One of the colonies that struggled, through neglect and almost insurmountable hardships, into permanent existence was Carolina. Before its settlement, other colonies had successfully established themselves in New England, and in Maryland and Virginia. In 1663, Charles II., in the second year after his restoration, granted the region south of Virginia and extending from 31° to 36° north latitude, and westward within these parallels across the continent, to some of his adherents, to whom he was indebted for distinguished services. It is stated in the grant that this extensive region is called “Carolina,” a name used before, and now, no doubt, retained in honor of the king.[704] The favored noblemen are thus introduced to us: “our right trusty and right well-beloved cousins and counsellors, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, our High Chancellor of England, and George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of our Horse and Captain-General of all our Forces, our right trusty and well-beloved William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkeley, our right trusty and well-beloved counsellor, Anthony Lord Ashley, Chancellor of our Exchequer, Sir George Carteret, Knight and Baronet, Vice-Chamberlain of our Household, and our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Berkeley, Knight, and Sir John Colleton, Knight and Baronet;” who, we are deliberately informed, “being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of” the British dominions, humbly besought leave of the king, “by their industry and charge, to transport and make an ample colony” of his subjects, “in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people who have no knowledge of Almighty God.”[705] Had these high functionaries of the realm acted in accordance with this solemn announcement of their pious zeal for the propagation of Christianity, the blessing of Heaven would, no doubt, have rested more largely upon their noble enterprise. An adverse claim was soon made to the same territory under a grant obtained in 1629,[706] by Sir Robert Heath, attorney-general of Charles I. But he had failed to form a colony, and the claims of those to whom he had conveyed his rights were on that account set aside. The Proprietors under the new charter began to make immediate exertions to form a settlement, that the king might see they did not “sleep with his grant, but were promoting his service and his subjects’ profit.”[707] [Illustration: AUTOGRAPHS OF THE LORDS PROPRIETORS. These follow fac-similes given in the _Charleston Year Book_, 1883.]