USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 13
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This communication was, on its receipt on the 7th of July, laid before the King, who, through General Stan- hope. Townshend's fellow-secretary, transmitted it to the Commissioners of Trade and Plantation, with instruc- tions to report what might be the most proper and speedy method of assisting the colonists in Carolina. 2
The next day Carteret, the Palatine. James Bertie for the minor Duke of Beaufort. and Sir John Colleton also addressed the Lords of Trade, informing them of letters received two days before giving an account of the de- plorable condition of his Majesty's subjects in Carolina by the Indian invasion, and of their barbarities in torturing to death most of the British traders.3 The case, they said, was the worse because it did not proceed from any provo- cation, as they were informed ; that it was believed that all the Indian nations, amounting to 10,000 in number, had combined to ruin all the British settlements on the Con-
1 Colonial Recorda of No. Ca., vol. II. 177, 179. 2 Ibid., 187, 189. Ibid .. 199.
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tinent of America to which Carolina was the frontier. They, the Proprietors, had met on this melancholy occasion and. to their great grief, found they were unable of them- selves to afford suitable assistance ; and that unless his Majesty would graciously please to interpose by sending men, arms, and ammunition, they could foresee nothing but the utter destruction of his Majesty's faithful subjects in those parts. The Hon. Charles Craven, then Governor, had behaved himself as a man of his quality ought, with the utmost bravery, and to his conduct it was owing that the country had not already been taken by the enemy. They would, they said, most willingly give at their board sufficient security to repay the government such sums of money as should be expended upon this necessary occa- sion if some of their members, particularly his Grace the Duke of Beaufort and the Right Hon. the Lord Craven, could, by reason of their minority, be bound. Whatever assistance his Majesty could afford. they hoped might be speedily sent. They retained one ship on purpose to carry arms, and would procure others on a day's notice. They had consulted General Nicholson, who had com- manded forces against these Indians, and they gave his estimate as to what would be necessary for the defence of the province.
Thus it was that the Proprietors sought to relieve themselves of responsibility in this great emergency. and to turn their colonists. Landgraves. Caciques. and commoners all over to the protection of the Crown. But protection and obedience are the reciprocal obligations of government. If by reason of minorities among their Lordships, they could afford no protection in time of need, what right had they, during such minorities. to be governing the province they could not protect ? This question was arising on both sides of the Atlantic. It
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was being asked in London as well as in Charles Town. The Board of Trade was only too ready to take it up, and to press the Proprietors for an answer. On the receipt of the letters from Governor Craven and from the Proprie- tors, the board signified their desire to give their Lord- ships an opportunity to discuss with them the subject. And now the agency which the Assembly had established in London came in most opportunely. Mr. Kettleby was on hand to represent the interests of the colonists.
On the 13th of July Lord Carteret, the Palatine, Mr. Kettleby, the agent of the province, Mr. Robert Johnson, son of Sir Nathaniel, and Mr. Shelton, secretary of the Board of Proprietors, appeared before the Board of Trade, when Lord Carteret informed the board that the Lords Proprietors had petitioned his Majesty for assistance towards the preservation of the province which they were unable to support themselves. the minority of two of the Proprietors making it impossible to raise money by mortgaging their charter. He urged, however, that their charter would be a virtual security for what his Majesty should be pleased to advance them. in arms and ammunition and other necessaries for the defence of the province, though it would not be so to any private per- son. Mr. Johnson observed that though Carolina was then under the Proprietors, it was a frontier to the colonies under his Majesty's immediate government, and therefore he hoped his Majesty would send the supply of arms. The board desired that Lord Carteret would put in writ- ing the particulars of what he desired.
The next day. the 14th, the two secretaries, Lord Town- shend and General Stanhope, had some conference with the Board of Trade. upon which certain queries were pre- sented to the Proprietors and they were requested to attend the day after with their answers in writing.
