Chapter 16

Happy was it for the distressed North Carolineans Governor Craven lost no time in collecting and dispatching a force to their assistance and relief. The assembly voted four thousand pounds for the service of the war. A body of militia, consisting of six hundred men, under the command of Colonel Barnwell, marched against the savages. Two hundred and eighteen Cherokees, under the command of Captains Hartford and Turstons; seventy-nine Creeks, under Captain Hastings; forty-one Catabaws, under Captain Cantey, and twenty-eight Yamasses, under Captain Pierce, being furnished with arms, joined the Carolineans in this expedition. Hideous and dreadful, at this time, was that wilderness through which Colonel Barnwell had to march; and to get to North Carolina in time, for the relief of the people, the utmost expedition was requisite. In such a case it was not possible for his men to carry a sufficient quantity of provisions, together with arms and ammunition, along with them, or to have these things provided at different stages by the way. There was no road through the woods upon which either horses or carriages could conveniently pass; and his army had all manner of hardships and dangers from the climate, the wilderness, and the enemy, to encounter. In spite of every difficulty, Barnwell advanced against them, employing his Indian allies to hunt for provisions to his men by the way. At length, having come up with the savages, he attacked them, and being much better supplied with arms and ammunition than his enemy, he did great execution among them. In the first battle he killed three hundred Indians, and took about one hundred prisoners. After which the Tuscororas retreated to their town, within a wooden breastwork; there Barnwell surrounded them, and having killed a considerable number, forced the remainder to sue for peace: some of his men being wounded, and others having suffered much by constant watching, and much hunger and fatigue, the savages more easily obtained their request. In this expedition it was computed that Barnwell killed, wounded, and captivated near a thousand Tuscororas. The remainder, who escaped on the terms of peace, soon after this heavy chastisement, abandoned their country, and joined a northern tribe of Indians on the Ohio river. King Blunt, who afterwards came to South Carolina, confirmed the account of the number the enemy had lost. Of Barnwell's party five Carolineans were killed, and several wounded: of his Indians, thirty-six were killed, and between sixty and seventy wounded. In justice to this officer it must be owned, never had any expedition against the savages in Carolina been attended with such hazards and difficulties, nor had the conquest of any tribe of them ever been more general and complete.

[Sidenote] Bank bills established.

Although the expedition to North Carolina was well conducted, and proved as successful as the most sanguine of the Carolineans could have expected, yet the expense the public had incurred by it fell heavy on the province, the revenues of which were inconsiderable, and not at all adapted for such important and extensive enterprizes. But as great harmony at this time subsisted between the Governor and assembly, they were well disposed for concurring with him in every measure for the public safety and relief. The stamping of bills of credit had been used as the easiest method of defraying these expenses incurred for the public defence: however, at this time the legislature thought proper to establish a public bank, and issued forty-eight thousand pounds in bills of credit, called Bank-bills, for answering the exigencies of government, and for the convenience of domestic commerce. This money was to be lent out at interest, on landed or personal security; and, according to the tenour of the act for issuing the same, it was to be sunk gradually, by four thousand pounds a-year; which sum was ordered to be paid annually by the borrowers, into the hands of commissioners appointed for that purpose. After the emission of these bank-bills, the rate of exchange and the price of produce quickly arose, and in the first year advanced to one hundred and fifty, in the second to two hundred _per cent_.

[Sidenote] Remarks on paper currency.

With respect to the utility of this paper money, the planters and merchants, according to their different views and interests, were divided in opinion. The former, who, for the most part, stood indebted to the latter, found that this provincial currency was not only necessary to answer the exigencies of government, but also very useful and convenient in the payment of private debts. This money being local, in proportion as it increased in quantity, it raised the nominal price of provincial commodities: and became of course prejudicial to creditors, in proportion as it was profitable to debtors; for though it depreciated fifty _per cent_. in a year, during which time the planters stood indebted to the merchants, the next year such creditors were obliged to take it in payment, or produce, which had advanced in price, according to the quantity of money in circulation. By the acts of assembly which established these bills of credit, the currency was secured, and made a tender in law in all payments; so that if the creditor refused this money before witnesses offered to him, the debt was discharged from the minute of his refusal. Besides, the planters knew, that in a trading country gold and silver, by various channels, would make their way out of it when they answer the purposes of remittance better than produce, to their great prejudice: paper-money served to remedy this inconvenience, and to keep up the price of provincial commodities, as it could not leave the colony, and answered the purpose for paying private debts as well, or rather better, than gold and silver. As the trade of the country increased, no doubt a certain quantity of money was necessary to carry it on with ease and freedom; but when paper bills are permitted to increase beyond what are necessary for commercial ease and utility, they sink in value; and in such a case creditors lose in proportion to their depreciation.

