They  had  partners  in  London,  and,  within  five  months  of
the  grant  of  Carolina,  their  agents  pleaded  their  discovery,
occupancy,  and  purchase,  as  affording  a  valid  title  to  the
soil,  while  they  claimed  the  privileges  of  self-government
as  a  natural  right.  A  compromise  was  offered ;  and  the  pro-
prietaries, in  their  "  proposals  to  all  that  would  plant  in  Caro-
lina," promised  emigrants  from  IS^ew  England  religious  free-
dom, a  governor  and  council  to  be  elected  from  among  a  num-
ber whom  the  emigrants  themselves  should  nominate,  a  repre-
sentative assembly,  independent  legislation,  subject  only  to  the
negative  of  the  proprietaries,  land  at  a  rent  of  a  halfpenny  an
acre,  and  such  freedom  from  customs  as  the  charter  would
warrant.  Yet  the  lands  were  not  inviting  to  men  who  could
choose  their  abodes  from  the  whole  wilderness ;  and,  though
Massachusetts,  the  young  mother  of  colonies,  in  May,  1667,
ministered  to  their  wants  by  a  general  contribution  through  her
settlements,  the  infant  town  planted  on  Oldtown  creek,  near
the  south  side  of  Cape  Fear  river,  was  soon  after  abandoned.
The  conditions  offered  to  the  colony  of  Cape  Fear  "  were
not  intended  for  the  meridian  "  of  Virginia.  "  There,"  said
the  proprietaries,  in  their  instructions  to  Sir  William  Berke-
ley, "  we  hope  to  find  more  facile  people  "  than  the  New  Eng-
land men.  They  intrusted  the  affair  entirely  to  Sir  William's
management.  He  was  to  get  settlers  as  cheaply  as  possible ;
yet  at  any  rate  to  get  settlers.
TOL.  I.— 28


410    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1660  TO   1688.   paetii.;  oh.  yii.
