AMERICAN Colonial X racts MONTHLY Number One May 1897 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DESIGNED ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW COLONY TO THE SOUTH OF CAROLINA, IN THE MOST DELIGHT- FUL COUNTRY OF THE UNIVERSE, BY SIR ROBERT MOUNTGOMRY, BARONET, LONDON, 1717. % Price 2^ Cents ^3,00 a Year Published by GEORGE P HUMPHREY ROCHESTER BOSTOTT COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. C OLONIAL TRACTS, issued monthly, is designed to offer in convenient form and at a reasonable price some of the more valuable pamphlets relating to the early history of America which have hitherto been inaccessible to the general public, although of so much importance to the historical student. Single numbers at 25 cents each, or $3.00 by the year, in advance, may be ordered through any bookseller ; or send direct to the publisher, George P. Humphrey, 25 Exchange Street, Rochester, N. Y. The num- ber for June will contain “A Brief Account of the Establish- ment of the Colony of Georgia, under General James Oglethorpe, February ist, 1733.” Entered at the Rochester Post OfiBce as Second-Class Matter. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DESIGN’D ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW COLONY TO THE SOUTH OF CAROLINA The Most Delightful Country of the Universe. By Sir ROBERT MOUNTGOMRY, Baronet. LONDON : Printed in the Year 1717. No I May 1897 COLONIAL TRACTS Published by George P HUMPHREY ROCHESTER N Y 22884 VOL. COLONIAL TRACTS NO I A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DESIGN’D ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW COLONY TO THE SOUTH OF CAROLINA, IN THE MOST DELIGHTFUL COUNTRY OF THE UNIVERSE By SIR ROBERT MONTGOMRY Baronet T T will perhaps afford some satisfaction to the gentlemen of ^ Carolina to know that my design arises not from any sudden motive, but a strong bent of genius I inherit from my ancestors, one of whom was among those knights of Nova Scotia purposely created near a hundred years ago for settling a Scots’ colony in America ; but the conquest of that country by the French prevented his design, and so it lies on his posterity to make good his intentions for the service of their country. The humor, however, descended, and ran down with the blood ; for my father was so far of this opinion, that together with Lord Cardross, the late earl of Buchan, and some other gentlemen, he entered into measures for establishing a settle- ment on Port Royal river, in South Carolina, and Lord Cardross went thither in person ; but the Spaniards dislodged them and destroyed the plantation, advantage being taken of some confusions which arose through the want of full powers and distinct jurisdiction. The charming descriptions, which on this last occasion I met with, of the natural sweetness and beauties of Carolina, inspired me with an early affection to that place, in particular. But the wars intervening and calling for my sword in the more immediate service of my country, gave me no opportunity to put in practice certain schemes which occurred, effectually forming a settlement there till just now, when, together with 4 some of my friends, who unite their endeavors with mine, I am like, by continuance of the Indian disturbances, to enjoy my own wish with the additional pleasure of being useful to the province. Though our design does not altogether depend on the sub- scription of purchasers, herein proposed, yet our own stock so increased will be made more effectual, and we shall give at the same time an opportunity to many of sharing in our benefits, who could not be otherwise concerned in the undertaking. If, therefore, the offer which we make shall meet with encouragement, it will, by dividing our burthen, somewhat lighten it ; if it fails, it will no further disappoint us than as it leaves us to do that alone which might better be done with the expected assistance. R. MOUNTGOMRY. OF THE MOTIVES AND FOUNDATION OF THE UNDERTAKING. PLANTATIONS of new countries, says the great Lord Bacon, * are among the primitive and most heroic works of man. They are meritorious in a double sense — religiously, as they illuminate the souls of heathens through the darkness of their ignorance ; and politically, as they strengthen the dominion which sends out the colony, and wonderfully more than any other means enrich the undertakers. But as such attempts are great, so also are they dangerous. One early caution easily secures their future benefits ; one little error in foundation overthrows the building. It is to a defect in setting out that all our noble colonies upon the Western Continent have owed their disappointments ; to a want of due precaution in their forms of settling, or rather, to their settling without any form at all. The planters grasped at an undue extent of land, exceeding their capacity to manage or defend. This scattered them to distances unsafe and solitary, so that living in a wilderness, incapable of mutual aid, the necessary artisans found no encouragement to dwell among them ; their woods remained uncleared, their fens undrained ; the air by that means proved unhealthy, and the roads impassable. For want of towns and places of defence, they suddenly became a prey to all invaders, even the unformidable Indians took advan- 5 tage of the oversight, and Carolina is, at present, groaning under a most bloody persecution from a wild and despicable kind of enemy who had not dared to think of the attempt, but from an observation daily made, how open and unguarded they might take the English. From these examples and the neighborhood of the intended settlement to Carolina thus distressed, our future Eden, made « early wise by dangers, which she feels not, would not only fix her foot upon a firm foundation so as to resist a storm herself, but she would also spread her wings to a capacity of shadowing others. A British colony should, like the Roman, carry with it always something of the mother’s glory. Excited, therefore, by an earnest inclination to establish such a settlement as may, by new means, yield new benefits as well in wealth as safety, and resolving to proceed upon a scheme entirely different from any hitherto attempted, and which appears to promise great and inexpressible advantages, the grant on which we found the undertaking, will be seen in the following abstract : “ '^HE underwritten palatine and lords proprietors of the ^ “ province of Carolina, do, on the considerations herein- “ after mentioned, grant, sell, alien, release, and confirm to “ Sir Robert Mountgomry, Baronet, his heirs and assigns for- “ ever, all that tract of land which lies between the rivers “ Allatamaha and Savanna, together with the islands, ports, “ harbors, bays, and rivers on that part of the coast which lies “ between the mouths of the said two rivers to the seaward ; “ and moreover all veins, mines, and quarries of gold and silver, “ and all other whatever, be they of stones, metals, or any “ other things found, or to be found, within that tract of land, “ and the limits aforesaid ; with liberty over and above to “ make settlements on the south side of Allatamaha river, which “ tract of land the said underwritten lords do erect into a distinct “ province, with proper jurisdictions, privileges, prerogatives, “and franchises, independent of, and not subject to the laws “ of South Carolina, to be holden of the said lords by Sir Robert, “ his heirs and assigns forever, under the name and title of the “ Margravate of Azilia ; at and under