In Carolina, as well as in the other British colonies in America, the greatest part of gold and silver current was foreign coin, and the different assemblies settled their value from time to time, by laws peculiar to each province. To remedy the inconveniences arising from the different rates at which the same species of foreign coin did pass in the several colonies and plantations, Queen Anne, in the sixth year of her reign, had thought fit, by her royal proclamation, to settle and ascertain the current rate of foreign coin in all her colonies. The standard at which currency was fixed by this proclamation, was at an hundred and thirty-three pounds, six shillings and eight-pence _per cent_.; but this regulation, however convenient and advantageous to trade, was afterwards little regarded in these provinces, and the confusion of current money continued and prevailed.

After the emission of this great quantity of bank-bills in Carolina, and speedy rise of the price of produce in consequence of it, the merchants of London, to whom the colony stood indebted, judging it prejudicial to trade, complained of it to the Proprietors. They perceived that the trade of the country, by this means, would be carried on entirely without silver or gold; and although their factors in Carolina might raise the price of British commodities and manufactures, equal to the advanced price of the produce, yet it might be for their interest sometimes to take gold and silver rather than produce in return for their British goods. They considered the issuing of such bank-notes as a violation of the laws of England, and prevailed on the Proprietors to write Governor Craven a letter to the following effect: "We have heard complaints from several hands of an act you have passed, called the Bank Act. We do recommend to you to consider of some expedient for preventing the mischievous consequences of that act, lest, upon further complaints, we be forced to repeal it. The act is exclaimed against by our London merchants as injurious to trade, as an infringement and violation of the laws of Great Britain, and made almost in opposition to the act of the sixth of Queen Anne. Therefore we expect, for preventing such complaints for the future, that you will endeavour, as much as in you lies, to reduce that paper credit, pretended to be established in your bank act, and that you will strictly put in execution the aforesaid act of Queen Anne."

[Sidenote] Trade infested by pirates.

As the trade of the colony had of late years considerably increased, and was almost entirely carried on in British ships, its protection was an object which demanded the attention either of the Proprietors or the British administration. The war in Europe had engrossed the care of the latter, and the former were either unable or unwilling to bear the expence of its protection. They had leased their property in the Bahama islands to a company of merchants, which turning out to little account; the Island of Providence became a receptacle for vagabonds and villains of all nations. From this place of rendezvous a crew of desperate pirates had been accustomed to push out to sea, and, in defiance of the laws of nations, to obstruct navigation. The trade of Carolina and that of the West Indies suffered greatly from their depredations. For five years after this period those lawless robbers reigned as the masters of the Gulph of Florida, plundering and taking ships of every nation. North Carolina, by the conquest of its maritime tribes of Indians, had also become a refuge for those rogues, who carried their prizes into Cape Fear river, or Providence, as best suited their convenience or interest. Their success induced bold and rapacious spirits to join them, and in time they became so formidable, that no inconsiderable force was requisite to suppress them.

[Sidenote] Several English statutes adopted.

After a long and expensive war, a treaty of peace and commerce was concluded between Britain, France and Spain in Europe; and orders were sent to all the colonies to desist from acts of hostility. Governor Craven, deeply interested in the prosperity of Carolina, now turned his attention to improve the precious blessings of peace, and to diffuse a spirit of industry and agriculture throughout the settlement. The lands in Granville county were found upon trial rich and fertile, and the planters were encouraged to improve them. Accordingly a number of plantations were settled in the neighbourhood of Indian nations, with whom the Governor studied to cultivate a friendly correspondence. For the purposes of trade some men took up their residence in their towns, and furnished them with clothes, arms, and ammunition, in exchange for their furs and deer-skins. An agent was appointed to superintend the affairs of Indian tribes, and to conciliate by all possible means their friendship and esteem. Several interior regulations, conducive to the peace and prosperity of the colony, were also established. The colonists, as an eminent writer observes, in general carry with them so much of the English law as is applicable to their local circumstances and situation; such as, the general rules of inheritance, and of protection from personal injuries. What may be proper to be admitted, and what are necessary to be rejected, is judged and determined, in the first instance, by the provincial judicature, then subject to the approbation or disapprobation of the Proprietors; and so far of the British parliament, that nothing may be attempted by them derogatory to the sovereignty and supreme jurisdiction of the mother country. At this time Governor Craven obtained the assent of the General Assembly, to make several English statutes of the same force in Carolina as if they had been enacted in it. The people regarded him as a wise and indulgent parent, and wished to copy the spirit of their laws from the English original, although they received their obligation and authoritative force from their being the laws of the colony.

