Chapter I

DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA

THE early history of every country is wrapt in obscurity. Perhaps this was to be expected in ancient days. But modern lands form no exception to this observation. It has been remarked that there are few nations in Europe or Asia which have not put forward claims to a discovery of America long prior to that made by Columbus. One of the earliest of these claims made by white men is that in which the Norwegian Sagas assert that in 986 A.D. some of the Norwegians found North America. But these same Sagas relate a discovery of still earlier date made by the Irish. They say that while the Norwegians were on the American shores at a place which they called Vinland, the natives told them of a country farther south and beyond what is now the Chesapeake Bay, where there lived "white men, who clothed themselves in long white garments, carried before them poles to which cloths were attached, and called with a loud voice." By this the Norwegian visitors understood that these unknown white men marched in processions and carried banners and sang songs. In the oldest of these Sagas the present Carolinas are called "Land of the White Men" and "Great Ireland" and "Huitra-mannaland." These Sagas further related that, before the Norwegians saw America, and probably in 982, Ari Marsson, of the Icelandic race of Ulf the Squint-eyed, in a voyage from Iceland, was driven to the Land of the White Men and was there recognized by men who had come from the Orkney Islands and Iceland, and it has even been said that Iceland was first settled by white men who had come from this colony of Irishmen in the Carolinas.

If this story of the Land of the White Men and its Irish inhabitants be true, this was North Carolina's first "Lost Colony."

Humboldt believed in this story of the discovery of North America by the Norwegians, but thought that their Vinland was "the central

and southern portions of the United States of America.'7 If he was correct in this, North Carolina in the Norwegians had a second "Lost Colony."

According to a Welsh statement, Madoc, a prince of Wales, sailed westward from his country in 1170 and found an unknown land where, on a second voyage, he planted a colony of his people. This settlement has been supposed to be in the Carolinas; and it is said that among the Tuscaroras of Eastern North Carolina once lived Indians who spoke the Welsh language.

"In 1660, Rev. Morgan Jones, a Welsh clergyman, seeking to go by land from South Carolina to Roanoke, was captured by the Tus-carora Indians," then in North Carolina. "He declares that his life was spared because he spoke Welsh, which some of the Indians understood; that he was able to converse with them in Welsh, though with some difficulty; and that he remained with them for months, sometimes preaching to them in Welsh. John Williams, LL.D., who reproduced the statement of Mr. Jones in his work on the story of Prince Madog's Emigration, published in 1791, explaining it by assuming that Prince Madog settled in North Carolina, and that the Welsh colony, after being weakened, was incorporated with these Indians. If we may believe the story of Mr. Jones (and I cannot find that his veracity was questioned at the time), it will seem necessary to accept this explanation. It will be recollected that, in the early colony times, the Tuscaroras were sometimes called 'White Indians.' " (J. D. Baldwin's Pre-historic Nations, 1869, 402-403.) Was this North Carolina's third "Lost Colony" ?

Whether these stories, or any of them, be accepted, the American Indians were the first discoverers of America. At last, then, all the controversies on the subject merely relate to the question, Who was the second or later discoverer of America?

When Columbus set out in 1492 on his first voyage, which resulted in the discovery of the West India Islands, he but acted in obedience to the impulses of a spirit that was then common among the maritime peoples of Europe. It was an age of adventure and discovery, the border line between the two great periods of modern development,

between the age of war and war-like adventure which had just passed its meridian and the age of commerce and commercial adventure which had just begun. Although by reason of his wonderful discovery and remarkable career, he was the most eminent, he was, by no means, the first of the venturesome and restless spirits of his century who risked the unknown perils of the sea in search of new lands and the wild pursuits of fabulous wealth; nor was he the last of these.

His success inflamed the more the spirit of reckless daring which already burned so brightly. Hundreds rushed forward to retrace his course and transcend the utmost limits which even he had reached. And when these had found new lands, others of kindred spirit stood ready to explore and settle them. Discovery and occupation went hand in hand. Probably at no other period in the world's history would new-found territory have been visited at so early a day after its discovery by such numbers of people seeking homes upon its shores.

In 1539 Hernando De Soto, one of the Spanish conquerors of Peru, undertook to explore the eastern part of the present United States in search of another Peru. Starting from Tampa Bay in Florida, he marched northward through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and into North Carolina. Then he turned west into the mountains, probably through Hickorynut Gap to French Broad River, and pursued, in 1540, his journey toward the southwest until he came to the Mississippi River; and, after some further explorations, he died on that stream in 1542. The chief object of his search was gold. If he found little gold he probably found where there were gold mines. In 1566 Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the celebrated Spanish commander who drove the French from their settlement in Florida, built a fort in South Carolina at Port Royal, or as the Spaniards called the region Saint Helena, and named the fort San Felipe and garrisoned it with one hundred and ten soldiers under Stephen de las Alas. In November of that year Captain Juan Pardo was sent from that fort with a company to explore the interior. Marching northwestwardly and northeastwardly, Pardo came, at the end of about 300 or 350 miles, to the country of the Sara or Suala Indians. He built a fort there and placed in it a garrison of

thirty soldiers under a sergeant. This was at Xualla where twenty-six years before De Soto turned west into the mountains.