the yearly quitrent of “ one penny sterling per acre, or its value in goods or merchan- 6 “ dise, as the land shall be occupied, taken up, or run out; “ payable yearly to the lords proprietors’ olficers at Charles- “ Town, but such payment not to commence till three years “ after arrival of the first ships there, which shall be sent over “ to begin the settlement ; over and above which penny per “ acre Sir Robert, his heirs and assigns shall also yield and pay “ to the lords proprietors one fourth part of all gold or silver “ ore besides the quota reserved to the crown out of the said “ royal minerals ; distinct courts of judicature to be erected “ and such laws enacted within the Margravate by and with “ the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen thereof in “ publick assembly as shall be most conducive to the utility of “ the said Margravate, and as near as may be conveniently “ agreeable to the laws and customs of England, but so as such “ laws do not extend to lay duties or custom or other obstruc- “ tion upon the navigation of either of the said rivers by any “ inhabitant of South or North Carolina or their free commerce “ and trade with the Indian nations, either within or to the “ southward of the Margravate, Sir Robert consenting that the “ same duty shall be charged on skins within the Margravate “ which at this time stands charged on such skins in South “ Carolina and appropriated to the maintenance of the clergy “ there, so long as that duty is continued in South Carolina, “ but the said duty shall not be increased in Azilia, tho’ the “ assembly of South Carolina should think fit to increase it “ there, nor shall it longer continue to be paid than while it “ shall remain appropriated, as at present, to the maintenance “of the clergy only. In consideration of all which powers, “ rights, privileges, prerogatives, and franchises. Sir Robert “ shall transport, at his own expense, a considerable number “ of families with all necessaries for making a new settlement “ in the said tract of land, and in case it be neglected for the “ space of three years from the date of this grant, the then “ grant shall become void, anything herein contained to the “ contrary notwithstanding. Dated June the nineteenth, 1717. “ Cartaret, Palatine, “ Ja. Bertie, for the “ Duke of Beaufort, “ M. Ashley, “ John Colleton, &c.“ V A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. TT lies about the 31st and $2d degree of northern latitude, is ^ bounded eastward by the great Atlantic sea, to the west by a part of the Apalachian mountains, and to the north and south by the two great rivers mentioned in the grant. In the maps of North America it may be taken notice of how well this country lies for trade with all our colonies, and in regard to every other prospect which can make a situation healthy, profitable, lovely, and inviting ; Florida, of which it is a part, received that name from its delightful florid and agreeable appearance. It has been commonly observed that gay descriptions of new countries raise a doubt of their sincerity. Men are apt to think the picture drawn beyond the life, to serve the interest of the representer. To shun the prejudice of this opinion, whatever shall be said upon the subject here is all extracted from our English writers, who are very numerous, and universally agree that Carolina, and especially in its southern bounds, is the most amiable country of the universe ; that nature has not blessed the world with any tract which can be preferable to it, that paradise with all her virgin beauties, may be modestly supposed at most but equal to its native excellencies. It lies in the same latitude with Palestine herself, that promised Canaan which was pointed out by God’s own choice to bless the labors of a favorite people. It abounds with rivers, woods, and meadows. Its gentle hills are full of mines, lead, copper, iron, and even some of silver ; ’tis beautiful with odor- iferous plants, green all the year. Pine, cedar, cypress, oak, elm, ash, or walnut, with innumerable other sorts, both fruit or timber trees grow every where so pleasantly that tho’ they meet at top and shade the traveler, they are at the same time so distant in their bodies and so free from underwood or bushes that the deer and other game which feed in droves along these forests, may be often seen near half a mile between them. The air is healthy and the soil in general fruitful and of infinite variety ; vines, naturally flourishing upon the hills, bear grapes in most luxurient plenty. They have every growth which we possess in England and almost every thing that 8 England wants besides. The orange and the limon thrive in the same common orchard with the apple and the pear tree, plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines, bear from stones in three years growing. The planters raise large orchards of these fruits to feed their hogs with ; wheat ears have been measured there seven inches long, and they have barley, beans, pease, rice, and all our grains, roots, herbs, and flowers, not to speak of numbers of their own, which we can find no names for ; beef, mutton, pork, tame poultry, wild fowl, sea and river fish, are all there plentiful, and most at lower rates than in the cheapest parts of Wales or Scotland. The many lakes and pretty rivulets throughout the province breed a multitude of geese and other water fowl ; the air is found so temperate and the seasons of the year so very regular that there is no excess of heat or cold, nor any sudden alter- ations in the weather ; the river banks are covered with a strange variety of lovely trees, which being always green, present a thousand landskips to the eye, so fine and so diver- sified that the sight is entirely charmed with them ; the ground lies sloping towards the rivers, but at a distance rises gradually and intermingles like hills of wood with fruitful plains all covered over with wild flowers and not a tree to interrupt the prospect. Nor is this tempting country yet inhabited, except those parts in the possession of the English, unless by here and there a tribe of wandering Indians, wild and ignorant, all artless and uncultivated as the soil which fosters them. OF THE FORM PROPOSED IN SETTLING. /^UR meaning here relates to what immediate measures will be taken for security against the insults of the natives during the infancy of our affairs ; to which end we shall not satisfy ourselves with building here and there a fort, the fatal practice oT America, but so dispose the habitations and divis- ions of the land that not alone our houses, but whatever we possess, will be enclosed by military lines impregnable against the savages and which will make our whole plantation one continued fortress. It need not be supposed that all the lands will thus be forti- 9 fled at once ; the first lines drawn will be in just proportion to the number of men they enclose ; as the inhabitants increase new lines will be made to enclose them also, so that all the people will be always safe within a well defended lime of circumvallation. The reader will allow it is not necessary that these retrench- ments be of bulk like those of Europe ; small defence is strong against the poor unskilful natives of America ; they have accom- plished all their bloody mischiefs by surprises and incursions, but durst never think of a defiance to artillery. The massacres and frequent ruins which have fallen upon some English settlements for want of this one caution, have sufficiently instructed