After
disposing of his furs, which proved profitable, he wandered on foot
about Europe for some eighteen months, and then, returning to London,
he embarked for America.
During all this time he had not heard from his family. Arriving at
Charleston he made his way back to the neighborhood of his birth. He
was ferried across the Pedee river by a buxom lass, who captured his
heart. Finding his father dead, he gathered up the little patrimony
left him in his father's will, should he ever return to claim it: he
then returned to the neighborhood of his sweetheart of the ferry; and,
being a fine-looking man of six feet three inches, with great blue
eyes, round and liquid; and, Othello-like, telling well the story of
his adventures, he very soon beguiled the maiden's heart, and they
were made one. About this time came off the battles of Concord and
Lexington, inaugurating the Revolution. It was not, however, until
after the declaration of independence, that he threw aside the plough
and shouldered the musket for American independence.
That portion of North Carolina in which he resided had been mainly
peopled by emigrants from Scotland.
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