. . . They took our hats and periwigs and threw them
into the fire, and a council of war being held we were immediately
sentenced to death." One of the Indians, a relation of King Taylor,
from whom De Graffenreid had bought the land for New Bern,
appealed in his behalf. "The Indians whispered in my ear
that I had nothing to fear, but that Lawson would die, what affected me much.
They also liberated my negro, but I never saw him since. . . .
As to his death, I know nothing. Some said he was hung,
some said he was burnt. The Indians kept that execution very secret."
The Tuscaroras then informed De Graffenreid that they were going to war,
but would not harm Chattooka (New Bern), but that the people of New Bern
ought to stay in the town - unfortunately, there was no way to inform
the people of New Bern. Several days later prisoners were brought back,
and De Graffenreid tells of recognizing some of them as his tenants,
including a boy who reported that his whole family had been killed.
After six weeks imprisonment at Catechna, he was released,
and returned to New Bern, where the people were surprised to find him alive.
(The relevant passages from De Graffenreid's journal were printed
in the North Carolina Booklet, Vol. I, No. 2, June 10, 1901,
`Colonial New Bern', by Mrs. Sara Beaumont Kennedy, pp. 7-13.
Issued by the North Carolina Society of the Daughters of the Revolution.
Raleigh: Capital Printing Company, 1901.)
Due to the age of this book, there are a number of nonstandard spellings,
and the font used in the original, with the s's much like f's,
has surely led to an error or two in the transcription, though every effort
was made to minimize this factor. The standards of printing at the time
were also somewhat low, and combine all this with those instances
where Indian names and words are given, and some of the material
is doubtless inaccurate - though Lawson's comments on zoology
should make that quite clear. Nonetheless, this account remains
one of our best sources for information on the Indians of North Carolina
in and about the year 1700.
Sidenotes, throughout, are presented in squiggly brackets. {As here.}
Where the sidenote precedes a paragraph, it is given on a separate line.
Corrections:
(p. 11)
[ and become Cripples all ther Life-time; ]
changed to:
[ and become Cripples all their Life-time; ]
(p. 13)
[ to satisfy the Apppetite of the Rich alone. ]
changed to:
[ to satisfy the Appetite of the Rich alone. ]
(p. 14)
[ so we got that Night to Mons. Gallian's the elder, ]
changed to:
[ so we got that Night to Mons. Galliar's the elder, ]
As the difference between "n" and "r" is significant,
other evidence (William Dobein James) suggests the real name was Gaillard,
and "Mons.
