1729]

THE WRONG POLICY RENEWED.

233

napped, to be sold as slaves, and again was war made against the Spaniards of St. Augustine. But the expedition which was sent (1702) to capture that place proved unsuccessful; the colony moreover was brought into debt, and, of necessity, heavier taxes were imposed.

The principal Indian tribes surrounding the English plantations were the Tuscaroras on the north, the Yamassees and Catawbas on the west, and the Cherokees and Creeks beyond, between the Ohio and the Gulf. In upper Florida were the Appalachees, where Spanish missionaries had established churches and instructed the natives in agriculture. Against this tribe the Creeks, aided by a few of the English, proceeded in 1705. They plundered the Indian villages, burnt the chapels, and gave the country of the Appalachees to the lower tribe of Creeks, called the Seminoles.

In addition to these wars, and the dissatisfaction occasioned by the laying of taxes and the issue of paper money, there arose religious disputes engendered by unjust laws against the Dissenters. Against the protest of Archdale, who was yet a proprietary, the national Church of England was established, although not a third of the inhabitants were of that denomination. The country was divided into parishes as had already been done in Virginia and Maryland. From this time forth the proprietary government gave little satisfaction, and in a few years (1729) its connection with the province was dissolved and its chartered interests sold to the crown.

A little bag of rice, presented by the master of a vessel from Madagascar to a Charlestonian (1694), marked the introduction into South Carolina of its most distinctive staple. The sea-island (or black-seed) cotton, so superior on account of its long and silky fibre to the green-seed or short staple previously planted, was introduced about 1790, the first crop being raised on Hilton Head, near Beaufort. The seed was brought from the Bahamas to Georgia six years earlier.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE WAR IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.

1702-1714.

LOUISIANA SETTLED BY THE FRENCH.

A BRIEF period of five years only elapsed between the peace of Ryswick in 1697, and the renewal of the struggle between the English and French colonies of America. It was during this transient interval of repose, that the French undertook the settlement of the country adjacent to the lower Mississippi, upon which La Salle had conferred the name of Louisiana.

A Canadian named D'IBERVILLE, with two hundred men in several vessels, sailed for the Gulf of Mexico (1699), and would have landed at the bay of Pensacola, but that the Spaniards were found already intrenched upon that excellent harbor. The French, therefore, continued farther westward, and upon the shores of the bay of Biloxi, within the limits of the present state of Mississippi, they built a fort and erected a number of huts. The Spaniards at first complained of this as an intrusion upon their territory of Florida, but, as a royal alliance at this time transferred the Spanish throne to a French prince, all serious opposition was turned aside. D'Iberville went several times to France for fresh settlers and supplies, and, aided by two of his brothers, explored the various intricate outlets of the Mississippi, ascended that stream and the Red river, and also effected a treaty with the neighboring Indians.

1704]

THE DEERFIELD MASSACRE.

235

Since the time of La Salle, the French missionaries and traders had not been slow in following upon the track of that discoverer, and at a number of points upon the banks of the Mississippi little settlements had been established. It was soon found that Biloxi was not well situated for becoming a flourishing settlement, and accordingly most of the settlers removed eastward, and located in 1702 at the head of the broad bay of Mobile. In the north, and nearly at the same time (1701) there was founded by the French the city of DETROIT, eligibly situated upon the strait through which the waters of Lake Huron find an outlet into Lake Erie.

The French had now control of the great interior water ways of the country, and, with their new allies the Spaniards, it would thus appear that the English colonies would be debarred from expansion upon every side,-north, south and westward. Yet these territorial pretensions of the French would probably have been insufficient to cause a rupture of the existing state of peace, had it not been for the breaking out of the war which England, in alliance with Holland and Germany, declared against France and Spain. Whereupon the colonies, their children, were drawn into the bloody vortex, just as they had been before.

BARBARITIES OF THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND.

As the Five Nations had recently entered into an agreement of amity with the French, and had admitted the Jesuit missionaries among them, they could not be prevailed on by the English, their former allies, to aid them in their operations against Canada. Thus the harrowed field of war was transferred to New England, where a massacre by Canadians and Indians, at the frontier town of Deerfield (1704), spread terror into the hearts of the English. The same Captain Church, who had been prominent in the preceding war, as well as in the war

of King Philip, was despatched by Governor DUDLEY of Massachusetts against the French habitations on the Penobscot and to the eastward. An English frigate, at the same time, carried a thousand men against Acadie. They could not capture the fort at Port Royal, but the houses of the town were burnt, the cattle killed, and the corn which grew luxuriantly upon the neighboring flats, was destroyed by cutting through the dams and allowing the water to inundate the fields. Yet the English had little cause to rejoice at this devastation, for in the following year (1708) there was another incursion of the French and Indians from Canada. Descending the valley of the Merrimac, they surprised the town of Haverhill in the night, massacred about 50 of the inhabitants, and plundered and burnt their habitations.

Massachusetts urgently appealed to Queen Anne and to the other colonies for help. The rest of New England, as well as New York and New Jersey responded to the call, but the Pennsylvania legislature, still influenced by the counsels of peace, replied that "they could not, in conscience, provide money to hire men to kill each other." Two ships of war and 500 marines having been sent from England, were joined by the transports carrying the colonial troops. Nicholson, late governor of Virginia, commanded the squadron which now proceeded against, and captured, the fort at Port Royal; while the various Acadian settlements were visited in turn, and made to feel the harsh displeasure of the conquerors.

The "victories" of the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim and other hard-fought fields of carnage, had driven a large number of Germans from their homes, many of whom had gone to England. Several thousand of these fugitives, apprenticed as servants of the government, were at this time sent over to the banks of the Hudson, but they became dissatisfied with their condition as contrasted with the free settlers, and force was used by the governor of New York to

1713]

BARBARITIES OF THE WAR.

237

compel them to submit. Yet their subsistence proved very expensive to the government, in fact far beyond the product of their labor. Finally, their indentures being cancelled, they became thriving and industrious, and removed to the upper waters of the Mohawk, where their fertile plantations became known as the "German Flats." Many of the same nationality also settled in compact bodies upon rich lands in Pennsylvania, where they retain their language and manners even to the present time.

In 1711, a much larger armament than the preceding, was sent against Canada, several regiments from Marlborough's army being despatched from England to join the provincial troops. Over 50 vessels, carrying 7000 men, sailed from Boston, and entered the St. Lawrence. A lesser body of land troops under Nicholson, joined by warriors of the Five Nations, who had been finally persuaded to take part in the contest, assembled at Albany, preparatory to an attack upon Montreal. It was intended that the attack of the land and naval forces should be simultaneous; but this expectation was not destined to be realized, owing to the wreck of a number of the transports in the St. Lawrence and the loss of nearly a thousand men. Dispirited by this calamity, the English admiral re-crossed the Atlantic, while the colonial transports sailed back to Boston.

This second war had been in several respects a counterpart of the first numerous barbarities and burnings by whites and Indians; a similar attack upon and plundering of Port Royal; a like rebuff, not by man, but by the adverse winds and waters of the great Canadian river. The peace of UTRECHT, in 1713, shortly before the death of Queen Anne, put an end to the protracted contest. As part of its provisions, Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland and Acadie or Nova Scotia, were ceded by the French to the English.

But were they worth the price paid? The resources of the