A repose of several years followed this success, which ended by a war with the numerous Indian tribes of the vicinity. It broke out first with the Tuscaroras. This brave tribe made a furious attack on the Roanoke settlers, killing more than one hundred of their number, and laying waste part of the villages; but being met by Captain Barnwell, from South Carolina, with nine hundred and sixty men, they were totally annihilated as a nation, the remnant soon afterwards emigrating to the north, where they joined the Five Nations.

UT a far more terrible struggle was now at hand. Instigated by the Spaniards, the Yamassees, Creeks, Cherokees, and other tribes between Cape Fear and the Gulf of Mexico, united in a grand confederacy to extirpate the English. They numbered six thousand warriors, but their preparations for a general massacre were enveloped in profound secrecy. On the morning appointed, the work of death commenced in the vicinity of Port Royal, where ninety planters perished. Happily a vessel lay in the harbour, on which the people crowded, and were conveyed to Charleston. The Indians, collecting from all sides, advanced upon that town; two detachments, attempting to stop them, were drawn into an ambuscade, and suffered severely. But Governor Craven, having mustered twelve hundred men fit to bear arms, succeeded in stopping their progress; after which, having received a reinforcement from North Carolina, he resolved on becoming the assailant, and moved against the allied camp. A struggle, long and fierce, succeeded. The Indians, having stationed themselves in an irregular, tangled spot, admirably adapted to their mode of warfare, defended themselves with accustomed bravery. They were, however, completely defeated, and forced to abandon the colony. This war was followed by a series of internal commotions, which lasted several years, and were ended only by the appointment of Sir Francis Nicholson governor, under a commission from the king. A great object, during his administration, was the suppression of piracy, which, for a long period, had prevailed to an alarming extent in the Bahama and neighbouring islands. In 1729 the proprietors surrendered their rights to the crown, which gratified the colonists by the entire remission of their quit-rents.

GENERAL OGLETHORPE.

An event took place in 1694, which, though trivial in itself, was destined to lay the foundation of an important commercial product in the southern states. This was the introduction of rice. The captain of a Madagascar vessel touching at Carolina, presented the governor with a bag of this article, which, being distributed among the planters, was sown, and throve so remarkably as in a few years to become a staple commodity. Negro slavery was about the same time introduced.

N 1728, General Oglethorpe, and other distinguished persons of England, presented a plan to government for the settlement of the large district between the Savannah and Alatamaha rivers, which had hitherto been claimed by Florida. This was to liberate from the jails all persons confined for debt, or minor offences, and transport them to the new territory, where, under the guidance of a committee of trustees, they might act as a defence to the more inland provinces. The scheme was favourably received, large sums were voted by opulent individuals for its execution; and in 1732, Oglethorpe, with one hundred and sixteen persons, sailed for the new settlement. In South Carolina his followers were most enthusiastically received.

The

SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.

299 colony was named Georgia, in honour of the reigning king. On arriving there, Oglethorpe's first care was to conciliate the neighbouring Indians belonging to the powerful Creek race. His efforts being guided by sincerity and discretion, were crowned with success. The Creek king met him at the settlement since called Savannah, attended by fifty principal chiefs, and was subsequently induced to visit England, where he held an interview with George I. The colony rapidly increased. Augusta was founded on the upper Savannah, in 1734. In the same year two parties of emigrants arrived, numbering more than five hundred. One hundred and fifty Highlanders also joined the colony. In 1740, the trustees reported that 2,500 emigrants had been sent out, at an expense of eighty thousand pounds. Among the residents were the celebrated clergymen John and Charles Wesley. The colonists complained of labouring under disadvantages. Rum and slaves were both forbidden-a circumstance which caused them to look upon the Carolinas with peculiar envy. The lands were divided into small lots of twenty-five acres, and granted only on condition of military service, and descending to male heirs alone. Religious feuds were added to civil ones. The Wesleys were driven from the colony. For a short period Georgia appeared on the verge of civil war.

governor, who was thus enabled to make an invasion with two thousand men, reduced two successive forts; but the castle of St. Augus tine itself was found too strongly fortified to allow a reasonable hope of reducing it unless by blockade. This he expected to accomplish by the aid of a strong flotilla, which came to co-operate with him. It proved, however, a very discouraging service for his undisciplined warriors; and the Indians, disgusted by an expression which escaped him, of horror at their cruelty, went off. The Highlanders, his best

troops, were surprised, and a number cut to pieces; while the militia lost courage, broke the restraints of discipline, and deserted in great numbers. It being impossible to prevent the enemy from procuring a reinforcement and large supply of provisions, he was obliged to raise the siege, and return with his armament seriously shattered, and his reputation impaired.

T

HE Spaniards, two years after, [1742,] attempted to retaliate; and Monteano, governor of St. Augustine, with thirty-two vessels and three thousand men, advanced to attack Frederica. Oglethorpe's force was very inadequate, and the aid from the north both scanty and very slow in

arriving; yet he acted so as completely to

redeem his military character. By skilfully using all the advantages of his situation, he kept the enemy at bay; then by various stratagems conveyed such an exaggerated idea both of his actual force and expected reinforcements, that the Spanish ultimately abandoned the enterprise, without having made one serious attack.

Georgia was thus delivered from foreign dangers; but she continued to suffer under her internal evils. The colonists complained that absurd regulations debarred them from rendering their productions available, and kept them in poverty. Numbers removed to South Carolina, where they were free from restraint; and the Moravians, being called upon to take arms contrary to their principles, departed for Pennsylvania. Great efforts were made, as formerly in Virginia, to produce silk, but without any success. In 1752 the trustees relinquished their charge. Georgia became a royal colony, and the people were left at full liberty to use all the means, good and bad, of advancing themselves; lands were held on any tenure that best pleased them; negroes and rum were imported without restriction; and a free intercourse was opened with the West Indies.

ITHERTO we have traced the history of each of the English colonies in America separately; for, although occasionally we have seen them forming political combinations, yet, until the opening of the Seven Years' War, no object had been presented to them. sufficiently great to cause a combination of their energies for its attainment. Such an object now appeared; and from 1754, the year in which the French War commenced, the generali