Ten miles nearer the sea, a battery was con. structed, commanding the entrance into the sound through which all ships of force must pass that might be sent against Frederica. These forts were calculated for defence against the Indians, and against their neighbours in Florida. The Spaniards remonstrated against them, and a commissioner dispatched from the Havanna insisted on the evacuation of the country to the 33d degree of north latitude, which he claimed as belonging to the king of Spain; but these remonstrances and claims were equally disregarded.

The restrictions imposed by the trustees on the inhabitants of Georgia were too oppressive not to be complained of. They remonstrated particularly against the tenures by which their lands were held, and against the prohibition of the introduction of slaves. These complaints were the result of experience, but they were addressed to persons having little knowledge of the condition of the petitioners, and were therefore neglected. The settlement of Carolina, not unlike that of Georgia both in soil and climate, advanced with much greater rapidity. Although emigration to the latter colony was encouraged by paying the passage money of the emigrants, by furnishing them with clothes, arms, ammunition, and implements of husbandry; by maintaining their families for the first year, and in some instances, by furnishing them with stock: yet the tenure of their lands, and the want of that labour which was to be furnished by slaves from Africa, more

than counterbalanced all these advantages; and in the space of ten years, during which the exports from Carolina more than doubled, the settlers in Georgia could with infinite difficulty obtain a scanty subsistence.

The differences between England and Spain had now (1737) assumed a serious aspect, and both nations prepared for war. The Spaniards, on their part, strengthened East Florida; and the English ordered a British regiment, consisting of six hundred effective men, into Georgia. The command of the troops both of Georgia and Carolina was given to Oglethorpe, who was appointed a major general. He fixed his head quarters at Frederica, on the Alatamaha.

While hostilities were expected but had not yet commenced, the Spaniards at St. Augustine made an unavailing effort to detach from the English interest their Indian allies. They were more successful in their intrigues among the blacks of Carolina. Spanish agents had been secretly employed in seducing the slaves of that province to escape to St. Augustine, where liberty was promised them, and where they were formed into a regiment officered by themselves. Hitherto these practices had produced no other inconvenience than the loss of those negroes who ran away from their masters, and took refuge among the Spaniards; but about this time, the evil assumed a much more alarming form. A large number of slaves assembled at Stono, where they forced a warehouse containing arms and ammunition, mur

dered the whites in possession of it, and having chosen a captain, directed their march southwestwardly, with drums beating and colours flying. They massacred the whites they fell in with; seized all the arms they could find; and forced such blacks, as did not voluntarily join them, to follow their party. Intoxicated with ardent spirits, and with their short lived success, they considered their work as already achieved, and halted in an open field, where the time which might have been employed in increasing their numbers, and extending their devastation, was devoted to dancing and exultation. Fortunately, on the same day, there was a meeting in the neighbourhood to attend divine service, and, as was then directed by law, the whole congregation was armed. They marched immediately against the blacks, whom they completely surprised, and of whom they killed great numbers on the spot. Thus the insurrection was entirely suppressed on the day of its commencement; and such of its leaders as survived the battle, were immediately executed.

Although, from the concurrence of some fortunate circumstances, this ill conducted effort failed entirely of its object, it was attended with the loss of about twenty whites who were murdered in the short space of its continuance, and with the destruction of several houses which were consumed by fire. It impressed too on the Carolinians a strong sense of the danger of their situation. About forty thousand blacks, inured to labour, and with constitutions adapted to the

climate, were at that time dispersed through their settlements. The most intelligent among them well knew the reception which had been given at St. Augustine to their brethren, and counted on the aid and protection of the Spaniards in any attempt they might make on the whites, who did not much exceed one third of their number. Thus perilous was their situation, when a war with Spain appeared to be certainly approaching. As the best measure of safety which could be devised in this crisis, application was immediately made to general Oglethorpe, then on the frontier of Georgia, to search diligently for straggling Spaniards and negroes, and to seize all such as could be found.

per

During the long repose, which the pacific temof the duke of Orleans, regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. and the administration of sir Robert Walpole, gave to their respective countries, the British colonies in America had increased in population and in wealth, in a ratio before unexampled. Lands were cheap, and subsistence easily acquired. From New York to Virginia inclusive, no enemy existed to restrain new settlements, and no fears of inability to maintain a family checked the natural disposition to early marriages. The people were employed in cultivating the earth, and in spreading over the vast country which was open to them; and during this period, their history furnishes none of those remarkable events, the detail of which, while it interests ought to instruct posterity.

CHAPTER X.

War declared against Spain....Expedition against St. Augustine....Georgia invaded....Spaniards land on an island. in the Alatamaha....Appearance of a fleet from Charleston ....Spanish army are seized with a panic, and re-embark.... Hostilities with France....Plan for attacking Louisbourg.... Louisbourg surrenders.

THE increasing complaints of the merchants, and the loud clamours of the nation, at length, forced the minister out of the pacific system he had adopted, and on the 23d of October, (1739) war was declared against Spain. Admiral Vernon was detached with a squadron to the West Indies, with instructions to act offensively, and general Oglethorpe was ordered to annoy the settlements in Florida by all the means in his power. He immediately projected an expedition against St. Augustine. This design was communicated by letter to Mr. Bull, lieutenant governor of South Carolina, and the assistance of that province towards its execution was requested. To be freed from neighbours so troublesome and so dangerous, who were at the same time hated and feared, was an object of great magnitude to Carolina; and the proposition of general Oglethorpe, which was laid by the lieutenant governor before the assembly, was well received by that body, and could not fail to be grateful to the colony at large. The general, who had understood that St. Augustine was badly supplied with provisions, and who, went