The distance of New Jersey from Canada, the source of most of the Indian wars which afflicted the northern colonies, gave it a complete exemption from those direful calamities, while the Indian tribes in the neighborhood, which were far from numerous, were almost always willing to cultivate a friendly relation with the Europeans. The gravity, simplicity, and courtesy of Quaker manners seem to have been particularly acceptable to these savages; and, added to the careful observation of the principles of equity in the proceedings of the colonists, established an amicable intercourse, to the manifest advantage both of themselves and of the natives.PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.During a considerable period, the colony of Delaware was attached to that of Pennsylvania, without even a separate assembly; and after it acquired that privilege, it remained for some time longer under the same governor: its history requires, therefore, to be blended with that of Pennsylvania, although it was settled at a much earlier period. It does not appear that the date of the first European plantation on South river, or the Delaware, can now be ascertained with any precision; some authorities, however, assert that a Swedish colony settled at cape Henlopen as early as the year 1627; although Chalmers is of opinion that, ‘though various Europeans may have trafficked in Delaware, their plantations had not yet embellished her margin, probably in the year 1632.’The colony which forms the chief subject of this division was founded in the year 1681, by the celebrated William Penn. His attention was attracted to colonization by his connection with New Jersey. While he was engaged in the government of that territory, he received information of the country situate to the westward of the Delaware, which induced in his mind the desire of acquiring an estate in that quarter. He therefore presented a petition to CharlesII., urging his claim for a debt incurred by the crown to his father, and soliciting a grant of land to the northward of Maryland, and westward of the Delaware. After a conference with the duke of York and lord Baltimore, to ascertain that the grant would not interfere with any prior claims of theirs, a charter, making conveyance of that territory, was signed and sealed by the king. It constituted William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty. It gave him, his heirs, and their deputies, power to make laws, by advice of the freemen, and to erect courts of justice for the execution of those laws,provided they be not repugnant to the laws ofEngland.101The charter being thus obtained, Penn invited purchasers by public advertisement. Many single persons, and some families, chiefly of the denomination of Quakers, were induced to think of a removal; and a number of merchants and others, forming themselves into a company, purchased twenty thousand acres of this land, which was sold at the rate of twenty pounds for every thousand acres. In May he despatched Markham, a relative, with a few associates, to take possession of the newly grantedterritory; and in the autumn three ships, with a considerable number of emigrants, sailed for the same destination. The philanthropic proprietor sent a letter to the Indians, informing them that ‘the great God had been pleased to make him concerned in their part of the world, and that the king of the country where he lived, had given him a great province therein; but that he did not desire to enjoy it without their consent; that he was a man of peace, and that the people whom he sent were of the same disposition; and if any difference should happen between them, it might be adjusted by an equal number of men chosen on both sides.’ The position selected by these emigrants for their abode, was immediately above the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware. In the following April, Penn published ‘the frame of government for Pennsylvania.’ The chief intention of this famous charter was declared to be, ‘for the support of power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power. For, liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.’The first page in the annals of Pennsylvania is one of the brightest in the history of mankind, recording an event not more to the credit of the wise and benevolent legislator through whose agency it happened, than honorable to humanity itself. At a spot which is now the site of one of the suburbs of Philadelphia, the Indian sachems, at the head of their assembled warriors, awaited in arms the approach of the Quaker deputation. Penn, distinguished from his followers only by a sash of blue silk, and holding in his hand a roll of parchment that contained the confirmation of the treaty, arrived, at the head of an unarmed train, carrying various articles of merchandise, which, on their approach to the sachems, were spread on the ground. He addressed the natives through an interpreter, assuring them of his friendly and peaceable intentions; and certainly the absence of all warlike weapons was a better attestation of his sincerity than a thousand oaths. The conditions of the proposed purchase were then read; and he delivered to the sachems not only the stipulated price, but a handsome present of the merchandise which he had spread before them. Heconcluded by presenting the parchment to the sachems, and requesting that they would carefully preserve it for three generations. The Indians cordially acceded to his propositions, and solemnly pledged themselves to live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the sun and moon should endure.Penn’s Treaty.Having received information from his agent that his presence was necessary in England, Penn departed from America, in August, 1684, leaving his province in profound peace, under the administration of five commissioners chosen from the provincial council. The unfortunate JamesII.ascended the throne soon after Penn’s arrival. ‘As he has,’ said Penn, ‘been my friend, and my father’s friend, I feel bound in justice to be a friend to him.’ He adhered to him while seated on the throne; and for two years after he was expelled from his kingdom, the government of the province was administered in his name. By this display of attachment to the exiled monarch, he incurred the displeasure of WilliamIII.On vague suspicion and unfounded charges, he was four times imprisoned. The king took the government of Pennsylvania into his own hands; and colonel Fletcher was appointed governor of this province, as well as of New York. On the arrival of colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the persons in the administration appear to have surrendered the government to him, without any notice or order to them, either from the crown or the proprietary. By the severest scrutiny, however, it was rendered apparent, that Penn had not suffered personal gratitude to lead him to any serious dereliction of duty, and he consequently regained the good opinion of king William; and being permitted to resume and exercise his rights, he appointed William Markham to be his deputy governor.During several years the colony continued in a course of prosperity, without any occurrence requiring historical record. In the year 1699, Penn revisited his Pennsylvanian associates, accompanied by his family, with an intention of spending the remainder of his life amongst them. But several points soon came up, on which a difference of opinion existed between himself and the legislature, and disappointed him in his hopes of obtaining influence as a lawgiver. He consequently determined to return to England, and he naturally desired to have some frame of government finally adopted before his departure. In 1701, he prepared and presented one to the assembly, which was accepted. It confirmed to them, in conformity with that of 1696, the right of originating bills, which, by the charters preceding that date, had been the right of the governor alone, and of amending or rejecting those which might be laid before them. To the governor it gave the right of rejecting bills passed by the assembly, of appointing his own council, and of exercising the whole executive power.Immediately after his fourth frame was accepted, Penn returned to England; but he had scarcely arrived there, when the disputes between the province and the territories broke forth with greater bitterness than ever; and in the following year, the separate legislature of Delaware was permanently established at Newcastle. In addition to the tidings of these prolonged disagreements, and of the final rupture between the two settlements, Penn was harassed by complaints against the administration of governor Evans; and having ascertained, by a deliberate examination of them, that they were too well founded, he appointed in his place Charles Gookin, a gentleman of ancient Irish family, who seemed qualified to givesatisfaction to the people over whom he was sent to preside. Finding his people still in a discontented state, Penn, now in his sixty-sixth year, for the last time addressed the assembly, in a letter replete with calm solemnity and dignified concern. This letter is said to have produced a deep and powerful impression on the more considerate part of the assembly, who now began to feel for the father of his country, and to regard with tenderness his venerable age; to remember his long labors, and to appreciate their own interest in his distinguished fame: but it is very doubtful if this change of sentiment was ever known to its illustrious object, who was attacked shortly afterwards by a succession of apoplectic fits, which impeded, in a great degree, the exercise of his memory and understanding, and ultimately terminated his life.The legislatures and governors continuing to act on the noble principles and example which their founder left for their imitation, the colony acquired, by well-conducted purchases from the Indians, a most extensive and unembarrassed territory, and proceeded rapidly in its prosperous course. The only circumstance which appears to have created any internal disunion worthy of notice, was a dispute between the governors and the assembly, on the question of exempting the land of the proprietaries from the general taxation; a claim which the inhabitants deemed very inequitable. In January, 1757, the assembly of Pennsylvania voted a bill for granting to his majesty the sum of one hundred thousand pounds by tax on all the estates, real and personal, and taxables, within the province. On submitting it to governor Denny for his sanction, he refused it. ‘The proprietaries,’ he observed in his message, ‘are willing their estates should be taxed in the manner that appears to them to be reasonable, and agreeable to the land-tax acts of parliament in our mother country.’ The governors of Pennsylvania still refusing their assent to any tax bill that did not exempt the estates of the proprietaries, the assembly of that province deputed the celebrated Benjamin Franklin as an agent to London, to petition the king for redress. The subject was discussed before the privy council; andMr.Franklin acceding to a proposal to enter into engagements that the assessments should be fair and equitable, a bill for levying a general tax, which had previously received the governor’s assent, though after the agent’s departure from the province, was stamped with the royal approbation. These disputes, by calling the energetic mind of Benjamin Franklin into a new field of exertion, enlarged the sphere of his observation, and fitted him for those extraordinary services in which he acquired his greatest glory by contributing to that of his country.MARYLAND.The founder of the state of Maryland was lord Baltimore. Before the date of his charter, it was a portion of the territory of Virginia; but by that instrument it was separated, and declared subject only to the crown of England. Lord Baltimore was created the absolute proprietary of it, and was empowered, with the assent of delegates, whom he was to assemble for that purpose, to make laws for the province, and to administer them. Having thus obtained a most favorable charter, he proceeded to carry its provisions into execution.He appointed his brother, Leonard Calvert, governor of the new province, and concurred with him in the equipment of vessels, which conveyed a numerous body of emigrants, chiefly Roman Catholics, and many of them gentlemen of rank and fortune. After a circuitous voyage the governor arrived, accompanied by his brother George, at Point Comfort, in Virginia, in February, 1634. Early in March, he proceeded up the bay of Chesapeake to the northward, and entered the Potomack, up which he sailed twelve leagues, and came to an anchor under an island, which he namedSt.Clement. Here he erected a cross, and took possession ‘in the name of the Savior of the world, and of the king of England.’ Thence he went fifteen leagues higher to the Indian town of Potowmack, on the Virginia side of the river, now called New Marlborough, where he was received in a friendly manner. Arriving at the town of Piscatawa, on the Maryland side, he found Henry Fleet, an Englishman, who had resided several years among the natives, and was held by them in great esteem, who was very serviceable as an interpreter.An interview having been procured with the werowance, or prince, Calvert asked him, whether he was willing that a settlement should be made in his country; he replied, ‘I will not bid you go, neither will I bid you stay; but you may use your own discretion.’ Having convinced the natives that his designs were honorable and pacific, the governor now sought a suitable station for commencing his colony. He visited a creek on the northern side of the Potomack, on which he found an Indian village. Here he acquainted the prince of the place with his intentions, and by presents to him and his principal men, conciliated his friendship so much as to obtain permission to reside in one part of the town until next harvest, when it was agreed that the natives should entirely quit the place. Both parties entered into a contract to live together in a friendly manner. After Calvert had given a satisfactory consideration, the Indians readily yielded a number of their houses, and retired to the others. Thus, on the27thof March, 1634, the governor took peaceable possession of the country of Maryland, and gave to the town the name ofSt.Mary, and to the creek on which it was situate, the name ofSt.George. The desire of rendering justice to the natives by giving them a reasonable compensation for their lands, is a trait in the character of the first planters, which will always do honor to their memory.Circumstances favored the rapid population of the colony. The charter granted more ample privileges than had ever been conceded to a subject; the country was inviting; the natives were friendly; from the south Churchmen drove Puritans, from the north Puritans drove Churchmen, into her borders, where all were freely received, protected, and cherished. The colony was soon able to export Indian corn and other products to New England and Newfoundland, for which they received in return dried fish and other provisions. The Indians also killed many deer and turkeys, which they sold to the English for knives, beads, and other small articles of traffic, while cattle, swine, and poultry, were procured from Virginia.It is a fact, which reflects the greatest credit on these early colonists, that fifteen years after they first landed, the general assembly of the people passed an act, entitled ‘An Act concerning Religion,’ in which the great principles of religious toleration and liberty are extensively recognised. This law was passed by an assembly composed entirely of Roman Catholics,and is the more remarkable, as being the first legislative act which is recorded to have been passed by any government, administered by members of the Romish hierarchy, in favor of the unlimited toleration of all Christian sects.In 1676, Cecil, lord Baltimore, the father of the province, died. For more than forty years he had directed its affairs as proprietor, and displayed in all his conduct a benevolent heart and enlightened understanding. Although he lived in an age of bigotry, he was liberal in his opinions; and for all his exertions to contribute to the happiness of his fellow-beings, he desired no reward but their gratitude. This reward he received. The records of the Maryland assembly contain frequent memorials of the respect and affection of the people. He was succeeded, as proprietor, by his eldest son, Charles, who had for several years been governor of the colony, and displayed the same amiable qualities which had rendered his father respected and beloved.The closing years of the proprietary government were embittered by a circumstance similar to that which the institution of the colony of Maryland had inflicted on Virginia. The grant which had been made by CharlesII.to the celebrated Penn included the territory of Delaware, which lord Baltimore had always considered within the limits of his patent. On the arrival of William Penn in America, a meeting took place between him and lord Baltimore, in the hope of effecting an amicable adjustment of the boundaries of their respective territorial grants. But the pretensions of the parties were so completely incompatible, that it proved impossible at the time to adjust them in a manner satisfactory to both. Penn ultimately complained to the English government, and by his interest at court, procured it to be adjudged that the debatable territory should be divided into two equal parts, one of which was appropriated to himself, and the other to lord Baltimore. This adjudication was carried into effect; and the territory which now composes the state of Delaware was thus dismembered from the provincial limits of Maryland.In the year following the revolution of 1688, the repose of Maryland was again disturbed. A rumor was artfully circulated that the Catholics had leagued with the Indians to destroy all the Protestants in the province. An armed association was immediately formed, for the defence of the Protestant religion, and for asserting the rights of king William and queen Mary. The magistrates attempted to oppose this association by force; but, meeting with few supporters, they were compelled to abdicate the government. King William directed those who had assumed the supreme authority to exercise it in his name; and for twenty-seven years the crown retained the entire control of the province. In 1716, the proprietor was restored to his rights; and he and his descendants continued to enjoy them until the commencement of the revolution. The people then assumed the government, adopted a constitution, and refused to admit the claims of the representatives of lord Baltimore either to jurisdiction or to property.NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA.The final settlement of this country originated with the earl of Clarendon and other courtiers of CharlesII., who were presented with a grantof all the lands lying between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and received in their charter ample powers of administration and judicature. Some previous efforts had been unsuccessfully made to colonize this portion of the North American continent, and grants had been given to different individuals, which were now all pronounced void by the privy council. A few settlers were scattered in different parts, and those on Albemarle sound were on certain conditions allowed to retain their lands. A government was organized over them, at the head of whichMr.Drummond was placed.Having taken the command of the infant settlement at Albemarle, the proprietaries directed a survey of the coast to the southward, and projected the establishment of a new colony in Clarendon country, which had been recently abandoned by the emigrants from New England. In furtherance of this object, they conferred on John Yeamans, a respectable planter of Barbadoes, the appointment of commander-in-chief of Clarendon country. In the autumn, he conducted from Barbadoes a body of emigrants, who landed on the southern bank of cape Fear. He cultivated the good will of the natives, and insured a seven years’ peace. The planters, in opening the forest to make room for the operations of tillage, ‘necessarily prepared timber for the uses of the cooper and builder, which they transmitted to the island whence they had emigrated, as the first subject of a feeble commerce, that kindled the spark of industry which soon gave animation to the whole.’ Another settlement was also projected to the southward of cape Remain, which received the name of Carteret, and was placed under a separate governor.In pursuance of the authority with which the proprietors were invested by their charter, they began to frame a system of laws for the government of their colony; in which they availed themselves of the assistance of the illustrious John Locke. The form of government proposed by this eminent man proved utterly impracticable and useless. It received no favor from the people, and never attained the force of fundamental laws.Notwithstanding these constitutions and legal preparations, several years elapsed before the proprietors of Carolina made any serious efforts towards its settlement. In 1667, they fitted out a ship, gave the command of it to captain William Sayle, and sent him out to bring them some account of the coast. His report to his employers, as might naturally be expected, was favorable. He praised their possessions, and encouraged them to engage with vigor in the execution of their project. His observations respecting the Bahama islands, which he had visited, induced them to apply to the king for a grant of them, and Charles bestowed on them by patent all those islands lying between the twenty-second and twenty-seventh degrees of north latitude. Nothing then remained but to make preparations for sending a colony to Carolina. Two ships were procured, on board of which a number of adventurers embarked, with provisions, arms, and utensils requisite for building and cultivation.Sayle was appointed the first governor, and received a commission, bearing date July 26, 1669. The expenses of this first embarkation amounted to twelve thousand pounds; a proof that the proprietors entertained no small hopes with respect to their palatinate. The number of men, however, must have been by no means adequate to the undertaking, especially considering the multitude of savages that ranged through thatextensive wilderness. In what place governor Sayle first landed is uncertain; but he was dissatisfied with his first situation, and, moving to the southward, took possession of a neck of land between Ashley and Cooper rivers, where he laid out a town, which, in honor of the king then reigning, he called Charleston; but dying soon after, Sir John Yeamans, who had for several years been governor at Clarendon, was appointed to succeed him. This new settlement attracted many inhabitants from that at Clarendon, and ultimately entirely exhausted it. Being at a great distance from Albemarle, the proprietors established a separate government over it, and hence arose the distinctive appellations of North and South Carolina.The affairs of the northern colony must now occupy a portion of our attention. The fundamental constitutions, which have already been described, were received by the colonists with disgust and disunion. Their promulgation produced no other effect than to excite the most inveterate jealousy of the designs of the proprietaries; till, in process of time, a refractory spirit took possession of the minds of the people, and was at length exasperated into sentiments as hostile to subordination, as the policy of the proprietaries was repugnant to liberty. From this period the history of the northern province, for a series of years, is involved in such confusion and contradiction, that it is impossible to render it interesting, and difficult to make it even intelligible. It is a record of insurrection and revolt, not easily understood, and not sufficiently interesting to demand more than this slight allusion.To return to the affairs of the southern colony, now under the administration of Joseph West. The situation of Old Charleston being found inconvenient, the inhabitants, in 1680, removed to Oyster Point, where a new city was laid out, to which the name of the other was given. In the same year commenced a war with the Westoes, a powerful tribe of Indians, which threatened great injury to the colony; peace, however, was soon restored. Governor West was superseded by Sir Richard Kirle, an Irish gentleman, who died six months after his arrival in the country. After his decease, colonel Robert Quarry was chosen his successor. During the time of his government, a number of pirates put into Charleston, and purchased provisions with their Spanish gold and silver. Those public robbers, instead of being taken and tried by the laws of England, were treated with great civility and friendship, in violation of the laws of nations.Whether the governor was ignorant of the treaty made with Spain, by which England had withdrawn her former toleration from these plunderers of the Spanish dominions, or whether he was afraid to bring them to trial from the notorious courage of their companions in the West Indies, we have not sufficient authority to affirm; but one thing is certain, that CharlesII., for several years after the restoration, winked at their depredations, and many of them performed such valiant actions, as, in a good cause, would have justly merited honors and rewards; he even knighted Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who had plundered Porto Bello and Panama, and carried off large treasures from them. For several years so formidable was this body of plunderers in the West Indies, that they struck a terror into every quarter of the Spanish dominions. Their gold and silver, which they lavishly spent in the colony, insured to them a kind reception among the Carolinians, who opened their ports to them freely, and furnished them with necessaries. They could purchase the favor of thegovernor, and the friendship of the people, for what they deemed a trifling consideration. Leaving their gold and silver behind them for clothes, arms, ammunition, and provisions, they embarked in quest of more. However, the proprietors, having intelligence of the encouragement given to pirates by governor Quarry, dismissed him from the office he held; and, in 1685, landgrave Joseph Morton was appointed to the government of the colony.It is not now of importance to recur to the difficulties between the proprietary government and the people: they led to extreme irritation, and in the year 1690, at a meeting of the representatives, a bill was brought in and passed, for disabling James Colleton, then governor of the province, from holding any office, or exercising any authority, civil or military, in the colony, and he was informed that in a limited time he must depart from the colony.During these public commotions, Seth Sothel, one of the proprietors, who had been driven from North Carolina, appeared suddenly at Charleston, and, aided by a powerful faction, assumed the reins of government. At first the people gladly acknowledged his authority, while the current of their enmity ran against Colleton; especially as he stood forth as an active and leading man in opposition to that governor, and ratified the law for his exclusion and banishment; but they afterwards found him void of every principle of honor, and even of honesty. Such was the insatiable avarice of this man, that every restraint of common justice and equity was trampled upon by him; and oppression, such as usually attends the exaltation of vulgar and ambitious scramblers for power, extended her rod of iron over the distracted colony. The fair traders from Barbadoes and Bermuda were seized as pirates by order of this popular governor, and confined until such fees as he was pleased to exact were paid him; bribes from felons and traitors were accepted to favor their escape from the hands of justice; and plantations were forcibly taken possession of, upon pretences the most frivolous and unjust. At length, the people, weary of his grievous impositions and extortions, agreed to take him by force, and ship him off for England. He then evinced the meanness of spirit generally associated with a disposition to tyranny, and humbly begged liberty to remain in the country, promising to submit his conduct to the trial of the assembly at their first meeting. When the assembly met, thirteen different charges were brought against him, and all supported by the strongest evidence; upon which, being found guilty, they compelled him to abjure the government and country forever.The next important incident that attracts our attention is the unsuccessful expedition againstSt.Augustine, planned by governor Moore, in the year 1702, at the time of a rupture in Europe between England and Spain. It failed utterly, and entailed a debt on the colony of six thousand pounds sterling; which led to many severe reflections against the governor, and brought him sadly into disrepute. To redeem his character, the governor resolved upon an expedition against the Apalachian Indians; in consequence of the insults and injuries which they had been instigated by the Spaniards to commit. To make his conquest permanent, he transplanted fourteen hundred of these Indians to the territory now included in Georgia; a measure which seems to have led to the settlement of the English in that part of the country.The northern colony continued to receive accessions to its strength from several of the European states. In 1707, a company of French Protestants arrived and seated themselves on the river Trent, a branch of the Neuse; and three years afterwards a large number of palatines, fleeing from religious persecution in Germany, sought refuge in the same part of the province. To each of these bodies of emigrants the proprietors granted a hundred acres of land. On their newly acquired possessions they were living in peace, in the enjoyment of liberty of conscience, and in the prospect of competence and ease, when suddenly a terrible calamity fell upon them. The Tuscarora and Coree Indians, smarting under recent aggressions, and dreading total extinction from the encroachment of these strangers, with characteristic secrecy, plotted their entire destruction. Sending their families to one of their fortified towns, twelve hundred bowmen sallied forth, and in the same night attacked, in separate parties, the nearest settlements of the palatines. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately butchered. The savages, with the swiftness and ferocity of wolves, ran from village to village. Before them was the repose of innocence; behind, the sleep of death. A few escaping alarmed the settlements more remote, and hastened to South Carolina for assistance. Governor Craven immediately despatched to the aid of the sister colony nearly a thousand men, under the command of colonel Barnwell. Hideous was the wilderness through which colonel Barnwell had to march, and the utmost expedition was requisite. There was no road through the woods upon which either horses or carriages could pass; and his army had all manner of hardships and dangers to encounter, from the climate, the wilderness, and the enemy.In spite of every difficulty, however, Barnwell advanced against them, and being much better supplied with arms and ammunition than his enemy, he did great execution among them, killing in the first battle three hundred Indians, and taking about one hundred prisoners. The Tuscaroras then retreated to their town, fortified within a wooden breastwork; but there Barnwell surrounded them, and forced them to sue for peace; and some of his men being wounded, and others having suffered greatly by constant watching, and much hunger and fatigue, the savages the more easily obtained their request. After having killed, wounded, or captured nearly a thousand Tuscaroras, Barnwell returned to South Carolina. The peace was, however, of short duration, and upon the recommencement of hostilities, assistance was again solicited from the southern colony. Colonel James Moore, an active young officer, was immediately despatched, with forty white men and eight hundred friendly Indians. He found the enemy in a fort near Cotechny river; and after a siege, which continued more than a week, the fort was taken, and eight hundred Indians made prisoners. The Tuscaroras, disheartened by this defeat, migrated, in 1713, to the north, and joined the celebrated confederacy, denominated the Five Nations. The others sued for peace, and afterwards continued friendly.The northern colony had scarcely recovered from the scourge of Indian war, when the southern was exposed to the same calamity. All the tribes from Florida to cape Fear, had been for some time engaged in a conspiracy to extirpate the whites. On the day before the Yamassees began their bloody operations, captain Nairn and some of the traders observing an uncommon gloom on their savage countenances, and apparently great agitationsof spirit, which to them prognosticated approaching mischief, went to their chief men, begging to know the cause of their uneasiness, and promising, if any injury had been done them, to give them satisfaction. The chiefs replied, they had no complaints to make against any one, but intended to go a-hunting early the next morning. Captain Nairn accordingly went to sleep, and the traders retired to their huts, and passed the night in seeming friendship and tranquillity. But next morning at daybreak, the15thday of April, all were alarmed with the cries of war. The leaders were all out under arms, calling up their followers, and proclaiming aloud designs of vengeance.The young men, burning with fury and passion, flew to their arms, and, in a few hours, massacred above ninety persons in Pocotaligo town and theneighboringplantations; and many more must have fallen a sacrifice on Port Royal island, had they not providentially been warned of their danger.Mr.Burrows, a captain of the militia, after receiving two wounds, by swimming one mile and running ten escaped to Port Royal, and alarmed the town. A vessel happening fortunately to be in the harbor, the inhabitants in great hurry repaired on board, and sailed for Charleston; a few families of planters on that island, not having timely notice, fell into the barbarous hands of the Indians, and of them some were murdered, and others made prisoners of war.While the Yamassees, with whom the Creeks and Apalachians had joined, were advancing against the southern frontiers, and spreading desolation and slaughter through the province, the colonists on the northern borders also found the Indians among their settlements in formidable parties. The Carolinians had foolishly entertained hopes of the friendship of the Congarees, the Catawbas, and Cherokees; but they soon found that they had also joined in the conspiracy, and declared for war. It was computed that the southern division of the enemy consisted of above six thousand bowmen, and the northern of between six hundred and a thousand. In the muster-roll at Charleston there were no more than one thousand two hundred men fit to bear arms, but as the town had several forts into which the inhabitants might retreat, governor Craven resolved to march with this small force into the woods against the enemy. He proclaimed martial law, and laid an embargo on all ships, to prevent either men or provisions from leaving the country. He obtained an act of assembly, empowering him to impress men, and seize arms, ammunition, and stores, wherever they were to be found, to arm such trusty negroes as might be serviceable at a juncture so critical, and to prosecute the war with the utmost vigor.Being no stranger to the ferocious temper of his enemies, and their horrid cruelty to prisoners, the governor advanced against them by slow and cautious steps, always keeping the strictest guard round his army. He knew well under what advantages they fought among their native thickets, and the various wiles and stratagems they made use of in conducting their wars; and therefore he was watchful above all things against surprises, which might throw his followers into disorder, and defeat the end of his enterprise. The fate of the whole province depended on the success of his arms, and his men had no other alternative but to conquer or die a painful death. As he advanced, the straggling parties fled before him, until he reached Saltcatchers, where they had pitched their great camp. Here a sharp and bloody battle ensued from behind trees and bushes, theIndians whooping, hallooing, and giving way one while, and then again and again returning with double fury to the charge. But the governor, notwithstanding their superior number, and their terrible shrieks, kept the provincials close at their heels, and drove them before him like a flock of wolves. He expelled them from their settlement at Indian river, pursued them over the Savannah, and entirely freed the province of this formidable tribe of savages. What number of the army was killed does not appear; but in the whole war nearly four hundred unfortunate inhabitants of Carolina fell a prey to Indian cruelty, property of great value was destroyed, and a large debt contracted.Of this debt the proprietors refused to pay any portion, and by their harsh and arbitrary conduct in regard to this matter and its consequences, a bitter hostility grew up between them and the people. It was resolved to throw off their yoke. A favorable opportunity presented itself at a general review of the militia at Charleston, in 1719; the officers and soldiers binding themselves by a solemn compact to resist the tyranny of the proprietors. The assembly was dissolved by the governor, but it immediately met in convention, and assumed the direction of public affairs. In spite of all opposition they established themselves in the full possession of the government, both in its legislative and executive relations.The agent for Carolina at length procured a hearing from the lords of the regency and council in England, the king being at that time in Hanover; who gave it as their opinion, that the proprietors had forfeited their charter, and ordered the attorney-general to take out ascire faciasagainst it. In consequence of this decision, in September, 1720, they appointed general Francis Nicholson provisional governor of the province, with a commission from the king. Several years afterwards, seven of the proprietors