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A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South-Carolina and Georgia: With Many Curious and Useful Observations on the Trade, Navigation and Plantations of Great-Britain, Compared with Her Most Powerful Maritime Neighbours in Antient and Modern Times:
Electronic Edition.

Oglethorpe, James Edward, 1696-1785.


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(title page) A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South-Carolina and Georgia: With Many Curious and Useful Observations on the Trade, Navigation and Plantations of Great-Britain, Compared with Her Most Powerful Maritime Neighbours in Antient and Modern Times
(half title page) A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South-Carolina and Georgia viii, 9-76 p., ill.
London
Printed for J. Worrall at the Bible and Dove in Bell-Yard near Lincoln's-Inn; and Sold by J. Roberts near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane.
1732.

Call number F289 .O34 CANDLER (Special Collections, Emory University Library)


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[Half-Title Page Image]


        

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[Title Page Image]


A
New and Accurate ACCOUNT
OF THE
PROVINCES
OF
SOUTH-CAROLINA
AND
GEORGIA.

        


A
New and Accurate ACCOUNT
OF THE
PROVINCES
OF
SOUTH-CAROLINA
AND
GEORGIA:
With many curious and useful Observations
on the Trade, Navigation and Plantations
of Great-Britain, compared with her
most powerful maritime Neighbours in antient
and modern Times.

LONDON:
Printed for J. WORRALL at the Bible and Dove in Bell-Yard near Lincoln's-Inn; and Sold by J. ROBERTS near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane.
1732. (Price One Shilling.)


Page i

THE
PREFACE.

        THERE have been several Accounts of the Provinces of Carolina publish'd formerly; among which, Mr. Archdale's Description of South-Carolina is of most undoubted Credit. Another Account in the Form of a Letter, (first printed in the Year 1710) was lately re-printed by Mr. Clarke near the Royal-Exchange. I could shew many Faults in this Piece, both as to Facts and Reasoning, but shall only mention a few that are obvious to almost every Reader who has ever heard any Thing of that Province. The Author is fawningly Partial to the then Administration of Government there. He praises its great Blemishes. He finds a Beauty in their Attack upon St. Augustino; an Expedition improvidently projected, and unsuccessfully attempted. He applauds their Paper Currency, which was a wretched Expedient to salve up the Wounds their little Republick had received in that unhappy


Page ii

War: A Remedy like those which our profligate young Fellows frequently meet with at the Hands of Quack-Doctors, who have just Skill enough in Drugs to remove a Clap by establishing a Pox in the Room of it. If that Writer had any Knowledge of Commerce, or History, he must have known that a forced Paper Credit is incompatible with Trade, and never held up to Par in any Age or Country in the World; much less could it suit the Commerce of an Infant-Colony, whose very Existence (in the Notion of People at a Distance) was at that Time precarious. I shall no farther pursue the Crudities of that Author, it is sufficient to observe, That if his Account had been as just and accurate as Mr. Archdale's, it could not answer the Expectations of the Publick at this Time. Those Treatises tell us of Twenty Sail of Shipping, but now we can truly say that there are yearly Two Hundred freighted at Charles-Town. The wide Extent of their Rice Trade; the amazing Encrease of their Stock of Negroes and of Cattle; and the encouraging Essays they have made in Wine and Silk, render South-Carolina a new Country to the Geographers. Neither of these Writers is copious enough on the Topick of the Benefits which may arise to Great-Britain by Peopling this fruitful Continent: That Argument is therefore handled the more largely in the following Pages. About Two Years ago, Captain Purry, a Swiss Gentleman,


Page iii

wrote* an authentick Account of that Country in French, which was printed at Neufchattel in Switzerland: And to shew that he believ'd himself when he gave a beautiful Description of South-Carolina, he is gone to settle there with Six Hundred of his Countrymen.

* This is entitled, Description Abregee de l' Etat present de la Caroline meridionale.

                         And he that hangs, or beats out's Brains
                         The Devil's in him if he feigns.
                                                                                                 Hud.

        Mr. Archdale's Veracity will hardly be question'd by any but Bigots, when the Publick shall be inform'd of his remarkable Integrity in his own Principles. He, being a Quaker, was chosen into Parliament by the Town of Colchester in Essex, but chose to relinquish his Seat rather than violate his Conscience with regard to Oaths and the Test-act. He governed South-Carolina with that Moderation, that the Colony blesses his Memory; and their latest Posterity will have cause to bless it; for, under Providence, they owe to him their very Being.

        An Anonymous Author ought to have Vouchers for his Facts. I make an impartial Judgment of the Incorrectness of my Style, and therefore can't resolve to prefix my Name to this Piece: But by proper References to


Page iv

Mr. Archdale and Mr. Purry, I shew that they concur with me in the Geogrophy and natural History of the Country. The Reasonings and Observations are the Result of various Reading and Conversation in many Years: Let these therefore stand, or fall by themselves.

        Since the following Chapters were prepared for the Press, I have read a curious Pamphlet, entitled, Select Tracts relating to Colonies, &c. Sold by Mr. Roberts, the Publisher of this Essay. Those Tracts were written by the most knowing Men of their Respective Generations, and the Style and Matter of the Introduction to them sufficiently evince the eminent Abilities of the Person (whoever he was) that collected them. Had I seen them earlier, they would have been of singular Use to me in many of my Observations and Arguments in the following Sheets: I now must be content to pride my self in having accidentally fallen into the same Way of Reasoning with the great Authors of those Tracts.

        I designed to have added a Chapter, containing the Scheme for settling the new Colony of Georgia: But, upon a Revisal of an Elegant Piece which was published in the Craftsman to that effect, I thought proper to desist, for my own Sake. I shall only take Leave here to mention a Precedent of our


Page v

own for planting Colonies, which, perhaps, in Part, or in the Whole, may be worthy our Imitation.

        England was more than four Hundred Years in Possession of a great Part of Ireland before the Whole was compleatly conquer'd: The Wars there, and Loss of English Blood were infinite, the Invaders mixed and intermarried with the Natives throughout the Provinces, and degenerated in Habit, Language, Customs and Affections. In the Days of K. James the First, the Londoners were at the Charge of sending into the most dangerous Part of that Kingdom more than four Hundred poor Families. There were a City, and a Town built, as had been agreed on: The City of London-derry contained three Hundred, the Town of Colerain a Hundred Houses; these were fortified with Walls and Ditches, and established with most ample Privileges. They send two Members each to the Parliament of that Kingdom, and the Mayor of London-derry is always the First in the Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and Assise. That City chooses two Sheriffs as our London does, and they are of Course Sheriffs of the County at large, as the Sheriffs of London are Sheriffs of the County of Middlesex. The Salmon Fisheries were given to the City of London who generally receive more than a Thousand Pounds per Ann. from them.


Page vi

What the present House-Rents of their City and Town amounts to, I shall not pretend to say, but believe they make a considerable Yearly Sum, because the Tenants have lately been too brisk Bidders for each others Bargains. The City of London-derry, and its Liberties, (which I think are three Miles round it) the Town of Colerain and the Fisheries, belong to the Twelve Companies of London consider'd as one aggregate Body. There are two Men chosen out of each Company to make up this Corporation, and, I think, they are called the London Society for the Plantation of Ulster. Besides this great Estate belonging to them in one Body, each Company, in its own Right, and by itself, has, or lately had, a large and rich Manor belonging to it. One of them was lately sold for Twenty Thousand Pounds, and I think a Quit-Rent of a Hundred a Year reserved upon it to the Company for ever. The Londoners have drawn above a Hundred Thousand Pounds from that Colony within Ten Years last past, and 'tis not probable that the first Settlement ever cost them Eight Thousand Pounds, which made Four Hundred Families of their poor Freemen happy, at the same Time that it purchased so good an Estate and strengthened the English Interest in that Kingdom. No other Part of Ireland is now so perfectly free from the native Irish as are those two Towns and their Districts. The Populace of London-derry and of the adjoyning


Page vii

Country were so vigorous at the Revolution as to endure a Siege which has made that English Colony memorable to latest Posterity.

        'Tis needless to expatiate in the just Commendation of the Trustees for establishing the Colony in Georgia. They have, for the Benefit of Mankind, given up that Ease and Indolence to which they were entitled by their Fortunes and the too prevalent Custom of their Native Country. They, in some Degree, imitate their Redeemer in Sympathizing with the Miserable, and in Labouring to Relieve them. They take not for their Pattern an Epicurean Deity: They set before their Eyes the Giver of all good Gifts, who has put it into their Hearts, (and may he daily more and more enable their Hands) to save Multitudes of his living Images from Perdition.


Page 9

A New and Accurate
ACCOUNT
OF THE
PROVINCES
OF
South-Carolina and Georgia, &c.

CHAP. I.

        The Situation of Carolina, the Historical Account of it; how far the Right to a new Country is acquir'd by the first Discovery; by Occupancy; lost by Dereliction.

        THE Great and Beautiful Country of Carolina is bounded on the North between 35 and 36 Deg. of N. Latitude with Virginia and the Apalatian Mountains, on the East with the Atlantick Ocean, on the South


Page 10

about 30 Deg. N. Latitude, with Part of the Atlantick, or Gulph of Florida, and with* Florida, and on the West its Extent is unknown.

* Florida is a Country to the South of Carolina, claim'd by the Spaniards, who have a little Fort there call'd St. Augustino, about 150 Miles from the Borders of Carolina, or rather of the new Province of Georgia.


All the Charters, or Patents of our Kings that describe its Bounds, have carried it Westward in a direct Line as far as the South Seas.

