Travel on the Cape Fear River
in the Colonial Period
John A. McGeachy
North Carolina State University
History 564 - Dec. 2000
The river and its commerce have been the sustaining forces of the Cape
Fear region. The earliest colonists built their homes at the river's edge for
it was the primary means of transportation. Settlers used the river for
personal convenience, they sent commercial products down the river for export,
and imports found their way up the river to inland markets. The river's
importance was heightened because the Cape Fear is the only North Carolina
river to empty directly into the Atlantic. While the river provided the
easiest mode of transport, Wilmington grew, but the city's importance began to
dim after other means of conveyance were invented and industry shifted to
North Carolina's Piedmont region.
This paper examines the colonial period on the Cape Fear when the river
provided the easiest means of transportation between the coast and inland
destinations. Using the writings of contemporary travelers and officials it
focuses on the region's geography, the sale of commercial goods, the types of
craft used on the river, and the men who brought products to market.
The Cape Fear River originates at the junction of the Haw and the Deep
Rivers in Chatham County. From there it flows 200 miles from the central
Piedmont southeast to its mouth near Cape Fear, encompassing a drainage basin
of about 9,000 square miles. (See Cape Fear River Basin map, next page.) In
its first 31 miles the river falls about 100 feet, then from Averasboro to
Fayetteville, a distance of 27 miles, it averages a fall of about one foot per
mile. Between Fayetteville and Wilmington the river has a gentle slope of
about two inches per mile. Below Wilmington the Cape Fear is a tidal basin
with a mean rise of 4.5 feet at its mouth and 2.5 feet at Wilmington.1
Chief among the river's tributaries are the Black River which joins the
Cape Fear about fifteen miles above Wilmington, and the Northeast Cape Fear
River that meets its northwest counterpart at Wilmington. The Brunswick River
helps form Eagle Island at Wilmington. Eight miles below that city where Old
Town Creek enters is the area known as "The Flats," where sandbars prohibited
large vessels from traveling farther up the river.2
The Spanish first visited the New World's eastern seaboard: Salazar
around 1515,3 then Gordillo and Quexos in 1521,4 all in search of Indians to
enslave. Verrazano cruised along the coast in 1524 and displayed the flag of
France.5 Ayllon in 1526 led a party of five hundred Spanish colonists to the
Carolinas coast.6 The records left by these explorers were insufficiently
precise to identify conclusively where these events took place. This lack of
specific evidence has provided today's scholars opportunity to propose various
sites for these landfalls. Lawrence Lee postulated that Verrazano discovered
the Lower Cape Fear in March 1524, and that Ayllon settled his colony there
for a brief time before removing south.7 Quattlebaum, Hoffman, and Hudson
felt the two sites of Ayllon's colony were both farther south than the Cape
Fear region. Wherever these landings took place, none of these voyagers left
descriptions of the country's interior that portray the Cape Fear River. Its
exploration did not begin for more than an century after the Spanish first
visited.
In October 1662 the English explorer, William Hilton, made a three-week
reconnaissance of the lower reaches of the Cape Fear River.
ye 4th Octob. [1662] we weighed, and went into ye Haven,
where was 5.6.7.8 fathoms water, and in a weeks time, spent
with ye indians, and in sounding ye River (now called Charles
River) and ye ship turning up alway against ye wind, we gott
up 15. or 16. leagues into ye river; and after in our long
boate, half of us went 15. leagues further, till at ye head
of ye river we could not tell, which of ye many rivers to
take, and so returned to our ship, and as we went and came,
we found many faire and deep rivers, all ye way running into
this Charles River: .... 8
Hilton's report contained favorable comments on the fish, fowl, and wildlife
of the region. He noted "vast meddows, besides upland fields," "greatt swamps
laden with varieties of great oakes, and other trees of all sorts," and the
potential for good growing conditions. Hilton wrote that the Indians were
"very poor and silly Creatures," that he had observed fewer than one hundred
of them, but that they were "very theevish." He wished "all Englishmen, that
know how to improve and use a plentiful Countrey and condition, not to delay
to posses it...."
Hilton was an agent for a group of New Englanders who desired to settle
the area. Acting quickly on his report, "[a]n expedition was organized and,
in the late winter of 1663, New Englanders arrived in the Lower Cape Fear for
the purpose of establishing a colony."9 They remained only a brief time. In
October of the same year, after the failure of the New England group, Hilton
made further investigations of the river, this time on behalf of a group from
Barbados.
During his 1664 visit Hilton remained almost two months on the Cape
Fear. The explorers spent much of their time on the Northeast Branch which
they felt was the main channel. They anchored their ship, Adventure, and
rowed the ship's long-boat on trips up several tributaries. The longest of
these explorations was four days' travel up-stream and two back down. On more
than one occasion fallen trees in the rivers prevented them from proceeding
farther. On the Northeast they found
a very large and good tract of land on the N.W. side of
the river, thin of timber, except here and there a very
great oak, and full of grass, commonly as high as a mans
middle, and in many places to his shoulders, where we saw
many deer and turkeys; one deer having very large horns
and great body, therefore called it Stag-Park.10
At that point they turned their boat back down the river. Topographic maps
today show Stag Park 5.25 miles east-south-east of Burgaw on the west bank of
the Northeast Branch 40 miles above its mouth.11 The elevation there ranges
from three to six feet above sea level.
In other places they found high banks along the rivers, swamps and
marshes, meadows, pine woodlands "in some places as barren as ever we saw
land, but in other places good pasture ground." Near the end of their stay
they ventured up Hilton's River as they called the Northwest Branch.
The Land and Timber up this River is no way inferior to
the best in the other, which we call the main River: So
far as we discovered, this seems as fair, if not fairer
than the former, and we think runs further into the Countrey,
because there is a strong Current comes down, and a great
deal more drift-wood.12
As the Hilton party left the Cape Fear they "made a purchase of the
river and land of Cape Fair, of Wat Coosa...."13 They found a warning near
the mouth of the river left by the New Englanders which disparaged the country
and warned against settlement there. Hilton's report concluded with a
rebuttal to that warning:
we have seen facing both sides of the river and branches
of Cape Fear aforesaid, as good land and as well timbered
as any we have seen in any other part of the world, suf-
ficient to accommodate thousands of our English nation,
and lying commodiously by the said river's side.14
In spite of Hilton's efforts to settle a colony on the Cape Fear, that
honor went instead to another Barbadian, John Vassall, who on May 29, 1664,
landed with his followers and "the first European settlement in the Lower Cape
Fear was born."15 Colonists were encouraged to come to the Cape Fear by an
early example of promotional literature16 that promised religious freedom and
100 acres for every freeman and woman who immigrated. A Brief
Descriptionreported:
The whole Country consists of stately Woods, Groves,
Marshes and Meadows; it abounds with variety of as
brave Okes as Eye can behold, great Bodies tall and
streight from 60 to 80 foot, before there be any
Boughs, which with the little under-wood makes the
Woods very commodious to travel in, either on Horse-
back or a foot. ... Here are as brave Rivers as any
in the World .... the Rivers are very deep and
navigable above 100 miles up; also there are wholsome
Springs and Rivulets.17
Vassall occupied the Cape Fear before negotiations with the Lords
Proprietors were completed. They backed another petitioner, John Yeamans, in
his venture to establish Charles Town farther south, and did not support the
Cape Fear colonists. They also became preoccupied by developments in Europe:
the London plague of 1664, the Second Dutch War (1665 to 1667), and the London
fire in 1666. Without overseas support dissension grew in the Cape Fear
settlement and it was "completely deserted by the early autumn of 1667."18
Settlers could not legally occupy Cape Fear land without permission from
the Lords Proprietors, but in 1724 the colony's governor, George Burrington,
announced that his office would issue warrants for land there.19 He spent the
winter of 1724-25 on the Cape Fear and later reported:
I sett out with Indian Guides and some white men to mark
a Road th the middle of this Province from Virginia to
Cape Fear Province River and to discover and view the lands
lying in those Parts....I spent seven weeks in that Expe-
dition,... I remarked that Several Rivers began their
courses much higher up the Country than delineated in the
Map and some that I crossed are not taken notice of This
part of North Carolina th none of the Rivers are navigable
so high for boats, and as yet uninhabited will hereafter be
full of People The lands are very good and healthy and
well supplyed with Springs and Brooks of Excellent water.
Perfecting the Settlement on Cape Fear River cost me a
great sum of money, and infinite trouble. I endured
the first winter I went there, all the hardships could
happen to a man destitute of a house to live in, that
was above a hundred miles from a Neighbour in a pathless
Country and was obliged to have all Provisions brought
by sea at great charges to support the number of men I
caryed there, paid and maintained at my sole expense it
can hardly be imagined what pain I took in sounding the
Inlets, Barrs and Rivers of this Province, which I per-
formed no less than four times; I discovered, and made
known the Channells of Cape Fear river...before unused
and unknown....20
Burrington opened the way for a group of influential men, unhappy with
their prospects in South Carolina, to move to the region. Four members of
this group received patents of land totaling almost 9,000 acres:21 Maurice
Moore, Roger Moore, Eleazer Allen, and John Porter. Other Cape Fear settlers
dubbed these men "The Family" for they were all related by blood or marriage.
In 1726 Maurice Moore laid out a plan for Brunswick town22 on the west bank of
the Cape Fear. A geographer, Duncan Randall, described the site as being
about twelve miles from the mouth, just below a zone of
sandbars called the Flats. Selection of the site was
correctly based on the potential of the naval stores
industry in the area. To earn a profit, naval stores
required shipment in ships of one hundred tons or more;
such large ships could not cross the Flats where water
depth was only seven and one-half feet.23
But the lading point at Brunswick was not ideal from the standpoint of
those who floated forest products down the river. W.B. McKoy in 1908 noted:
Before the arrival of [Governor] Johnston the raftsmen
on the Cape Fear refused to carry their tar, timber and
naval stores down to the town of Brunswick, because of
the open and exposed waters in front of that town, and
as early as 1729, stopped at a place called the Dram Tree,
where the merchants came up to trade....24 25
McKoy felt that Wilmington grew naturally from this location farther up the
river where "[f]inally a settlement was made and a tavern erected for their
[the raftmens'] accommodation and a town laid out" that grew into Wilmington.