us that strength, producing safety, is the point which should be chiefly weighed in such attempts as these. Solon had reason when he said to Croesus, looking on his treasure, “ You are rich indeed, and so far you are mighty ; but if any man should come with sharper steel than yours, how easily will he be made the master of your gold ?” At the arrival therefore of the first men carried over, proper officers shall mark and cause to be entrenched a square of land, in just proportion to their number ; on the outsides of this square, within the little bastions or redoubts of the entrench- ment, they raise light timber dwellings, cutting down the trees which ever)^where encompass them. The officers are quartered with the men whom they command, and the governor in chief is placed exactly in the center. By these means the laboring people (being so disposed, as to be always watchful of an enemies’ approach ) are themselves within the eye of those set over them, and all together under the inspection of their principal. The redoubts may be near enough to defend each other with muskets, but field pieces and patareros will be planted upon each, kept charged with cartridge shot and pieces of old iron ; within these redoubts are the common dwellings of the men who must defend them ; between them runs a palisadoed bank and a ditch which will be scoured by the artillery. One man in each redoubt kept night and day upon the guard, will give alarm upon occasion to the others at their work. So they cultivate their lands, secure their cattle, and follow their busi- ness with great ease and safety. Exactly in the center of the 10 inmost square will be a fort, defended by large cannon, pointing every way and capable of making strong resistance in case some quarter of the outward lines should chance to be surprised by any sudden accident which yet with tolerable care would be impracticable. The nature of this scheme, when weighed against the igno- rance and wildness of the natives, will show that men thus settled, may at once defend and cultivate a territory with the utmost satisfaction and security, even in the heart of an Indian country, then how much rather in a place considerably distant from the savage settlements. As the numbers shall encrease and they go on to clear more space of land, they are to regulate their settlements with like regard to safety and improvement, and, indeed, the difference as to time and labor is not near so great as may be thought betwixt enclosing land this way and following the dangerous common method ; but what is here already said will serve the end for which it has been written, which was only to give a general notion of the care and caution we propose to act with. It will not, however, be amiss, as you have seen the first rude form of our Azilia in her infancy, to view her also in the fulness of her beauty ; and to that end we have alfixed a plan of one whole district, cleared, planted, and inhabited ; for as the country thrives all future townships will be formed accord- ing to this plan and measured out as near each other as the rivers, hills, and other natural impediments will any way admit of. But lest it should be feared from the correctness of this model that ’twill be a work of too great difficulty and require a mighty length of time to bring it to perfection, we think it proper to declare that purchasers will not be obliged to wait this form of settlement, but are entitled to the immediate profits of pecul- iar lands assigned them from the very first arrival of the colony ; which lands, being set apart for that purpose, will be strongly enclosed and defended by the lines, or entrenchments before mentioned. Neither would we have it thought a labor so tedious as ’tis generally fancied to establish in this manner a colony which may become not only an advantage, but a glory to the nation. We have prospects before us most attractive and unprecedented ’"•Ill, ^ |•|lM>■r•M>l(> tltMfi MMI'I' '•*>>lfl ,„llltll»l*fl.,„ j, mi Ml If • ’ ,,j,iM"nu,i„ jl,l,tlfM'i|„ ‘ I J 5 f^sLUii^ isM t jjiiiil _,,IH»*I»IH|. ,,I(I<-M«M||, ,(|MI»»'« Wfli if»r*'"'lii, Nmmoiuu m-r'-< uiSS§ uuumiiiLiujir llllHI‘"**'U| r aW/V/a">:S A-A^SA-M I ! ! : ; . ■ ■; ' • :I4- .• .• :A:mTATA^^ ) i Hp''-'/'/'/^ \Vv\ ■ ';^r "Hi i : 11 in the three tempting points, wealth, safety, and liberty. Bene- fits like these can never fail of drawing numbers of inhabitants from every corner ; and men once get together ’tis as easy to dispose them regularly and with due regard to order, beauty, and the comforts of society as to leave them to the folly of fixing at random and destroying their interest by indulging their humor ; so that we have more than ordinary cause to expect that in a very short time we shall be able to present the solid life itself, as now we give the shadow only in the following explanation. You must suppose a level, dry, and fruitful tract of land in some fine plain or valley, containing a just square of twenty miles each way, or two hundred and fifty-six thousand acres, laid out and settled in the form presented in the cut annexed. The district is defended by sufficient numbers of men, who, dwelling in the fortified angles of the line will be employed in cultivating lands which are kept in hand for the particular advantage of the Margrave : these lands surround the district just within the lines, and every where contain in breadth one mile exactly. The men thus employed are such as shall be hired in Great Britain or Ireland, well disciplined, armed, and carried over on condition to serve faithfully for such a term of years as they before shall agree to ; and that no man may be wretched in so happy a country at the expiration of those peoples’ time, besides some other considerable and unusual incouragements, all such among them who shall marry in the country or come married thither, shall have a right of laying claim to a certain fee-farm, or quantity of land ready cleared, together with a house built upon it and a stock sufficient to improve and culti- vate it, which they shall enjoy, rent and tax free during life, as a reward for their services, by which means two very great advantages must naturally follow ; poor laboring men so secured of a fixed future settlement, will be thereby induced to go thither more willingly, and act when there with double diligence and duty, and when their time expires possessing just land enough to pass their lives at ease and bring their children up honestly, the families they leave will prove a con- stant seminary of sober servants of both sexes, for the gentry of the colony, whereby they will be under no necessity to use t 12 the dangerous help of Blackamoors or Indians. The lands set apart for this purpose are two miles in breadth, quite round the district, and lie next within the Margrave’s own reserved lands above-mentioned. The 1 16 squares, each of which has a house in the middle, are every one a mile on each side, or 640 acres in a square, bating only for the highways which divide them. These are the estates belonging to the gentry of the district, who, being so confined to an equality in land, will be profitably emulous of outdoing each other in improvement^* since that is the only way left them to grow richer than their neighbors, and when the Margravate is once become strong enough to form many districts, the estates will be all given gratis, together with many other benefits to honest and qualified gentlemen in Great Britain, or elsewhere, who, having numerous and well-educated