THE INDIANS DRIVEN OUT.

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finding the enemy in a fort near Cotechny River, he surrounded them, and after a week's siege, took the fort and eight hundred prisoners. After suffering these defeats, the Tuscaroras removed north and joined the "Five Nations," making the sixth of that confederacy.

The Tuscarora war ended, the Yemassees commenced hostilities against the southern colony. On the 15th of April, 1715, they began their operations by murdering ninety persons at Pocotaligo, and the neighbouring plantations. The inhabitants of Port Royal escaped to Charleston. The colonists soon found that all the southern tribes were leagued against them, but they relied upon the assistance of those tribes who inhabited the country west of them. In this they were mistaken, for these Indians were either enemies, or remained neutral. Thus with about 1200 men, all that were fit for bearing arms in the colony, Governor Craven had to contend against seven thousand armed Indians. With this force, Craven cautiously advanced into the Indian country and drove them into Florida. The colony offered the lands vacated by the Indians to purchasers. Five hundred Irishmen soon settled on them, but by the injustice of the proprietaries, they were compelled to remove, and the frontier was again exposed. After the settlement of South Carolina, that colony had a separate assembly and governor, but remained under the jurisdiction of the same proprietaries; but when, in 1729, these persons sold their shares to the king, they were entirely separated.

For nearly a century after their first settlement, both colonies had their population confined to the seacoast; but in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was discovered that the lands of the interior were by far the more fertile, and from that time, the tide of emigration set westward. Numbers of emigrants from the more northern colonies, Pennsylvania particularly, attracted by the fertility of the soil, removed into the Carolinas, and the lands were soon in a high state of cultivation.

"Carolina," says Grahame, "by its amazing fertility in

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COMMERCE AND POPULATION.

animal and vegetable produce, was enabled, from an early period, to carry on a considerable trade with Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Islands, which, at the close of the seventeenth century, are said to have depended in a great measure on that colony for the means of subsistence. Its staple commodities were rice, tar, and afterwards, indigo." Oldmixon, whose history was published in the year 1708, observes, that the trade of the colony with England had recently gained a considerable increase; "for, notwithstanding all the discouragements, the people lie under," he adds, seventeen ships came last year loaded from Carolina with rice, skins, pitch, and tar, in the Virginia fleet, besides straggling ships."

At the commencement of the Revolution, the population of North Carolina amounted to a quarter of a million, whilst South Carolina possessed nearly 248,000 inhabitants.

HE youngest of all the states which engaged in the war of independence, was Georgia. The tract of land now forming the state of Georgia, had been originally included in Heath's patent; but no settlements were made under that instrument, and it was

declared void. The final settlement of the colony was owing principally to national rivalship and ambition. Another cause

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ARRIVAL OF THE COLONISTS.

for its colonization was the desire of the settlers at Charleston to interpose a barrier between them and the Spaniards at St. Augustine, who, they were fearful, would attempt to substantiate their boundless claims by force of arms. Individual patriotism, also, had a share in promoting the settlement of Georgia. It was requisite for the interest of Great Britain and the security of Carolina, that a plantation should be established somewhere between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers the territory included between those rivers being entirely destitute of white inhabitants. The Spaniards would probably, ere long, have attempted to annex it to Florida by a settlement, and the French would include it in the advances with which they were peopling the valley of the Mississippi. A settlement in this territory would have been particularly valuable to the French, as they could easily communicate, from it, with their sugar islands, and these latter need not then depend on the British colonies for food.

In the year 1732, a charter was granted to Sir James Oglethorpe, and several other noblemen and gentlemen of England, who proposed to remove to the colony the insolvent and imprisoned debtors, who were pining in poverty and want. The charter granted the territory between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and which, in honour of the king, was called Georgia. The trustees were vested with legislative power in the colony for twenty-one years, when the government was to pass into the hands of the king. This example of public spirit and philanthropy was warmly applauded throughout the kingdom, and elicited numerous donations from all classes of people; and, in the space of two years, the House of Commons had voted, at different times, the sum of £36,000 towards the support of the colony. On the 6th of November, 1732, Oglethorpe sailed from Gravesend with 116 persons. They landed at Charleston first, where they were presented with a large supply of cattle and other provisions, by the government of the province. Hence they set out for their new place of abode, which they reached on the 1st of February, 1733.

Oglethorpe fixed on a high bluff on the Savannah river to

SETTLEMENT OF SAVANNAH.

319

which he gave the name of that stream, for a settlement. Here a fort was erected, and a few guns mounted on it for the defence of the infant colony. He immediately formed the settlers into a militia company, and appointed certain days for training the company. The Carolinians continued to send supplies of provisions, and skilful workmen to direct and assist in their labours. Oglethorpe's next measure was the establishment of some definite treaty with the Indians. He gave them presents, and they gave him as much land as he wanted. The Indians promised, with "straight hearts and love to their English brethren," to permit no other race of white men to settle in that country. The chief of the Creek nation then presented Oglethorpe with a buffalo skin, painted on the inside, with the head and feathers of an eagle, and made a speech which appeared to have been prepared for the occasion, the object of which was to request for the Creeks the love and protection of the English. Oglethorpe then committed the government to two individuals named Scott and St. Julian, and ordered Scott to make a treaty with the Choctaw Indians. This was done, and the interest of these powerful Indians secured to the English.

Oglethorpe returned to England, taking with him Tomochichi, the king of the Creeks, with his queen and several other chiefs. They were entertained in London with magnificent hospitality, loaded with presents and attentions from all classes of people, and introduced to the king and the nobility. When they returned, it was computed that they carried with them presents to the value of 400 pounds. After remaining in London four months, they returned with Oglethorpe and a shipload of emigrants. At the expiration of a year from this time, between five and six hundred emigrants had arrived and taken up their abode in this colony. But it was soon found by experience, what might have been expected from a knowledge of the kind of colonists sent over, that the settlement did not fulfil the expectations of the projectors.

The trustees offered land to other emigrants, and more than four hundred persons arrived in the colony from Germany,