But a significant political rivalry had developed between the Family and
the colonial governors over the Cape Fear region. Burrington in April 1731
requested that the General Assembly authorize "an Act for building a Town on
Cape Fear River"26 only to be reminded that the town of Brunswick already
existed there.27 The governor in 1732 felt his estate at Stag Park had
diminished in value while under the care of members of the Family.28 He also
felt that the large land tracts held by Family members discouraged other
persons from settling on the Cape Fear.29
Governor Gabriel Johnston's taking office in 1734 continued the feud
with the Family. By declaration he opened the Land Office on May 13, 1735, in
Newton (Wilmington) to "prevent confusion and unnecessary disputes," and he
ordered the Court of Exchequer and the Court of Oyer and Terminer to convene
there instead of in Brunswick.30 The fortunes of Brunswick declined from that
time forward. It was largely deserted and was burned during the Revolutionary
War.31 On the other hand, Johnston reported "amazing progress" in Cape Fear
development during Newton's first eight years.32
Not long after the Family settled on the Cape Fear travelers began to
visit, some of whom left written accounts that depict the river and its
condition. Hugh Meredith, having dissolved a printing partnership with
Benjamin Franklin, followed his Welsh countrymen to North Carolina. He wrote
two long letters to Franklin in 1731 describing the Cape Fear area which were
printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette.33 Meredith traveled fifty miles on foot
up the Northeast Branch a good bit of the way in swampy conditions, passing
savannahs, pine forests, groves of hickory and oak, and land with "fine Runs
of Water in the Vallies." His party canoed back to Brunswick down the river
about eighty miles by the river course. He described the lower portion of the
noble River, the best and almost the only one of
consequence in all North Carolina. It is about half
a mile wide at Brunswick, and the Tide ebbs and flows
between 3 and 4 Foot Neap Tides. Vessels of above 50
or 60 Tons English Make, cannot go above 6 or 8 miles
above the Town; but small Craft may go 20 or 30; and
much further they might go, were it not for a multitude
of Logs that have fallen into the Rivers, which are so
heavy and solid that they lie at the bottom, and many
of them show but little Appearance of Decay.34
His comments about his return trip to Brunswick down the Northeast
contained the same warning:
... we embark'd in a Canoo to return to Brunswick ...
having about 80 miles to row on the River Northeast,
which is deep enough for a Sloop of 60 Tons all the
Way, and would be navigable for such quite up to Mr.
Evans's, were it not for the Multitude of Logs that
lie in it, part of them fast in the Sand, with great
Snags or Limbs, and sometimes either End or the Middle
quite above, or but little beneath the Surface; and in
some Places we saw whole Heaps jambed together, almost
from Side to Side, and so firm that they are immovable,
being sound, heavy, fast and deep in the Sand, other-
wise this would be a fine river....It is very crooked
and deep, and from 10 to 15 Perches [165 to 250 feet]
in the general Breadth of it. It is rare to find firm
Land on both Sides, opposite; it being Swampy on one
Side or the other, and often on both, and the Swamps
very large, especially within 20 or 30 miles of the
Entrance into Northeast. 35
In the second installment of his letters Meredith commented on the
Northwest Branch and the Black River. He reported that the Black contained
tracts of very good land, but that "it is not well discovered any great way
up." The Northwest was described as the "most considerable Branch, as well
for the Quantities of best Land, as for the Clearness of its Stream the Length
of its Course..." as Hilton had suspected.
The Banks of this Branch are high, the lowest Land on
it, even the Swamps, being 12 or 16 Foot above the
common Surface of the Water, and are as rich Land as
can be. The good high Land, which hardly ever exceeds
two miles wide from the River is in general from 30 to 40
Foot above the common Water, but some times in the height
of the Freshes, there is very little of it dry: ...36
During his visit Meredith remarked that the river had risen thirty to forty
feet during a freshet.
Even with its snags the river provided the best means of travel for the
early settlers. Within a few years plantations had been sited along the banks
of the Cape Fear and its tributaries. Those along the tidal basin and the
lower reaches of the rivers cultivated rice in diked fields which were flooded
when the crop required water while those higher up-stream concentrated more on
naval stores production and timber. The homes there occupied the best high
ground which sometimes offered splendid views. (See Plantations on the Lower
Cape Fear map, next page.) A group of gentlemen journeyed into this
developing society in 1733 as reported by A New Voyage to Georgia.37 This
group of at least fourteen men was well-connected. They traveled on horseback
from Charleston to Brunswick where upon hearing that they had come Roger Moore
"received them kindly." They traveled forty miles up the Cape Fear in the
company of Nathaniel Moore to his plantation, and from there visited Lake
Waccamaw and the Northeast Branch. The author's narrative proved that a
significant amount of development had occurred in the two years since Hugh
Meredith had visited the river.
[T]he north-west branch of Cape Fear river...is wonder-
fully pleasant, being, next to Savannah, the finest on
all the continent.
We reached the Forks...where the river divides into two
very beautiful branches, called the North-east and the
North-west, passing by several pretty plantations on both
sides....[W]e came to a beautiful plantation, belonging to
Captain Gabriel...where were two ships, two sloops and a
brigantine, loading with lumber from (sic} the West Indies:
it is about twenty-two miles from the bar; when we came
about four miles higher up, we saw an opening on the north-
east side of us, which is called Black river, on which there
is a great deal of very good meadow land, but there is not
any one settled on it.38
The following day they reached a property of Roger Moore's, Blue Banks,
where construction of a brick house was planned. There the river bluff
is at least a hundred feet high, and has a beautiful prospect
over a fine large meadow, on the opposite side of the river;
the houses are all built on the south-west side of the river,
it being for the most part high champaign land: the other side
is very much subject to overflow....39
In the middle of the next day they reached John Davis's plantation where "he
has a beautiful avenue cut through the woods for above two miles, which is a
great addition to his house." And that night they reached Nathaniel Moore's
plantation forty miles above Brunswick where it too was "a very pleasant place
on a bluff upwards of sixty feet high." In commenting on what had been seen
on the trip the author remarked that
I have not so much as seen one foot of bad land since
my leaving Brunswick. About three days after my arrival
at Mr. More's, there came a sloop of one hundred tons, and
upward, from South Carolina, to be laden with corn, which
is sixty miles at least from the bar. I never yet heard
of any man who was ever at the head of that river, but
they tell me, the higher you go up the better the land,
and the river grows wider and wider.40
After an excursion to Lake Waccamaw, described as "the pleasantest place that
ever I saw in my life," the group returned to Moore's plantation where the
next morning they
set out with an intention to take a view of the north-
east branch, on which there is a great deal of good land,
but not in my opinion, for the generality, so good as on
the north-west, but I think the river is more beautiful.
We lay that first night at Newtown, in a small hut, and
the next day reached Rocky Point, which is the finest place
in all Cape Fear....[T]he next morning set out on horseback
to take a view of the land backwards, imagining that there
might be only a skirt of good land on the river, but I am
sure I rode for above twenty miles back, through nothing
but black walnut, oak and hickory....41
John Bartram, a botanist from Philadelphia, almost thirty years later
traveled up the Cape Fear into present-day Cumberland County almost as far as
Rockfish Creek. He also remarked on the river bluffs and reported that some
were between forty and seventy feet high.
[B}illy [his son] went down ye river with me alonge A
bank 50 or 60 foot perpendicular to ye surface of ye
water[,] to A steep bluf which continued near A mile: ye
low land as usual being very broad on ye oposite side[.]
this bluf was nearly 70 foot perpendicular: ...42
Bartram observed the foundations of a new saw-mill under construction. "In
1766 on the Cape Fear and its tributaries alone there were no less than fifty
[saw-mills], and they were also common in other sections."43
Governor Johnston continued the chief executives' interest in the Lower
Cape Fear that Burrington had begun. In 1736 James Murray, a Cape Fear
planter and merchant, was asked by Johnston to join him in an expedition of
the river. Murray was eager to go because he had been commissioned to locate
land suitable for purchase by two other individuals. They visited the
Northeast and the Black Rivers, and Murray reported to David Tullideph, one of
the potential buyers that
[w]e found a little difficulty in getting up & down [the
Northeast], with our Canoes which were deep loaded, by
reason of logs lying across; but where ye river was
clear we had 6 foot water as far as we went & an easy
current. There is not such a Quantity of land in any
part of this country yet discov'd so good as yt that
lyes on the head of ye North East & black river, ...44
By his reckoning they traveled 180 miles up the Northeast. To Tullideph
Murray passed along the governor's warning that he should not take up any land
that he would not personally occupy because the country was worse than the
West Indies for "bad Attorneys & overseers." Murray feared that an absentee
landlord would "get none to live in such an out of ye way place as it will be
for some time that will be strictly honest to you...." Murray himself later
purchased land in the Cape Fear region but lost it during the Revolution.
Highland Scots in substantial numbers immigrated to the Cape Fear region
beginning about 1739.45 In addition to the hardships in Scotland that forced
them to leave their homeland they were encouraged by letters from Governor
Johnston, himself a Scot. Later a 1760s promotional tract described what
Highland immigrants might expect to find in North Carolina. Of the Cape Fear
its author, Scotus Americanus, wrote,
The north-west branch of this river, along which I
travelled, is navigable about 40 miles above Wil-
mington for large vessels; but long boats, lighters,
and large canoes, carry goods for above 100 miles
farther up. On this north-west branch of the same
river, lies Cross Creek, or New Campbeltoun, about
100 miles distant from Wilmington in the course of
this river....When I travelled, the banks of the
rivers from Wilmington to far above Cross Creek,
were agreeably adorned with fine seats, villas, and
pleasant farm-houses, at moderate distances, on either
side, which afforded a most enchanting scene of the
ease and happiness which the present settlers enjoy:
and, in general, most of the present planters may be
said to have a river at their door, and easy conveyance
for their commodities to market.46
The royal governors actively promoted the commerce of the Cape Fear
region. By the eve of the Revolution 63 percent of the naval stores exported
to Great Britain from its North American colonies came from North Carolina,
and more than half of that proportion (some 58,000 barrels for the year 1772-
73) left Port Brunswick.47 Attempts to introduce additional commercial
products into the Cape Fear area and to cultivate trade with the interior met
with less success. Lawrence Lee called the failure of Cape Fear merchants to
attract the bulk of the colony's trade with the back country a "grievous blow
to the economic development"48 of the region. Governor William Tryon in
September 1767 went so far as to place a personal order with the Moravian
community at Wachovia49 and encouraged the Moravians to establish trade
relations with Wilmington via Cross Creek and the Cape Fear.
