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HOSTILITIES OF THE SPANIARDS.

The Spaniards sent a commissioner from Havannah, demanding the evacuation of all the territories south of St. Helena Sound, as belonging to the king of Spain. Oglethorpe, having vainly remonstrated against this claim, broke up the conference and returned to England. Here he received the appointment of general and commander-in-chief of all his majesty's forces in South Carolina and Georgia; and returned with a regiment of six hundred men, designed for the protection of the southern frontier.

The Spaniards, mean time, had been busy in attempting to detach the Creeks from their alliance with the English; but Oglethorpe, on his return, defeated their intrigues; and formed a new treaty of friendship with the chieftains. The Spaniards next employed a most unwarrantable stratagem against the English. Having corrupted an English soldier, who had been in their service, they employed him to excite a mutiny in Oglethorpe's camp, and an audacious attempt was made to assassinate the general. But his life was fortunately preserved, and the principal conspirators were shot.

By a report of the trustees, made in 1740, it appeared that twenty-five hundred emigrants had been sent out to the colony, and five hundred thousand dollars expended on its settlement, without rendering it independent of charitable contributions for support.

An expedition was undertaken in 1740, for the reduction of St. Augustine, under the command of Oglethorpe, with an army consisting of four hundred troops, from Georgia and South Carolina, and a large body of Auxiliary Indians. Two of the Spanish forts were taken, and St. Augustine was formally besieged. But the Spaniards, famous since the days of Scipio, for resisting sieges, maintained their post; and the colonial army was compelled to retire.

In two years afterwards, this invasion was retaliated by a formidable land and naval force, chiefly from Havannah. The army consisted of three thousand men; and their object was to drive Oglethorpe from the frontiers; break up the Georgia settlements, and then march on South Carolina and Virginia. As the South Carolinians had not yet sent him any assistance, the founder of Georgia was now left to his own resources. His operations, in this emergency, are thus described by Dr. Ramsay.

"When the Spanish force proceeded up the Altamaha, Oglethorpe was obliged to retreat to Frederica. He had but about

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seven hundred men besides Indians; yet, with a part of these, he approached within two miles of the enemy's camp, with the design of attacking them by surprise, when a French soldier of his party fired a musket and ran into the Spanish lines. His situation was now very critical, for he knew that the de'serter would make known his weakness. Returning, however, to Frederica, he had recourse to the following expedient. He wrote a letter to the deserter, desiring him to acquaint the Spaniards with the defenceless state of Frederica, and to urge them to the attack. If he could not effect this object, Oglethorpe desired him to use all his art to persuade them to stay three days at Fort Simon's; as, within that time, he should have a reinforcement of two thousand land forces, with six ships of war; cautioning him, at the same time, not to drop a hint of Admiral Vernon's meditated attack upon St. Augustine. A Spanish prisoner was intrusted with this letter, under promise of delivering it to the deserter; but he gave it, as was expected and intended, to the commander-in-chief, who instantly put the deserter in irons. In the perplexity occasioned by this letter, while the enemy was deliberating what measures to adopt, three ships of force, which the governor of South Carolina had sent to Oglethorpe's aid, appeared on the coast. The Spanish commander was now convinced, beyond all question, that the letter, instead of being a stratagem, contained serious instructions to a spy; and, in this moment of consternation set fire to the fort, and embarked so precipitately as to leave behind him a number of cannon, with a quantity of military stores. Thus, by an event beyond human foresight or control, by the correspondence between the suggestions of a military genius, and the blowing of the winds, was the infant colony providentially saved from destruction, and Oglethorpe gained the character of an able general. He now returned to England, and never again revisited Georgia. In 1775, he was offered the command of the British army in America. He professed his readiness to accept the appointment, if the ministers would authorise him to assure the colonies that justice would be done them; but the command was given to Sir William Howe. He died in August, 1785, at the age of 97, being the oldest general in the service. Nine years before his death, the province of Georgia, of which he was the father, was raised to the rank of a sovereign independent state, and had been for two years acknowledged as such by the mother country, under whose auspices it had been planted.'

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CHARTER OF GEORGIA.

The interesting character and destiny of Oglethorpe has induced us to continue an extract from Dr. Ramsay's sketch, with a trifling omission to the end of his life. We now return to the course of events in Georgia, after the Spanish invasion. The original charter of Georgia had prohibited the introduction of negroes and rum into the colony. The former of these restrictions was believed to have prevented the successful cultivation of their lands; and the latter cut off all commerce with the West Indies. Their lands also were held by a tenure not satisfactory to the inhabitants. The consequence was, that in ten years after their first settlement, the people could, with great difficulty, obtain a scanty subsistence; and new emigrants were discouraged from entering a colony which laboured under such palpable disadvantages. The complaints which were made to the trustees were utterly disregarded; and the colony was suffered to languish under all its discouragements till the year 1752, when the charter was surrendered to the king.

