The history of South Carolina, from its first European discovery to its erection into a republic: with a supplementary chronicle of events to the present time

Front matter

SOUTH CAR O LIN A,^

FROM

ITS FIRST EUROPEAN DISCOVERY

Preface

The volume here submitted to the reader, is an attempt to supply what seemed to the writer a popular desideratum. A wish to provide an only daughter with a history of the country in which she was born and lived, first led him to this conviction. He found it no easy matter to place before her the materials necessary to convey the desired information. He had, it is true, the several works already devoted to this subject. The various histories of Hewatt, Ramsay, Moultrie, &c., were all in his collection; but volumes so cumbrous, and so loaded as they are with prolix disquisition, and unnecessary if not irrelevant detail, he felt convinced were in no respect suited to the unprepared understanding and the ardent temper of the young. These authors wrote, generally, at a period when the doctrines of popular representation, of suffrage, self government and many other principles, regarded as essential to the preservation of social liberty, were either of novel suggestion or very imperfectly understood. It seemed necessary, and was, therefore, proper, in that early day, that they should be discussed at length. These discussions overloaded the narrations of the historian and impaired their interest. They were cumbered with opinions now regarded as truisms, which too greatly trespassed on the dominions of simple truth. So soon as the public mind had decided these questions, the discussions upon them necessarily sunk out of sight, and involved in their own oblivion the histories upon which they had been grafted. The latter, accordingly, ceased to be sought after, either for amusement or instruction ; and finally, and by a natural transition, were thrust away into that general lumber house of

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“things that on earth were lost or were abuse d,” a sort of Astolfo’s mansions of the moon,

“ Which safely treasures up

Whate’er was wasted in our earthly state — ”

the upper shelves of the library — where, frowning in immemorial dust and dignity, they enjoy the time honored epithets of “books of reference” — a classification for which their venerable writers never stipulated, and which would have very imperfectly rewarded the severe toils of j elaborate authorship.

Valuable in this point of view, they are scarcely of i present value in any other. To the great portion of the ;j reading community they are entirely useless. For this \ reason, though long since out of print, a re -publication of them is considered u?inecessary, and would, indeed, involve in serious pecuniary loss the most cautious publisher. The late re-print of Hewatt, Archdale and others, I in the historical collections of Mr. Carroll, offers no ex- |j ception to the general justice of this remark. A reluctant j subscription failed to pay the expenses of printing, and but for the liberal appropriation of the state legislature, i; after the risk had been incurred, that enterprising young citizen might have had reason to repent the rashness of his patriotism. He certainly would have gained nothing from his publication beyond the applause which is due to if his public spirit.

The cumbrousness of the works, of South Carolina his- ! tory, already existing, suggests another serious obstacle ! to their circulation as popular volumes. They are neces- | sarily expensive. Books for schools and for the popular j reader — the two objects for which the present abridge- I ment is designed — must be cheap as well as compact, if Strange as the fact may appear, this truth seems to have ( been only of recent discovery. It is only of late days that i it has been thought advisable to recognize the poor among i the other classes of book readers. A few years back, our I authors labored under the ambition of bringing forth big

PREFACE.

V books, — corpulent quartos if possible, but octavos at all hazards ; and with this ambition they seldom stopped short at a single volume. It would seem that they regarded the size of the work as no imperfect token of the writer’s merit. It followed from this ambition — an ambition which in most cases effectually defeated its own object — that the quantity of the material furnished but a very uncertain rule in the construction of the volume. Its dimensions being arbitrary, what was wanting in fact was supplied by conjecture, and when conjecture halted and grew irresolute or blind, opinion came in to her relief, and between discussion and declamation, she hobbled on through the requisite number of pages to the end of the chapter. The present age, if less ambitious, and no wiser, is certainly more economical in this respect. Small volumes, neat abridgements, and the judicious separation of subjects, not necessarily connected, into their proper classes, realizes all the natural energies of a free press, and places the learning and the wisdom of the past and the present within the reach of the humblest and the poorest of mankind.

