All These Things Duly Weighed,
Any Rational Man That Has A Mind To Purchase Land In The Plantations
For A
Settlement of himself and Family, will soon discover
the Advantages that attend the Settlers and Purchasers of Land in Carolina,
Above all other Colonies in the English Dominions in America.
And as there is a free Exercise of all Persuasions amongst Christians,
the Lords-Proprietors, to encourage Ministers of the Church of England,
have given free Land towards the Maintenance of a Church, and especially,
for the Parish of S. Thomas in Pampticough, over-against the Town,
is already laid out for a Glebe of two hundred and twenty three Acres
of rich well-situated Land, that a Parsonage-House may be built upon.
And now I shall proceed to give an Account of the Indians,
their Customs and Ways of Living, with a short Dictionary of their Speech.
An
ACCOUNT
of the
INDIANS
of
NORTH-CAROLINA.
The Indians, which were the Inhabitants of America, when the Spaniards
and other Europeans discover'd the several Parts of that Country,
are the People which we reckon the Natives thereof; as indeed they were,
when we first found out those Parts, and appear'd therein.
Yet this has not wrought in me a full Satisfaction, to allow these People
to have been the Ancient Dwellers of the New-World, or Tract of Land
we call America. The Reasons that I have to think otherwise,
are too many to set down here; but I shall give the Reader a few,
before I proceed; and some others he will find scatter'd
in my Writings elsewhere.
In Carolina (the Part I now treat of) are the fairest Marks of a Deluge,
(that at some time has probably made strange Alterations,
as to the Station that Country was then in) that ever I saw,
or, I think, read of, in any History. {Wood under Ground.}
Amongst the other Subterraneous Matters, that have been discover'd,
we found, in digging of a Well that was twenty six foot deep,
at the Bottom thereof, many large Pieces of the Tulip-Tree,
and several other sorts of Wood, some of which were cut and notch'd,
and some squared, as the Joices of a House are, which appear'd
(in the Judgment of all that saw them) to be wrought with Iron Instruments;
it seeming impossible for any thing made of Stone, or what they were found
to make use of, to cut Wood in that manner. It cannot be argu'd,
that the Wood so cut, might float from some other Continent;
because Hiccory and the Tulip-Tree are spontaneous in America,
and in no other Places, that I could ever learn. {Shells some Fathoms
in the Earth, the Sea probably has thrown up in part of this Country.}
{Mexico Buildings.} It is to be acknowledg'd, that the Spaniards
give us Relations of magnificent Buildings, which were raised
by the Indians of Mexico and other Parts, which they discover'd,
and conquer'd; amongst whom no Iron Instruments were found:
But 'tis a great Misfortune, that no Person in that Expedition was so curious,
as to take an exact Draught of the Fabricks of those People,
which would have been a Discovery of great Value, and very acceptable
to the Ingenious; for, as to the Politeness of Stones, it may be effected
by Collision, and Grinding, which is of a contrary Nature,
on several Accounts, and disproves not my Arguments, in the least.
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