out, "Beat the drums," which in a moment overwhelmed every voice. Fletcher commanded silence. No sooner was a second attempt made to read, than Wadsworth vociferated,-" Drum, drum, I say." The drummers instantly beat again with the greatest possible spirit. "Silence, silence," exclaimed the governor. At the first moment of a pause, Wadsworth called out earnestly, “ Drum, drum, I say;" and turning to his excellency, said, "If I am interrupted again, I will make the sun shine through you in a moment." This decision produced its proper effect; and the governor and his suite scon rsturned to New-York.* 32. War with the Tuscaroras. In 1710, a large number of German emigrants arrived in this country, and settled in North Carolina. Two years after their arrival, the Tuscaroras, Corees, and other tribes of Indians, formed a deep conspiracy for the extermination of the English settlers. Having fortified the chief town in the Tuscarora nation, for the security of their own families, the different tribes met at this place, to the number of 1200 warriors, and laid the horrible plot, which was concerted and executed with stability and great secresy. From this place of rendezvous they sent out small parties, which entered the settlements by different roads, under the mask of friendship. When the night agreed on had arrived, they entered the houses of the settlers, and demanded provisions; and feigning displeasure, fell upon them, and murdered men, women, and children, without distinction. About Roanoke, 137 persons perished in the massacre. few persons escaping, gave the alarm to their neighbours the next morning, and thus prevented the entire destruction of the colony. A Governor Craven, of South Carolina, as soon as he heard of this massacre, immediately sent Col. Barnwell, Holmes' Annals. with 600 militia and 360 friendly Indians, against these savages. Marching through a hideous wilderness, Barnwell came up with the enemy, and attacked them with great effect. In this action he killed 300 Indians, and took about 100 prisoners. The survivors fled to their fortified town, where Col. Barnwell surrounded them, killed a great number, and compelled the remainder to sue for peace. It is estimated that in this expedition nearly a thousand of the Tuscaroras were killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. Of Barnwell's men, five were killed, and several wounded; of his Indians, thirty-six were killed, and between sixty and seventy wounded.* "Never had any expedition against the savages in Carolina been attended with such hazards and difficulties; nor had the conquest of any tribe of them been more general and complete." Most of the Tuscaroras who escaped, abandoned their country, settled among the Five Nations, and added a sixth tribe, since which time they have been called the Six Nations. 33. War with the Yamasees. In the year 1715, an Indian war broke out in South Carolina, which threatened a total extirpation of the colony. The numerous and powerful tribe of the Yamasees, possessing a large territory back of Port Royal Island, were the most active in this conspiracy. On the 15th of April, about break of day, the cries of war gave universal alarm; and in a few hours, above ninety persons were massacred in Pocataligo and the neighbouring plantations. A captain of the militia escaping to Port Royal, alarmed the town; and a vessel happening to be in the harbour, the inhabitants repaired precipitately on board, sailed for Charleston, and thus providentially escaped a massacre. A few families of planters on the island, not having timely notice of the danger, fell into the hands of the savages. Holmes' Annals. While some Indian tribes were thus advancing against the southern frontiers, and spreading desolation through the province, formidable parties from the other tribes were penetrating into the settlements on the northern borders; for every tribe, from Florida to Cape Fear, was concerned in the conspiracy. The capital trembled for its own perilous situation. In this moment of universal terror, although there were no more than one thousand two hundred men on the muster roll, fit to bear arms, yet the governor resolved to march with this small force against the enemy. He proclaimed martial law; laid an embargo on all ships, to prevent either men or provisions from leaving the country; and obtained an act of assembly, empowering him to impress men, and seize arms, ammunition, and stores, wherever they were to be found; to arm trusty negroes; and to prosecute the war with the utmost vigour. Agents were sent to Virginia and England, to solicit assistance; and bills were stamped for the payment of the army and other expenses. The Indians on the northern quarter, about fifty miles from Charleston, having murdered a family on a