PROGRESS OF ENTERPRISE.

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few miles north of the Savannah, and a few miles south of the St. Mary's, the French and the Spaniards had erected forts and planted colonies. Thus, the western, middle, northern, and south-eastern portions of Georgia had been traversed by the representatives of the two great European powers nearly three centuries ago. But though all the coast of the northern continent had been explored by different voyagers, and though various attempts at colonization had been made on its shores, yet along that fifteen hundred miles of sea-board, there was at this time founded but one city, St. Augustine; and there was colonized but one people, the Spaniards. The age of inaction soon passed away; the spirit of enterprise, so long wasted by European wars, crowded the highway of the Atlantic with the fleets of American adventurers; and soon the wild and rock-bound coasts of the north, and the fair and fragrant lowlands of the south, smiled into beauty beneath the hand of culture and the arts of peace.

CHAPTER IV.

ABORIGINES IN GEORGIA.

THE history of those who peopled this country on its first discovery by Europeans, must ever be a subject of peculiar interest. A great change has been wrought in the condition of the Indians within the last two hundred years. Once their broad hunting ground was washed by the waters of the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west, and spread from the dreary pines of the north to the jessamine-scented forests of the south.

They lived in their native wildness, amid the sublime solitudes of America; now hunting the timid deer-now paddling the birch canoe--now dancing at their simple festivals-now going forth, painted and plumed for battle-or now, gathered around their council fires, to the grave debates of chiefs and warriors.

According to the statements of early writers, the number of Indians in and around Georgia was once very great; though it is somewhat difficult, at this distance of time, and with the imperfect records which we possess, to separate them with much accuracy into

CHARACTER OF THE ABORIGINES.

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their several tribes, or define their respective boundaries. They were eminently a shifting population; having few local ties-settling themselves for a season or two-raising their rude wigwams-planting a crop -reaping its harvest--and then, by the love of adventure or the fortunes of war, led away to other lands, to be as soon again removed from these. Some, indeed, had more fixed abodes, though the general habits of all were migratory and unsettled. It will be needless to recapitulate here, descriptions already given of the character and condition of the Indians when first visited by the Europeans. Simple in their manners, superstitious in their customs, warlike in their actions, they strangely mingled the barbarities of the savage, with the artlessness of nature's untutored children. With minds of strong powers and original thought, they wasted them upon the groveling sensualities of savage life. With affections warped by the dark superstitions of their religion, they worshipped with bloody rites, and were devout through fear. With no permanent abode, they wandered and warred under their ancient leaders, and founded a society, based on the physical supremacy of martial prowess. Thus they met the Europeans. They first beheld them as deities;1 they received them as gods; but intercourse soon stripped the white man of his supposed divinity, and they saw in him a being like themselves, only more steeped in crime, because possessing greater means and agencies of guilt. And, surely, there can be no moral deformity more loathsome, than that created by engrafting upon savage character the vices of civilized society. The progeny of these blended crimes, like

1 Irving's Columbus, i. 104. Du Simitière MSS. in New York Historical Collection, new series, i. 273.

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THE YAMASSEES ATTACK THE SPANIARDS.

2

the union of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men," is, indeed, giant-like in turpitude and sin. Such it proved to be in America. At the period of the settlement of Georgia, several tribes occupied what now constitutes its territory. Along the Savannah river were the Yamassees, a large and powerful tribe, which, for many years from the settling of Carolina, were in friendly alliance with the colonists. Archdale, who entered upon the government of Carolina in 1695, describes them as "good friends, and useful neighbours of the English." It was only recently, however, that they had become such; having renounced their allegiance to the Spaniards in 1680, when the Governor of St. Augustine ordered the execution of one of their chiefs; by which the feelings of the tribe were so wrought upon, that six years after they made a general attack upon the Spaniards, and drove them within the walls of the castle, and became such mortal enemies to them, that they never gave a Spaniard quarter. Then they proffered their friendship and services to the Carolinians, and proved themselves allies, by the valuable service they rendered Carolina in the attack upon St. Augustine by Governor Moore in 1702; and also in his war upon the Tuscaroras, (who then lived between the Savannah and the Altamaha,) whose towns he laid in ashes, killing many of the people in battle, or carrying them away to Charleston to be sold as slaves. The Yamassees were regarded by the Carolinians as peculiarly inimical to the Spaniards;

2 Called also Savannahs by Gov. Archdale in his "New Description of that fertile and pleasant province of Carolina," &c., London, 1707. They were probably called thus from the

name of the river on which they lived. Gallatin's Synopsis of Indian Tribes, Archæol. Amer., ii. p. 84.

3 Lawson's New Voyage to Carolina, &c., Lond. 1709, small 4to., P. 4.

TREACHERY OF THE YAMASSEES.

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and their frequent capture and butchery of the stragglers from the fort of St. Augustine, assured them of the sincerity of their hatred. Through the presents and machinations of the Spanish Governor, their fidelity to the English was gradually shaken, and they were finally prepared to strike a blow upon their unsuspecting friends, which shook the colony to its centre, and threatened its extinction.4

They began by slaying the Indian traders in their chief town of Pocotaligo, on the 12th of April, 1715; and then swept down in fury upon the unprotected settlements, murdering the people, laying waste their fields, burning their dwellings, until over four hundred inhabitants had been made the victims of their barbarity. The entire colony was roused; an embargo was laid on the ships in port; martial law was proclaimed on land; the forts were refurnished with means of defence; bills of credit were stamped for the expenses of the war; agents were despatched to the northern colonies for help; and the country population, abandoning their homes, fled to the stronger settlements, or hurried on to the city. Governor Craven put himself at the head of the forces raised to repel this invasion, consisting of between fifteen hundred and two thousand militia; and after a cautious march, he met them in battle at the Salt-ketchers, and, not satisfied with conquering them on that well-fought field, drove them across the Savannah; nor did the Yamassees find rest until within the walls of St. Augustine, where they were received with joy and

4 An Account of the Yamassee War, Boston News Letter, June 13th, 1715. Narrative of the Proceedings of the People of South Carolina in

1719 Lond., printed in 1726. Hewitt's Hist. of South Carolina and Georgia, vol. i. chap. iv. London, 1779.