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Lord Carteret and Mr. Ashley, two of the Proprietors, appeared accordingly on the 15th. and in answering the questions submitted by the Board of Trade, Lord Carteret said that the effects they had lately received from Caro- lina were rice, which might be disposed of for about £4000 sterling, which they were willing should be applied towards paying for the arms proposed to be sent. That 1500 or even 1000 muskets, which General Nicholson estimated were necessary, could not be immediately fur- nished but by his Majesty's office of Ordnance: they offered the rice as security towards the payment for these arms. They were not sure of being supplied with arms and ammunition from New England and New York, to which places the Assembly had sent the value of £2500. He urged again the security which his Majesty would have by reason of the charter. It was observed that it would take too long to send transport ships from Caro- lina to fetch what men his Majesty might think fit to order from any of the northern colonies, -to which Lord Carteret replied that the Proprietors did not desire any men. but if the King would send some, merchant ships might be found to transport them; but the Pro- prietors, he was compelled to add, were not able at present to hire such ships themselves, and therefore they prayed credit from the government to enable them to do it. Lord Carteret said about 500 men would be sufficient : but the Proprietors expected that the officers who should command these men should be subject to the orders of the Governor of Carolina. The board at once objected. and pointed out the difficulty that would arise from his Majesty's officers submitting to the orders of any person not in immediate commission from him. The board then went to the root of the matter and suggested a surrender of the charter. To this the Proprietors replied that they
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were willing to surrender for an equitable consideration, but not otherwise. That they thought any particular Proprietor surrendering his right would be to advance the interest of the rest. That their Lordships' ancestors bad been at very great expense in settling and improving this colony, which, in customs on the product thereof. had been of considerable benefit to this kingdom, there being annually produced in Carolina 3000 tons of rice, one- third of which was spent in the country. and the customs on the other two-thirds imported here amounted to £10,000 per annum, or a greater profit to this nation if the said rice be reexported by the returns -- fifty thou- sand deer-skins, the duties whereof are £1000, besides great quantities of pitch. tar. and other naval stores. That their quit-rents, amounting to about £2000 per annun that country's money (i.e. currency), are applied to the payment of the Governor's salary, which is £300 per annum, and for maintaining the other public officers in that government. That a duty is raised in Carolina of a penny per skin exported, which is applied to the maintenance of the clergy there. That in 1707, when Carolina was attacked by the French. it cost the province £20.000, and that neither his Majesty nor any of his predecessors had been at any charge from the first grant to defend the said province against the French or other enemies.1 To which their Lordships might have added, but did not, that neither had they, the Proprietors.
Landgrave Kettleby, the agent of Carolina. and the merchants in London trading thither, on the 18th, pre- sented a petition to the Lords Commissioners of Trade. imploring the assistance and protection of the Crown. Most of us, said the merchants, have large debts and effects there, some have large plantations, and the loss of
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. 11, 193-196.
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these would be considerable. But when they reflected upon the ruin of so flourishing, so hopeful a province, that had for many years taken so much of English manu- factures, and brought such a large revenue to the Crown. and yet from its first settlement had not put the Crown to one penny expense ; when they reflected upon the loss of so many Englishmen's lives, persons who had always behaved themselves so dutifully to the Crown. and had never forfeited their rights as subjects to protection, and yet were then in imminent danger of being massacred by savages, and perhaps being roasted on slow fires. scalped, stuck with lightwood, and other inexpressible tortures ; when they reflected that this general revolt, concerted by several distant Indian nations, who had never before had policy enough to form themselves into alli- ances, and could not bave proceeded as they had, unless directed and supplied by the Spaniards at Fort Augustine and the French at Moville : that Carolina, being the fron- tier of all the other settlements, which, if that should mis- carry, would soon involve all the other colonies in the same ruin, and the whole English Empire, religion, and name be extirpated in America. -- these dreadful consid- erations superseded their present losses and induced them to apply to their Lordships for immediate relief and as- sistance against this public calamity.