sold to the king their claim to the soil and rents, and all of them assigned to him their right of jurisdiction. The government of both Carolinas was subsequently administered in each colony by a governor and council appointed by the crown, and by assemblies chosen by the people. They soon attracted general attention, and their population was increased by accessions from several of the states of Europe.In 1738, an alarming insurrection of the negroes occurred in the southern colony. A number of them assembled at Stono, and surprised and killed two men who had charge of a warehouse, from which they took guns and ammunition. They then chose a captain, and, with drums beating and colors flying, marched south-westward. They burned every house on their way, killed all the whites they could find, and compelled other negroes to join them. Governor Bull, who was returning to Charleston from the southward, accidentally met them, hastened out of their way, and spread an alarm. The news soon reached Wiltown, where, fortunately, a large congregation were attending divine service. The men having, according to a law of the province, brought their arms to the place of worship, marched instantly in quest of the negroes, who, by this time, had become formidable, and spread terror and desolation around them, having killed about twenty of the whites. While, in an open field, they were carousing and dancing, with frantic exultation at their late success, they were suddenly attacked; some were killed, and the remainder took to flight, but most of them were taken and tried. Those who had been compelled to join the conspirators were pardoned; but the leaders andprincipal instigators suffered death. Under apprehensions resulting, probably, from this rebellion, the legislature of South Carolina passed an act, that whoever shall teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds.The Carolinas were frequently exposed to the injurious effects of war from the French and Spaniards, as well as from some of the Indian tribes; but after the treaty of Paris, the progress of these colonies was no longer retarded from that cause. The assembly of South Carolina, taking advantage of the peaceful state of the colony to encourage emigration, appropriated a large fund for bounties to foreign Protestants, and such industrious poor people of Great Britain and Ireland as should resort to the province within three years, and settle on the inland parts. Two townships, each containing forty-eight thousand acres, were laid out; one on the river Savannah, called Mecklenburgh, and the other on the waters of Santee, at Long Cane, called Londonderry. Not long after, the colony received a considerable accession from Germany.Beside foreign Protestants, several persons emigrated from England and Scotland, and great multitudes from Ireland, and settled in Carolina. An accession was also derived from the northern colonies, from which, in the space of one year, above a thousand families removed thither. To these adventurers lands in small tracts were allotted on the frontiers, by which means the back settlements soon became the most populous part of the province, while the whole felt the important benefits resulting from such accessions to its population.GEORGIA.The last of the colonies established previous to the war of independence was Georgia. A company of wealthy and influential individuals obtained a patent from GeorgeIII., conferring the necessary powers, and lost no time in the prosecution of their design. In November, 1733, James Oglethorpe embarked at Gravesend for Georgia, with one hundred and sixteen persons, destined for settlement in that country. In the following January he arrived at Charleston, where he was kindly received, and whence he started to explore the territory granted by the patent. He selected the present site of Savannah as the most desirable point for the new settlement. Having completed a fort at this place, and put the colony in a state of defence, he next sought to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians, and to treat with them for a share of their possessions. Having made such arrangements as seemed to insure safety, Oglethorpe returned to England, carrying with him several Indians, among whom was Tomochichi, a chief of the Creeks, and his queen. Here they remained on a visit of about four months.In the year 1740, the trustees rendered an account of their administration. At that time nearly two thousand five hundred emigrants had arrived in the colony; of whom more than fifteen hundred were indigent Englishmen, or persecuted Protestants. The benefactions from government and from individuals had been nearly half a million of dollars; and itwas computed that, for every person transported and maintained by the trustees, more than three hundred dollars had been expended. The hopes which the trustees had cherished, that the colony would be prosperous and the objects of their benevolence happy, were far from realized. Such was the character of the greater part of the settlers and the nature of the restrictions imposed, that the plantations languished, and continued to require the contributions of the charitable. In the mean time events were preparing a rupture in Europe, and a war between England and Spain appeared inevitable. The plenipotentiaries, appointed for settling the boundaries between Georgia and Florida, and other differences and misunderstandings subsisting between the two crowns, had met at Pardo in convention, where preliminary articles were drawn up; but the conference ended to the satisfaction of neither party. The merchants had lost all patience under their sufferings, and became clamorous for letters of reprisal, which at length they obtained; all officers of the navy and army were ordered to their stations, and, with the unanimous voice of the nation, war was declared against Spain on the23dof October, 1739.As soon as intelligence of the declaration of war reached Georgia, general Oglethorpe passed over to Florida with four hundred select men of his regiment, and a considerable party of Indians; and a few days after, he marched with his whole force, consisting of above two thousand men, regulars, provincials, and Indians, to fort Moosa, within two miles ofSt.Augustine. The Spanish garrison evacuating the fort on his approach, and retiring into the town, put themselves in a posture of defence; and the general soon discovering that an attempt to take the castle by storm would be presumptuous, changed his plan of operations, and resolved, with the assistance of the ships of war which were lying at anchor off Augustine bar, to turn the siege into a blockade. Having made the necessary dispositions, he summoned the Spanish governor to surrender; but, secure in his strong-hold, he sent him for an answer that he would be glad to shake hands with him in his castle.Indignant at this reply, the general opened his batteries against the castle, and at the same time threw a number of shells in the town. The fire was returned with equal spirit from the Spanish fort, and from six half-galleys in the harbor; but the distance was so great that the cannonade, though it continued several days, did little execution on either side. It appears that, notwithstanding the blockade, the Spanish garrison contrived to admit a reinforcement of seven hundred men, and a large supply of provisions. All prospect of starving the enemy being lost, the army began to despair of forcing the place to surrender. The Carolina troops, enfeebled by the heat of the climate, dispirited by sickness, and fatigued by fruitless efforts, marched away in large bodies. The naval commander, in consideration of the shortness of his provisions, and of the near approach of the usual season of hurricanes, judged it imprudent to hazard his fleet longer on that coast. The general himself was sick of a fever, and his regiment was worn out with fatigue, and disabled by sickness. These combined disasters rendered it necessary to abandon the enterprise; and Oglethorpe, with extreme sorrow and regret, returned to Frederica.After a lapse of two years the Spaniards prepared to retaliate by the invasion of Georgia, intending, if successful, to subjugate the Carolinas and Virginia. On receiving information of their approach, general Oglethorpesolicited assistance from South Carolina: but the inhabitants of that colony, entertaining a strong prejudice against him, and terrified by the danger which threatened themselves, determined to provide only for their own safety, though without avowing their intention. General Oglethorpe, however, made preparations for a vigorous defence. He assembled seven hundred men, exclusive of a body of Indians, fixed his head-quarters at Frederica, on the island ofSt.Simon, and, with this small band, determined to encounter whatever force might be brought against him. It was his utmost hope that he might be able to resist the enemy until a reinforcement should arrive from Carolina, which he daily and anxiously expected. On the last day of June, the Spanish fleet, consisting of thirty-two sail, and having on board more than three thousand men, came to anchor offSt.Simon’s bay. Notwithstanding all the resistance which general Oglethorpe could oppose, they sailed up the river Altamaha, landed upon the island, and there erected fortifications. Convinced that his small force, if divided, must be entirely inefficient, Oglethorpe assembled the whole of it at Frederica. One portion he employed in strengthening his fortifications; the Highlanders and Indians, ranging night and day through the woods, often attacked the outposts of the enemy. The toil of the troops was incessant; and the long delay of the expected succors, still unexpectedly withheld by South Carolina, caused the most gloomy and depressing apprehensions.Oglethorpe, at length, learning by an English prisoner who escaped from the Spanish camp, that a difference subsisted between the troops from Cuba and those fromSt.Augustine, so as to occasion a separate encampment, resolved to attack the enemy while thus divided. Taking advantage of his knowledge of the woods, he marched out in the night with three hundred chosen men, the Highland company and some rangers, with the intention of surprising the enemy. Having advanced within two miles of the Spanish camp, he halted his troops, and went forward himself with a select corps to reconnoitre the enemy’s situation. While he was endeavoring cautiously to conceal his approach, a French soldier of his party discharged his musket, and ran into the Spanish lines. Thus betrayed, he hastened his return to Frederica, and endeavored to effect by stratagem what could not be achieved by surprise. Apprehensive that the deserter would discover to the enemy his weakness, he wrote him a letter, desiring him to acquaint the Spaniards with the defenceless state of Frederica, and the ease with which his small garrison might be cut to pieces. He pressed him to bring forward the Spaniards to an attack; but, if he could not prevail thus far, to use all his art and influence to persuade them to stay at least three days more at fort Simon; for within that time, according to advices he had just received from Carolina, he should have a reinforcement of two thousand land forces, with six British ships of war. The letter concluded with a caution to the deserter against dropping the least hint of admiral Vernon’s meditated attack uponSt.Augustine, and with an assurance that for his service he should be amply rewarded by the British king.Oglethorpe gave it to a Spanish prisoner, who, for a small reward together with his liberty, promised to deliver it to the French deserter. On his arrival at the Spanish camp, however, he gave the letter, as Oglethorpe expected, to the commander-in-chief, who instantly put the deserter in irons.This letter perplexed and confounded the Spaniards; some suspecting it to be a stratagem to prevent an attack on Frederica, and othersbelievingit to contain serious instructions to direct the conduct of a spy. While the Spanish officers wore deliberating what measures to adopt, an incident, not within the calculation of military skill, or the control of human power, decided their counsels. Three ships of force, which the governor of South Carolina had sent out to Oglethorpe’s aid, appeared at this juncture off the coast. The agreement of this discovery with the contents of the letter convinced the Spanish commander of its real intention. The whole army, seized with an instant panic, set fire to the fort, and precipitately embarked, leaving several cannon, with a quantity of provisions and military stores; and thus, in the moment of threatened conquest, was the infant colony providentially saved.Thus was Georgia, with trifling loss, delivered from the most imminent danger. General Oglethorpe not only retrieved, but established his reputation. From the Carolinians, grateful for their preservation, and from the governors of most of the northern colonies, he received cordial congratulations upon his address and good fortune. But on an impeachment brought forward before this invasion, Oglethorpe still felt himself bound in honor to return to England, where, on trial, the charge was adjudged to be false, malicious and groundless, and its author dismissed his majesty’s service. The character of this able general now appeared in its true light; and his contemporaries acknowledged what impartial history records, that to him Carolina was indebted for her safety and repose, as well as Georgia for her existence and protection. After this period general Oglethorpe never returned to the province of Georgia, but upon all occasions discovered in England an uncommon zeal for its prosperity and improvement.In the year 1749, the colony was exposed to great danger from a quarter as unexpected as it was singular. During the whole of his administration, general Oglethorpe had, from motives of policy, treated an Indian, or rather half-breed woman, called Mary Musgrove, afterwards Mary Bosomworth, with particular kindness and generosity. Finding that she had great influence amongst the Creeks, and understood their language, he made use of her as an interpreter, in order the more easily to form treaties of alliance with them; allowing her for her services one hundred pounds sterling a year. Thomas Bosomworth, who was chaplain to Oglethorpe’s regiment, had married this woman, accepted a tract of land from the crown, and settled in the province. Being unsuccessful in most of his speculations, he had recourse to one of an extraordinary kind. He persuaded his wife to assert herself to be the elder sister of Malatche, the Indian chief, and to have descended, by a maternal line, from an Indian king, who held from nature the whole territory of the Creeks; and therefore to possess a right to them, superior not only to that of the trustees, but also to that of the king. Accordingly, Mary assumed the title of an independent empress, disavowing all subjection or allegiance to the king of Great Britain, otherwise than by way of treaty or alliance, such as one independent sovereign might voluntarily enter into with another; a meeting of all the Creeks was summoned, to whom Mary made a long speech, in which she set forth the justice of her claim, and the great injury she and her beloved subjects had sustained by the loss of their territories, and urged them to a defence of their rights by force of arms. The Indians were fired with rage at the idea of such indignity, and to a man pledged themselves to stand by her to the last drop of their blood in defence of her royal personand their lands; in consequence of which, queen Mary, escorted by a large body of her savage subjects, set out for Savannah, to demand from the president and council a formal acknowledgment of her rights in the province.Several interviews between the magistrates and the Indian chiefs took place on this strange occurrence, and the president and council were flattering themselves with the idea of an amicable compromise of all the existing difficulties, and rejoicing in the re-establishment of friendly intercourse with the Creeks, when Mary, excited with liquor, and disappointed in her royal views, rushed in amongst them like a fury, told the president that these were her people, that he had no business with them, and that he should soon be convinced of it to his cost. The president calmly advised her to retire to her lodgings, and forbear to poison the minds of the Indians, adding that he would otherwise order her into close confinement; upon which, turning about to Malatche, in great rage, she repeated, with some ill-natured comments, what the president had said; Malatche started from his seat, laid hold of his arms, calling upon the rest to follow his example, and dared any man to touch the queen. The whole house was filled in a moment with tumult and uproar; every Indian having his tomahawk in his hand, the president and council expected nothing but instant death. During this confusion, captain Jones, who commanded the guard, very seasonably interposed, and ordered the Indians immediately to surrender their arms, endeavoring, however, not merely to overawe them, but using prudence to avoid coming to extremities: with reluctance the Indians submitted, and Mary was conveyed to a private room, where a guard was placed over her, and all further communication with the Indians denied her during their stay in Savannah. Ultimately thesoi-disantqueen was compelled to abandon her pretensions, and the Indians were induced to depart, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who had been so long harassed by their turbulent visit.The wars to which it had been subject had much retarded the progress of the colony, and in 1752 the trustees surrendered their charter to the king. Georgia thus became a royal government. At this time the whole exports of Georgia did not amount to ten thousand pounds a year.FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.The formation and progress of all the colonies which constituted the North American republic at the era of its independence, have now been traced up to the middle of the eighteenth century. From that period circumstances tended rapidly to promote that federation which eventually effected the independence of the colonies, and laid the basis of their future prosperity; indeed, in the prosecution of the French war, which commenced in 1756, the energies of the colonies were so united in the attainment of one common object, that the generalization of their political history from that period is not only rendered preferable, but almost inevitable.Not to enter into a detail of the progress of French discovery, it is sufficient to say that France had established settlements on theSt.Lawrence and at the mouth of the Mississippi, and formed the bold plan of uniting these points by a chain of forts, stretching across the continent, and intended to confine the English colonists to the eastern side of the Alleghanies.In their northern colonies, the military strength of the French was considerable; Quebec and Montreal were strongly fortified; and at other points, Louisbourg, Cape Breton, and the forts of lake Champlain, Niagara, Crown Point, Frontignac, Ticonderoga, and several others, defended the frontiers. They had also erected a considerable