USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 14
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These disturbances, however, had their effect. "A number of French refugees," wrote the proprietors, April, 1698, " had recently proposed to settle upon Port Royal, but were retarded upon hearing of the unhappy commotions among those already settled." Their attachment too was still great to their king and country, notwithstanding the dreadful persecutions they had encountered. They desired to be under French laws in the New World, if they might not be in the old. As Bienville, in 1699, was ascending the Mississippi, he met an English vessel which was sounding the bed of the river, with the intention of colonizing that region. William of Orange was bent upon it, and expressed a willingness to send over several hundred Huguenots and Vaudois at his own expense. This vessel was one of two sent out by Coxe, a London physician, who had bought the old patent of Carolina granted to Sir Robert Heath in 1630, and under the encouragement of William was claiming a right to the mouth of the Mississippi. These vessels had landed in Carolina a body of French emigrants before pro- ceeding to the Gulf of Mexico. Bienville assured the English captain that this was not the Mississippi, but a dependence of Canada belonging to the French, as was proved by the establishments they had already made. The Englishman turned back and desisted from the enterprise. The place of the interview is still called " English Turn." While Bienville was on the English ship, a French engineer, who was employed on board, delivered to him a document which he begged him to send to the court of Versailles. It was a memoir, signed by four hundred families, which had taken refuge in Carolina. They asked the privilege of settling in Louisiana on the sole condition of liberty of conscience. Ponchartrain replied from Paris that " the king has not driven Protestants from France
131
1685-1700.] CONTENTMENT UNDER ANGLO-SAXON RULE.
to make a republic of them in America."* This rude reply seems to have put an end to their longing for La Belle France and its institutions as transferred to the New World. And the recovery of their rights under Gov. Blake brought with it contentment under Anglo-Saxon rule.
Governor Blake, though a Puritan and a Dissenter, t possessed a liberal spirit towards all Christians. During his adminis- tration a bill was introduced into the General Assembly appro- priating to Samuel Marshall, a pious and learned man, then the Episcopal minister of Charlestown, and his successors for- ever, a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, together with a house, glebe, and two servants. At the same time Mrs. Afra Coming gave to the church seventeen acres of land, adjoin- ing Charles Town, and now within it, which constitute the pres- ent glebe of St. Michael's and St. Philip's .; Thus closed the first thirty years of the colony of South Carolina, in which the first difficulties of a settlement in a distant wilderness, among savage tribes, and in an unhealthy clime, had been surmounted ; in which there had been, indeed, much confusion and turmoil, and many differences between the proprietary government and the people ; in which, however, the principles of popular liberty had always obtained the victory, and in which the foundations of the church in most of the denominations now represented in it had been laid.
Gayare, Hist. of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 69; Hildreth, U. S., ii., p. 222 ; Ban- croft, ii., p. 202.
t He was one of the earliest donors to the church of the Dissenters (now the Circular) in Charleston, having given, on the 20th of June, 1695, £1,000 sterling to that church.
# Dalcho, pp. 33, 34, 35, and Hewatt, 126, 127.
132
FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCHES.
[1700-1710
BOOK FOURTH. A. D. 1700-1710.
CHAPTER I.
Ar the commencement of the eighteenth century we find but little done towards the organization of churches among the population of British origin strictly Presbyterian in their form of government. The French Huguenot churches, be- sides their pasteurs, had their anciens or surveillans-i. e., their elders or overseers, and perhaps their diacres or dea- cons, from the first .* The pastor and elders constituted the consistory or session of the church.t The deacon's office was to collect and distribute, by the advice of the consistory, moneys to the poor, sick, and prisoners, and to visit and take care of them.t Whether their ministers in this country met in colloquy or presbytery, according to the order of the na- tional church of France,§ is not a matter of record. It is most probable that the exigencies of their condition in these new settlements would render such meetings irregular if they existed, and yet in the many troubles which assailed them, the need of mutual counsel and encouragement must have been felt. Their worship was liturgical, according to the ideas of Calvin, whose liturgy, established in 1543, consti- tutes the foundation of all the liturgies of the Reformed
* See Article xxxi. of the Confession of the Reformed churches of France, adopted by the first National Synod held in Paris in 1559. " This confession was also signed and. ratified in the national synod at Roelielle, in 1571 (the year before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew), by Jane, Queen of Navarre; Henry, Prince of Berne ; Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Conde; Louis, Count Nassau; and Sir Gaspard de Coligni, Lord High Admiral of France. Of this confession, according to Quick, there were three originals on parchment; one kept at Geneva, one at Pau in Berne, and the third in the archives of the City of Rochelle."-Report of Committee on the Revision of the Liturgy of the French Protestant church of Charleston, by Daniel Ravenel, chairman, Charles- ton, 1853.
