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

[184] be overthrown by the popular party which was favored

Chap. XIII.} 1670.

by the commons.

At first the proprietaries acquiesced in a government which had little reference to the constitutions. The first governor had sunk under the climate and the hardships of founding a colony. His successor, Sir John Yeamans, was a sordid calculator, bent on acquir-

1671.

ing a fortune. He encouraged his employers in expense, and enriched himself, without gaining respect or hatred. ‘It must be a bad soil,’ said his weary employers, ‘that will not maintain industrious men,

1674.

or we must be very silly that would maintain the idle.’ If they continued their outlays, it was in hopes of seeing vineyards, and olive-groves, and plantations, established; they refused supplies of cattle, and desired returns in compensation for their expenditures.

The moderation and good sense of West were able

1674 to 1683.

to preserve tranquillity for about nine years; but the lords, who had first purchased his services by the grant of all their merchandise and debts in Carolina, in the end dismissed him from office, on the charge that he favored the popular party.

The continued struggles with the proprietaries hastened the emancipation of the people from their rule; but the praise of having been always in the right cannot be awarded to the colonists. The latter claimed the right of weakening the .neighboring Indian tribes by a partisan warfare, and a sale of the captives into West Indian bondage; their antagonists demanded that the treaty of peace with the natives should be preserved.¹ Again, the proprietaries offered some favorable modifications of the constitutions; the colonists respected the modifications no more than the