They represented that a ship was then lying in the river, called the Industry, of one hundred tons' burthen, John Woddin, commander, ready to sail to Carolina. and only stayed, at their request, for the immediate transporta- tion of such arms and ammunition as his Majesty would graciously please to furnish. That with some new assur- ances of speedy reinforcement of men they hoped to en- courage the colonists to hold out a little longer; but if this ship should go thither in ballast, and bring them
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nothing more solid than words and promises, they appre- hended despair would suggest to them that their miseries, though known in England, were not duly regarded. and that, with no prospect of timely relief, they would abandon the province. 1
Fortunately for the colonists, Governor Craven, how- ever urgent he had been in his own direct appeal to the Royal Government, and that through Landgrave Kettleby, the agent of the province, had not depended upon the result of these appeals. With great energy and execu- tive ability, and with a courage that rose superior to the occasion. he was able to meet the emergency and to rescue his province without the aid over which the Proprietors and the Board of Trade were higgling while the Indian savages were pressing to the walls of the town.
He dispatched Francis Holmes to New England to purchase arms with the £2500 appropriated by the Assembly for that purpose; and sent Arthur Middleton to Virginia for assistance. The forces of the colony were organized by the appointment of James Moore as Lieu- tenant General, John Barnwell. Colonel, and Alexander Mackay, Lieutenant Colonel. These were to consist of 600 white inhabitants to be commanded by captains of sixties. and 400 negroes likewise divided into companies of sixties. commanded by captains and lieutenants. North Carolina promptly reciprocated the assistance she had re- ceived from this colony two years before. Governor Eden and Council, on May 25. 1715, called for volunteers for South Carolina, to go at the expense of their province. and organized a force of fifty men to be sent under the command of Colonel Maurice Moore, a brother of the gen- eral of South Carolina, and who had gone with him on
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 196-199.
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his expedition against the Tuscaroras in 1711, but had re- mained in the northern colony.
About the middle of July. his Majesty's ship, the Valour, Captain St. Loe, arrived with about 160 small arms, ten barrels of powder, and twenty-five casks of shot, sent by Governor Spotswood of Virginia, and on Saturday, the 16th. Captain Middleton arrived with 120 men obtained with the assistance of Governor Spotswood, but for whom he had been compelled to agree to the most stringent terms. Soon after the Success, man-of-war, came bringing thirty more men from Virginia, and eighty whites and sixty Indians from North Carolina.
North Carolina, recognizing her obligations. had stopped to ask no condition for the assistance she now sent to her sister southern colony, but Virginia did not act so gener- ously. Mr. Middleton upon his first arrival was received with great civility and large promises of assistance, but when the terms came to be arranged with Governor Spots- wood, he was forced to promise that for every man sent Governor Craven should return an able-bodied woman who should continue in Virginia all the time the men sent were absent ; the transportation of both parties to be at the expense of South Carolina. This arrangement was found impracticable, and Governor Craven offered in lieu to increase the hire of the men to £4 per month, which modification of the agreement was accepted by Governor Spotswood. South Carolina was already in debt to Vir- ginia, and the payment of the debt was also made a con- dition of the aid sent.1
In pursuance of his purpose of bringing the women and children under the protection of the fortifications of the town, and assuming the offensive against the Indians. Governor Craven had gone to the Santee, where he was
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 253, 254.
2 N
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organizing the forces for an advance in that direction. While he was so engaged. 700 Apalachis, who had joined the Yamassees, again appeared in the lower part of the province and destroyed all the plantations in their way, among them Lady Blake's plantation on Wadmalaw River, Colonel Eve's on the Tugaloo. and burned Mr. Boone's settlement and a ship he was building. Governor Craven at once hastened to meet this new outbreak; but upon his approach the Indians fled over Pon Pon bridge across the Edisto, which they burned, having killed four or five white men. Captain Stone, sent with six periaguas and 100 men to Port Royal, cut off six canoes of the enemy and drove them into the woods.1 Governor Craven, having cleared the province of the Indians, in December sent out an expedition under Colonel George Chicken and Colonel Maurice Moore, who. crossing the Savannah at Fort Moore, a few miles below the present site of the city of Augusta, pursued the Indians into the wilds of the Over- Hill Cherokees, following them as far as the Hiwassee River in western North Carolina.2
When the Assembly reconvened in February, 1716. hos- tilities had almost entirely ceased. and the chief object of solicitude was the securing, if possible, a permanent peace with all the surrounding Indian tribes. The Yamassees had acted prematurely, and although 400 whites had been killed and an immense amount of property destroyed. the traders having sustained a loss of £10,000 in debts. vet the invincibility of the Carolinians against the combined power of the savages had been so forcibly proved that
I Ramsay's List of So. Ca., vol. I, 163, 267 : Letter from Carolina. 1715. Year Book City of Charleston ( Ficken ), 1894. Appendix. 819.
