the_gneech | Happy Birthday to lythandra!

autochthon

One who rises or grows out of the earth. The original inhabitants of a country.
—Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850

First European Born in America

On this date in 1587 Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, just off the coast of North Carolina — the first child born of English parents in the New World. Nearly three centuries later, Maria Theresa Longworth's Teresina in America (1875) described the residents of nearby South Carolina: "A stranger sailing direct from New York to Charleston will be greatly struck with the change which forty-eight hours can produce. The South Carolinian seemed almost of a different race — tall, thin, well-formed, sinewy men, sallow complexioned, with long, straight hair and deep-set eyes of a most peculiar grey. Actually they are of a pale colour, but at a little distance simulating a dark mysterious hue, as though they had more in their depth than could be read at a single glance. They have a carriage differing from the hurried shuffling tread of the business and moneymaking man of the North. It tells of rule and authority. The dark, flashing dauntless eye bespeaks the unconquered warrior soul."

So, Black Irish, pretty much. Why didn't you just say so?

-The Gneech