families, possess but little fortunes other than their industry, and will therefore be chosen to enjoy these advantages, which they shall pay no rent or other consideration for ; and yet the undertaking will not fail to find its own account in their prosperity. The four great parks, or rather forests, are each four miles square, that is, 16 miles round each forest, in which are prop- agated herds of cattle of all sorts by themselves, not alone to serve the uses of the district they belong to, but to store such new ones as may from time to time be measured out on affluence of people. The middle hollow square, which is full of streets crossing each other, is the city, and the bank which runs about it on the outside surrounded with trees, is a large void space, which * will be useful for a thousand purposes, and among the rest, as being airy and affording a fine prospect of the town in drawing near it. In the center of the city stands the Margrave’s house, which is to be his constant residence, or the residence of the Gover- nor, and contains all sorts of public edifices for despatch of business ; and this again is separated from the city by a space like that, which as above, divides the town from the country. 13 OF SOME DESIGNS IN VIEW FOR MAKING PROFIT. /^UR prospects in this point are more extensive than we think it needful to discover ; it were a shame should we confine the fruitfulness of such a rich and lovely country to some single product which example first makes common, and the being common, robs of benefit. Thus sugar in Barbadoes, rice in Carolina, and tobacco in Virginia, take up all the labors of their people, overstock the markets, stifle the demand, and make their industry their ruin, merely through a want of due reflection on diversely of other products equally adapted to their soil and climate. Coffee, tea, figs, raisins, currants, almonds, olives, silk, wine, cochineal, and great variety of still more rich commodi- ties, which we are forced to buy at mighty rates from countries lying in the very latitude of our plantations. All these we certainly shall propagate, tho’ it may perhaps be said that they are yet but distant views ; meanwhile we shall confine our first endeavors to such easy benefits as will ( without the smallest waiting for the growth of plants ) be offered to our industry from the spontaneous wealth which overruns the country. The reader may assure himself our undertakings upon all occasions will be the plainest and most ready roads to profit, not formed from doubtful and untried conceits nor hampered by a train of difficulties ; none are more apt than we to disregard chimerical or rash designs ; but ’tis the business of men’s judgment to divide things plain from things unlikely. We cannot think it proper to be too particular upon this subject, nor will it, we suppose, be expected from us. One example, however, we will give, because we would present a proof that much is practicable there which has not yet been put in practice ; we shall pitch on potash, a commodity of great consumption in the trades of dying, glass-making, soap- boiling, and some others ; not that this is the only present prospect which we build on, but as ’tis necessary we should particularize one benefit that others may be credible. And here it will not be amiss if we describe what potash is and how they make it, since, ’tis likely, some may have attempted it already in the forests of America, and miscarried, by depending upon ignorant undertakers. 14 It is not very properly indeed called potash, not being any kind of ashes, but the fixed and vegetable salt of ashes, which, if mixed with water, melts away and turns to lye. For this reason, ’tis preferred to all other lixiviate ashes, foreign or domestic, which, not being perfect salts, but ashes of bean- straw and other vegetables, made stronger by the help of lye, bear no proportion as to price, with potash itself, which is, as we said before, the pure salt without any of the ashes. To produce this salt in Russia and the countries famous for it, they burn great quantities of oak, fir, birch, and other woods, cut down when flourishing and full of sap ; the ashes they throw into boilers or huge caldrons full of water, and extract a thick, sharp lye by boiling ; they let this lye grow clear by settling and then draw it off and throw away the ashes left at bottom. This lye, so clarified, they boil again, and as the watery part evaporates apace, they supply the waste thro’ a small pipe from another vessel of the same sort of lye set higher than the boiler ; at last, by a continued evaporation, the whole vessel becomes full of a thick brownish salt, which being dug out in lumps and afterwards calcined, completes the work and gives a color to the potash like a whitish blue, in which condition it is barreled up and fit for merchants. Nothing can be plainer or more easy than this practice in our intended settlement. As to the boilers, which have ever been the great and terrifying expense and encumbrance of this work, we shall extremely lessen and reduce that charge almost to nothing, by some new methods, being an experienced inven- tion, wherein we use neither copper, lead, iron, nor other mineral whatsoever, and (that excepted), there is no material neces- sary, but wood only ; for wood cut down and burnt upon the ground affords the ashes ; the rivers every where abounding in that country furnish water ; ashes and water boiled together yield the lye ; the lye evaporated, leaves behind the salt, and that very salt calcined becomes the potash, and it is packed and sent away in barrels, made and hooped there also. From due consideration of these circumstances, it appears that this must be a rich and gainful undertaking in a country where the greatest quantities of timber and the finest in the world, cost nothing but the pains of cutting down and burning 15 on the banks of navigable rivers, where the enlivening influence of the sun prepares the trees much better for this practice than in colder climates, and where stubbing up the woods which cover all the settlement, will give a sure and double benefit, for first they yield this valuable traffic potash, and afterwards leave clear the ground they grow on for producing yearly crops of such commodities as are most profitable and fittest for the country. Thus, having faintly touched the outward lines and given some prospect of our purpose, we proceed to the conditions upon which we will admit of purchasers. THE PROPOSAL. OTE that for the purchasers’ security and effectually making ^ ^ good their claims as well to the land which they shall buy as to all the other benefits proposed in the following articles, the whole country and its improvements in all times to come, is settled as a mortgage and made liable in manner as here- under recited, in which such unusual^and equitable regard has been had, for avoiding all charge or delay in respect to the distance of countries and the dilficulties which might thence be suspected to arise in obtaining satisfaction by the ordinary course of the laws that nothing of form or expense will be necessary ; but on the first breach of covenant, an easy and immediate possession may be taken of the forfeited province and for ever maintained against all kind of pleas or pretences for the ues of the purchasers. And that perpetual and unob- jectionable testimony may remain for the more absolute securing the rights of the purchasers, the following deed, together with the articles themselves, stands