        THE Spaniards formerly included it all under the general Name of Florida, and pretended a Right to it by Virtue of the Pope's Donation, as indeed they did to all America. The French, in the Days of their Charles the IXth, made a little Settlement there by the Countenance and Encouragement of Admiral Coligny; but the civil Wars in France prevented him from taking due Care of it, and it came to nothing. He made a Second, but almost all his Men were murdered by the Spaniards after Quarter given; and the French King did not resent it, probably because they were Protestants. 'Tis not unlikely that the Admiral's View in sending these Colonies was to secure a Retreat for himself and the rest of the Reformed in case they were conquered in France.


Page 11

        THE Spaniards by Injustice and Cruelty provoked the Indians, and prepared them for the Arrival of a Third Body of French, who put all the Spaniards to the Sword. The Commander of this Third Expedition contented himself with making a Tour in the Country; he made no Settlement there, nor did the Spaniards seek to recover it; so that from the Year 1567 it lay deserted by all European Nations, 'till the Days of our King Charles the IId, when the English effectually settled there, by Virtue of His Majesty's Grant to certain Lords Proprietors, and compleated that Right, which his Predecessor, K. Henry the VIIth, had acquired by the first Discovery of this Part of the Continent. 'Tis true, indeed, the Spaniards were acquainted with this Country so early as the Year 1512, under the Conduct of John Ponce de Leon, but Sir Sebastian Cabot, or Cabota, born at Bristol, of Venetian Parents, had first discover'd it in the Year 1497, under the Commission, at the Costs, and in the Name of our K. Henry the VII, as appears by foreign Writers of that Age of great Repute in the learned World, and some of them are Spanish Authors.

        I think the Civilians are not all agreed upon sure Canons, or Maxims concerning the best Method of acquiring


Page 12

the Dominion of Countries, nor how far the first Discovery can vest, or establish a Right. Some Romish and Spanish Lawyers have been so fond as to fancy that the Pope's Donation is the best Title imaginable; yet (I know not how it happens) not only the Hereticks of England, but even the most Christian King, the eldest Son of the Church, has contravened that Title, has taken Possession of large Countries in America and grasps at more.

        I believe the Doctrine most generally received is this: That Occupancy is the most unquestionable Title by the Law of Nature; and that touching at a Coast for Fuel and Water; erecting a Cross, or the Arms of a Prince, or State, and trapanning away two or three of the Savage Natives into Captivity, are not such an Occupancy as can reasonably acquire the Dominion of a Country; for at that rate Cain, who was a Vagabond on Earth, might have claimed universal Monarchy, and have left no Room for the Children of Seth. The common Sense of Mankind could not fail to establish a Rule, that Dereliction should be as certain a Method of waving, or giving up Property, as the true and genuine Occupancy is of acquiring it; and for a like Reason; for if I am entitled to take a Thing out


Page 13

of the Common of Nature, and make it my seperate Property by using it, my not using it any longer is the most natural Waiver and Abdication of that Property, and justly throws that Thing into the Common again, to be possess'd by the next Occupant. This Occupancy then consists in a Settlement of People, dwelling in fixed Habitations and tilling the Earth; and this is what Princes and States would prefer to all other Rights, let Declarations and Manifestoes swell with never so many historical Claims of the earliest Discovery, when Sovereigns are disposed to quarrel. And this Right, like all other Rights, must at all Times be accompanied with a sufficient Force to defend it from Invaders, for Reasons too obvious here to be enlarg'd on.

        UNDER this rational Notion of acquiring Dominion, an Extent of the antient Florida of Three Hundred Miles in Length by the Ocean Coast, became the Property of England more than Sixty Years ago. For King Charles the IId having by His* Letters Patents granted the same to several Lords Proprietors by the Name of Carolina, they Peopled it with

* The Letters Patents to the Earl of Clarendon, &c. bore Date the 29th Day of March, 1663.



Page 14

a Colony which has ever since subsisted, tho' frequently check'd in its Growth by heavy Difficulties and Discouragements.

        THIS Colony had a very promising Beginning; there were a great Number of Laws, or Constitutions agreed to by the Lords Proprietors, which gave a general Toleration for tender Consciences, and contain'd many other wholesome Regulations. These had been drawn up by the great Lawyer and famous Politician the Earl of Shaftsbury, with the Assistance of Mr. Lock the Philosopher, but were not duly observ'd when the Lords Proprietors came to exercise their Jurisdiction over Numbers of People: There was a natural Infirmity in the Policy of their Charter, which was the Source of many of the Misfortunes of the Colony, without any Imputation on the noble Families concern'd. For the Grantees, being Eight in Number, and not incorporated, and no Provision being made to conclude the whole Number by the Voices of the Majority, there could not be the timely Measures always agreed on which were proper, or necessary for the Safety and good Government of the Plantation. In the mean Time the Inhabitants grew unruly and quarrelled about Religion and Politicks, and while there was a meer Anarchy among them, they were


Page 15

expos'd to the Attacks and Insults of their Spanish and Indian Neighbours, whom they had imprudently provok'd and injur'd; and to discharge the Debts contracted by their unsuccessful Attempts, they unskilfully forced a Paper-Currency upon the Subject, by an Act of their Parliament, which naturally put an End to Credit and suspended their Commerce; and as if they had conspir'd against the Growth of the Colony, they repealed their Laws for Liberty of Conscience, tho' the Majority of the People were Dissenters, and had resorted thither under the publick Faith for a compleat Indulgence, which they considered as Part of their Magna Charta. Their strict Conformity-Law was indeed repealed long before the Lords Proprietors surrendered their Patent, but it was long enough in Force to do abundance of Mischief.

        And yet such are the natural Advantages of this happy Climate, that even under these Discouragements, the Colony grew so considerably, that Charles-Town has now near* Six Hundred good Houses, and the whole Plantation has above Forty Thousand Negroe Slaves, worth at least a Million of Pounds Sterling, besides an

* See Descrip. Abreg. Page 8.


Page 16

infinite Number of Cattle. Tho' it was only within these Four Years that an End was put to their Sorrows; for about that Time, the Lords Proprietors and Planters (who long had been heartily tired of each other) were, by the Interposition of the Legislature, fairly divorced forever, and the Property of the Whole vested in the Crown.

CHAP. II.

        Of the Air, Soil, Climate, and Produce of South-Carolina and Georgia. Reasons why this Country is not well-peopled with Indians. The Natives describ'd.

        FROM what was said in the fore going Chapter it can't be a Matter of Wonder, That a great Part of Carolina should have hitherto remain'd uninhabited. The Whole is divided into Two distinct Governments, by the Names of North-Carolina and South-Carolina. I shall confine my self to treat of the Latter. The new Province of Georgia is taken out of it, and divided from it on the North by the River Savannah, equal to the Rhine; its Southern Boundary


Page 17

is the River Alatamaha; it lies about the 30th and 31st Degree, North-Latitude, in the same Climate with Barbary, the North Part of Ægypt, the South Part of Natolia, or Asia-Minor, and the most temperate Parts of Persia and China.

        *THE Air is Healthy, being always serene, pleasant and temperate, never subject to excessive Heat or Cold, nor to sudden Changes; the Winter is regular and short, and the Summer cool'd with refreshing Breezes; and tho' this Country is within Three Hundred Miles of Virginia, it never feels the cutting North-West-Wind in that uneasy and dangerous Degree that the Virginians complain of.

* Archdale's Descrip. p. 7, 8, and Descrip. Abreg. p. 16.


This Wind is generally attributed to those great Seas of fresh Water which lie to the Northwest beyond the Apalachean Mountains. It seems a Journey of an Hundred Leagues in that warm Climate, blunts the Edge which the Wind gets in its Passage over those prodigious Lakes. Nor on the other Hand doth this Country ever feel the intense Heats of Spain, Barbary, Italy, and Ægypt; probably because, instead of the scorching Sands of Africk and Arabia, it has to the Southward, the spacious Bay of Mexico, which is much
Page 18

more temperate in its effect upon the Winds, than are those burning sandy Desarts.

        *The Soil of this Country is generally Sandy, especially near the Sea; but 'tis impregnated with such a fertile Mixture that they use no Manure, even in their most antient Settlements, which have been under till age these Sixty Years.

* Descr. Abreg. p 6. Archd. Descr. p 8.

It will produce almost every Thing in wonderful Quantities with very little Culture. Farther up the Country the Land is more mixed with a blackish Mould, and its Foundation generally Clay good for Bricks. They make their Lime of Oyster shells, of which there are great Quantities on Banks near the Shore. All Things will undoubtedly thrive in this Country that are to be found in the happiest Places under the same Latitude. Their Rice, the only considerable Staple which requires many of their Hands at present, is known to be incomparably better than that of the East Indies; their Pitch, Tar and Turpentine (of which they export great Quantities) are the Rewards of their Industry in clearing the Land of superfluous Timber.* Mulberries both Black and

* Descr. Abreg. p 13.



Page 19

White, are Natives of this Soil, and are found in the Woods as are many other Sorts of Fruit-Trees of excellent Kinds, and the Growth of them is surprizingly swift; for a Peach, Apricot, or Nectarine, will, from the Stone, grow to be a bearing Tree in four or five Years Time. All Sorts of Corn yield an amazing Increase, an Hundred Fold is the common Estimate, tho' their Husbandry is so slight, that they can only be said to scratch the Earth and meerly to cover the Seed. *

* Descr. Abreg. p. 11, 12, 13.


All the best Sorts of Cattle and Fowls are multiplied without Number, and therefore almost without a Price; you may see there more than a Thousand Calves in the same Inclosure belonging to one Person. *

* Ib. 10.


The Vine is also a wild Native here, Five or Six Sorts grow wild in the Woods; it has been said that the Stone of the Grape is too large, and the Skin too thick, but several who have tried, find all imaginable Encouragement to propagate the different Kinds from Europe; nor is it doubted that by proper Culture this wild Grape may be meliorated, so as well to reward the Care of the Planter.


