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016 - Chapter 16 · Chronicles of America Volume 05 - Pioneers of the Old South

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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of Pioneers of the Old South by Mary Johnston.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter sixteen
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  Speaker 1: Georgia below Charleston. In South Carolina, below Cape Fear, below
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  Speaker 1: Port Royal, a great river called the Savannah poured into
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  Speaker 1: the sea. Below the Savannah passed the o gch sailing
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  Speaker 1: south between the sandy islands, and the main ships came
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  Speaker 1: to the mouth of the river Altamaha. Thus fought was Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: but below Altamaha the coast and the country inland became debatable,
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  Speaker 1: probably Florida and Spanish, liable at any rate to be
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  Speaker 1: claimed as such, and certainly open to attack from Spanish.
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  Speaker 1: Saint Augustine. Here lay a stretch of seacoast and country
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  Speaker 1: withinhaling distance of semi tropical lands. It was low and sandy,
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  Speaker 1: with innumerable slow flowing watercourses, creeks and inlets from the sea.
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  Speaker 1: The back country, running up to hills and even mountains
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  Speaker 1: stuffed with oars, was not known, though indeed Spanish adventurers
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  Speaker 1: had wandered there and mined for gold. But the low
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  Speaker 1: lands were warm and dense with trees and wildlife. The
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  Speaker 1: Huguenot ribolt making report of this region years and years
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  Speaker 1: before called it a fair coast, stretching up a great link,
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  Speaker 1: covered with an infinite number of high and fair trees,
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  Speaker 1: and he described the land as the fairest, fruitfullest, and
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  Speaker 1: pleasantest of all the world, abounding in honey, venison, wild
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  Speaker 1: foul forests, woods of all sorts, palm trees, cypress and cedars.
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  Speaker 1: Bays ye highest and greatest, with also the fairest vines
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  Speaker 1: in all the world. And the sight of the fair
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  Speaker 1: meadows is a pleasure not able to be expressed with
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  Speaker 1: tongue full of herons, curlews, bitters, mallards, egret, woodcocks, and
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  Speaker 1: all other kinds of small birds with hearts, hinds, bucks,
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  Speaker 1: wild swine, and all other kinds of wild beasts, as
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  Speaker 1: we perceive well both by their footing there and their
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  Speaker 1: cry and roaring in the night. This is the country
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  Speaker 1: of the live oak and the magnolia, the gray swinging
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  Speaker 1: moss and the yellow jessamine, the chameleon and the mocking bird,
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  Speaker 1: the savannah and Alta Maha rivers, and the wide and
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  Speaker 1: deep lands between bill In that grant of Charles, the
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  Speaker 1: seconds to the eight lords proprietors of Carolina, Albemarle, Clarendon,
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  Speaker 1: and the rest. But this region remained as yet unpeopled,
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  Speaker 1: saved by copper hued folk through After the American Treaty
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  Speaker 1: of sixteen seventy between England and Spain, the English built
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  Speaker 1: a small fort upon Cumberland Island south of the Alta Maha,
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  Speaker 1: and presently another fort, George, to the northwest of the first,
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  Speaker 1: at the confluence of the rivers Oconee and Oakmulgy. There were, however,
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  Speaker 1: no true colonists between the Savannah and the Alta Maha.
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  Speaker 1: In the year seventeen seventeen, the year after Spotswood's expedition,
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  Speaker 1: the Carolina proprietaries granted to one Sir Robert Montgomery all
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  Speaker 1: the land between the rivers Savannah and Alta Maha, with
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  Speaker 1: proper jurisdictions, privileges, prerogatives, and franchises. The arrangement was feudal enough.
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  Speaker 1: The new province was to be called the Margravat of Azalea. Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: as Margrave, was to render to the lords of Carolina
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  Speaker 1: an annual quit rent and one fourth part of all
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  Speaker 1: gold and silver found in Azilia. He must govern in
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  Speaker 1: accordance with the Laws of England, must uphold the established
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  Speaker 1: religion of England and provide by taxation for the maintenance
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  Speaker 1: of the clergy. In three years time, the new Margrave
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  Speaker 1: must colonize is Margrave eight, and if he failed to
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  Speaker 1: do so, all his rights would disappear, and Azilia would
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  Speaker 1: again dissolve into Carolina. This was what happened. For whatever reason,
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery could not obtain his colonists. Azilia remained a paper land.
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  Speaker 1: The years went by, the country unsettled, yet lapsed into
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  Speaker 1: the Carolina from which so tentatively it had been parted.
