[Sidenote] The manner of cultivating and making indigo.
Here it may not be improper to give the reader some account of the manner in which the people of Carolina cultivate this plant, and extract the dye from it. As we pretend to little knowledge of this matter ourselves, we shall give the following rules and directions of an ingenious person, who practised them for several years with great success. "As both the quantity and quality of indigo greatly depend on the cultivation of the plant, it is proper to observe, that it seems to thrive best in a rich, light soil, unmixed with clay or sand. The ground to be planted should be plowed, or turned up with hoes, some time in December, that the frost may render it rich and mellow. It must also be well harrowed, and cleansed from all grass, roots, and stumps of trees, to facilitate the hoeing after the weed appears above ground. The next thing to be considered is the choice of the seed, in which the planters should be very nice; there is great variety of it, and from every sort good indigo may be made; but none answers so well in this colony as the true Guatimala, which if good is a small oblong black seed, very bright and full, and when rubbed in the hand will appear as if finely polished.
"In Carolina we generally begin to plant about the beginning of April, in the following manner: The ground being well prepared, furrows are made with a drill-plow, or hoe, two inches deep, and eighteen inches distant from each other, to receive the seed, which is sown regularly, and not very thick, after which it is lightly covered with earth. A bushel of seed will sow four English acres. If the weather proves warm and serene, the plant will appear above ground in ten or four-teen days. After the plant appears, the ground, though not grassy, should be hoed to loosen the earth about it, which otherwise would much hinder its growth. In good seasons it grows very fast, and must all the while be kept perfectly clean of weeds. Whenever the plant is in full bloom it must be cut down, without paying any regard to its height, as its leaves are then thick and full of juice, and this commonly happens in about four months after planting. But, previous to the season for cutting, a complete set of vats of the following dimensions, for every twenty acres of weed, must be provided, and kept in good order. The steeper or vat in which the weed is first put to ferment, must be sixteen feet square in the clear, and two and a half feet deep; the second vat or battery twelve feet long, ten feet wide, and four and a half feet deep from the top of the plate. These vats should be made of the best cypress or yellow-pine plank, two and a half inches thick, well fastened to the joints and studs with seven-inch spikes, and then caulked, to prevent their leaking. Vats thus made will last in Carolina, notwithstanding the excessive heat, at least seven years. When every thing is ready, the weed must be cut and laid regularly in the steeper with the stalk upward, which will hasten the fermentation; then long rails must be laid the length of the vat, at eighteen inches distance from one another, and wedged down to the weed, to prevent its buoying up when the water is pumped into the steeper. For this purpose the softest water answers best, and the quantity of it necessary must be just sufficient to cover all the weed. In this situation it is left to ferment, which will begin sooner or later in proportion to the heat of the weather, and the ripeness of the plant, but for the most part takes twelve or fifteen hours. After the water is loaded with the salts and substance of the weed, it must be let out of the steeper into the battery, there to be beat; in order to perform which operation, many different machines have been invented: but for this purpose any instrument that will agitate the water with great violence may be used. When the water has been violently agitated for fifteen or twenty minutes in the battery, by taking a little of the liquor up in a plate it will appear full of small grain or curdled; then you are to let in a quantity of lime-water kept in a vat for the purpose, to augment and precipitate the faeculae, still continuing to stir and beat vehemently the indigo water, till it becomes of a strong purple colour, and the grain hardly perceptible. Then it must be left to settle, which it will do in eight or ten hours. After which the water must be gently drawn out of the battery through plug-holes contrived for that purpose, so that the faeculae may remain at the bottom of the vat. It must then be taken up, and carefully strained through a horse-hair sieve, to render the indigo perfectly clean, and put into bags made of Osnaburghs, eighteen inches long, and twelve wide, and suspended for six hours, to drain the water out of it. After which the mouths of these bags being well fastened, it must be put into a press to be entirely freed from any remains of water, which would otherwise greatly hurt the quality of the indigo. The press commonly used for this purpose is a box of five feet in length, two and a half wide, and two deep, with holes at one end to let out the water. In this box the bags must be laid, one upon another, until it is full, upon which a plank must be laid, fitted to go within the box, and upon all a sufficient number of weights to squeeze out the water entirely by a constant and gradual pressure, so that the indigo may become a fine stiff paste; which is then taken out and cut into small pieces, each about two inches square, and laid out to dry. A house made of logs must be prepared on purpose for drying it, and so constructed that it may receive all the advantages of an open and free air, without being exposed to the sun, which is very pernicious to the dye. For here indigo placed in the sun, in a few hours will be burnt up to a perfect cinder. While the indigo remains in the drying house, it must be carefully turned three or four times in a day, to prevent its rotting. Flies should likewise be carefully kept from it, which at this season of the year are hatched in millions, and infest an indigo plantation like a plague. After all, great care must also be taken, that the indigo be sufficiently dry before it is packed, lest after it is headed up in barrels it should sweat, which will certainly spoil and rot it."
In this manner indigo is cultivated and prepared in Carolina, and the richest land in the heart of the country is found to answer best for it. The maritime islands, however, which are commonly sandy, are not unfavourable for this production, especially those that contain spots of land covered with oak, and hickory trees. It is one of those rank weeds which in a few years will exhaust the strength and fertility of the best lands in the world. It is commonly cut in the West Indies six and seven times in the year, but in Carolina no more than two or three times before the frost begins. Our planters have been blamed by the English merchants for paying too much attention to the quantity, and too little to the quality of their indigo, hence the West-India indigo brings an higher price at the market. He that prefers the quality to the quantity, is very careful to cut the plant at the proper season, that is, when the weed begins to bloom; for the more luxuriant and tender the plant, the more beautiful the indigo. While it is curing, indigo has an offensive and disagreeable smell, and as the dregs of the weed are full of salts, and make excellent manure, therefore they should be immediately buried under ground when brought out of the steeper. It is commonly observed, that all creatures about an indigo plantation are starved, whereas, about a rice one, which abounds with provisions for man and beast, they thrive and flourish. The season for making indigo in Carolina ends with the first frosty weather, which puts a stop to fermentation, and then double labour is not only requisite for beating it, but when prepared it is commonly good for nothing.
[Sidenote] The common methods of judging of its quality.
The planters bring their indigo to market about the end of the year, and frequently earlier. The merchant judges of its quality by breaking it, and observing the closeness of its grain, and its brilliant copper, or violet blue colour. The weight in some measure proves its quality, for heavy indigo of every colour is always bad. Good indigo almost entirely consumes away in the fire, the bad leaves a quantity of ashes. In water also pure and fine indigo entirely melts and dissolves, but the heterogeneous and solid parts of the bad sink to the bottom like sand. From this period it became a staple to Carolina, and proved equally profitable as the mines of Mexico or Peru. To the mother country it was no less beneficial, in excluding the French indigo entirely from her market, and promoting her manufactures, and trade. I shall afterwards take notice of the rapid progress made in the cultivation of this article; particularly with respect to the quantity produced and yearly shipped to Britain, to supply the markets in Europe.
[Sidenote] Nova Scotia settled.