Although the early efforts to establish trade with the Moravians did not
meet with immediate success that commerce grew over time as traffic increased
along the Cape Fear and as the roads into the interior improved. Highland
Scots in large numbers settled on land bordering the upper Cape Fear during
the 1750s and 1760s. Their primary settlement was Cross Creek (Fayetteville)
where the healthy growth drew merchants to the town, and "a brisk trade up and
down the river began."50 Fayetteville grew into an important trade center
where wheat and flour from the central Piedmont was gathered for shipment on
the river to Wilmington.51
William Barton had accompanied his father, John, to the Cape Fear in
1766, and returned to the region in 1776 on a second botanical expedition.
Cross Creek was then a "fine inland trading town" and where on his first visit
there had been only "about twenty habitations"
now there are above a thousand houses, many wealthy
merchants, and respectable public buildings, a vast
resort of inhabitants and travellers, and continual
brisk commerce by waggons, from the back settlements,
with large trading boats, to and from Wilmington,...52
Bartram had traveled up the river from Brunswick and was on the last leg
of a series of trips begun in 1773 that would return him to Philadelphia in
January 1777. He recorded these remarks about the Cape Fear in his journal:
Proceeding again up the North West, crossed Carver's creek,
and stopped at Ashwood, the ancient seat of Colonel William
Bartram. The house stands on the high banks of the river,
near seventy feet in height above the surface of the water;
this high bluff continues two or three miles on the river,
and commands a magnificent prospect of the low lands opposite,
when in their native state, presenting to the view grand
forests and expansive Cane meadows: ...
The North West of Cape Fear, here at Ashwood, is near three
hundred yards over (when the stream is low and within its
banks), and is eighty or ninety miles above the capes.53
Another traveler ventured into the volatile atmosphere of the late
colonial period. Janet Schaw, the sister of a Cape Fear planter, visited her
brother's plantation, Schawfield, sixteen miles above Brunswick. She left a
memoir of her visit and was favorably impressed with the river:
...I left Wilmingtown and returned to Schawfield by water,
which is a most delightful method of travelling thro' this
Noble country, .... Nothing can be finer than the banks of
this river; a thousand beauties both of the flowery and
sylvan tribe hang over it and are reflected from it with
additional lustre.
...thro' the whole country are innumerable creeks that com-
municate with the main branches of the river and every tide
receive a sufficient depth of water for boats of the largest
size and even for small Vessels, so that every thing is water-
borne at a small charge and with great safety and ease.
Finer grapes cannot be met with than are to be found every
where wild, more particularly on the banks of the rivers,
and up all the creeks,... On a sail we took up a creek, we
found the grapes dangling over our heads in large bunches,
particularly a red grape, whose berries are very large.54
The Schaws left the Cape Fear region in 1776 and the Journal provided a
first-hand account of those tumultuous days. Shortly after the war another
traveler, Johann Schoepf, passed through Wilmington on his way south. The war
had left bridges on the road to Charleston unpassable and Schopf was forced to
detour ten miles up the Cape Fear and to use country roads to bypass the
damage. He observed in 1784:
There are in the town perhaps 150 framed houses, but most
of them of good appearance. [The Port] once ... drove a
considerable trade with the West Indies and the northern
provinces; at the present time its trade is almost
entirely with Charleston. The harbor should be good; but
the entrance is difficult for larger vessels, from a bar
giving no more than 9-10 ft. water. Larger ships must
consequently first lighten cargo at Brunswick, a little
place 16 miles from here,...55
The Revolution caused a disruption in the Cape Fear's export trade. The
region's major product was naval stores - pitch, tar, and turpentine - items
essential to the maintenance of sailing vessels. The bounties paid on these
products under the British mercantile system had encouraged their production
on the Cape Fear where there existed a seemingly inexhaustible store of pine
trees from which these products were derived. The colony had made very good
commercial progress since 1721 when the Board of Trade painted a dismal
picture of North Carolina trading prospects.
...the situation renders [North Carolina] for ever uncapable
of being a place of considerable Trade by reason of a great
sound near sixty miles over, that lyes between this Coast
and the Sea, barr'd by a vast chain of sand banks ....
The little Commerce therefore driven to this Colony is
carried on by very small sloops chiefly from New England,
who bring them Clothing and Iron Ware in Exchange for
their Pork and Corn but of late they have made small
Quantities of Pitch and Tar which are first exported to
New England and thence to Great Britain.56
Various sorts of provisions came next in importance to naval stores as
export items: corn, peas, beans, wheat, flour, live stock, beef, pork, and
fish. Lumber products also held a major place in the colony's export market.
These included masts, spars, and ton timber used in ship construction plus
various boards, scantlings, staves, headings, hoops, and shingles.57 Rice was
also exported from the Cape Fear, but its level of production never approached
that in South Carolina. Crittenden concluded in his study of North Carolina
commerce:
Most important were naval stores, shipped mainly to Great
Britain; but there were many other articles, especially
provisions and lumber, which went largely to the West
Indies, and furs, exported chiefly to the northern colonies.58
Records of the volume of shipping through Port Brunswick are sketchy.
"In December, 1734, Governor Gabriel Johnston reported that forty-two vessels
had left the river over the past twelve months."59 For the two years 1738 and
1739 the number of vessels entering the port averaged that same number.60
Governor Dobbs reported that traffic entering Brunswick had increased to about
one hundred vessels annually by 1754.61 In 1763 the shipping tonnage (4,830)
at Brunswick surpassed that of any other North Carolina port although the
number of ships clearing the port was ninety, fewer than the number reported
in 1754. In 1768-69 the reported tonnage cleared through Brunswick was 8,608,
higher again than any other North Carolina port, but far less than ports in
other colonies, e.g., Charleston, 31,551; Norfolk, 26,383.62 During 1772 142
ships cleared Brunswick with a tonnage of 8,763. Charleston, too, showed a
modest increase in tonnage, 31,553 for the same period.63
Commercial products were either carried by water to Wilmington or
Brunswick and there transferred to larger vessels, or products might be loaded
at a plantation wharf for direct export. The inhabitants of the pine forest
along the river above Wilmington purchased goods through the year with credit
extended by merchants and paid a marked-up price to cover the merchants'
expenses. The buyer repaid his credit with naval stores or other forms of
provisions which the merchant aggregated for resale.64 The merchant in turn
might be indebted to his suppliers and could find himself in an unpleasant
financial position between those requiring payment for goods supplied and
those needing extended credit until they could raise a crop or collect a
quantity of naval stores. The Cape Fear merchant James Murray in 1737 wrote
I have sold about 2/3 of my cargo, for which we have got
a pretty large sum of our Currency in debts outstanding
and in bills received. Was I to press speedy remittances,
it would be very much to my disadvantage.65
The small producer might also carry his goods to the Wilmington Market House
where they were to be "Publickly Exposed for sale till ten oClock in the
forenoon" and then the owner was "at liberty to Hawk them about for Sale."66
The affluent planter could serve as his own merchant and exporter.
Captain Gabriel was evidently engaged in this practice when loading five
vessels at his plantation's wharf with lumber destined for the West Indies.67
The commission merchant offered another avenue of sale for larger quantities
of naval stores. They
either purchased [the producer's] naval stores outright,
hoping to profit by their resale, or stored, handled and
shipped them for a commission.68
Wilmington's merchants could also engage in direct forms of speculation by
purchasing a cargo of material for import and then offering it for local sale.
James Murray in 1738 hoped to profit handsomely in this manner.
... I ... am going to involve myself in the Cape Fear
trade deeper than my self or any of my predecessors or
contemporaries have done hitherto, & am now fitting out
a Cargo of above œ1500 str to begin with, & have charter'd
a ship to load derectly back with such Commodities as can
be got. If our Gentlemen Planters have a mind to set their
trade on the footing of South Carolina now they'll have a
fair opportunity. If I find they are not ready & willing
to encourage it, especially in the loading of this ship,
I shall ... go away without breaking bulk to South Carolina
or Georgia, for my cargo is suited for either of these places,
& shall come back with the refuse of my cargo (if any), for
which I shall expect 2 & 300 P Cent, as other people as well
as I used (& I presume still continue) to sell for. Let them
pay when they will.69
By the early 1770s with the growth of Cross Creek and the increased
commercial traffic between there and Wilmington Scotus Americanus reported:
At this place, the merchants of Wilmington have stores and
agents to buy and lay up the goods; and they are conveyed
by water to Wilmington in this manner: these merchants, or
the settlers along the river, make large rafts of timber,
as is common in Holland; upon these they lay their beef,
pork, and flower, in barrels, also their live stock, Indian
corn, raw hydes, butter, tallow, and whatever they have for
market: boats and canoes always accompany these rafts: on
these, again, are brought up the river whatever goods are
taken in exchange. The planters dispose of their goods to
merchants in town, or to ships at Wilmington, where there
are many now from Britain, the West Indies, and the different
colonies; to these they sell their goods, and in return,
bring back sugar, rum, salt, iron, &c. and the rest in cash.70
A wide variety of craft called at Brunswick and Wilmington. The Flats,
the shoal between the two towns, limited the size of vessel that could reach
the up-stream destination, but some ships lightened their loads at Brunswick
and then proceeded with a lessened draft to Wilmington. Schooners, sloops,
brigs, snows, and ships called at the Cape Fear ports.
Schooners and sloops were ordinarily used in the coastal trade between
the colonies and were the most frequently seen vessels on the Cape Fear. A
schooner was two-masted while a sloop had only one mast. Both carried sails
rigged fore-and-aft; sails were suspended by gaffs from the aft side of the
mast or masts. The schooner and sloop varied in size from six to less than
fifty tons, and had an average crew of four.
