The Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. Alexander Hewatt
were willing to accept of grants in the neighbourhood of Indian savages. By this time several of the settlers in Virginia and Barbadoes had been successful, and having surmounted the difficulties attending the first state of colonization, were living in easy and plentiful circumstances. The lands of Carolina were esteemed equal, if not superior in value, to those of the northern colonies. Here the servants of the king could provide for his friends without any expence to the nation, and by this means not only secured their attachment, but also extended his power. Grants of land were allowed them in Carolina by the proprietors, where it was thought they might in time enrich themselves, and become beneficial to the commerce and navigation of the mother country.
From this period every year brought new adventurers to Carolina. The friends of the proprietors were invited to it, by the flattering prospects of obtaining landed estates at an easy rate. Others took refuge there from the frowns of fortune and the rigour of unmerciful creditors. Youth reduced to misery by giddy passion and excess embarked for the new settlement, where they found leisure to reform, and where necessity taught them the unknown virtues of prudence and temperance. Restless spirits, fond of roving abroad, found also the means of gratifying their humours, and abundance of scope for enterprise and adventure. It cannot be deemed wonderful if many of them were disappointed, especially such as emigrated with sanguine expectations. The gaiety, luxury and vices of the city were bad qualifications for rural industry, and rendered some utterly unfit for the frugal simplicity and laborious task of the first state of cultivation. An hardy race, inured to labour, hunger, and fatigue, were best adapted for making impressions on the thick forest, and not such emigrants as left the city, tinctured with its vices and fond of luxury and ease. Nor could the Puritans, who settled before them, promise themselves much greater success than their neighbours; though more rigid and austere in their manners, and more religiously disposed, their scrupulosity about trifles and ceremonies, and their violent and litigious dispositions, created trouble to all around them, and disturbed that general harmony so necessary to the welfare and prosperity of the young settlement. From the various principles which actuated the populace of England, and the different sects who composed the first settlers of Carolina, nothing less could be expected, but that the seeds of division should be imported into that country with its earliest inhabitants.
We are apt to attend chiefly to the desolating wars, or the great and surprising revolutions which happen to kingdoms in their populous and advanced state, and to pass over the events of their rise and progress as trifling and inconsiderable; but as the greatest nations upon earth have gradually sprung from such beginnings, it is no less curious and instructive to view the smaller transactions of their infant state, than the grander events of their mature age. Kingdoms in the political world, like plants in the vegetable, have their stages of rise, progress, perfection, and decline; and, in the fields of nature, it is equally pleasant to mark the buds of the spring, as the bloom of summer, or the decay of autumn.
America peopled in an improved age.
One advantage certainly attended the various settlements in America, of which no European state can boast. Being peopled from civilized nations in an enlightened age, when records are carefully kept and faithfully preserved, the events of their rise and progress, though not so important, were equally clear as those of their more perfect state: whereas the history of the origin of eastern nations could only be transmitted to future generations by the songs of bards or oral tradition. Ignorance of geography, and the art of printing not being then invented, must have rendered the transactions of rude and barbarous ages so precarious and obscure, that if the dead of past ages were to revive, they could scarcely be able to recognize the complexion of their own time. Even in the ages preceding the invention of printing, and the happy Reformation, many events lie buried in darkness and oblivion. The small knowledge which then existed being confined to the clergy, their accounts do not merit entire credit; for the various orders of ecclesiastics at that time were too much under the influence of monkish pride and superstition, to transmit faithful memorials to posterity.
The first treaty with Spain respecting it.
Before the year 1667, there is no mention made of America in any treaty between England and Spain, the latter being contented to keep up her ancient claims to that country, and the former careful to keep and improve the footing she had already gained in it. However, a few years after Carolina was settled, Sir William Godolphin concluded a treaty with Spain, in which, among other articles, it was agreed, "That the King of Great-Britain should always possess, in full right of sovereignty and property, all the countries, islands, and colonies, lying and situated in the West Indies, or any part of America, which he and his subjects then held and possessed, insomuch that they neither can nor ought thereafter to be contested on any account whatsoever." The Bucaniers, who had for many years infested Spanish America, were now cut off from all future protection from the English government in their hostile invasions of these dominions, and all commissions formerly granted to such pirates, were recalled and annulled. By this treaty, the freedom of navigation in these American seas was opened to both nations; and all ships in distress, whether from storms, or the pursuit of enemies and pirates, taking refuge in places belonging either to Britain or Spain, were to be treated with humanity, to meet with protection and assistance, and to be permitted to depart without molestation. These things merit particular notice, as by this treaty Spain evidently gave up all future pretensions to the country of Carolina granted to the proprietors by the king; and this freedom of navigation, provided for in such express terms, was violated, as we shall afterwards see, by the Spaniards, and proved the occasion of a bloody war between the two nations. Not long after this, a treaty of neutrality between Britain and France was also concluded; by which negotiations the possessions of Great Britain, France, and Spain, in the western world, were better ascertained; and the freedom of commerce and navigation was more firmly established by those three great potentates, than had taken place in any former period.
A council of commerce is instituted.
It is not improbable that King Charles the second, during his exile, had acquired in Holland some knowledge in trade, and seen the vast advantage resulting from it to that republic; for after his return to his native dominions, he made the naval strength of England, and her commercial affairs, the principal objects of attention. He instituted a select council of commerce, consisting of a president, vice-president, and nine counsellors, for the encouragement of trade, navigation and the colonies. Instead of the former method, of referring all commercial concerns to a fluctuating committee of the privy-council, this institution was intended to chalk out a particular line of duty, which was to engage the whole attention of that board. But the king was so immersed in private luxuries and pleasures, that it was difficult to keep him steady and firm to any laudable public regulation. The annual expence attending this excellent institution he soon found was too heavy, and therefore it was dropt, and the affairs of commerce returned to their former tedious and fluctuating channel.
A legislature is formed in the colony.
In Carolina Sir John Yeamans had entered on the government with an uncommon zeal for the success of the settlement, and a grateful anxiety to discharge the duties of his trust with fidelity and honour. The proprietors, fond of their new form of government, had instructed him to use his endeavours to introduce it, as the most excellent of its kind, and wisely adapted to promote the prosperity and happiness of the people. Accordingly, Sir John summoned the people together, ordered the fundamental constitutions to be read, and representatives to be elected. The province was divided into four counties, called Berkeley, Colleton, Craven, and Carteret counties. The people, who had hitherto lived under a kind of military government, now began to form a legislature for establishing civil regulations. Ten members were elected as representatives for Colleton, and ten for Berkeley counties. A committee, consisting of Stephen Bull, Ralph Marshal, and William Owen, were nominated for framing some public regulations. Three acts were proposed by them as beneficial; the first, to prevent persons leaving the colony; the second, to prohibit all men from disposing of arms and ammunition to Indians; and the third, for the regular building of Charlestown.
Its troubles from the Spaniards.
Notwithstanding the public treaty already mentioned, a religious society of the Spanish nation laid claim to the large territory of Florida, not only on the foot of prior discovery, but also by virtue of a grant from the pope; and the garrison kept at Augustine