Page 20

        The wild Beasts are Deer, Elks, Bears, Wolves, Buffaloes, Wild-Boars, and abundance of Hares and Rabbits: They have also the Cata-mountain, or small Leopard; but this is not the dangerous Species of the East Indies. Their Fowls are no less various; they have all the Sorts that we have in England, both wild and tame, and many others either useful or beautiful. It would be endless to enumerate their Fishes, the River Savannah is plentifully stock'd with them of many excellent Kinds: No Part in the World affords more Variety or greater Plenty. They have Oak, Cedar, Cypress, Fir, Walnut and Ash, besides the Sassafras. They have Oranges, Lemons, Apples and Pears, besides the Peach and Apricot mention'd before; some of* these are so delicious, that whoever tastes them will despise the insipid watry Taste of those we have in England; and yet such is the Plenty of them, that they are given to the Hogs in great Quantities.

* Archd. Descr. p. 7.


Sarsaparilla, Cassia, and other Sorts of Trees grow in the Woods, yielding Gums and Rosin, and also some Oyl excellent for curing Wounds.


Page 21

        *THE Woods near the Savannah are not hard to be clear'd, many of them have no Underwood, and the Trees do not stand generally thick on the Ground, but at considerable Distances asunder.

* Descr. Abreg. p. 7.


When you fell the Timber for Use, or to make Tar, the Root will rot in Four or Five Years, and in the mean Time you may pasture the Ground. But if you would only destroy the Timber, 'tis done by half a Dozen Strokés of an Ax surrounding each Tree a little above the Root; in a Year or two, the Water geting into the Wounds, rots the Timber, and a brisk Gust of Wind fells many Acres for you in an Hour, of which you may then make one bright Bonfire. Such will be frequently here the Fate of the Pine, the Walnut, the Cypress, the Oak, and the Cedar. Such an Air and Soil can only be fitly describ'd by a Poetical Pen, because there's but little Danger of exceeding the Truth. Take therefore Part of Mr. Waller's Description of an Island in the Neighbourhood of Carolina to give you an Idea of this happy Climate.


Page 22


                         The lofty Cedar which to Heav'n aspires,
                         The Prince of Trees is fuel for their Fires.
                         The sweet Palmettaes a new Bacchus yield,
                         With Leaves as ample as the broadest Shield.
                         Under the Shadow of whose friendly Boughs
                         They sit carousing where their Liquor grows.
                         Figs there unplanted thro' the Fields do grow,
                         Such as fierce Cato did the Romans show:
                         With the rare Fruit inviting them to spoil
                         Carthage, the Mistress of so rich a Soil.
                         With candid Plantines and the juicy Pine,
                         On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,
                         And with Potatoes fat their lusty Swine.


                         --The kind Spring, which but salutes us here,
                         Inhabits there and courts them all the Year.
                         Ripe Fruits and Blossoms on the same Trees live,
                         At once they promise, what at once they give.
                         So sweet the Air, so moderate the Clime,
                         None sickly lives, or dies before his Time.
                         Heav'n sure has kept this Spot of Earth uncurst,
                         To shew how all Things were created first.

        The Thought of the Poet in the last Couplet is adopted by the Ingenious Dr. Burnet in his Theory of the Earth, with fine Improvements of it. The Dr. seems fully convinced that the Temperament of the Climate of Bermudas approaches very near to that of the Antediluvian


Page 23

World, in which he fancies that Spring and Autumn were continual and universal over the Face of the Earth, 'till the Almighty (as Milton has it) turned the Poles askance: And by physical Reasoning he deduces the Longævity of the Antediluvians from this happy Equality of Seasons, uninterrupted by the shocking Vicissitude of Heat and Cold, which tear the human Frame asunder. He thinks that a Person born in Bermudas, and continuing there all his Life-Time, has a moral Probability of living Three Hundred Years. This Conjecture seems to be supported by what we are told in Purchas his Pilgrimage of one of the Indian Kings of Florida, who was Three Hundred Years old, and his Father was Fifty Years older, and then living. The Father is describ'd as a Skeleton cover'd with Skin; his Sinews, Veins and Arteries, and other Parts appear'd so clearly through his Skin, that a Man might easily tell and discern them the one from the other. His Son shewed five Generations descended from himself. 'Twas such a Figure as this Indian King, which induc'd the Antients to feign that Tithonus being very old was chang'd into a Grasshopper.

        Longa Tithonum minuit senectus. Hor.


Page 24

         Now Georgia is just about the Middle of Purchas his Florida. But not to go too far with the Poet, Theorist, and Old Historian; 'tis probable those Indians divided the solar Year into two Years as the Virginian Indians did. Let us rely upon what we know at this Day; it must not be concealed, that in this Country, as almost in every new Climate, Strangers are apt to have a Seasoning; an Ague, or Sort of a Fever; but then 'tis very slight: And for the rest, People very seldom want Health here but by Intemperance, (which indeed is too common) And notwithstanding their several Skirmishes with the Spaniards and Indians, and that the Plague was imported thither in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Six; yet there are now several aged Persons living at Charles Town, who were of that little Number that first settled there and hewed down Timber above Sixty Years ago.

        BY the Healthiness of this Climate, and some Accounts of Spanish Expeditions hither in early Times, which were vigorously repulsed by great Armies of the Natives, one would expect to find the Country by this Time fully peopled with Indians. It is indeed probable that they were much more numerous in those Days than they are at present, or else they could not have defended themselves


Page 25

against the Spaniards as they did. But if their Numbers were formerly considerable they have since greatly decreased; and that might easily happen in a Century, even tho' the Country be naturally fertile and healthy, for the Indians in all the Continent of North America, near the Atlantick Ocean, have been discovered to have this Resemblance in common: They are small Tribes of Huntsmen, exceedingly apt to make War upon each other, as our 5 Nations of Iroquois beyond New-England and New-York, have within these Forty Years driven many other Nations from fertile inland Countries, of the extent of many Millions of Acres, and that not without incredible Slaughter. Add to which, that these poor Creatures, living with hardly any Husbandry, or Stores of Provisions, must perish in Heaps if the Fruits of the Woods, or their Hunting should once fail them; one scanty Season would infallibly famish whole Nations of them. Another great Cause of their Destruction was the Small-pox, the Europeans brought this Distemper among them: Now their common Cure in all Fevers is to sweat plentifully, and then to stop that Evacuation at once by plunging instantly into a River. They can't be persuaded to alter this Method in the Case of the Small-pox, and it certainly kills them.


Page 26

Rum also has been a fatal Liquor to them, many of them have been inclined to drink it to such an Excess as we sometimes hear of at Home in the Abuse of Geneva, and sometimes they are so little Masters of their Reason, when intoxicated, as to be too apt to commit Murders; but there are many sober Men among them who abhor the Abuse of this Liquor. Thus Mr. Archdale relates, that, when he was Governour, he order'd an Indian to be executed, who being drunk with Rum had murder'd an Indian of another Tribe. The King of his Tribe came to him and reminded him how often he had warned him of the Dangers attending Excesses in that Liquor, but exhorted him (since Death was unavoidable) to die like a Man, which the unhappy Man performed with Firmness and Gallantry. I have mentioned this Story because a vulgar Error prevails, as if the Indians were all addicted to this Vice. But to return to the Opposition against the Spaniards. 'Tis also probable that many Tribes were leagued together in the Common Cause, and that the Spaniards were thence induced to think the People of this Part of the Continent much more numerous than in Truth they were. 'Tis most certain that the Nations of Carolina in our Days have exactly answer'd in all


Page 27

Respects the Descriptions we have of the Inhabitants of Virginia, when we first got footing there in the Beginning of the last Century. Captain Smith (next to Sir Walter Rawleigh) the most indust'rous and resolute Planter of Virginia in those Days, computed that all the Tribes in a Country much more fertile and little less in Extent than England, could not draw into the Field above Five Thousand fighting Men, tho' the Tract of Land is sufficient to maintain more than Ten Millions of People.

        -- Sane populus numerabilis, utpote parvus. Hor.

        THIS is confirmed and illustrated by the well-attested Story that one of their little Kings instructed his Minister, who was coming hither, to number our Tribe; the Minister, at his Arrival, attempted to execute his Commission by making Notches on a Stick, but soon grew tir'd of his Arithmetick, and at his Return express'd the Multitude of our Fore Fathers by pointing to the Stars, and to the fallen Leaves of a Wood in Autumn. And here I can't omit saying, that it is a Policy of considerable Benefit to our Colonies, and an Expence well laid out, at proper Distances of Time to persuade some of the chiefest Savages, both for


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Anthority and Understanding, to visit Great Britain. That awed with the high Idea which our Metropolis gives them of the Grandeur of this Empire, and propagating that Idea among their Tribes, our Planters in their several Neighbourhoods may enjoy uninterrupted Peace and Commerce with them, and even Assistance from them, for at least one Generation. Such was the Journey of the Irroquois Chiefs in the Reign of Queen Anne, and such was lately the Visit from our Indian Neighbours of Carolina. The good Effects of these Visits are well known to the Planters of those Colonies respectively, and probably will be felt with Pleasure for an Age to come.

        THE Description of the Carolina-Indians in their present State of Nature, is as follows,*

* Archa. Descr. p. 7.


They are somewhat tawny, occasioned chiefly by oyling their Skins, and by exposing themselves naked to the Rays of the Sun They are generally streight-body'd, comely in Person, quick of Apprehension, and great Hunters, by which they are not only serviceable by killing Deer to procure Skins for Trade with us, but our People that live in Country Plantations procure of them the whole
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Deer's Flesh, and they bring it many Miles for the Value of Six Pence Sterling, and a wild Turkey of Forty Pound Weight for the Value of Two Pence.

CHAP. III.

        Persons reduc'd to Poverty are not Wealth to the Nation, may be happy in Georgia, and profitable to England; they are within the Design of the Patent.

