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69 { CHAPTER THREE } William Brice The Fighter The watershed in men’s lives comes at different times. For Christopher de Graffenried and William Brice, two neighbors on the Neuse River, they overlapped. Brice had been living on Brice’s Creek, a tributary of the Trent River just south of the mouth of the Neuse, when De Graffenried and his colonists moved in. Almost immediately the two men clashed. That was to be expected. The aristocratic Switzer was haughty and the bluff Englishman crass. But if De Graffenried was at the low point of his life, then Brice was about to enter the high point of his. Or so it seemed. Y The first attacks came at dawn on September 22, 1711, the autumnal equinox. Some said that was a Saturday; later calendars said it was a Tuesday.1 The day before, scouts from the Catechna town Tuscaroras, Cores, Machapungas, Pamlicos, Weetocks, and Bear River Indians had filtered into the settled areas among the farms and plantations between the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers as well as around North Carolina’s only town of Bath, nestled on the north side of the Pamlico. For the settlers, these Indians were not strangers, but almost regulars, known to them, and many had done odd jobs for them. The Indians did what they usually did, approached the cabins and houses and asked for food. Some, said Christopher Gale, “were esteemed as members of the several families . . . and that with the smiles in their countenances, when their intent was to destroy.” None of the British, German, or Swiss settlers in the area suspected anything . But this was traditional Indian warfare: appear friendly and then strike suddenly from ambush when the enemy’s defenses were down.2 That evening the scouts returned and made their report of who was where and what could be expected. Then during the night, five hundred 70 / William Brice warriors from those Indian nations and towns took up their positions in the woods and marshes, as near as feasible to the farms and plantations. It was the night before the new moon, so it was particularly dark. The Machapungas were to hit the settlers around Bath and the town itself if possible. The Pamlicos were ordered to range north of Bath and attack whatever they could. The Bear River Indians were to strike north of the Neuse River and along the coast. The Weetock Indians along the White Oak River were to hit the settlers along that southerly watercourse. The Tuscaroras from Hancock’s Catechna town and nearby farms, along with the Cores, would assault the settlements around New Bern, the Trent River, Brice’s Creek, all the way to the coast. The Indians were well armed and well prepared for a surprise attack. However, not all Tuscaroras took part in these attacks. Most of the Tuscarora warriors came from Hancock’s Catechna town and possibly a few others from nearby farms and towns on Contentnea Creek. But the Tuscarora towns along the Roanoke River, the Tar-Pamlico River, and even some towns along the upper Contentnea Creek did not participate.3 At sunup, the warriors streamed out of the woods, carrying muskets, bows and arrows, war clubs, and tomahawks. Some greeted just awakening settlers as they often did and then pounced. Others bands, moving quickly in their half-moon formations and shouting the Tuscarora war cry GoWeh ! Go-Weh!, attacked without warning. It was a slaughter. Warriors cut down early rising settlers in their fields, laggards inside their own houses. Men, women, and children were killed, both European settlers and African slaves. Houses were burned, crops and livestock destroyed. Legend says that John Porter Jr.’s house at the head of Chocowinity Bay off the Pamlico River was the first house hit in the attacks. A band of warriors ran up to the house, where one managed to grab Porter’s infant child. As he readied to dash it against a wall, Porter’s wife, Sarah, snatched the child back from him and ran. In the meantime, Porter and Dr. Patrick Maule, who was visiting, grabbed their guns and managed to fend off the warriors. Then the Porter family and Dr. Maule raced for the river bank, boarded a boat and cast off into the middle of the river. From there they watched their home and everything in it go up in flames.4 Others did not fare as well. The Indians killed Furnifold Green Sr. at his Neuse River plantation...

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