About this time Nicholas Trott, the Chief Justice of the colony, returned from England, where he had been for some time engaged in the settlement of private affairs. During his stay in Britain he had engrossed the favour of the Proprietors, who finding him to be a man of great abilities, professed a high respect for him, and afterwards desired his assistance and advice in every case respecting the future management of their colony. They advanced his salary to one hundred pounds a-year, and he agreed to carry on a regular correspondence with their secretary, and to give them the best intelligence with respect to their provincial affairs. Trott having thus secured the confidence of the Proprietors in England, soon after he came to Carolina, began to plume himself on his advantageous circumstances, and to treat his former friends in the colony with that pride and insolence too common to most men in office and power. On the other hand, those men, offended at his arrogance, watched his conduct with an envious and malignant eye, and seemed to desire nothing more than to humble his pride and destroy his influence. To this fatal difference may be ascribed several future jealousies and disturbances with which the colonists were harassed, and which terminated in the total subversion of the proprietary government.

CHAP. V.

After the death of Queen Anne, George, Elector of Hanover, ascended the British throne, and was crowned on the 12th of October, 1714. This event was far from giving general satisfaction to the British nation. A considerable party of the principal landholders favoured the pretensions of the house of Stewart, but were so divided in their councils and schemes, that they lost all influence and weight. Having no head, they were unable to turn the balance against the party in the other scale, who, by degrees, engrossed the royal favour, and all offices of power and trust in the kingdom. By this difference, however, a spirit of civil discord and sedition was excited in the nation, and the Chevalier, encouraged by it, and flattered with the hopes of assistance from France, formed a project of snatching the scepter by force of arms from the family of Hanover. For this purpose, a party in Scotland had recourse to arms, but meeting with little assistance from the pretended friends of the cause in England, the insurrection was soon quelled, and their rash design totally defeated.

[Sidenote] A design formed for purchasing all charters and proprietary governments.

During the former reign the Lord Commissioners of trade and plantations, from the contentions that prevailed in some of the colonies, had taken occasion to look more narrowly than formerly they used to do, into the state of proprietary governments in America, in order to form a plan for purchasing and uniting them more closely to the crown. They easily perceived the advantage of beginning this negotiation as soon as possible, for the sooner the purchase was made, the earlier it would be obtained. Accordingly, they wrote to the Proprietors of each colony, acquainting them, it was her Majesty's pleasure and command, that all governors of her foreign plantations do transmit to them frequent and full information of the state of their respective colonies, as well in respect to the administration of government and justice, as to their progress in trade and improvements. The Queen, though no friend to non-conformists, had also stretched out a hand of relief to the distressed Dissenters of Carolina, and publicly disapproved of some oppressive acts to which they had been subjected. This served to encourage a spirit of murmur and discontent among the Carolineans at the proprietary government, and to give their eyes a direction to the crown at every future period, when they thought themselves aggrieved under it.

[Sidenote] The Yamassees conspire the destruction of the colony.

During the same year in which the attention of Britain was occupied by a civil broil, the colony of Carolina was visited with a terrible Indian war, which threatened its total extirpation. The numerous and powerful tribe of Indians called Yamassees, probably at the instigation of the Spaniards at Augustine, were the most active in promoting this conspiracy against the settlement, though every tribe around was more or less concerned in it. The Yamassees possessed a large territory lying backwards from Port-royal Island, on the north-east side of Savanna river, which to this day is called Indian Land. By the Carolineans this tribe had long been esteemed as friends and allies, who had admitted a number of traders into their towns, and several times assisted the settlers in their war-like enterprizes. Of all other Indians they were believed to habour in their minds the most inveterate and irreconcilable enmity to Spaniards. For many years they had been accustomed to make incursions into the Spanish territories, and to wage war with the Indians within their bounds. In their return from those southern expeditions, it had been a common practice with them to lurk in the woods round Augustine, until they surprized some Spaniard, and brought him prisoner home to their towns. On the bodies of these unfortunate prisoners they were accustomed to exercise the most wanton barbarities; sometimes cutting them to pieces slowly, joint by joint, with knives and tomahawks; at other times burying them up to the neck under ground, then standing at a distance and marking at their heads with their pointed arrows; and, at other times, binding them to a tree, and piercing the tenderest parts of their naked bodies with sharp-pointed sticks of burning wood, which last, because the most painful and excruciating method of torture, was the most common among them.

