George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

[165] noble prospect of spacious rivers, of pleasant mead-

Chap XIII.}

ows, enamelled with flowers; of primeval forests, where the loftiest branches of the tulip-tree or the magnolia were wrapped in jasmines and honeysuckles. For them the wild bee stored its honey in hollow trees; for them unnumbered swine fattened on the fruits of the forest or the heaps of peaches; for them, in spite of their careless lives and imperfect husbandry, cattle multiplied on the pleasant savannahs; and they desired no greater happiness than they enjoyed.¹ What though Europe was rocked to its centre by commotions? What though England was changing its constitution? Should the planter of Albemarle trouble himself for Holland or France? for James II. or William of Orange? for a popish party or a high church party? Almost all the American colonies were chiefly settled by those to whom the uniformities of European life were intolerable; North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free; by men to whom the restraints of other colonies were too severe; they were not so much caged in the woods as scattered in lonely granges. There was neither city nor township; there was hardly even a hamlet, or one house within sight of another; nor were there roads, except as the paths from house to house were distinguished by notches in the trees.² But the settlers were gentle in their tempers, of serene minds, enemies to violence and bloodshed. Not all the successive revolutions had kindled vindictive passions; freedom, entire freedom, was enjoyed without anxiety as without guaranties; the charities of life were scattered at their feet, like the flowers on their meadows; and the spirit of humanity