The average size of a brig, or brigantine, was one hundred tons with a
crew of seven. A brig carried sails on two masts, a fore-mast with square
sails and a mainmast on which were both square sails and one rigged fore-and-
aft. Snows and ships were larger than brigs. They averaged about 150 tons
and carried crews of ten or eleven. Ships were three-masted vessels with
square sails. Snows had two square-rigged masts and a small third mast, set
into a step above the level of the deck, rigged with a try-sail.71
The reports by early explorers that the Cape Fear was navigable by
vessels of considerable size above the tidal basin was confirmed by both
colonial accounts and physical evidence. At Captain Gabriel's, on the
Northwest Cape Fear two miles above the inflow of the Northeast, "two ships,
two sloops, and a brigantine"72 were observed in 1733. The burned lower hull
of an eighteenth century vessel was found at the Rose Hill landing six miles
above Wilmington on the Northeast Branch, and was investigated in 1988 by
staff of the state's Underwater Archaeology Unit.73
The Rose Hill wreck retained some of its mysteries. It may have been
sunk during the 1781 British occupation of Wilmington, but its location does
not fit well with surviving written records. It appeared to be a merchant
vessel built in New England between 1660 and 1750, and the investigators
projected from the archaeological evidence that the vessel was sixty-seven
feet in length with a beam of twenty-two feet and a capacity of 103 tons.74
But significant pieces of the keel were not located and it was not possible to
determine whether the vessel had one or two masts, whether it was a sloop,
schooner, or brig. Whatever the answer regarding its rigging the wreck
provided prima facie evidence that large vessels operated on the rivers above
Wilmington in the colonial period.
A variety of small craft also plied the Cape Fear and its tidal estuary.
The dugout canoe usually crafted from cypress logs, unchanged from its Indian
original, was ubiquitous. A small canoe for two or three men sold for just a
few shillings.75 Janet Schaw attended a funeral at Point Pleasant plantation
on the Northeast Branch and reported that "above a hundred" persons arrived
for the service in canoes.76 Other canoes
... are so large as to carry thirty Barrels, though of
one entire Piece of Timber. Others that are split down
the Bottom and a piece added thereto, will carry eighty
or an hundred.77
This wide canoe was a called a perriauger. Crittenden elaborated on its
method of construction:
To construct a perriauger a cypress log was hollowed out,
as if to make a dug-out; the log was split down the middle,
and the two halves were laid parallel to each other several
feet apart; to form the bottom of the craft several strong
boards were laid between the halves of the log, parallel to
them; the ends were closed up to keep out the water; and the
whole was fastened firmly together.78
It was probably a perriaguer James Murray had in mind when he wrote a London
merchant that "a Cooper and a Craft that will carry about 100 barrels will be
absolutely necessary. I have suffer'd much for want of them,..."79 Small
perriaguers were propelled by oars or paddles, and larger ones could also be
outfitted with a sail. Their greater width made them more stable and enabled
them to carry a larger number of men, provision barrels, or livestock. When
Janet Schaw "sailed" on the river it was probably in a perriauger.80 Affluent
planters could add other enhancements to the basic perriauger. Miss Schaw
further reported that
Mr Rutherford has a very fine boat with an awning to pre-
vent the heat, and six stout Negroes in neat uniforms to
row her down, which with the assistance of the tide was
performed with ease in a very short time.81
A large perriauger could cost much as œ20 in North Carolina currency.82
Perriaugers, flatboats, scows and temporary rafts were the work boats
that plied the river between Fayetteville and Wilmington in the colonial
period. Flatboats and scows resembled perriaugers by having flat bottoms, but
they had squared sides and were constructed from planks rather than hollowed-
out logs. With their shallow drafts they could operate on small streams.83
Janet Schaw visited John Rutherfurd's plantation, Hunthill, on the Northeast
Branch, observed his "grand" saw-mill, and described the transportation of
naval stores
with the river, by which he sends down all the lumber,
tar and pitch, as it rises every tide sufficiently high
to bear any weight This is done on what is called rafts,
built upon a flat with dales [i.e., deals, sawn boards or
planks] and the barrels depending from the sides. In
this manner they will float you down fifty thousand (feet
of) deals at once, and 100 or 200 barrels, and they leave
room in the centre for the people to stay on, who have
nothing to do but prevent its running on shore, as it is
floated down by the tides, and they must lay to, between
tide and tide, it having no power to move but by the force
of the stream. ... {Rutherfurd] is able to load a raft once
a fortnight -- the plantation not only affording lumber, but
staves, hoops and ends for barrels and casks....84
Flatboats and rafts most frequently used the current for propulsion. In
the tidal reaches of the river they had to be tied up when the tide was rising
to avoid being driven back up-stream. They were steered by long poles fixed
on fulcrums placed at either end of the vessel.85 Floating with the current
was slow but not difficult when all one had to do was to "prevent its running
on shore." On the other hand moving a flat one hundred miles up the river
from Wilmington to Fayetteville was very difficult.
Ordinarily craft were propelled up-stream by oars or
setting poles, but where the current was very swift
they might have to be warped up by means of ropes
fastened to trees on the bank. Progress against the
current ordinarily was very slow.86
A detailed description of the trip from "Braunschweig" to Springhill
[Cross Creek] was recorded in the diary of the Schout party, a group of
sixteen Moravians who traveled from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to "Bethabara in
the Wachau" in the spring of 1762.87 The group consisted of three couples,
five additional women, two more men, and three small children, aged six, four,
and one. Brother Schout was the group's guide. They chartered a twenty-three
ton sloop to travel from Philadelphia to Brunswick and spent eighteen days in
transit before reaching the "long desired Cape Fear River" on May 12.
The next day the sloop took the party the sixteen miles to Wilmington,
which was described as a "large city for this country ... well laid out.
Apart from trading and a few handicrafts there is nothing done here." On May
15 one of the men began the trip to Bethabara ahead of the group to announce
their approach. They "secured three boats to take us and our belongings to
Springhill" on May 17, and began their trip up-stream the next afternoon with
the boats being "rowed by eight negroes." They spent ten days on the river
and described it as "difficult."
By May 21 they had "learned to our sorrow that a large, flat-bottomed
boat...is not serviceable on this river." They transferred the six sisters
who had been passengers on the flat to "one of the two open boats" (probably
perriaugers) and left Br. Schout behind to "find another" more suitable craft.
Evidently the flat was too unwieldy to be handled by the available men. At
this point there were twelve men and three boats; if there were four in each
boat then the perriaugers would easily outdistance the flat.
They passed three sets of rapids without incident. On May 27 Br. Schout
overtook them having "exchanged the large boat for a smaller and more suitable
one, and securing an additional oarsman...." He went ahead of the party to
secure a place for them to stay in Springhill. That same day the rudder of
one of the boats "was broken on a sunken tree, which gave us much trouble, as
we had to use a pole." Their last day brought rain and the river rose three
feet, but the last five miles of the trip took all afternoon "as the river
here is full of shallow places, sandbanks, and sunken trees."
At night they camped in a tent made of blankets at a succession of
plantations or farmsteads where they were received kindly and were able to
make small purchases of food: milk, "a sheep and some chickens." They set a
watch for fear of "those on all sides, who at night go about in small canoes,
stealing where they can." At Springhill they stayed in "an empty storehouse"
for three days until on June 1 "the wished-for Brethren arrived from
Bethabara, with two wagons for our goods." Their wagon trip took almost a
week and on June 8 they "reached Bethabara, safe and well in body and soul,
and were heartily welcomed with trumpets, and by all the Brethren and
Sisters...." (Excerpts from the Schout diary are found in Appendix I.)
The Schout party's trip illustrated a number of the hazards of travel on
the Cape Fear. The water level fluctuated greatly so that at times sandbars,
sunken logs and snags became a problem. The great number of logs in the river
had been noted by visitors as early as William Hilton in 1664. The water
level could rise quickly to present a problem for up-stream travel but a boon
to those floating down the river. In January 1805 the river near Lillington
had "risen and fallen twenty-five feet in thirty-six hours."88 Janet Schaw
noted another hazard of travel as she described the killing of an alligator
found lazing on the bank.89
Perriaugers provided the best means of transportation up the river, but
for heavy, bulky cargoes flats were required although these necessitated great
effort to maneuver against the current. A canoe was often towed behind a flat
or a raft providing the raftsmen a fast maneuverable vessel for errands. For
down-stream transport rafts were commonly used. There were two types of these
temporary craft, rafts composed of timber being sent down the river to saw-
mills, and rafts made up of barrels of naval stores. Timber rafts could also
carry barrels on their decks or "depending from the sides" as Janet Schaw
reported.
To make a timber raft two logs of equal length were selected. These
logs formed two sides of a square which was completed by clamping long poles
to both ends of the two logs enclosing a space of perhaps thirty feet on each
side. The space within this frame was then tightly filled with additional
logs. Next
[f]our or five of these sections, or clamps, were connected
end to end with five foot buckles secured in place with grubs --
hardwood pins driven into holes bored in the outside timbers.
Thus a completed raft would be about thirty feet wide by one
hundred and fifty long and might contain more than a hundred
thousand board feet of lumber. At each end of the raft was
an oar bench provided with a thirty-foot steering oar. Dirt
was dumped on the second clamp to provide a fire place for
cooking, and the raft was ready for the trip.90
A tent or lean-to could be built on the raft for shelter. Sometimes whole
families accompanied rafts down the river on trips that could last as long as
two weeks.91
Barrels filled with rosin could be floated down the river. Benjamin
Hall recalled the construction of rafts from barrels during the 1840s.
