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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Caleb Heathcote to Charles Townshend, Viscount Townshend
Heathcote, Caleb
July 12, 1715
Volume 02, Pages 190-191

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[B. P. R. O. B. T. Vol. 5. New York. Bdle. 4.]
COLONEL HEATHCOTE TO LORD TOWNSEND

Manor of Scarsdale July ye 12th 1715.

My Lord

I am sorry that what I foretold in my private letter to your Lordship in March past proves a truth, as that the French had for some time & were then with great diligence laying their designes with the help of the Indians, on the first breach, to cutt off & become masters of these parts of his Majesty's empire, & gave your Lordship my reasons for being of that opinion. It will be altogether needless to trouble your Lordship with any duplicate of that letter, because I sent the same by two several conveyances & doubt not of its having come to hand. The perticular accounts of the Callamitys of Carolina your Lordship will undoubtedly have had from the Governor there, with much greater exactness then I can pretend to do it, but 'tis very certain that all those poor people are drove from their settlements into Carlestown and other fortyfied place and there starving & in great distresse, nor have I yet heard that the Governments of this Continent have done anything for their relief & assistants. Besides the flames wch have broke out in those parts, the fire is beginning nearer us; the French haveing as I am credibly informed, enter'd our Onondagoes country, with intent to build a fort there, & cutt off our trade & communications with the Five Nations of Indians. Had they not very good assurances of debauching our Indians they would not have made so bold an attempt. What steps are taken to prevent the mischievous consequences of it your Lordship will undoubtedly receive by this vessell, wch, haveing been for sometime out of town, is unknown to me; but that I might not be wanting tho' at this distance to do what good I could, I sent Coll Hunter our Governor my thoughts by letter, of wch the enclosed is copie. I have as yett received no answer from him, so don't know what conclusion he has drawn upon it, and the Man of War talking of sayling this week, durst not adventure to stop this longer. If anything should be resolved on upon it, here and afterwards att home, what ever directions are given to the severall Governments, it must be done in so full a manner that they may not dare to dispute His Majesty's orders; of wch we have formerly had examples enough. For when in King William's time the war lay wholly on this Province & Coll. Fletcher then our Governor obtain'd an order from His Majesty for Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut & other Governmts to send men & money for our assistance, they all of 'em found ways to evade it; & the French who were no strangers to our

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Constitution, were always so crafty, as not to suffer their Indians to make war on more than one Province or Collony at a time; & the others were so besotted, as allways to sit still. For when the French for many years pressed our Frontiers, our neighboring Government of Connecticut, whose towns lay as much exposed & seemingly as much danger as ours, being unmolested, they refused giving any assistance, & could patiently bear to see our settlement destroyed & people murthered, & when towards latter part of the war our Indians & those of Canada had agreed not to molest either of the frontiers, then the French made war on Connecticut, & we as kindly refused to assist them & satt quiett while their towns were cutt of & lay'd in ashes, & abundance of their people kill'd & tortured: & after this unaccountable managemt on our side, the crafty French, who are but a handfull in comparrison of the English, on this Continent have generally out done us. My Lord, did I not apprehend our danger to be very great, & his Majesty's subjects here on the brinke of ruine, by wch meanes these vast countreys, wch in time would become by much the most vallewable jewells belonging to the British crown abroad, will be lost and destroy'd, & yet the designes of France are very near being ripe for our ruin, I would not have presumed to have been thus troublesome to your Lordship, for wch I do very heartily ask pardon begging leave to assure your Lordship that I am with all imaginable regard. My Lord

Your Lordships most obedient
humble servant
CALEB HEATHCOTE.
The Right Honble the Lord Viscount
Townsend His Matys Principle
Secretary of State.