fort at the junction of the Alleghany with the Monongahela, then called Du Quesne, but now forming the site of Pittsburg.The proceedings of the French in America excited a strong interest in the minds of the British government; and deeming war inevitable, orders were sent to the governors of the several colonies to repel force by force, and to dislodge the French from their posts on the Ohio. These orders were accompanied with a recommendation to form a union of the colonies for more effective defence. Delegates had already been appointed to meet at Albany, for the purpose of conferring with the Five Nations; and governor Shirley recommended that the subject of union should also be discussed at the convention. The commissioners from Massachusetts had ample powers to co-operate in the formation of a plan; those from Maryland were instructed to observe what others did; and those from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, had no instructions at all on the subject.As soon, however, as the friendship of the Indians was thought to be securedbya distribution of presents, the delegates appointed a committee to devise some scheme for the proposed confederation; and the committee recommended the adoption of a government analogous to that of the individual colonies. There was to be a grand council, composed of deputies from the several provinces, and a president-general, appointed by the crown, with the power of negativing the acts of the council. The Connecticut delegates, however, dissented from this plan, because it placed too preponderating a power in the hands of the crown.It was rejected by the British ministry for the very opposite reason; they suggested, however, that the several governors, with one or two of their counsellors, should meet and adopt such measures as the common safety might demand. But this scheme was defeated by a provision, that they might draw upon the British treasury for all necessary sums, which parliament would undertake to repayby imposing a general tax upon the colonies. The Massachusetts assembly sent special instructions to its agent in London to oppose most strenuously any measure which had for its object the establishment of taxes on the colonies, under whatever plea of utility; and Franklin, to whom the governor of Virginia had sent the proposition of the British minister, states most distinctly in his letter in reply, the reasons which would ever prevent the Americans from consenting to such a proposal. He observes that it would inspire universal discontent among the Americans to attempt the imposition of taxes by a parliament where they were not represented; a point of which neither the colonies nor the British government ever lost sight, from this period till the contest it originated terminated in the entire separation of the former from its dependence on the British crown.Early in the spring of 1755, the British government despatched general Braddock to America, with a respectable force, to expel the French, and keep possession of the territory; and preparations having been made by France to despatch a reinforcement to her armies in Canada, admiral Boscawenwas ordered to endeavor to intercept the French fleet before it should enter the gulf ofSt.Lawrence. In April, general Braddock met the governors of the several provinces to confer upon the plan of the ensuing campaign. Three expeditions were resolved upon; one against Du Quesne, to be commanded by general Braddock; one against forts Niagara and Frontignac, to be commanded by governor Shirley; and one against Crown Point, to be commanded by general Johnston. This last originated with Massachusetts, and was to be executed by colonial troops raised in New England and New York.While preparations were making for these expeditions, another, which had been previously concerted, was carried on against the French forts in Nova Scotia. This province was settled by the French, but was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht. Its boundaries not having been defined, the French continued to occupy a portion of the territory claimed by the English, and had built forts for their defence. To gain possession of these was the object of the expedition. About two thousand militia, commanded by colonel Winslow, embarked at Boston; and being joined on their passage by three hundred regulars, arrived in April at the place of their destination. The forts were invested, the resistance made was trifling and ineffectual, and in a short time the English gained entire possession of the province according to their own definition of its boundaries. Three only of their men were killed.As soon as the convention of governors was dissolved, general Braddock proceeded to the post at Wells’ Creek, whence the army commenced its march about the middle of June. Their progress was very much retarded by the necessity of cutting a road; and, lest the enemy should have time to collect in great force, the general concluded to set forward with twelve hundred select men, while colonel Dunbar should follow slowly in the rear, with the main body and the heavy baggage. Colonel Washington’s regiment had been split into separate companies, and he had only joined the army as aid to the general. The roughness of the country prevented the advanced corps from reaching the Monongahela till the8thof July. It was resolved to attack Du Quesne the very next day; and lieutenant-colonel Gage was sent in front with three hundred British regulars, while the general himself followed at some distance with the main body. He had been strongly cautioned by colonel Washington to provide against an ambuscade, by sending forward some provincial companies to scour the woods; but he held the provincials and the enemy in equal contempt. The Monongahela was crossed the second time, about seven miles from Du Quesne; and the army was pressing forward in an open wood, through high and thick grass, when the front was suddenly thrown into disorder by a volley from small arms. The main body was formed three deep, and brought to its support: the commander-in-chief of the enemy fell; and a cessation of the fire led general Braddock to suppose that the assailants had fled; but he was soon attacked with redoubled fury.Concealed behind trees, logs, and rocks, the Indians poured upon the troops a deadly and incessant fire; officers and men fell thickly around, and the survivors knew not where to direct their aim to revenge their slaughtered comrades. The whole body was again thrown into confusion; but the general, obstinate and courageous, refused to retreat; and instead of withdrawing them beyond the reach of the enemy’s muskets, wheretheir ranks might easily have been formed anew, undertook to rally them on the very ground of attack, and in the midst of a most incessant and deadly fire. He persisted in these efforts until five horses had been shot under him, and every one of his officers on horseback, except colonel Washington, was either killed or wounded. The general at length fell, and the rout became universal. The troops fled precipitately until they met the division under Dunbar, then sixty miles in the rear. Sixty-four officers out of eighty-five, and about half of the privates, were killed or wounded. General Braddock died in Dunbar’s camp; and the whole army, which appears to have been panic struck, marched back to Philadelphia. The provincial troops, whom Braddock had so lightly esteemed, displayed during the battle the utmost calmness and courage. Though placed in the rear, they alone, led on by Washington, advanced against the Indians, and covered the retreat; and had they at first been permitted to engage the enemy in their own way, they would easily have defeated them.The two northern expeditions, though not so disastrous, failed in attaining their proposed objects. The campaign of 1755 was thus utterly unsuccessful. Immense preparations had been made, but no desired result was obtained. By the failure of the three expeditions, the whole frontier was left open to the ravages of the Indians. The second campaign was almost as pregnant with evil. Montcalm had marched against Oswego, and by destroying it had thrown the English and American army on the defensive. No successful measures were put in operation to carry out the plans of the colonists, and it was necessary to wait till the following year.At the commencement of the following year a council was held at Boston, composed of lord Loudoun, and the governors of the New England provinces and of Nova Scotia. At this council his lordship proposed that New England should raise four thousand men for the ensuing campaign; and that a proportionate number should be raised by New York and New Jersey. These requisitions were complied with; and in the spring his lordship found himself at the head of a very considerable army. Admiral Holbourn arriving in the beginning of July at Halifax with a powerful squadron, and a reinforcement of five thousand British troops, under George viscount Howe, lord Loudoun sailed from New York with six thousand regulars, to join those troops at the place of their arrival. Instead of the complex operations undertaken in previous campaigns, his lordship limited his plan to a single object. Leaving the posts on the lakes strongly garrisoned, he resolved to direct his whole disposable force against Louisbourg; Halifax having been determined on as the place of rendezvous for the fleet and army destined for the expedition. Information was, however, soon received, that a French fleet had lately sailed from Brest; that Louisbourg was garrisoned by six thousand regulars, exclusive of provincials; and that it was also defended by seventeen line-of-battle ships, which were moored in the harbor. There being no hope of success against so formidable a force, the enterprise was deferred to the next year; the general and admiral on the last of August proceeded to New York; and the provincials were dismissed.The marquis De Montcalm, availing himself of the absence of the principal part of the British force, advanced with an army of nine thousand men, and laid siege to fort William Henry. The garrison at this fortconsisted of between two and three thousand regulars, and its fortifications were strong and in very good order; and for the additional security of this important post, general Webb was stationed at fort Edward with an army of four thousand men. The French commander, however, urged his approaches with such vigor, that, within six days after the investment of the fort, colonel Monro, the commandant, having in vain solicited succor from general Webb, found it necessary to surrender by capitulation. The garrison was to be allowed the honors of war, and to be protected against the Indians until within the reach of fort Edward; but the next morning, a great number of Indians, having been permitted to enter the lines, began to plunder; and meeting with no opposition, they fell upon the sick and wounded, whom they immediately massacred. Their appetite for carnage being excited, the defenceless troops were attacked with fiend-like fury. Monro in vain implored Montcalm to provide the stipulated guard, and the massacre proceeded. All was turbulence and horror. On every side savages were butchering and scalping their wretched victims. Their hideous yells, the groans of the dying, and the frantic shrieks of others shrinking from the uplifted tomahawk, were heard by the French unmoved. The fury of the savages was permitted to rage without restraint until fifteen hundred were killed, or hurried captives into the wilderness. The day after this awful tragedy, major Putnam was sent with his rangers to watch the motions of the enemy. When he came to the shore of the lake, their rear was hardly beyond the reach of musket-shot. The prospect was horrible in the extreme; the fort demolished; the barracks and buildings yet burning; innumerable fragments of human carcasses still broiled in the decaying fires; and dead bodies, mangled with tomahawks and scalping knives, in all the wantonness of Indian barbarity, were everywhere scattered around. Thus ended the third campaign in America; happily forming the last of a series of disasters, resulting from folly and mismanagement, rather than from want of means and military strength.The British nation was alarmed and indignant, and the king found it necessary to change his councils. At the head of the new ministry he placed the celebrated William Pitt, afterwards earl of Chatham, under whose administration public confidence revived, and the nation seemed inspired with new life and vigor. He was equally popular in both hemispheres. Lord Loudoun was replaced by general Abercrombie, who, early in the spring of 1758, was ready to enter upon the campaign at the head of fifty thousand men, the most powerful army ever seen in America.Three points of attack were marked out for this campaign; the first Louisbourg; the second Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and the third, fort Du Quesne. Its result was highly honorable to the British arms. Of the three expeditions, two completely succeeded, and the leader of the third had made an important conquest. Fort Du Quesne was reduced, supplied with a new garrison, and its name changed to Pittsburg. As usual, the Indians joined the strongest side. A peace was concluded with all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes; and the frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were once more relieved from the terrors of fire and scalping knives.To the commanding talents of Pitt, and the confidence which they inspired, this change of fortune must be chiefly attributed; and in no respect were these talents more strikingly displayed than in the choice of men toexecute his plans. The advantages of this campaign had, however, been purchased by an expensive effort and corresponding exhaustion of provincial strength; and, when a circular letter fromMr.Pitt to the several governors induced the colonies to resolve upon making the most vigorous preparation for the next, they soon discovered that their resources were by no means commensurate with their zeal.Notwithstanding these difficulties, it was resolved to signalize the year 1759 by the complete conquest of Canada. The plan of the campaign was, that three powerful armies should enter the French possessions by three different routes, and attack all their strong-holds at nearly the same time. At the head of one division of the army, brigadier-general Wolfe, a young officer who had signalized himself at the siege of Louisbourg, was to ascend theSt.Lawrence and lay siege to Quebec, escorted by a strong fleet to co-operate with his troops. The central and main army, composed of British and provincials, was to be conducted against Ticonderoga and Crown Point by general Amherst, the new commander-in-chief, who, after making himself master of these places, was to proceed over lake Champlain and by the way of Richelieu river to theSt.Lawrence, and, descending that river, form a junction with general Wolfe before the walls of Quebec. The third army, to be composed principally of provincials, reinforced by a strong body of friendly Indians, was to be commanded by general Prideaux, who was to lead this division first against Niagara, and, after the reduction of that place, to embark on lake Ontario, and proceed down theSt.Lawrence against Montreal. It has been observed by a recent author, ‘Had the elements been laid, and the enemy spell-bound, the whole of this brilliant plan could not have helped succeeding.’ This sentence, however, betrays a very limited view of a plan that was well worthy of the mind of Pitt. In this arrangement immediate advantage was not sacrificed; while the more remote results exhibited a prospect highly calculated to excite the ambition of the leaders, and to arouse all the energies of the troops. It is in thus affording motives which tend to bring physical force into most effective and persevering action, that intellectual superiority becomes manifest, confounding the calculations of ordinary minds.Early in the winter, general Amherst commenced preparations for his part of the enterprise; but it was not till the last of May that his troops were assembled at Albany; and it was as late as the22dof July, when he appeared before Ticonderoga. As the naval superiority of Great Britain had prevented France from sending out reinforcements, none of the posts in this quarter were able to withstand so great a force as that of general Amherst. Ticonderoga was immediately abandoned; the example was followed at Crown Point; and the only way in which the enemy seemed to think of preserving their province was by retarding the English army with shows of resistance till the season of operation should be past, or till, by the gradual concentration of their forces, they should become numerous enough to make an effectual stand. From Crown Point they retreated to Isle-aux-Noix, where general Amherst understood there was a body of between three and four thousand men, and a fleet of several armed vessels. The English made great exertions to secure a naval superiority; and had it not been for a succession of adverse storms upon the lake, they would most probably have accomplished the original design of forming a junction at Quebec, instead of being obliged to go into winter quarters at Crown Point.In prosecution of the enterprise against Niagara, general Prideaux had embarked with an army on lake Ontario; and on the6thof July landed without opposition within about three miles of the fort, which he invested in form. While directing the operations of the siege he was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnson. That general, prosecuting with judgment and vigor the plan of his predecessor, pushed the attack of Niagara with an intrepidity that soon brought the besiegers within a hundred yards of the covered way. Meanwhile, the French, alarmed at the danger of losing a post which was a key to their interior empire in America, had collected a large body of regular troops from the neighboring garrisons of Detroit, Venango, and Presqu’ Isle, with which, and a party of Indians, they resolved, if possible, to raise the siege. Apprised of their intention to hazard a battle, general Johnson ordered his light infantry, supported by some grenadiers and regular foot, to take post between the cataract of Niagara and the fortress; placed the auxiliary Indians on his flanks; and, together with this preparation for an engagement, took effectual measures for securing his lines, and bridling the garrison. About nine in the morning of the24thof July, the enemy appeared, and the horrible sound of the war-whoop from the hostile Indians was the signal of battle. The French charged with great impetuosity, but were received with firmness; and in less than an hour were completely routed. This battle decided the fate of Niagara. Sir William Johnson the next morning opened negotiations with the French commandant; and in a few hours a capitulation was signed. The garrison, consisting of six hundred and seven men, were to march out with the honors of war, to be embarked on the lake, and carried to New York; and the women and children were to be carried to Montreal. The reduction of Niagara effectually cut off the communication between Canada and Louisiana.
