Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / Jan. 3, 1962, edition 1 / Page 7
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Another Mystery What Happened To Colony? By EUGENE FALLON Ever since Plato wrote of a lost city, which he called “At lantis,” the world has been in trigued by the mystery of what happened to the metropolis—if, indeed, such ever existed. Right here in Brunswick County lies a mystery fully as great as that much-publicized settlement up in Dare County on the Outer Banks, which historians refer to as the “Lost Colony.” We speak of the more than vague references to a “James Forte” an English settlement located below Wilmington and surely in what is now Brunswick County, which was supposed to antedate 1625, and which is given authenticity by both the writings of John Lawson and two ancient maps, upon which the settlement appears. This, then, is a story manly composed of conjecture, and pretends to nothing more than that. Was there a fortification, pre sumably sheltering colonists as well as soldiery, located on the Cape Fear River in earliest 17th Century? And, if so, whatever happened to it? If John Lawson, whose excellent “History Of North I Carolina is a standard reference work on the early history of Co lonial Carolina, is to be believed there was indeed. Lawson also dispels some of the mystery surrounding the early settlements which disappeared, leaving no trace behind them, in the following words: “Had it not been for the irregu lar practices of some of the Col ony against the Indians, by send ing away some of the children (as I have been told) under the pretence of instructing them in Learning and the Principles of the Christian Religion; which so disgusted the Indians, that, though they had then no Guns, yet they never gave out til they had entirely rid themselves of the English, by their Bows and Ar rows . . . were it not for such ill Practices, I say, it might, in all Probability, have been at this day, the best Settlement in their Lordship's great Province of Caro lina.” The foregoing quote is exactly as written, along with the punc tuation and the obscurities rife in early-historian styling which are familiar to all of us. What did Lawson mean when he wrote of “sending away” some of the (Indian) children? One hopes that the colonists did not dispatch the little savages into eternity! But where else could the white men “send” the small redskins? Surely not to England and a public school? The sus-! picion of wholesale murder seems bourne out by the adult Indians’ reaction, which, still according to Lawson’s account, meant warfare with bow and arrow. And the question immediately arises if the colonists were wiped out to a man, in the sober passage: “yet they never gave out til they had entirely rid themselves of the English.’’ One phase of James Forte which seemed to have escaped annihilation was the “English Cattel.’’ In support of this, we turn to the remarkable narrative which comes down to posterity, as "The Hilton Pamphlet,” being a sort of ship's log, kept by Commander William Hilton, Captain Anthony Long, and one Peter Fabian, of the voyage of His Majesty’s Ship “Adventure” to American waters in Southern Lattitudes, from the island of Barbadoes, B.W.I., in the year 1663. The early portion of the log concerns the first landfalls made by the Adventure, on the coast of Florida (then held by the Span iards) and concern this story not at all. It is the latter logging— when the ship, having turned northward up the coast, reaches Cape Fear and this general vi cinity—that the writing becomes pertinent, with a vengeance, as it were. And we read not only of English “cattel” in the posses sion of “rede aborigines,” but fortunately chance upon yet an other clue to the fate of the vanished colonists of James Forte, in the following passages: “When the River (referred to throughout the document as the ‘Cape Fair’) comes to part, and grows narrow, there is all Chanel from side to side in most places; in some places you shall have five, six, or seven fathoms (sounds like Southport), but gen erally two or three, Sand and Oaze (mud?). We viewed the Cape-land, and judged it to be little worth (here, it sounds more like Wilmington), the Woods of it shrubby and low, the land sandy and barren; in some places grass and Rushes, and in other places nothing but clear sand (Long Beach, perhaps?); a place fitter to starve Cattel in our judgment, then to keep them alive; yet the Indians, as we un derstand, keep the English Cattel down there, and suffer them not to go off the said Cape. They (the Indians) brought aboard our Ship very good and fat Beef sev eral times . . . We saw up the River several good places for the setting