        SINCE the Time that the Lords Proprietors sold their Rights in Carolina to the Crown, the Governour there, has been ordered and instructed to assign liberally Portions of Land to every new Planter according to his Ability to occupy it; to erect Towns and Parishes of Twenty Thousand Acres of Land in each District; and to grant to each Parish the Privilege of sending two Members to the Assembly of the Province, as soon as One Hundred Masters of Families shall be settled in it. Neither will the Planters be confin'd to the Ground first allotted them, their Lots are to be augmented as they become able to cultivate a larger Quantity. These Lands are to


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be granted in Fee-simple under the Yearly Rent of Four-pence for every Hundred Acres: But this Rent is not to be charged for the first Ten Years; during that Time the Lands shall be entirely Free.

        BUT all this Encouragement was not sufficient to People this Country, they who can make Life tolerable here are willing to stay at Home, as 'tis indeed best for the Kingdom that they should, and they who are oppress'd by Poverty and Misfortunes are unable to be at the Charges of removing from their Miseries. These were the People intended to be relieved, but they were not able to reach the friendly Arm extended for their Relief, something else must be done, of which more shall be said in a proper Place. Let us in the mean Time cast our Eyes on the Multitude of unfortunate People in the Kingdom of reputable Families, and of liberal, or at least, easy Education: Some undone by Guardians, some by Law-Suits, some by Accidents in Commerce, some by Stocks and Bubbles, and some by Suretyship. But all agree in this one Circumstance, that they must either be Burthensome to their Relations, or betake themselves to little Shifts for Sustenance, which ('tis ten to one) do not answer their Purposes, and to which a well-educated Mind descends with the


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utmost Constraint. What various Misfortunes may reduce the Rich, the Industrious, to the Danger of a Prison, to a moral Certainty of Starving! These are the People that may relieve themselves and strengthen Georgia, by resorting thither, and Great Britain by their Departure.

        I appeal to the Recollection of the Reader (tho' he be Opulent, tho' he be Noble) does not his own Sphere of Acquaintance? (I may venture to ask) Does not even his own Blood, his Set of near Relations furnish him with some Instances of such Persons as have been here describ'd? Must they Starve? What honest Mind can bear to think it? Must they be fed by the Contributions of Others? Certainly they must, rather than be suffered to perish. Are these Wealth to the Nation? Are they not a Burthen to themselves, a Burthen to their Kindred and Acquaintance? A Burthen to the whole Community?

        I have heard it said (and 'tis easy to say so) let them learn to work; let them subdue their Pride and descend to mean Employments, keep Ale-houses, or Coffee-houses, even sell Fruit, or clean Shoes for an honest Lively-hood. But alas! These Occupations, and many more like them, are overstock'd already by People who know better how to follow them,


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than do they whom we have been talking of. Half of those who are bred in low Life, and well versed in such Shifts and Expedients, find but a very narrow Maintenance by them: As for Labouring, I cou'd almost wish that the Gentleman, or Merchant, who thinks that another Gentleman, or Merchant in want, can thresh, or dig, to the Value of Subsistence for his Family, or even for himself; I say I could wish the Person who thinks so, were obliged to make trial of it for a Week, or (not to be too severe) for only a Day: He would find himself to be less than the Fourth Part of a Labourer, and that the Fourth Part of a Labourer's Wages could not maintain him. I have heard it said, that a Man may learn to labour by Practice; tis admitted: But it must also be admitted that before he can learn, he may starve. Suppose a Gentleman were this Day to begin, and with grievous toil found himself able to earn Three Pence, how many Days, or Months, are necessary to form him that he may deserve a Shilling per diem? Men, whose Wants are importunate, must try such Expedients as will give immediate Relief. 'Tis too late for them to begin to learn a Trade when their pressing Necessities call for the Exercise of it.


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        HAVING thus described (I fear, too truly) the pityable Condition of the better Sort of the Indigent, an Objection rises against their Removal upon what is stated of their Imbecility for Drudgery. It may be asked, if they can't get Bread here for their Labour, how will their Condition be mended in Georgia? The Answer is easy; Part of it is well attested, and Part self-evident. They have Land there for nothing, and that* Land is so fertile that (as is said before) they receive an Hundred Fold increase for taking very little Pains.

* Descr. Abreg. p 13.


Give here in England Ten Acres of good Land to One of these helpless Persons, and I doubt not his Ability to make it sustain him, and this by his own Culture, without letting it to another: But the Difference between no Rent, and Rack-Rent, is the Difference between eating and starving. If I make but Twenty Pound of the Produce of a Field, and am to pay Twenty Pound Rent for it; 'tis plain I must perish if I have not another Fund to support me: But if I pay no Rent, the Produce of that Field will supply the mere Necessities of Life.


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        WITH a View to the Relief of People in the Condition I have described, His Majesty has this present Year incorporated a considerable Number of Persons of Quality and Distinction, and vested a large Tract of South-Carolina in them, by the Name of Georgia, in Trust to be distributed among the Necessitous. These Trustees not only give Land to the Unhappy who go thither, but are also impower'd to receive the voluntary Contributions of charitable Persons to enable them to furnish the poor Adventurers with all Necessaries for the Expence of the Voyage, occupying the Land, and supporting them 'till they find themselves comfortably settled. So that now the Unfortunate will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long Servitude, to pay for their Passage, for they may be carried gratis into a Land of Liberty and Plenty; where they immediately find themselves in Possession of a competent Estate, in an happier Climate than they knew before, and they are Unfortunate indeed if here they can't forget their Sorrows.


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CHAP. IV.

        England will grow Rich by sending her Poor Abroad. Of Refugees, Conversion of Indians, small Offenders, Roman Colonies.

        BESIDES the Persons described in the preceding Chapter, there are others whom it may be proper to send Abroad for the Reasons hereafter given, which Reasons will also shew at whose Expence these other Sorts of indigent People ought to be removed. I think it may be laid down for a Rule, that we may well spare all those, who having neither Income, nor Industry, equal to their Necessities, are forced to live upon the Fortunes, or Labours of others; and that they who now are an heavy Rent-charge upon the Publick, may be made an immense Revenue to it, and this by an happy Exchange of their Poverty for an Affluence.

        BELIEVING it will be granted that the People described in the last Chapter ought in Prudence to go Abroad; and that we are bound in Humanity and Charity to send them: There arises a Question, whether our aiding their Departure


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be consistent with good Policy? I raise this Objection on purpose to answer it, because some who mean very well to the Publick have fancy'd that our Numbers absolutely taken, without a Distinction, are real Wealth to a Nation. Upon a little Examination, this will appear to be a mistaken Notion. It arises from a Mis-Application of Sir William Petty's Political Arithmetick, and of Sir William Temple's Observations on the united Netherlands. But when these great Men esteem People as the Wealth of a Nation, surely they can only mean such as labour, and by their Industry add yearly to the Capital Stock of their Country, at the same Time, that they provide the Necessaries or Comforts of Life for themselves. Perhaps the Rasp-houses may be reckoned Part of the Riches of Holland, because the Drones are made to work in them: But is an Infirmary of Incurables Wealth to a Community? Or (which is worse, because 'tis remediable and is not remedied) are Hundreds of Prisons filled with Thousands of English Debtors, are they a Glory, or a Reproach, a Benefit, or a Burthen, to the Nation? Who can be so absurd as to say that we should be enriched by the Importation of a Multitude of Cripples, who might be able perhaps to earn a Fourth Part of what


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is necessary to sustain them? If Ten Thousand of these would be an Addition to our Wealth, Ten Millions of them must add a Thousand Times as much to it. Did the Fire of London add to the Wealth of the Nation? I am sure it gave abundance of Employment to the Poor, just as People are employed in Trade to feed and cloath the Inhabitants of Prisons. But these are also a slow Fire, an Hectick Fever to consume the Vitals of the State. The true State of National Wealth is like that of private Wealth, 'tis comparative. The Nation, as well as Individuals, must work to save and not to spend. If I work hard all Day and at Night give my Wages to the next Cripple I see, it may be profitable to my Soul, but my worldly Fortune is in the same Condition as if I had stood idle. If the Produce of the Nation be in Moveables Land and Labour Fifty Millions in a Year, and only Forty Eight Millions are expended to maintain the People: Now has the Nation added Two Millions to its Capital, but if it spends Fifty One Millions, then is that to be made good by sinking Part of the Personal Estate, or Mortgaging the real. And upon a par, plus a Million, and minus a Million in Earnings and Expences will operate nothing towards encreasing the National


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Wealth, if you proceed in infinitum, tis only impoverishing the Rich to maintain the Poor; it seems indeed to have something of Levelling in it; to prevent which, I think our Men of Fortune would act wisely once for all; to put these poor People on a Footing of their own, and shake off the perpetual Incumbrance by a single Act of prudent Beneficence.

        ONE of the Gentlemen would have Scotland, Ireland and Wales sunk under Water, but all the People saved and setled in England. He certainly deceived himself with a View of the* artificial Strength of the Dutch, when their Fishery was at the highest Pitch, and when they were Carriers for Mankind. But they have not been able to preserve these Branches of Trade entire, and their Numbers must decrease as do the Means of maintaining them.

* See the 6th Chapter.

* Therefore instead of

* To illustrate the Doctrine laid down in this Sentence, take the following Part of a Description of a neighbouring Country by a celebrated Author.

