a great storme att
Sea (wherein the Friggatt lost all her Mast and himselfe had
like to have foundred and were all brought together againe in

 

 

Hxploration and Settlement 33

the beginning of November to an Anchor before the mouth of
Charles River neere Cape Feare in the County of Clarendon,
part of the same Province newly begunn to be peopled and within
the Lt Gen"* Commission. They. were after blowne from their
Anchors by a suddaine violent Gust, the Fly boate S" John was
in narrowly escapeing the dangerous shoales of the Cape. But
this proved but a short difference in their Fate, for returning
with a favorable winde to a second viewe of the entrance into
Charles River but destituted of all pilates (save their owne eyes
(which the flattering Gale that conducted them did alsoe delude
by covering the rough visage of their objected dangers with a
thicke vaile of smoth waters) they stranded their vessell on the
middle ground of the harbours mouth to the Westward of the
Channel] where the Ebbe presently left her and the wind with
ve Owne multeplyed forces and the auxiliaryes of the tide of
ood beate her to peeces. ‘The persons were all saved by the
neighborhood of the shore but the greatest part of their provision
of victualls clothes, &c: and of the Magazine of Armes powder
PF Ges Military furniture shipped by the Lords Proprietors
ri re cue of the designed settlement perished in the waters
4 Gen" purposed at first imediately to repaire his Friggatt
Se together with the Sloop gate safely into the River when
fx y boate was driven off) and to send her back to Barbados
PS cha whilst himself in person attended the issue of that
Sen Which IT and some other Gentlemen offered to make
wards in the Sloope, But when the great and growing
. sete: of the English Colony in Charles River (heightened
re 1s disaster) begann clamorously to crave the use of the
as = a voyage to Virginia for their speedy reliefe, S* John
a ve t at his first resolution and permitting the sloope to goe
ee Sa returned himself to Barbadoes in his Friggatt. Yett
a it esigne of the Southern Settlement might not wholy
Pane ee considered with the freighters of the sloope that in case
ni a in her Virginia voyage they should hire Captain
ate tanyons vessell (then in there harbour but bound for
ae ados) to performe the Discovery and left a commission
mee for the effecting it upon the returne of the Sloope or
Stanion which should first happen.
on in her comeing home from Virginia loaded with
ea s being ready by reason of her extreme rottenness 1n her
: to Sinke was driven on shoare by a storme in the night
N Vape looke out (the next head land to the north and Eastward

3