These rafts consisted of a framework of large timbers
divided into sections by cross beams. In these sections
were placed, parallel, small saplings, the space between
them being the length of a resin barrel. A small auger
hole was bored at each end, in the chine of the barrel
(the chine being the projection of a stave about one inch
beyond the head of the barrel). The barrels were then
tied to these small saplings by hickory withes twisted
to make them pliable. (A trifling sum was paid for the
withes, and I can remember earning a few dimes myself by
gathering them). A few boards were then placed on top
of these rafts, and covered to a few inches depth, with
dirt for protection against fire, since on this platform
the raftsmen lived and did their cooking.92
Steering a long raft required skill because the upper reaches of the
river wound and twisted frequently. "[I]t sometimes required the utmost
exertion of the steersmen to sweep around the sharp curves."93 The work could
be hard and dangerous for in heavy turbulence or bad weather rafts could
disintegrate.94 The weather was a concern for raftsmen because much of the
transportation of naval stores and lumber occurred during the winter and
spring when the river level was high and its current swiftest. The fire built
in the center of a raft was used for warmth as well as for cooking. Tales
were told of raftsmen falling into freezing water, and of rafts covered with a
layer of snow arriving in Wilmington where snow had not fallen.95
Raftsmen were held in low esteem by their contemporaries. Scotus
Americanus remarked that
[t]he poorest set of people whom I saw there, are such
as ply as sailors, or watermen rather, on boats and
lighters, up and down the rivers: they are generally
drunkards, and can be of little use in any other way;
yet these get half-a-crown a-day, and 3 gallons of rum
per week.96
Janet Schaw wrote contemptuously of a "set of Volunteers," among whom were
surely raftsmen, at the Point Pleasant funeral who greatly hurt the solemnity
of the service by making
such a noise, it was hardly to be heard. ... At last they
got into their canoes, and I saw them row thro' the creeks,
and suppose they have little spots of ground up the woods,
which afford them corn and pork, and that on such occasions
they flock down like crows to a carrion.97
Benjamin Hall had mixed memories of three raftsmen:
I remember three notable ones - Harvey Jarman, who was hired
from his owner at $300 per year, and the usual supply of food
and clothing; John Jones a free mulatto; and "Jim Brandy", who
belonged to my Uncle Nicholas Hall. These men were expert in
handling the oars. Harvey was a good [turpentine] distiller
as well as oarsman, and a very faithful worker. Jim Brandy
did fairly well when he was not drunk or fishing - both of
these being his favorite occupations.... 98
Raftsmen occupied very low rungs on the economic and social ladders.
Their ranks included slaves, hired-out slaves, landless freedmen, indentured
servants, and other unfortunates possessed of strong limbs and no better
opportunity. Planters used slaves to man their rafts and flats. Merchants
may have owned their own boat as James Murray recommended and hired crews to
operate it, or they may have contracted with owners of craft to bring cargo
down the river. The individual small producer could sell his product to a
nearby planter who could ship a larger bulk, or an individual might undertake
to transport his product alone or in concert with other small producers.
Individuals could hire themselves out to those in need of raftsmen. In this
early period on the Cape Fear commercial transportation of merchandise was
likely accomplished using a variety of business arrangements.
Rafting was hard, cold, lonely work and after spending time in the
elements to bring products down the river raftsmen needed places to relax.
Taverns and ordinaries filled this need. W.B. McKoy in 1908 went so far as to
suggest that Wilmington grew from the raftsmen's need for a tavern at their
favored point of trade.99 With increased commerce Wilmington grew into a
major port where raftsmen and sailors were drawn to the same public houses in
which the chance of "boisterous relaxation" was high.
For that reason, and because seamen were itinerants, there
were special laws restricting their activities. The river
raftsmen who frequented the town were generally no better
behaved.... The conduct of river raftsmen, a particularly
rough lot, and of Negro slaves was a particular source of
concern.100
Lee referenced several iterations of statutes which regulated the affairs of
Wilmington.101 A close reading of these statutes failed to reveal any
regulation that singled out raftsmen. A "Tavern Keeper, Retailer of Liquors,
or Keeper of Public Houses" could be fined twenty shillings, proclamation
money, for allowing a person to "sit tipling or drinking" during Sunday
services, or "to get drunk in his House on the Sabbath Day." No "Mariner or
Seaman" was to be allowed credit "except by the ... Licence of the Master or
Commander of the Vessel he belongs to...." Nor was any "Seaman belonging to
any Vessel" to be entertained, kept, or harbored by any resident longer than
six hours without the "Privity or Consent of his Commander." Clearly these
last two regulations referred to seamen of ocean-going vessels, not to river
raftsmen.
The cited statutes referred to naval stores and lumber, but in these
contexts. Complaints of "Nuisances, by Lumber or Rubbish lying upon the
Streets of Wharfs," were to be adjudicated by town commissioners. "Naval
Stores, Lumber, or any other thing whatsoever" was not to remain long on a
wharf. Such "incumbrances" were to be removed within twenty-four hours after
receipt of a complaint. There was a prohibition against "the Keeping of Naval
Stores or Lumber in any Houses." Town commissioners were empowered to
regulate the town's market including such matters as requiring Negroes to have
tickets from their masters and "for preventing all irregular Mobbs or Cabals
of Negroes, or others."
The casual reader of Lee's text could be misled into believing that the
behavior of raftsmen had led to the enactment of specific regulations
concerning them. The Wilmington Town Book102 contains regulations similar to
the statutes mentioned above, but it also is silent concerning the affairs of
river raftsmen.
A very interesting manuscript source, "Cape Fear Sketches and Loafer
Ramblings,"103 recorded evidence of conflict among raftsmen and revealed
interesting details about rafting on the branches of the Cape Fear in a sketch
of Jim Paget, transcribed as Appendix 2. Paget was a Northeastern turpentine
raftsman who worked the river in the 1780s. His tale centered on an incident
that occurred after he and a party of Northwestern timber rafters camped at
Eagle's Island one wintry night.
The author of "Cape Fear Sketches," whose identity is unclear, first
contrasted the work of turpentine and timber raftsmen, exaggerating to some
degree to heighten the story's drama. There was animosity between the two
groups of raftsmen. The turpentine raftsmen performed "laborious & perilous"
work on rafts of barrels "exposed to the bleak winds of winter, to storm &
tempest." In contrast the timber raftsmen traveled on a "solid platform, on
which the men could promenade" and dance to music. They had a "small hut or
shed to sleep in and shelter them from the weather." And there was an
arrogance and air of self-importance among the Northwesterners best evidenced
by their use of a "long and narrow bugle made of staves, and hooped together
like a cask" that they blew to announce their approach.
It chanced that Paget and a Negro boy were camped at a spot below the
inflow of the Northeastern Branch where raftsmen from the two branches were
"frequently thrown together; and as there was no good will between them, often
led to abusive quarrels, and sometimes fighting." They had eaten a meal of
"baked opossum, some corn bread & sweet potatoes" and were entertaining
themselves with a banjo-accompanied ditty when they were interrupted by the
arrival of a timber raft whose crew wanted to tie up in the same place. After
a stand-off the two parties settled into the same harbor for the night.
During the night Paget took revenge on his adversaries by cutting loose
their raft and he "chopped several ligaments which held the raft together and
detached the boat." The Northeasterners found themselves adrift on a loose
disintegrating mass of logs. Their cries for help went unanswered until late
morning when the raft's remnants were approaching Brunswick and were observed
by Doctor Judah who rescued the four unlucky raftsmen.
This sketch of a Cape Fear raftsman is remarkable. Its author possessed
a very good vocabulary, and had a well-developed style that conveyed rich
descriptive detail, nuances of accents and even short poems. The story
recorded detail - the trumpets, the menus - that are not found elsewhere. It
contained an abundance of geographic detail and a few personal references that
may permit the story to be dated. Most important it provided a few more
pieces to the puzzle that comprised the environment in which the Cape Fear
raftsmen lived and worked.
The Cape Fear River in the colonial period was a beautiful unspoiled
waterway along which "a thousand beauties both of the flowery and sylvan tribe
[hung] over it and [were] reflected from it with additional lustre."104 Those
traveling its course passed points with high embankments, seemingly endless
forests, and swampy margins. A raftsman's job may have looked easy, but it
involved hard and sometimes dangerous work in cold weather and in channels
that twisted and were obstructed by a large number of snags.
In a short span of time change came to the river. Internal improvement
projects beginning in 1815 began to make river travel easier. Snags were
removed, dams and locks were installed, and the river was made navigable a
greater distance towards its headwaters. In 1818 steamboats made their first
appearance and the up-stream trip became much easier to accomplish. Railroads
proved to be more permanent and reliable than the river for transportation and
commercial traffic on the river began to decline. The naval stores industry
experienced a boom in the 1840s, but that led in turn to an exhaustion of the
pine forests and the removal of the industry to the deep south in the early
1900s. Soon the trumpets of the Northwestern raftsmen were no longer heard on
the reaches of the Cape Fear River.
Endnotes
1. R.A. Wheeler, "Cape Fear River Above Wilmington, N.C.," American Society
of Civil Engineers, North Carolina Section, Technical Papers 2 (1931): 20-21.
2. James E. Sprunt, Chronicles of the Cape Fear River, 1660-1916. 2d ed.
(Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1916), 7-13.
3. Paul E. Hoffman, "A New Voyage of North American Discovery: Pedro de
Salazar's Visit to the 'Island of Giants,'" Florida Historical Quarterly 58
(April 1980): 415-426.
4. Lawrence Lee, The Lower Cape Fear in Colonial Days (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1965), 10-11; Paul Quattlebaum, The Land
Called Chicora: The Carolinas Under Spanish Rule with French Intrusions,
1520-1670 (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1956), 7-13; Charles
Hudson, The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Exploration of the Carolinas and
Tennessee, 1566-1568 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, c1990), 6;
Paul E. Hoffman, A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American
Southeast During the Sixteenth Century (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State
University Press, c1990), 3-14.
5. Lee, 12-14; Richard Hakluyt, Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of
America and the Islands Adjacent, series 1, no. 7 (New York: Burt Franklin,
1850): 56-60; Quattlebaum, 42-43; Hoffman, New Andalucia, 106-11.
6. Lee, 11; Quattlebaum, 18-26; Hudson, 6-8; Hoffman, New Andalucia, 60-
80.
7. Lee, 11-13.
8. J. Leitch Wright, Jr., "William Hilton's Voyage to Carolina in 1662,"
Essex Institute Historical Collections 105 (April 1969): 100.
9. Lee, 33.
10. William L. Saunders (ed.), The Colonial Records of North Carolina,
(Raleigh: State of North Carolina, 10 volumes, 1886-1890) I, 69, hereinafter
cited as Colonial Records.; Cornelius M.D. Thomas, James Forte (Wilmington:
J.E. Hicks, 1959), 26. This volume contains a facsimile copy of Hilton's 1664
"A Relation of a Discovery lately made on the Coast of Florida." The Colonial
Records does not include the full text of the report.