To prevent such horrid cruelties from being committed on the bodies of human creatures, the legislature of Carolina passed a law, offering a reward of five pounds for every Spanish prisoner these Indians should bring alive to Charlestown; which law, though it evidently proceeded from motives of humanity, yet, in the event, it proved very inconsistent with good policy: for, in consequence of this act, the Yamassees brought several Spaniards, at different times, to Charlestown, where they claimed the reward for their prisoners, and delivered them up to the governor. Charles Craven, who was no less distinguished for humanity than valour, used to send back such prisoners to Augustine, charging the Spanish government with the expences of their passage and the reward to the Yamassees. But this humane practice, while it displayed English greatness of mind, served also to begin an intercourse, which will exhibit to us a sad specimen of Spanish honour and gratitude.

For twelve months before the war broke out, the traders among the Yamassees observed that their chief warriors went frequently to Augustine, and returned loaded with presents; but were not apprehensive of any ill consequence from such generosity. John Fraser, an honest Scotch Highlander, who lived among the Yamassees, and traded with them, had often heard these warriors tell with what kindness they had been treated at Augustine. One had received a hat, another a jacket, and a third a coat, all trimmed with silver lace. Some got hatchets, others great knives, and almost all of them guns and ammunition, to prepare them for striking some great and important blow. These warriors told Mr. Fraser, that they had dined with the governor at Augustine, and washed his face, (a ceremony used by Indians as a token of friendship), and that now the Spanish governor was their king, and not the Governor of Carolina. Still, however, the Carolineans remained secure, and, having such confidence in the Indians, dreaded no ill consequences from this new intercourse and uncommon kindness. They knew the Yamassees antipathy to the Spaniards, their fondness for presents, but could suspect no mischievous plot meditated against the settlement by friends and allies. They were not ignorant that the subjects of both England and Spain always endeavoured for the sake of peace, to court the friendship of Indian nations, who were such powerful and dangerous enemies. Each competitor knew their passion for war, and how heavy their vengeance, wherever it pointed, generally fell, and therefore good policy dictated the necessity of turning the edge of their fierce and bloody temper against their neighbours, in order to save themselves.

It was a common thing for the traders who resided among these savages to single out a particular warrior of influence and authority among them, and to court his favour with trifling presents and constant civility. Among the Yamassees one named Sanute was Fraser's friend, who, with his fellow-warriors, had also been at Florida, and shared of the Spaniards insidious liberality. During his absence Mr. Fraser had married a fine woman; and Sanute, who had a great regard for him, after his return home came to his house, and brought along with him some sweet herbs, to show the lady a mark of respect, agreeable to customs of Indian nations. So soon as he entered the habitation of his friend, he called for a bason of water, in which he bruised the herbs, and first washed Mrs. Fraser's face and hands, and then, clapping his own hands upon his breast, told her, that, for the future, he would communicate to her all he knew in his heart. She, in return, thanked him, and made him some present. Accordingly, about nine days before hostilities commenced, Sanute came to Mrs. Fraser's house, and told her, that the English were all wicked heretics, and would go to hell, and that the Yamassees would also follow them, if they suffered them to live in their country; that now the governor Augustine was their king; that there would be a terrible war with the English, and they only waited for the bloody stick to be returned from the Creeks before they began it. He told them, that the Yamassees, the Creeks, the Cherokees, and many other nations, together with the Spaniards, were all to engage in it; and advised them to fly to Charlestown with all they had in the greatest haste, and if their own pettiauger was not large enough to carry them, he would lend them his canoe. Fraser, not a little astonished at the news, asked him, how the Spaniards could go to war with the Carolineans, while at peace with Great Britain? To which Sanute replied, the Spanish governor told him that there would soon be a war again with the English, and that while they attacked the Carolineans by land, he would send to Spain for a fleet of ships to block up the harbour, so that not a man or woman of them should escape. Fraser asked him, how long it might be since they had formed this horrid design? Sanute answered, Do not you remember about twelve months ago that Ishiagaska, one of our chief warriors, with four more Indians, went to the Creeks. Fraser said, he remembered it well. Then it was, said Sanute, he carried with him a Spanish talk for destroying all the English inhabitants of the province; and, laying his hand upon his heart, declared he had told them all he knew, and repeated his advice to them to fly with all expedition: but, if they were determined to stay and run all hazards, he concluded by assuring them, that, to prevent torture, he would claim the privilege of performing the last friendly office to them, which was to kill them with his own hands. Fraser still entertained some doubts, but his wife being terrified, he resolved at all events to get out of the way, and accordingly, without delay, put his wife, his child, and most valuable effects, into his boat, and made his escape to Charlestown.

[Sidenote] The Yamassee war.