tion, would incur
the anger of the great chief. Now it was the habit of the wily red man,
whenever he greatly desired to acquire a new possession, to dream that
the owner of the coveted article had presented it to him. Having dwelt
near the paleface for a number of years, the old chief adopted the white
man's mode of dress to a certain extent. Needing, or coveting, a new
coat, he very conveniently dreamed that McKnight, who had kept a trading
store on Indian Ridge, gave him a bolt of bright cloth which appealed
strongly to his innate love of bright colors. Presenting himself at the
trader's store, he related his dream to the owner of the cloth; and
McKnight not daring to incur the enmity of the Indian by refusing to let
him have the coveted article, presented it to him forthwith; but
McKnight, equally as shrewd as the chief, soon did some dreaming on his
own account, and in his vision he saw himself the owner of some four
hundred acres of land in Indian Ridge, the property of John Durant. So
with due ceremony he approached the chief and solemnly related his
dream; and the old Indian, realizing that in the Anglo-Saxon he had met
his match--nay, his superior in cunning--made over to McKnight the land.

This plantation was afterwards bought by Doctor Marchant, a prominent
citizen of Currituck, the friend and patron of Colonel Henry Shaw, whose
gallant, though unsuccessful defense of Roanoke Island during the War
between the States, brought honor and distinction to his native county.

Currituck in the past has played well her part in making the history of
the Old North State, and that a bright and prosperous future awaits her
may easily be seen by all who can read the signs of the times. Though
nature on the one hand has placed many obstacles in the way of her
progress by barring her coast to incoming vessels, and by surrounding
her with barren shores and impenetrable marshes, on the other hand she
has been abundantly generous to the ancient district. Where her marshes
are drained, as in the region around Moyock, the richest corn land in
the world is found. Her vast forests supply the great lumber mills of
the Albemarle region; her sound and reedy shores provide her children
with an abundance of fish and game, and with the completion of the
Inland Waterway, which in Carolina follows the course of the old
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, Currituck will be placed in closer touch
with the great world from which she has so long