Cheap literature to the poor is of scarcely less importance, indeed, than was the discovery of the art of printing to mankind at large. The chief importance of this grand discovery, resting entirely on its power for diffusing knowledge rapidly through the world, it necessarily follows that the author who makes his book costly through its cumbrousness, adopts a mode of publication, which,, to a great extent, must defeat the power of the press. The time occupied in printing, and the expense of the work when printed, lessen greatly the infinite superiority which the modern printer possesses over the ancient scribe. We may instance the valuable work of Johnson, the life of Greene, as incurring, from its plan, some of these objections and disadvantages. That work abounds in materials which, properly classified, would have made a dozen popular volumes. In its present state, the toil of the reader is continual and great to separate the narrative from the discussion, which equally

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precedes and follows it — which wraps it, as in a cloud, and makes it difficult for the memory to compass and retain the several remote incidents which are necessary to a true comprehension of the subject. The result is, that a work which abounds in copious details and much spirited writing, and which relates to periods of the most exciting interest in our national and domestic history, is seldom read, and almost as unfrequently referred to. And yet no work of American biography, could the author have descended to the humbler task of making an abridgement, would have more amply compensated both publisher and reader, than the same work stripped of its controversial additaments and contracted to the moderate compass of a single duodecimo.

To this work of Johnson, we acknowledge our large indebtedness. We have relied upon it in preference to all others, during that long period, crowded with fluctuating events, which followed the disastrous defeat of Gates at Camden, to the close of the revolutionary war ; and though studiously avoiding the expression of any opinion upon the vexed questions — some of them of very small importance to the result — which the venerable author vras, perhaps, only too fond of discussing, we freely avow our full confidence in the general fidelity of his statements, and in his habitual desire to discover and to declare the truth.

For the account of the early settlements of the Huguenots, in and about Carolina, as contained in this volume, the simple and affecting narrative of Laudonniere in Hakluyt, has been chiefly relied on. The work of Hewatt, the narrations of Archdale, Glenn and others, contained in the “ Historical Collections” have furnished the authorities next ensuing, down to the conflict of the colonies with parliament and the repeal of the stamp act. To Moultrie, Ramsay, Drayton and Johnson we owe what follows, to the close of the revolution, and the erection of South Carolina, from a rebelling colony, into an independent and republican state. These have been our chief sources of information ; though, in our progress, we

PREFACE.

vii have found it advisable to consult Holmes, Bancroft, Grahame, and several other writers.

The pretensions of the present volume are exceedingly moderate. The aim of the writer, as already expressed,

\ has been to provide a volume for the popular reader and / for the use of schools — to supply the rising generation with such a history of the country as will enable them to satisfy their own curiosity and the inquiries of others. It is lamentable to perceive the degree of ignorance in which our people live, with regard to those events which made their ancestors famous, and which have given them equal station and security. To say that the great majority of our young people know little or nothing of the history of the state, is to do them no injustice. This ignorance was inevitable from the unwieldy cumbrousness and heavy cost of the volumes in which our history was locked up. To steer clear of the great errors of my predecessors, my first aim was condensation. My work, therefore, is little more than an abridgement. I have sought rather to be useful than original, and I have never suffered myself to be excursive. I have seldom ventured upon conjectures or speculations of my own, and in no instance where the conjecture would have called for, or merited, discussion. In the course of the narrative I have not scrupled to make occasional use of the very language of my authority, wherever it seemed particularly compre- * hensive or felicitous. To place the facts in a simple form — in a just order — to give them an expressive and energetic character — to couple events closely, so that no irrelevant or unnecessary matter should interpose itself between the legitimate relation of cause and effect ; and to be careful that the regular stream of the narrative should flow on without interruption to the end of its course, have been with me primary objects.