The distance of New Jersey from Canada, the source of most of the Indian wars which afflicted the northern colonies, gave it a complete exemption from those direful calamities, while the Indian tribes in the neighborhood, which were far from numerous, were almost always willing to cultivate a friendly relation with the Europeans. The gravity, simplicity, and courtesy of Quaker manners seem to have been particularly acceptable to these savages; and, added to the careful observation of the principles of equity in the proceedings of the colonists, established an amicable intercourse, to the manifest advantage both of themselves and of the natives.
PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.
During a considerable period, the colony of Delaware was attached to that of Pennsylvania, without even a separate assembly; and after it acquired that privilege, it remained for some time longer under the same governor: its history requires, therefore, to be blended with that of Pennsylvania, although it was settled at a much earlier period. It does not appear that the date of the first European plantation on South river, or the Delaware, can now be ascertained with any precision; some authorities, however, assert that a Swedish colony settled at cape Henlopen as early as the year 1627; although Chalmers is of opinion that, ‘though various Europeans may have trafficked in Delaware, their plantations had not yet embellished her margin, probably in the year 1632.’
The colony which forms the chief subject of this division was founded in the year 1681, by the celebrated William Penn. His attention was attracted to colonization by his connection with New Jersey. While he was engaged in the government of that territory, he received information of the country situate to the westward of the Delaware, which induced in his mind the desire of acquiring an estate in that quarter. He therefore presented a petition to CharlesII., urging his claim for a debt incurred by the crown to his father, and soliciting a grant of land to the northward of Maryland, and westward of the Delaware. After a conference with the duke of York and lord Baltimore, to ascertain that the grant would not interfere with any prior claims of theirs, a charter, making conveyance of that territory, was signed and sealed by the king. It constituted William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty. It gave him, his heirs, and their deputies, power to make laws, by advice of the freemen, and to erect courts of justice for the execution of those laws,provided they be not repugnant to the laws ofEngland.101
The charter being thus obtained, Penn invited purchasers by public advertisement. Many single persons, and some families, chiefly of the denomination of Quakers, were induced to think of a removal; and a number of merchants and others, forming themselves into a company, purchased twenty thousand acres of this land, which was sold at the rate of twenty pounds for every thousand acres. In May he despatched Markham, a relative, with a few associates, to take possession of the newly grantedterritory; and in the autumn three ships, with a considerable number of emigrants, sailed for the same destination. The philanthropic proprietor sent a letter to the Indians, informing them that ‘the great God had been pleased to make him concerned in their part of the world, and that the king of the country where he lived, had given him a great province therein; but that he did not desire to enjoy it without their consent; that he was a man of peace, and that the people whom he sent were of the same disposition; and if any difference should happen between them, it might be adjusted by an equal number of men chosen on both sides.’ The position selected by these emigrants for their abode, was immediately above the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware. In the following April, Penn published ‘the frame of government for Pennsylvania.’ The chief intention of this famous charter was declared to be, ‘for the support of power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power. For, liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.’
The first page in the annals of Pennsylvania is one of the brightest in the history of mankind, recording an event not more to the credit of the wise and benevolent legislator through whose agency it happened, than honorable to humanity itself. At a spot which is now the site of one of the suburbs of Philadelphia, the Indian sachems, at the head of their assembled warriors, awaited in arms the approach of the Quaker deputation. Penn, distinguished from his followers only by a sash of blue silk, and holding in his hand a roll of parchment that contained the confirmation of the treaty, arrived, at the head of an unarmed train, carrying various articles of merchandise, which, on their approach to the sachems, were spread on the ground. He addressed the natives through an interpreter, assuring them of his friendly and peaceable intentions; and certainly the absence of all warlike weapons was a better attestation of his sincerity than a thousand oaths. The conditions of the proposed purchase were then read; and he delivered to the sachems not only the stipulated price, but a handsome present of the merchandise which he had spread before them. Heconcluded by presenting the parchment to the sachems, and requesting that they would carefully preserve it for three generations. The Indians cordially acceded to his propositions, and solemnly pledged themselves to live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the sun and moon should endure.
Penn’s Treaty.
Penn’s Treaty.
Having received information from his agent that his presence was necessary in England, Penn departed from America, in August, 1684, leaving his province in profound peace, under the administration of five commissioners chosen from the provincial council. The unfortunate JamesII.ascended the throne soon after Penn’s arrival. ‘As he has,’ said Penn, ‘been my friend, and my father’s friend, I feel bound in justice to be a friend to him.’ He adhered to him while seated on the throne; and for two years after he was expelled from his kingdom, the government of the province was administered in his name. By this display of attachment to the exiled monarch, he incurred the displeasure of WilliamIII.On vague suspicion and unfounded charges, he was four times imprisoned. The king took the government of Pennsylvania into his own hands; and colonel Fletcher was appointed governor of this province, as well as of New York. On the arrival of colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the persons in the administration appear to have surrendered the government to him, without any notice or order to them, either from the crown or the proprietary. By the severest scrutiny, however, it was rendered apparent, that Penn had not suffered personal gratitude to lead him to any serious dereliction of duty, and he consequently regained the good opinion of king William; and being permitted to resume and exercise his rights, he appointed William Markham to be his deputy governor.
During several years the colony continued in a course of prosperity, without any occurrence requiring historical record. In the year 1699, Penn revisited his Pennsylvanian associates, accompanied by his family, with an intention of spending the remainder of his life amongst them. But several points soon came up, on which a difference of opinion existed between himself and the legislature, and disappointed him in his hopes of obtaining influence as a lawgiver. He consequently determined to return to England, and he naturally desired to have some frame of government finally adopted before his departure. In 1701, he prepared and presented one to the assembly, which was accepted. It confirmed to them, in conformity with that of 1696, the right of originating bills, which, by the charters preceding that date, had been the right of the governor alone, and of amending or rejecting those which might be laid before them. To the governor it gave the right of rejecting bills passed by the assembly, of appointing his own council, and of exercising the whole executive power.
Immediately after his fourth frame was accepted, Penn returned to England; but he had scarcely arrived there, when the disputes between the province and the territories broke forth with greater bitterness than ever; and in the following year, the separate legislature of Delaware was permanently established at Newcastle. In addition to the tidings of these prolonged disagreements, and of the final rupture between the two settlements, Penn was harassed by complaints against the administration of governor Evans; and having ascertained, by a deliberate examination of them, that they were too well founded, he appointed in his place Charles Gookin, a gentleman of ancient Irish family, who seemed qualified to givesatisfaction to the people over whom he was sent to preside. Finding his people still in a discontented state, Penn, now in his sixty-sixth year, for the last time addressed the assembly, in a letter replete with calm solemnity and dignified concern. This letter is said to have produced a deep and powerful impression on the more considerate part of the assembly, who now began to feel for the father of his country, and to regard with tenderness his venerable age; to remember his long labors, and to appreciate their own interest in his distinguished fame: but it is very doubtful if this change of sentiment was ever known to its illustrious object, who was attacked shortly afterwards by a succession of apoplectic fits, which impeded, in a great degree, the exercise of his memory and understanding, and ultimately terminated his life.
The legislatures and governors continuing to act on the noble principles and example which their founder left for their imitation, the colony acquired, by well-conducted purchases from the Indians, a most extensive and unembarrassed territory, and proceeded rapidly in its prosperous course. The only circumstance which appears to have created any internal disunion worthy of notice, was a dispute between the governors and the assembly, on the question of exempting the land of the proprietaries from the general taxation; a claim which the inhabitants deemed very inequitable. In January, 1757, the assembly of Pennsylvania voted a bill for granting to his majesty the sum of one hundred thousand pounds by tax on all the estates, real and personal, and taxables, within the province. On submitting it to governor Denny for his sanction, he refused it. ‘The proprietaries,’ he observed in his message, ‘are willing their estates should be taxed in the manner that appears to them to be reasonable, and agreeable to the land-tax acts of parliament in our mother country.’ The governors of Pennsylvania still refusing their assent to any tax bill that did not exempt the estates of the proprietaries, the assembly of that province deputed the celebrated Benjamin Franklin as an agent to London, to petition the king for redress. The subject was discussed before the privy council; andMr.Franklin acceding to a proposal to enter into engagements that the assessments should be fair and equitable, a bill for levying a general tax, which had previously received the governor’s assent, though after the agent’s departure from the province, was stamped with the royal approbation. These disputes, by calling the energetic mind of Benjamin Franklin into a new field of exertion, enlarged the sphere of his observation, and fitted him for those extraordinary services in which he acquired his greatest glory by contributing to that of his country.
MARYLAND.
The founder of the state of Maryland was lord Baltimore. Before the date of his charter, it was a portion of the territory of Virginia; but by that instrument it was separated, and declared subject only to the crown of England. Lord Baltimore was created the absolute proprietary of it, and was empowered, with the assent of delegates, whom he was to assemble for that purpose, to make laws for the province, and to administer them. Having thus obtained a most favorable charter, he proceeded to carry its provisions into execution.
He appointed his brother, Leonard Calvert, governor of the new province, and concurred with him in the equipment of vessels, which conveyed a numerous body of emigrants, chiefly Roman Catholics, and many of them gentlemen of rank and fortune. After a circuitous voyage the governor arrived, accompanied by his brother George, at Point Comfort, in Virginia, in February, 1634. Early in March, he proceeded up the bay of Chesapeake to the northward, and entered the Potomack, up which he sailed twelve leagues, and came to an anchor under an island, which he namedSt.Clement. Here he erected a cross, and took possession ‘in the name of the Savior of the world, and of the king of England.’ Thence he went fifteen leagues higher to the Indian town of Potowmack, on the Virginia side of the river, now called New Marlborough, where he was received in a friendly manner. Arriving at the town of Piscatawa, on the Maryland side, he found Henry Fleet, an Englishman, who had resided several years among the natives, and was held by them in great esteem, who was very serviceable as an interpreter.
An interview having been procured with the werowance, or prince, Calvert asked him, whether he was willing that a settlement should be made in his country; he replied, ‘I will not bid you go, neither will I bid you stay; but you may use your own discretion.’ Having convinced the natives that his designs were honorable and pacific, the governor now sought a suitable station for commencing his colony. He visited a creek on the northern side of the Potomack, on which he found an Indian village. Here he acquainted the prince of the place with his intentions, and by presents to him and his principal men, conciliated his friendship so much as to obtain permission to reside in one part of the town until next harvest, when it was agreed that the natives should entirely quit the place. Both parties entered into a contract to live together in a friendly manner. After Calvert had given a satisfactory consideration, the Indians readily yielded a number of their houses, and retired to the others. Thus, on the27thof March, 1634, the governor took peaceable possession of the country of Maryland, and gave to the town the name ofSt.Mary, and to the creek on which it was situate, the name ofSt.George. The desire of rendering justice to the natives by giving them a reasonable compensation for their lands, is a trait in the character of the first planters, which will always do honor to their memory.
Circumstances favored the rapid population of the colony. The charter granted more ample privileges than had ever been conceded to a subject; the country was inviting; the natives were friendly; from the south Churchmen drove Puritans, from the north Puritans drove Churchmen, into her borders, where all were freely received, protected, and cherished. The colony was soon able to export Indian corn and other products to New England and Newfoundland, for which they received in return dried fish and other provisions. The Indians also killed many deer and turkeys, which they sold to the English for knives, beads, and other small articles of traffic, while cattle, swine, and poultry, were procured from Virginia.
It is a fact, which reflects the greatest credit on these early colonists, that fifteen years after they first landed, the general assembly of the people passed an act, entitled ‘An Act concerning Religion,’ in which the great principles of religious toleration and liberty are extensively recognised. This law was passed by an assembly composed entirely of Roman Catholics,and is the more remarkable, as being the first legislative act which is recorded to have been passed by any government, administered by members of the Romish hierarchy, in favor of the unlimited toleration of all Christian sects.
In 1676, Cecil, lord Baltimore, the father of the province, died. For more than forty years he had directed its affairs as proprietor, and displayed in all his conduct a benevolent heart and enlightened understanding. Although he lived in an age of bigotry, he was liberal in his opinions; and for all his exertions to contribute to the happiness of his fellow-beings, he desired no reward but their gratitude. This reward he received. The records of the Maryland assembly contain frequent memorials of the respect and affection of the people. He was succeeded, as proprietor, by his eldest son, Charles, who had for several years been governor of the colony, and displayed the same amiable qualities which had rendered his father respected and beloved.
The closing years of the proprietary government were embittered by a circumstance similar to that which the institution of the colony of Maryland had inflicted on Virginia. The grant which had been made by CharlesII.to the celebrated Penn included the territory of Delaware, which lord Baltimore had always considered within the limits of his patent. On the arrival of William Penn in America, a meeting took place between him and lord Baltimore, in the hope of effecting an amicable adjustment of the boundaries of their respective territorial grants. But the pretensions of the parties were so completely incompatible, that it proved impossible at the time to adjust them in a manner satisfactory to both. Penn ultimately complained to the English government, and by his interest at court, procured it to be adjudged that the debatable territory should be divided into two equal parts, one of which was appropriated to himself, and the other to lord Baltimore. This adjudication was carried into effect; and the territory which now composes the state of Delaware was thus dismembered from the provincial limits of Maryland.
In the year following the revolution of 1688, the repose of Maryland was again disturbed. A rumor was artfully circulated that the Catholics had leagued with the Indians to destroy all the Protestants in the province. An armed association was immediately formed, for the defence of the Protestant religion, and for asserting the rights of king William and queen Mary. The magistrates attempted to oppose this association by force; but, meeting with few supporters, they were compelled to abdicate the government. King William directed those who had assumed the supreme authority to exercise it in his name; and for twenty-seven years the crown retained the entire control of the province. In 1716, the proprietor was restored to his rights; and he and his descendants continued to enjoy them until the commencement of the revolution. The people then assumed the government, adopted a constitution, and refused to admit the claims of the representatives of lord Baltimore either to jurisdiction or to property.
NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA.
The final settlement of this country originated with the earl of Clarendon and other courtiers of CharlesII., who were presented with a grantof all the lands lying between the thirty-first and thirty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and received in their charter ample powers of administration and judicature. Some previous efforts had been unsuccessfully made to colonize this portion of the North American continent, and grants had been given to different individuals, which were now all pronounced void by the privy council. A few settlers were scattered in different parts, and those on Albemarle sound were on certain conditions allowed to retain their lands. A government was organized over them, at the head of whichMr.Drummond was placed.
