, lying
between the thirty-sixth degree and the Virginia line. In this fertile
region George Durant and other settlers had as early as 1661 established
their homes, buying from Kilcokonen, the great Chief of the Yeopims,
their right to the lands; and there these hardy pioneers were swiftly
converting the primeval wilderness into fertile and productive fields.

Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, looked with covetous eye upon this fair
strip of land, and with a view to planting settlements there in order to
establish Virginia's claim to the territory, he had offered in the name
of King Charles extensive grants in this region to planters who would
bring a certain number of people into Albemarle. In 1663 Berkeley
granted to John Harvey 600 acres of land "lying in a small creek called
Curratuck (probably Indian Creek to-day), falling into the River
Kecoughtancke (now North River), which falls in the Carolina River
(known to-day as Albemarle Sound). The land was given Mr. Harvey for
bringing into the colony twelve new settlers."

Many other settlers in this region had acquired their lands by patents
from Virginia; but after the King's gift to his friends, Berkeley,
himself one of the Lords Proprietors, was no longer desirous to consider
the Albemarle region a part of the Virginia Colony; and henceforth the
grants of land were all issued in the name of the Lords Proprietors. For
several years, however, the Albemarle counties were really separate, and
to all practical purposes, independent territory. The proprietors had no
legal claim to the region, and there was nothing in Virginia's charter
to show that she could rightfully lay claim to it. Nevertheless the
proprietors did claim it, and authorized Berkeley to appoint a governor
for that region. Berkeley therefore journeyed into the settlement,
organized a government, and appointed Drummond Governor of Albemarle.

In 1665 the Lords, realizing the confusion that would arise unless their
claim to the land was made good, induced the King to include Albemarle
in their grant.

But Virginia was by no means ready to relinquish her claim to this
promising settlement, and after Berkeley's day a long struggle began
between the Royal Governors of that colony over the question as to who
should collect the rents and taxes from the inhabitants of this disputed
tract. As late as 1689 the quarrel was still going on, and the Governor
and Council of Virginia appealed to William and Mary to rest