Many royalists had fled to Barbados during the old troubles, so that its English population was considerable.

A number may have welcomed the chance to leave their small island for the immense continent; and an English trading port as far south as Cape Fear must have had a general appeal.

So, in 1665, came Englishmen from Barbados and made, up the Cape Fear River, a settlement which they named Clarendon, with John Yeamans of Barbados as Governor.

But the colony did not prosper.

There arose the typical colonial troubles--sickness, dissensions, improvidence, quarrels with the aborigines.