enrolled in the High Court of Chancery. T O All to whom these presents shall come, I, Robert Mount- gomry of Skelmorley, in the Sheridom of Aire in North- Britain Baronet send greeting. Whereas His Excellency the Lord Carteret Palatine, and the rest of the true and absolute lords proprietors of the province of Carolina in America have by their grant, bearing date the nineteenth day of June last, bargained, sold, aliened, released, enfeoffed, and confirmed to 16 me the above-mentioned Sir Robert Mountgomry, my heirs and assigns, all that tract of land in their said province, which lies between the rivers Allatamaha and Savanna, and erected the said tract into a distinct province, with proper and independant jurisdictions, under the name and title of the Margravate of Azilia, to be held of them the lords proprietors of Carolina by me, my heirs and assigns for ever ; and whereas for better carrying on my design of transporting people and making a new settlement in the said Margravate, I have made and caused to be published the proposals hereunto annexed, now therefore for securing the advantages proposed in the said articles to all who shall or may subscribe any sum or sums of money for the pur- chase of lands and profits in the Margravate of Azilia aforesaid, and shall on their parts make good the payments and conditions mentioned in the articles, I the above-named Sir Robert Mount- gomry do, by these presents to be enrolled in the High Court of Chancery, in perpetual proof and testimony of the security hereby designed to be conveyed, engage, bind, mortgage, assign, and firmly make subject the said grant, lands and benefits for making good the uses in the said articles expressed in manner as at large herein under described ; and I do hereby declare and consent, that the instruments signed by my handwriting as recited in the seventh article, shall be deemed and they are by virtue of these presents declared to be a firm and sufficient proof of title to the respective claim therein mentioned to be conveyed by and upon the security by these presents provided ; and I do hereby authorize and appoint David Kennedy, Esq., in my absence to fill up and deliver the said instruments with all effectual authority and irrevocable right of representation which by letter of attorney, or by any other form or means whatever can or might be deputed to him, and I declare myself obliged, as to the sufficiency of the writings delivered by such act of the said David Kennedy, Esq., as firmly as if I had in person filled and delivered the said writings ; and in case that I Sir Robert Mountgomry, or my heirs or assigns, or any claiming right or exercising power by, from, or under me, shall at any time hereafter refuse to submit to the said annexed articles or to any of them, or shall under any unjust pretense whatsoever forbear the cultivation of the purchasers’ lands, or consign the annual products arising therefrom, or any part of the same, to 17 any other person or persons than to the factor or factors, who shall be appointed by the purchasers or to persons approved by them, or shall refuse, or deny admission, residence, or ocular satisfaction on the spot to any agent whom the purchasers may at any time think fit to send over for that purpose ; in any of these cases the purchasers shall, by virtue of these presents ( any form of law, usage, custom, or pretense to the contrary notwithstanding ) have a warrantable and incontrovertable right and authority to procure and obtain present justice to themselves in manner following, that is to say — upon such breach of cove- nant the said purchasers shall, or may meet upon the summons of the party injured, or of any other person interested, and by a majority of the voices present elect a committee of three, which committee shall draw up a state of the case they com- plain of and present it to me, or my heirs or assigns, or to any agent acting for me, or them, or any of them in London or elsewhere, and if within ten days after such presentation they receive not due satisfaction from such person or agent, they shall leave notice in writing at the place of his dwelling or pub- lish in the Ga^^ette, or other authentic news letter, that on some day therein to be named, they design to lay the state of their case before the king’s attorney general and solicitor gen- eral in London for the time being, in order to have their opinion whether the fact they complain of be or be not a breach of any part of the articles hereunto annexed, that so the said per- son or agent may attend if he shall have anything to offer in defense of the matter complained of, and if upon the question the attorney and solicitor general shall join in opinion and give it under their hands that the cause of complaint does plainly appear in their judgments to be a breach of the articles subscribed to, and such person, as above described, or some agent acting for him, shall not forthwith make due satisfaction, such forbearance to do justice in the case, shall, after thirty days next following the date of the said written opinion, become an absolute forfeiture of the grant, and from thenceforth all lands, prerogatives, privileges, powers, and benefits whatso- ever held, claimed, or enjoyed by virtue of the said grant, shall be taken possession of for the sole future use of the body of purchasers, and shall be carried on to their general advantage and according to their orders and direction by any person or 18 persons whom they shall choose by a majority of their voices, and send over to that purpose. And that no possible let or impediment on my part, or the part of my heirs or assigns, may in any sort incommode or prevent the most strict and immediate performance of this covenant, I the said Sir Robert, do hereby renounce for myself and all claiming from me, all pleas, prerog- atives, privileges and pretenses whatsoever, which I, or they may be by the said grant, or by any form, custom, or mode of proceeding at law be possessed of, or entitled to ; and I do con- sent and declare that when the written opinion above mentioned of the attorney and solicitor general in London shall be produced to the lords proprietors of Carolina, and sent over to their depu- ties at Charles Town, and be entered in their journal, it shall stand as a determinate judgment recorded against me, or them, after which no appeal shall be lawful, and possession shall be given immediately, that is to say, no other process shall be needful than twenty days’ notice from the governor and council at Charles Town above mentioned; from which time forever, if full satisfaction be not made within the said twenty days, as well in the matter complained of as by payment of all costs and damages sustained by the complainants, the purchasers shall in right of themselves and by virtue of these presents, possess, occupy, and enjoy all manner of authorities, territories, and advantages of what kind soever arising from the grant above- said, and I the said Sir Robert Mountgomry, my heirs and assigns, shall effectually stand excluded, both in law and in equity to all intents and purposes, as if the said grant had never been made. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this fifteenth day of July, in the third year of the reign of our sovereign Lord George, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c., Annoq. Domini, 1717. R. MOUNTGOMRY. Art. I. The first fifty thousand acres which shall be run out, settled, or planted, shall be always kept as a distinct divis- ion, separate from the rest of the Margravate, and shall all be cleared and improved before any other settlement is made, or suffered in any part of the Margravate, and a right will be sold by virtue of the proposed subscription, to all the profits arising from twenty-five thousand of those acres when the fifty thous- 19 and shall be cleared, and in the mean time to half the yearly- amount of the whole profit which shall be made by the colony, which sale will be made in acres ( more or less at the discretion of the buyer, only nothing less than five acres ) at the rate of forty shillings per acre. And though the whole should not be purchased, yet the books shall, notwithstanding, be shut up forth- with, that so no time will be lost and the then number of purchasers, be they never so few, shall compose the body and enjoy their proportional benefits as fully as if the whole had been completed. Art. II. The land thus bought is not to be cultivated at the charge of the buyer, but the yearly profits of it shall for ever be brought home to the purchasers, their heirs or assigns, in the ships of the Margravate, and paid them in regular dividends. Art. III. The purchase money, that is to say, the forty shillings per acre above mentioned, shall be paid one-half down and the other half not till the first return of the shipping, and after a dividend of profit made among the purchasers by sale of such goods or products as the said ships bring over with them. Art. IV. This first return and the whole yearly produce forever of the first settled fifty thousand acres, or so much thereof as shall at any time be cleared and cultivated, shall always come consigned to the purchasers’ factors for the time being, or their agents, or to persons of their appointment or approbation, and shall be sold by them or by brokers of their choosing, which brokers shall account with them the said factors or their agents for the purchasers’ half the profits and with the agents of Sir Robert Mountgomry, or his assigns, for the other half. Provided always that a preference be given to any buyer named by the said Sir Robert, or his assigns, or his or their agents, on condition however, that such buyer shall give a better price than has before been offered. Art. V. That on the death or surrender of the factors, or upon dislike of their management, it is always to be understood that a majority of the purchasers shall have power to choose new ones in their places. Art. VI. That on closing the book of subscription due notice shall be given, and the purchasers shall meet and choose by a majority of voices ( every twenty acres entitling to a vote ) 20 such person or persons as they think best qualified to act as their factors in the trust above mentioned, and such factor or factors shall, in consideration of their trouble, be allowed over and above their necessary charges in the management, such gratuity as the purchasers think reasonable out of the respective dividends which they from time to time shall pay to the said purchasers. Art. VII. On payment of the first half the purchase money, the purchasers shall severally receive an instrument in form following : This witnesseth, that A. B. did on this day of 1717, subscribe the sum of pounds towards establish- ment of a new colony in the Margravate of Azilia in Carolina, and paid down one-half of the said sum ; in consideration whereof, and of the remaining half to be paid, as by the arti- cles provided, the said A. B. is for himself, his heirs or assigns, admitted as proprietor of acres of land in the said Mar- gravate. The whole rents, products, profits, and advantages of which acres are absolutely vested in the said A. B., his heirs or assigns forever, as they shall arise and accrue yearly, by virtue of a general management, as by the articles provided, at the cost of Sir Robert Mountgomry, or his assigns, without charge or trouble to the said proprietor, under the penalties expressed and covenanted in a deed to that end, exe- cuted and enrolled in the high court of chancery for perpetual proof of the security therein provided. In witness whereof, I, the above-mentioned Sir Robert Mountgomry, have hereunto set my hand the day and year first above written. R. Mountgomry. Art. VIII. And for encouragement of those who shall considerably interest themselves in this affair. Whoever shall subscribe the sum of five hundred pounds for purchase of two hundred and fifty acres, as above mentioned, shall, over and above his yearly profits from the said two hundred and fifty acres, be entitled to one of the estates of a mile square, or 640 acres in the first district which shall be settled, as in the cut described. And shall for himself, his heirs and assigns forever, be put in possession of the said estate of 640 acres, together with a house built on it and the ground ready cleared to his 21 hand, without any charge to him or his assigns, as soon as such first district shall be measured out and settled ; the said estate to be cultivated at his pleasure and for his profit, by himself or his agents, on condition only, that if he shall not himself think fit to go over and inhabit it, the person he sends over in his stead shall be no ordinary overseer, but a gentleman well qualified, of a liberal education, who is married, and carries with him a genteel well bred family. Art. IX. Over and above the regard which may naturally be expected to the recommendation of purchasers in disposal of offices and furnishing the various supplies from time to time needful, it will be fit that some particular encouragement be given to such as shall be early promoters of the undertaking, because in this, as in all great affairs, expedition is the main life of business, and the necessary preparations will require so much time that if the subscription is suddenly completed, it will turn to the extraordinary benefit of the design and all con- cerned in it. It is therefore hereby made an article that the first hundred subscribers ( to be known by the numbers on their instruments ), whether they subscribe more or less, shall have, and be firmly entitled in all dividends, to an additional share of profit, after the rate of one acre over and above every ten acres they buy, and so for more or less in proportion, to be paid them out of the undertaker’s part of every dividend by their own factors or agents. As for instance, a purchaser of loo acres if his ticket of purchase bears any number from i to lOO, shall not, at the dividends, receive in proportion to the loo acres he bought, but as if they were i lo acres ; by virtue of the ten acres additionally annexed to his quota by virtue of this article. And so it shall be understood of any different quantity purchasd, from five acres upward. A MORE PARTICULAR EXPLANATION OF THE BENEFITS OF THIS PROPOSAL. ’ 'T'IS impossible to give a firmer title than is hereby made ^ both to the lands and their profits, since the whole coun- try, with all its improvements in all times to come, is engaged as a mortgage, and will be forfeited into the purchaser’s hands 22 on non-performance of the covenants, and as to the rate of the purchase ’tis the cheapest that ever was heard of. For it must be observed, that the forty shillings per acre is not a consider- ation for the land only, to be cultivated afterwards at the charge of the buyer, but on the contrary, it is the first and last expense, not only of the land, but its perpetual profit ; so that for what is once laid out a man has, every year, brought home to his