To the mind of the youthful reader, the advantages of such a mode of condensation appears to me of obvious importance. The unbroken progress of connected events enchains the attention and beguiles while it informs the thought, until reading ceases to be study, and instruction

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.

persuades to industry through the medium of amusement. To say how far I have been successful in this design, \ must be the business of the reader. With a confident reliance on his justice and judgment, I leave my labors in his hands.

Note. — Occasional, though small inaccuracies, will be found in this volume ; the natural consequence of the author’s remoteness from i the place of publication. Some faults and trifling omissions are i also to be amended. These will be corrected in any future edition ! of the work. For the present, they must be left to the good sense and indulgence of the public.

THE

HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA,

Chapter I

The Carolinas, North and South, forming twin provinces under the British dominion in America, were anciently a part of that extensive territory, known to the European world under the several names of Virginia, Florida, and New France. They extended northwardly along the coast, until they reached the confines of Virginia ; southwardly as far as the Bay of Mexico, and stretched away, for many hundred miles, into the dense forests of the interior. Three great nations contended, on grounds of nearly equal justice, for the possession of the soil.

England laid claim to it, according to one class of writers, by virtue of a grant from the Roman Pontiff ; by others, her right was founded upon a supposed discovery of its shores in 1497, by John Cabot, an Italian, and his son, Sebastian, both in the service of Henry the Seventh. The Cabots approached the continent of North America, and penetrated some of its bays and rivers, nearly fourteen months before it was beheld by Columbus ; but made no attempt at occupancy.

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

The pretensions of Spain were based upon similar and equally worthless grounds. Juan Ponce de Leon, under her commission, discovered and traversed a neighboring territory, to which he gave the name of Florida, — a name which, in her ancient spirit of arrogant assumption, was made to cover a region of measureless extent, which she did not compass, and vainly sought to conquer. Ponce was beaten by the natives, and driven from the country in disgrace. He fled to Cuba, where he died of a wound received in his fruitless expedition.

To him succeeded one Velasquez de Ayllon, who sailed from St. Domingo with two ships. Pic made the shores of South Carolina, at. the mouth of a river, to which he gave the name of the Jordan. This river is now known by the Indian name of Combahee. Here he was received by the natives with a shy timidity at first, the natural result of their wonder at the strange ships, and strangely habited visitors. Their timidity soon subsided into kindness, and they treated the Spaniards with good nature and hospitality. The country they called Chicora, a name which was probably conferred upon it by some wandering tribe, and not of permanent recognition, since we hear of it no more from subsequent voyagers. An interchange of friendly offices soon took place between the Indians and their visitors, and the latter were easily persuaded to visit the ships in numbers. Watching the moment when their decks were most crowded, the perfidious Spaniards suddenly made sail, carrying nearly two hundred of this innocent and confiding people into captivity. Velasquez, insensible to all feelings but those of mercenary exultation

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

at the success of his unworthy scheme, pursued his way to St. Domingo, where a slave market had been already established, by the policy of Las Casas, who proposed to supply, with a hardier population, the place and numbers of the feeble natives, who were perishing fast under the unmeasured cruelties of their iron-handed masters. But his triumph was not entirely without its qualifications. One of his vessels foundered before he reached his port, and captors and captives alike were swallowed up in the seas together. His own vessel survived, but many of his captives sickened and died ; and he himself was reserved for the time, only to suffer a more terrible form of punishment. Though he had lost more than half of the ill-gotten fruits of his expedition, the profits which remained were still such as to encourage him to a renewal of his enterprize. To this he devoted his whole fortune, and with three large vessels and many hundred men, he once more descended upon the coast of Carolina.

