The earliest, largest and most important settlement of Highlanders in America, prior to the Peace of 1783, was in North Carolina, along Cape Fear River, about one hundred miles from its mouth, and in what was then Bladen, but now Cumberland County. The time when the Highlanders began to occupy this territory is not definitely known; but some were located there in 1729, at the time of the separation of the province into North and South Carolina. It is not known what motive caused the first settlers to select that region. There was no leading clan in this movement, for various ones were well represented. At the headwaters of navigation these pioneers literally pitched their tent in the wilderness, for there were but few human abodes to offer them shelter. The chief occupants of the soil were the wild deer, turkeys, wolves, raccoons, opossums, with huge rattlesnakes to contest the intrusion. Fortunately for the homeless immigrant the climate was genial, and the stately tree would afford him shelter while he constructed a house out of logs proffered by the forest. Soon they began to fell the primeval forest, grub, drain, and clear the rich alluvial lands bordering on the river, and plant such vegetables as were to give them subsistence. In course of time a town was formed, called Campbellton, then Cross Creek, and after the Revolution, in honor of the great Frenchman, who was so truly loyal to Washington, it was permanently changed to Fayetteville. The immigration to North Carolina was accelerated, not only by the accounts sent back to the Highlanders of Scotland by the first settlers, but particularly under the patronage of Gabriel Johnston, governor of the province from 1734 until his death in 1752. He was born in Scotland, educated at the University of St. Andrews, where he became professor of Oriental languages, and still later a political writer in London. He bears the reputation of having done more to promote the prosperity of North Carolina than all its other colonial governors combined. However, he was often arbitrary and unwise with his power, besides having the usual misfortune of colonial governors of being at variance with the legislature. He was very partial to the people of his native country, and sought to better their condition by inducing them to emigrate to North Carolina. Among the charges brought against him, in 1748, was his inordinate fondness for Scotchmen, and even Scotch rebels. So great, it was alleged, was his partiality for the latter that he showed no joy over the king's "glorious victory of Culloden;" and "that he had appointed one William McGregor, who had been in the Rebellion in the year 1715, a Justice of the Peace during the late Rebellion (1745) and was not himself without suspicion of disaffection to His Majesty's Government."[21]