Having taken the command of the infant settlement at Albemarle, the proprietaries directed a survey of the coast to the southward, and projected the establishment of a new colony in Clarendon country, which had been recently abandoned by the emigrants from New England. In furtherance of this object, they conferred on John Yeamans, a respectable planter of Barbadoes, the appointment of commander-in-chief of Clarendon country. In the autumn, he conducted from Barbadoes a body of emigrants, who landed on the southern bank of cape Fear. He cultivated the good will of the natives, and insured a seven years’ peace. The planters, in opening the forest to make room for the operations of tillage, ‘necessarily prepared timber for the uses of the cooper and builder, which they transmitted to the island whence they had emigrated, as the first subject of a feeble commerce, that kindled the spark of industry which soon gave animation to the whole.’ Another settlement was also projected to the southward of cape Remain, which received the name of Carteret, and was placed under a separate governor.
In pursuance of the authority with which the proprietors were invested by their charter, they began to frame a system of laws for the government of their colony; in which they availed themselves of the assistance of the illustrious John Locke. The form of government proposed by this eminent man proved utterly impracticable and useless. It received no favor from the people, and never attained the force of fundamental laws.
Notwithstanding these constitutions and legal preparations, several years elapsed before the proprietors of Carolina made any serious efforts towards its settlement. In 1667, they fitted out a ship, gave the command of it to captain William Sayle, and sent him out to bring them some account of the coast. His report to his employers, as might naturally be expected, was favorable. He praised their possessions, and encouraged them to engage with vigor in the execution of their project. His observations respecting the Bahama islands, which he had visited, induced them to apply to the king for a grant of them, and Charles bestowed on them by patent all those islands lying between the twenty-second and twenty-seventh degrees of north latitude. Nothing then remained but to make preparations for sending a colony to Carolina. Two ships were procured, on board of which a number of adventurers embarked, with provisions, arms, and utensils requisite for building and cultivation.
Sayle was appointed the first governor, and received a commission, bearing date July 26, 1669. The expenses of this first embarkation amounted to twelve thousand pounds; a proof that the proprietors entertained no small hopes with respect to their palatinate. The number of men, however, must have been by no means adequate to the undertaking, especially considering the multitude of savages that ranged through thatextensive wilderness. In what place governor Sayle first landed is uncertain; but he was dissatisfied with his first situation, and, moving to the southward, took possession of a neck of land between Ashley and Cooper rivers, where he laid out a town, which, in honor of the king then reigning, he called Charleston; but dying soon after, Sir John Yeamans, who had for several years been governor at Clarendon, was appointed to succeed him. This new settlement attracted many inhabitants from that at Clarendon, and ultimately entirely exhausted it. Being at a great distance from Albemarle, the proprietors established a separate government over it, and hence arose the distinctive appellations of North and South Carolina.
The affairs of the northern colony must now occupy a portion of our attention. The fundamental constitutions, which have already been described, were received by the colonists with disgust and disunion. Their promulgation produced no other effect than to excite the most inveterate jealousy of the designs of the proprietaries; till, in process of time, a refractory spirit took possession of the minds of the people, and was at length exasperated into sentiments as hostile to subordination, as the policy of the proprietaries was repugnant to liberty. From this period the history of the northern province, for a series of years, is involved in such confusion and contradiction, that it is impossible to render it interesting, and difficult to make it even intelligible. It is a record of insurrection and revolt, not easily understood, and not sufficiently interesting to demand more than this slight allusion.
To return to the affairs of the southern colony, now under the administration of Joseph West. The situation of Old Charleston being found inconvenient, the inhabitants, in 1680, removed to Oyster Point, where a new city was laid out, to which the name of the other was given. In the same year commenced a war with the Westoes, a powerful tribe of Indians, which threatened great injury to the colony; peace, however, was soon restored. Governor West was superseded by Sir Richard Kirle, an Irish gentleman, who died six months after his arrival in the country. After his decease, colonel Robert Quarry was chosen his successor. During the time of his government, a number of pirates put into Charleston, and purchased provisions with their Spanish gold and silver. Those public robbers, instead of being taken and tried by the laws of England, were treated with great civility and friendship, in violation of the laws of nations.
Whether the governor was ignorant of the treaty made with Spain, by which England had withdrawn her former toleration from these plunderers of the Spanish dominions, or whether he was afraid to bring them to trial from the notorious courage of their companions in the West Indies, we have not sufficient authority to affirm; but one thing is certain, that CharlesII., for several years after the restoration, winked at their depredations, and many of them performed such valiant actions, as, in a good cause, would have justly merited honors and rewards; he even knighted Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who had plundered Porto Bello and Panama, and carried off large treasures from them. For several years so formidable was this body of plunderers in the West Indies, that they struck a terror into every quarter of the Spanish dominions. Their gold and silver, which they lavishly spent in the colony, insured to them a kind reception among the Carolinians, who opened their ports to them freely, and furnished them with necessaries. They could purchase the favor of thegovernor, and the friendship of the people, for what they deemed a trifling consideration. Leaving their gold and silver behind them for clothes, arms, ammunition, and provisions, they embarked in quest of more. However, the proprietors, having intelligence of the encouragement given to pirates by governor Quarry, dismissed him from the office he held; and, in 1685, landgrave Joseph Morton was appointed to the government of the colony.
It is not now of importance to recur to the difficulties between the proprietary government and the people: they led to extreme irritation, and in the year 1690, at a meeting of the representatives, a bill was brought in and passed, for disabling James Colleton, then governor of the province, from holding any office, or exercising any authority, civil or military, in the colony, and he was informed that in a limited time he must depart from the colony.
During these public commotions, Seth Sothel, one of the proprietors, who had been driven from North Carolina, appeared suddenly at Charleston, and, aided by a powerful faction, assumed the reins of government. At first the people gladly acknowledged his authority, while the current of their enmity ran against Colleton; especially as he stood forth as an active and leading man in opposition to that governor, and ratified the law for his exclusion and banishment; but they afterwards found him void of every principle of honor, and even of honesty. Such was the insatiable avarice of this man, that every restraint of common justice and equity was trampled upon by him; and oppression, such as usually attends the exaltation of vulgar and ambitious scramblers for power, extended her rod of iron over the distracted colony. The fair traders from Barbadoes and Bermuda were seized as pirates by order of this popular governor, and confined until such fees as he was pleased to exact were paid him; bribes from felons and traitors were accepted to favor their escape from the hands of justice; and plantations were forcibly taken possession of, upon pretences the most frivolous and unjust. At length, the people, weary of his grievous impositions and extortions, agreed to take him by force, and ship him off for England. He then evinced the meanness of spirit generally associated with a disposition to tyranny, and humbly begged liberty to remain in the country, promising to submit his conduct to the trial of the assembly at their first meeting. When the assembly met, thirteen different charges were brought against him, and all supported by the strongest evidence; upon which, being found guilty, they compelled him to abjure the government and country forever.
The next important incident that attracts our attention is the unsuccessful expedition againstSt.Augustine, planned by governor Moore, in the year 1702, at the time of a rupture in Europe between England and Spain. It failed utterly, and entailed a debt on the colony of six thousand pounds sterling; which led to many severe reflections against the governor, and brought him sadly into disrepute. To redeem his character, the governor resolved upon an expedition against the Apalachian Indians; in consequence of the insults and injuries which they had been instigated by the Spaniards to commit. To make his conquest permanent, he transplanted fourteen hundred of these Indians to the territory now included in Georgia; a measure which seems to have led to the settlement of the English in that part of the country.
The northern colony continued to receive accessions to its strength from several of the European states. In 1707, a company of French Protestants arrived and seated themselves on the river Trent, a branch of the Neuse; and three years afterwards a large number of palatines, fleeing from religious persecution in Germany, sought refuge in the same part of the province. To each of these bodies of emigrants the proprietors granted a hundred acres of land. On their newly acquired possessions they were living in peace, in the enjoyment of liberty of conscience, and in the prospect of competence and ease, when suddenly a terrible calamity fell upon them. The Tuscarora and Coree Indians, smarting under recent aggressions, and dreading total extinction from the encroachment of these strangers, with characteristic secrecy, plotted their entire destruction. Sending their families to one of their fortified towns, twelve hundred bowmen sallied forth, and in the same night attacked, in separate parties, the nearest settlements of the palatines. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately butchered. The savages, with the swiftness and ferocity of wolves, ran from village to village. Before them was the repose of innocence; behind, the sleep of death. A few escaping alarmed the settlements more remote, and hastened to South Carolina for assistance. Governor Craven immediately despatched to the aid of the sister colony nearly a thousand men, under the command of colonel Barnwell. Hideous was the wilderness through which colonel Barnwell had to march, and the utmost expedition was requisite. There was no road through the woods upon which either horses or carriages could pass; and his army had all manner of hardships and dangers to encounter, from the climate, the wilderness, and the enemy.
In spite of every difficulty, however, Barnwell advanced against them, and being much better supplied with arms and ammunition than his enemy, he did great execution among them, killing in the first battle three hundred Indians, and taking about one hundred prisoners. The Tuscaroras then retreated to their town, fortified within a wooden breastwork; but there Barnwell surrounded them, and forced them to sue for peace; and some of his men being wounded, and others having suffered greatly by constant watching, and much hunger and fatigue, the savages the more easily obtained their request. After having killed, wounded, or captured nearly a thousand Tuscaroras, Barnwell returned to South Carolina. The peace was, however, of short duration, and upon the recommencement of hostilities, assistance was again solicited from the southern colony. Colonel James Moore, an active young officer, was immediately despatched, with forty white men and eight hundred friendly Indians. He found the enemy in a fort near Cotechny river; and after a siege, which continued more than a week, the fort was taken, and eight hundred Indians made prisoners. The Tuscaroras, disheartened by this defeat, migrated, in 1713, to the north, and joined the celebrated confederacy, denominated the Five Nations. The others sued for peace, and afterwards continued friendly.
The northern colony had scarcely recovered from the scourge of Indian war, when the southern was exposed to the same calamity. All the tribes from Florida to cape Fear, had been for some time engaged in a conspiracy to extirpate the whites. On the day before the Yamassees began their bloody operations, captain Nairn and some of the traders observing an uncommon gloom on their savage countenances, and apparently great agitationsof spirit, which to them prognosticated approaching mischief, went to their chief men, begging to know the cause of their uneasiness, and promising, if any injury had been done them, to give them satisfaction. The chiefs replied, they had no complaints to make against any one, but intended to go a-hunting early the next morning. Captain Nairn accordingly went to sleep, and the traders retired to their huts, and passed the night in seeming friendship and tranquillity. But next morning at daybreak, the15thday of April, all were alarmed with the cries of war. The leaders were all out under arms, calling up their followers, and proclaiming aloud designs of vengeance.The young men, burning with fury and passion, flew to their arms, and, in a few hours, massacred above ninety persons in Pocotaligo town and theneighboringplantations; and many more must have fallen a sacrifice on Port Royal island, had they not providentially been warned of their danger.Mr.Burrows, a captain of the militia, after receiving two wounds, by swimming one mile and running ten escaped to Port Royal, and alarmed the town. A vessel happening fortunately to be in the harbor, the inhabitants in great hurry repaired on board, and sailed for Charleston; a few families of planters on that island, not having timely notice, fell into the barbarous hands of the Indians, and of them some were murdered, and others made prisoners of war.
While the Yamassees, with whom the Creeks and Apalachians had joined, were advancing against the southern frontiers, and spreading desolation and slaughter through the province, the colonists on the northern borders also found the Indians among their settlements in formidable parties. The Carolinians had foolishly entertained hopes of the friendship of the Congarees, the Catawbas, and Cherokees; but they soon found that they had also joined in the conspiracy, and declared for war. It was computed that the southern division of the enemy consisted of above six thousand bowmen, and the northern of between six hundred and a thousand. In the muster-roll at Charleston there were no more than one thousand two hundred men fit to bear arms, but as the town had several forts into which the inhabitants might retreat, governor Craven resolved to march with this small force into the woods against the enemy. He proclaimed martial law, and laid an embargo on all ships, to prevent either men or provisions from leaving the country. He obtained an act of assembly, empowering him to impress men, and seize arms, ammunition, and stores, wherever they were to be found, to arm such trusty negroes as might be serviceable at a juncture so critical, and to prosecute the war with the utmost vigor.
Being no stranger to the ferocious temper of his enemies, and their horrid cruelty to prisoners, the governor advanced against them by slow and cautious steps, always keeping the strictest guard round his army. He knew well under what advantages they fought among their native thickets, and the various wiles and stratagems they made use of in conducting their wars; and therefore he was watchful above all things against surprises, which might throw his followers into disorder, and defeat the end of his enterprise. The fate of the whole province depended on the success of his arms, and his men had no other alternative but to conquer or die a painful death. As he advanced, the straggling parties fled before him, until he reached Saltcatchers, where they had pitched their great camp. Here a sharp and bloody battle ensued from behind trees and bushes, theIndians whooping, hallooing, and giving way one while, and then again and again returning with double fury to the charge. But the governor, notwithstanding their superior number, and their terrible shrieks, kept the provincials close at their heels, and drove them before him like a flock of wolves. He expelled them from their settlement at Indian river, pursued them over the Savannah, and entirely freed the province of this formidable tribe of savages. What number of the army was killed does not appear; but in the whole war nearly four hundred unfortunate inhabitants of Carolina fell a prey to Indian cruelty, property of great value was destroyed, and a large debt contracted.
Of this debt the proprietors refused to pay any portion, and by their harsh and arbitrary conduct in regard to this matter and its consequences, a bitter hostility grew up between them and the people. It was resolved to throw off their yoke. A favorable opportunity presented itself at a general review of the militia at Charleston, in 1719; the officers and soldiers binding themselves by a solemn compact to resist the tyranny of the proprietors. The assembly was dissolved by the governor, but it immediately met in convention, and assumed the direction of public affairs. In spite of all opposition they established themselves in the full possession of the government, both in its legislative and executive relations.
The agent for Carolina at length procured a hearing from the lords of the regency and council in England, the king being at that time in Hanover; who gave it as their opinion, that the proprietors had forfeited their charter, and ordered the attorney-general to take out ascire faciasagainst it. In consequence of this decision, in September, 1720, they appointed general Francis Nicholson provisional governor of the province, with a commission from the king. Several years afterwards, seven of the proprietors sold to the king their claim to the soil and rents, and all of them assigned to him their right of jurisdiction. The government of both Carolinas was subsequently administered in each colony by a governor and council appointed by the crown, and by assemblies chosen by the people. They soon attracted general attention, and their population was increased by accessions from several of the states of Europe.