11. U.S. Geological Survey, New River, North Carolina (map) (Washington:
USGS, 1991) (1:100,000); USGS, Stag Park Quadrangle (map) (Washington: USGS,
1981) (1:24,000)
12. Thomas, 30.
13. Colonial Records, I, 71; Thomas, 32.
14. Colonial Records, I, 71; Thomas, 34.
15. Lee, 41.
16. A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina on the Coasts of Floreda;
reproduced in facsimile with an introduction by John Tate Lanning (Charlottes-
ville: University of Virginia Press, 1944).
17. Ibid., 16, 18.
18. Lee, 48-52.
19. Colonial Records, II, 528-529.
20. Ibid., III, 488-489, 436.
21. Lee, 94.
22. Ibid., 101, 117-118.
23. Duncan P. Randall, "Wilmington, North Carolina: The Historical
Development of a Port City," Annals of the Association of American Geographers
58 (Sept. 1968): 441.
24. W.B. McKoy, "Incidents of the Early and Permanent Settlement of the Cape
Fear," North Carolina Booklet 7 (Jan. 1908): 210. A draft copy of this
article is contained in v.6, "Incidents of the Early and Permanent Settlement
of the Cape Fear," in the William Berry McKoy Papers #471, Southern Historical
Collection, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
25. The "Old Dram Tree" is pictured in Anne Russell, Wilmington: A Pictorial
History (Virginia Beach: Donning Publishing Co., 1981): x. Its caption offers
a different, probably later and less accurate, etymology of the tree's name:
The Old Dram Tree stood in Wilmington harbor where the Cape Fear River takes a
sharp bend. For centuries the moss-covered cypress served as a channel
sentinel welcoming incoming sailors and bidding outgoing sailors farewell. On
outward voyages, by the time the aged tree was reached the ship was under full
sail, and the first drink or "dram" was given the sailors. By the same token,
on inward voyages the sailors were served a last "dram" before lowering the
sails.
26. Lee, 119; Colonial Records, III, 258, 287.
27. Lee, 119; Colonial Records, III, 261, 296.
28. Lee, 105; Colonial Records, III, 371.
29. Lee, 105-106; Colonial Records, III, 254.
30. Lee, 123; Colonial Records, IV, 40, 44, 45, 48.
31. Lee, 275, 282.
32. Colonial Records, IV, 6.
33. Pennsylvania Gazette, Thursday, April 29 to Thursday, May 6; and
Thursday, May 6 to Thursday, May 13, 1731; reprinted in Hugh Meredith, An
Account of the Cape Fear Country, 1731; edited by Earl Gregg Swem (Perth
Amboy, N.J.: Charles F. Heartman, 1922).
34. Meredith, 16.
35. Ibid., 20-21.
36. Ibid., 24.
37. A New Voyage to Georgia by a Young Gentleman (London: Printed for J.
Wilford, 1737), reprinted in Georgia Historical Society. Collections 2 (1849):
[37]-66.
38. Ibid., 55.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 56.
41. Ibid., 58.
42. John Bartram, "Diary of a Journey Through the Carolinas, Georgia, and
Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766," Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, new series, v. 33, part 1 (December 1942): 16.
43. Colonial Records, VII, 201-202; Charles Christopher Crittenden, The
Commerce of North Carolina, 1763-1789 (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1936), 65; Lee, 149.
44. James Murray, Letters of James Murray, Loyalist; edited by Nina Moore
Tiffany; assisted by Susan I. Lesley (Boston: Gregg Press, 1972), 27.
45. Douglas F. Kelly, Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of
Over 100 Years of Emigration (Dillon, S.C.: 1739 Publications, 1998), 85;
Lee, 184.
46. Scotus Americanus, Information Concerning the Province of North Carolina,
addressed to Emigrants from the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland by an
Impartial Hand (Glasgow: Printed for James Knox, 1773). Reprinted in North
Carolina Historical Review 3 (October 1926): 610-11. Discussed in Alexander
Murdoch, "Scottish Document Concerning Emigration to North Carolina in 1772,"
North Carolina Historical Review 67 (October 1990): 438-449.
47. Lee, 155.
48. Ibid., 180.
49. Adelaide L. Fries, Records of the Moravians in North Carolina (Raleigh:
Edwards & Broughton, 1922-1969), I, 356 (Hereinafter cited as Moravian
Records); Crittenden, 93; Lee, 177.
50. Crittenden, 94.
51. Harry Roy Merrens, Colonial North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century: A
Study in Historical Geography (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, c1964), 116; Janet Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality; being the
Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and
Portugal, in the years 1774 to 1776 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939)
280-81.
52. William Bartram, Travels and Other Writings (New York: Library of
America, 1996), 383.
53. Ibid., 380, 382.
54. Schaw, 158, 159, 175.
55. Johann David Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784 (New York:
Burt Franklin, 2 vols., 1788, reprinted 1968), 2, 145.
56. Colonial Records, II, 419.
57. Crittenden, 59-66.
58. Ibid., 70.
59. Colonial Records, IV, 6; Lee, 161.
60. Lee, 161.
61. Colonial Records, V, 158; Lee, 161; Alan D. Watson, Wilmington: Port of
North Carolina (Columbia: University of Sourth Carolina Press, c1992), 9.
62. Watson, 10-11.
63. Lee, 164.
64. Autobiographical sketch (1924), Benjamin F. Hall Paper (PC 1414.1), North
Carolina Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, 12-13; Lee, 152, 167.
65. Murray, 38.
66. Donald R. Lennon and Ida Brooks Kellam, editors, The Wilmington Town
Book, 1743-1778 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1973), 146.
67. A New Voyage to Georgia, 55. The printed text has "loading with lumber
from the West Indies" but that is an obvious transcription error.
68. Percival Perry, The Naval Stores Industry in the Ante-Bellum South, 1789-
1861. Unpublished PhD dissertation. (Durham: Duke University, 1947), 147.
69. Murray, 40.
70. Scotus Americanus, 619.
71. The two paragraphs describing vessels are drawn from Crittenden, 9-11.
72. A New Voyage to Georgia, 55.
73. Mark U. Wilde-Ramsing, Wilson Angley, Richard W. Lawrence and Geoffrey J.
Scofield, The Rose Hill Wreck: Historical and Archaeological Investigations of
an Eighteenth Century Vessel at a Colonial River Landing Near Wilmington,
North Carolina (Kure Beach, N.C.: Underwater Archaeology Unit, Division of
Archives and History, 1992).
74. Ibid., 77.
75. Crittenden, 15.
76. Schaw, 171.
77. John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, edited with an introduction and
notes by Hugh Talmage Lefler (Chapel Hill: University of North Carollina
Press, c1967), 103-104.
78. Crittenden, 16.
79. Murray, 63-64.
80. Schaw, 175, 177.
81. Ibid.,, 177.
82. Crittenden, 16.
83. F. Roy Johnson, Riverboating in Lower Carolina (Murfreesboron, N.C.:
Johnson Publishing Co., c1977), 13; Lee, 152.
84. Schaw, 185.
85. Watson, 15.
86. Crittenden, 18.
87. Moravian Records, I, 255-262. Excerpts from the diary are given in
Appendix I.
88. Jonathan Mason, "Diary of the Hon. Jonathan Mason, communicated by George
E. Ellis," Massachusetts Historical Society. Proceedings 2d series, II (1885-
1886): 21.
89. Schaw, 149-151.
90. John Hairr, Bizarre Tales of the Cape Fear Country (Fuquay-Varina, N.C.:
Triangle Books, c1995), 2. Hairr writes that this description was preserved
by Historian Malcolm Fowler. I have been unable to identify the quote in
Fowler's published books.
91. Henry Bacon McKoy, Wilmington, N.C. - Do You Remember When? (Greenville,
S.C.: Kees Printing Co., 1957), 91-91.
92. Hall, 13.
93. Crittenden, 19; Hall, 14.
94. Crittenden, 19; Lee, 152. Both authors cite Schaw, 185 note, which
references the county court records of Brunswick (1737-1741, p. 81).
Crittenden records these dates and page, but Lee cites New Hanover County
Court Minutes (1738-1769), 14.
95. Hairr, 5-6; Johnson, 28.
96. Scotus Americanus, 619.
97. Schaw, 171.
98. Hall, 14-15.
99. McKoy, Incidents, 210.
100. Lee, 135.
101. Walter Clark (ed.), The State Records of North Carolina (Raleigh: State
of North Carolina, 16 volumes, 1895-1907) XXIII, 234-237 (1745), 456-462
(1756), 866-869 (1771); XXV, 257-263 (1754), 511-513 (1767).
102. Donald R. Lennon and Ida Brooks Kellam (eds.), The Wilmington Town Book,
1743-1778 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1973).
103. "Cape Fear Sketches and Loafer Ramblings by the Author of the Wilmington
Whistling Society, etc.," Folder 29, in the Benjamin Franklin Perry Papers,
#588 Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Authorship of the "Cape Fear Sketches" is unclear.
104. Schaw, 158.
APPENDIX 1
THE SCHOUT PARTY DIARY:
MORAVIAN SETTLERS TRAVEL THE CAPE FEAR
FROM WILMINGTON TO CROSS CREEK
1762
Adelaide L. Fries, Records of the Moravians in North Carolina (Raleigh:
Edwards & Broughton, 1922-1969), I, 255-262, excerpts.
Diary of the Colony which on April 20, 1762, set out from Bethlehem, by way of
Philadelphia and Wilmington, to Bethabara in the [p. 256] Wachau. The company
consisted of three married couples, the Graffs, Gammerns and Transows, and the
three children of the last named, being six, four, and one year of age; also
four Single Sisters, Mary Liepert, Felicitas Grosch, Betty Holder, and
Elisabeth Palmer; one widow, Wittke; the Single Brother Herbst; and Br. Schout
as guide.
[The following travel diary, filed with the Wachovia Diary of 1762, is
interesting chiefly from the vivid picture it gives of the delays,
discomforts, and dangers incident to ocean and river travel at this time. It
fills sixteen closely written page, 6 « by 8 « inches, the usual Diary size,
but only enough is translated to give an outline of the experience. The
spelling of proper names is that used in the Diary.]
