USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 37
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The night before Jean Louis Gibert's arrival at Pons he slept at the house of an elder of the church of Gemozac, by
349
JEAN LOUIS GIBERT.
1760-1770.]
the name of Bugeaud. The gentleman who accompanied him was the Count de Grace, who was actively employed in estab- lishing the churches. On leaving Pons, this last had forced Gibert, whose ministry he appreciated, to change horses with him. They did not seek to resist. They refused simply to stop when commanded to do so, and it was then that the balls of the horsemen struck the unfortunate gentleman who rode the horse which had been described to them as the horse of the minister. This attempt discouraged neither the pastor nor the flock. At the commencement of 1755, Louis Gibert reap- peared at Pons, and assembled the scattered members of this ancient church at the wood of Merlet, in the parish of Tanzac. This reunion was fatal to some who assisted at it, who were seized and conducted to the prison of Rochelle.
There is another scene which shows the courage and con- duct of this noble pastor of the desert, who ended his days, and whose descendants still live, in South Carolina.
"The depth of the woods, out-of-the-way places, caverns of the rocks, or the shores of the ocean, served them as temples. Often, by the feeble light of the torch, did they there listen in pious meditation to the reading of the word of God, which had become their only treasure, or to the touching recitals of the sufferings, firmness, and courageous death of their distant brethren. In spite of the danger, it was sufficient to announce the presence of a pastor in a particular place, to see the scattered members of the neighboring churches hasten thither. One of the last and most remarkable of these reunions took place under the ministry of Louis Gibert. Two days before the appointed time, many of the Reformed arrived from the most distant parts of Saintonge. A generous hospitality was accorded them in the dwellings of the Protestants living near, and of the Catholics who had never approved the severity with which they had been treated. But it was not till the next day, and the day of the assembly, that the mass of the faith- ful arrived. The richer were borne on vehicles, or mounted on horses. The others had accomplished long journeys on foot. The intrepid Gibert, on whose head a price was always set, was not tardy in reaching his numerous flock. He escaped the pursuit of his enemies a few days later, only by hiding under the straw, at the house of an elder of La Salle, named Guillot. To avoid all surprise, it was agreed that they should hold the service, as usual, at night, in the heart of the forest of Velleret, in a place where there was a wide space, called still by the inhabitants the Combe de la Bataille, in memory,
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350
COMMUNION IN THE DESERT.
[1760-1770.
doubtless, of some ancient battle with the English. All was arranged for the celebration of worship. They carried thither the different pieces which composed the pulpit of the desert. This was placed between two oaks. The communion-table was arranged in the enclosure of the consistory, or the place reserved for the elders. Seven flambeaus, placed at intervals, shed a feeble light over seven or eight thousand persons grouped together in pious meditation. A moment after these preparations, the pastor, escorted by certain of the faithful, armed for his defence, ascended the pulpit clad in his ecclesi- astical habit. Their arms were then laid aside. At the invi- tation of Louis Gibert the assembly sang the eighty-fourth Psalm, whose words were so appropriate to their present cir- cumstances. But the solemn chant, which re-echoed with such clearness during the silence of the night, gave the alarm to certain enemies of the gospel, who, suspecting some assembly, were prowling about to discover the place the Protestants had chosen. They hastened towards the Combe de la Bataille, having at their head Bernard, governor (tutor) of Prince Camille of Pons. Gibert did not allow himself to be discon- certed by their presence. He ordered from the pulpit that they should seize their persons, disarm them, and place them in the consistory, that they might convince themselves that their assemblies had no other object than the worship of God. The services then continued without interruption. A considerable number of children, brought from places the most distant, were baptized. Young people of both sexes, who had been instructed by the elders in the truths of the gospel, were received into the membership of the persecuted church, and many marriages were celebrated. Gibert, in a discourse full of faith and life, touched the hearts of his numerous auditors, who with tears of gratitude took part in the sacrament of the supper, which some of them had been deprived of for a long time. The meeting continued nearly five hours. Those who had assisted at it resumed their journey homewards, blessing the Lord for the holy joys he had vouchsafed. All had not the good fortune to reach their homes in safety. Some had to submit on the way to many persecutions of the enemies of the gospel. Monsieur Labbé, captain of the Coast Dragoons, slew with his own hand a married lady of La Jaille. The widow Larente, who accompanied her, would have shared the same fate if the sword of this fanatic had not broken against her corset."-(Crottet, Histoire des Eglises Reformees de Pons.)