The great bounty and indulgence of Britain towards her American colonies increased with their progress in cultivation, and favour after favour was extended to them. Filled with the prospect of opening an excellent market for her manufactures, and enlarging her commerce and navigation, in which her strength in a great measure consisted, these colonies were become the chief objects of her care, and new ones were planted for the protection of the old. At this time the peace of Aix la Chapelle left a number of brave sailors and soldiers without employment. Good policy required that they should be rendered useful to the nation, and at the same time furnished with employment for their own subsistence. Acadia, which was ceded to Britain by the treaty of peace, changed its name to Nova Scotia, and was capable of producing every species of naval stores. The sea there abounded with excellent fish, which might furnish employment for a number of sailors, and be made an useful and advantageous branch of trade. But the excellent natural harbours which the country afforded, of all other things proved the greatest inducement for establishing a colony in it, the possession of which would not only promote trade in the time of peace, but also prove a safe station for British fleets in time of war. Besides, for the sake of commercial advantage, it was judged proper to confine the settlements in America as much as possible to the sea-coast. The parliament therefore determined to send out a colony to Nova Scotia, and, to forward the settlement, voted forty thousand pounds. The following advantageous terms were held forth to the people by government, and a number of adventurers agreed to accept them. Fifty acres of land were to be allowed to every soldier and sailor, two hundred to every ensign, three hundred to every lieutenant, four hundred and sixty to every captain, and six hundred to all officers of higher rank; together with thirty for every servant they should carry along with them. No quit-rents were to be demanded for the first ten years. They were also to be furnished with instruments for fishing and agriculture, to have their passage free, and provisions found them for the first year after their arrival. Three thousand seven hundred and sixty adventurers embarked for America on these favourable terms, and settled at Halifax, which place was fixed on as the seat of government, and fortified. The Acadians, the former inhabitants of the country, were allowed peaceably to remain in it, and having sworn never to bear arms against their countrymen, submitted to the English government, and passed under the denomination of French neutrals. The greatest difficulty which the new settlers of Nova Scotia had to surmount at this time arose from the Micmac Indians, who held that territory from nature, and for some time obstinately defended their right to their ancient possessions; and it was not without considerable loss that the British subjects at length, by force of arms, drove them away from those territories.
[Sidenote] The great care of Britain for these colonies.
Nor did this new settlement engross the whole attention and liberality of the parent state; the province of Georgia also every year shared plentifully from the same hands. Indeed the bounty of the mother country was extensive as her dominions, and, like the sun, cherished and invigorated every object on which it shone. All the colonies might have been sensible of her constant attention to their safety and prosperity, and had great reason to acknowledge themselves under the strongest obligations to her goodness. If she expected a future recompense by the channel of commerce, which is for the most part mutually advantageous, it was no more than she had justly merited. The colonists, we allow, carried with them the rights and liberties of the subjects of Britain, and they owed in return the duties of obedience to her laws and subjection to her government. The privileges and duties of subjects in all states have been reciprocal, and as the mother country had incurred great expence for the establishment and support of these foreign settlements; as she had multiplied her burdens for their defence and improvement; surely such protection and kindness laid a foundation for the firmest union, and the most dutiful returns of allegiance and gratitude.
[Sidenote] Low state of Georgia.
However, the province of Georgia, notwithstanding all that Britain had done for its population and improvement, still remained in a poor and languishing condition. Its settlers consisted of two sorts of people; first, of indigent subjects and foreigners, whom the Trustees transported and maintained; secondly, of men of some substance, whom flattering descriptions of the province had induced voluntarily to emigrate to it. After the peace Oglethorpe's regiment being disbanded, a number of soldiers accepted the encouragement offered them by government, and took up their residence in Georgia. All those adventurers who had brought some substance along with them, having by this time exhausted their small stock in fruitless experiments, were reduced to indigence, so that emigrants from Britain, foreigners, and soldiers, were all on a level in point of poverty. From the impolitic restrictions of the Trustees, these settlers had no prospects during life but those of hardship and poverty, and of consequence, at their decease, of bequeathing a number of orphans to the care of Providence. Nor was the trade of the province in a better situation than its agriculture. The want of credit was an unsurmountable obstacle to its progress in every respect. Formerly the inhabitants in and about Savanna had transmitted to the Trustees a representation of their grievous circumstances, and obtained from them some partial relief. But now, chagrined with disappointments, and dispirited by the severities of the climate, they could view the design of the Trustees in no other light than that of having decoyed them into misery. Even though they had been favoured with credit, and had proved successful, which was far from being their case; as the tenure of their freehold was restricted to heirs male, their eldest son could only reap the benefit of their toil, and the rest must depend on his bounty, or be left wholly to the charge of that Being who feeds the fowls of the air. They considered their younger children and daughters as equally entitled to paternal regard, and could not brook their holding lands under such a tenure, as excluded them from the rights and privileges of other colonists. They saw numbers daily leaving the province through mere necessity, and frankly told the Trustees, that nothing could prevent it from being totally deserted, but the same encouragements with their more fortunate neighbours in Carolina.
[Sidenote: Complaint of the people.]
That the Trustees might have a just view of their condition, the Georgians stated before them their grievances, and renewed their application for redress. They judged that the British constitution, zealous for the rights and liberties of mankind, could not permit subjects who had voluntarily risked their lives, and spent their substance on the public faith, to effect a settlement in the most dangerous frontiers of the British empire, to be deprived of the common privileges of all colonists. They complained that the land-holders in Georgia were prohibited from selling or leasing their possessions; that a tract containing fifty acres of the best lands was too small an allowance for the maintenance of a family, and much more so when they were refused the freedom to chuse it; that a much higher quit-rent was exacted from them than was paid for the best lands in America; that the importation of negroes was prohibited, and white people were utterly unequal to the labours requisite; that the public money granted yearly by parliament, for the relief of settlers and the improvement of the province, was misapplied, and therefore the wise purposes for which it was granted were by no means answered. That these inconveniencies and hardships kept them in a state of poverty and misery, and that the chief cause of all their calamities was the strict adherence of the Trustees to their chimerical and impracticable scheme of settlement, by which the people were refused the obvious means of subsistence, and cut off from all prospects of success.
We have already observed, that the laws and regulations even of the wisest men, founded on principles of speculation, have often proved to be foreign and impracticable. The Trustees had an example of this in the fundamental constitutions of John Locke. Instead of prescribing narrower limits to the industry and ambition of the Georgians, they ought to have learned wisdom from the case of the Proprietors of Carolina, and enlarged their plan with respect to both liberty and property. By such indulgence alone they could encourage emigrations, and animate the inhabitants to diligence and perseverance. The lands in Georgia, especially such as were first occupied, were sandy and barren; the hardships of clearing and cultivating them were great, the climate was unfavourable for labourers, and dangerous to European constitutions. The greater the difficulties were with which the settlers had to struggle, the more encouragement was requisite to surmount them. The plan of settlement ought to have arisen from the nature of the climate, country, and soil, and the circumstances of the settlers, and been the result of experience and not of speculation.
Hitherto Georgia had not only made small improvement in agriculture and trade, but her government was feeble and contemptible. At this time, by the avarice and ambition of a single family, the whole colony was brought to the very brink of destruction. As the concerns of these settlements are closely connected and interwoven with the affairs of Indian nations, it is impossible to attain proper views of the circumstances and situation of the people, without frequently taking notice of the relation in which they stood to their savage neighbours. A considerable branch of provincial commerce, as well as the safety of the colonists, depended on their friendship with Indians; and, to avoid all danger from their savage temper, no small share of prudence and courage was often requisite. This will appear more obvious from the following occurrence, which, because it is somewhat remarkable, we shall the more circumstantially relate.