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  Speaker 1: Over its spaces. The Indians still roved, the tall forests,
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  Speaker 1: still lifted their green crowns, and no axe was heard,
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  Speaker 1: nor any English voice. In the decade that followed, the
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  Speaker 1: Lord's Proprietors of Carolina ceased to be Lord's proprietors. Their
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  Speaker 1: government had been saved at exceptional moments. Confused, depressive, now
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  Speaker 1: absent minded, and now mistaken and arbitrary. They had meant
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  Speaker 1: very well, but their knowledge was not exact, and now
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  Speaker 1: virtual revolution in South Carolina assisted their demise. After lengthy negotiations,
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  Speaker 1: at last, in seventeen twenty nine, all except Lord Granville
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  Speaker 1: surrendered to the Crown for a considerable sum their rights
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  Speaker 1: and interests. Carolina South and North thereupon became royal colonies
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  Speaker 1: in England. Their dwell demand named James Edward Oglethorpe, son
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  Speaker 1: of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe of good Dalming in Surrey. Though
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  Speaker 1: entered at Oxford, he soon left his books for the
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  Speaker 1: army and was present the siege in taking a Belgrade
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen seventeen. Peace descending, the young man returned to England, and,
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  Speaker 1: on the death of his elder brother, came into the
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  Speaker 1: estate and was presently made Member of Parliament for Hasselmeer
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  Speaker 1: in Surrey. His character was a firm and generous one,
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  Speaker 1: his bent markedly humane, strong benevolence of soul. Pope says
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  Speaker 1: he had is sentry II was becoming humane, was inquiring
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  Speaker 1: into ancient wrongs. There arose, among other things, a belated
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  Speaker 1: notion of prison reform. The English Parliament undertook an investigation,
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  Speaker 1: and Oglethorpe was of those named to examine conditions and
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  Speaker 1: to make a report. He came into contact with the incarcerated,
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  Speaker 1: not alone with the lawbreaker hardened or yet to be hardened,
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  Speaker 1: but with the wrongfully imprisoned and with the debtor. The
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  Speaker 1: misery of the debtor seems to have struck with insistent
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  Speaker 1: hand upon his heart's door. The parliamentary inquiry was doubtless
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  Speaker 1: productive of some good, albeit evidently not of great good.
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  Speaker 1: But though the inquiry was over, Ogilthorpe's concern was not over.
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  Speaker 1: It brooded, and in the inner clear light where ideas grow,
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  Speaker 1: eventually brought forth results. Numbers of debtors lay in crowded
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  Speaker 1: and noisome English prisons there, often from no true fault
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  Speaker 1: at all, at times even because of a virtuous action,
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  Speaker 1: often as from mere misfortune, if they might but start
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  Speaker 1: again in a new land free from entanglements. Others too
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  Speaker 1: were in prison whose crimes were negligible, mere mistaken moves
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  Speaker 1: with no evil will behind them, or if not so negligible,
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  Speaker 1: then happening often through that misery and ignorantans for which
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  Speaker 1: the whole world was at fault. There was also the
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  Speaker 1: broad and well filled prison of poverty, and many of
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  Speaker 1: the prisoners there needed only a better start. James Edward
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  Speaker 1: Oglethorpe conceived another settlement in America, and for colonists, he
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  Speaker 1: would have all these downtrodden and oppressed. He would gather,
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  Speaker 1: if he might, only those who, when helped, would help themselves, who,
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  Speaker 1: when given opportunity, would rise out of old slough and briar.
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  Speaker 1: He was personally open to the appeal of still another
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  Speaker 1: class of unfortunate men. He had seen upon the continent
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  Speaker 1: the distress of the poor and humble Protestants in Catholic countries.
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  Speaker 1: Folk of this kind from France, from Germany had been
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  Speaker 1: going in a thin stream for years to the New World.
