INTRODUCTION ON March 20, 1662/3, King Charles by letters patent granted to eight Proprietors-the Earl of Clarendon, the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley (afterward Earl of Shaftesbury), Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton-a province to be called Carolina, extending from latitude 31° to 36° N. and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this province the Proprietors were to have the right to institute government, to appoint officers, and, with the assistance of the freemen, to make laws. By a new charter of June 30, 1665, the bounds of the province were extended to run from 29° to 36° 30' N. About the time when the first charter was granted, Captain William Hilton, of the island of Barbados, already a populous and important colony, made a voyage to the coast of what is now North Carolina and, upon his return, gave a favorable account of the country about the Charles (Cape Fear) River. Some New Englanders who had previously been sent to settle at Cape Fear to raise cattle departed about this time and made contrary reports as to the condition of the country. In consequence of these reports many citizens of Barbados united and sent out a second expedition under Captain Hilton, as commander and commissioner, Captain Anthony Long, and Peter Fabian, to explore the coast of Carolina southward from Cape Fear to latitude 31° north. The expedition sailed from Spikes (Speights) Bay August 10, 1663, in the ship Adventure. On August 12 the "Adventurers," as the promoters of the expedition were called, addressed to the Lords Proprietors a petition requesting that these Barbadian advent urers, some two hundred in number, might be permitted to purchase from the Indians and hold under the Proprietors a tract of a thousand square miles in Carolina, to be called the Corporation of the Barbados Adventurers, and that they might have certain powers of self-government.' Their agents, Thomas Modyford and Peter Colleton, suggested that these powers might be like those of a municipal corporation in England, e. g., Exeter. To the petition of the adventurers the Proprietors answered on September 9, stating that they had "given directions to Col. Modyford and Peter Colleton, to treat with them concerning the premises, not receding from the substance of their declaration."" In the meantime Hilton's expedition reached the coast of Carolina August 26, 1663, and explored the coast of what is now South Carolina from the Combahee River southward to Port Royal, sailing up the Combahee about six leagues and also entering the great harbor of Port Royal. While in that quarter they rescued several Englishmen who had been shipwrecked near there some time previously, had reached land at that point, and had fallen into the hands. of the Indians. The Spaniards at St. Augustine had heard of the peril these shipwrecked Englishmen were in and had sent a party to aid them, but Hilton arriving at a propitious moment they readily relinquished their undertaking to the Englishman. Hilton next sailed to the coast of what is now North Carolina and explored the country in and about the Cape Fear River. He and his associates then returned to Barbados and wrote an account of their explorations. Shortly 1 Colonial Entry Book no. 20 (MS.), Public Record Office, London, 10-11; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1661-1668, p. 153; Colonial Records of North Carolina, I. 39-42; Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, V. 10-11. 2 Colonial Entry Book no. 20, 12-13; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1661-1668, pp. 161-162; Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, V. 16-18. |