[Sidenote] Troubles excited by Thomas Bosomworth.
I have already observed, that during the time General Oglethorpe had the direction of public affairs in Georgia, he had, from maxims of policy, treated an Indian woman, called Mary, with particular kindness and generosity. Finding that she had great influence among 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 an hundred pounds sterling a-year. This woman Thomas Bosomworth, who was chaplain to Oglethorpe's regiment, had married, and among the rest had accepted a track of land from the crown, and settled in the province. Finding that his wife laid claim to some islands on the sea-coast, which, by treaty, had been allotted the Indians as part of their hunting lands; to stock them he had purchased cattle from the planters of Carolina, from whom he obtained credit to a considerable amount. However, this plan not proving so successful as the proud and ambitious clergyman expected, he took to audacious methods of supporting his credit, and acquiring a fortune. His wife pretended to be descended in a maternal line from an Indian king, who held from nature the territories of the Creeks, and Bosomworth now persuaded her to assert her right to them, as superior not only to that of the Trustees, but also to that of the King. Accordingly Mary immediately assumed the title of an independent empress, disavowing all subjection or allegiance to the King of Great Britain, otherwise than by way of treaty and alliance, such as one independent sovereign might make with another. A meeting of all the Creeks was summoned, to whom Mary made a speech, setting forth the justice of her claim, and the great injury done to her and them by taking possession of their ancient territories, and stirring them up to defend their property by force of arms. The Indians immediately took fire, and to a man declared they would stand by her to the last drop of their blood in defence of their lands. In consequence of which Mary, with a large body of savages at her back, set out for Savanna, to demand a formal surrender of them from the president of the province. A messenger was despatched before hand, to acquaint him that Mary had assumed her right of sovereignty over the whole territories of the upper and lower Creeks, and to demand that all lands belonging to them be instantly relinquished; for as she was the hereditary and rightful queen of both nations, and could command every man of them to follow her, in case of refusal, she had determined to extirpate the settlement.
The president and council, alarmed at her high pretensions and bold threats, and sensible of her great power and influence with the savages, were not a little embarrassed what steps to take for the public safety. They determined to use soft and healing measures until an opportunity might offer of privately laying hold of her, and shipping her off to England. But, in the mean time, orders were sent to all the captains of the militia, to hold themselves in readiness to march to Savanna at an hour's warning. The town was put in the best posture of defence, but the whole militia in it amounted to no more than one hundred and seventy men, able to bear arms. A messenger was sent to Mary at the head of the Creeks, while several miles distant from town, to know whether she was serious in such wild pretensions, and to try to persuade her to dismiss her followers, and drop her audacious design. But finding her inflexible and resolute, the president resolved to put on a bold countenance, and receive the savages with firmness and resolution. The militia was ordered under arms, to overawe them as much as possible, and as the Indians entered the town, Captain Jones, at the head of his company of horse, stopped them, and demanded whether they came with hostile or friendly intentions? But receiving no satisfactory answer, he told them they must there ground their arms, for he had orders not to suffer a man of them armed to set his foot within the town. The savages with great reluctance submitted, and accordingly Thomas Bosomworth, in his canonical robes, with his queen by his side, followed by the various chiefs according to their rank, marched into town, making a formidable appearance. All the inhabitants were struck with terror at the sight of the fierce and mighty host. When they advanced to the parade, they found the militia drawn up under arms to receive them, who saluted them with fifteen cannon, and conducted them to the president's house. There Thomas and Adam Bosomworth being ordered to withdraw, the Indian chiefs, in a friendly manner, were called upon to declare their intention of visiting the town in so large a body, without being sent for by any person in lawful authority. The warriors, as they had been previously instructed, answered, that Mary was to speak for them, and that they would abide by her words. They had heard, they said, that she was to be sent like a captive over the great waters, and they were come to know on what account they were to lose their queen. They assured the president they intended no harm, and begged their arms might be restored; and, after consulting with Bosomworth and his wife, they would return and settle all public affairs. To please them their muskets were accordingly given back, but strict orders were issued to allow them no ammunition, until the council should see more clearly into their dark designs.
On the day following, the Indians having had some private conferences with their queen, began to be very surly, and to run in a mad and tumultuous manner up and down the streets, seemingly bent on some mischief. All the men being obliged to mount guard, the women were terrified to remain by themselves in their houses, expecting every moment to be murdered or scalped. During this confusion, a false rumour was spread, that they had cut off the president's head with a tomahawk, which so exasperated the inhabitants, that it was with difficulty the officers could prevent them from firing on the savages. To save a town from destruction, never was greater prudence requisite. Orders were given to the militia to lay hold of Bosomworth, and carry him out of the way into close confinement. Upon which Mary became outrageous and frantic, and insolently threatened vengeance against the magistrates and whole colony. She ordered every man of them to depart from her territories, and at their peril to refuse. She cursed General Oglethorpe and his fraudulent treaties, and, furiously stamping with her feet upon the ground, swore by her Maker that the whole earth on which she trode was her own. To prevent bribery, which she knew to have great weight with her warriors, she kept the leading men constantly in her eye, and would not suffer them to speak a word respecting public affairs but in her presence.
The president finding that no peaceable agreement could be made with the Indians while under the baleful eye and influence of their pretended queen privately laid hold of her, and put her under confinement with her husband. This step was necessary, before any terms of negotiation could be proposed. Having secured the chief promoters of the conspiracy, he then employed men acquainted with the Indian tongue to entertain the warriors in the most friendly and hospitable manner, and explain to them the wicked designs of Bosomworth and his wife. Accordingly a feast was prepared for all the chief leaders; at which they were informed, that Mr. Bosomworth had involved himself in debt, and wanted not only their lands, but also a large share of the royal bounty, to satisfy his creditors in Carolina: that the King's presents were only intended for Indians, on account of their useful services and firm attachment to him during the former wars: that the lands adjoining the town were reserved for them to encamp upon, when they should come to visit their beloved friends at Savanna, and the three maritime islands to hunt upon, when they should come to bathe in the salt waters: that neither Mary nor her husband had any right to those lands, which were the common property of the Creek nations: that the great King had ordered the president to defend their right to them, and expected that all his subjects, both white and red, would live together like brethren; in short that he would suffer no man or woman to molest or injure them, and had ordered these words to be left on record, that their children might know them when they were dead and gone.
Such policy produced the desired effect, and many of the chieftains being convinced that Bosomworth had deceived them, declared they would trust him no more. Even Malatchee, the leader of the Lower Creeks, and a relation to their pretended empress, seemed satisfied, and was not a little pleased to hear, that the great King had sent them some valuable present. Being asked why he acknowledged Mary as the Empress of the great nation of Creeks, and resigned his power and possessions to a despicable old woman, while all Georgia owned him as a chief of the nation, and the president and council were now to give him many rich clothes and medals for his services? He replied, that the whole nation acknowledged her as their Queen, and none could distribute the royal presents but one of her family. The president by this answer perceiving more clearly the design of the family of Bosomworth, to lessen their influence, and shew the Indians that he had power to divide the royal bounty among the chiefs, determined to do it immediately, and dismiss them, and the hardships the inhabitants underwent, in keeping guard night and day for the defence of the town.