After these events, we find this indefatigable minister still
351
HIS SENTENCE.
1760-1770.]
active. He encouraged the Protestants of Pons to secure to themselves a house of worship. They accomplished this by purchasing two houses adjoining each other, removing the separating wall, and arranging the interior for religious ser- vice. He stimulated the faithful of Saint-Seurin and de Mor- tagne to construct also a place of worship. This they did, but it was demolished by their persecutors in 1768. He also established a school at Biziterie for Protestant children. Still later we find him engaged in building a church at Gemozac. These churches were often barns, at other times dwelling- houses, converted to purposes of religion. But the intendant of Rochelle, de Baillon, councillor of state, ordered all such to be demolished. Martin Pasdejue, of Arvert, for disposing of his granges, or barns, at Avallon, for this purpose, was con- demned to perpetual imprisonment in a convent. Soon there followed a judgment against the pastor who had occupied the post of danger. A sentence was passed, July 14th, 1756, by the same intendant against the minister, Gibert, "duly held and convicted of having performed the functions of minister for many years in the province of Saintonge; with having convoked and held assemblies of religionists ; with having preached ; celebrated the supper, baptisms, and marriages.' He was condemned to the gibbet after submitting to this singular procedure. He must be conducted to the principal gate of the church of Saint Bartholomew, "and there, with head uncovered, on his knees, say and declare, in a loud and intelligible voice, that he had wickedly, and as ill-advised, per- formed the aforesaid functions of the ministry, to the preju- dice of the ordinances of his majesty." The nephew of the minister, Stephen Gibert, must assist at the execution of his uncle, and then be conducted to the galleys. The Protestants, Gentelot de Sainte-Foy, and Belrieu de la Grâce, convicted of having accompanied the minister Gibert, nightly, and of having menaced, with their pistols, the cavaliers who would seize them, were condemned to prison, and Andrew Bonfils was banished. Happily, the persons accused had fled. De Belrieu had died. "His memory must abide suppressed." The intendant did not fail to take possession of their goods, not being able to seize their persons. This accounts for the note of Paul Rabaut in his journal : " The pastor, Gibert, is exposing himself greatly in Saintonge." The courageous and zealous minister survived a long time this barbarous sentence. -(Coquerel, Histoire des Eglises du Désert, ii., 228; also, Lett. du Past. Etienne Gibert, in Coquerel, p. 363.)
352
HIS EXPATRIATION.
[1760-1770.
Despairing of finding liberty of worship in his own land, he conceived the project, which could hardly be universally carried into execution, of an extensive expatriation of his fel- low-worshippers to foreign countries. His plan was to make this known at Versailles, to show that the way was open, and to hold it up in terror to the government if the persecution should recommence.
Rev. Jean Louis Gibert, accompanied by Etienne Gibert, his nephew according to Coquerel, his brother according to Mo- ragne, in the year 1763 left France for England, and negotiated with the English government for the transportation of colo- nists to Carolina. His memorial was read in council July 6th, 1763, praying for a tract of thirty square miles on the eastern bank of the Savannah, between Purysburg and Fort Moore. This memorial was for substance granted. By cor- respondence with his friends in various provinces in France, two hundred and twelve persons, having hastily converted their effects into money, commenced their travels in small numbers from Languedoc, Hainault, and Montrevel, and from the river Loire, pursuing their way in secret, and often by night. "On the 2d of August, 1763, a considerable number arrive near the Royant, where the ship lies at anchor. But from the secrecy required, or from some other cause, the vessel is unsupplied with provisions, and one of the emigrants has to pay down £31 16s. to purchase the necessary supplies. On the 9th of August they put out to sea. For one week they were tossed by contrary winds, and at length, on the 16th of August, they were driven by stress of weather into the port of D'Artimon, ten leagues from Plymouth, where they took in supplies, having been without provisions for several days. On the 22d they put to sea again in their frail barque, which soon sprang a leak, to the alarm of the captain and all; and the passengers were compelled to work incessantly, for four long hours, with buckets and with the pumps, to keep the water out of the captain's cabin. At length, by a very narrow and dangerous passage between two rocks, they reached the English shore, whence some of the company preferred to journey by land, and arrived on the 25th at the appointed rendezvous. At Plymouth they remained from the 25th August to January 25th, 1764, much longer than was expected, and while there, in the language of the private journalist, they say -' we have undergone much .trouble, which is too bitter to speak of here.''