+ Discipline of the Reformed Church of France, chap. v., canon i., in Quick's Synodicon, p. XXX.
# Chap. iii., canon iv.
§ Chap. vii., eanon i. See also Aymon Synodes Nationaux, pp. 1-7, where the original articles of the first national synod of Paris are given. In Quick they are given as subsequently enlarged, and drawn into xiv. chap- ters, or sections, containing 222 artieles.
133
1700-1710.] PRESBYTERIANS AND CONGREGATIONALISTS.
Church of France. The one now in use in the Huguenot church of Charleston was first put forth in 1713 by the churches in the principality of Neufchatel and Valangin, to which various additions have been made.
Presbyterians and Congregationalists of British extraction had worshipped together in CHARLESTON under the pastoral supervision of Pierpont, Adams, and Cotton, in harmony and peace, little solicitous, probably, of those differences of church government which respectively distinguish them, and with a frank and catholic feeling as yet unmingled with jealousy towards the Established Church of England. Indeed a large proportion of the Congregational churches of New England differed but slightly in their special individual organizations from churches of the Presbyterian faith. The church of Plymouth, of which Mr. Cotton was pastor for thirty years, had its ruling elders, with whom he was incessantly occupied in visiting his flock, in catechizing the children, and in attend- ance upon church meetings. Elder Brewster, himself edu- cated at Cambridge, England, accompanied the church when it sailed from Leyden, and landed on Plymouth Rock; and the graves of the elders of that church are marked by a speci- fic designation on Burial Hill, where are interred the remains of the Pilgrim Fathers in that Mecca of New England, to which her sons are wont to make at least one pilgrimage. The pattern of church government, as laid down by John Owen, who was the contemporary of these colonists, and died August 24th, 1683, was not far removed from moderate Presbyterian- ism. Few have argued as conclusively as he for the office of the ruling elder, and his views as to the powers of synods* are many degrees removed from those of the Brownists, the advocates of strict independency. We cannot suppose that there had arisen, therefore, as yet, among the Dissenters in Charleston, any special zeal on the subject of church govern- ment. Whether their original ecclesiastical organization was strictly congregational or not in its theory, or Presbyterian after the English form, the absence of all written monuments renders us unable to decide. Outside of the French Protest- ant churches we know of the existence of no ruling elders : we are not even informed as to the existence of the office of deacon, which in many respects has usurped its place in churches of the Congregational order of our own times ; and yet one or the other class of officers there must have been.
* See his True Nature of a Gospel Church.
134
LETTER FROM REV. JOSEPH LORD.
[1700-1710.
The CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH at DORCHESTER held on its way among the discouragements incident to settlement in a new country. A letter of Rev. Joseph Lord, their pastor, to Judge Samuel Sewall, of Boston, the original of which is in possession of the New England Historic-Genealogical So- ciety, in the antique abbreviated writing of that day, speaks of the general state of affairs at this period :
" They seem," he says, " not near so encouraging as they did six years ago. It is true the country is more frequented by way of trade than formerly ; but our tar and rice take up so much room, that a cargo of Barbadoes commodi- ties (and of the commodities of some other places) is worth so much more than a cargo of others, that our trade is like to leave the country moneyless. We have been favored by God's providence beyond expectation in our freedom from annoyance from the Spaniards, especially considering we, so soon after the proclamation of war, began with them; and this freedom I think the most ground of encouragement to expect the carrying on the work of Christ in these ends of the earth (next to the promise of the Father), that I can take notice of. For why should Christ give us (an undeserving as well as a much-exposed people) so much peace in time of war if he has no work to be carried on liere ? We have no reason to suppose it is because we are less sinful than others. The means of safety are partly the Indians that dwell about Wachessy Creek, who are, the most of them, such as formerly left the Spaniards, and are great enemies to them, but friends to the English; but among them are sonie Westoes, which, in all probability, are a remnant of the Pequods, that escaped when the rest were destroyed in New England." His statements about these Indians are interesting. They had joined with the Savannas, which came into those parts "about twenty-five years ago," and "the Ammesees that fled from the Spaniards" and came to dwell near the English; that these had made inroads upon the Spanish Indians, took many prisoners, killed many, and some Spaniards; had fallen "upon the Tymychaws" (probably the tribe of which Tomachichi, the friend of Ogle- thorpe, was afterwards a chief). He closes thus : " But as to the gospelizing of these Indians, or any others in these parts, I doubt there is little hope, because the traders, that go among them, and converse with them, are so much like heathens themselves. Yet, if it should please God to work upon some of these traders, as he has lately done upon one, there might be some hopes of something to be done, if we were all furnished with ministers as New England is. But neither are our circumstances much more encouraging this way than those of the Indians: but God is able to raise up instruments for his work (and Is., li. 1, 2, 3, may encourage us to expect it). The obliga- tions you have laid upon me, have drawn these things from me, who am, " Your honor's humble servant, "JOSEPH LORD."
Dorchest'r in Carolina, Mar. 25, 1706.
[In Judge Sewall's writing .- " Rec'd, April 19, 1706."]
There occurred, however, at this juncture, an event which, in its consequences, developed more and more those strictly Presbyterian elements which lay dormant.
In 1698 the enthusiasm of the Scotch nation was greatly roused by the splendid project of planting a New Caledonia on the Isthmus of Darien. They had been led on to this by
135
MR. PATTERSON'S PROJECT.
1700-1710.]
a man by the name of Patterson, of whose origin little appears to be known. By some he is represented as a man of no ed- ucation, but by others he is spoken of as having been bred for the church, and as having gone forth to the New World with the alleged purpose of converting the Indians of America to the Christian faith. In his travels he became acquainted with Captain Dampier and Mr. Wafer, who afterwards published, the one his voyages, the other his travels in the regions of the Isthmus connecting North with South America. From these gentlemen he obtained much information, and more from his familiarity with those bold buccaneers who had made these coasts their haunts, and who had crossed and recrossed from ocean to ocean hundreds of times, driving strings of mules laden with treasure and plunder which they had collected. He became acquainted with the fact that there was a tract of country from the Atlantic to the Pacific never possessed by the Spaniards, but inhabited by independent tribes ; that a belt of islands lay along the coast, one of them the Isle of Pines, and that midway between Porto Bello and Carthagena there was a natural harbor, at a place called Acta, capable of holding the largest fleets; that there are natural harbors on the Pacific side ; that the two seas were connected by a ridge of hills, producing a delightful temperature in a sultry clime ; that the soil was of almost unsurpassed fertility, and that this place was pointed out by nature as the centre, and the transit of commerce between Asia and Europe. He knew, too, that by taking advantage of the trade-winds navigation would be easier and far safer to and from this region. He believed that the same winds which carried ships to Darien, would waft them from Panama to the East Indies. He conceived the idea, therefore, of forming a great and powerful colony at this point, under the protection of some great nation, who would shelter it in its infancy, and be enriched by it in return. His first intention was to offer it to England, but he was without friends there on whom he might depend. He, however, en- gaged in the project of erecting the Bank of England, of which he became a director, and rendered great service to this insti- tution, for which he was poorly requited. He subsequently visited the continent, and offered his project to the Dutch, the Hamburgers, and the Elector of Brandenburg. On his return to England, through Mr. Fletcher of Salton, a wealthy and intelligent gentleman, and an enthusiastic Scotchman, he be- came introduced to several Scotch noblemen of distinction, who, in June, 1695, procured an act of Parliament, and afterwards a
136
ENTHUSIASM OF THE SCOTCH.