In the mean time Malatchee, whom the Indians compared to the wind, because of his fickle and variable temper, having, at his own request, obtained access to Bosomworth and his wife, was again seduced and drawn over to support their chimerical claim. While the Indians were gathered together to receive their respective shares of the royal bounty; he stood up in the midst of them, and with a frowning countenance, and in violent agitation of spirit, delivered a speech fraught with the most dangerous insinuations. He protested, that Mary possessed that country before General Oglethorpe; and that all the lands belonged to her as Queen, and head of the Creeks; that it was by her permission Englishmen were at first allowed to set their foot on them; that they still held them of her as the original proprietor; that her words were the voice of the whole nation, consisting of above three thousand warriors, and at her command every one of them would take up the hatchet in defence of her right; and then pulling out a paper out of his pocket, he delivered it to the president in confirmation of what he had said. This was evidently the production of Bosomworth, and served to discover in the plainest manner, his ambitious views and wicked intrigues. The preamble was filled with the names of Indians, called kings, of all the towns of the Upper and Lower Creeks, none of whom, however, were present, excepting two. The substance of it corresponded with Malatchee's speech; styling Mary the rightful princess and chief of their nation, descended in a maternal line from the emperor, and invested with full power and authority from them to settle and finally determine all public affairs and causes, relating to lands and other things, with King George and his beloved men on both sides of the sea, and whatever should be said or done by her, they would abide by, as if said or done by themselves.
After reading this paper in council, the whole board were struck with astonishment; and Malatchee, perceiving their uneasiness, begged to have it again, declaring he did not know it to be a bad talk, and promising he would return it immediately to the person from whom he had received it. To remove all impression made on the minds of the Indians by Malatchee's speech, and convince them of the deceitful and dangerous tendency of this confederacy into which Bosomworth and his wife had betrayed them, had now become a matter of the highest consequence; happy was it for the province this was a thing neither difficult nor impracticable; for as ignorant savages are easily misled on the one hand, so, on the other, it was equally easy to convince them of their error. Accordingly, having gathered the Indians together for this purpose, the president addressed them to the following effect. "Friends and brothers, when Mr. Oglethorpe and his people first arrived in Georgia, they found Mary, then the wife of John Musgrove, living in a small hut at Yamacraw, having a licence from the Governor of South Carolina to trade with Indians. She then appeared to be in a poor ragged condition, and was neglected and despised by the Creeks. But Mr. Oglethorpe finding that she could speak both the English and Creek languages, employed her as an interpreter, richly clothed her, and made her the woman of the consequence she now appears. The people of Georgia always respected her until she married Thomas Bosomworth, but from that time she has proved a liar and a deceiver. In fact, she was no relation of Malatchee, but the daughter of an Indian woman of no note, by a white man. General Oglethorpe did not treat with her for the lands of Georgia, she having none of her own, but with the old and wise leaders of the Creek nation, who voluntarily surrendered their territories to the King. The Indians at that time having much waste land, that was useless to themselves, parted with a share of it to their friends, and were glad that white people had settled among them to supply their wants. He told them that the present bad humour of the Creeks had been artfully infused into them by Mary, at the instigation of her husband, who owed four hundred pounds sterling in Carolina for cattle; that he demanded a third part of the royal bounty, in order to rob the naked Indians of their right; that he had quarrelled with the president and council of Georgia for refusing to answer his exorbitant demands, and therefore had filled the heads of Indians with wild fancies and groundless jealousies, in order to breed mischief, and induce them to break their alliances with their best friends, who alone were able to supply their wants, and defend them against all their enemies." Here the Indians desired him to stop, and put an end to the contest, declaring that their eyes were now opened, and they saw through his insidious design. But though he intended to break the chain of friendship, they were determined to hold it fast, and therefore begged that all might immediatly smoke the pipe of peace. Accordingly pipes and rum were brought, and the whole congress, joining hand in hand, drank and smoked together in friendship, every one wishing that their hearts might be united in like manner as their hands. Then all the royal presents, except ammunition, with which is was judged imprudent to trust them until they were at some distance from town, were brought and distributed among them. The most disaffected were purchased with the largest presents. Even Malatchee himself seemed fully contented with his share, and the savages in general perceiving the poverty and insignificance of the family of Bosomworth, and their total inability to supply their wants, determined to break off all connection with them for ever.
While the president and council flattered themselves that all differences were amicably compromised, and were rejoicing in the re-establishment of their former friendly intercourse with the Creeks, Mary, drunk with liquor, and disappointed in her views, came rushing in among them like a fury, and told the president that these were her people, that he had no business with them, and he should soon be convinced of it to his cost. The president calmly advised her to keep to her lodgings, and forbear to poison the minds of Indians, otherwise he would order her again into close confinement. Upon which turning about to Malatchee in great rage, she told him what the president had said, who instantly started from his seat, laid hold of his arms, and then calling upon the rest to follow his example, dared any man to touch his 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 deliver up their arms. Such courage was not only necessary to overawe them, but at the same time great prudence was also requisite, to avoid coming to extremities with them. With reluctance the Indians submitted, and Mary was conveyed to a private room, where a guard was set over her, and all further intercourse with savages denied her during their stay in Savanna. Then her husband was sent for, in order to reason with him and convince him of the folly of his chimerical pretensions, and of the dangerous consequences that might result from persisting in them. But no sooner did he appear before the president and council, than he began to abuse them to their face. In spite of every argument used to persuade him to submission, he remained obstinate and contumacious, and protested he would stand forth in vindication of his wife's right to the last extremity, and that the province of Georgia should soon feel the weight of her vengeance. Finding that fair means were fruitless and ineffectual, the council then determined to remove him also out of the way of the savages, and to humble him by force. After having secured the two leaders, it only then remained to persuade the Indians peaceably to leave the town, and return to their settlements. Captain Ellick, a young warrior, who had distinguished himself in discovering to his tribe the base intrigues of Bosomworth, being afraid to accompany Malatchee and his followers, thought fit to set out among the first: the rest followed him in different parties, and the inhabitants, wearied out with constant watching, and harassed with frequent alarms, were at length happily relieved.
[Sidenote] With difficulty settled.
By this time Adam Bosomworth, another brother of the family, who was agent for Indian affairs in Carolina, had arrived from that province, and being made acquainted with what had passed in Georgia, was filled with shame and indignation. He found his ambitious brother, not contented with the common allowance of land granted by the crown, aspiring after sovereignty, and attempting to obtain by force one of the largest landed estates in the world. His plot was artfully contrived, and had it been executed with equal courage, fatal must the consequence have been. Had he taken possession of the provincial magazine on his arrival at Savanna, and supplied the Creeks with ammunition, the militia must soon have been overpowered, and every family must of course have fallen a sacrifice to the indiscriminate vengeance of savages. Happily, by the interposition of his brother, all differences were peaceably compromised. Thomas Bosomworth at length having returned to sober reflection, began to repent of his folly, and to ask pardon of the magistrates and people. He wrote to the president, acquainting him that he was now deeply sensible of his duty as a subject, and of the respect he owed to civil authority, and could no longer justify the conduct of his wife; but hoped that her present remorse, and past services to the province, would entirely blot out the remembrance of her unguarded expressions and rash design. He appealed to the letters of General Oglethorpe for her former irreproachable conduct, and steady friendship to the settlement, and hoped her good behaviour for the future would atone for her past offences, and reinstate her in the public favour. For his own part, he acknowledged her title to be groundless, and for ever relinquished all claim to the lands of the province. The colonists generously forgave and forgot all that had past; and public tranquillity being re-established, new settlers applied for lands as usual, without meeting any more obstacles from the idle claims of Indian queens and chieftains.