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  Speaker 1: But by his plan more might be enabled to escape petty,
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  Speaker 1: tyranny or persecution. He had influence, and his scheme appeal
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  Speaker 1: to the humane thought of his day, appealed to to
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  Speaker 1: the political thought in America. There was that debatable and
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  Speaker 1: unoccupied land south of Charlestown in South Carolina. It would
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  Speaker 1: be very good to settle it, and none had taken
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  Speaker 1: up the idea with seriousness. Since Azilia had failed. Such
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  Speaker 1: a colony, as was now contemplated, would dispose of Spanish claims,
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  Speaker 1: serve as a buffer colony between Florida and South Carolina,
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  Speaker 1: and establish another place of trade. The upshot was that
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  Speaker 1: the Crown granted to Oglethorpe and twenty associates the unsettled
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  Speaker 1: land between the Savannah and the Alta Maha, with a
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  Speaker 1: westward depth that was left quite indefinite. This territory, which
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  Speaker 1: was now severed from Carolina, was named Georgia after His Majesty,
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  Speaker 1: King George the Second and Oglethorpen. A number of prominent
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  Speaker 1: men became the trustees of the new colony. They were
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  Speaker 1: to act as such for twenty one years, at the
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  Speaker 1: end of which time Georgia should pass under the direct
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  Speaker 1: government of the crown. Parliament gave to the starting of
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  Speaker 1: things ten thousand pounds, and wealthy philanthropic individuals followed suit
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  Speaker 1: with considerable donations. The trustees assembled, organized, set to work
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  Speaker 1: a philanthropic body. They drew from the like minded, fought
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  Speaker 1: and near Various agencies worked to gored getting together and
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  Speaker 1: sifting the colonists for Georgia. Men visited the prisons, fort
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  Speaker 1: debters and others. They did not choose at random, but
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  Speaker 1: when they found the truly unfortunate and undepraved in prison,
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  Speaker 1: they drew them forth, compounded with their credits, set the
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  Speaker 1: prisoners free, and enrolled them among the emigrants. Likewise, they
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  Speaker 1: drew together those who from sheer poverty welcomed this opportunity,
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  Speaker 1: and they began a correspondence with distressed Protestants on the continent.
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  Speaker 1: They also devised and used all manner of safeguards against
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  Speaker 1: imposition and the inclusion of any who would be holy burdens,
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  Speaker 1: moral or physical. So it happened that, though misfortune had
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  Speaker 1: laid on almost all a heavy hand, the early colonists
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  Speaker 1: to Georgia were by no means undesirable. Flotsam and jetsam.
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  Speaker 1: The plans for the colony, the hopes for its well being,
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  Speaker 1: whare are tranquil and fair countenance. Oglethorpe himself would go
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  Speaker 1: with the first colonists. His ship was the and of
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  Speaker 1: two hundred tons burdened, the last English colonizing ship with
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  Speaker 1: which this narrative has to do and to her weathered
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  Speaker 1: sails there still clings a fascination on board the Ann.
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  Speaker 1: Beside the crew and master are Oglethorpe himself and more
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  Speaker 1: than one hundred and twenty Georgia settlers, men, women and children.
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  Speaker 1: The Anne shook forth her sales in mid November seventeen
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  Speaker 1: thirty two upon the Old West Indies Sea Road, and
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  Speaker 1: after two months of prosperous firing, came to anchor in
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  Speaker 1: Charlestown Harbor, South Carolina. Approving this Georgia settlement, which was
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  Speaker 1: to open the country southward and be a wall against Spain,
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  Speaker 1: received the colonists with hospitality. Oglethorpe and the weary colonists,
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  Speaker 1: rested from long travel, then hoisted sail again and proceeded
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  Speaker 1: on their way to Port Royal and southward. Yet to
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  Speaker 1: the of the savannah. Here there was further tearing, while
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  Speaker 1: Oglethorpe and picked men went in a small boat up
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  Speaker 1: the river to choose the site where they should build
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  Speaker 1: their town. Here upon the lower reaches there lay a
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  Speaker 1: fair plateau a mile long, rising forty feet above the stream.
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  Speaker 1: Nearby stood a village of well inclined Indians. The Yama
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  Speaker 1: cross ships might float upon the river close beneath the
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  Speaker 1: tree crowned bluff. It was springtime now and beautiful in
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  Speaker 1: the southern land. The sky azure, the air delicate, the
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  Speaker 1: earth garbed in flowers. Little wonder then that Oglethorpe chose
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  Speaker 1: Yamacraw Bluff for his town. A trader from Carolina was
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  Speaker 1: found here, and the trader's wife, a half prayed Mary
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  Speaker 1: Musgrove by name did the English goods service. She made
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  Speaker 1: Indian kindred friends with the newcomers. From the first Oglethorpe
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  Speaker 1: dealt wisely with the red Men. In return for many
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  Speaker 1: coveted goods. He procured within the year a formal session
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  Speaker 1: of the land between the two rivers and the islands
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  Speaker 1: off the coast. East. Wore friendship and promise to treat
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  Speaker 1: the Indians justly, and he kept his oath the site chosen.
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  Speaker 1: He now returned to the Anne, and presently brought his
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  Speaker 1: colonists up the river to that fair place. As soon
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  Speaker 1: as they landed. These first Georgians began immediately to build
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  Speaker 1: a town, which they named Savannah. Ere long other emigrants arrived.
