ness

divine service. The men, who, according to a law of the 1738. province, had brought their arms to the place of worship, left the women in the church, and instantly marched in quest of the negroes, who, by this time, had become formidable, and spread desolation above 12 miles. Availing themselves of their superior military skill, and of the intoxication of several of the negroes, they attacked the great body of them in an open field, killed some, and dispersed the rest. Most of the fugitives were taken and tried. They who had been compelled to join the conspirators, were pardoned; but all the chosen leaders and first insurgents suffered death.

New Inverness, in Georgia, was seitled by highlanders, of the New Invercity and province of that name in the north of Scotland. They were conducted to this place by captain William Mackintosh, by order of the procurator of Georgia, captain George Dunbar.?

A college was founded, this year, at Princeton, in New Jersey, College at and called Nassau Hall.3 New Jersey contained 43,388 white Princeton. inhabitants, and 3981 slaves. 4

The town of Newport, in Rhode Island, contained 7 worship- Churches in ping assemblies. At Portsmouth there was a large society of R. Island. quakers. In the other 11 towns in the colony there were 25 worshipping assemblies. In the 9 towns on the main land there were 8 baptist churches, 8 quaker meeting houses, 4 episcopal, and 3 congregational churches.5

Winnesimmet, or Romney Marsh, which had hitherto been a Chelsea indistrict or ward of Boston, was incorporated by the name of corporated. Chelsea. 6

A workhouse was built in Boston.?

The colonists of Jamaica having in vain attempted the subjuga- Treaty with tion of the fugitive negroes, wbo at length intrenched themselves negroes in in inaccessible places in the mountains ; Edward Trelawney, governor of Jamaica, made a treaty with them. It was agreed, that they should remain in a state of freedom; that they should

; have the property of 1500 acres of land, northeast of Trelawneytown ; that they should have liberty to hunt within 3 miles

Workhouse.

Jamaica.

1738. of the English settlements; that they should submit to the orders

of the governor, and assist in defence of the island ; and that

they should deliver up all fugitive negroes. Death of Edmund Quincy, agent at London for settling the boundary E. Quincy. line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, died in that

city, of the small pox, in the 57th year of his age. The general court of Massachusetts made a donation to his heirs of 1000 acres of land in the town of Lenox, in the county of Berkshire ; and caused a monument to be erected to his memory in Bunhill Fields, London.

clared

1739. War de. WAR being declared by Great Britain against Spain, admiral

Vernon was sent to take the command of a squadron on the against Spain. West India station, with orders to act against the Spanish do

minions in that quarter. Sailing with six men of war from
Jamaica to Porto Bello, he attacked that fortress on the 21st of
November, and the next day the Spanish governor capitulated.
The admiral, having blown up the fortifications and castles of the

place, returned fo Jamaica.4 Scheme for

During this war with Spain, a scheme for taxing the British taxing the colonies was mentioned to Sir Robert Walpole. “I will leave American that,” said the minister, “for some of my successors, who may

have more courage than I have, and be less a friend to commerce than I am. It has been a maxim with me during my administration, to encourage the trade of the American colonies in the utmost latitude.”5 The scheme of taxation was reserved for a bolder minister, and a more eventful period; but the British

;

visits the

dant.

parliament passed an act for more effectually securing and en- 1739. couraging the trade of the British to America ; and an act for naturalizing such protestants and others, as were, or should be, settled in any of his majesty's colonies in America.?

Oglethorpe, agreeably to a promise which he had made at the Oglethorpe treaty the last year, went into the Indian country, 500 miles Indians; distant from Frederica. At the town of Coweta, he conferred with the deputies of that town, and with those of the Chickasaws. These deputies, after drinking black broth together, according to the usage of their ancestors, unitedly declared, that they adhered in their

ancient love to the king of Great Britain, and to the who renew agreements made in 1733 with the trustees of Georgia. They their covefarther declared, that all the dominions, territories, and lands from the Savannah river to St. John's river and all the islands between them, and from St. John's river to the bay of Apalache, and thence to the mountains, do by ancient right belong to the Creek nation; and that they would not suffer either the Spaniards, or any

1 person, excepting the trustees of the colony of Georgia, to settle on the said lands. While they acknowledged the grant which they had formerly made to the trustees of all the lands on Savannah river, as far as the river Ogeechee, and all the lands along the sea coast as far as St. John's river, and as high as the tide flows, and all the islands as far as the said river, particularly the islands of Frederica, Cumberland, and Amelia ;? they declared, that they reserved to the Creek nation all the land from Pipemaker's Bluff to Savannah, and the islands of St. Catharine, Ossabaw, and Sapelo; and farther declared, that the said lands were holden by the Creek nation as tenants in common. Oglethorpe, as commissioner for George II. declared, that the English should not enlarge or take up any lands, excepting those granted, as above, to the trustees, by the Creek nation ; and covenanted,

1 that he would punish any person, who should intrude upon the lands, so reseved by that nation.3

There were, at this time, upward of 100 sail of vessels, be- Newport. longing to Newport, in Rhode Island.4

The yellow fever raged in Charlestown, South Carolina, near Yellow as violently as in 1732.5

Jeremiah Dummer, of Boston, died at Plastow, in England. Death of

fever.

1

To be added to the Catalogue of Authors.

The History of America, in Universal History, xxxvii— xli. 8vo.

Lond. 1763, 1764. Wynne's General History of the British Empire in America. 8vo. 2 vols. Lond.

1770.

N. B. Next page, read PERIOD V.

1

gallies in the harbour; but the distance was so great, that the 1740. cannonade, though it continued several days, did little execution on either side.

In the mean time, the Spanish commander sent out against colonel Palmer a detachment of 300 men, who surprised him at fort Moosa, and cut his party almost entirely to pieces. The Chickasaws, offended at an incautious expression of Oglethorpe, deserted him. The Spanish garrison, by some means, received 700 men, and a large supply of provisions. All prospect of starving the enemy being lost, the army began to despair of forcing the place to surrender. The Carolina troops, enfeebled by the heat of the climate, dispirited by sickness, and fatigued by fruitless efforts, marched away in large bodies. The naval commander, in consideration of the shortness of his provisions, and of the near approach of the usual season of hurricanes, judged it imprudent to hazard his fleet longer on that coast. The general himself was sick of a fever, and his regiment was worn out with fatigue, and disabled by sickness. These combined disasters rendered it necessary to abandon the enterprise ; and Oglethorpe, with extreme sorrow and regret, returned to Frederica.

While the province of Carolina felt the ruinous effects of the Fire in miscarriage of this expedition, a desolating fire in its capitał deeply aggravated the calamity. It broke out in November, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and burned with unquenchable violence until eight at night. The houses being built of wood, and the wind blowing hard at the northwest, the flames spread with irresistible force, and astonishing rapidity. Almost every house, from Broad street, where the confiagration began, to Granville's bastion, was at one time on fire. Three hundred of the best buildings in the town, with goods and provincial commodities to a prodigious amount, were consumed. The legislature applied for relief to the British parliament, which voted £20,000 sterling to be distributed among the sufferers.?

Admiral Vernon, with a fleet of 30 sail of the line,y made an Vernon beexpedition against Carthagena, and besieged it; but was at length sieges Car

thagena. obliged to abandon the siege. The sailors amounted to 15,000; and the soldiers, including the American battalions and a body of negroes from Jamaica, to 12,000. This was far the greatest armament that America had ever seen.4

Charlestown.