[Sidenote] The charter surrendered to the King.
The Trustees of Georgia finding that the province languished under their care, and weary of the complaints of the people, in the year 1752 surrendered their charter to the King, and it was made a royal government. In consequence of which his Majesty appointed John Reynolds, an officer of the navy, Governor of the province, and a legislature similar to that of the other royal governments in America was established in it. Great had been the expence which the mother country had already incurred, besides private benefactions, for supporting this colony; and small had been the returns yet made by it. The vestiges of cultivation were scarcely perceptible in the forest, and in England all commerce with it was neglected and despised. At this time the whole annual exports of Georgia did not amount to ten thousand pounds sterling. Though the people were now favoured with the same liberties and privileges enjoyed by their neighbours under the royal care, yet several years more elapsed before the value of the lands in Georgia was known, and that spirit of industry broke out in it which afterwards diffused its happy influence over the country.
[Sidenote] George Whitfield's settlement.
In the annals of Georgia the famous George Whitfield may not be unworthy of some notice, especially as the world through which he wandered has heard so much of his Orphan-house built in that province. Actuated by religious motives, this wanderer several times passed the Atlantic to convert the Americans, whom he addressed in such a manner as if they had been all equal strangers to the privileges and benefits of religion with the original inhabitants of the forest. However, his zeal never led him beyond the maritime parts of America, through which he travelled, spreading what he called the true evangelical faith among the most populous towns and villages. One would have imagined that the heathens, or at least those who were most destitute of the means of instruction, would have been the primary and most proper objects of his zeal and compassion; but this was far from being the case. However, wherever he went in America, as in Britain, he had multitudes of followers. When he first visited Charlestown, Alexander Garden, a man of some sense and erudition, who was the episcopal clergyman of that place, to put the people upon their guard, took occasion to point out to them the pernicious tendency of Whitfield's wild doctrines and irregular manner of life. He represented him as a religious impostor or quack, who had an excellent knack of setting off to advantage his poisonous tenets. On the other hand, Whitfield, who had been accustomed to bear reproach and face opposition, recriminated with double acrimony and greater success. While Alexander Garden, to keep his flock from straying after this strange pastor, expatiated on the words of Scripture, "Those that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." Whitfield, with all the force of comic humour and wit for which he was so much distinguished, by way of reply, enlarged on these words, "Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works." In short, the pulpit was perverted by both into the mean purposes of spite and malevolence, and every one catching a share of the infection, spoke of the clergymen as they were differently affected.
[Sidenote] Whitfield's Orphan-house.
In Georgia Whitfield having obtained a track of land from the Trustees, erected a wooden house two stories high, the dimensions of which were seventy feet by forty, upon a sandy beach nigh the sea-shore. This house, which he called the Orphan-House, he began to build about the year 1740, and afterwards finished it at a great expense. It was intended to be a lodging for poor children, where they were to be clothed and fed by charitable contributions, and and trained up in the knowledge and practice of the Christian religion. The design, beyond doubt, was humane and laudable; but, perhaps, had he travelled over the whole earth, he could scarcely have found out a spot of ground upon it more improper for the purpose. The whole province of Georgia could not furnish him with a track of land of the same extent more barren and unprofitable. To this house poor children were to be sent from at least a healthy country, to be supported partly by charity, and partly by the produce of this land cultivated by negroes. Nor was the climate better suited to the purpose than the soil, for it is certain, before the unwholesome marshes around the house were fertilized, the influences of both air and water must have conspired to the children's destruction.
However, Whitfield having formed his chimerical project, determined to accomplish it, and, instead of bring discouraged by obstacles and difficulties, gloried in despising them. He wandered through the British empire, persuaded the ignorant and credulous part of the world of the excellence of his design, and obtained from them money, clothes, and books, to forward his undertaking, and supply his poor orphans in Georgia. About thirty years after this wooden house was finished it was burned to the ground; during which time, if I am well informed, few or none of the children educated in it have proved either useful members of society, or exemplary in respect to religion. Some say the fire was occasioned by a foul chimney, and others by a flash of lightning; but whatever was the cause, it burnt with such violence that little of either the furniture or library escaped the flames. When I saw the ruins of this fabric, I could not help reflecting on that great abuse of the fruits of charity too prevalent in the world. That money which was sunk here had been collected chiefly from the poorest class of mankind. Most of those bibles which were here burnt had been extorted from indigent and credulous persons, who perhaps had not money to purchase more for themselves. Happy was it for the zealous founder of this institution, that he did not live to see the ruin of his works. After his death he was brought from New-England, above eight hundred miles, and buried at this Orphan-house. In his last will he left Lady Huntingdon sole executrix, who has now converted the lands and negroes belonging to the poor benefactors of Great Britain and her dominions, to the support of clergymen of the same irregular stamp with the deceased, but void of his shining talents, and it is become a seminary of dissension and sedition.
[Sidenote] Sketch of his character.
As George Whitfield appeared in such different lights in the successive stages of life, it is no easy matter to delineate his character without an uncommon mixture and vast variety of colours. He was in the British empire not unlike one of those strange and erratic meteors which appear now and then in the system of nature. In his youth, as he often confessed and lamented, he was gay, giddy and profligate; so fondly attached to the stage, that he joined a company of strolling actors and vagabonds, and spent a part of his life in that capacity. At this period it is probable he learned that grimace, buffoonery and gesticulation which he afterwards displayed from the pulpit. From an abandoned and licentious course of life he was converted; and, what is no uncommon thing, from one extreme he run into the other, and became a most zealous and indefatigable teacher of religion. Having studied some time at Oxford, he received ordination in the church of England; yet he submitted to none of the regulations of that or any other church, but became a preacher in churches, meeting-houses, halls, fields, in all places, and to all denominations, without exception. Though little distinguished for genius or learning, yet he possessed a lively imagination, much humour, and had acquired considerable knowledge of human nature and the manners of the world. His pretensions to humanity and benevolence were great, yet he would swell with venom, like a snake, against opposition and contradiction. His reading was inconsiderable, and mankind being the object of his study, he could, when he pleased, raise the passions, and touch the tone of the human heart to great perfection. By this affecting eloquence and address he impressed on the minds of many, especially of the more soft and delicate sex, such a strong sense of sin and guilt as often plunged them into dejection and despair. As his custom was to frequent those larger cities and towns, that are commonly best supplied with the means of instruction, it would appear that the love of fame and popular applause was his leading passion; yet in candour it must be acknowledged, that he always discovered a warm zeal for the honour of God and the happiness of men. While he was almost worshipped by the vulgar, men of superior rank and erudition found him the polite gentleman, and the facetious and jocular companion. Though he loved good cheer, and frequented the houses of the rich or more hospitable people of America, yet he was an enemy to all manner of excess and intemperance. While his vagrant temper led him from place to place, his natural discernment enabled him to form no bad judgment of the characters and manners of men wherever he went. Though he appeared a friend to no established church, yet good policy winked at all his irregularities, as he every where proved a steady friend to monarchy and the civil constitution. He knew well how to keep up the curiosity of the multitude, and his roving manner stamped a kind of novelty on his instructions. When exposed to the taunts of the scoffer, and the ridicule of the flagitious, he remained firm to his purpose, and could even retort these weapons with astonishing ease and dexterity, and render vice abashed under the lash of his satire and wit. Sometimes, indeed, he made little scruple of consigning over to damnation such as differed from him or despised him; yet he was not entirely devoid of liberality of sentiment. To habitual sinners his address was for the most part applicable and powerful, and with equal ease could alarm the secure, and confirm the unsteady. Though, in prayer, he commonly addressed the second person of the Trinity in a familiar and fulsome style, and in his sermons used many ridiculous forms of speech, and told many of his own wonderful works, yet these seemed only shades to set off to greater advantage the lustre of his good qualities. In short, though it is acknowledged he had many oddities and failings, and was too much the slave of party and vain-glory, yet in justice it cannot be denied, that religion in America owed not a little to the zeal, diligence, and oratory, of this extraordinary man.