On April 20th the above mentioned company set out in a wagon from Bethlehem,
the Brn. Herbst and Transow remaining with the baggage which will be brought
by way of Eastown and the Dellaware River to Philadelphia. ....
April 21. We arrived safely in Philadelphia. Br. Schout had come eight
days ahead, and had chartered the sloop Elisabeth, Capt. Fisher, for our
transportation.
April 23. Our baggage arrived safely by boat on the Dellaware, and was put
on board the Elisabeth. ...
April 25. At break of day we went on board the sloop, .... At four in the
afternoon we sailed with the tide. Our sloop is about twenty-three tons
burden, has a tiny cabin in which at a pinch six Sisters can sleep, but the
rest, including the Captain and two sailors, must do the best they can in the
hold, on top of the barrels and boxes.
. . .
[p. 259] May 12. ... Early in the morning a light but lasting south-east
wind arose, and at two o'clock in the afternoon we reached the sandbank called
the Frying Pan, which reaches 28 miles into the sea. There were only five
feet of water on the bank and our sloop drew four feet eight inches, but the
light wind served us at need, and with help from on high we crossed it safely
in an hour, and ran into the long desired Cape Fear River. When we were
safely over the dangerous place two pilots came, and according to law we had
to take one. They excused themselves for not coming to us sooner, we had
seen them cruising about, saying they had feared we might be Spanish, but
this is what they usually do. We had to lower the sail before the strong fort
[Johnson] here, which has a number of cannon so placed as to sweep the river.
Having notified the commander of the fort we sailed up the river, and anchored
near Braunschweig, where we slept softly all night. We also saw the New
Inlet, that is the new channel which a storm two years ago opened from the sea
into the Cape Fear River, some miles above the fort. Our pilot, a negro, said
it was not navigable, but a merchant in Braunschweig told us the opposite, and
that loaded sloops, drawing six feet, could pass through it. It is evident
the people fear that enemy privateers might slip in there, unhindered by the
fort, and attack Braunschweig.
May 13. Our Captain, with the Brn. Gammern and Schout, went ashore in a
small boat. The Brethren called on Governor Dobbs, an old gentleman of
seventy-six years, and gave him greeting from Mr. Spangenberg, etc. He
received them most courteously and expressed the wish that many of the
Brethren would come to this land. We then sailed sixteen miles up the river
and anchored at Willmingtown. Immediately nearly all the gentlefolk of the
town gathered round us on shore, full of curiosity to see us, and especially
the Sisters. They were orderly and respectful, and when most of them had left
two gentlemen, Col. Waddel and Mr. Rogers, spoke to us apart, telling us that
last year, indeed in December, they had visited our Brethren in Bathabara, and
had received many courtesies from them. Col. Waddel offered to serve us in
any way, but we rejoiced more to know that the Lord had given our Brethren
such good credit in the land. Br. Schout had secured for us, through Mr.
Lion, a lodging in a store- [p. 260] house near the wharf, which suited us as
we could in that way keep an eye on the sloop, in which our baggage still lay;
one of the Brethren stayed on board as guard at night.
May 14. In honor of Col. Waddel's marriage last evening seven cannon were
fired. The Brn. Gammern and Schout called on him, and thanked him for his
kindly offers of yesterday; he told them more good things about the industry
of the Brethren in Bethabara, and that they had supplied his troops with meal;
he also repeated his offer of assistance. Here we had the first green
vegetables, sugar peas, radishes, etc. which tasted good. Roses and pinks are
blossoming beautifully, and the wild grapes are beginning to bloom. Compared
with Braunschweig, which seems about as large as Eastown, Willmintown is a
large city for this country, and is regularly laid out. Apart from trading
and a few handicrafts there is nothing done here. The soil is mostly sand,
there are large pine trees, with underbrush and grass. It could be
cultivated, but the work must be done by negroes, and as they only get a
measure of Indian corn, and a little salt each week, and very little clothing,
they do very little work. We wrote letters to Bethlehem, which will be taken
by a merchant, Mr. Roberts, who expects to go north by land soon.
May 15. Mr. Brown called on us. He is a Lieutenant-Colonel, who was with
his troops last year in Bethabara. He told us many good things about the
Moravian towns, Bethabara and Bethania, which he called the Old Town and the
New Town. This afternoon, Br. Herbst took a boat for Springhill; from there
he will go to Bethabara to announce our arrival.
May 16. Br. and Sr. Graff, Br. and Sr. Gammers, Sr. Transow and her three
children, and Sr. Wittke took dinner with Mr. Lion, for Mrs. Lion wanted to
see the children who had come with us. Br. Graff was asked to take his flute
along, and he played while the little Abraham Transow sang several verses,
which pleased her.
May 17. Today at last, after many difficulties, we secured three boats to
take us and our belongings to Springhill.
May 18. This afternoon we set out with three boats, rowed by eight negroes,
whom we must feed on the journey. Not far from Willmingtown the Cape Fear
River divides into the North-west and the North-east River, we took the
North-west branch.
May 21. We stopped early at Mr. Howe's shore. We have learned to our
sorrow that a large, flat-bottomed boat, such as we took for the Sisters, is
not serviceable on this river.
[p. 261] May 22. Failing to get another boat the Sisters were transferred
into one of the open boats, and Br. Schout took charge of the large boat until
he could find another. We started together, but he was soon left behind and
out of sight. We slept at night under a tent made of blankets, the Brothren
taking turns watching the boats, on account of the negroes, not indeed ours,
for they were tired enough to sleep after the day's work, but those on all
sides, who at night go about in small canoes, stealing where they can. Our
watchfulness prevented them from annoying us.
May 23. At noon we stopped at Mr. Bertram's shore. He offered any
assistance he could give, but could only supply us with a little sour milk.
Many of the cattle about here have died recently, and people have driven what
was left further into the country, keeping only one or two cows for milking.
May 24. We passed the first rapid without trouble, it does not amount to
much, and camped for the night on Mr. Smith's shore. Here the mosquitoes
made us most welcome, in spite of our fires and the smoke. They were the
worst we have seen, and the faces and arms of the Sisters and children were
covered with bites. From Mr. Smith we bought a sheep and some chickens for
our further trip.
May 25. We passed the so-called "Sugar-Loaf," a white bluff on the bank
which has something that shape. We also enjoyed the fresh water which here
flows freely from the bluffs, hitherto we have had very bad water, sometimes
only that from the river, which has a distinct taste. This afternoon we
safely passed a second and worse rapid. Not long after one of our boats stuck
fast on a sunken log, of which there are millions in the river. We could not
get loose until with a small canoe which happened to be near we put all the
persons from the boat on shore. We camped here opposite Platen [Bladen] Court
House, where court was in session.
May 26. We put our tent on Mr. Robbin's shore. He had not returned from
Court, but his wife sold us some quarts of good milk.
May 27. We passed the third and last rapids. As we stopped to eat
breakfast and dinner at one time Br. Schout appeared with his boat. He had
exchanged the large boat for a smaller and more suitable one, and securing an
additional oarsman had been able to overtake us. After dinner he went ahead
with his boat to prepare for us in Springhill. The rudder in one of our boats
was broken on a sunken tree, which gave us much trouble, as we had to use a
pole.
May 28. The last day of our journey on the river we had rain, and the water
rose three feet. The people told us that just one year ago [p. 262] a flood
ruined all the crops on the banks here, but now they were in fine order. At
two in the afternoon we reached Rock Fish, but the last five miles took us
until evening, as the river here is full of shallow places, sandbanks, and
sunken trees. But at last we finished this difficult river journey, and
landed on Mr. Lion's shore at Springhill. [Note: Probably the place where
stood the "Storehouse on the Cape Fear" mentioned in earlier years.
Springhill was five miles above the mouth of Rockfish Creek, and three miles
below the present site of Fayetteville. There was a sandbank in the river at
Springhill, which impeded navigation when the water was low.] Br. Schout had
arrived at noon, and had unloaded his boat into Mr. Lion's [Note: The
Bethabara Ledger, 1762, shows payment of a bill for 60: dated May 17, dur
Mr. John Lyon, of Wilmington; and of a bill for 20: dated June 2, due his
brother, Richard Lyon, of Springhill] storehouse, but ours had to wait until
next day. He had secured room for us in an empty storehouse near by, which
indeed looked more like a stable than a dwelling, but we made it serve. Mr.
Lion offered a room in his house, which Br. and Sr. Gammern accepted.
June 1. In the afternoon, the wished-for Brethren arrived from Bethabara,
with two wagons for our goods. How glad we were may be easily imagined. They
brought a good store of biscuits and other provisions for the journey. They
came just at the right time, for Mr. and Mrs. Lion wanted to go to
Willmington, and were delaying their start on our account.
June 2. The wagons were loaded with as much of our baggage as they could
carry in addition to the people, and in the afternoon we started. Mr. and
Mrs. Lion bade us a friendly adieu, and we were grateful to them for the many
kindnesses they have shown us during these four days. Br. Schout remained
with the rest of the baggage, waiting for the two wagons from Bethania which
are to come this week. We slept this and the other nights in the woods in a
tent, as we had been doing, and rested the more quietly as there were four
more Brethren with us, and no negroes or other folks about, for we met
almost no one. The Bethabara Brethren also knew where we should stop for the
night.
June 5. As we were camping for the night the two wagons from Bethania
approached. The Brethren signaled them with the whip, and they stopped and
spend the night with us.
June 7. Early in the morning the Brn. Gammern and Graff, who were riding a
little ahead of the wagons, met the Brn. Ettwein and Jacob Loesch, who had
left Bethabara yesterday, and camped last night three miles from us. At noon
Br. Loesch returned to Bethabara to tell [p. 263] the Brethren there how near
we were. Br. Ettwein remained with us. We put up the tent this last night
beside a stream, would gladly have been on the Wachau land but the horses were
so worn out with the head and the hilly road that we had to give that up.
June 8. Early in the morning, after a couple of miles travel, our feet trod
upon the wished-for land of the Wachau. At ten o'clock, just seven weeks
since we left Bethlehem, we reached Bethabara, safe and well in body and soul,
and were heartily welcomed with trumpets, and by all the Brethren and Sisters.
...