door, by other people’s care and charge, and without the least trouble to himself but that of receiving the money, the produce and profit of so many acres of the finest land in the world, as he thus pays forty shillings a piece for it ; and this is to con- tinue, not only during his own life, but to descend forever to his heirs, or those to whom he shall assign his interest. And that the benefits of this proposal may as well reach those who are willing to spare but a little as those who shall incline to subscribe large sums, we have therefore fixed the lowest quan- tity at five acres, by which means people who cannot, or who care not to venture much, may become concerned for only five pound down and five pound more after the first dividend of profit at return of the shipping, and this will, we hope, be of general advantage, since the benefit being made diffusive, will reach numbers who had else been shut out ; and with that view, we have permitted it, against the opinions of a few. Since a man who is able to spare but lo or 20/. and does after- wards sell his interest for two or three hundred, will much more feel the benefit than one, who being able to subscribe larger sums, makes a profit in equal proportion. And here, though we utterly disapprove all swelling and overrated computations, it will be some satisfaction to give as rational a guess, as things to come admit of, after what propor- tion purchasers may calculate their profit by the most modest expectation ; for though ’tis impossible exactly to state these accounts before they are put to the trial, yet such computations as are fairly and impartialy drawn, are at least so far useful as to give some idea to the reader of what he may otherwise perhaps be utterly ignorant in the very nature and meaning of. It will be allowed without argument, that three working men may be carried over and maintained one whole year round for every hundred pound in the stock ; and so a purchaser, for every hundred pounds he subscribes will, the first year, be 23 entitled to half what is gained by three men’s constant labor the whole year about, the other half remaining to the under- takers to supply increase of people and the necessary charges of their maintenance and government. The practice of our colonies all over America has made it undeniable that the labor of a man for one year no other way employed, will clear at least four acres ; it must be observed that we do not suppose him to cultivate the four acres, but only to cut and burn down the trees which grow there. By this account such a purchaser’s first year’s claim will be the profit of six acres (half three men’s labor for that year) and his second year advancing in proportion, after allowance for all kinds of hazard, there arises a great and uncommon advantage. For not to urge that the designs we shall employ our men in, are such as may be fairly expected to produce far greater profit than the overstocked and beaten practices in use at present, we will take as our example the most common known product of South Carolina herself, and that is rice. This is, at least, one crop with another worth six pounds per acre ; we will state it, however, but at four pounds, and out of that allow deduction of one pound for freight home and duty, so the purchaser receives but three pounds neat from each acre. Thus, all the land cleared, a man whose purchase money was a hundred pounds for fifty acres, must receive a hundred and fifty pounds per annum forever as the profit of it ; but we are not desirous of laying more weight than the reader on the exactness of such calculations. A thousand accidents not easily foreseen will still vary these events, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse ; we leave people’s expectation to be determined by their reason, though even men of diffidence will, we think, be ashamed to disallow a computation so low as three pounds per acre, from such land in such a climate. But it may be objected that we compute on a supposition of all the land cleared and improved by cultivation, whereas it may be some years before the woods which overrun it are felled and the earth fit for sowing. ’Tis true, to clear all the land will require some time, but while that is doing we make all our potash before mentioned of the waste wood cut down to clear the land, and the profit from an acre that way will be so much greater than from any yearly crop, that purchasers may reason- 24 ably expect as large gain the very first year from a few acres only as afterwards from all their land cleared and cultivated. A word or two to explain this assertion, which may look like a mystery, and we shall draw to a conclusion. When workmen have nothing to do but fell great trees cross one another, and as soon as dry set fire to them that they may be burned to ashes, it is demonstrable beyond all dispute, that three men so employed in twelve months’ constant work, must cut down more wood than can grow on twelve acres. If, therefore, we state it but at twelve acres, it is a rate of computing which can admit of no reasonable contradiction, and to show how much potash this will yield, it is plain from expe- rience — and any reader who doubts, may examine it at his pleasure for the charge of a faggot — ^that the weight of any good wood ashes amounts to about a sixteenth of the wood they are burned from, and the weight of the potash which will be produced from those ashes, is from a sixth to an eighth of the weight of the ashes ; but allowing at large for loss, waste, and accidents, call the sixteenth a twentieth and the sixth a tenth only. For quantity of wood, say there grows on an acre so covered with huge timber trees but four hundred tons ; we have often much more ( bark, timber, and brushwood ) on an acre in England ; it is therefore an unexceptionable computation for America, where the date of the woods instead of years must be reckoned by ages. Then the wood of an acre yields two tons of potash and the whole year’s labor of three men employed in cutting down and burning on twelve acres and boiling and managing the ashes, will produce twenty-four tons of potash, which being a commodity of universal consumption, cannot easily overstock markets, at least not from far greater quantities of wood land than we are here talking of. The general price of such potash, being the richest and best, is from forty to sixty pounds sterling per ton, but we will reduce it to twenty for arguments sake, though such a fall is improb- able for such a commodity ( some of our own English ashes, which have not a fourth part good potash yielding that price or more ), the twenty-four ton will then sell for four hundred and eighty pounds. If out of this sum we allow for payment of freight and custom house duties, etc., at the most extravagant 25 reckoning, we may deduct on that score one hundred and eighty pounds, and then out of the remaining three hundred, one hundred and fifty pounds will be due to the purchaser in England as the first year’s clear profit of his hundred pound venture, and that profit will be every year growing greater and greater. We repeat here once again, that we would not impose the punctual exactness of such calculations as a matter of infallibility. The utmost men can do in these cases is fairly to lay down probabilities, and that we have done undeniably, notwithstand- ing the giant-like size of the benefit, and we should perhaps far more surprise if we varied the subject and computed on some other of our intentions. A man would