up of Com or Saw-mills. In that time as our business call ed us up and down the River and Branches, we kill’d of wildfowl, four Swans, ten Geese, twenty nine Cranes, ten Turkies, forty Ducks and Mallard, three dozen of Parrakeeto’s and six or seven dozen of other small fowls, as Curlues and Plovers, etc.” Here, the writing mariners drop a bombshell! ‘‘Whereas there was a Writing left in a Port at the Point of Cape-Fair River, by some New England-men that left Cattel with the Indians there, the Contents whereof tended not only to the disparagement of the Land about the said River, but also to the great discouragement of all those that should hereafter come into the Parts to settle: In Answer to that Scandalous writing, We whose names are under-written do affirm, That we have seen fac ing on both sides of the River, and branches of Cape-Fair afore said, as good Land, and well Tim bred, as any we have seen in any other part of the world, sufficient to accommodate thousands of our English Nation.” If the reader of this remark able narrative should place im portance on the word ‘‘left” as used to describe how the cattle came into possession of the In dians, so far from England and its channel islands, it would seem that the colonists simply tired of the struggle to create a New England in Brunswick County, and made the redskins a “gift” of the cattle—while they pre sumably boarded ships which took them off for home. If anything is clear in the “Writing” found by the officers of the Adventure, it is the strong ly-evinced disenchantment with the land and its savage, native inhabitants. But how dramatic the “discovery” of the Writing! One wishes the Messrs. Hilton, Long and Fabian to have been a little more explicit as to the cir cumstances in which the “Writ ing” was uncovered. Surely this was a discovery almost as earth shaking as the human footprints found by Robinson Crusoe on his deserted island. How long after James Forte had flourished below the Union Jack hag the Writing been un covered by the seafarers? There are only a few clues, and these of nebulous character. In 1625 the reign of King James the First terminated, and Charles the First ascended the throne of England. It seems more than reasonable to assume that James Forte was settled and named in honor of the Royal James sometime during his reign which lasted from 1603 to 1625. (It was during this reign that Janies Towne in Virginia made its appearance). Therefore James Forte must have, been es tablished prior to 1625, and un doubtedly antedates Charles Towne, that settlement which an tedated Brunswick Towne, and was named in honor of the latter monarch, Charles of England. What were the final hours like? Did English blood stain the Brunswick sands and color the pure waters of the Cape Fear River, while the domesticated ani mals ran in bewildered circles bellowing? Did a ship actually carry off the crusaders; or did frail craft, built hopefully by the land-locked settlers, sail out of the mouth of the Cape Fear to founder with all hands? Or did a pox descend instead upon the settlers, to blot them from the earth ? On two old maps, one drawn by Nicholas Shapley of Charleston, Massachusetts, who served as clerk of writs in that town in the year 1662, dying the following year; the second map was drawn by James Lancaster in 1679; both maps show James Forte lying in the almost exact geographical position. The first map is the earliest known to show the Cape Fear River region in any detail. You have heard that a “camera will not record what is not there.” Nor will a map, however crudely drawn; There is, however, no re cords extant to show that either Shapely or Lancaster visited the region mapped by themselves. The natural assumption is that they copied other (and older) maps, maps which have since be come lost or ceased entirely to exist. And there you have the story of Brunswick County’s Lost Colony; its Atlantis, which dis appeared not beneath the sea, as Plato’s was supposed to have done, but downed in the river of time and the sloughs of man’s faulty memory. There is pretty strong proof that a settlement did exist before Charles Towne came into being. It is left to the read er’s imagination to fill in the whys and the wherefores of its disappearance. At this point the writer feels obligated to mention his debt to Cornelius M. D. Thomas of Clar endon Plantation, whose excellent work “James Forte,” published in 1959, furnished not only many of the facts as used in this story, but endowed the writer with en thusiasm for what he considers one of the greatest—and most in teresting—enigmas pertaining to the first settling of white men along the Brunswick coastal coun safcly 62 NORTH .g! ii TV PLAYER