State

eel History By Billy Arthur A Trip To Remember Freewheeling Spanish captain Francisco dc Miranda found ‘a spirit of lively independence’ during his 47-day trip to North Carolina in 1783. all intimate friendships and devote themselves completely to the care of home and family. During the fust year of marriage they play the role of lovers, the second year of breeders and there¬ after of housekeepers. The unmarried women enjoy complete freedom and take walks wherever without their steps being observed. The men dress care¬ lessly and grossly. All smoke tobacco in pipes and also chew it. with so much ex¬ cess that some Francisco de Miranda Forty-seven days spent at Ocra- cokc. New Bern. Beaufort and Wilmington in 1783 contribut¬ ed to Francisco de Miranda's conviction that "a free people" was the hope for a new world. And within a year this 33-vear-old enterprising man formed "a project for the liberty and independence of the entire Spanish- American Continent." Variously called a soldiei of fortune, democrat, Casanova and revolutionist, Miranda subsequently led forces which freed the first Spanish colony, his native Venezuela. Bot n iu wealth. Miranda had gone to Spain for an education but instead bought a captaincy iu the Span¬ ish army which led to military renown oil both sides ol the Atlantic. As a Span¬ ish ally of France, he was actively engaged in campaigns that led to Gen¬ eral Cornwallis* surrendering of British forces at Yorktown in 1781. I lardly two year s later . Miranda was in the I'nitcd States, making friends wher¬ ever he went, according to his diary, edited bv John S. F./ell for the book The \ru> Democracy in America, Miranda's observations, which are interesting, revealing and amusing, depict him as one i urious about almost everything from diet to commerce and the new society. Arriving at < >« racoke on June 8, 1 783. Miranda found the people “extremely robust and corpulent. The natives attribute this to the food, which is noth¬ ing more than fish, oysters and some vegetables. The sea air is the largest con¬ tributor. I think, to the health of the region, and I have no doubt that fish, prepared in their simple way. con¬ tributes to the extraordinary procre¬ ation." Hie next day he sailed through the “very dangerous" Pamlico Sound and arrived on the I Oth in New Bern, “capi¬ tal of the state at the flowing together of the rivers Trent and Ncuse; the latter is particularly large, its navigation pleas¬ ant. and its shores here and there cov¬ ered with thick, luxuriant forest." New Bern was then important for ship¬ building and the export of tobacco, molasses, lumber and naval stores. The residents greeted him with “great¬ est hospitality . . . though their ideas are generally not very liberal and the social system is iu swaddling clothes. The mar¬ ried women maintain seclusion and sub¬ mission to their husbands such as I have never seen: they dress with neatness and their entire lives arc domestic. Once married, they separ ate themselves from assured me they could not go to bed and rec¬ oncile sleep without having a cud in the mouth." lie met such nota¬ bles of the time as North Carolina Gover¬ nors Abner Nash. Richard Dobbs Spaight and Samuel Johnston, Johnston gave him “many moments of pleasant company and instruc¬ tion" and called Miranda a "most agreeable" person with “most liberal sentiments." Miranda regarded New Bern's houses as “middling and small, but com¬ fortable and clean. The finest building of all and one which re-al¬ ly deserves attention of an educated travel¬ er is tin- so-called 'Palace' situated on the banks of the river Trent." Partly burned in 1 798. Tryon Palace has been restored and is today a North Carolina showplacc in New Bern. Miranda was present for the June 17 celebration of the formal an¬ nouncement of the end of Revolution¬ ary War hostilities and of preliminary treaties with F.ngland. The party began at I p.m. with a barbecued pig and “a barrel of rum. from which the leading officials and citizens of the region promiscuously ate and drank with the meanest and lowest kind of people, holding hands and drinking from the same cup. It is impossible to imagine, without seeing it. a more purely demo¬ cratic gathering. There were some The State/July IW 14