[1700-1710.
charter from the crown, for creating a trading company to Africa and the New World, with power to plant colonies, with the consent of the inhabitants, in places not in the possession of other nations. The Scotch nation became infatuated with the dazzling project, and, as Lord Dalrymple expresses it, their frenzy (?) to sign the solemn league and covenant never ex- ceeded the rapidity with which they ran to subscribe to the Darien Company. The nobility, the gentry, the merchants, the people, the royal burghs, without the exception of one, and most of the other public bodies, subscribed. Young women threw their little fortunes into the stock, widows sold their jointures to get the command of money for the same pur- pose. Almost in an instant, £400,000 were subscribed in Scot- land. Col. Erskine, son of Lord Cardross, and Mr. Haldane, of Gleneagle, the one an illustrious nobleman, the other a country gentleman of fortune, being appointed to obtain subscriptions abroad, the English subscribed £300,000, and the Dutch and Hamburghers £200,000 more. We find our old acquaintance, William Dunlop, now principal of the University of Glasgow, a director of the company, and the professors of that learned society stockholders in the same.
William of Orange now, however, withdrew from the under- taking his countenance, and sent a memorial to Hamburgh, disowning the same, and warning against all connection with it; and in consequence of his opposition, the Dutch, Ham- burgh, and London merchants withdrew their subscriptions.
In proportion as they were opposed, the national persistency of the Scotch waxed stronger. The company proceeded to build six ships in Holland, of from thirty-two to sixty guns, and engaged twelve hundred. men for the colony. Among them were the younger sons of many noble families in Scot- land, and sixty disbanded officers, who carried with them such of their private men, raised on their own estates, as they knew to be faithful and brave, most of whom were Highlanders. "Neighboring nations, with a mixture of surprise and respect, saw the poorest kingdom of Europe sending forth the most gallant and the most numerous colony that had ever gone from the Old to the New World."
They sailed from the port of Leith, amidst the tears, prayers, and praises of their excited countrymen, on the 25th of July, 1698. Many seamen and soldiers, whose services had been refused, the complement having been made up, were found hid in the ships, and when ordered ashore clung to the ropes and timbers, imploring that they might go even without re-
137
THE DARIEN COLONY.
1700-1710.]
ward. Twelve hundred men sailed in five stout ships, and arrived at Darien in two months. They purchased lands of the natives, sent messages of friendship to the nearest Spanish governors, fixed the settlement at Acta, calling it Saint Andrew, after the tutelar saint of Scotland, and the country itself New Caledonia. They erected a fort, and planted on it fifty pieces of cannon, and, by the enlightened suggestion of Patterson, proclaimed freedom of trade and religion to all nations. Two Presbyterian ministers, Messrs. James and Scot, accompanied these first colonists, one of whom died at sea, and the other soon after their arrival. The Dutch East India Company, meanwhile, pressed the king to prevent the settlement of Darien : the English murmured, the House of Commons took up the popular clamor, and represented that the whole trade of England must be eventually destroyed by the privileges granted to the Scotch, that the situation of the colony would enable it to give law to America, and that the interest of all Europe required that it should be crushed. William listened to these representations, dismissed his Scotch ministers, and issued his orders to all his governors in America and the West Indies, to give no succors, and hold no correspondence with the new colony. The Scots had counted on supplies from the West Indies, and fell into great distress from bad food, or from absolute destitution. The generous savages of the coast hunted and fished for them, and did all they could to supply what their own countrymen denied. Bad food produced dis- ease, the climate aided its ravages, the hardy mountaineers of Scotland perished, dying by dozens in a day. They re- mained at the settlement between seven and eight months without the least communication with Scotland, not a line having been received since their arrival. A vessel had been sent out from the Clyde in January, 1699, which was wrecked. At length, despairing of succor from their native country, they went on board their ships, and left Darien on the 20th of June, 1699. There were at that time scarcely a hundred men with strength and health enough to work them. Of the four vessels, one was abandoned at sea: the St. Andrew got into Jamaica, having lost her captain and one hundred men. The Caledonia and Unicorn got into New York, having lost three hundred men. Meanwhile the Spanish ambassador presented to the king a memorial, complaining of the settlement of Darien, and the king's proclamation had become known in Scotland. The Scots, notwithstanding, being as yet ignorant of the misfortunes of their colony, sent out an additional
138
THE SECOND COLONY.
