prosperity but the independence of Carolina. The Indians were subdued upon her frontiers, and the "Peace of Paris" had relieved her from the secret machinations and the open hostility of France. Security from all foreign enemies, left her free to the consideration of the true relation in which she stood with Great Britain,-a question which forced itself upon all the American colonies at the same period of time, and opened that spirit of inquiry and examination, which, passing from fact to fact, and from principle to principle, with amazing rapidity, arrived at length at those convictions of political truth, which have placed the united country at the very summit of political freedom. Never did any colony flourish in a more surprising degree than South-Carolina, as soon as the Cherokees were overcome, and the French and Spaniards driven from her borders. Multitudes of emigrants, from all parts of Europe, flocked to the interior, and pursuing the devious progress of the streams, sought out their sources, and planted their little colonies on the sides of lofty hills, or in the bosoms of lovely vallies." *

As the tide of emigration continued to flow from every quarter into this new found and favorite channel, the colonists soon began to perceive the vast resources which they could command, and rejoiced in the fast increasing strength which they were daily acquiring.

"With numbers came the exercise of mind as well as body, and this exercise, as it taught them their importance to Great Britain, soon induced a natural pride in their own strength, and a proper jealousy of their liberties. They had hitherto obeyed a foreign government, as they had been indebted to its power for protection; but their increase of numbers, their vast extent of territory, the variety of their productions, and the wealth which these necessarily procured, gradually subtracted from the overweening estimate which, in their dependence, they were willing to put upon British valor and genius, and the advantages of an intimate British connection. The great stretch of sea which divided them from the governing power, led, necessarily, to their gradual alienation from it. They saw few of its pomps; they shared in few of its favors; and when the arrogance of Parliament endeavored to make them more familiar with its power, by reason of its exactions, they were then willing to know it only as a foe." t

In 1765, the odious stamp act passed both houses of Parliament, and received the sanction of the king. South-Carolina, without waiting for the co-operation of her sister colonies, immediately declared her hostility to this arbitrary measure, and the popular leaders, in convention assembled, passed several very spirited resolutions, declaring their op

* Simms' History, page 120. + Simms' History, page 121.

position to this "assumption of power" by the parliament of Great Britain, and concluded by ordering the resolutions and votes of the assembly to "be printed and made public, that a just sense of the liberty, and the firm sentiments of loyalty of the representatives of the people of this province, may be known to their constituents, and transmitted to posterity."

The stamp act being so decidedly unpopular in America, was repealed, but others were passed which the colonists considered equally unjust and oppressive. In the year following, duties were placed upon glass, paper, tea, and painters' colors. Again the voice of remonstrance and violent opposition was heard in the colonies, and again the duties were taken off, with the exception of that imposed upon tea; and the Americans resolved to defeat this method of unjust taxation, by refusing to use the article in question. This scheme was rendered abortive by the action of the East India Company. Large quantities of tea were shipped to America, and ordered to be sold on account of the company. More violent measures became then necessary, and were resorted to ;-in Boston, whole cargoes were thrown into the sea; in Charlestown, it was stored, but the consignees were restrained from exposing it for sale. In the one place, the forbidden article was instantly destroyed; in the other, it "rotted in the warehouses." Ón account of this trespass on private property, the thunders of parliamentary vengeance were launched against the rebellious province of Massachusetts, and she paid the penalty of her boldness by being deprived of the right to elect her own rulers; the right of appointing their public officers was taken from the people and vested in the king, and her capital was virtually placed in a state of blockade.

South-Carolina, through her assembly, expressed deep sympathy for the sufferings of her sister colony, and openly declared that she considered the course pursued by the mother country towards Massachusetts as cruel, oppressive and unconstitutional; and forthwith dispatched a number of delegates to represent the State in the general Congress which was to be held at Philadelphia. Every preparation was now made to meet the exigency of the times, and every nerve strained to make ready for the coming struggle, which all men could perceive was not far distant.

"The Carolinians were unprovided, not unprepared, for war. They knew the strength of Britain,-her fleets, her armies, her wealth;VOL. VI. NO. 11.

21

they knew their own poverty, their want of numbers, and the vast extent of coast and frontier which, in the event of a war, they were obliged to defend ;-but they breathed nothing but defiance. Arms and ammunition they chiefly wanted, and they resolved upon the only measure which could yield them a supply. This measure was an overt act of treason. Twelve hundred muskets were in the royal magazine. That very night, when intelligence of the battle of Lexington was received, the arsenal was entered by persons disguised and unknown, and emptied of all its contents. The provincial Congress was again assembled. On the second day of its meeting, it was unanimously resolved that an association was necessary. The parties to this instrument, which was signed by Henry Laurens as President, pledged themselves to be ready to sacrifice life and fortune, to secure the freedom and safety of South-Carolina.' "

Animated by this patriotic spirit, the colonists were untiring in their preparations for the defence of their loved province and the maintenance of their just rights; volunteer companies of horse and foot were formed, and fortifications erected in every part of the province.