        'I met in my Days Journey, nine Cars loaden with old musty shrivel'd Hides, one Car-load of Butter, one Cow and Calf driven by a Man and his Wife. A Colony of one Hundred and Fifty Beggars, all repairing to People our Metropolis, and by encreasing the Number of Hands, to encrease its Wealth; upon the old Maxim, that People are the Riches of a Nation. And therefore one Thousand Mouths with hardly Ten Pair of Hands, or any Work to employ them, will infallibly make us a rich and flourishing People. Secondly, Travellers enough, but Seven in Ten wanting Shirts and Cravats; Nine in Ten going barefoot and carrying their Broagues and Stockings in their Hands. One Woman in Twenty having a Pillion, the rest Riding bare back'd. Above Two Hundred Horsemen, with Four Pair of Boots amongst them all, Seventeen Saddles of Leather, (the rest being made of Straw,) and most of their Garranes only shod before. I went into one of the Principal Farmers Houses out of Curiosity, and his whole Furniture consisted of Two Blocks for Stools, a Bench on each side the Fire-Place made of Turf, six Trenchers, one Bowl, a Pot, six Horn-spoons, three Noggins, three Blankets (one of which served the Man and Maid-Servant; the other Two, the Master of the Family, his Wife and five Children,) a small Churn, a wooden Candlestick, a broken Stick for a pair of Tongs. In the publick Towns, one third of the Inhabitants walking the Streets barefoot, &c.



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taking it for granted, that Numbers of People necessarily create a Traffick; we may invert the Proposition, and safely hold, that an extensive Traffick will infallibly be attended with sufficient Numbers of People.

        AND yet these unhappy People, who are not able to earn above a Fourth Part of their Sustenance at Home, and as we have shewn are a Load on the Fortunes and Industry of others, may in the new Province of Georgia well provide by their Labour a decent Maintenance, and at the same Time enrich their Mother Country.

        UPON what has been said, the Reader may be desirous to see a State of the Difference (with respect to the Interests of


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the Industrious and Wealthy Part of the Nation,) between a poor Person here, earning but Half his Sustenance, and the same Person settled in a Freehold, of a fertile Soil without Tithes or Taxes: And in this Computation let us remember that of the many Thousands of poor Debtors, who fill our Prisons, few earn any Thing at present; and this Colony is chiefly intended for the Unfortunate, there being no Danger of the Departure of such as are able to maintain themselves here.

        A Man who is equal in Ability, only to the Fourth Part of a Labourer, (and many such there are,) we will suppose to earn Four Pence per Diem, or Five Pounds per Annum, in London; his Wife and a Child of above Seven Years Old Four Pence per Diem more: Upon a fair Supposition (because 'tis the common Case) he has another Child too Young to earn any Thing. These live but wretchedly at an Expence of Twenty Pounds per Ann. to defray which they earn Ten Pounds; so that they are a Loss to the Rich and Industrious Part of the Nation of Ten Pounds per Ann. for there are but three general Methods of supplying the Defect of their Ability. Whatever they consume more than they earn, must be furnished, First, either by the Bounty, or Charity of others;


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or Secondly, by Frauds, as by running in Debt to the Ruin of the Industrious, &c. Or, Thirdly by what our Law calls Force and Felony, as Theft and Robbery, &c. They must be supplied at some of these Rates, therefore (as I said before,) this Family is a Loss to the Rich and Industrious of Ten Pounds per Ann. and if the Particulars of their Consumption, or an Equivalent for them could have brought Ten Pounds from any Foreign Market, then has the whole Community lost Ten Pounds by this Family.

        NOW this very Family in Georgia, by raising Rice and Corn sufficient for its Occasions, and by attending the Care of their Cattle and Land (which almost every one is able to do for himself in some tolerable Degree) will easily produce in the gross Value, the Sum of Sixty Pounds per Ann. nor is this to be wonder'd at, because of the valuable Assistance it has from a fertile Soil and a Stock given gratis, which must always be remembred in this Calculation.

        THE Lots to be assigned to each Family, as 'tis said, will be about Fifty Acres. The usual* Wages of a common Labourer in Carolina is Three Shill. per Diem,

* Descr. Abreg. P 9.



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English value, or Twenty Shillings of their Money. Therefore our poor Man, (who is only equal to the Fourth Part of a Man,) at about Nine Pence per Diem, earns about Twelve Pounds per Ann. his Care of his Stock on his Land in his Hours of Resting from Labour, (amounting to one Half of each Day) is worth also Twelve Pounds per Ann. his Wife and eldest Child may easily between them earn as much as the Man; So that the Sum remaining to be raised by the Wealth of the Soil and the Stock thereon (abstracted from the Care and Labour of the Husbandman) is only Twelve Pounds per Ann. it must be observed that' tho this Family, when in London, was dieted but meanly, yet it could afford very little for Cloaths out of the Twenty Pounds it then expended, but now it will fare much better in Georgia, at the same Expence, because Provisions will be cheap, and it will also pay Forty Pounds a Year to England for Apparel, Furniture and Utensils of the Manufacture of this Kingdom. Behold then the Benefit the Common Weal receives by relieving her famishing Sons. Take it stated only upon One Hundred such Families as follows,


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In London an Hundred Men earn 500 l.
An Hundred Women and an Hundred Children 500 l.
  Total 1000 l.
In Georgia an Hundred Families earn  
An Hundred Men for Labour 1200 l.
Ditto for Care 1200 l.
An Hundred Women and an Hundred Children 2400 l.
Land and Stock in themselves 1200 l.
  Total 6000 l.
In London an Hundred Families consume 2000 l.
Supplied by their Labour 1000 l.
By the Wealth of others 1000 l.
In Georgia an Hundred Families consume of their own Produce 2000 l.
Of English Produce 4000 l.

        Thus taking it that we gained One Thousand Pounds per Ann. (which was the Value of their Labour) before their Removal, that we now gain Four Thousand Pounds, and we have got an Addition of Three Thousand Pounds per Ann. to our Income; but if, (as the Truth is) we formerly


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lost One Thousand Pounds per Ann. and the Nation now gains Four Thousand Pounds per Ann. the Rich and Industrious are now profited to the Value of Five Thousand Pounds per Ann. I might also shew other great Advantages in the Encrease of our Customs, our Shipping, and our Seamen. It is plain that these Hundred Families, thus removed, employ near Two Hundred Families here to work for them, and thus by their Absence they encrease the People of Great Britain, for Hands will not be long wanting where Employment is to be had: If we can find Business that will feed them, what between the Encouragement and Encrease of Propagation on the one Hand, and the Preservation of those who now perish for Want on the other: We should quickly find we had strengthened our Hive by sending a Swarm away to provide for themselves.

        IT is also highly for the Honour and Advancement of our holy Religion to assign a new Country to the poor Germans, who have left their own for the Sake of Truth. It will be a powerful Encouragement to Martyrs and Confessors of this Kind to hold fast their Integrity, when they know their Case not to be desperate in this World. Nor need we fear that the King of Prussia will be able to engross


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them all, we shall have a Share of them if we contribute chearfully to their Removal. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign Parts have gloriously exerted themselves on this Occasion: They have resolv'd to advance such a Sum of Money to the Trustees for the Colony of Georgia, as will enable them to provide for Seven Hundred poor Salzburghers. This is layng a Foundation for the Conversion of the Heathen, at the same Time, that they snatch a great Number of poor Christians out of the Danger of Apostacy. 'Tis to be hoped this laudable Example will be followed by private Persons, who may thus at once do much for the Glory of God, and for the Wealth and Trade of Great Britain. Subjects thus acquir'd by the impolitick Persecutions, by the superstitious Barbarities of neighbouring Princes, are a noble Addition to the capital Stock of the British Empire. If our People be Ten Millions, and we were to have an Access of Ten Thousand useful Refugees, every Stock-jobber in Exchange-Alley must allow that this would encrease our Wealth and Figure in the World, as one added to a Thousand, or, as 1/10 per Cent. This would be the Proportion of our Growth compar'd with our Neighbours, who have not been the Persecutors; but


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as against the Persecutor, the Increase of our Strength would be in a double Ratio, compounded as well of negative as of positive Quantity. Thus if A and B are worth One Thousand Pounds each, and a Third Person gives Twenty Shillings to A, now A is become richer than B by [1/10]per Cent. but if A gains Twenty Shillings from B, then A is become richer than B by 2/10 or ⅕ per Cent. for A is worth One Thousand and One Pounds, and B is worth only Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Pounds.

        THE Encrease of our People, on this fruitful Continent, will probably, in due Time, have a good Effect on the Natives, if we do not shamefully neglect their Conversion: If we were moderately attentive to our Duty on this Head, we have no Reason to doubt of Success. The Spaniard has at this Day as many Christians, as he has Subjects in America, Negroes excepted. We may more reasonably hope to make Converts and good Subjects of the Indians in Amity with us, by using them well, when we grow numerous in their Neighbourhood, than the Spaniards could have expected to have done by their inexpressible Cruelties, which raised the utmost Aversion in the Minds of the poor Indians against them and their Religion together. One of their


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own Friers who had not relinquish'd his Humanity, tells us of an Indian Prince, who just as the Spaniards were about to murder him, was importuned by one of their Religious to become a Christian; the Priest told him much of Heaven and Hell, of Joy and Misery eternal; the Prince desired to be informed which of the two Places was allotted for the Spaniards? Heaven, quoth the Priest; says the Prince, I'm resolved not to go there. How different from this was the Reflection of an Indian Chief in Pensilvania:* What is the Matter, says he, with us that we are thus sick in our own Air, and these Strangers well? 'Tis as if they were sent hither to inherit our Land in our steads; but the Reason is plain, they love the Great God and we do not.

* 2 Brit. Emp. Fol. 1. p. 162.


Was not this Indian almost become a Christian? New-England has many Convert-Indians, who are very good Subjects, tho' no other Colony had such long and cruel Wars with its Indian Neighbours.