make but a very indif- ferent use of his caution who should neglect an uncommon advantage without some better reason against it than that the prospect of profit was too great to be credited ; but be that as it will, here is room enough for profit, let men reduce it, as they please, nor indeed is profit how great soever the only motive to men of noble minds. There is in an attempt of this nature something more to recommend it to all those who take a pleasure in things public spirited and useful to posterity. If then what we have said is not sufficient encouragement, whatever we can say will be said to no purpose, so we only shall add our most earnest entreaty that every reader would narrowly scan both the facts and the reasonings here offered, and let it be done with the sharpest attention and severity of his judgment, for we are justly convinced that they who examine them most will most firmly believe them. HOUGH all that I think can possibly be expected by a reasonable reader has been said in the short Tract fore- going, I find myself advised to add a word or two by way of postscript, for satisfaction of some who may be apt to object that though the lands which are bought, will be more than an equivalent for the money subscribed when those lands shall be settled and planted, yet as they are of no such value in their present condition, and as the subscribers should have all pos- POSTSCRIPT. 26 sible security that the settlement shall really be made as proposed, they may therefore expect that over and above the assignment of the lands, the money they subscribe should, instead of being paid into my hands, be deposited in those of trustees for the uses intended. Though I cannot but hope that such kind of suspicions will never disturb any person to whom I am known, yet I thought but reasonable to state the objection, and answer it for the sakes of such readers who, being equally strangers to my person and character, may justly enough entertain the distrusts which are common and allowable in matters of money and bargainings. It will be granted that it signifies little into whose hands the money is paid, if it is but applied to the purpose intended, and as I neither expect nor desire the subscription of any but such who, by weighing the design, are fully convinced that it is well founded and profitable, so it follows, as a necessary consequence, that all such must think their money best placed in his hands whose profit, honor, and success must depend upon that of the undertaking, and who may therefore be naturally supposed more careful and diligent than others would be in the applica- tion of the money, because always most interested in the effect of that application. This reason is so good that it might alone be sufficient, if there was not another as considerable, which arises from the following reflection : Where trustees are to act in matters of care, form, or equity, it must be confessed they are not only useful, but necessary ; but when they are trusted, as in our case they would be, with a deposit of money and a power to see it applied to a purpose in which they are no otherwise concerned than as adventurers among others ( to say nothing of the impossibility to choose such as would be equally agreeable to all ), the temptations are many and but too well known, which may make it their interest to find means of cavil under plausible pretences for delaying the business and detainment of the money as long as the managers shall see it convenient for their private advantages. A wise man will therefore very easily discern and approve of my reasons for not dividing the power of the money from the power of the management, since on this only rock might be split a more promising adventure than was ever undertaken. If I did not believe that everybody’s experience can furnish him with instances enough in the daily destructions of well laid designs through the idle disputes and disagreements of those who are carrying them on, it were easy to illustrate the fact by a thousand examples. But as none, I presume, will deny a known truth, I will instance but one which is the fitter for my purpose, because it is taken not only from a parallel case, but was acted in the very next country to that which is the scene of our settlement. The first attempts which were made for the settling an English plantation in Virginia were carried on by the private subscriptions of gentlemen and others who thought it their interest by way of security to entrust the disposal of their money to certain men of the best public credit among them, who were chosen trustees, and transacted all matters at home in the name of the body. Meanwhile the command of their colonies was committed to such great and brave men as Sir Walter Raleigh and others who went over and settled the country with all the appearance of a promising good fortune, but just in the crisis when their houses were built, lands pre- pared, and nothing was wanting but the expected arrival of ships with the necessary supplies of ammunition and provisions they were all starved to death or cut off by the Indians with a shocking barbarity ; for the gentlemen in England, while they should have laid out the money subscribed and sent over the supplies above mentioned, were quarreling with one another who should make most advantage by furnishing such goods as were wanted, or helping others to do it, in which, and the like kind of follies, they wasted sometimes two, three, or more years, till their poor starving colonies fell a sacrifice to their inhumanity and avarice. Nor was this game played but once and then mended ; on the contrary, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of King Charles the First they repeated the extravagance in number- less trials, and lost six or seven different colonies, not to mention the money they had so warily ventured into the bargain, by no other error or misscarriage than that the disposal of their stock did not lie in the same hands which had the management of their authority. And this was so visible a truth that King 28 Charles, above mentioned, as a punishment of their indiscre- tion, deprived them of their charter, and ever after that, the purse and the power being joined, as they ought, Virginia throve apace, till it grew the most flourishing and mighty of all our plantations in America. This remarkable instance ought to serve as a warning ot all who embark in these noble designs, not to run into losses by mistaken endeavors and ill-guided cautions to'avoid them. The reader may apply the advice as he pleases, but we would have none concerned with us whose established opinion of the nature of this undertaking does not ' set him above all mean and unnecessary jealousies. R. MOUNTGOMRY. The subscription book will be opened at the Carolina Coffee- house in Birchin lane, near the Royal Exchange, on Thurs- day, the first day of August next, and attendance will be given from 9 to 12, and from 3 to 6 daily. JUST PUBLISHED. A GUIDE IN THE WILDERNESS ; or the History of the First Settlement in the Western Counties of New York, with useful Instructions to Future Settlers. In a series of letters addressed by JUDGE COOPER, of COOPERS-TOWN, to William Sampson, Barrister, of New York. Dublin: printed by Gilbert & Hodges, 37 Dame Street. 1810. Three hundred copies only of this very rare book have been printed, 1897, with an Introduction by James Fenimore Cooper. Sent postpaid on receipt of the price, ^1.25, by the publisher, George P. Humphrey, Rochester, N. Y. Due