They set sail from Plymouth in another vessel, destined for
353
MIGRATION TO SOUTH CAROLINA.
1700-1770.]
Charleston, on the 25th of January, 1764, with a moderate wind. While yet in the Channel there blew a great tempest, stranding the vessel on some rocks, with great risk of perish- ing, in which time they had their clothes and bedding severely drenched by the waves of the sea rising on the deck of the vessel. They stood in the roadstead of Farbret, some eleven leagues further than Plymouth from Charleston, till the 14th of February ; and, as if these persecuted wanderers were not sufficiently smitten by the visitations of Heaven, a rebellion arose among themselves against the captain of the vessel on account of the spoiled meats. "Many hard words were spoken, which" (in the language of the pious journalist) " brought down the wrath of God upon us."
"On the 17th they were driven back into Plymouth, and on the 22d set sail once more for Charleston under a fair wind, which grew better and better for several days. On the 17th March they met a vessel from Carolina in time of a calm. On the 30th another dispute arose about the bread, which had been spoiled by the worms. Finally, after boisterous weather and several severe claps of thunder, which gave alarm, they hove in sight of the American shore, to the great delight of the emigrants (as we are told), who had been forty-seven days complete without the sight of aught but the heavens and the wide expanse of waters. But soon their joy was changed to sadness. The vessel ran aground on a bank of sand, and had to be lightened by throwing everything that could be spared into the sea. On the 14th of April they debarked at Charles- ton, and took their lodging in barracks, presented to-them by the inhabitants of the town. They received many liberalities from the French church at that place, in awaiting the bounty. of the province. After a residence of six months and a half in Charleston and at Port Royal (Beaufort), where they expe- rienced great fatigue and inconvenience, and in the language of the journalist were almost worn out with grief, a party of three, of which Mr. Boutiton was one, were sent up, in the month of April or May, 1764, to explore the country and to select a site for the town. They returned and appeared before the council, May 28th, 1764, to make their report. The season being too far advanced for them to make a crop on their new lands, and their provisions being exhausted, the colonists, or a portion of them, had been sent a short time after their arrival to Fort Lyttleton, and supplied by the province.
Some of them returned to Charleston about the 1st of July, and set out in two parties for New Bordeaux-the advance
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354
NEW BORDEAUX.
[1760-1770.
party July 16th, 1764; but they reached only ten miles, when their teams proving insufficient, they sent back for assistance. On July 25th the advance party set out again from Flood's (ten miles from Charleston) in great spirits-the rest following the next day. These parties arrived at New Bordeaux, the first on the 5th, and the second on the 7th August, 1764. The party with Pierre Moragne did not reach the town till No- vember 15th. The Rev. Mr. Gibert did not leave Charleston till some months afterwards-the Rev. Mr. Boutiton taking his place temporarily as spiritual leader of the colony.
The labor of clearing land and building houses was begun by the colony the same day of their arrival on the western bank of the river. The site of a town had been determined on, and each emigrant proceeded to appropriate to himself and to improve the little lot assigned to him. The town, called New Bordeaux, after Bordeaux in France, from the neighborhood of which most of the colony came, was situated in a rich and level valley on the western bank of Little river, shut. in by hills and a deep forest, and was built up, we are told, in a square or rectangular form, after the usual French style, having in the centre of the square a plain log building, used as a town-hall or Hotel de Ville-a sort of " Bureau des Affaires." The land on which the town proper was built, comprising one hundred and fifty acres, was bought from one James Davies for £250-or about $1200. In the buildings on this land, the French, on their arrival, deposited their arms, baggage, etc. By the 20th September, 1764, they had six frame houses set up, and fourteen more frames ready for erection. The half-acre lots were laid off in the lower part of the town about September 25th, 1764. To each head of a family was assigned a half-acre lot within the town, and from documents now extant, as many as one hundred and seventy- four lots were laid out so early as April, 1765, under the lieu- tenant-governorship of William Bull, in the fifth year of the reign of George III. of England. Vineyard lots, containing four acres each, were likewise granted and laid out, adjacent to the limits of the town ; and about the same time parcels of land of one hundred acres each were given as bounty land to each male and female adult. All these grants lay in Hills- · borough township, which had been surveyed by Patrick Calhoun, and was at that time the only civil jurisdiction in this immediate part of the State : a section of country about ten miles square lying on both sides of Little river, and extending westwardly to the Savannah.
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