1740. against the Chicka saws. M. Bienville with a large army, composed of French, Indians, and Negroes, made a second expedition against the Chickasaws. Expedition Proceeding up the Mississippi, he encamped his troops on a fine plain within 15 miles of the Chickasaw towns, where he built a fort, which he called Fort Assumption. While here, he received succours from Canada. In March, he detached a company of foot, attended by the Canadian Indians, with orders, if the Chickasaws should demand it, to treat of peace. The Chickasaws made signals of peace; which being promised them, they came out of their fort, presented the calumet to the commanding officer, and a peace was concluded.1 Treaty of peace. G. White field founds an orphan house. Law against teaching slaves to write. Printing at Mr. George Whitefield, having received priest's orders, had come a second time to America. Having obtained a tract of land from the trustees of Georgia, he laid the foundation of an Orphan House, a few miles from Savannah, and afterward finished it at great expense. It was designed to be an asylum for poor children, who were here to be clothed and fed by charitable contributions, and educated in the knowledge and practice of Christianity.2 The legislature of South Carolina, premising, that the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences, passed an act, That whoever shall teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any manner of writing whatsoever, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of £100.3 A printing office was opened at Annapolis by Jonas Green, Annapolis. who was employed as printer to the government of Maryland.* A long and tedious controversy between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, respecting the divisional line between those puted, on a moderate calculation, that, before the arrival at Jamaica, 20,000 "Such as, of late, at Carthagena quench'd Heard nightly plung'd amid the sullen waves 1 Du Pratz, iii. 400-426. Univ. Hist. xl. 360–364. 2 Hewatt, ii. 167, 168. The orphan house was a wooden building, two stories high, the dimensions of which were 70 feet by 40. It stood on a sandy beach nigh the sea shore. However humane and laudable the design of this institution, the advantages which the founder expected from it were never realized. The unhealthfulness of the climate seems to have been but one among many causes of this disappointment. About 30 years afterward, the orphan house was burnt to the ground. M'Call, Hist. Georgia, i. 161, 162. 3 Grimké's Public Laws of South Carolina. The fine was to be "current money." 4 Thomas, i. 330, 331. See 1726. He was the son of the elder Timothy of New London, and great grandson of Samuel Green, printer at Cambridge. BRITISH COLONIES. two provinces, was decided in England by the lords of council. 1740. 1741. dition. 17 AN expedition against the Spanish West India settlements was Cuba expeordered by the English government. Cuba was the principal object. An American regiment consisting of about 3600 men, was raised on this occasion; and the several colonies were at the charge of levy money, of provisions, and of transports, for their respective quotas.2 In this expedition the northern colonies furnished a considerable number of troops, and sustained a great loss of men; principally in an uncommcn mortality which prevailed in the army.3 setts. There were now on the stocks in Massachusetts 40 topsail Massachuvessels, of about 7000 tons. In Marblehead there were about 160 fishing schooners, of about 50 tons each.4 York. There were frequent fires in the city of New York. A con- Incendiaspiracy of negroes and other incendiaries was discovered. Four ries at N. white persons were executed; 30 negroes were burnt; 18 hanged; and great numbers transported.5 The Moravians, or United Brethren, began to build the town Bethlehem. of Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania.6 ry journal. The first number of The General Magazine and Historical First literaChronicle, printed and edited by Benjamin Franklin, was published on the 1st of January. This was the first literary Journal published in the United States.7 Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, died.8 1 Belknap, N. Hamp. ii. 168-171. Douglass, i. 422. Adams, N. Eng. 204. 2 Douglass, i. 554. Brit. Emp. i. 363. The troops were paid off and dismissed 24 October, 1742; and allowed to keep their clothing and firelocks. Massachusetts furnished 500 men, which cost that province about £37,500 old tenor, equal to £7000 sterling. 3 Trumbull, Hist. United States, i. c. 9. "The sickness seems to have been almost as mortal as the plague. According to the general's account, no less than 3445 died during the short period of two days. This was a considerably more than a fourth part of the whole army. Of nearly 1000 men from New England, not more than 90 or 100 returned. Of 500 from Massachusetts, 50 only returned." 