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XVI.

CHAP. her own colonies a lesson on the subject of their trade, which, in less than half a century, she found, to her sur 1738. prise, they had fully learned.

Another source of irritation to the people of South Carolina, was that slaves, who ran away to Florida and put themselves under Spanish protection, were not only welcomed, but given lands; organized into military companies, and armed at the public expense. A demand made upon the authorities at St. Augustine to restore the runaways, was promptly refused. Oglethorpe hastened to 1737. England to make preparations for the coming contest, and returned in less than a year, with a regiment of six hundred men, which he himself had raised and disciplined. He was now prepared to defend the southern boundary of Georgia. He renewed treaties with the Indian tribes north of the Gulf from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and hoped to retain them in his interest. War was, at 1739. length, declared by England against Spain, and Oglethorpe received orders, as military commander in Georgia and the Carolinas, to invade Florida. With his usual energy, he hastened to Charleston to make the necessary preparations. Supplies were voted and a regiment enlisted; and, joined by Indian allies, he set out to lay siege to St. Augustine. He found the garrison much more numerous than he expected, and the fortifications stronger. After a short siege, the Indians began to desert, and the Carolina regiment, enfeebled by sickness, returned home. In five weeks the enterprise was abandoned. this occasion, Oglethorpe exhibited the kindness of his nature; he endured all the privations of the common soldiers. The captives taken were treated kindly, no houses 1740. were burned, and but little property destroyed.

On

This war had a very bad effect upon the colony of Georgia. Instead of making farmers of the settlers, it made them soldiers, and their farms were neglected. The Moravians, who were religiously opposed to bearing arms,

THE SPANIARDS INVADE GEORGIA.

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emigrated, one and all, to Pennsylvania, where they CHAP. founded the towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth.

It was ere long the turn of Georgia to be invaded. 1740. For this purpose, the Spaniards at Havana and St. Augustine fitted out thirty-six vessels and three thousand 1742. troops. The commander, Monteano, instead of sailing direct for Savannah, became entangled among the islands, near the mouths of the St. Mary and the Altamaha, while endeavoring to take possession of one or two insignificant settlements. Oglethorpe ascertained the intention of the enemy, but as he had received no assistance from Carolina, was ill prepared to meet them. Having but eight hundred men, he was forced to retreat from Cumberland island to St. Simons, on which was the little town of Frederica, the special object of the Spanish attack.

After the enemy landed he went to surprise them in the night, but as he approached their lines, one of his soldiers, a Frenchman, fired his gun, rushed into the enemy's camp, and gave the alarm. Oglethorpe employed stratagem to throw suspicion upon the deserter; he wrote him a letter, in which he addressed him as a spy for the English, and directed him to induce the Spaniards to attack them, or at least to remain where they were until the English fleet of six men-of-war, which had sailed from Charleston, should reach St. Augustine, and capture it. This letter he bribed a Spanish prisoner to carry to the Frenchman. As was to be expected, it was taken immediately to the Spanish commander, and the Frenchman soon found himself in irons. In the midst of the alarm, some Carolina ships, laden with supplies for Oglethorpe, appeared in the offing. Thinking these the veritable menof-war mentioned in the letter, the invaders determined to attack and destroy Frederica, before they should sail to defend St. Augustine. On the way they fell into an ambuscade, and, at a place since known as the "Bloody Marsh," they were signally defeated. The following night

July.

XVI.

CHAP. they embarked, and sailed to defend St. Augustine from the expected attack. Thus Georgia and the Carolinas 1743. were saved from ruin.

1750.

The following year Oglethorpe left the colony forever. There he had spent ten years of toil and self-denial; he had for his reward no personal benefit, but the satisfaction of founding a State, and of leaving it in a prosperous condition. The form of government was changed from a military to a civil rule, and the various magistrates were appointed.

Slaves

In time, slavery was gradually introduced. were at first hired from the Carolinas, for a short time, and then for one hundred years. The German settlers were industrious and frugal, and so were the Highlanders. They were opposed to the introduction of slaves. On the other hand, great numbers of the English settlers were idle and bankrupt from their improvidence ; "they were unwilling to labor, but were clamorous for privileges to which they had no right." They contended that rum was essential to health in that climate, and that none but slaves could cultivate the soil of Georgia; and, in seven years after the benevolent Oglethorpe left, slave ships brought negroes to Savannah, direct from Africa.

The trustees, when the twenty-one years for which they were to manage the "colony for the poor" were expired, resigned their trust, and Georgia became a royal 1753. province.

CHAPTER XVII.

NEW ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES II. AND JAMES II.

The Restoration.-The Commissioners.-Progress of Trade.-Causes of King Philip's War.-Death of Wamsutta.-State of the Colony.-Attack at Swanzey.-Philip among the Nipmucks.-Attacks on Northfield, and on Hadley.-Goffe.—The Tragedy at Bloody Brook.-Philip among the Narragansets.-Their Fort captured.-The Warriors take Revenge. -Philip returns to Mount Hope to die.-Disasters of the War.-James II.—The Charters in danger.—Andros Governor; his illegal Measures; takes away the Charter of Rhode Island; not so successful at Hartford.-Andros in Jail.-The Charters resumed.

XVII.

THE first intimation of the restoration of Charles II. CHAP. was brought to New England by two fugitives, Whalley and Goffe. They came branded as regicides, for they sat 1660. on the trial of Charles I. They had fled for their lives; ere long came the royal command to deliver them up to their pursuers, that they might be taken back to England and there punished. But royal commands and rewards were of no avail, the stern republicans were not betrayed ; the people gloried in protecting them.

Rumors were afloat that the governments of all the colonies were to be changed, and that soon armed ships might be expected in the harbor of Boston, sent to enforce the royal authority. After a year's delay, it was thought prudent to proclaim Charles as king. It was done ungraciously, as all manifestations of joy were forbidden.

From time to time intelligence came of the execution of many of their best friends in England; among these were Hugh Peters and Sir Harry Vane: news came also

XVII.

CHAP. that Episcopacy was again in power, and that more than two thousand clergymen had been driven from their con1663. gregations because they would not conform. At length, two agents were sent to conciliate the king, and to make guarded professions of loyalty, as well as to ask permission to make laws against the Quakers.

Connecticut and Rhode Island had both received liberal charters from Charles, the former obtained principally through the influence of the younger Winthrop. Meantime the intolerance of Massachusetts had raised up against her a host of enemies, who were continually whispering their complaints into the royal ear. The alarm was presently increased, by information that commissioners had been appointed to inquire into the affairs of the colony. To provide for the future, the charter was, for safe-keeping, secretly given to a committee appointed by the General Court.

When the commissioners came, they outraged the prejudices of the people by having the Episcopal service performed in Boston. The Puritans observed the evening of Saturday as holy time; after the Jewish custom, they commenced their Sabbath at sunset. As if to annoy them, the commissioners habitually spent their Saturday evenings in carousals. They also took in hand to redress grievances, and invited all those who had complaints to make against the Massachusetts colony, to bring them to their knowledge. Rhode Island came with her complaints, and the Narraganset chiefs with theirs; but the General Court cut the matter short, by forbidding such proceedings, as contrary to the charter.

The laws passed by the mother country for the express purpose of crippling the trade of the colonies, could not be enforced, and Boston especially attracted attention by her prosperous commerce. Industry and temperance insured the prosperity of the people, and they increased in riches and in numbers; they also found means to indulge

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