        THE pious Benefactions of the People of England have in all Ages equall'd, if not surpassed, all Instances of the Kind in other Countries. The mistaken Piety of our Ancestors gave a third Part of the Kingdom to the Church: Their Intentions


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were right, tho' they erred in the Object. Since the Statutes against mortmain and superstitious Uses, our great and numerous Foundations of Hospitals and Alms-houses are the Wonder of Foreigners. Some of these, especially of the largest, are doubtless of great Use, and excellently administred. And yet, if the Numbers in this Nation, who feel the Woes of others and would contribute to relieve them, did but consider the Cases of the People describ'd in the last Chapter, of the German Emigrants, and even of the poor Indians; they would be apt to conclude that there ought to be a Blessing in Store for these also. About Eight Pounds allowed to an indigent Person here, may poorly support him, and this must be repeated yearly; but a little more, than double that Sum, relieves him for Life, sends him to our new World, gives Plenty there to him and his Posterity; putting them in Possession of a good Estate, of which, they may be their own Stewards.

        BUT this is not all, that Sum which settles one poor Family in the Colony does not end there; it in Truth purchases an Estate to be applied to like Uses, in all future Times. The Author of these Pages is credibly inform'd that the Trustees will reserve to themselves square


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Lots of Ground interspers'd at proper Distances among the Lands, which shall be given away: As the Country fills with People, these Lots will become valuable, and at moderate Rents will be a growing Fund to provide for those whose melancholy Cases may require Assistance hereafter: Thus the Settlement of Five Hundred Persons will open the Way to settle a Thousand more afterwards with equal Facility. Nor is this Advance of the Value of these Lots of Land a chimerical Notion; it will happen certainly and suddenly. All the Lands within Fifty Miles of Charlestown have within these Seven Years encreas'd near Four-Fold in their* Value, so that you must pay Three or Four Hundred Pounds for a Plantation, which Seven Years ago you could have bought for a Hundred Pounds, and 'tis certain that Fifty Years ago you might have purchas'd at Charlestown for Five Sihllings a Spot of Land which the Owner would not sell at this Day for Two Hundred Pounds Sterling.

* Descr. Abreg. p. 9.


        THE Legislature is only able to take a proper Course for the Transportation of small Offenders, if it shall seem best, when the Wisdom of the Nation is assembled; I mean only those who are


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but Novices in Iniquity. Prevention is better than the Punishment of Crimes, it may reform such to make them Servants to such Planters as were reduc'd from a good Condition. The Manners and Habits of very young Offenders would meliorate in a Country not populous enough to encourage a profligate Course of Life, but a Country where Discipline will easily be preserv'd. These might supply the Place of Negroes, and yet (because their Servitude is only to be temporary) they might upon Occasion be found useful against the French, or Spaniards; indeed, as the Proportion of Negroes now stands, that Country would be in great Danger of being lost, in Case of a War with either of those Powers. The present Wealth of the Planters in their Slaves too probably threatens their future Ruin, if proper Measures be not taken to strengthen their Neighbourhood with large Supplies of Free-men. I would not here be understood to advance that our common Run of Old-Baily Transports wou'd be a proper Beginning in the Infancy of Georgia. No, they would be too hard for our young Planters, they ought never to be sent any where but to the Sugar Islands, unless we had Mines to employ them.

        THE Poverty of the Publick, with regard to its immense Debt, and the Anticipation


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of Taxes attending that Debt, will probably be a Reason to many worthy Patriots, not to afford a large pecuniary Assistance in Parliament, tho' they give all other furtherance to this Settlement, and yet powerful Reasons might be offer'd, why the Commons of Great Britain, with Justice to those that sent them, might apply a large Sum of publick Money to this Occasion. Let us suppose that Twenty Five Thousand of the most helpless People in Great Britain were settled there at an Expence of half a Million of Money; the Easiness of the Labour in winding off the Silk and tending the Silk Worm would agree with the most of those who throughout the Kingdom are chargeable to the Parishes. That Labour with the Benefit of Land stock'd for them gratis, would well subsist them, and save our Parishes near Two Hundred Thousand Pounds a Year directly in their annual Payments; not to compute would also be saved indirectly, by the Unwillingness of many pretended Invalids to go the Voyage, who would then betake themselves to industrious Courses to gain a Livelyhood.

        I shall consider the Benefit of employing them in raising Silk when I come in the Fifth Chapter, to treat of the Commerce of Carolina. I shall only here observe


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that the Number of Poor, last mention'd, being thus dispos'd of, would send us Goods, at least to the Value of Five Hundred Thousand Pounds annually, to pay for their English Necessaries; and that would be somewhat better than our being oblig'd to maintain them at the Rate of Two Hundred Thousand Pounds a Year here at Home.

        I can't dismiss this Enquiry concerning the proper Persons to plant this Colony, without observing that the Wisdom of the Roman State discharged not only its ungovernable distressed Multitude, but also its Emeriti, its Soldiers, which had served long and well in War, into Colonies upon the Frontiers of their Empire. 'Twas by this Policy that they elbow'd all the Nations round them. Their Military Hospital went a Progress, we can trace its Stages Northward from the Tiber to the Po, to the Rhone, to the Rhine, to the Thames: The like Advances they made on all Sides round them, and their Soldiers were at least as fond of the Estates thus settled on them as ours can be of their Pensions.

        WHAT I said before in this Chapter, with regard to the encreasing Fund, to arise by reserved Lots of Ground interspersed among the Lands that will be distributed to the Planters, will hold


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good in the same Manner in such Settlements as might be made at a national Expence, so that Twenty Thousand People, well settled, will raise the Value of the reserved Lands, in such Measure as will bring Great Britain to resemble the present Carolina in one happy Instance, viz. That there is not a* Beggar, or very poor Person in the whole Country. Then should we have no going to Decay, no complaining in our Streets.


* Descr. Abreg. p. 6.


CHAP. V.

        Of the present and (probable) future Trade of South-Carolina and Georgia. Rice, Silk, Cotton, Wine, &c.

        THE present State of South-Carolina and its Commerce may give us an Idea of the Condition of the early Settlements in the new Colony of Georgia. Their first Essays in Trade and Husbandry will doubtless be in Imitation of their nearest Neighbours. We


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shall therefore consider these Colonies together, the Difference in their Air and Soil being hardly discernable, and the same Traffick being proper for them both.

        WE are not to imagine that either the present Branches of Trade in that Country, will be perpetual, or that there is not room to introduce others of more Importance than any they have hitherto been acquainted with. Thus it will necessarily fall out that their present Exports of Lumber and of Deer Skins will decrease, or rather wholly cease when the Country grows populous: And this for an obvious Reason, the Land will be better employ'd, it will be dis-afforrested, and no longer left vacant to the Growth of great Woods, and the Sustenance of wild Herds of Deer. But the very Reason why these Branches of Trade will cease will also be the Cause of their taking up others, or improving them to such a Degree, as must put these Colonies in a Condition to vie with the most flourishing Countries of Europe and Asia: And that without Prejudice to their Dependance on Great Britain. We shall by their Growth in People and Commerce have the Navigation and Dominion of the Ocean establish'd in us more firmly than ever. We shall be their Market for great Quantities


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of* Raw-silk, and perhaps for Wine, Oyl, Cotton, Drugs, Dying-Stuffs, and many other lesser Commodities.

* Descr. Abreg. p. 13. Archd. Descr. p. 30.


They have already tried the Vine and the Silk-worm, and have all imaginable Encouragement to expect that these will prove most valuable Staple-Commodities to them. And I have been credibly inform'd, That the Trustees for Georgia furnish proper Expences for a skilful Botanist to collect the Seeds of Drugs and Dying-Stuffs in other Countries in the same Climate, in order to cultivate such of them as shall be found to thrive well in Georgia. This Gentleman could not be expected to proceed at his own Charges, but he's the only Person belonging to the Management of that Trust who does not serve Gratis.

        THE Raw-silk, which Great Britain and Ireland are able to consume, will employ Forty or Fifty Thousand Persons in that Country, nor need they be the strongest, or most industrious Part of Mankind; It must be* a weak Hand indeed that cannot earn Bread where Silk-worms and White Mulberry-trees are so plenty.

* Arch. Descr. p. 30.


Most of the Poor in Great Britain,
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who are maintain'd by Charity, are capable of this, tho' not of harder Labour: And the Planters may be certain of selling their Raw-silk to the utmost Extent of the British Demand for that Commodity; because a British Parliament will not fail to encourage the Importation of it from thence, rather than from Aliens, that the Planters may be able to make large Demands upon us for our Home Commodities: For this will be the Consequence of their employing all their People in producing a Commodity, which is so far from rivalling, that it will supply a rich Manufacture to their Mother-Country.

        THE present Medium of our Importation of Silk will not be the Measure hereafter of that Branch of Trade when the Georgians shall enter into the Management of the Silk-worm. Great Britain will then be able to sell Silk-Manufactures cheaper than all Europe besides, because the Georgians may grow rich, and yet afford their Raw-silk for less than half the Price that we now pay for that of Piedmont: The Peasant of Piedmont, after he has tended the Worm, and wound off the Silk, pays half of it for the Rent of the Mulberry-trees, and the Eggs of the Silk-worm; but in Georgia the working Hand will have the Benefit of all his Labour.


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This is Fifty in a Hundred, or Cent per Cent difference in favour of the Georgians, which receives a great Addition from another Consideration, viz. the Georgian will have his Provisions incomparably cheaper than the Piemontese, because he pays no Rent for the Land that produces them; he lives upon his own Estate. But there is still another Reason why Great Britain should quickly and effectually encourage the Production of Silk in Georgia; for, in effect, it will cost us nothing; it will be purchased by the several Manufactures of Great Britain, and this, I fear, is not our present Case with respect to Piedmont: Especially (if as we have been lately told) they have prohibited the Importation of Woollen Goods into that Principality.