2 Ser journal of the expedition supposed to be that of Colonel Chicken, published in Year Book City of Charleston (Ficken), 1895, Appendix, 324-352.
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never again was a united plot contrived. or an attempt made to penetrate in hostile bands to the vicinity of the capital.1
The Yamassees. upon their defeat and expulsion from Carolina, went directly to the Spanish territories in Florida. where they were received, as we have said, with bells ringing and guns firing as if they had come victo- riously from the field. Two women prisoners whom they had carried to St. Augustine reported to the Carolinians the kind reception the Indians met with from the Spaniards. It was again, doubtless, the settlement at Port Royal and the laying out of the town of Beaufort there that had aroused the Spaniards to set on the Indians against the English. They had destroyed the attempted settlement of Lord Cardross there in 1686; and now, thirty years after. they put up the Indians to prevent the establish- ment of the town of Beaufort. Driven from their lands, the Yamassees conceived inveterate ill-will and rancor to all Carolinians, and watched every opportunity of in- dulging their vengeance on them. Furnished with arms and ammunition by the Spaniards, they broke out in small scalping parties and infested the frontier of the settlements, often inflicting the most atrocious cruelties and tortures.2
The Lords Proprietors had written to Governor Craven on the 29th of March, 1713, that as Sir Anthony Craven had died, and as he might wish to come to England. they gave him permission to do so. and intimated their inten- tion of appointing Robert JJohnson. son of Sir Nathaniel, to succeed him.3 Craven had not availed himself of the permission at the time, and he would not abandon the
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Co. (Rivers), 268.
? Hewatt's Hist. of So. Ca., vol. 1, 223.
3 Call. Ifist. Soc. of No. Ca., vol. 1, 161.
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province as long as it was menaced with danger. But now that the Indians had been defeated and the security of the province assured. he felt himself at liberty to do so. His personal courage. upright character, and devotion to the best interests of the government had won for him the esteem and warm attachment of the Carolinians. Their expressions to each other on parting were full of the evi- dences of their mutual friendship and respect. He left Colonel Robert Daniel Deputy Governor.1
A melancholy accident happened upon his departure. He embarked for England on the 25th of April, 1716. While the man-of-war in which he was to sail rode at anchor near the bar. the Rev. Gideon Johnson. the commissary of the Bishop of London, with thirty other gentlemen. accompanied him in a sloop to take leave of him. On their return a storm arose, the sloop was overset, and Mr. Johnson, lame of the gout and being in the hold. was drowned. The other gentlemen were saved. Afterwards the sloop drove, and it was remarkable that Mr. Johnson's body was taken out while it was beat- ing against the same bank of sand upon which he had almost perished at his first arrival.2
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 268.
2 Hewatt's Hist. of No. Ca., vol. I, 231; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 98.
CHAPTER XXIV
1716
WHEN the Tuscaroras had risen, in 1711, on the Neuse. South Carolina had not paused for a day to make a bar- gain or contract with her northern sister province, but had at once fitted out and dispatched the expedition under Barnwell, and had with like liberality sent another under Moore, in 1713. upon the renewal of that war. In 1715 North Carolina had acted in return with as much gener- osity, and sent assistance to this province under Maurice Moore. Virginia, when appealed to by Governor Craven. in 1715, had not seen fit to act in this spirit. She had demanded terms and security from Middleton, the agent, and he had had to bargain with Governor Spotswood for the few men he obtained from that province. Nor did Spotswood afterwards neglect the contract he had required. but rigidly insisted upon a compliance with its terms, and complained to the Board of Trade in England that South Carolina had not fulfilled her engagements with him; so that when the Proprietors and the Carolina agents applied to that board for assistance, they were met with the inquiry as to their liability to that province. To this Carteret had replied that Virginia had looked to her own interests and had acted but prudently in sending assist- ance to Caroline, it being better to fight an enemy at a distance than within her own territory. But Governor Spotswood continued to press for his hire, and it was
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deemed best to send back his men, for whom South Caro- lina found it inconvenient to pay.
