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Entries
Regarding the Indian Revolt of 1711
No. XI. A LETTER
FROM MAJOR CHRISTOPHER GALE, DATED FROM CHARLES TOWN, IN NORTH CAROLINA,
NOVEMBER 2, 1711.
[Reprinted from NICHOLLS' Literary
Illustrations, vol. iv. pp. 489-492.]
MY DEAR:--
I cannot omit, by all opportunities, to inform my second self that you have
still living in a brother the most faithful friend that ever was, though perhaps
by as signal a hand of Providence as this age can demonstrate.
I will not trouble you with repetitions, but refer you to the after-written
memorial which I laid before the government, and shall only acquaint you how far
I had been concerned in the bloody tragedy, if kind Providence had not
prevented.
About ten days before the fatal day, I was at the baron's, and had agreed with
him and Mr. Lawson on a progress to the Indian towns; but before we were
prepared to go, a message came from home, to inform me that my wife and brother
lay dangerously sick; which I may call a happy sickness to me, for on the news I
immediately repaired home, and thereby avoided the fate which I shall hereafter
inform you.
The baron, with Mr. Lawson and their attendants, proceeding on their journey,
were, on the 22d of September (as you will see by the memorial) both barbarously
murdered; the mat, on which the baron used to lie on such like voyages, being
since found all daubed with blood, so as we suppose him to have been quickly
dispatched. But the fate of Mr. Lawson (if our Indian information be true) was
much more tragical, for we are informed that they stuck him full of 'fine small
splinters of torchwood, like hogs' bristles, and so set them gradually on fire.
This, I doubt not, had been my fate if Providence had not prevented; but I hope
God Almighty has designed me for an instrument in the revenging such innocent
Christian blood.
On Sunday, October 21, I arrived here in the quality of an agent, and in order
to procure the assistance of the government to destroy our enemies, which I
doubt not in a little time to effect. The family I left in garrison at Bath
town, my wife and brother pretty well recovered; but what has happened since, I
know not. Two days after I left the town, at daybreak (which is the Indians'
usual time of attack), above 100 guns were heard, which must have been an attack
made by the Indians upon some of our garrisons, which are in all eleven in
number; but cannot hear the success of it, though a small vessel came from the
out part of our government there the other day, by which I have the following
news: that on my coming away, Captain Brice detached from our out-garrisons
fifty men, and in the woods met with a body of Indians, who fought them three
days, and forced them at last to retire into their garrison. The Indians lost in
this engagement fifteen men, and we took two, one of whom was killed by one of
our men. During this engagement, another body of the Indians, being advised that
the garrison was weakened by this detachment, came and attacked the garrison,
and at the same time a number of Indian prisoners of a certain nation, which we
did not know, whether they were friends or enemies, rose in the garrison, but
were soon cut to pieces, as also those on the outside repelled. In the garrison
were killed nine Indian men, and soon after thirty-nine women and children sent
off for slaves. This is the condition we at present labor under. I shall not
trouble you with a particular relation of all their butcheries, but shall relate
to you some of them, by which you may suppose the rest. The family of one Mr.
Nevill was treated after this manner: the old gentleman himself, after being
shot, was laid on the house-floor, with a clean pillow under his head, his
wife's head-clothes put upon his head, his stockings turned over his shoes, and
his body covered all over with new lined. His wife was set upon her knees, and
her hands lifted up as if she was at prayers, leaning against a chair in the
chimney corner, and her coats turned up over her head. A son of his was laid out
in the yard, with a pillow laid under his head and a bunch of rosemary laid to
his nose. A negro had his right hand cut off and left dead. The master of the
next house was shot, and his body laid flat upon his wife's grave. Women were
laid on their house-floors, and great stakes run up through their bodies. Others
big with child, the infants were ripped out and hung upon trees. In short, their
manner of butchery has been so various and unaccountable, that it would be
beyond credit to relate them. This blow was so hotly followed by the hellish
crew, that we could not bury our dead; so that they were left for prey to the
dogs, and wolves, and vultures, whilst our care was to strengthen our garrison
to secure the living.
The ship by which this comes is ready to sail, so cannot enlarge; only desire my
duty may be presented to my father and mother, my sincere love to yourself and
brothers, and service to all friends, hoping for a speedy answer to my last by
Madam Hyde, is what offers from
Your sincerely affectionate brother,
CHRISTOPHER GALE.