As if the retributive Providence had been watchful of the place, no less than the hour of justice, it so happened that, at the mouth of the very river where his crime had been committed, he was destined to meet his punishment. His largest vessel was stranded as he reached the point he aimed at, and the infuriate natives, availing themselves of the event, set upon the struggling Spaniards in the sea. Two hundred of them were massacred, and, according to one account, though this has been denied, Velasquez himself, with others of his company, fell victims to the cannibal propensities of the savages. Whatever may be the doubts cast upon

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this latter statement, it is surely not improbable. Nothing is positively known of him after this event, and what we have of conjecture, describes him as living a life of ignominy, and dying miserably at last.

The claim of France to the possession of the Carolinas, rested upon the discoveries of one John Yerazzani, a Florentine, who was sent out in 1523, by Francis the First. He reached the coast somewhere, as is supposed, in the latitude of Wilmington, North Carolina. Here he found the country full of beauty to the eye. The forests were noble, and the various perfumes which reached the seamen from the shore, intoxicated them with a thousand oriental fancies. The yellow sands gave ample promise of gold, which was the prime motive for most of the adventures of the time ; and the hospitality of the Indians suffered no obstacle to prevent the free examination of their country by the strangers.

Yerazzani describes the natives as “gentle and courteous in their manners ; of sweet and pleasant counter nance, and comely to behold.” Their population, according to the imperfect account which he has given us, was “ numerous ; well formed in limb ; having black and great eyes, with a cheerful and steady look ; not strong of body, yet sharp witted ; nimble, and exceeding great runners.” The women are described as handsome, and of “ comely forms ;” and, which seems to have been not unusual among the North American savages, the government of the tribe was in the hands of a woman.

They seem to have possessed proofs of a more decided civilization than wTere apparent among the northern tribes. They dwelt in log-houses, so covered ^vith

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

matting as to be impervious to rain and cold ; they had boats, wrought by flint and fire from mighty trees, some of which were twenty feet in length ; and, a better evidence yet in their favor, they treated the European strangers with an urbanity, grace, and kindness, which remind us of the patriarchal virtues enumerated in bible history. One of the crew of Yerazzani, attempting to swim ashore, was so much injured in passing through the surf, that he lay senseless on the beach. They ran to his relief, rescued him from the waves, rubbed his limbs, gave him refreshment, and returned him in safety to the vessel.

Thus far, it appears that these three great nations, through their agents, did little more than look upon the country to which they asserted claims, which they strove afterwards to maintain by a resort to every violence and crime. Subsequently, two armies of Spain entered Florida; the first, under Narvaez, well known as an unsuccessful adventurer in Mexico, and destined to be as little prosperous in Florida. He failed, was driven from the country, and perished in his flight, at sea. He was followed, a few years after, by an abler, if not a braver man. This was Ferdinand de Soto, a gentleman of good birth and fortune, who signalized himself in Peru, under the lead of Pizarro, and was considered one of the most eminent Spanish captains of the time. He projected the invasion of Florida, and, at his own expense, provided a noble armament of seven ships and a thousand men for this object. The Spaniards reached the bay of Espiritu Santo early in 1539, and had scarcely landed and pitched their tents for the night, when 2*

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they were attacked, with partial success, by a large body of the natives. This was but a foretaste of what was yet in reserve for them. Undiscouraged by this reception, they boldly advanced into the country, upon that miserable march, which has been most erroneously styled “a conquest of Florida.” Never was human adventure so unhappily misnamed. So far from De Soto conquering Florida, the Floridians conquered him. — Harrassed at every footstep — yielding bloody tribute at every stream that lay in their path, every thicket that could harbor an enemy, or mask an ambush — the Spaniards fought their way onward, entirely hopeless of return. The path before them alone lay open, and that was also filled with foes no less, resolute than those they had left — as determined as they were strong, and as audacious as they were adroit. Nothing could exceed their audacity — their fro ward valor — their sleepless and persevering hate. De Soto reached the Mississippi, and was buried beneath its waters, a broken-hearted man ; having discovered, in the significant language of one of our own historians, nothing in all his progress

so remarkable as his burial place.” The wretched remnant of his army, reduced to half their number, escaped, after a tedious period of suffering, to the shores of the gulf, whence they made their way to the river Panuco.