4 Brit. Emp. i. 379. 5 Horsmanden, New York Conspiracy, or Hist. Negro Plot. Smith, N. York, i. 188. Brit. Emp. ii.301–318. 6 Adams, View of Religions, 466. They had begun to settle at Savannah in Georgia; but the inhabitants of that colony, at the time of the invasion by the Spaniards, obliging them to take up arms, they left their settlement and possessions, and removed to Pennsylvania. See Loskiel, P. ii. c. 1. 7 Mem. Hist. Soc. Pennsylv. i. 148. Thomas, ii. 343. 8 Proud, ii. 219. He was a lawyer of great eminence in his profession; and had served in several considerable stations, both in the government of Pennsylvania and in the Lower Counties, with ability, integrity, and honour. See 1735. 3 VOL. II. Death of A. T Spanish expedition against Georgia. 1742. THE Spaniards had not yet relinquished their claim to the province of Georgia. No sooner, therefore, had the greatest part of the British fleet, under admiral Vernon, left the seas about the Spanish settlements, than they made preparations for dislodging the English settlers from that province. Menaces having no effect on Oglethorpe, an armament was prepared at Havana to expel him from the Spanish frontiers. A body of 2000 men, commanded by Don Antonio de Rodondo, embarked from that port under convoy of a strong squadron, and arrived at St. Augustine in May. Oglethorpe, receiving intelligence of their arrival in Florida, sent advices of it to governor Glen of Carolina, and made all possible preparations for a vigorous resistance. With his regiment, and a few rangers, Highlanders, and Indians, he fixed his head quarters at Frederica, and waited in expectation of a reinforcement from Carolina. About the last of June, the Spanish fleet, amounting to 32 sail and carrying above 3000 men, under the command of Don Manuel de Monteano, came to anchor off St. Simon's bar; and, after sounding the channel, passed through Jekyl sound, received a fire from Oglethorpe at fort Simon's, and proceeded up the Alatamaha, beyond the reach of his guns. Here the enemy landed, and erected a battery with 20 eighteen pounders mounted on it. Oglethorpe, judging his situation at fort Simon's to be dangerous, spiked up the guns; burst the bombs and cohorns; destroyed the stores; and retreated to Frederica. With a force amounting to little more than 700 men, exclusive of Indians, he could not hope to act but on the defensive, until the arrival of reinforcements from Carolina. He, however, employed his Indians, and occasionally his Highlanders, in scouring the woods, harassing the outposts of the enemy, and throwing every impediment in their marches. In the attempts of the Spaniards to penetrate through the woods and morasses to reach Frederica, several rencountres took place; in one of which they lost a captain and two lieutenants killed, and above 100 men taken prisoners. Oglethorpe at length, learning by an English prisoner, who escaped from the Spanish camp, that a difference subsisted between the troops from Cuba and those from St. Augustine, occasioning a separate encampment, resolved to attack the enemy, while thus divided. Taking advantage of his knowledge of the woods, he marched out in the night with 300 chosen men, the Highland company, and some rangers, with the intention of surprising the enemy. Having advanced within two miles of the Spanish camp, he halted his troops, and went forward himself with a select corps, to reconnoitre the enemy's situation. While he was endeavouring cautiously to conceal his 1742. approach, a French soldier of his party discharged his musket, and ran into the Spanish lines. The general now returned to Frederica, and endeavoured to Stratagem of Ogleeffect by stratagem, what could not be achieved by surprise. thorpe. Apprehensive that the deserter would discover to the enemy his weakness, he wrote to him a letter, desiring him to acquaint the Spaniards with the defenceless state of Frederica, and the ease with which his small garrison might be cut to pieces. He pressed him to bring forward the Spaniards to an attack; but, if he could not prevail thus far, to use all his art and influence to persuade them to stay at least three days more at fort Simon's; for within that time, according to advices just received from Carolina, he should have a reinforcement of 2000 land forces, with 6 British ships of war. The letter concluded with a caution to the deserter against dropping the least hint of admiral Vernon's meditated attack upon St. Augustine, and with assurance, that for his service he should be amply rewarded by the British king. Oglethorpe gave it to the Spanish prisoner, who, for a small reward together with his