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  Speaker 1: In seventeen thirty four came seventy eight German Protestants from
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  Speaker 1: Salzburg with Baron Reck and two pastors for leaders. The
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  Speaker 1: next year saw fifty seven others added to these. Then
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  Speaker 1: came Moravians with their pastor. All these strong, industrious religious
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  Speaker 1: folk made settlements upon the river above Savannah. Italians came
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  Speaker 1: Piede Montese, sent by the trustees to teach the coveted
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  Speaker 1: silk culture. Oglethorpe, when he sailed to England in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: thirty four, took with him tch Chi, chief of the Yamacross,
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  Speaker 1: and other Indians. English interests in Georgia increased. Parliament gave
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  Speaker 1: more money twenty six thousand pounds. Oglethorpe and the Trustees
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  Speaker 1: gathered more colonists. The Spanish cloud seemed to be rolling
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  Speaker 1: up in the south, and it was desirable to have
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  Speaker 1: in Georgia. A number of men who were by inheritance
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  Speaker 1: used to war Scotch Highlanders. There would be the right folk.
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  Speaker 1: No sooner said than gathered. Something under two hundred courageous
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  Speaker 1: and hearty were enrolled from the Highlands, the majority women,
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  Speaker 1: but there were fifty women and children with them. All
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  Speaker 1: went to Georgia, where they settled to the south of
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  Speaker 1: Savannah on the Altamaha, near the island of Saint Simon.
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  Speaker 1: Other Highlanders followed. They had a fort in a town
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  Speaker 1: which they named New Inverness, and the region that they
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  Speaker 1: peopled they called darien Ogelethorpe himself left England late in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen thirty five with two ships, the Simon and the
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  Speaker 1: London Merchant, and several hundred colonists aboard. Of these folk,
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  Speaker 1: doubtless a number were of the type the whole enterprise
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  Speaker 1: had been planned to benefit. Others were Protestants from the continent.
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  Speaker 1: Yet others, notably Sir Francis Bathurst and his family, went
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  Speaker 1: at their own charges after Oglethorpe himself. Most remarkable perhaps
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  Speaker 1: of those going to Georgia, where the brothers John and
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  Speaker 1: Charles Wesley precisely colonists of the Westleys, but prospectors for
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  Speaker 1: the souls of the colonists and the souls of the
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  Speaker 1: Indians Yamacross, Ouchis and Creeks. They all landed at Savannah
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  Speaker 1: and now planned to make a settlement south of their
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  Speaker 1: capital city, by the mouth of Altamaha. Oglethorpe chose Saint
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  Speaker 1: Simon's Island, and here they built and called their town Frederica.
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  Speaker 1: Each freeholder had sixty feet in front by ninety feet
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  Speaker 1: in depth upon the high street for house and garden,
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  Speaker 1: but those which fronted the river had but thirty in
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  Speaker 1: front by sixty feet in depth. Each family had a
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  Speaker 1: bower of pau meadow leaves finished upon the back street
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  Speaker 1: in their own lands. The side toward the front street
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  Speaker 1: was set out for their houses. These palmetto bowers were
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  Speaker 1: very convenient shelters, being tight in the hardest brains. They
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  Speaker 1: were about twenty feet long and fourteen feet wide, and
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  Speaker 1: in regular rows look very pretty, the palmetto leaves lying
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  Speaker 1: smooth and handsome and of good color. The whole appeared
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  Speaker 1: something like a camp. For the bowers looked like tents,
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  Speaker 1: only being larger and covered with palmetto leaves. Their life
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  Speaker 1: sounds idyllic, but it will not always be so. Thunders
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  Speaker 1: will arise, serpents be found in Eden. But here now
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  Speaker 1: we leave them in infant Savannah, in the Salzburger's village
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  Speaker 1: of Epponeeser, and in the Moravian village nearby, in Darien
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  Speaker 1: of the Highlanders, and in Frederica, where until houses are built,
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  Speaker 1: they will live in palmeadow bowers. Virginia, Maryland, the two Carolinas, Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: the southern sweep of England in America are colonized. They
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  Speaker 1: have communication with one another and with Middle and Northern England.
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  Speaker 1: In America, they also have communication with the Motherland. Over
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  Speaker 1: the sea. The greetings of kindred and the fruits of
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  Speaker 1: labor travel to and fro over the salt tumbling waves,
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  Speaker 1: but also go mutual criticism and complaint. Each man says
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  Speaker 1: Gerda is led and misled after a fashion peculiar to himself.
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  Speaker 1: So with those mass persons call countries, tension would come about,
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  Speaker 1: Tension would relax, tension would return an increase between mother
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  Speaker 1: England and daughter America. In all these colonies, in the
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  Speaker 1: year with which this narrative closes, there were living children
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  Speaker 1: and young persons who would see the cord between broken.
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  Speaker 1: Would here read the declaration of independence. So but the
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  Speaker 1: true bond could never be broken for mother and daughter
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  Speaker 1: after all are one. End of chapter sixteen, end our
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  Speaker 1: Pine Years of the Old South by Mary Johnston