of North Carolina. 351 



Opiuiou frc'oly as lie thinks proper, yet lie that has the most 

 Voices, or in summing up what hath been offered, and is 

 found to be the most reasonable, that they make use of with- 

 out Jars or Wrangling, and put it in execution the first 

 Opporttunity that offers; these being People that discharge 

 their Duty with all the integrity and justice immaginable; 

 every to\ATi amongst them has a Ruler or Governor over it, 

 yet the King is absolute over his whole ]N^ation. 



The Succession falls not directly to the King's Son, but 

 to his Sisters, which is a sure way to prevent Impostures in 

 the Succession. They sometimes poyson the Heir that they 

 do not approve of, or judge incapable not to govern them. 

 The King himself is commonly the chief Person concerned 

 in this wicked and abominable Practice. The Indians are so 

 well acquainted with the Poysons that this Country produces, 

 that they have been kno^vn to poyson whole Families, and 

 most part of the Town ; and it is certain, that they can poyson 

 a running Spring or Fountain of Water, that whoever drinks 

 thereof, will soon after infallibly dye. When the Offender 

 is discovered, his own Relations urge for his being put to 

 death, whom nothing will appease but the most cruel Tor- 

 tures Imagination can invent, and these executed in the most 

 public manner that is possible for such a Tragical Scene to 

 be acted, so gi-eat is their abhorrence of such wicked Prac- 

 tices. All the ^N'ations to whom the Offender belongs, and 

 the other ISJ'ations in Peace with them within a hundred 

 Miles or more (if it be possible to acquaint them) are sum- 

 moned to come and appear at such a Time and Place, to see 

 and rejoyce at the Torments and Death of such a Person, 

 who is the common and professed Enemy to all the friendly 

 Indians thereabouts, who now lies under the Condemnation 



of 