FROM CHARLES
TOWN, CAROLINA.
The Memorial of CHRISTOPHER GALE from the Government of North Carolina, to
the Honorable ROBERT GIBS, Governor and Commander-in-chief, and to the Honorable
Council and General Assembly.
To lay before your honor the prospect or representation of as promising a
country as was ever watered with the dew of heaven, would take up more time than
the present exigency of the affair I am now set upon would give me leave; but
much more time, and a hand more skilful, would be requisite to give you a view
of the calamities and miseries of so fine a country laid waste and desolate by
the most barbarous enemies: I mean the Corees and Tuscarora Indians.
Although I shall not use much eloquence to implore your aid and assistance in
revenging such injuries, causes of that nature when truly stated being their own
best orator; yet, I presume, I have all the advantages that may be of making a
true representation of that affair to your honors, being an inhabitant of
Beaufort precinct, where a great part of this hellish tragedy was acted. I
shall, therefore, inform your honors, that on Saturday the 22d of September
last, was perpetrated the grossest piece of villainy that perhaps was ever heard
of in English America. One hundred and thirty people massacred at the head of
the Nuse, and on the south side of Pamptaco rivers, in the space of two hours;
butchered after the most barbarous manner that can be expressed, and their dead
bodies used with all the scorn and indignity imaginable; their houses plundered
of considerable riches (being generally traders), then burned, and their growing
and hopeful crops destroyed. What spectacle can strike a man with more horror
and stir up more to revenge, than to see so much barbarity practised in so
little a time and so unexpectedly? And what makes it the more surprising, that
nefarious villainy was committed by such Indians as were esteemed as members of
the several families where the mischiefs were done, and that with smiles in
their countenances, when their intent was to destroy. I must inform your honors
that the governors of North Carolina are not in a condition to take a full (I
might say any) satisfaction on the enemy, nor to prevent their further progress,
by reason their neighboring Indians are not to be relied on for any assistance,
but rather to be feared they would be prejudicial in any expeditions; if not
joined with the enemy as we have good reason to judge by their behavior both
before and since the act was committed: therefore a strict and jealous eye is
necessarily kept over them by the government, and our whole country drawn into
garrisons to prevent mischief that way, which very much hinders the getting men
into a body to pursue the enemy, who are at present between two and three
hundred effective men, and above one thousand women and children; and, I
believe, your honors will be of opinion, that it is altogether impracticable to
attempt such a body of men, flushed with their first success, without Indians
who are acquainted with their manner of fighting. Wherefore, on behalf of the
government of North Carolina, by which I am employed, I earnestly entreat your
honors to permit and encourage so many of your tributary Indians as you think
proper, to fall upon those Indians our enemies, whose families are since fled
down to the seaboard between Weatuck and Cape Fare rivers, whilst their men are
still ravaging and destroying all before them, within sight of our garrisons;
that by your assistance exemplary justice may be done to such barbarous villains
as have laid waste and desolate such a flourishing part of the lords
proprietors' country, and which, without your speedy relief, will be wholly
deserted. If any Indians are found innocent of that massacre and will assist in
the destruction of those inhuman wretches, care will be taken to distinguish
those from the rest; but I very much fear that, upon strict inquiry, it would be
found that the whole nation of the Tuscaroras (though some of them may not yet
be actors) was knowing and consenting to what was done; and that the success of
those already in motion, if not put a stop to, will at last induce the rest to
join with them in carrying on these bloody designs. Beside the daily expectation
of a considerable number of Senekoes [Senecas], which we are certainly informed
are coming to cohabit with the Tuscaroras, our enemies, this winter, and become
one nation, which in time may affect our neighboring governments as well as us.
I firmly persuade myself that so much prejudice as the lords proprietors will
receive by that fatal blow, the barbarous murder of so many of our
fellow-subjects, among which number is the Honorable Baron de Graffenried, a
landgrave of Carolina, and a member of the council, Mr. Lawson the
surveyor-general, with divers others of note, will excite your honors'
compassion toward such a country and hasten your assistance and relief.
I am, with all respect, Your honors' most obedient, humble servant,
CHRISTOPHER GALE.
Entry above from History of North Carolina:
With Maps and Illustrations. Volume: 2. Contributors: Francis L. Hawks -
author. Publisher: E.J. Hale & Son. Place of Publication: Fayetteville, NC.
Publication Year: 1858. (pp 388-391)
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