oe

+ tT

ae

| §

|
4
:
1
5

 

 

36 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

Clothing wee had made a comfortable shift for annother yeare,
and I offered to stay there if but twenty men would stay with
mee till wee had heard from your Lordships, for wee had corne
enough for two yeares for a farr greater number and tho’ the
Indians had killed our Cattle yett wee might have defended our-
selves but I could not find 6. men that wold be true to me to
stay: soe was constrained to leave it to my greate loss & ruin,
and I fear you will not have a much better account of your
plantation at Roanoke unless a better course be taken to incorage
their stay for they are not without greate cause of complaints.

This with my very humble servis presented is all at present
From Your honnors humble servant

JoHN VASSALL
To the Honorable Sir John Coliton
Knight and Barronett at Nerehald
These present
In Essex.

SamurL MaAvericKe To Src. L’ Ariineron.

(B. P. R. O., Shaftesbury Papers, Vol. XXI, 134.)

The plantations at Cape Feare are deserted, the inhabitants
have since come hither, some to Virginia.
Yo" most obliged
humble Servant

Boston SAMUELL MAVERICKE

Oct. 16, 1667.

CAPE FEAR PIRATES OF 1719.

There was a wide breadth of wilderness between the settle
ments in North and South Carolina, and before 1725 it-was not
determined to which province the Cape Fear River belonged.
About 1692 Landgrave Smith located a grant of 48,000 acres
on that river, and other South Carolina grants were located near
the confluence of its two branches; but there was no permanent
settlement made. One Lockwood, from Barbadoes, however,
made a settlement farther to the south, which the Indians de-
stroyed, and hence the name to this day of “Lockwood’s Folly.”

The solitude remained unbroken until in 1719, when Steed
Bonnet, an infamous pirate, established himself within the har-

 

 

Exploration and Settlement 37

psa at such depredations on the commerce of Charleston
oe Sua Rhett organized an expedition against him. A
Jotable battle took place near where Southport now stands, end-
‘ng in the destruction of Bonnet’s vessel and the capture of
es! : the pirates. Two days later other pirate vessels were
ea . sea, and more than a hundred pirates were hanged
an Fae on the wharves of Charleston. It is supposed that
trent onnet’s men escaped and made their way up the river,
Gai y amalgamating with a small tribe of Indians on the

er River, where, soon after the permanent settlement of

t - ‘
a Fear, in 1725, a considerable number of English-
peaking people were found.