"
Then laying his hand upon his heart Sanute implored his white friends
to flee with all haste. "But if you are determined to stay," he
added, "then I will take on myself one last office of friendship,
and so that you may not be tortured I will slay you with my own
hand."
Still Fraser doubted. But his wife was so terrified that he yielded
to her entreaties. And gathering his goods together he got into
his canoe with his wife and child, and paddled away to Charleston.
Unfortunately in the hurry of departure Fraser either forgot to warn
his friends in the plantation near him, or they, being warned,
disregarded it; and a few days later the slaughter began. At
daybreak the signal was given, and at the sound of the war whoop
the seemingly peaceful Indians were turned suddenly into raging
demons who, with tomahawk and torch in hand, sowed destruction
and death around. So the land was filled with blood and wailing,
pleasant homesteads were laid in ruins, and only heaps of smouldering
ashes marked where they had been.
But Governor Craven was one of the best governors of his time. He
was a man of action and courage as well as a wise ruler, and he
quickly gathered an army with which to march against the savages.
The North Carolinians too, remembering gratefully the help which
South Carolina had given to them in their need, sent men.
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