APPENDIX 2
THE TALE OF JIM PAGET,
NORTHEASTERN TURPENTINE RAFTSMAN
Pages 64-70 from "Cape Fear Sketches and Loafer Ramblings by the Author of the
Wilmington Whistling Society, etc.," Folder 29, in the Benjamin Franklin Perry
Papers, #588 Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Original manuscript returned to owner, Mrs. Sam Rice Baker, after microfilming
in 1941. Xerox prints were made from the microfilm in 1967.
Authorship of "Cape Fear Sketches" is unclear. The title page carries Perry's
name, but as early as 1941 this was questioned. On the xerox copy of the
title page Perry's name was lined through and this note added:
These are not items written by Perry: the author was
a person who had lived in the Wilmington area, and was
thoroughly familiar with the region and its people.
Several of these sketches were printed in Wilmington
newspapers, always without the author's name. CEP
THE TALE OF JIM PAGET {title supplied}
Excerpt begins on page 64
Jim Paget for many years after the revolution followed the calling of
rafting turpentine & tar down the north east river, a most laborious &
perilous employment as the men were usually in an open boat in the midst of
barrels fastened to beams, suspended in the water, exposed to the bleak winds
of winter, to storm & tempest; and as it took several days to reach market,
the raft was moored at night and made fast to some tree on the bank of the
river; the operatives kindling a large lightwood fire, and regaling themselves
with baked opossum, hoe cake & sweet potatoes roasted on the ashes; the
lightwood smoke enveloping with its sable hues, and marking them for its own;
so that it was impossible (the hair of the head excepted) to distinguish a
white man from a negro.
Now the pride of rank and station is somewhat natural to man - the
chimney sweep with his sooty habiliments, thinks himself superior to, & rank
higher in the order of society, than the butchers boy, who hucksters offals in
the market -- The laundress deems herself above, and will heap with contempt,
the poor dame with denuded arms and short petticoats, who vends tainted fish
about the docks of populous cities -- So it happens that the rivalry was felt
and acknowledged, between the raftsmen of the North East & North West branches
of Cape Fear river -- North Westers usually rafted ton timber, lumber and
staves, which in the estimation of those concerned, was an aristocratic
employment, compared to the rafting of turpentine & tar [p. 65] the former
floating down the NoWest, as they thought in magnificent stile (sic), assuming
corresponding airs of importance, and to back their pretentions, displayed &
blew a long and narrow bugle made of staves, and hooped together like a cask;
giving forth a sweet & mellow, tho' wild and melancholly (sic) sound, heard
for many miles, vibrating & echoing along the banks of the river,
foreshadowing always the approach of a NoWestern raft --
"In youth, first morn, a love & gay.
Ere rolling years had passed away,
Remembered like a morning dream,
I heard the dulcet mariners float
In many a liquid winding note,
Along the banks of yonder stream.
Sweet sound! That oft have soothed to rest
The sorrows of my guileless breast,
And charmed away my infant tears;
Fond memory shall your streams repeat,
Like distant echoes, doubly sweet,
That in the wild, the traveller (sic) hears."
The lumber also clamped together, presented a solid area or platform, on which
the men could promenade; having a little hut or shed to sleep in and shelter
them from the weather -- with a larger canoe attached to the raft -- [.] they
had moreover the usual accompaniment of the violin, and were often seen
shufling (sic) "double trouble" on the planks aforesaid with the operator on
the violin, with chin resting firmly on the butt of the instrument, left arm
elongated, and fingers sweeping upon the strings; right hand flourishing a bow
stick, foot beating time, body bent, & with a nasal voice doling forth the
tune of "dance boatman dance," the feet of the boatmen responding -- with
light hearts and [p.66] concious (sic) independence. The poor turpentine
rafter in the meantime exposed in his canoe & sleeping in the open air. Is it
any wonder then, they had a rooted aversion to those NoWestern aristocrats, as
they called them, having been always treated by them with marked contempt.
There is a little bite or bend in the river, some distance below Hilton the
present residence of Doctor McRee, south of, a little below Hogs Folly, and
adjoining the former limits of the town; It is just below where the two
branches of the river meet, forming by their confluence the Cape Fear proper
-- At this spot, the rafts from the two branches of the river [,] when
belated in reaching market usually took up and moored, to pass the night --
The raftsmen of the two branches, were thus frequently thrown together; and as
there was no good will between them, often led to abusive quarrels, and
sometimes fighting.
One cold stormy day in winter, Paget with his raft reached this position a
little before night fall, and had hardly fastened his raft to a projecting
limb and kindled a fire, when he heard the hated blast of a North Western
bugle. "Yes darn.. ye" says he ["] here ye come, and mean to put up here I
suppose; but if so be ye do, I kalkilate some boy I shan't call names, will
make it too hot to hold you"[.] So saying he went deliberately to his wallet,
took out a baked opossum, some corn bread & sweet potatoes and sat down before
the fire quietly regaling himself and handing bits to a negro boy who
accompanied him -- When Quaky had finished his meal, he takes up his banjo and
commences playing the following ditty; accompanied with the usual fine voice
of [p.67] the negro.
"Snake take de hoe cake
And set de frog to mind 'em
Tinka, Tinka, tinka, tinkle
Frog go to sleep,
Lizard came and find 'em
Tinka, Tinka, tinka, tinkle
Who took my hoe cake?
I tink it must be lizard
Tinka, Tinka, tinka, tinkle
What you go to sleep for?
I cut out your gizard.
Tinka, Tinka, tinka, tinkle.["]
The music was here interrupted by the arrival of the North Western raft, which
came surging and dashing among the billows, with the intention of mooring in
the same harbour. Who have we here? asked the NoWester in an insolent
imperious tone. Paget I reckon says the NoEaster -- What that d -d ugly
lightwood knot, smoke dried NoEaster? Asked the other in a still more insolent
tone. Come push out further and let me come in, you have no right to take up
the best position. Ah! says Paget dryly. "I allers thought the first martins
had the choice of gourds -- Come cut out rejoined the NoWester I will at
least have half of it -- You can have the whole says Paget in the same dry
manner, if you will only have the politeness to wait till breakfast time
tomorrow when I shall be in town selling off my truck (?) -- but if so be you
dare to disturb me this night, darn me if I don't try the experiment which is
hardest, your skull, or this hatchet -- He said this in so determined a tone
of voice, and suiting the action to the word, that the NoWester, thinking
discretion the better part of valour ?colverse his tone, and quietly made fast
his raft a little below.
[p. 68] The curtain of night now closed around them; the NoWesters retired to
their shed, which completely sheltered them from the inclemency of the
weather; for it was a dark, wet, and stormy night -- Poor Paget laid down on
the bank of the river in the open air, his person exposed to the pitiless
storm -- turning and baking his sides alternately, to the lightwood fire --
late at night he raised himself quietly from his lair, in a listening posture;
& thought he heard a snoring from the shed of his adversaries -- he seized a
hatchet, and softly sliding from the fire, was soon hidden in the surrounding
darkness -- he had eyed the men and knew the spot where they had made fast the
raft; advanced noiselessly to the place & cut loose the thongs which bound it
to the shore; he also chopped several ligaments which held the raft together,
and detached the boat. The ebb tide was making out rapidly for the ocean; the
raft soon swung off & began to float down the river, enveloped in darkness,
the waves high, and the wind blowing furiously.
A dead silence (the event excepted) reigned around, for -- about ten minutes
after this deed was done; when something like a crash proceeding from the
floating raft was distinguished, amid the howling tempest -- "You'd better tie
that ere raft tighter I reckon,["] said Paget in a dry sarcastic tone; at the
same time very leisurely grabbing a sweet potatoe (sic) from the ashes,
breaking it with much sang froid, pealing off the skin, and deliberately
applying it to his mouth. Hallo! Say one of the raftsmen on waking up &
discerning their peril -- Hallo it is, says Paget chewing his potatoe (sic)
and without emotion -- Hallo! Hallo! Cried the raftsmen a log other?; the
raft ?er broke loose, jump into the boat -- But Paget [p. 69] had taken
special care to deprive them of that recourse -- Can't find the boat says one
-- another crash! The raft had parted asunder, carrying away and demolishing
the shed which protected them -- Hallo! Hallo! Hallo! They all cried together
seeing Paget's light in the distance, Paget! Paget! come to our assistance,
come to our assistance, we've gone adrift -- speak louder say Paget in his dry
manner, I'm thick of hearin' -- Paget! Paget! Help us or we shall all be
drowned! What a pity, poor critters! In a low tone of voice. Hallo! Hallo!
Hallo! Shouted the raftsmen, now becoming desperate -- That's right says
Paget, holler! holler! Its good for your holesum?, I'm blest if you mays'ent
be praety-zin? agin next Camp Meetin -- The raft by this time had proceeded
so far down the river, that the shouts and screams of the men, could be but
indistinctly heard -- at length a hideous yell saluted Paget's ear, apparently
beyond Nutts stakes, & the dram tree; and all again was silence, save the
howling of the wind -- It was supposed a wave struck? the remainder of the
raft, and had dashed it to pieces.
"With a hatchet he cut, the hickory wythe
That bound the raft to the shore.
The night was dark, and the wind was high,
And that raft was seen no more."
About 11 o'clock next morning, the storm having subsided, pieces of timber
were seen floating on the river opposite old Brunswick containing something
that looked like black spots in the distance, which we can at first mistake
for terrapins seen rising themselves on a log. Doctor Judah was? there at the
time -- about everybody at all conversant with modern or ancient [p.70]
history, and who has withal, dipped his head into geography knows or ought to
know, who Doctor Judah is -- It is almost ? for me to tell you that among
other sterling traits of character, he was a man of unbounded curiosity -- As
soon as the floating signs were by him discovered, prompted by this amiable
instinct, he forthwith launched his boat, and cut out for the objects -- He
found four men, which I am glad to say, were all the raft originally
contained, clinging to a few pieces of timber, which had not separated, & were
in a torpid state. They had hollered themselves hoarse, and could barely
whisper their distress -- They were conveyed by the Doctor to town -- What
became of them afterwards I know not; but it was always suspected by the North
Westers, that Paget knew more about the affair than he was willing to
acknowledge; and when asked about it, would drily say (putting his forefinger
to the side of his nose, and leering roguishly) how should I know boys!
Accidents you know will happen sometimes.