Nearly thirty years elapsed, after the miscarriage of this enterprize, before either of the three great claimants of the soil renewed the attempt to occupy it. The strifes of empire at home, and, perhaps, the melancholy results of all previous attempts, served to dis-

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courage the rival monarchs, no less than their subjects, from prosecuting adventures which had hitherto been attended by nothing but disaster.

At length, in 1561, the eye of the celebrated Huguenot leader, Coligny, Admiral of France, was turned upon the shores of the new world, as a place of refuge to which the Protestants might fly and be secure from those persecutions which they suffered at home, and from the worse evils which he saw awaited them. With this object in view, he succeeded in obtaining from Charles the Ninth, permission to plant a colony on the borders of Florida. This expedition was entrusted to the command of John Ribault, of Dieppe, an experienced seaman, a brave soldier, and a staunch Protestant. He was attended by some of the young nobility of France, and his troops were mostly veterans. These were all, most probably, voluntary adventurers. Charles was too bigoted a Catholic to contribute to the prosperity of a colony which he did not protect, and refused to avenge. His commission to the colonists, which was sufficiently ample, was simply intended to rid himself of a portion of his subjects, who had shown themselves as stubborn as they were intelligent, and for whom he subsequently devised a more summary mode of removal, on the dreadful day of St. Bartholomew.

With two ships, Ribault set sail from France on the 18th of February, 1562. His aim was to reach the river Combahee, called “ the Jordan,” to a knowledge of which the French had been already introduced by the discovery and disaster of Yelasquez. Sailing too far to the south, he first made land in the lati-

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

tude of St. Augustine, where he discovered the river St. John’s, to which he gave the name of May River. Thence he pursued a northerly course along the coast, still in search of the Jordan, and naming the va-

rious streams which he discovered as he proceeded, after well known rivers of France. The St. Mary’s,

for the time, became the Seine ; the Satilla, the

Somme ; the Altamaha, the Loire ; the Ogechee, the

Garonne; and the Savannah, the Gironde. The names which he conferred upon the rivers of South Carolina, they still partially retain. The Belle is now the “May,” and the Grande, the “Broad.” While he proceeded in his search for the “ Jordan,” his two vessels were separated by a storm, in which one of them was supposed, for a time, to be lost ; but she had anchored in a bay which seemed the outlet of some magnificent river. To this bay, “ because of the fairnesse and largenesse thereof,” he gave the name of Port Royale.

“ Here,” says the narrative of Ribault, “ wee stroke our sailes, and cast anker at ten fathom of water; for the depth is such when the sea beginneth to flow, that the greatest shippes of France, yea, the arguzies of Venice, may enter in there.”

The delighted Huguenots landed upon the northern bank of the entrance of Port Royal, which they believed to be one of the mouths of the Jordan, and gave themselves up for a time to the contemplation of the aspects of the new world, which seemed to them no less beautiful than strange. The mighty oaks, and the “ infinite store of cedars,” enforced their wonder, and as they passed through the woods, they saw “ turkey cocks flying in the

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

forests, partridges, grey and red, little different from our’s, but chiefly in bigness;” they “heard within the woods the voices of stags, of bears, of hyenas, of leopards, and divers other sorts of beasts, unknown unto us.” “ Being delighted with the place,” they set themselves “ to fishing with nets, and caught such a number of fish that it was wonderful.”