[1700-1710.
colony of 1,300 men, in vessels inferior, and worse furnished. Two vessels, commanded by Captains Jamieson and Stack, preceded the rest with recruits of men and provisions, having on board about three hundred persons, and arrived in about eight weeks after the departure of the first colony, only to find a perfect waste and desolation. To add to their distress, one of these vessels, the provision-ship, took fire in the harbor, and was consumed. This party, too, took to their remaining vessel, and abandoned the colony. Afterwards came the main body of the second expedition, four vessels in all, the largest of which was the Rising Sun, carrying sixty guns, Captain Gibson commander. This fleet brought out about twelve hun- dred men. With them came Rev. Alexander Shields, Francis Borland, Alexander Dalgliesh, and Archibald Stobo, sent at the request of the directors of the company by the commis- sion of the General Assembly, who drew up a specific commis- sion, addressed by them to these ministers, as the Presbytery of Caledonia, and bearing date July 21, 1699. They were directed, on their arrival, to set apart a day for solemn public thanksgiving, to constitute themselves a Presbytery, with moderator and clerk, to appoint ruling elders and deacons, to divide the people into. districts or parishes, and to hold parochial sessions and diets of Presbytery, as soon as the circumstances of the colony would allow. All this was to be done with the consent and advice of the civil council, and the consent of the people, which, it seemed to be supposed, could not be withheld. One of these ministers, Mr. Dalgliesh, died at sea, between Montserat and Darien. The others arrived in health, and entered upon their work with more zeal than dis- cretion. Their proposition for a day of thanksgiving, humilia- tion, and prayer, was acceded to by the councillors, though the paper setting forth the reasons had much to say of the flagitious lives of the colonists .* The day was observed, each of the three ministers preaching, and spending the whole time in religious exercises. They also preached on the Sabbath
* " It is too evident," they say, " many, both at home and abroad, engaged in the prosecution of this great enterprise, have been more influenced by their own selfish and worldly interests than by a zealous concern either for the glory of God or for the public honor and advantage of our nation. Secondly, that in the choice of instruments for promoting this noble design, there hath not been that tenderness and caution exercised which the case required, to admit and entertain none but such as were of honor and integrity, and fit to advance the religious as well as the civil design of this settlement; on the contrary, too many have been admitted into this service that are men of fla- gitious lives, and some of pernicious principles."
139
SIR JOHN DALRYMPLE.
1700-1710.]
aboard their largest ship, the Rising Sun, and on shore. Their zeal and labors seem to have been abundant, but they complained greatly of the poor attendance upon their minis- trations, and the little encouragement they received. One- third, they say, "are wild Highlanders, that cannot speak Scotch, which are barbarians to us, and we to them." 'They can do nothing for the Indians, having neither the language nor an interpreter ; and they complain, in severe terms, of the profaneness, obscenity, drunkenness, and contempt of gospel ordinances of many among them.
Such was the language these clergymen used of their asso- ciates in this expedition. Men who have all their lives been isolated from promiscuous society, and look upon the world in merely a religious point of view, who are zealous for the glory of God, and indignant at the indifference and sins of men, are able to make but little allowance for those who are not actu- ated by high religious principle, and are tempted to visit them with unmeasured censure. On the other hand, they themselves have been visited in a spirit of unmeasured retaliation. Sir John Dalrymple, in his Memoirs, says, " Added to the misfor- tunes of the first colony, the second had a misfortune peculiar to itself. The General Assembly of the church of Scotland sent out four ministers with orders," &c. " When they arrived, the officers and gentlemen were occupied in building houses for themselves with their own hands, because there was no help to be got from others ; yet the four (3?) ministers complained grievously that the council did not order houses to be imme- diately built for their accommodation. They had not had the precaution to bring with them letters of recommendation from the directors at home to the council abroad. On these ac- counts, not meeting with all the attention they expected from the higher, they paid court to the inferior ranks of the colo- nists, and by that means threw divisions into the colony. They exhausted the spirits of the people, by requiring their attend- ance at sermons four or five hours at a stretch, relieving each other by preaching alternately, but allowing no relief to their hearers. The employment of one of the days set aside for religious exercises, which was a Wednesday, they divided into three parts-thanksgiving, humiliation, and supplication, in which three ministers followed each other. . And as the service of the church of Scotland consists of a lecture with a comment, a sermon, two prayers, three psalms, and a blessing, the work of that day, upon the average of the length of the service of that age, could not take up less than twelve hours,
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