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[To the Board of Trade,]

As your Lordships informed us, that you had Proposals before you from persons of Credit, they desired to be admitted to take up large Tracts of land in South Carolina, which they were willing to pay the usual Quit Rents for from the date of the Grants, upon which your Lordships desired us to consider of that affair, and give your Lordships our answer, whether or no we were willing to take up the Lands according to the proposall in our Petition, and to pay the usuall Quit Rents for them from the date of our Grant. In answer to this we humbly conceive, that no person whatsoever, that is a Judge of the charge attending so large a settlement as we have proposed, can do it without being great sufferers by it; to explain ourselves the more fully to your Lordships we beg leave to lay a state of the case before you, to shew your Lordships what the necessary expence attending such a settlement must be, if properly executed, which is as follows.

The whole charge of forming the settlement, as appears by the above Account, amounts to £62100 and as a settlement of this nature cannot well be finished in less than Ten years, the undertakers can propose no service to themselves during that time therefore it would be laying them under insurmountable difficultys to make them subject to pay four shillings proclimation money per 100 Acres during that terme, which would amount to £1800 sterling per annum; and thō the Settlers, who are generally poor people, are obliged to be answerable for these advances to the Undertakers, yet as the whole depends on their success, it must be allowed to be very precarious.

The lands petitioned for, is at a great distance from any settlement, and will greatly improve those lands that lye near the present Inhabitants which will make others desireous to take them up, after a proper Barrier is formed, and it is pretty evident to us, that they will be greater gainers, in paying the Quit Rents immediately on smaller tracts within our Settlement (if we are admitted to take up the lands we have petitioned for) than we who are the first undertakers, are in having an exemption from Quit Rents for 10 years, for all who have been acquainted

with settlements of this nature do agree, that the expence is more than double, to such as undertake them at first to what it is to others that come after, for after a proper Barrier is formed, those who may have Grants of Lands under the first settlers, can easily engage such as come thereof themselves, to settle and cultivate them; therefore the advantage that the Crown will receive from the increase of the Quit Rents in the encouragement of Frontier Settlements, we hope will appear in a very full light to your Lordships, particularly in our case, where there are not less than eight millions of Acres of Lands to be taken up, between the place where we have desired the liberty of taking up our lands, and the present settlement, most of which we are of Opinion, the Crown will dispose of on much better termes, and much sooner, than if there was no settlement formed there.

We beg leave also to observe to your Lordships, that North Carolina hitherto has been very inconsiderable in trade, their exports not amounting to £8000 sterling per annum; when at the same time, the export of South Carolina is above £116000 sterling yearly, which we apprehend is only owing to their want of having industrious Settlers amongst them.

As to the Petition for Lands in South Carolina, that lyes at present before your Lordships, we are not fully acquainted with the nature of the proposall, so we cannot properly say whether that, or ours, is the most advantageous, but if it should prove to be what some time agoe we was informed Two or three Gentlemen intended to apply for, it is pretty easie to be accounted for, how the undertakers may with great advantage pay the Quit Rents from the Date of their Grants, the Proposal that we had notice of, that we intended to be laid before your Lordships, was for a Tract of 12000 Acres of land upon Winyaw River and another Tract of 12000 Acres on the River May.

Winyaw lies at a distance of about 85 miles from Charles Town South Carolina and that River is the entrance of Pedee Wackamorn, and Black Rivers, there is at present settled at Winyaw, about 2500 people besides severall ships with passengers that are gone this summer to Charles Town South Carolina, where there are settlements run out for them at the head of that River, almost joyning to the Line which is run between South and North Carolina which is not above 50 or 60 miles up from Winyaw the number gone is as follows.

In the William and Mary of Liverpool from Belfast 350 Passengers and in the Oliver Capt Walker belonging of Messrs Hopes of Rotterdam 360 Palatines & another small ship called the Catherine, with about 176 Passengers all which are to be settled under the line that divides South and North Carolina, upon Winyaw River besides which there was a township

run out above Two years agoe for a considerable number of poor protestants that came into South Carolina, and are since fixed there.

What we want to prove to your Lordships is that the lands to be granted out upon Winyaw River are a great way within the settlements, and that they have also a proper navigation which makes the other proposall, if it is what we imagine it to be, very different from ours, and it is also to be remarked that those settlements upon Winyaw lye a great way within the Tract of Lands that we have petitioned for upon the head of Pedee River.

We are now to beg leave to lay before your Lordships an account of the Situation and settlements on the River May; that River lyes about 120 miles from Charles Town, and about 20 miles from Port Royall which is the finest Harbour in that Province, the lands upon the River May are mostly taken up there are large tracts in the possession of Peter Colleton Esqre, Robert Wright Esqre, Captain Anson, Captain Gascoyne, Mr Walters, Mr Murfey, Mr Thorpe, Mr Hunter and many others who have large possessions there, besides a great number of poor People, who have small tracts of lands there, and have long settled them (but as we are informed cannot shew a regular Title) the lands in general have been very valuable upon that River, which upon the whole we humbly conceive will make it appear to your Lordships that the situation of the place is such as will render it of great advantage to the undertakers to pay the Quit Rents from the date of the Grant; the River May does not go above 30 or 40 miles into the Country, is mostly run out, and lyes a great way within the settlements of Purisburg and Georgia. We are fully able to prove what we have here asserted if your Lordships are pleased to order us so to do and if your Lordships think it expedient to give grants of this nature, there is a Gentleman at present here who came lately from South Carolina (from whom we had a great part of this Information) who is willing to take up Two Tracts of land of 12000 Acres each upon Winyaw and the River May and to settle them, and as a security for his so doing, is willing to advance the Quit Rents of four shillings Proclimation Money per 100 Acres for 10 years, which will amount to about £360 sterling and to pay the same immediately upon passing the Grants into his Majesty's Treasury here.

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