        THAT this little Treatise may be the more Satisfactory to the Reader, I could wish I had been minutely informed of the present State of our Silk Trade; of the medium Value of Silk per Pound; to what Amount it is imported; of its Duty, Freight, Commission and Insurance; and Lastly, by what returns in Commerce it is purchased. I'm persuaded, these Estimates would afford plentiful Matter for Observations in favour of this Position, viz. that Great Britain ought vigorously to attempt to get this Trade into her own


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Hands. I shall however aim at a Computation, upon my Memory of Facts, which I have heard from those who understand that Commerce.

        1. GREAT BRITAIN imports Silk from Piedmont, near the Yearly Value of Three Hundred Thousand Pounds.

        2. THE medium Price is about Twelve Shillings per Pound in Piedmont.

        3. THE Duty here is about Four Shillings per Pound.

        4. THE Price of Raw-Silk in London, is generally more than Half of the Price of the wrought Goods in their fullest Perfection.

        1st Observ. IF the Piemontese paid no Rent for the Mulberry-Tree and Silk-worm, he might afford Silk at Six Shillings per Pound.

        2d Observ. IF Silk were bought in Piedmont at Six Shillings per Pound, and imported Duty-free, it might be sold in London at Seven Shillings per Pound. For, the Commission, Insurance and Exchange, or Interest of Money would be but Half what they are at present, and there must be some Allowance for the Interest of the Money that was usually applied to pay the Duty.


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        3d Observ. THEREFORE Great-Britain, by encouraging the Growth of Silk in Georgia, may save above a Hundred Thousand Pound per Ann. of what she lays out in Piedmont.

        4th Observ. THE Georgian (without taking the Cheapness of his Provisions into Question) may enable Great-Britain to under-sell all her Rivals in Europe in the Silk-Manufacture in a Proportion resembling what follows.

        
    l. s. d.
France, Raw-silk, One Pound Weight 6 14 0
France, Workmanship 0 16 0
    Total 1 10 0
Great Britain Raw-silk, One Pound Weight 0 7 0
Great Britain Workmanship 0 16 0
    Total 1 3 0

        The Difference of these is Seven Pence in Thirty, which is near Twenty Five Pound in an Hundred, and is above Thirty per Cent. The Reader is desired to consider these Computations as stated by guess. But the same Reasoning will hold in a considerable Degree upon the exact State of the several Values.


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        *RICE is another Growth of this Province that doth not interfere with Great Britain.

* Descr. Abreg. p 13.

But we reap their Harvests; for when they have sold the Rice in a foreign Market, they lay out the Money in our Manufactures to carry Home with them. They have already made an handsome Progress in Carolina, in cultivating this Grain. They have exported above* Ten Thousand Tuns of it by Weight in a Year already, all produced in a few Years from so small a Quantity as was carried thither in a Bag, fit to hold only a Hundred Pound Sterling in Silver; they have sold Cargoes of it in Turkey. They have all the World for their Market. A Market not easily glutted.

* Descr. Abreg. p 7.

        THE Indulgence of the British Legislature to Carolina in this Branch of their Trade, shews our new Georgians what Encouragement they may expect from that August Body, as soon as they shall learn the Management of the Silk-worm. The Law for the Ease of the Rice-Trade, is alone sufficient to enrich whole Provinces: They are now at Liberty to proceed in their Voyages directly


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to any Part of Europe, [illegible] th of Cape Fenesterre, or to Asia and Africk before they touch at Great Britain. The Difference of the Charge of Freight is not Half the Benefit they receive from this Act of Parliament; they arrive at the desired Ports time enough to forestal the Markets of Spain, Portugal, and the Levant. It now frequently happens that Cargoes arrive safe, which, as the Law stood formerly, would have been lost at Sea, by Means of the Deviation. This new Law, in a Manner, forces them into the Spanish, Portuguese, and Levant Trades, and gives them Two Returns of Commerce instead of One. They may now dispose of their American Grain in the first Place, and then come loaden to Great Britain with the most profitable Wares of the Countries where they traded; and lastly, buy for ready Money such British Manufactures as they have Occasion to carry Home.

        WHEN I speak of the future Trade of these happy Provinces, I might expatiate upon many valuable Branches of it besides the Silk and Rice: Branches which it must* enjoy as certainly as Nature shall hold her Course in the Production

* Descr. Abreg. p. 25, 26.



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of Vegetables, and the Revolution of Seasons. But because I would not swell this Treatise to too expensive a Bulk, I shall content my self with acquainting the Reader that they have no Doubt of the kindly Growth of Cotton, Almonds, Olives, &c. And in short, of every Vegetable that can be found in the best Countries under the same Latitude.

        I FORESEE an Objection against what is here laid down: It may be said that all the Countries under the same Latitude do not produce the same Commodities; that some of them are incapable of raising choice Vegetables, which others of them nourish with the utmost Facility. For Answer to this Objection, what was said in the second Chapter shou'd be consider'd: The intemperate Heats of Barbary, ægypt and Arabia are there accounted for, from the Vicinity of boundless sandy Deserts; on the other Hand, near Mount Caucasus in Asia, and particularly in the Kingdom of Kaschmere, or Kasimere, (which is entirely surrounded by prodigious Mountains) their Seasons are almost as Cold as ours in England, tho' they lie in the same Latitude with Tangier, or Gibraltar.

        THESE Instances of the Temperature in Countries equidistant from the Æquator, are very opposite to each other,


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the Medium between them is the happy Portion of Georgia; which therefore must be productive of most of the valuable Commodities in the Vegetable World.

CHAP. VI.

        Observations on the Commerce, Navigation, and Plantations of Great Britain, compared with those of some of her Neighbours.

        WHOEVER would be fully informed concerning the Figure which England has made in all Ages, in Martime Affairs, may find abundance of curious Matter in Selden's Mare Clausum, and from his Time to ours may learn Facts from the Gazettes, or read a faithful Transcript of both in Burchet's Naval History. I shall take notice of Two remarkable Periods of our antient Maritime Story, because some useful Observations may be made in comparing them, both with other Nations, and with ourselves in our present Situation.

        WE are told that Edgar, King of this Island, had Four Thousand Ships, by the Terrour of which he subdued Norway, Denmark, all the Islands of the Ocean,


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and the greatest Part of Ireland. These Instances of his Power are specified in a* Record cited by that great Lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, in the Preface to his Fourth Report.

* Altitonatis Dei largiflua Clementia, qui est Rex Regum & Dominus ominantium, ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus, omniumque Insularum Oceani quæ Britanniam circumjacent, cunctarumque Nationum quæ infra eum includuntur. Imperator & Dominus, gratias ego ipsi Deo omnipotenti Regi meo, qui meum imperium fic ampliavit & exaltavit super Regnum patrum meorum qui licet Monarchiam totius Angliæ adepti sunt a tempore Athelstani qui primus regum Anglorum omnes Nationes quæ Britanniam incolunt sibi armis subegit, nullus tamen eorum ultra fines imperium suum dilatare agressus est, mihi tamen concessit propitia Divinitas cum Anglorum Imperio, omnia Regna Insularum Oceani cum suis ferocissimis Regibus usque Norvegiam, maximamque partem Hiberniæ cum sua noblissima civitate de Dublina Anglorum regno Subjugare. Pref. to 4th Co. See also Rapins History of England, in the Life of Edgar.


This Monarch made a Naval Progress yearly round this Island, and once took it in his Head to cause eight conquer'd Kings to row his Barge on the River Dee. But it seems that some of his Successors have had such pacifick Ministers, as either neglected to keep our Fleets in repair, or were afraid to make use of them: For, at several Periods of Time, since the Days of King Edgar, we find that this Kingdom has been miserably insulted on the Seas, and even successfully invaded by other Nations.


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        THE British Neptune slept, or slumbered, most Part of the Time, from the Reign of King Edgar to that of Queen Elizabeth: In her Days he sprung up with Vigour, being rous'd by Spain, which was then the greatest maritime Power on Earth. From Queen Elizabeth to our Time, our naval Strength has gradually encreased, insomuch that at this Day, the Spanish Fleets opposed to ours, would make a very contemptible Figure on the Ocean: We now have it in our Power to Lord it over the watry World. It may be worth our Enquiry to know how these Fluctuations have happened in the Dominion of the Seas? And in the Issue, that Enquiry will be found pertinent to the Project now on Foot for planting a new Colony in Georgia.

        THE Tasks and Course of Life of Sea-faring Men are not to be learned in an Instant; their Employment is a laborious Trade: To be acquired only by Application and Industry. Money will buy all naval Stores except Mariners, but unless a Succession of them be preserv'd, no Wealth will be able to purchase them. The surest, the cheapest, I may justly call it, the only profitable Method of supporting such a Succession, is to have perpetual Occasion for a Multitude of Seamen in a Course of Trade. 'Tis indeed probable that Edgar's amazing Power at


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Sea was, for the most Part, owing to his own great Genius, attended with indefatigable Industry in training up, and Year by Year augmenting the Number of his Mariners; for in those Days, England had no great Share of foreign Traffick, People generally contenting themselves with the Produce of their native Country. This great Prince must therefore have grieviously oppress'd his Vassals to enable him to keep up so great an Armament; and 'tis no Wonder that it dwindled in succeeding Reigns because it had not that solid Aliment, Trade, to nourish it.

        THE Spanish Successes in America caus'd their Shipping to encrease beyond all their Neighbours; they had Occasion in their Beginnings there, for great Numbers of Transports, to carry not only Men, but also Horses and other Cattle, and Stores, to their new Conquests Add to which, that Sicily and a great Part of Italy belonged to them at that Time. The Communication with these Places last mentioned, was by Sea, so that they had a considerable Part in the Encrease of the Spanish naval Power. In this flourishing Condition they continued for a great Part of the long Reigns of their Philip the 2d, and of our Elizabeth. She had not a Fleet able to give their Armada Battle: Her Ships indeed were light and nimble,


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the Spanish, tho' larger and more numerous, were unwieldy; therefore the lighter Vessels being in no Danger of a Chace, fought, or stood off, as they saw Occasion. But this Advantage would not have been sufficient, if Providence had not interposed a Tempest, for the Protection of England.

