eat camp fires at night, and listened to
the tales told by ancient braves and squaws, to whom the appearance of
the swift ships of the strangers now seemed only a dim, half-remembered
dream.

But as the years rolled by, venturesome hunters and trappers from
Virginia began to thread their way through the tangled woods of the
region lying to the south of the Chesapeake. Returning to their homes
they carried with them glowing accounts of the mild climate, the placid
streams teeming with fish, the wild game and rich furs to be found in
the country through which they had wandered.

In 1630 Sir Robert Heath, to whom Charles I granted a large portion of
Carolina, attempted to establish a settlement in the territory. Later
Roger Green, an English clergyman, made a similar attempt near the
present town of Edenton, but both these efforts failed. However, the
spirit of discovery and adventure was now fully aroused, and by 1656 a
number of settlements had been established along the shores of the
streams that flow into Albemarle Sound. Of none of these, however, can
any accurate account be given, their date and location having long been
forgotten; and not until 1661 is there any authenticated record of a
permanent settlement in North Carolina.

A year or two previous to that date, George Durant, a planter from
Virginia, attracted by the enthusiastic accounts he had heard of the
desirable lands to be found lying to the south, started out on an
exploring expedition to see for himself if all he had heard of the
Indian land of Weapomeiok were true, intending, if the country came up
to his expectations, there to establish his home.

For nearly two years Durant journeyed through the country, and finally
satisfied that the glowing accounts he had heard were not exaggerated,
he determined to bring his wife and family, his goods and chattels, into
this new "Land of Promise," and there build for himself a house to
dwell in, and to clear away the forest for a plantation. The first spot
selected by him for his future home was very near the ancient Indian
village of Chepanock, on the peninsula of Wikacome, which juts out into
the wide waters of Weapomeiok, and whose shores are watered by the
Katoline and the Perquimans rivers.

With the coming of George Durant to Carolina, the old Indian name
Wikacome vanishes from history, and "Durant's Neck" becomes the name by
which that section is henceforth known. The sound and the region north
of it,