The General Assembly met again soon after the de- parture of Governor Craven, and its first business was to address a letter on the 15th of March, 1715-16, to its special agents in England, Messrs. Boone and Berresford, urging them to press the appeal to his Majesty to take the immediate government of the province into his own hands ; for, according to all human probability, they wrote, unless his Majesty would do so, and send men to defend them and money to defray their charges, this once flourish- ing colony would be reduced to nothing and become a prey to their barbarous enemies.
According to a moderate computation, they said, the charges that the province had been at for the support of the war amounted to £150,000: what further charges they would incur. God alone knew : they need not use any argu- ments to make their agents know that this would be a greater burden than the province could possibly bear. The forces from Virginia and North Carolina were on their return home, being unwilling to stay longer, and the As- sembly more than willing to release, as they could not afford to maintain them. They were trying to find some means of giving the government of Virginia all the satis- faction they could in reason desire. In their letter the Assembly said : " Wee should not have mentioned anything on this head at this time had not the Govern' of Virginia sent us word that he would endeavor to make us look as odious as he could both at home in England, and in all the Kings Govm" in America upon the account of our non per- formance of every particular branch of the Treaty of as- sistance agreed upon between that Gover" and our agent sent thither for that purpose. At the same time we must confess that if our late Assembly had fully complied with
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that agreement it would not have cost this province near so much money as the measure we shall now be obliged to take." 1
Upon the receipt of this letter, Mr. Berresford pre- sented to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Planta- tion a memorial upon the condition of South Carolina.2 stating that the province having for a year past been engaged in war with the Indians, numbers of its inhabi- tants had been destroyed by fire and sword. The small number of white men fit to bear arms that were left con- tinued to desert the province, and had not the govern- ment of Virginia and North Carolina sent to their assistance about 200 men (for part of whom they had been obliged to consent to terms almost impossible to be complied with), many more, if not the greatest part of the present inhabitants would in all probability have deserted. The whole province, thus distressed and de- spairing of further assistance from the American colonies or from the Lords Proprietors, were under the necessity of making application to the King and Parliament to enable them to subdue their enemies.
The memorial went on to say that their agents and several merchants of London trading to Carolina had accordingly, on the 9th of August before, presented their case by petition to the House of Commons, and after ex- amination by committee. that body had been pleased to address his Majesty to send to the assistance of Carolina such supplies as in his wisdom should be thought needful ; that his Majesty had been pleased to send a sufficient quantity of arms, "but the unnatural rebellion," that of the Pretender then existing in Scotland, had prevented his sending men.
A second petition from the agents. merchants, and 1 Colonial Records of No. Ca. vol. II, 224-226. 2 Ibid., 229-233.
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others to the King. they said, had been presented praying that some of the rebels in Scotland who had petitioned to be transported might be sent to serve in Carolina. That by other letters and advices received from the most credible inhabitants, it appeared that, notwithstanding they had made peace with one nation of their Indian enemies. they were still obliged to employ all the force of white men they could raise, together with many of their black slaves, against those Indians who had begun the war, and had since committed the greatest barbarities.
" All of which Representations and Applications," Mr. Berresford continued. "being made to this Government and also by proper persons here made known to the Hon- orable the Lord Proprietors, and no sufficient assistance sent them. About the beginning of this instant June arrived here from that Province another address to the King and a letter from the Assembly there very plainly setting forth their present State. which having been shown to the Honorable the Lord Cartwright (Carteret) and others the Lords Proprietors of that Province they had signified their dislike thereto, and as we have too much reason to fear will not only refuse to consent to what may be necessary on their parts but also endeavour to invali- date the said Representation which obliges us the more earnestly to make all the application we are able that the condition of these distressed subjects may in the most effectual manner be laid before and come under the con- sideration of his Majesty and the Government with the greatest Expedition."
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