Having refreshed themselves with the fruits, the flesh, and the fish of this prolific region, with a curiosity stimulated by what they had already seen, the Huguenots ascended the river about fifteen leagues, in their pinnaces, when they beheld a group of Indians, who, at their approach, “ fled into the woods, leaving behind them a young lucerne, which they were a turning upon a spit ; for which cause the place was called Cape Lucerne.” Proceeding farther, Ribault came to an arm of the river, which he entered, leaving the main stream. “ A little while after, they began to espy divers other Indians, both men and women, half hidden within the woods ;” these “ were dismayed at first, but soon after emboldened, for the captain caused stores of merchandize to be showed them openly, whereby they knew that we meant nothing but well unto them, and then they made a sign that we should come on land, which we would not refuse.” The savages saluted Ribault after their barbarous fashion, and brought skins, baskets made of palm leaves, and a few pearls, which they freely bestowed upon the strangers. They even began to build an arbour, to protect their visitors from the sun ; but the Huguenots refused to linger. There is a tradition among the Indians, which preserves correctly the events of this

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meeting between themselves and the Europeans, and the very spot on which it took place is supposed, and with strong probability, to be that now occupied by the town of Coosawhatchie, a name borrowed from the aborigines.

On an island — by some conjectured to be Lemon Island, by others, Beaufort — Ribault raised a monument of free stone, on which the arms of France were engraved, and took possession of the fertile domain, in the name of his sovereign. Here he built a fortress, “ in length but a sixteen fathom, and thirteen in breadth, with flanks according to the proportion thereof,” in which he placed provisions and warlike munitions, and to which he gave the name of Fort Charles, in honor of the reigning monarch of France, At the persuasion of Ribault, twenty-six of his men consented to garrison his fort, and when he had provided, as he supposed, sufficiently for their safety, he set sail for France, leaving one captain Albert in command of the colony.

Chapter II

Ribault continued his voyage northwardly along the coast, but made no discoveries of any importance, and though he penetrated some rivers in his pinnace, he effected no landing. His crews became impatient for their own country. His officers congratulated him on having discovered “ in six weeks, more than the Spaniards had done in two years in the conquest of their New Spaine and pleased and satisfied with this conviction, his prows were turned to the east. He reached France in safety ; but the fires of civil war, which the sagacious mind of Coligny had anticipated, were already blazing in that kingdom. The admiral, struggling with dangers at home, and beset by powerful foes, against whom he could barely, and only transiently maintain himself, was in no condition to send supplies to the colony in Carolina. The forlorn few who remained in that wild country, were left to themselves, to their own enterprize, courage, and industry — qualities which, if exercised, might have amply sustained them among the hospitable natives ; but which seem to have been utterly banished from their minds, by rashness, improvidence, and the most unhappy dissentions.

When first left by their companions, the twenty-six Frenchmen, under their captain, Albert, duly impressed with their isolation, proceeded, without intermission of labor, to fortify themselves in their habitations. This done, they proceeded to explore the country, and mad©

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allies of several Indian tribes, north and south of their fortress. Audusta, the king or chief of one of these tribes — a name in which we may almost recognize the modern Edisto — was in particular their friend. He sent them embassadors, invited them into his country, furnished them with provisions, and admitted them to a sight of those ceremonies of his religion, which, among the Indian tribes, have been most usually kept secret from strangers. Some of these ceremonies were curious, like those of most savages ; an odd mixture of the grotesque and sanguinary. The scene of the performance, and one of their superstitious festivals, is thus described by Laudonniere. “ The place was a great circuit of ground, with open prospect, and round in figure. All who were chosen to celebrate the feast, were painted, and trimmed with rich feathers of divers colors. When they had reached the place of Toya — such was the name of their deity — they set themselves in order, following three other Indians, who differed in gait and in gesture from the rest.”

“Each of them bore in his hand a tabret, dancing and singing in a lamentable tune, when they entered the sacred circuit. After they had sung and danced awhile, they ran off through the thickest woods, like unbridled horses, where they carried on a portion of their ceremonies in secret from the crowd. The women spent the day in tears, as sad and woful as possible: and in such rage they cut the arms of the young girls with muscle shells, that the blood followed, which they flung into the air, crying out as they did so, He-Toya — He-Toya— He- Toya.” They had three priests, to whom they gave the