In 1653, an adventurer from Virginia, with a small craft, entered Currituck Inlet and visited Roanoke. Here he found residing a great Indian chief, with whom he made a treaty of peace and alliance, which led to a purchase of land and to a long intimacy. A house for the chief was built like the English dwellings, and his son was confided to the English to be educated. The young chief embraced Christianity, and was baptized. At this time the ruins of Lane's fort were plainly visible, and the natives were familiar with its history. The first permanent settlement in what is now North-Carolina, can not be traced to an earlier date than 1656. It was on the shores of Albermarle Sound, some forty miles from Roanoke. Almost coëval with this came small vessels from New-England, to trade, first for furs and peltry, and soon after to exchange their own productions and those of the West-Indies for the tobacco, corn, naval stores, and lumber of the country; and for the succeeding century our people were almost entirely the merchants and carriers of all this region. As a consequence some of them permanently settled here, and many of the merchants of Boston held extensive tracts of land obtained by grants or purchase. Our public records contain many references to these, and among others we find a grant of the Island of Roanoke, as early as 1676, to Joshua Lamb, of New-England. It would seem that it was then settled, and had houses and buildings,[P] and probably had been occupied for many years, and perhaps antedated the settlements before referred to, thus making it the first place permanently settled in North-Carolina. In 1785, more than a century after, the following appears in the inventory of the estate of a resident of Boston: 'In the State of North Carolina--one half of Roanoke Island, valued at £184 6s. 8d.' Lawson, the very truthful historian of this country, who wrote about 1700, says: 'A settlement had been begun on that part of Roanoke Island, where the ruins of a fort are to be seen this day, as well as some old English coins, which have been lately found, and a brass gun, and a powder-horn, and one small quarter-deck gun, made of iron staves, hooped with the same material, which method of making guns might probably be used in those days for infant colonies.' In time, the settlers extended over the Island, and slowly and quietly partially cultivated it. They were from the humblest class. Slavery, with its consequences, never came here, and the small farms were 'worked' by their owners and their sons.