Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/149

] is to be worshipped; and thirdly, that it is lawful, and the duty of every man, when called upon by those in authority, to bear witness to the truth, without acknowledging which no man was to be permitted to be a freeman, or to have any estate or habitation in Carolina. But persecution for observing different modes and ways of worship was expressly forbidden, and every man was to be left full liberty of conscience, and might worship God in that manner which he in his private judgment thought most conformable to the Divine will and revealed Word. Every freeman of Carolina was declared to possess absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever."

Such, in brief, was the complicated scheme of government proposed by John Locke, a scheme which, as Mr. Hildreth justly remarks, "included and even exaggerated some of the worst features of the feudal system," and which, when attempted' to be carried out, was found to be wholly impracticable. The colonists, meanwhile, were doing for themselves all that their necessities required in the way of legislation, and were little disposed to favor any action which they could dispense with on the part of the proprietaries. After long delay three vessels were sent out with a body of emigrants, under the command of Captain William Sayle, who had some years previously been employed in a preliminary exploration. An expense of £12,000 was incurred in providing necessaries for the plantation of the colony. Touching at Port Royal, where they found traces of the fort erected by the Huguenots, they finally settled at a spot between two rivers, which they called the Ashley and the Cooper, the family names of Lord Shaftesbury, and where they laid the original foundations of Charleston, whence they removed, however, some years afterwards, to the more commodious situation occupied by the present city. Before this removal took place, Sayle died, and was succeeded by Sir John Yeamans, governor of Clarendon, who introduced a body of negroes from Barbadoes, afterwards recruited so largely that they were twice as numerous as the whites. Slave labor soon became thus established in Carolina, to the soil and climate of which it was peculiarly adapted. In consequence of the considerable distance at which the new settlement was from Albemarle, the proprietaries established a separate government over it; and in this way arose the distinctive appellations of North and South Carolina.

The trials and distress which attended the first efforts of the colonists were aggravated by the intrigues and assaults of the Spaniards at Fort Augustine. They sent emissaries among the settlers at Ashley River, in the hope of moving them to revolt; they encouraged indentured servants to abandon their masters, and fly to the Spanish territory; and they labored so successfully to instil into the savage tribes the most unfavorable notions of the English, whom they hated as heretics, that these deluded Indians took up arms to endeavor to extirpate a race who neither wished nor had ever done them any