In 1738, an alarming insurrection of the negroes occurred in the southern colony. A number of them assembled at Stono, and surprised and killed two men who had charge of a warehouse, from which they took guns and ammunition. They then chose a captain, and, with drums beating and colors flying, marched south-westward. They burned every house on their way, killed all the whites they could find, and compelled other negroes to join them. Governor Bull, who was returning to Charleston from the southward, accidentally met them, hastened out of their way, and spread an alarm. The news soon reached Wiltown, where, fortunately, a large congregation were attending divine service. The men having, according to a law of the province, brought their arms to the place of worship, marched instantly in quest of the negroes, who, by this time, had become formidable, and spread terror and desolation around them, having killed about twenty of the whites. While, in an open field, they were carousing and dancing, with frantic exultation at their late success, they were suddenly attacked; some were killed, and the remainder took to flight, but most of them were taken and tried. Those who had been compelled to join the conspirators were pardoned; but the leaders andprincipal instigators suffered death. Under apprehensions resulting, probably, from this rebellion, the legislature of South Carolina passed an act, that whoever shall teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds.
The Carolinas were frequently exposed to the injurious effects of war from the French and Spaniards, as well as from some of the Indian tribes; but after the treaty of Paris, the progress of these colonies was no longer retarded from that cause. The assembly of South Carolina, taking advantage of the peaceful state of the colony to encourage emigration, appropriated a large fund for bounties to foreign Protestants, and such industrious poor people of Great Britain and Ireland as should resort to the province within three years, and settle on the inland parts. Two townships, each containing forty-eight thousand acres, were laid out; one on the river Savannah, called Mecklenburgh, and the other on the waters of Santee, at Long Cane, called Londonderry. Not long after, the colony received a considerable accession from Germany.
Beside foreign Protestants, several persons emigrated from England and Scotland, and great multitudes from Ireland, and settled in Carolina. An accession was also derived from the northern colonies, from which, in the space of one year, above a thousand families removed thither. To these adventurers lands in small tracts were allotted on the frontiers, by which means the back settlements soon became the most populous part of the province, while the whole felt the important benefits resulting from such accessions to its population.
GEORGIA.
The last of the colonies established previous to the war of independence was Georgia. A company of wealthy and influential individuals obtained a patent from GeorgeIII., conferring the necessary powers, and lost no time in the prosecution of their design. In November, 1733, James Oglethorpe embarked at Gravesend for Georgia, with one hundred and sixteen persons, destined for settlement in that country. In the following January he arrived at Charleston, where he was kindly received, and whence he started to explore the territory granted by the patent. He selected the present site of Savannah as the most desirable point for the new settlement. Having completed a fort at this place, and put the colony in a state of defence, he next sought to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians, and to treat with them for a share of their possessions. Having made such arrangements as seemed to insure safety, Oglethorpe returned to England, carrying with him several Indians, among whom was Tomochichi, a chief of the Creeks, and his queen. Here they remained on a visit of about four months.
In the year 1740, the trustees rendered an account of their administration. At that time nearly two thousand five hundred emigrants had arrived in the colony; of whom more than fifteen hundred were indigent Englishmen, or persecuted Protestants. The benefactions from government and from individuals had been nearly half a million of dollars; and itwas computed that, for every person transported and maintained by the trustees, more than three hundred dollars had been expended. The hopes which the trustees had cherished, that the colony would be prosperous and the objects of their benevolence happy, were far from realized. Such was the character of the greater part of the settlers and the nature of the restrictions imposed, that the plantations languished, and continued to require the contributions of the charitable. In the mean time events were preparing a rupture in Europe, and a war between England and Spain appeared inevitable. The plenipotentiaries, appointed for settling the boundaries between Georgia and Florida, and other differences and misunderstandings subsisting between the two crowns, had met at Pardo in convention, where preliminary articles were drawn up; but the conference ended to the satisfaction of neither party. The merchants had lost all patience under their sufferings, and became clamorous for letters of reprisal, which at length they obtained; all officers of the navy and army were ordered to their stations, and, with the unanimous voice of the nation, war was declared against Spain on the23dof October, 1739.
As soon as intelligence of the declaration of war reached Georgia, general Oglethorpe passed over to Florida with four hundred select men of his regiment, and a considerable party of Indians; and a few days after, he marched with his whole force, consisting of above two thousand men, regulars, provincials, and Indians, to fort Moosa, within two miles ofSt.Augustine. The Spanish garrison evacuating the fort on his approach, and retiring into the town, put themselves in a posture of defence; and the general soon discovering that an attempt to take the castle by storm would be presumptuous, changed his plan of operations, and resolved, with the assistance of the ships of war which were lying at anchor off Augustine bar, to turn the siege into a blockade. Having made the necessary dispositions, he summoned the Spanish governor to surrender; but, secure in his strong-hold, he sent him for an answer that he would be glad to shake hands with him in his castle.
Indignant at this reply, the general opened his batteries against the castle, and at the same time threw a number of shells in the town. The fire was returned with equal spirit from the Spanish fort, and from six half-galleys in the harbor; but the distance was so great that the cannonade, though it continued several days, did little execution on either side. It appears that, notwithstanding the blockade, the Spanish garrison contrived to admit a reinforcement of seven hundred men, and a large supply of provisions. All prospect of starving the enemy being lost, the army began to despair of forcing the place to surrender. The Carolina troops, enfeebled by the heat of the climate, dispirited by sickness, and fatigued by fruitless efforts, marched away in large bodies. The naval commander, in consideration of the shortness of his provisions, and of the near approach of the usual season of hurricanes, judged it imprudent to hazard his fleet longer on that coast. The general himself was sick of a fever, and his regiment was worn out with fatigue, and disabled by sickness. These combined disasters rendered it necessary to abandon the enterprise; and Oglethorpe, with extreme sorrow and regret, returned to Frederica.
After a lapse of two years the Spaniards prepared to retaliate by the invasion of Georgia, intending, if successful, to subjugate the Carolinas and Virginia. On receiving information of their approach, general Oglethorpesolicited assistance from South Carolina: but the inhabitants of that colony, entertaining a strong prejudice against him, and terrified by the danger which threatened themselves, determined to provide only for their own safety, though without avowing their intention. General Oglethorpe, however, made preparations for a vigorous defence. He assembled seven hundred men, exclusive of a body of Indians, fixed his head-quarters at Frederica, on the island ofSt.Simon, and, with this small band, determined to encounter whatever force might be brought against him. It was his utmost hope that he might be able to resist the enemy until a reinforcement should arrive from Carolina, which he daily and anxiously expected. On the last day of June, the Spanish fleet, consisting of thirty-two sail, and having on board more than three thousand men, came to anchor offSt.Simon’s bay. Notwithstanding all the resistance which general Oglethorpe could oppose, they sailed up the river Altamaha, landed upon the island, and there erected fortifications. Convinced that his small force, if divided, must be entirely inefficient, Oglethorpe assembled the whole of it at Frederica. One portion he employed in strengthening his fortifications; the Highlanders and Indians, ranging night and day through the woods, often attacked the outposts of the enemy. The toil of the troops was incessant; and the long delay of the expected succors, still unexpectedly withheld by South Carolina, caused the most gloomy and depressing apprehensions.
Oglethorpe, at length, learning by an English prisoner who escaped from the Spanish camp, that a difference subsisted between the troops from Cuba and those fromSt.Augustine, so as to occasion a separate encampment, resolved to attack the enemy while thus divided. Taking advantage of his knowledge of the woods, he marched out in the night with three hundred chosen men, the Highland company and some rangers, with the intention of surprising the enemy. Having advanced within two miles of the Spanish camp, he halted his troops, and went forward himself with a select corps to reconnoitre the enemy’s situation. While he was endeavoring cautiously to conceal his approach, a French soldier of his party discharged his musket, and ran into the Spanish lines. Thus betrayed, he hastened his return to Frederica, and endeavored to effect by stratagem what could not be achieved by surprise. Apprehensive that the deserter would discover to the enemy his weakness, he wrote him a letter, desiring him to acquaint the Spaniards with the defenceless state of Frederica, and the ease with which his small garrison might be cut to pieces. He pressed him to bring forward the Spaniards to an attack; but, if he could not prevail thus far, to use all his art and influence to persuade them to stay at least three days more at fort Simon; for within that time, according to advices he had just received from Carolina, he should have a reinforcement of two thousand land forces, with six British ships of war. The letter concluded with a caution to the deserter against dropping the least hint of admiral Vernon’s meditated attack uponSt.Augustine, and with an assurance that for his service he should be amply rewarded by the British king.
Oglethorpe gave it to a Spanish prisoner, who, for a small reward together with his liberty, promised to deliver it to the French deserter. On his arrival at the Spanish camp, however, he gave the letter, as Oglethorpe expected, to the commander-in-chief, who instantly put the deserter in irons.This letter perplexed and confounded the Spaniards; some suspecting it to be a stratagem to prevent an attack on Frederica, and othersbelievingit to contain serious instructions to direct the conduct of a spy. While the Spanish officers wore deliberating what measures to adopt, an incident, not within the calculation of military skill, or the control of human power, decided their counsels. Three ships of force, which the governor of South Carolina had sent out to Oglethorpe’s aid, appeared at this juncture off the coast. The agreement of this discovery with the contents of the letter convinced the Spanish commander of its real intention. The whole army, seized with an instant panic, set fire to the fort, and precipitately embarked, leaving several cannon, with a quantity of provisions and military stores; and thus, in the moment of threatened conquest, was the infant colony providentially saved.
Thus was Georgia, with trifling loss, delivered from the most imminent danger. General Oglethorpe not only retrieved, but established his reputation. From the Carolinians, grateful for their preservation, and from the governors of most of the northern colonies, he received cordial congratulations upon his address and good fortune. But on an impeachment brought forward before this invasion, Oglethorpe still felt himself bound in honor to return to England, where, on trial, the charge was adjudged to be false, malicious and groundless, and its author dismissed his majesty’s service. The character of this able general now appeared in its true light; and his contemporaries acknowledged what impartial history records, that to him Carolina was indebted for her safety and repose, as well as Georgia for her existence and protection. After this period general Oglethorpe never returned to the province of Georgia, but upon all occasions discovered in England an uncommon zeal for its prosperity and improvement.
In the year 1749, the colony was exposed to great danger from a quarter as unexpected as it was singular. During the whole of his administration, general Oglethorpe had, from motives of policy, treated an Indian, or rather half-breed woman, called Mary Musgrove, afterwards Mary Bosomworth, with particular kindness and generosity. Finding that she had great influence amongst the Creeks, and understood their language, he made use of her as an interpreter, in order the more easily to form treaties of alliance with them; allowing her for her services one hundred pounds sterling a year. Thomas Bosomworth, who was chaplain to Oglethorpe’s regiment, had married this woman, accepted a tract of land from the crown, and settled in the province. Being unsuccessful in most of his speculations, he had recourse to one of an extraordinary kind. He persuaded his wife to assert herself to be the elder sister of Malatche, the Indian chief, and to have descended, by a maternal line, from an Indian king, who held from nature the whole territory of the Creeks; and therefore to possess a right to them, superior not only to that of the trustees, but also to that of the king. Accordingly, Mary assumed the title of an independent empress, disavowing all subjection or allegiance to the king of Great Britain, otherwise than by way of treaty or alliance, such as one independent sovereign might voluntarily enter into with another; a meeting of all the Creeks was summoned, to whom Mary made a long speech, in which she set forth the justice of her claim, and the great injury she and her beloved subjects had sustained by the loss of their territories, and urged them to a defence of their rights by force of arms. The Indians were fired with rage at the idea of such indignity, and to a man pledged themselves to stand by her to the last drop of their blood in defence of her royal personand their lands; in consequence of which, queen Mary, escorted by a large body of her savage subjects, set out for Savannah, to demand from the president and council a formal acknowledgment of her rights in the province.
Several interviews between the magistrates and the Indian chiefs took place on this strange occurrence, and the president and council were flattering themselves with the idea of an amicable compromise of all the existing difficulties, and rejoicing in the re-establishment of friendly intercourse with the Creeks, when Mary, excited with liquor, and disappointed in her royal views, rushed in amongst them like a fury, told the president that these were her people, that he had no business with them, and that he should soon be convinced of it to his cost. The president calmly advised her to retire to her lodgings, and forbear to poison the minds of the Indians, adding that he would otherwise order her into close confinement; upon which, turning about to Malatche, in great rage, she repeated, with some ill-natured comments, what the president had said; Malatche started from his seat, laid hold of his arms, calling upon the rest to follow his example, and dared any man to touch the queen. The whole house was filled in a moment with tumult and uproar; every Indian having his tomahawk in his hand, the president and council expected nothing but instant death. During this confusion, captain Jones, who commanded the guard, very seasonably interposed, and ordered the Indians immediately to surrender their arms, endeavoring, however, not merely to overawe them, but using prudence to avoid coming to extremities: with reluctance the Indians submitted, and Mary was conveyed to a private room, where a guard was placed over her, and all further communication with the Indians denied her during their stay in Savannah. Ultimately thesoi-disantqueen was compelled to abandon her pretensions, and the Indians were induced to depart, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who had been so long harassed by their turbulent visit.
The wars to which it had been subject had much retarded the progress of the colony, and in 1752 the trustees surrendered their charter to the king. Georgia thus became a royal government. At this time the whole exports of Georgia did not amount to ten thousand pounds a year.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.
The formation and progress of all the colonies which constituted the North American republic at the era of its independence, have now been traced up to the middle of the eighteenth century. From that period circumstances tended rapidly to promote that federation which eventually effected the independence of the colonies, and laid the basis of their future prosperity; indeed, in the prosecution of the French war, which commenced in 1756, the energies of the colonies were so united in the attainment of one common object, that the generalization of their political history from that period is not only rendered preferable, but almost inevitable.
Not to enter into a detail of the progress of French discovery, it is sufficient to say that France had established settlements on theSt.Lawrence and at the mouth of the Mississippi, and formed the bold plan of uniting these points by a chain of forts, stretching across the continent, and intended to confine the English colonists to the eastern side of the Alleghanies.In their northern colonies, the military strength of the French was considerable; Quebec and Montreal were strongly fortified; and at other points, Louisbourg, Cape Breton, and the forts of lake Champlain, Niagara, Crown Point, Frontignac, Ticonderoga, and several others, defended the frontiers. They had also erected a considerable fort at the junction of the Alleghany with the Monongahela, then called Du Quesne, but now forming the site of Pittsburg.
