fleeing from religious intolerance in Virginia, who, 1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh under the general name of Virginia. This grant was first made by Charles I., in 1630, to Sir Robert Heath, the country being designated by the name of Carolina; and, as usual, it was made to extend from the Atlantic to the South Sea. Under this grant, no settlement was made; and the patentee having neglected to comply with the conditions, it was transferred to Lord Clarendon. A second charter enlarged the boundaries as far south as latitude 29°. Locke; but the aristocratic features of this singular instrument were ill-adapted to the sentiments and habits of the people for whom it was prepared, and the attempt to put it in force was followed by an insurrection.* The palatine, or president, and the members of his parliament or council, were overpowered and imprisoned; and for two years, the authority remained in the hands of the insurgents. They at length submitted, before an armed force could be arrayed against them. For many years afterwards, a state of things prevailed in North Carolina very unfavourable to the improvement of the colony. The government was feebly and corruptly administered, and morals were greatly relaxed. The progress of the settlement was so slow, that, in 1702, the whole province is said to have contained only 6000 persons. The first settlement within the limits of South Carolina was made by Governor Sayle, under the direction of the Lords Proprietors, with a few emigrants from England, at Port Royal, in 1670. Dissatisfied with this station, he removed his colony, next year, to the western bank of Ashley River, and there laid *This constitution, consisting of 120 articles, provided, that a president, to be called the Palatine, should be elected from among the proprietors, to hold the office for life; that an hereditary nobility should be created, of landgraves and caciques, the former to possess 16,000, the latter 4000 acres; the estates and titles to descend concurrently for ever; that the parliament should be composed of the proprietors or their deputies, the nobility, and representatives chosen by the freeholders once in two years; but this parliament could not originate laws; it was only to decide upon propositions laid before it by a grand council composed of the palatine, nobility, and proprietors. In South Carolina, the qualifications of nobility appear to have been laid down on a larger scale. There were to be three orders; barons, caciques, and landgraves; the first to possess 12,000, the second 24,000, and the third 48,000 acres, which were to be unalienable from their faipilics. the foundation of Old Charleston, so named in honour of the King. The site was injudiciously chosen, and a second removal took place in 1680, to Oyster Point, at the confluence of the rivers Ashley and Cooper, where the foundation of the present city of Charleston was laid. The new settlement soon attracted many inhabitants from that at Clarendon, and at length entirely exhausted it. Being remote from Albemarle, the Proprietors established a separate government over it; and hence arose the distinctive appellations of North and South Carolina. Several circumstances contributed to promote the growth of this colony. The conquest of New York induced many of the Dutch to resort to it. From England, Puritans came to avoid the profaneness and licentiousness which disgraced the court of Charles II., and cavaliers to retrieve their fortunes, exhausted by the civil wars. The revocation of the Edict of Nantz contributed greatly to its prosperity, not so much by the numbers as by the respectability of the French refugees who crossed the Atlantic and settled in Carolina. Many of these exiles were rich; all were industrious; and by their exemplary demeanour, they so far gained the good-will of the Proprietors, that they directed the Governor to permit them to elect representatives. The English Episcopalians, however, unwilling that any who did not belong to their church, should be associated with themselves in the enjoyment of the rights of freemen, were exasperated, and opposed the concession with great clamour and zeal. They even went so far as to propose to enforce with respect to them the laws of England against foreigners, insisting that they could not legally possess real estates in the colony. They also maintained, that their marriages, being solemnized by French Presby terian ministers, were void, and that the children could not inherit the property of their fathers. The strangers were alarmed at the display of this illiberal and intolerant spirit; but, countenanced by the Governor, they remained in the colony, and withdrew, for the time, their claim to the right of suffrage. The ferment, however, did not subside on the removal of the cause which had excited it; and such were the general turbulence and disorder, that, in 1695, it was deemed necessary to send over one of the proprietors, John Archdale, a Quaker, as Governor of both the Carolinas, with full powers to redress all grievances. He succeeded in restoring order, but found the antipathy against the unfortunate refugees too strong to admit of any immediate legislative remedy. He therefore prudently abstained from pressing the measure; and in a few years, as he anticipated, the French Protestants were admitted by the General Assembly to all the rights and privileges of citizens and freemen. The constitution of Locke had been abrogated by the Proprietors, at the request of the Carolinians, in 1693; and each colony had afterwards its separate council and representative assembly. In the year 1700, the peace of the colony was again disturbed, by the attempt of Lord Granville, one of the Proprietors, to establish Episcopacy in the Carolinas, in direct violation of the stipulations that had been made in favour of liberty of conscience. Moore, the Governor, who was the venal tool of Lord Granville, succeeded, by means of bribery, in procuring a subservient majority in the Assembly, although a majority of the colonists were Dissenters. A law was passed, establishing the Episcopal polity, and excluding Dissenters from a seat in the Assembly. On its being laid before the Proprietors for their sanction, Arch dale, who had returned to England, opposed it with spirit and ability; but Lord Granville declared himself in favour of it, and it received confirmation. The Dissenters, who thus saw themselves iniquitously deprived of the privileges for which they had abandoned their native country and encountered the hardships of a wilderness, appealed to the House of Lords; and in 1705, the obnoxious act was annulled by the British Government. The contest, however, between the Proprietors and the Assembly, did not terminate here. The settlers began to think that the control of a monarch was to be preferred to the tyranny of an oligarchy; and it was not long before fresh cause of complaint exasperated them to throw off the yoke. In 1715, after several years of profound peace, an Indian war broke out. All the tribes from Florida to Cape Fear, had for some time been engaged in a conspiracy to extirpate the Whites; and on the morning of April 15, the first blow was struck. At Pocataligo and the settlements round Port Royal, ninety persons were massacred; and the inhabitants of the latter place escaped only by embarking precipitately on board a vessel then in the harbour, and sailing to Charleston. The northern Indians at the same time attacked the settlements on their borders: many of the colonists were killed, and others fled to Charleston. Governor Craven, at the head of 1200 men, marched against the savages; and at Salteatchers, an obstinate and bloody battle was fought, in which the Whites were victorious. The Indians were driven out of the province, and fled to Florida, where they met with a friendly réception from the Spaniards, who had probably excited them to hostilities. In this short war, 400 Whites were killed; property of great value was destroyed; and a large debt was contracted. The Proprietors, though ear. |