"At the time that these military operations were in progress, the whole quantity of powder in the province did not exceed three thousand pounds. To obtain a supply, extraordinary measures were necessary. Informed that a British sloop had reached St. Augustine, having a large supply, twelve persons sailed from Charlestown, and carried her by surprise, though she was in charge of as many grenadiers. They took out fifteen thousand pounds of powder, and spiking the guns of the vessel, set sail for Beaufort, which port they easily made, while their pursuers were waiting for them at the bar of Charlestown."

This powder was sent immediately to the relief of Massachusetts. Soon after this bold proceeding, the military leaders formed a plan to take possession of Fort Johnson by force; but force was unnecessary, as the British garrison, perceiving their design, dismantled the fort, and retired on board the two armed sloops which lay in the harbor-the Cherokee and Tamar.

The inhabitants of Charlestown were under great apprehension lest these two "men of war" should proceed to bombard the town; but all their fears were soon removed, for these formidable vessels hastily put to sea, after receiving a few point-blank shot from the guns of a battery erected on Haddrell's Point, which was commanded by the gallant Col. Moultrie. Thus was the Revolution fairly commenced in Carolina; and in this manner did the gallant little province

* Simms' History, p. 125.

begin a desperate conflict, which was to bring her all the blessings of independence, or terminate in ruin and defeat. It was a long and bloody contest; a contest between might and right,-between unawed force on the one hand, and self-devoted patriotism on the other. Heavy and severe were the reverses which the province was doomed to suffer; hard, indeed, were the blows which she was condemned to receive, and many the precious lives she was compelled to sacrifice, in the sacred cause of liberty.

But, when the hour of adversity arrived,-when the whole State, from the "mountain to the sea," was overrun by an overwhelming invading force,-when, overcome by the number of her enemies, she lay at the mercy of the foe,-even then she was found most true to the cause which she had espoused; and, sustained by the chivalrous devotion of her sons, South-Carolina "proved by her conduct, that though her soil might be overrun, yet the spirit of her people was invincible."

ART. VI.-PRESCOTT'S CONQUEST OF MEXICO.

1. The Despatches of Hernando Cortés, the Conqueror of Mexico, addressed to the Emperor Charles V., written during the conquest, and containing a narrative of its events. Now first translated into English, from the original Spanish, with an Introduction and Notes, by GEORGE FOLSOM, one of the Secretaries of the New-York Historical Society, Member of the American Antiquarian Society, of the Archaiological Society of Athens, etc. New-York: Wiley & Putnam. London: Stationers' Hall Court. 1843. 2. History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a preliminary view of the ancient Mexican civilization, and the Life of the conqueror, Hernando Cortés. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, author of the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella." "Victrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem."-Lucan. In three volumes. New-York: Harper & Brothers. 1843.

SPAIN, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, was the great military nation of Europe. She had served a long and painful apprenticeship, very equally marked by triumphs and abaseinents, in order to arrive at this proud distinction.

Her training had been as severe as it was protracted; and it was not until her petty, independent, and frequently conflicting, States, had become united under one rule, in the reign of Ferdinand, the Catholic, that this reputation was rendered unquestionable by her complete ascendancy over foes and rivals. In glancing over the long catalogue of events, the long train of causes and their consequences, by which this happy consummation was at length made sure, the historian almost fears lest he should become the romancer. With all his forbearance, unless the reader will travel with him through the venerable chronicles, he cannot well escape the imputation of having yielded his convictions to his theme, and embarked on the wide sea of historical speculation, rather with the wing of the imagination than the sober, questioning mood of a conscientious judgment. The temptation to rise above the usual, subdued forms of utterance, requisite for history, is equally pressing and peculiar. Never was history, in itself, more thoroughly like romance; never was the narrow boundary between the possible and the certain, more vague, shadowy and subtle. Truth seems to hang forever over the abyss of doubt;-the probable loses itself in a wide empire of uncertainties, in which the historian, trembling always lest he should lose his guide, grasps unscrupulously, at last, upon the nearest forms which promise a refuge for his thought; and is delighted, finally, to lose himself in any faith which will put at rest his incredulity. Well may the reader, as he lingers over the story of wild revenge, chivalrous adventure, and faithless or audacious love, pause, and wonder, if it be not, indeed, the cunning fiction of the poet, which, through the medium of his fancy, endeavors to beguile his judgment. From the year 712, when Gebel-al-Tarik, the one-eyed Tarik,-Tarik El Tuerto,-first planted his flag and footstep upon the rocky heights of Calpe, threatening with the pale terrors of the crescent, the fairest regions of the cross, to that day of triumph when Boabdil el Chico, the last and feeblest of the Moorish kings of Spain, turned his back upon the green plains and gave his last sigh* to the gay and gorgeous towers of Granada, her history was a long march of battle,-a

"El ultimo suspiro del Moro," is the poetical title given by the Spaniards to the rocky eminence from which Boabdil took his last look of that city, which he "could weep for as a woman, not having the heart to defend as a man."