The chief of the Juada or Joara (Sara or Suala) Indians had renewed at San Felipe the acquaintance which he had formed at Xualla with the Spaniards under De Soto in 1540, and now accompanied Pardo from San Felipe. Pardo returned to San Felipe; and in 1567, under his order the sergeant entered the mountains and pursued the way which De Soto had taken from Xualla. Four hundred and twenty miles of this journey brought the sergeant to Coosa whither Pardo, by appointment, had marched to meet him. While the Spaniards were at San Felipe they obtained gold and silver from a country in latitude north 35^ degrees, 180 miles to the north, where were "the townes of Otapales and Olagatanos." These towns were in a country called by the Indians Yupaha, Aixacan, Chiquola, Chisca, Apalatci, and Onagatano; by the Spaniards La Grand Copal or Florida; by the French New France, Louisiane Apalche, or Apalache; by the English Virginia, and now known as Western North Carolina. It had mines of gold, copper and silver.

In 1564 some Huguenots, sent from France through the efforts of Admiral Coligni and commanded by Rene G. Laudonniere, formed a settlement and built a fort in Florida on Saint John's River near its mouth, and remained there a little more than a year, when the fort was taken and destroyed and their settlement broken up by the Spaniards under Pedro Menendez de Aviles. While in Florida Laudonniere collected much silver and some gold from the Indians who claimed to have brought these metals from "the mountaines of Apalatcy." These "mountaines" were in Western North Carolina. From the same Indians he learned that in those mountains was to be found also "redde copper."

In 1653 an expedition from Virginia into North Carolina under Francis Yardly's patronage learned from the Tuscarora Indians of a wealthy Spaniard living with his family of thirty members and eight negro slaves in the principal town of those Indians where he had

which characterized all his enterprises. In 1584, he sent out an expedition under Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. These men conducted a most prosperous trade with the Indians of the North Carolina coast; and upon their return to England with numerous proofs of the wonderful land which they had visited and the wonderful people whom they had seen, Queen Elizabeth caught the enthusiasm of the voyagers and allowed the land to be named in honor of herself, Virginia. Strange it is, but true, that the original Virginia should, at a later date, have lost its name to its more Northern sister and taken from another British monarch the new name of Carolina. The next year another expedition, sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh under Ralph Lane, founded a colony on Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. This attempt at an English settlement in a new world was a failure; but it was, by no means, fruitless in results, as we shall see hereafter.

Two years later another attempt was made by the indefatigable Raleigh to effect a settlement at Roanoke Island, an attempt which resulted in that historical mystery, "the lost colony." But again the unfortunate Raleigh was doomed to disappointment. This man opened a way, and his fellow countrymen soon found means to accomplish what he had endeavored, at such loss and sacrifice, to achieve. He was, beyond question, the greatest of the founders of the American States; and the honor which North Carolina has paid to his memory in bestowing his name upon her capital city is a well-deserved tribute to her greatest benefactor.

After several more efforts, a settlement was made in North Carolina which proved to be permanent. From such beginnings arose the Old North State. She has been charged with being always behind; yet few States can justly claim to have kept pace with her.

Of the voyage of Amidas and Barlow to her shores Wheeler declares that, "it was then and there 'the meteor flag' of England was first displayed in the United States and on the sandy banks of North Carolina rested the first Anglo-Saxon anchor."

Through Lane's expedition in 1585, she first introduced to the civilized world Indian corn, sassafras, Irish potatoes and tobacco; or it is so claimed.

Upon her borders was founded the first English settlement in America.

In the far-famed "lost colony" was born and disappeared Virginia Dare, the first child of English parentage born upon American soil.

The first gold mines worked by Americans were the Reed mines in Cabarrus County, North Carolina.

The first battle for American independence was fought by North Carolinians on North Carolina soil at Alamance, in resistance to the tyrannical British Governor, Tryon, on May 16, 1771, and here was spilled the first blood ever shed in the cause of American freedom.