liberty, promised to deliver it to the French deserter. On his arrival, however, at the Spanish camp, he gave the letter, as Oglethorpe expected, to the commander in chief, who instantly put the deserter in irons. This letter perplexed and confounded the Spaniards; some suspecting it to be a stratagem to prevent an attack on Frederica, and others believing it to contain serious instructions to direct the conduct of a spy. While the Spanish officers were deliberating what measures to adopt, an incident, not within the calculation of military skill, or the controul of human power, decided their counsels. Three ships of force, which the governor of South Carolina had sent out to Oglethorpe's aid, appeared at this juncture off the coast. The agreement of this discovery with the contents of the letter convinced the Spanish commander of its real intention. The The Spanwhole army, seized with an instant panic, set fire to the fort, and the enterprecipitately embarked, leaving several cannon, with a quantity prise. of provisions and military stores; and thus, in the moment of threatened conquest, was the infant colony providentially saved.1 On an impeachment, brought forward before this invasion, Oglethorpe now felt himself bound in honour to return to England, where, on trial, the charge was adjudged to be false, malicious and groundless. The character of this able general now appeared in resplendent light; and his contemporaries acknowledged, what impartial history must record, that to him Carolina was indebted for her safety and repose; as well as Georgia, for her existence and protection. 1 Hewatt, ii. 111-119, Marshall, i. 338-344. ish abandon 1742. Fanueil Church in Massachusetts. N. Hampshire. Philadelphia. tions. Oglethorpe never afterward returned to America. The trustees of Georgia now established a kind of civil government, and committed the charge of it to a president and four assistants, who were to act under their instructions, and to be responsible to them for their public conduct. Above 1500 persons had, at this period, been transported by the trustees to Georgia.1 Fanueil Hall, a handsome and commodious brick building, was erected on Market Square in Boston, and given to the town by Peter Fanueil, esquire, who died just at the time of its completion. A church was built in Bennet street, at the north end of Boston.3 Massachusetts contained 164,000 inhabitants.4 The number of ratable polls of white men in that colony was 41,000. Boston contained 1719 dwelling houses, and about 18,000 inhabitants.5 In the county of Worcester there were about 3200 taxable persons.6 New Hampshire contained 6000 whites, ratable polls.7 The entries at the port of Philadelphia, this year, were 230, and the clearances 281.8 Treaty with A treaty was holden at Philadelphia by the government of the Six Na- Pennsylvania with the deputies of the Six Nations, who agreed to release their claim to all the land on both sides of the river Susquehannah, as far south as that province extended, and northward to the Endless Mountains, or Kittochtinny Hills. In compensation for this territory, they received goods of considerable value.9 Public library in Philadelphia. For the promotion of knowledge, which had received but little public encouragement in Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin had, in 1731, brought forward a proposal for a public library. 1 Hewatt, ii. 120-124. 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 253. The lower floor of Fanueil Hall was to be occupied as a public market; and the chamber over it, as a town hall for the transaction of the affairs of the town. 3 Ibid. 263. By a society formed from the old north church. 4 Adams, Letters, Lett. xvii. 5 Douglass, i. 530, 531. Brit. Dom. i. 215. By a new valuation, this year, there were reported 16,382 souls in Boston; but Douglass allows an addition for some men, sent on the Cuba expedion, and for several sons and apprentices, "designedly overlooked to ease the quota of Boston's provincial tax." In 20 years (from 1722 to 1742) the inhabitants of Boston had increased 6000, or one third. By this valuation of 1742, there were in Boston 1200 widows (1000 of them poor); in the alms houses 111 persons; in the workhouse 36; 1514 negroes; 418 horses, and 141 cows. 6 Brit. Emp. ii. 75. 7 Pres. Stiles, MS. 8 Univ. Hist. xli. 30. 9 Brit. Emp. ii. 439-449. "Endless Mountains" is the Indian name translated, expressive of their unknown extent. The Kittochtinny or Kittatinni were a chain or single narrow ridge in those mountains. Proud, ii. 246. Colden, Five Nations, American Magazine and Hist. Chronicle for 1743 and 1744. In the transactions at this treaty, of the council present at it, next to the name of the lieut. governor, George Thomas, is the name of James Logan. |