ENGLISH TRADERS; WAR WITH SPAIN.

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tory, and they sent commissioners to protest against it, CHAP and to demand the surrender of all Georgia and part of Carolina. When this was unheeded, they prepared to ex- 1738. pel the invaders. There were other causes, which made it evident that war would soon take place between the mother countries, in which the colonies would certainly become involved.

The European governments restricted the commerce of their colonies so as to make them subserve their own interests. Those belonging to Spain must trade only with the port of Cadiz, and the merchandise shipped to them was sold at enormous prices. The English traders persisted in smuggling goods into the Spanish ports. To accomplish this they resorted to various stratagems. By treaty, an English vessel was permitted to come once a year to Portobello and dispose of her cargo; but this vessel was followed by others; they came in the night time, and slipped in more bales to supply the place of those sold, and continued to do this, till the market was supplied. Sometimes, under the pretence of distress, ships would run into Spanish ports, and thus dispose of their cargoes.

Though Spain was rich and feeble, she was haughty and cruel; and when any of these worthies, who were engaged in violating her laws, were caught, they were severely dealt with. Sometimes they were imprisoned, and sometimes their ears were cropped. This exasperated the traders, and though justly punished, they came with the assurance of ill-treated men, to ask protection from their own government. They were looked upon as martyrs to the cause of free commerce, and merchants, in defence of such men as these, did not blush to clamor for war, in the face of justice and national integrity. In truth, the English government connived at this clandestine trade, and secretly rejoiced at the advantage gained over her rival. By this connivance at injustice she gave

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CHAP. her own colonies a lesson on the subject of their trade, which, in less than half a century, she found, to her sur1738. 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. On 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.

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 July 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

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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.

In time, slavery was gradually introduced. Slaves 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 1758. 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.

THE first intimation of the restoration of Charles II. CHAP. XVII. 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