Having said so much with respect to the character which Mr. Whitfield bore in America, if we view the effects of his example and manner of life in that country, he will appear to us in a less favourable light. His great ambition was to be the founder of a new sect, regulated entirely by popular fancy and caprice, depending on the gifts of nature, regardless of the improvements of education and all ecclesiastical laws and institutions. Accordingly, after him a servile race of ignorant and despicable imitators sprung up, and wandered from place to place, spreading doctrines subversive of all public order and peace. We acknowledge the propriety and justice of allowing every reasonable indulgence to men in matters of religion. The laws of toleration being part of our happy constitution, it lies with men to learn their duty from them, and claim protection under them. But after a church has been erected and established by the most skilful architects, and for ages received the approbation of the wisest and best men, it serves only to create endless confusion to be making alterations and additions to gratify the fancy of every Gothic pretender to that art. Though Whitfield was in fact a friend to civil government, yet his followers on that continent have been distinguished for the contrary character, and have for the most part discovered an aversion to our constitution both of church and state. Toleration to men who remain peaceable subjects to the state is reasonable; but dissention, when it grows lawless and headstrong, is dangerous, and summons men in general to take shelter under the constitution, that the salutary laws of our country may be executed by its united strength. No man ought to claim any lordship over the conscience; but when the consciences of obstinate sectaries become civil nuisances, and destructive of public tranquillity, they ought to be restrained by legal authority. For certainly human laws, if they have not the primary, have, or ought to have, a secondary power to restrain the irregular and wild excesses of men in religious as well as in civil matters.
[Sidenote] A congress with Creeks.
About the year 1752 the flames of war broke out among some Indian nations, which threatened to involve the province of Carolina in the calamity. The Creeks having quarrelled with their neighbours for permitting some Indians to pass through their country to wage war against them, by way of revenge had killed some Cherokees nigh the gates of Charlestown. A British trader to the Chickesaw nation had likewise been scalped by a party of warriors belonging to the same nation. Governor Glen, in order to demand satisfaction for these outrages, sent a messenger to the Creeks, requesting a conference at Charlestown with their leading men. The Creeks returned for answer, that they were willing to meet him, but as the path had not been open and safe for some time, they could not enter the settlement without a guard to escort them. Upon which the Governor sent fifty horsemen, who met them at the confines of their territories, and convoyed Malatchee, with above an hundred of his warriors, to Charlestown.
[Sidenote] The governor's speech to them.
As they arrived on Sunday the Governor did not summon his council until the day following, to hold a congress with them. At this meeting a number of gentlemen were present, whom curiosity had drawn together to see the warriors and hear their speeches. When they entered the council-chamber the Governor arose and took them by the hand, signifying that he was glad to see them, and then addressed them to the following effect: "Being tied together by the most solemn treaties, I call you by the beloved names of friends and brothers. In the name of the great King George I have sent for you, on business of the greatest consequence to your nation. I would have received you yesterday on your arrival, but it was a beloved day, dedicated to repose and the concerns of a future life. I am sorry to hear that you have taken up the hatchet, which I flattered myself had been for ever buried. It is my desire to have the chain brightened and renewed, not only between you and the English, but also between you and other Indian nations. You are all our friends, and I could wish that all Indians in friendship with us were also friends one with another. You have complained to me of the Cherokees permitting the northern Indians to come through their country to war against you, and supplying them with provisions and ammunition for that purpose. The Cherokees, on the other hand, alledge, that it is not in their power to prevent them, and declare, that while their people happen to be out hunting those northern Indians come in to their towns well armed, and in such numbers that they are not able to resist them.
"I propose that a treaty of friendship and peace be concluded first with the English, and then with the Cherokees, in such a manner as may render it durable. Some of your people have from smaller crimes proceeded to greater. First, they waylaid the Cherokees, and killed one of them in the midst of our settlements; then they came to Charlestown, where some Cherokees at the same time happened to be, and though I cautioned them, and they promised to do no mischief, yet the next day they assaulted and murdered several of them nigh the gates of this town. For these outrages I have sent for you, to demand satisfaction; and also for the murder committed in one of your towns, for which satisfaction was made by the death of another person, and not of the murderer. For the future, I acquaint you, that nothing will be deemed as satisfaction for the lives of our people, but the lives of these persons themselves who shall be guilty of the murder. The English never make treaties of friendship but with the greatest deliberation, and when made observe them with the strictest punctuality. They are, at the same time vigilant, and will not suffer other nations to infringe the smallest article of such treaties. It would tend to the happiness of your people were you equally careful to watch against the beginnings of evil; for sometimes a small spark, if not attended to, may kindle a great fire; and a slight sore, if suffered to spread, may endanger the whole body. Therefore, I have sent for you to prevent farther mischief, and I hope you come disposed to give satisfaction for the outrages already committed, and to promise and agree to maintain peace and friendship with your neighbours for the future."
[Sidenote: Malatchee's answer.] This speech delivered to the Indians was interpreted by Lachlan McGilvray, an Indian trader, who understood their language. After which Malatchee, the king of the Lower Creek nation, stood forth, and with a solemnity and dignity of manner that astonished all present, in answer, addressed the Governor to the following effect: "I never had the honour to see the great King George, nor to hear his talk—But you are in his place—I have heard yours, and I like it well—Your sentiments are agreeable to my own—The great King wisely judged, that the best way of maintaining friendship between white and red people was by trade and commerce: —He knew we are poor, and want many things, and that skins are all we have to give in exchange for what we want—I have ordered my people to bring you some as a present, and, in the name of our nation, I lay them at your Excellency's feet—You have sent for us—we are come to hear what you have to say—But I did not expect to hear our whole nation accused for the faults of a few private men—Our head-men neither knew nor approved of the mischief done—We imagined our young men had gone a-hunting as usual—When we heard what had happened at Charlestown, I knew you would send and demand satisfaction—When your agent came and told me what satisfaction you required, I owned the justice of it—But it was not adviseable for me alone to grant it—It was prudent to consult with our beloved men, and have their advice in a matter of such importance—We met—we found that the behaviour of some of our people had been bad—We found that blood had been spilt at your gates—We thought it just that satisfaction should he made—We turned our thoughts to find out the chief persons concerned; (for a man will sometimes employ another to commit a crime he does not chuse to be guilty of himself) —We found the Acorn Whistler was the chief contriver and promoter of the mischief—We agreed that he was the man that ought to suffer—Some of his relations, who are here present, then said he deserved death, and voted for it—Accordingly he was put to death—He was a very great warrior, and had many friends and relations in different parts of the country—We thought it prudent to conceal for some time the true reason of his death, which was known only to the head men that concerted it—We did this for fear some of his friends in the heat of fury would take revenge on some of your traders—At a general meeting all matters were explained—The reasons of his death were made known—His relations approved of all that was done.—Satisfaction being made, I say no more about that matter—I hope our friendship with the English will continue as heretofore.