In 1765, the British Parliament passed the famed Stamp Act taxing paper and certain other articles used by the American colonies. This was a distinct violation of a fundamental principle of the British Constitution, forbidding taxation without representation, submission to which on the part of these colonies would have been an unequivocal concession that they were not entitled to the rights of English freemen. Of the reception of the attempt to enforce this act in North Carolina her historian Wheeler says:

"This act produced a violent excitement throughout the whole country, and in none more than in North Carolina. The Legislature was then in session, and such was the excitement this odious measure of Parliament created among the members, that apprehending some violent expression of popular indignation, Governor Tryon on the 18th of May, prorogued that body after a session of fifteen days. The speaker of the House, John Ashe, Esq., informed Governor Tryon that this law would be resisted to blood and death. Governor Tryon knew that the storm raged; courageous as he was, he dreaded its fury. He did not allow the Legislature to meet during the existence of this act, but faithful to the government, he condescended to use the arts of the demagogue, to avoid the odium of its measures. He mingled freely with the people, displaying profuse hospitality, and prepared dinners and feasts. But unawed by power, the people were not to be seduced by blanishments. Early in the year 1765, the Dilligence, a sloop of war, arrived in the Cape Fear river with stamp paper for the use of the colony. Colonel John Ashe, of the County of New Hanover, and

Colonel Waddell of the County of Brunswick, marched at the head of the brave sons of these counties, to Brunswick, before which town the Dilligence was anchored, terrified the captain, so that no attempt was made to land the paper; seized the sloop-of-war's boat, hoisted it on a cart, fixed a mast in her, mounted a flag and marched in triumph to Wilmington. The whole town joined in a splendid illumination at night, and the next day these patriotic citizens went to the Governor's house, and 'bearded the Douglas in his castle.' They demanded of Governor Tryon to desist from all attempts to execute the stamp act, and produce to them James Houston, who was a member of the council, an inmate of the Governor's house, and who had been appointed by Tryon Stamp Master for North Carolina. The governor at first refused a demand so tumultuously made, but the haughty spirit of the representative of even kingly power, yielding before the power of a virtuous and incensed people; for the people prepared to burn up the palace, and with it the Governor, the Stamp Master, and the menials of royal power. The Governor then reluctantly produced Houston; who was seized by the people, carried to the public market house, and forced to take a solemn oath not to attempt to execute his office as Stamp Master. After this he was released. He returned to the palace, to comfort his dejected and discomfited master. The people gave three cheers and quietly dispersed. Here is an act of North Carolinians 'worthy of all Grecian or Roman fame.' The famous Tea Party of Boston, when a number of citizens, disguised as Indians, went on board of a ship in the harbor, and threw overboard the tea imported in her, has been celebrated by every writer of our National History and

'Pealed and chimed on every tongue of fame.'

"Our children are taught to read it in their early lessons; it adorns the picture books of our nurseries, and is known in the remotest borders of the republic. Here is an act of the sons of the 'Old North State,' not committed on the harmless carriers of the freight, or crew of a vessel; not done under any disguise or mask; but on the representative of royalty itself, occupying a palace, and in open day, by men of well known person and reputation; much more decided in its

character, more daring in its action, more important in its results; and yet not one-half of her own sons ever read of this exploit; it is ndt even recorded anywhere in the pages of Williamson, who is one of her historians and who was one of the delegates from North Carolina to the Convention which formed the Constitution of the United States; and its story is confined to the limits of 'our own pent up Utica.' " (Wheeler's History of North Carolina, page 50.)

On May 20, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina, made, at Charlotte, in that county, the first declaration of independence, as well established as the "Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America," at Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776.

The first open and public declaration for independence by any one colony was that made on April 12, 1776, by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina assembled at Halifax, when that memorable body, on motion of Cornelius Harnett, resolved:

"That the delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be impowered to concur with the Delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independence and forming foreign alliances, reserving to this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for this colony."

In the late war for Southern rights North Carolina entered the struggle with great deliberation, but having espoused the cause of the South, she played a most important and honorable part in that tragic event. It was the North Carolinian Henry Wyatt who fell, the first soldier to die in defence of the Southern cause. To that cause North Carolina furnished more troops than any other State, and to her belongs the honor of having sent to its battle-fields fully one-fifth of the whole Confederate army. Her troops were the first to repel the invasion of Southern soil when, on June 10, 1861, they fought and won the initial battle, which has passed into history as the battle of Big Bethel.

A Virginia writer, the Rev. Wm. Henry Foote, enthusiastically declared that: "Men will not be fully able to understand Carolina till

they have opened the treasures of history and drawn forth some few particulars respecting the origin and religious habits of the Scotch-Irish, and become familiar with their doings previous to the Revolution—during that painful struggle—and the succeeding years of prosperity; and Carolina will be respected as she is known." (Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, page 83.)