plantation, Capt. Barker, receiving intelligence of their ap proach, collected a party of ninety horsemen, and advanced against them. Trusting, however, to an Indian guide, he was led into an ambuscade, and slain, with several of his men. A party of four hundred Indians came down as low as Goose Creek, where seventy men and forty negroes had surrounded themselves with a breast work, with the resolution of maintaining their posts. Discouraged, however, almost as soon as attacked, they rashly agreed to terms of peace; but on admitting the enemy within their works, they were barbarously murdered. The Indians now advanced still nearer to Charleston; but were repulsed by the militia. In the mean time, the Yamasees, with their confederates, had spread destruction through the parish of St. Bartholomew, and proceeded down to Stono. Governor Craven, advancing towards the wily enemy, with cau tious steps, dispersed their straggling partics, until he reached Saltcatchers, where they had pitched their camp. Here was fought a severe and bloody battle, from behind trees and bushes; the Indians with their terrible war whoops, alternately retreating and returning with double fury to the charge. The governor, undismayed, pressed closely on them with his provincials; drove them from their territory; pursued them over Savannah river; and thus expelled them from the province. In this Indian war, nearly four hundred of the inhabitants of Carolina were slain. The Yamasees, after their expulsion, went directly to the Spanish territories in Florida, where they were hospitably received.* 34. Inoculation Introduced. The inoculation of small pox was first performed in the English dominions, in April, 1721, upon a daughter of the celebrated Lady M. W. Montague, who had become acquainted with inoculation as practised by Turkish women, during her residence in Constantinople. was About this time, Dr. Zabdiel Boyleston, of Boston, was induced to adopt the same expedient, from reading an account of inoculation, and made his first experiment by inoculating his only son and two negro servants, on the 27th of June, 1721. Probably there never greater opposition to any measure of real public utility, than was exhibited on this occasion. Dr. Boyleston was execrated and persecuted as a murderer, assaulted in the streets, and loaded with every species of abuse. His house was attacked with violence, so that neither himself nor his family could feel secure in it. At one time he remained fourteen days in a secret apartment of his own house, unknown to any of his family except his wife. The enraged inhabitants patrolled the town in parties, with halters in their hands, threatening to hang him on the nearest tree, and repeatedly entered his Holmes' American Annals. house in search of him during his concealment. Such was the madness of the multitude, that even after the excitement had in some measure subsided, Dr. Boyles ton only ventured to visit his patients at midnight, and then in disguise. He had also to encounter violent opposition from most of the members of his own profession, and notwithstanding he invited them all to visit his patients, and judge for themselves, received nothing but threats and insults in reply. Indeed, many sober, pious people, were deliberately of opinion, when inoculation was first commenced, that should any of his patients die, the doctor ought to be capitally indicted. He was repeatedly summoned before the select men of Boston, and received their reprehension. His only friends were Dr. Cotton Mather, and other clergymen, most of whom became zealous advocates for the new practice, and consequently drew upon themselves much odium from the populace. Some of them received personal injury; others were insulted in the streets, and were hardly safe in their own dwellings; nor were their services acceptable on Sunday to their respective audiences. A bill for prohibiting the practice of inoculation, under severe penalties, was brought before the legislature of Massachusetts, and actually passed the house of representatives; but some doubts existing in the senate, it failed to become a law. Dr. Boyleston lived to see the cause he espoused triumphant, and its utility generally appreciated. So prone are mankind to vacillate from one extreme to the other, that on a subsequent appearance of the small pox in Boston, in the year 1792, the whole town was inoculated in three days, to appease the infatuation of the inhabitants respecting the danger apprehended from this deadly pestilence. Persons were inoculated indiscriminately, to the number of 9,152; and such was the hurry and confusion with which it was done, and such the impossibility of rendering proper assistance and attention to so large a number, that 165 deaths were the consequence.* Connecticut Journal. |