"As to the injuries done to the Cherokees, which you spoke of, we are sorry for them—We acknowledge our young men do many things they ought not to do, and very often act like madmen—But it is well known I and the other head warriors did all we could to oblige them to make restitution—I rode from town to town with Mr. Bosomworth and his wife to assist them in this matter—Most of the things taken have been restored—When this was over, another accident happened which created fresh troubles—A Chickesaw who lived in our nation; in a drunken fit shot a white man—I knew you would demand satisfaction—I thought it best to give it before it was asked—The murder was committed at a great distance from me—I mounted my horse and rode through the towns with your agent—I took the head men of every town along with me—We went to the place and demanded satisfaction—It was given—The blood of the Indian was spilt for the blood of a white man—The uncle of the murderer purchased his life, and voluntarily killed himself in his stead—Now I have done—I am glad to see you face to face to settle those matters—it is good to renew treaties of friendship—I shall always be glad to call you friends and brothers."
This speech throws no small light on the judicial proceedings of barbarous nations, and shews that human nature in its rudest state possesses a strong sense of right and wrong. Although Indians have little property, yet here we behold their chief magistrate protecting what they have, and, in cases of robbery, acknowledging the necessity of making restitution. They indeed chiefly injure one another in their persons or reputations, and in all cases of murder the guilty are brought to trial and condemned to death by the general consent of the nation. Even the friends and relations of the murderer here voted for his death. But what is more remarkable, they give us an instance of an atonement made, and justice satisfied, by the substitution of an innocent man in place of the guilty. An uncle voluntarily and generously offers to die in the place of his nephew, the savages accept of the offer, and in consequence of his death declare that satisfaction is made. Next to personal defence, the Indian guards his character and reputation; for as it is only from the general opinion his nation entertains of his wisdom, justice and valour, that he can expect to arrive at rank and distinction, he is exceedingly watchful against doing any thing for which he may incur public blame or disgrace. In this answer to Governor Glen, Malatchee discovers considerable talents as a public speaker, and appears to be insensible neither to his own dignity and freedom, not to the honour and independence of his nation. Genius and liberty are the gifts of heaven; the former is universal as that space over which it has scope to range, the latter inspires confidence, and gives a natural confidence to our words and actions.
During the months of June, July, and August, 1752, the weather in Carolina was warmer than any of the inhabitants then alive had ever felt it, and the mercury in the shade often arose above the nintieth, and at one time was observed at the hundred and first degree of the thermometer; and, at the same time, when exposed to the sun, and suspended at the distance of five feet from the ground, it arose above the hundred and twentieth division. By this excessive heat the air becomes greatly rarified, and a violent hurricane commonly comes and restores the balance in the atmosphere. In such a case the wind usually proceeds from the north-east, directly opposite to the point from which it had long blown before. Those storms indeed seldom happen except in seasons when there has been little thunder, when the weather has been long exceeding dry and intolerably hot, and though they occasion damages to some individuals, there is reason to believe that they are wisely ordered, and productive upon the whole of good and salutary effects. Among the close and dark recesses of the woods the air stagnates, and requires some violent storm to clear it of putrid effluvia, and render it fit for respiration. At the same time the earth emits vapours which in a few days causes the finest polished metals to rust. To penetrate through the thick forest, and restore the air to a salubrious state, hurricanes may be useful and necessary. And as such storms have been observed to be productive of good effects, the want of them for many years together may be deemed a great misfortune by the inhabitants, especially such as are exposed to the noon-day heat, to the heavy fogs that fall every morning and evening, and all the severities of the climate.
It is not improbable that the maritime parts of Carolina have been forsaken by the sea. Though you dig ever so deep in those places you find no stones or rocks, but every where sand or beds of shells. As a small decrease of water will leave so flat a country entirely bare, so a small increase will again cover it. The coast is not only very level, but the dangerous hurricanes commonly proceed from the north-east; and as the stream of the Gulf of Florida flows rapidly towards the same point, this large body of water, when obstructed by the tempest, recurs upon the shore, and overflows the country.
[Sidenote] A hurricane at Charlestown.
In the month of September, 1752, a dreadful hurricane happened at Charlestown. In the night before, it was observed by the inhabitants that the wind at north-east began to blow hard, and continued increasing in violence till next morning. Then the sky appeared wild and cloudy, and it began to drizzle and rain. About nine o'clock the flood came rolling in with great impetuosity, and in a little time rose ten feet above high water mark at the highest tides. As usual in such cases, the town was overflown, and the streets were covered with boats, boards, and wrecks of houses and ships. Before eleven all the ships in the harbour were driven ashore, and sloops and schooners were dashing against the houses of Bay-Street, in which great quantities of goods were damaged and destroyed. Except the Hornet man of war, which by cutting away her masts, rode out the storm, no vessel escaped being damaged or wrecked. The tremor and consternation which seized the inhabitants may be more easily conceived than expressed. Finding themselves in the midst of a tempestuous sea, and expecting the tide to flow till one o'clock, its usual hour, at eleven they retired to the upper stories of their houses, and there remained despairing of life. At this critical time Providence however mercifully interposed, and surprised them with a sudden and unexpected deliverance. Soon after eleven the wind shifted, in consequence of which the waters fell five feet in the space of ten minutes. By this happy change the Gulf stream, stemmed by the violent blast, had freedom to run in its usual course, and the town was saved from imminent danger and destruction. Had the water continued to rise, and the tide to flow until its usual hour, every inhabitant of Charlestown must have perished. Almost all the tiled and slated houses were uncovered, several persons were hurt, and some were drowned. The fortifications and wharfs were almost entirely demolished: the provisions in the field, in the maritime parts, were destroyed, and numbers of cattle and hogs perished in the waters. The pest-house in Sullivan's island, built of wood, with fifteen persons in it, was carried several miles up Cooper river, and nine out of the fifteen were drowned. In short, such is the low situation of Charlestown, that it is subject to be destroyed at any time by such an inundation, and the frequent warnings the people have had may justly fill them with a deep sense of their dependent condition, and with constant gratitude to Providence for their preservation.
[Sidenote] The advantages of poor settlers in the province.
We have seen the hardships under which the Carolineans laboured from the hot climate and low situation of the province, it may not be improper to take a view of those advantages afforded them which served to animate them amidst such difficulties to industry and perseverance. In that growing colony, where there are vast quantities of land unoccupied, the poorest class of people have many opportunities and advantages, from which they are entirely excluded in countries fully peopled and highly improved. During the first years of occupancy they are indeed exposed to many dangers in providing for themselves and families an habitation for a shelter against the rigours of the climate, and in clearing fields for raising the necessaries of life. But when they have the good fortune to surmount the hardships of the first years of cultivation, the inconveniencies gradually decrease in proportion to their improvements. The merchants being favoured with credit from Britain, are enabled to extend it to the swarm of labourers in the country. The planters having established their characters for honesty and industry, obtain hands to assist them in the harder tasks of clearing and cultivation. Their wealth consists in the increase of their slaves, stock and improvements. Having abundance of waste land, they can extend their culture in proportion to their capital. They live almost entirely on the produce of their estates, and consequently spend but a small part of their annual income. The surplus is yearly added to the capital, and they enlarge their prospects in proportion to their wealth and strength. At market if there be a great demand for the commodities they raise, this is an additional advantage, and renders their progress rapid beyond their most sanguine expectations; they labour, and they receive more and more encouragement to persevere, until they advance to an easy and comfortable state. It has been observed, on the other hand, that few or none of those emigrants that brought much property along with them have ever succeeded in that country.
