The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-04-22
JUDGE CLARRS DISCOVERY.

NesUs & Observer.
History frequently turns up in un-.
places. Bancroft and other
leading historians have been telling us
that the oldest European settlements
made within the present limits of the
United States we're those made by the
Spaniards at st. Augustine, Florida, in
1865, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, about
the same date, the first English settle
ments being Sir Walter Raleigh's at
Roanoke Island in 1888, and next, John
Smiths at jamestown, Va, 1907. But
not long since an investigator among
the manuscripts lying in the Royal Ii
brary at Simancas, in Spain, thought
to con over bulky mass of legal pa
pers. In doing go he CHANGED upon the
long forgotten litigation IN regard to
the cost, expenses, etc., Of the first Eu-
ropean settlement in America, long
ante-dating all those above mentioned.
It contained the Royal charters, COM
missions of officers, official acts, depo-
sitions and judicial decisions, which
showed that in 1923, under authority
from the King, Lucas Valasquez D'Ayl-
lon, sent an expedition to the coast of
America to find location for a settle.
ment. Among other points, they land
ed at the mouth of the Cape Fear. AT
ter their return, dayton visited Spain,
had personal interview with Charles
the V. (King of Spain and Emperor of
Germany and obtained voyage charters,
commissions and grants, under author
ity of which, ON June 9, 1926, at the
head OF an expedition, consisting Of
three vessels, and containing 600 colon
lists, men, women and children, he set
sail from Porto Rico. He carried along
a full supply of priests and physicians,
besides supplies of all kind, including
horses, cattle, sheep, etc. Few colonies,
if any, so we'll furnished or so preten-
tious ever after landed on our shores.
Centering between Capes Charles and
Henry, he explored the James river
and selected as site for his colony a
peninsula about fifty miles from its
mouth, which he named Guandape
and he located his colony thereon,
which, in honor of his patron saint, he
styled San Miguel. It was the identi-
cal spot on which Jamestown was locat-
ed eighty one years later, 1907.
The winter proved an unusually Sc
we're one to these sons of Southern
climate, and at its worst some of the
men left on board of the vessels were
frozen to death. dayton himself dy-
ing of malaria and exposure, a civil
war broke out over the succession to
the governorship. When it was sup
pressed, the rebel leader was tried and
executed for high treason. Malaria,
however, proved still more fatal, as 1t
did to John Smith, and his comrades
in the beginning of the next century.
After about year, the shattered frag-
ments of the colony, became disheart-
ened and the litigation began, whose
moth-eaten records escaping the ,knowl-
edge of Bancroft and many other histo-
rians, have only of late years given, by
their recovery, back to the world the
proofs of the existence of this ambi-
tious, but unfortunate and long forgot
ten attempt, which if successful, might
have made this country Spanish and
not English, Catholic and not Protest
ant. Nearly one hundred years later,
when the English were settled at James
town, the Spaniards sent an admiral
from Florida, with the charts of D'Ayl-
lon to see what the English we're doing
and he found that the English settle
ment was on the same spot marked on
his charts as that OF San Miguel de
Guandape.
The above is a brief summary of an
Interesting article furnished by Judge
Walter CLARK tn a Nnrtharn mapazina