Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-09-27
GEORGIA CORRESPONDENCE.

PINE FOREST, GA
Sept 9Th, 1860.
Dear Enquirer AS have promised
to tell your readers something about the
Altamaha river and its tributaries, and the
inexhaustible pine forests Of this region,
and the great facilities for turning the same
into money, together with many other
sources of wealth and prosperity in South.
ern Georgia, think it proper first to re-
cur for moment, to the days of our colo
uial history. The Italian navigators, John
Cabot and his son Sebastian, both in the
service of Henry VII. of England, saw a
portion of the North American continent
in the year 1897, several months earlier
than it was seen by Columbus. The Span
ish Captain, Velasquez de Ayllou, visited
The coast of South Carolina in the neigh.
borhood of the Combahee river, which he
discovered and named the Jordan; and
then carried off number of the natives and
sold them for slaves at St. Domingo. John
Verazzaui, Florentine captain in the ser.
of Francis l. was sent out in 1928, and
reached the coast somewhere iu the lati.
tude eS Wilmington N c., where he found
a csaHSr5 ''full Of beauty to the eye, and
the various perfumes which reached him
from the shores, intoxicated him with a
thousand oriental fancies." Mexico and
Peru had been discovered and invaded by
the Spauiards; and Ferdinand DeSoto, a
Spanish captain of great renown (who had
distinguished himself in Peru under the
lead Of Pizarro) entered Florida in the year
1889, and pushed his couquests westward
ly, encountering many difficulties, until
finally be reached the Mississippi river,
where he died and was buried beneath it's
waves-baving discovered, in the signif-
cant language of one of our own historians,
nothing $50 remarkable as his burial place"
The coast of Georgia, however, was not
discovered, probably, until about the time
the persecution Of the Huguenots in France
took place The celebrated Huguenot
leader, Admiral Coliguy, bethought him
that the New World would be place whith
er the protestauts might fly from the perse.
cutions which beset them at home. With
this object in view, he got permission from
Charles TX. to plant a colony on the coast
of Florida; and entrusted the expedition to
John Ribault of Dieppe, an eA yerenced
seaman and brave soldier, who sailed from
France in February of 1862. His aim was
to reach the river Jordan, to knowledge
of which the French had been introduced
by the discovery of Velasquez; but, sailing
too far south, he FIRST made land in the lati.
tude of St. Augustine, where he discovered
the river St. Johns which he called the
May river. He then, still in search Of the
Jordan, steered northerly course, naming
the different streams which he met with
after we'll known rivers in France. The
St. Mary's for the time became the Seine
the Satilla, the Somme; the Altamaba, the
Loire; the Ogechee, the Garonne; and the
Savannah, the Gironde About this time
arose one Of those great tempests for which
this southern coast is so remarkable and,
after being buffeted about by the winds and
waves for some time, Ribault 6nally enter
ed beautiful bay which he thought was
the mouth of the Jordan, and where-to
quote his own quaint lapguage-"we stroke
our sails and cast anker at ten fathom Of
water, for the depth is such when the sea
begineth to flow, that the greatest ships Of
France, yea the arguzies of Venice, may
enter in there" To this bay, "because of
the fairpesse and lsrgenesse thereof" he
gave the name of Port Royal.
Here the delighted Huguenots landed,
and gave themselves up to the coutempla-
tion of the strange and beautiful scene.-
The mighty oaks, 'the infinite store of &C.
dars," droves of turkey cocks flying in the
air, patridges gray and red, and the voices
of stays, bears, hyenas, leopards and divers
other unknown wild beasts, a.! excited their
wonder and admiration. Being delighted
with the place, they setthemselves to fishing
with nets, and "caught such number of
fish that it was wonderful" Here Ribault
left twenty.six men, who formed the first
white settlement in South Carolina, and re-
turned to France to find his countrymen up
in arms against each other, in the horrid
L c.l1 oh