        THE Queen knew to what Causes she ow'd her Danger and her Deliverance, and became more attentive than ever to plant Colonies in America. Death prevented her from executing her great Designs; but some of her best and wisest Subjects, and boldest Seamen, had enter'd so deeply into the Plan, and laid it so nearly to their Hearts, that what she had intended in the Settlement of Virginia was in a good Measure effected in the Reign of King James the 1st, tho' the Undertaking was a great* Difficulty upon his timerous Councils, because the Spaniards, of whom he stood in servile Awe, did not approve of it. But his Shame, with much Debate, barely got the better of his Fears, and that Mine of Treasure was opened to Great Britain.

* See a short Collection of the most remarkable Passages from the Original to the Dissolution of the Virginia Company.

        THIS, with what else has since been executed in favour of England, both on


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the Continent, and in the Islands of that new World, has added such a Weight of maritime Force to the natural Strength which we owe to our Situation, that we are able to give Law to the Ocean. Spain, indeed, has greater Countries and more Subjects in America than we have, and yet does not navigate in that Trade a Tenth Part of the Shipping that we do. By a lucky Kind of Poverty our Dominions there have no Mines of Gold, or Silver: We must be, and ought to be contented to deal in Rum, Sugar, Rice, Tobacco, Horses, Beef, Corn, Fish, Lumber, and other Commodities that require great Stowage; the Carriage of these employs Millions of Tuns of Shiping. The Value of Five Thousand Pounds in these Wares loads a Vessel, which in the Spanish Trade would be freighted Homeward with Half a Million of Pounds Sterling. Thus has the Almighty placed the true Riches of this Earth on the Surface of it; our Rice and Tobacco are more real and permanent Wealth than their richest Minerals. They are Wealth which create a Power to defend our Possession of them: And without a sufficient Force to defend it, the Possession of all Wealth is precarious. Should not Great Britain therefore be attentive to the new Settlement of Georgia? What an Addition will it


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quickly make to the Tunnage of our Shipping? And what a seasonable Support will it prove to our Island Colonies, who stand in need of so near a Neighbourhood of their Brethren.

        THE Dutch were esteemed all the last Century the only Match for England on the Seas; but as a great Part of their Strength was meerly Artificial, it subsides like the Vivacity of a Wretch who has raised his Spirits with a Dose of Opium. Commerce and that Wealth and Power which attend it may be either absolutely in the Power of a State, or Empire, consider'd in and by itself, without Regard to it's Neighbours, which I call natural Wealth, Power and Commerce; or they may depend upon Treaties with other States, or be owing to their Connivance, which pro tempore amount to a tacit Agreement; these latter Species I call Technical Wealth, &c. Such was the Fishery of the Dutch, which they enjoyed by the Inactivity of some of our English Kings: And this must decline of Course, because of our superiour Treasures of this Kind on the Banks of Newfoundland. Another Branch of their artificial Strength was, that by the Indolence of all Nations they were for a Time the Carriers of the Universe: But the World is grown wiser, other Nations


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begin to work for themselves, and the Netherlands will sadly find that this temporary Fund of Strength must also fail them. Their only natural foreign Wealth and Strength is their East-India Trade; Part of this is truly their own, because the Land that produces Spices is in their Possession: But when the two former Branches shall be cut off, they will find that Possession every Day more and more precarious.

        THUS The British Empire has a natural Wealth in itself and in its dependent Members; but it has also for many Years past enjoy'd an adventitious, or artificial Traffick. We have been employ'd by all the World in the Woollen Manufacture, but other Nations have begun of late to cloath themselves and their Neighbours too. 'Tis a fond Fancy in us to imagine that there are no fleecy Sheep in the World but our own, or that the Rest of Mankind will not learn the Mystery of Working in Wooll. We feel this Trade decreasing Daily, and yet there are those among us who wou'd argue against Demonstration. But when they hope, by any Laws of Great Britain to hinder foreign Nations from falling into the Woollen-Manufacture, they may as well sollicit an Act of Parliament to prevent their Grass to grow, and to


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intercept their Sun-shine. I will consider one Objection before I leave this Point, because some imagine that we are secure in this Trade, against the Endeavours of all Foreigners; say they, we make better Goods than can be made with any foreign Wool, unless it be mixed with ours. Be it so. But then, does our great Wealth and Income by that Trade consist only in our finest Goods? Do not our Merchants complain that Ireland under-sells us in coarse goods at Lisbon; that because their Wares are coarse, they can be afforded cheap, therefore they have a ready Market, while ours that are finer, but dearer, may rot in the Ware-house? What says our Russia-Company? Has not Prussia supplanted us in the Cloathing of the Muscovite Army? Who is ignorant of the Extensiveness of the Undertaking at Abbeville in Picardy? We are sending some armed Sloops to check the Irish, but who will restrain the French and Germans? The Multitude don't much value the Fineness of their Garments, they only desire to be warm; 'tis the Cloathing of the Millions that produces Millions of Money; and this is what other Countries will certainly have their Share in.

        IS not this a Time to cast our Eyes upon our natural Wealth, and to augment


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it is fast as possible? If Muscovy supplies its own woollen Goods, or is supplied by any other Foreigner, it ought to make us resolve to bring our Naval Stores from North America; if Spain and Italy refuse our Drapery, we may reject their Silk, their Raisins, Oyl, Wine, Olives, and Divers other Merchandizes, and be supplied from Carolina and Georgia. I have been credibly informed that a Gentleman, now living in this Kingdom, was the first Person who made Pitch in America, about Thirty Years ago; the People whom he conversed with then, look'd on his Experiment as a Chimæra, but it has prov'd so real as to reduce that Commodity, I think, four Fifths in its Value: So that we now buy for Twenty Pounds what was formerly worth a Hundred Pound.

        FRANCE has not the same Advantage as Great Britain in its Situation, for maritime Affairs: That Country is extended wide within Land, and has not the Benefit of being penetrated by many deep Creeks, or navigable Rivers; on Half its Borders 'tis bounded with the Continent; and the good Harbours of France are but few, compared with the Numbers of ours. These Reasons of our Superiority over them in maritime Affairs in General, served to prevent their


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encreasing in North-America as fast as we did, and there is another special Reason, viz. We have had the Navigation of North-America in us by the large Traffick of our early Settlements, and even of the French Sugar-Colonies, which we supply with Lumber, Horses and Provisions. We have five Souls on the Continent for one of theirs; their principal Settlement is in a Climate too cold and not very fruitful: And yet they contrive all imaginable Methods of augmenting their Numbers. They intermarry with the Natives and convert them; and the French King supplies Two Thousand Persons Yearly with Money to enable them to go thither, without being afraid that he shall drain his Country of People.

        'TIS easy to demonstrate that we can afford to send People Abroad better than France and Spain. They have in each of those Kingdoms more than One Hundred Thousand Cloyster'd Females, not permitted to propagate their Species, and the Number of Males in a State of Celibacy is still abundantly greater as it comprehends their Secular and Regular Clergy, and a considerable Part of their great Armies who resolve against Marriage, because of the uncomfortable Prospects they have, with regard to their Progeny. It may be said indeed, that these don't marry, yet


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many of them get Children: But it must be admitted that the usual Fate of that Kind of Propagation is to be destroyed secretly, either before, or after the Birth; and the Former of these Crimes frequently procures Barrenness in the Woman. I have entered into the Consideration of the Loss by the Celibacy of their Males, that no Body may imagine the Computation of their Deficiencies should be made upon their cloyster'd Females only.

        AND yet let us take a short View of their Losses upon that Calculation, allowing a Monk, or a Priest, for an Husband to each immur'd Woman. The most exact Rules in this Kind of Arithmetick are as follows,

        1st. The People who go on in an ordinary Course of Propagation and Mortality, and are not visited with some extraordinary destructive Calamity, grow double in their Number in One Hundred Tears.

        2d, Thirty Three Years, are a sufficient Allowance for a Generation, or Three Generations to an Hundred Years. Now,

        Since the Reformation, near Two Hundred Years are elapsed, at which Time Celibacy was abolish'd in England.

        Therefore, in that Time France has lost more than Five Generations, Principal of its Inhabitants, at the Rate of


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Two Hundred Thousand in each Generation, besides the accumulated Numbers of Cent per Cent, for each Hundred Years, which Loss must be reckon'd upon the Second Century as Interest upon Interest; so that the Two Hundred Thousand individual Persons who were under the Vow in France, an Hundred and Eighty Years ago will Twenty Years hence be a Negative upon their Numbers to the Value of Eight Hundred Thousand People.

        They who understand a little Arithmetick, may divert themselves by computing the Amount of all the Parts of this Loss of People in the Five Generations: To those who do not relish Numbers, I fear, I have here and elsewhere been too tedious.

        MY aim in this Chapter is to rectify the Notions of some of my Countrymen, upon an Affair so important as our Commerce; to point out the Differences between a natural and an artificial Trade; to instance them in our Neighbours compared with ourselves; to shew the Industry of the French to rival us in America, in spite of their Geography and their Religion; and to inculcate that our Strength depends on our Shipping, and our Shipping on our wide extended Colonies, which have neither Gold nor Silver, and for that very Reason, confirm us the more Powerfully in the Dominion of the Seas.


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        IF what has been offer'd to the Publick in the foregoing Sheets meets a favourable Reception, the Author will add some farther Observations hereafter on the same Subject. At present he only wishes that any Thing here laid down, whether Fact or Observation, may be of use to Great Britain.