Among the misfortunes of the colonists we must not fail to notice the incompetent governors sent from England. Favoritism, and not fitness for office, dictated the selection. Archdale, Hyde, and Eden are considered the only governors sent to the province who did it much service. The last two whom their lordships favored with the dignity of executive authority were Burrington, pronounced “a profligate blackguard,” and Sir Richard Everard, whom his superseded rival railed against as “a noodle and an ape,” and “no more fit to be a governor than Sancho Panza.” It was in the administration of Sir Richard that the colony passed by purchase under the immediate control of the king. Two thousand five hundred pounds sterling were paid for each of seven shares; Lord Carteret declining to dispose of his, as it had come to him by inheritance.[730] The claims for arrears of quit-rent due from settlers were also purchased. Before the surrender of the charter many changes had occurred in the ownership of shares in the province; and not one of the original Proprietors remained alive to witness the failure of their successors in the noble enterprise committed to their management by the munificence of Charles II. ROYAL GOVERNMENT.—The method of the royal government will be noticed when we come to write of South Carolina. The more thoughtful in North Carolina no doubt felt relieved in escaping from the negligent rule of the Proprietors; but the transition from the old to the new form of administration appears to have been a matter of indifference to the people at large. All they saw in 1731 was that George Burrington, who had been displaced for Everard in 1725, came back with a commission as the first royal governor, to displace in turn his former rival. Burrington, favored for his father’s services to the king, was unsuited for his position, and soon became involved in disputes with his council, the assembly, and the judges. He appeared to think the foremost duty of the assembly was to provide for him a salary suitable to his new dignity, to raise money for other royal officers and an adequate and permanent revenue for the king. The assembly was prorogued for declining to do so. His violence and tyranny caused complaints against him to be sent, through Chief Justice Smith, to the authorities in the mother country. One service, however, he rendered, in conciliating the Indians on the western border. To this end he sent Dr. John Brickell with a party of ten men and two Indian hunters to assist them.[731] The account of the expedition adds to our knowledge of the condition of that remote section of the province, as the interesting work of Lawson does with respect to other sections. In 1734, on the return of the chief justice, the governor retired to Charleston and sailed thence to England. Soon afterwards he was found murdered in St. James’ Park, in London.[732] Nathaniel Rice, secretary of the province, and the first named of the councillors, administered