CONNIE STEVENS (Surfside Six) introduces North Carolina’s 1962 auto license plates which went on sale Jan. 2. New regulations concerning the purchase and use of the ’62 tags are summed up in a specially prepared leaflet accom pany renewal cards which are already in the mail. Motor Vehic les Department officials strongly urge car owners to read care fully the instructions before applying for new tags. The bright new black-on-orange ’62 tags must be in use by February 15. try. Mr. Thomas’ book is available at a cost of $5, postpaid, from the Charles Towne Preservation Trust, and a copy is on file at the Southport Public Library. Meeting Is Held In Exum Community A meeting at the Exum Com munity Building held Tuesday night featured films showing the growth of different varieties of tobacco. The meet was well at tended. Exum Community outdid itself in the matter of Christmas dec orations, with most of the lights and ornaments suspended upon yard trees. Among the more taste fully-decorated of these were found in the yards of Mrs. Elmo Mintz, Mrs. Alta Fernside, J. B. Verneen, Mrs. P. E. Brady and Ivan Bennett. The holidays were spent very quiety in this community. Be Wise! Advertise! Waterfront JO In his end-of-the-year edition of The State magazine, Editor Bill Sharpe devoted considerable space to Brunswick county, and par ticularly to the various resort de velopments. There was a picture of "Bouncing Log Spring” with its new enclosure and its new name—“Boiling Spring”. The fol lowing is quoted from the "From Murphy To Manteo” feature in The State: "Ever thought you’d like to have a pretty, wide beach all to yourself? Well, the George Sloans of Ocean Isle Beach do have one. In winter time, they are the only permanent residents of the beach, and enjoy it just as much as they thought they would. Mr. Sloan is handling real estate sales on the beach for Odell Williamson, and even in the dead of winter, people knock on his door, ready to buy a lot. “Ocean Isle, incidentally, has developed as a clean, neat beach with uniformly tidy homes. It has begun to attract small-boat fans and the ramp over on the waterway side is usually kept busy in good weather. The new ABC store is in business and, of course, is thriving. You could put a likker store at the North Pole and find customers close by. Long Beach followed suit by authorizing an ABC store. “Several homes went up this past season,, and the beach now has a motel both on the beach and on the mainland nearby, as well as a restaurant and minia ture golf course. Odell handles 21 rental cottages, which shows how this beach has grown in recent years. This spring he opened a handsome new office to house his development activities. "Ever dream back over lost op portunities? Here’s one that will make some people who failed to see it real sick: "Ocean Isle Beach, when it was known as Haile Beach, sold just before World War II for $5,000. The beach is about 6 miles long. An ocean front lot today costs from $2,500 to $2,750. “In other words, there was a time—and not so long ago when you could have bought a mile of proper ocean front for less than half the price of one lot today. Or, for the price of two lots to day, you could have bought the whole island, ocean to sound, inlet to inlet. “E. F. Middleton, when he was trading coastal property, once sold this beach for $10,000 and that has been only about 20 years ago. “And we saw in the 25 Years Ago column of the Southport Pilot that Smith Island (Bald head) was up for sale for taxes and $4,575 had been bid for it. It is worth much more than $1,000,000 today, and we doubt Frank Sherrill, the owner, would sell at any price.’’ Warns Of Dangers Of Bicycle Riding Police Chief Herman Strong, taking note of the many new bicy cles in Southport, had words of warning to both the boys and girls and their parents. “Although it is not my wish to throw cold water on the sport of bike riding”, said Strong, “it is a violation of a city ordinance to ride a bike on city sidewalks.’’ Strong added that he had re ceived several complaints about this practice, some of which were registered by aged persons and pedestrians being bumped by bikes while walking on sidewalks. “Bikes can be dangerous both on and off the roads and streets,” Strong said, “and parents should so instruct their children.” ACRYLIC ROL-LATEX Washable on exterior mason ry, interior walls and ceilings. No point odor, quick drying. *2%. *6’Lu EVERY 2nd CAN FREE ONE FREE ^ * 702 NORTH THIRD STREET / » WILMINGTON, N. C. MARY CARTS PAINT CO. 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State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 3, 1962, edition 1
7
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