The proceedings of the French in America excited a strong interest in the minds of the British government; and deeming war inevitable, orders were sent to the governors of the several colonies to repel force by force, and to dislodge the French from their posts on the Ohio. These orders were accompanied with a recommendation to form a union of the colonies for more effective defence. Delegates had already been appointed to meet at Albany, for the purpose of conferring with the Five Nations; and governor Shirley recommended that the subject of union should also be discussed at the convention. The commissioners from Massachusetts had ample powers to co-operate in the formation of a plan; those from Maryland were instructed to observe what others did; and those from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, had no instructions at all on the subject.As soon, however, as the friendship of the Indians was thought to be securedbya distribution of presents, the delegates appointed a committee to devise some scheme for the proposed confederation; and the committee recommended the adoption of a government analogous to that of the individual colonies. There was to be a grand council, composed of deputies from the several provinces, and a president-general, appointed by the crown, with the power of negativing the acts of the council. The Connecticut delegates, however, dissented from this plan, because it placed too preponderating a power in the hands of the crown.
It was rejected by the British ministry for the very opposite reason; they suggested, however, that the several governors, with one or two of their counsellors, should meet and adopt such measures as the common safety might demand. But this scheme was defeated by a provision, that they might draw upon the British treasury for all necessary sums, which parliament would undertake to repayby imposing a general tax upon the colonies. The Massachusetts assembly sent special instructions to its agent in London to oppose most strenuously any measure which had for its object the establishment of taxes on the colonies, under whatever plea of utility; and Franklin, to whom the governor of Virginia had sent the proposition of the British minister, states most distinctly in his letter in reply, the reasons which would ever prevent the Americans from consenting to such a proposal. He observes that it would inspire universal discontent among the Americans to attempt the imposition of taxes by a parliament where they were not represented; a point of which neither the colonies nor the British government ever lost sight, from this period till the contest it originated terminated in the entire separation of the former from its dependence on the British crown.
Early in the spring of 1755, the British government despatched general Braddock to America, with a respectable force, to expel the French, and keep possession of the territory; and preparations having been made by France to despatch a reinforcement to her armies in Canada, admiral Boscawenwas ordered to endeavor to intercept the French fleet before it should enter the gulf ofSt.Lawrence. In April, general Braddock met the governors of the several provinces to confer upon the plan of the ensuing campaign. Three expeditions were resolved upon; one against Du Quesne, to be commanded by general Braddock; one against forts Niagara and Frontignac, to be commanded by governor Shirley; and one against Crown Point, to be commanded by general Johnston. This last originated with Massachusetts, and was to be executed by colonial troops raised in New England and New York.
While preparations were making for these expeditions, another, which had been previously concerted, was carried on against the French forts in Nova Scotia. This province was settled by the French, but was ceded to the English by the treaty of Utrecht. Its boundaries not having been defined, the French continued to occupy a portion of the territory claimed by the English, and had built forts for their defence. To gain possession of these was the object of the expedition. About two thousand militia, commanded by colonel Winslow, embarked at Boston; and being joined on their passage by three hundred regulars, arrived in April at the place of their destination. The forts were invested, the resistance made was trifling and ineffectual, and in a short time the English gained entire possession of the province according to their own definition of its boundaries. Three only of their men were killed.
As soon as the convention of governors was dissolved, general Braddock proceeded to the post at Wells’ Creek, whence the army commenced its march about the middle of June. Their progress was very much retarded by the necessity of cutting a road; and, lest the enemy should have time to collect in great force, the general concluded to set forward with twelve hundred select men, while colonel Dunbar should follow slowly in the rear, with the main body and the heavy baggage. Colonel Washington’s regiment had been split into separate companies, and he had only joined the army as aid to the general. The roughness of the country prevented the advanced corps from reaching the Monongahela till the8thof July. It was resolved to attack Du Quesne the very next day; and lieutenant-colonel Gage was sent in front with three hundred British regulars, while the general himself followed at some distance with the main body. He had been strongly cautioned by colonel Washington to provide against an ambuscade, by sending forward some provincial companies to scour the woods; but he held the provincials and the enemy in equal contempt. The Monongahela was crossed the second time, about seven miles from Du Quesne; and the army was pressing forward in an open wood, through high and thick grass, when the front was suddenly thrown into disorder by a volley from small arms. The main body was formed three deep, and brought to its support: the commander-in-chief of the enemy fell; and a cessation of the fire led general Braddock to suppose that the assailants had fled; but he was soon attacked with redoubled fury.
Concealed behind trees, logs, and rocks, the Indians poured upon the troops a deadly and incessant fire; officers and men fell thickly around, and the survivors knew not where to direct their aim to revenge their slaughtered comrades. The whole body was again thrown into confusion; but the general, obstinate and courageous, refused to retreat; and instead of withdrawing them beyond the reach of the enemy’s muskets, wheretheir ranks might easily have been formed anew, undertook to rally them on the very ground of attack, and in the midst of a most incessant and deadly fire. He persisted in these efforts until five horses had been shot under him, and every one of his officers on horseback, except colonel Washington, was either killed or wounded. The general at length fell, and the rout became universal. The troops fled precipitately until they met the division under Dunbar, then sixty miles in the rear. Sixty-four officers out of eighty-five, and about half of the privates, were killed or wounded. General Braddock died in Dunbar’s camp; and the whole army, which appears to have been panic struck, marched back to Philadelphia. The provincial troops, whom Braddock had so lightly esteemed, displayed during the battle the utmost calmness and courage. Though placed in the rear, they alone, led on by Washington, advanced against the Indians, and covered the retreat; and had they at first been permitted to engage the enemy in their own way, they would easily have defeated them.
The two northern expeditions, though not so disastrous, failed in attaining their proposed objects. The campaign of 1755 was thus utterly unsuccessful. Immense preparations had been made, but no desired result was obtained. By the failure of the three expeditions, the whole frontier was left open to the ravages of the Indians. The second campaign was almost as pregnant with evil. Montcalm had marched against Oswego, and by destroying it had thrown the English and American army on the defensive. No successful measures were put in operation to carry out the plans of the colonists, and it was necessary to wait till the following year.
At the commencement of the following year a council was held at Boston, composed of lord Loudoun, and the governors of the New England provinces and of Nova Scotia. At this council his lordship proposed that New England should raise four thousand men for the ensuing campaign; and that a proportionate number should be raised by New York and New Jersey. These requisitions were complied with; and in the spring his lordship found himself at the head of a very considerable army. Admiral Holbourn arriving in the beginning of July at Halifax with a powerful squadron, and a reinforcement of five thousand British troops, under George viscount Howe, lord Loudoun sailed from New York with six thousand regulars, to join those troops at the place of their arrival. Instead of the complex operations undertaken in previous campaigns, his lordship limited his plan to a single object. Leaving the posts on the lakes strongly garrisoned, he resolved to direct his whole disposable force against Louisbourg; Halifax having been determined on as the place of rendezvous for the fleet and army destined for the expedition. Information was, however, soon received, that a French fleet had lately sailed from Brest; that Louisbourg was garrisoned by six thousand regulars, exclusive of provincials; and that it was also defended by seventeen line-of-battle ships, which were moored in the harbor. There being no hope of success against so formidable a force, the enterprise was deferred to the next year; the general and admiral on the last of August proceeded to New York; and the provincials were dismissed.
The marquis De Montcalm, availing himself of the absence of the principal part of the British force, advanced with an army of nine thousand men, and laid siege to fort William Henry. The garrison at this fortconsisted of between two and three thousand regulars, and its fortifications were strong and in very good order; and for the additional security of this important post, general Webb was stationed at fort Edward with an army of four thousand men. The French commander, however, urged his approaches with such vigor, that, within six days after the investment of the fort, colonel Monro, the commandant, having in vain solicited succor from general Webb, found it necessary to surrender by capitulation. The garrison was to be allowed the honors of war, and to be protected against the Indians until within the reach of fort Edward; but the next morning, a great number of Indians, having been permitted to enter the lines, began to plunder; and meeting with no opposition, they fell upon the sick and wounded, whom they immediately massacred. Their appetite for carnage being excited, the defenceless troops were attacked with fiend-like fury. Monro in vain implored Montcalm to provide the stipulated guard, and the massacre proceeded. All was turbulence and horror. On every side savages were butchering and scalping their wretched victims. Their hideous yells, the groans of the dying, and the frantic shrieks of others shrinking from the uplifted tomahawk, were heard by the French unmoved. The fury of the savages was permitted to rage without restraint until fifteen hundred were killed, or hurried captives into the wilderness. The day after this awful tragedy, major Putnam was sent with his rangers to watch the motions of the enemy. When he came to the shore of the lake, their rear was hardly beyond the reach of musket-shot. The prospect was horrible in the extreme; the fort demolished; the barracks and buildings yet burning; innumerable fragments of human carcasses still broiled in the decaying fires; and dead bodies, mangled with tomahawks and scalping knives, in all the wantonness of Indian barbarity, were everywhere scattered around. Thus ended the third campaign in America; happily forming the last of a series of disasters, resulting from folly and mismanagement, rather than from want of means and military strength.
The British nation was alarmed and indignant, and the king found it necessary to change his councils. At the head of the new ministry he placed the celebrated William Pitt, afterwards earl of Chatham, under whose administration public confidence revived, and the nation seemed inspired with new life and vigor. He was equally popular in both hemispheres. Lord Loudoun was replaced by general Abercrombie, who, early in the spring of 1758, was ready to enter upon the campaign at the head of fifty thousand men, the most powerful army ever seen in America.
Three points of attack were marked out for this campaign; the first Louisbourg; the second Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and the third, fort Du Quesne. Its result was highly honorable to the British arms. Of the three expeditions, two completely succeeded, and the leader of the third had made an important conquest. Fort Du Quesne was reduced, supplied with a new garrison, and its name changed to Pittsburg. As usual, the Indians joined the strongest side. A peace was concluded with all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes; and the frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were once more relieved from the terrors of fire and scalping knives.
To the commanding talents of Pitt, and the confidence which they inspired, this change of fortune must be chiefly attributed; and in no respect were these talents more strikingly displayed than in the choice of men toexecute his plans. The advantages of this campaign had, however, been purchased by an expensive effort and corresponding exhaustion of provincial strength; and, when a circular letter fromMr.Pitt to the several governors induced the colonies to resolve upon making the most vigorous preparation for the next, they soon discovered that their resources were by no means commensurate with their zeal.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, it was resolved to signalize the year 1759 by the complete conquest of Canada. The plan of the campaign was, that three powerful armies should enter the French possessions by three different routes, and attack all their strong-holds at nearly the same time. At the head of one division of the army, brigadier-general Wolfe, a young officer who had signalized himself at the siege of Louisbourg, was to ascend theSt.Lawrence and lay siege to Quebec, escorted by a strong fleet to co-operate with his troops. The central and main army, composed of British and provincials, was to be conducted against Ticonderoga and Crown Point by general Amherst, the new commander-in-chief, who, after making himself master of these places, was to proceed over lake Champlain and by the way of Richelieu river to theSt.Lawrence, and, descending that river, form a junction with general Wolfe before the walls of Quebec. The third army, to be composed principally of provincials, reinforced by a strong body of friendly Indians, was to be commanded by general Prideaux, who was to lead this division first against Niagara, and, after the reduction of that place, to embark on lake Ontario, and proceed down theSt.Lawrence against Montreal. It has been observed by a recent author, ‘Had the elements been laid, and the enemy spell-bound, the whole of this brilliant plan could not have helped succeeding.’ This sentence, however, betrays a very limited view of a plan that was well worthy of the mind of Pitt. In this arrangement immediate advantage was not sacrificed; while the more remote results exhibited a prospect highly calculated to excite the ambition of the leaders, and to arouse all the energies of the troops. It is in thus affording motives which tend to bring physical force into most effective and persevering action, that intellectual superiority becomes manifest, confounding the calculations of ordinary minds.
Early in the winter, general Amherst commenced preparations for his part of the enterprise; but it was not till the last of May that his troops were assembled at Albany; and it was as late as the22dof July, when he appeared before Ticonderoga. As the naval superiority of Great Britain had prevented France from sending out reinforcements, none of the posts in this quarter were able to withstand so great a force as that of general Amherst. Ticonderoga was immediately abandoned; the example was followed at Crown Point; and the only way in which the enemy seemed to think of preserving their province was by retarding the English army with shows of resistance till the season of operation should be past, or till, by the gradual concentration of their forces, they should become numerous enough to make an effectual stand. From Crown Point they retreated to Isle-aux-Noix, where general Amherst understood there was a body of between three and four thousand men, and a fleet of several armed vessels. The English made great exertions to secure a naval superiority; and had it not been for a succession of adverse storms upon the lake, they would most probably have accomplished the original design of forming a junction at Quebec, instead of being obliged to go into winter quarters at Crown Point.
In prosecution of the enterprise against Niagara, general Prideaux had embarked with an army on lake Ontario; and on the6thof July landed without opposition within about three miles of the fort, which he invested in form. While directing the operations of the siege he was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnson. That general, prosecuting with judgment and vigor the plan of his predecessor, pushed the attack of Niagara with an intrepidity that soon brought the besiegers within a hundred yards of the covered way. Meanwhile, the French, alarmed at the danger of losing a post which was a key to their interior empire in America, had collected a large body of regular troops from the neighboring garrisons of Detroit, Venango, and Presqu’ Isle, with which, and a party of Indians, they resolved, if possible, to raise the siege. Apprised of their intention to hazard a battle, general Johnson ordered his light infantry, supported by some grenadiers and regular foot, to take post between the cataract of Niagara and the fortress; placed the auxiliary Indians on his flanks; and, together with this preparation for an engagement, took effectual measures for securing his lines, and bridling the garrison. About nine in the morning of the24thof July, the enemy appeared, and the horrible sound of the war-whoop from the hostile Indians was the signal of battle. The French charged with great impetuosity, but were received with firmness; and in less than an hour were completely routed. This battle decided the fate of Niagara. Sir William Johnson the next morning opened negotiations with the French commandant; and in a few hours a capitulation was signed. The garrison, consisting of six hundred and seven men, were to march out with the honors of war, to be embarked on the lake, and carried to New York; and the women and children were to be carried to Montreal. The reduction of Niagara effectually cut off the communication between Canada and Louisiana.