The historian, George Bancroft, exclaims: "Are there any who doubt man's capacity for self-government ? Let them study the history of North Carolina. Its inhabitants were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed from abroad; the administration of the colony was firm, humane and tranquil when they were left to take care of themselves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppressive. North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free."

When the immortal contest for American freedom which North Carolina had first inaugurated in her public meetings, legislative assemblies and her battle-field of Alamance, had waged for years with varying fortune, it seemed at last that the cause of her choice was about to be crushed beneath the superior power and resources of her enemies. Cornwallis had defeated Gates at Camden on August 16, 1780, and well-nigh destroyed and thoroughly demoralized his army, and two days later Tarleton had routed Sumter at Fishing Creek, and Georgia and South Carolina were entirely overrun by the troops of the enemy, and the American cause seemed about to expire. The British general had begun his march northward to complete the subjugation of North Carolina and Virginia, and end the Revolution. This seemed, under the existing circumstances, an easy task.

At this dark crisis the Western North Carolinians conceived and organized and, with the aid which they sought and obtained from Virginia and the Watauga settlement, now in Tennessee, carried to glorious success at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, an expedition which thwarted all the plans of the British commander, and restored the almost lost cause of the Americans and rendered possible its final triumph at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. This expedition was without reward or hope of reward, undertaken and executed by private

individuals, at their own instance, who furnished their own arms, conveyances and supplies, bore their own expenses, achieved the victory, and then quietly retired to their homes, leaving the benefit of their work to all Americans, and the United States their debtors for independence.

From the men who, while others wavered and sought reconciliation with the mother country, declared independence at Charlotte, and, when all others despaired, retrieved at Kings Mountain the waning fortune of the war, came the first settlers of Buncombe County. Some of her first inhabitants were men who had actually taken part in these famous acts of patriotic daring and sacrifice.

When the war of the Revolution began, the white occupation of North Carolina had extended up to the Blue Ridge. Here for a time it had stopped; and until the close of that great struggle no effort appears to have been made for a further extension. Elsewhere the war was raging and across the mountains much of the country was in the possession of the Cherokee Indians, who, always hostile, were now in alliance with the British.

"According to Adair, one of the earliest settlers of South Carolina, and who wrote of the four principal tribes (Cherokees, Shawnees, Chicasaws and Choctaws) in 1775," says Dr. Hunter in his Sketches of Western North Carolina, "the Cherokees derive their name from Cheera, or fire, which is their reputed lower heaven, and hence they call their magi, Cheera-tah-gee, men possessed of the divine fire."

CHEROKEES

These Cherokees, when they first became known to the whites, inhabited the western part of North Carolina, the eastern part of Tennessee, the northwestern part of South Carolina, and the northern part of Georgia. While none of their towns appear to have been in the valleys of the Swannanoa and the North Carolina part of the French Broad, or among the neighboring hills, parties of Cherokees constantly roamed over that country, and at times encamped there for no inconsiderable while. This is evident from the great number of stone arrow heads, many of them defective and unfinished, found at

certain spots in these valleys and among these hills. Among the places of encampment of which these relics bear evidence may be mentioned the hill on which stands the residence of the late Col. Stephen Lee in Chunn's Cove, and the little valley at the northeastern corner of the Riverside Cemetery grounds in Asheville. Nothing but a residence at such places for some time of a considerable number of Indians would seem sufficient to account for the great number of these arrow heads at one place, and the fact that many of these are unfinished and defective would tend to show that they were made here, since no conceivable reason could possibly exist for carrying unfinished or broken arrow heads in quantities about the country.

There have also been found great numbers of Indian relics, consisting of stone hatchets and other articles of stone, in the bottoms near the mouth of the Swannanoa. Here, too, on the southern bank of the river, just below the last branch above its mouth, once stood an Indian mound built apparently to correspond with a natural mound at the base of the hill to the south about two hundred yards distant. This artificial mound was opened years ago but contained nothing except some Indian relics of the common type.

There is an old tradition that Asheville stands upon the site where, years before the white man came, was fought a great battle between two tribes of the aborigines, probably the Cherokees on one side and the Shawnees or the Catawbas who were inveterate enemies and often at war with the Cherokees on the other side. There is also a tradition that these lands were for a long while neutral hunting grounds of these two tribes of Cherokees and Catawbas. Probably, in the absence of something to verify them, not much weight should be attached to such traditions. Conjecture is always busy in accounting for physical appearances of a country, and what to one age is surmise to the next age becomes tradition.

The most that we can know of Buncombe County before its settlement by the Caucasians is only what can be derived from an occasional glimpse here and there into the dark and mysterious past. Here for many years had roamed these Cherokees, a most savage and powerful body of Indians.