Under the royal care the people were favoured with the same liberties and privileges as were enjoyed by the neighbouring colonies, and from this period Georgia rapidly advanced in population and wealth.

CHAPTER XXI.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE OLD FRENCH WAR.

HITHERTO We have regarded the British colonies of North America as distinct communities, and have accordingly traced their histories separately, from the periods of settlement to the middle of the eighteenth century. Although they had thus far acknowledged a general relationship, and in some instances had formed political combinations, yet their remoteness from each other, their several difficulties of early colonisation, and the border wars which they were compelled to wage with the aborigines in their respective neighbourhoods, had thus far prevented them from ever becoming consolidated and united in any common design.

It was perhaps fortunate, that the period had now arrived, when their whole frontier was threatened by an enemy suf

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ficiently formidable to demonstrate the necessity of union and concerted action. They were henceforth to be one people, in war and in peace, bound together by common interests, touched by common sympathies, and nerved by one spirit.

The war with France, commenced in 1754, in which that nation vigorously prosecuted its design of fortifying the territory, which it claimed, from Canada to Louisiana, was one in which every colony had a direct and lively interest. It accordingly developed the resources of the whole country, and taught the lesson which, in a subsequent and more interesting struggle, was of such vital importance, namely, that union is strength.

At the period when the war commenced, which was familiarly called, by the revolutionary veterans, the old French war, the French, in addition to their possessions in Canada and Nova Scotia, held a settlement in New Orleans, and a number of others in the surrounding region, to which they had given the name of Louisiana. As their possessions were extended up the Mississippi, they conceived the grand design of forming a complete chain of fortifications from New Orleans to the lakes; thus partially surrounding the English colonies by a bow of which they would constitute the chord.

This project excited the most lively apprehension in the English nation and its colonies. Having granted charters to the first adventurers, embracing the whole territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the English had advanced towards the west, in the full belief that their title to the country, in that direction, could not be controverted. The French settlements, scattered from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, of course interfered with these pretensions, and if held, would not only limit their territory, but expose the English inhabitants to perpetual incursions of the rival nation and its Indian allies, on the whole western border. The claims of France extended to the Alleghany mountains; and the whole fertile vale of the Mississippi became now the subject of a controversy, which could only be decided by the sword.

The white population of the English colonies, at the commencement of this contest, exceeded one million of souls, while that of the French was estimated at only fifty-two thousand.

The governor of New France, a name given to the French possessions collectively, was by no means deterred from his purpose by this great disparity of numbers. While the popu

132

PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO COMPANY.

lation of his enemies were scattered over a widely extended territory, and under various local governments, that of his own dominion was all under his own direction and occupied a comparatively small space. Besides, his own people were military in their spirit and habits, and his alliance with the Indians commanded a larger number of those barbarous, but efficient auxiliaries, than could be mustered by his opponents. The Five Nations were almost the only Indian allies of the English, while the French were connected by ties of interest and friendship with all the innumerable hordes of the north and west.

The command of Lake Champlain had been already attained by the French, who had erected a strong fort at Crown Point. A chain of fortifications had been extended up the St. Lawrence and along the great lakes; and this was designed to be continued down to the Mississippi. The execution of this design was hastened by an act of the English government. The king had granted to a corporation called the Ohio company, a tract of 600,000 acres of land, lying in the disputed territory; and this company now proceeded to establish trading houses and survey the country.

The governor of Canada, considering this to be an intrusion on the French dominions, wrote to the governors of New York and Pennsylvania, informing them of it, and threatening to seize the English traders, wherever they should be found. This intimation being disregarded, he seized some of the traders and carried them prisoners to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, where he was engaged in erecting a strong fort. He also opened a communication from Presque Isle, down French Creek and the Alleghany river, to the Ohio, and kept it open by detachments of troops and by entrenchments.

Dinwiddie, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, regarding these proceedings as so many acts of aggression on that colony, laid the subject before the assembly, and despatched Major George Washington, (the same who afterwards became so nobly conspicuous in the annals of his country,) with a letter to the commandant of the French forces on the Ohio, requiring him to retire from the dominions of his Britannic majesty. To this letter the French officer replied that he acted under the orders of his general, then in Canada, and should hold himself responsible only to him.

This answer being equivalent to a defiance, the Virginian spirit was roused, and active preparations were instantly com