[Sidenote] The advantages of money lenders.
Or, if the poor emigrant be an artificer, and chuses to follow his trade, the high price of labour is no less encouraging. By the indulgence of the merchants, or by the security of a friend, he obtains credit for a few negroes. He learns them his trade, and a few good tradesmen, well employed, are equal to a small estate. Having got some hands, instead of a labourer he becomes an undertaker, and enters into contract with his employer, to erect his house; to build his ship; to furnish his plantations with shoes, or the capital with bricks. In a little time he acquires some money, and, like several others in the city whose yearly gain exceeds what is requisite for the support of themselves and families, lays it out on interest. Ten and eightper cent.being given for money, proved a great temptation, and induced many, who were averse from the trouble of settling plantations, or were unable to bestow that attention to them which they demanded, to take this method of increasing their fortune. If the moneylender followed his employment in the capital, or reserved in his hands a sufficiency for family use, and allowed the interest to be added yearly to the capital stock, his fortune increased fast, and soon became considerable. Several persons preferred this method of accumulating riches to that of cultivation, especially those whom age or infirmity had rendered unfit for action and fatigue.
Notwithstanding the extensive credit commonly allowed the planting interest by the merchants, the number of borrowers always exceeded that of the lenders of money. Having vast extent of territory, the planters were eager to obtain numbers of labourers, which raised the demand for money, and kept up the high rate of interest. The interest of money in every country is for the most part according to the demand, and the demand according to the profits made by the use of it. The profits must always be great where men can afford to take money at the rate of eight and tenper cent.and allow it to remain in their hands upon compound interest. In Carolina labourers on good lands cleared their first cost and charges in a few years, and therefore great was the demand for money in order to procure them.
[Sidenote] And of the borrowers.
Let us next take a view of those advantages in favour of the borrower of money. His landed estate he obtained from the Crown. The quit-rents and taxes were trifling and inconsiderable. Being both landlord and farmer he had perfect liberty to manage and improve his plantation as he pleased, and was accountable to none but himself for any of the fruits of his industry. His estate furnished him with game and fish, which he had freedom to kill and use at pleasure. In the woods his cattle, hogs and horses grazed at their ease, attended perhaps only by a negro boy. If his sheep did not thrive well, he had calves, hogs and poultry in abundance for the use of his family. All his able labourers he could turn to the field, and exert his strength in railing his staple commodity. The low country being every where interspersed with navigable rivers and creeks, the expence of conveying his rice to the market, which otherwise would have been intolerable, was thereby rendered easy. Having provisions from his estate to support his family and labourers, he applies his whole staple commodities for the purposes of answering the demands of the merchant and moneylender. He expects that his annual produce will not only answer those demands against him, but also bring an addition to his capital, and enable him to extend his hand still farther in the way of improvement. Hence it happened, that in proportion as the merchants extended credit to the planters, and supplied them with labourers for their lands, the profits returned to the capital yearly according to the increased number of hands employed in cultivation.
It is no easy thing to enumerate all the advantages of water carriage to a fruitful and commercial province. The lands are rendered more valuable by being situated on navigable creeks and rivers. The planters who live fifty miles from the capital, are at little more expence in sending their provisions and produce to its market, than those who live within five miles of it. The town is supplied with plenty of provisions, and its neighbourhood prevented from enjoying a monopoly of its market. By this general and unlimited competition the price of provisions is kept low, and while the money arising from them circulates equally and universally through the country, it contributes, in return, to its improvement. The planters have not only water carriage to the market far their staple commodities, but on their arrival the merchant again commits them to the general tide of commerce, and receives in return what the world affords profitable to himself, and useful to the country in which he lives. Hence it happened, that no town was better supplied than Charlestown with all the necessaries, conveniencies, and luxuries of life.
[Sidenote] Great benefits enjoyed by colonists.
Besides these advantages arising from good lands given them by the Crown, the Carolineans received protection to trade, a ready market, drawbacks and bounties, by their political and commercial connection with the mother country. The duties laid on many articles of foreign manufacture on their importation into Britain were drawn back, sometimes the whole, almost always a great part, on their exportation to the colonies. These drawbacks were always in favour of the consumers, and supplied the provincial markets with foreign goods at a rate equally cheap as if they had been immediately imported from the place where they were manufactured. Hence the colonists were exempted from those heavy duties which their fellow-subjects in Britain were obliged to pay, on most articles of foreign manufacture which they consumed. Besides, upon the arrival of such goods in the country, the planters commonly had twelve months credit from the provincial merchant, who was satisfied with payment once in the year from all his customers. So that to the consumers in Carolina, East-India goods, German manufactures, Spanish, Portugal, Madeira and Fyal wines came cheaper than to those in Great Britain. We have known coals, salt, and other articles brought by way of ballast, sold cheaper in Charlestown than in London.
But the colonists had not only those drawbacks on foreign goods imported, but they were also allowed bounties on several articles of produce exported. For the encouragement of her colonies Great Britain laid high duties on several articles imported from foreign countries, and gave the colonists premiums and bounties on the same commodities. The planting tobacco was prohibited in England, in order to encourage it in America. The bounties on naval stores, indigo, hemp, and raw silk, while they proved an encouragement to industry, all terminated in favour of the plantations. Nor ought the Carolineans to forget the perfect freedom they enjoyed with respect to their trade with the West Indies, where they found a convenient and most excellent market for their Indian corn, rice, lumber, and salt provisions, and in return had rum, unclayed sugar, coffee and molasses much cheaper than their fellow-subjects in Britain. I mention these things because many of the colonists are ignorant of the privileges and advantages they enjoy; for, upon a general view of their circumstances, and a comparison of their case with that of their fellow-subjects in Britain and Ireland, they must find they had much ground for contentment, and none for complaint.
Another circumstance we may mention to which few have paid sufficient attention. It is true, Great Britain had laid the colonists under some restraints with respect to their domestic manufactures and their trade to foreign ports, but however much such a system of policy might affect the more northern colonies, it was at this time rather serviceable than prejudicial to Carolina. It served to direct the views of the people to the culture of lands, which was both more profitable to themselves and beneficial to the mother country. Though they had plenty of beaver skins, and a few hats were manufactured from them, yet the price of labour was so high, that the merchant could send the skins to England, import hats made of them, and undersell the manufacturers of Carolina. The province also furnished some wool and cotton, but before they could be made into cloth, they cost the consumer more money than the merchant demanded for the same goods imported. The province afforded leather, but before it could be prepared and made into shoes, the price was equally high, and often higher, than that of shoes imported from Britain. In like manner, with respect to many other articles, it would be for the advantage of the province as well as mother country to export the raw materials and import the goods manufactured. For while the inhabitants of Carolina can employ their hands to more advantage in cultivating waste land, it will be their interest never to wear a woollen or linen rag of their own manufacture, to drive a nail of their own forging, nor use any sort of plate, iron, brass or stationary wares of their own making. Until the province shall grow more populous, cultivation is the most profitable employment, and the labourer injures himself and family by preferring the less to the more profitable branch of industry.