Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-06-24

graciously pleased to empower ana coln~
sion the right honorable Archdale, Esq.,
General, Admiral and Governor of this pro-
vince, to do and act such things, with the ad-
vice and consent of three or more OF their
deputies, and by and with the delegates or
representatives Of the people, as to him ana
them shall seem most to conduce to the peace
and welfare of the present inhabitants, and to
encourage others to inhabit and plant here
It was then enacted "that three years arrears
of rent shall be and is hereby RENTED and
forgiven to all persons which hold land by
grant or patent from the lords proprietors, or
from any person by them empowered to grant
or sell land, and that four years
rent may be and is hereby RENTED and for
given to all persons which have held land by
survey of the same" These enactments, to-
gether with others of similar character, qul-
eted the people, at least with respect to the
quitrents. At the same session that the above
laws we're passed, another enactment was rat
flied by the Assembly, providing for the COM
pensating, to some extent, of the proprietors
for the great expenditures which they had
made for the good of the colony. In fact, if
the several enactments ratified on the 18th Of
March, 1896, may be regarded as an index OF
the mind of the people, we may conclude that
very great reconciliation had taken place.
Governor Archdale, more than some Of the
previous Governors of the Province, directed
his attention to the various Indian tribes
amongst which the settlers we're located.
The ostensible object which the proprietors
had in view in planting the colony, was to
spread the gospel amongst the heather. This
was not the chief object, their declarations to
the contrary Notwithstanding; or, if so, it
was soon lost sight Of, almost entirely, by
both proprietors and people. No special ef'
fort was made by either party to Christianize
or civiize the Indians From the very first
settling of the colony, traffic in Indians, either
directly or indirectly, was practiced by the
people. Indians were reduced to slavery and
put to work on the plantations of the settlers,
or sold to the settlements farther South. We
dare not say that the proprietors exactly ap-
proved of this course in every instance; but
on the contrary, they were not as careful to
prevent it as they were to prevent intercourse
with pirates or to collect their quitrents.
Captives taken in war were reduced to slave
ry, or otherwise ransomed by the tribe to
which they belonged.
The people, generally, imposed upon the
Indians by encouraging broils and wars
amongst the different tribes. This course was
pursued for the two-fold reason that it served
as kind of protection to the colony, from
the fact that so long as the Indians fought
among themselves, .hey would leave the colo
nists undisturbed. This was not all. The
captives taken by the successful party we're
brought into the colony and sold, often for
toys and rum. These were either kept as Ia
borers in the colony, or sent to Jamaica or
Barbados and sold.
To Archdale such practices were revolving,
and he set about in earnest to treat the In
dams as human beings, and to establish peace
and friendship between them and the colony
His kind and humane treatment of the In
dians was not without good results to the COL
ony, and to settlers in various other sections
of the country. The ideas of Archdale, re-
specting the mode of Christianizing the In.
dians, was strange, not to say silly and i'm
practicable. He thought that the missiona.
ries who were sent amongst them should, in
his own language, "be we'll skill'd in chymis'
try, and some natural genius to seek the vir-
tues of herbs, NETS, and minerals, &C." He
seems to have thought that men who were
chemists and botanists, were the very kind Of
persons to make a favorable impression on
the savages. He also advised that the chill
dren of the colonists and the Indian children
be allowed to associate together. This would
have been good advice if he had been assured
that the white children would always have
acted as teachers, and the Indian children as
learners; but the probability is that the oppo-
site would have been the case. 1t requires
no effort to descend into barbarism but to
rise from the savage state to that of Christian
civilization, is, in every country and at all
times, rowing against the inclinations of hu-
man nature.
At later period Lawson recommended in.
termarriage as the quickest and only sure way
of Christianizing the savage Indians. 1t
sounds strange to recommend a Christian wo-
man to marry a savage man, or for Christian
man to marry savage wife. We may say
that the whole thing ended in vague theory.
No very great effort was ever made in any
part of America, only by individuals, to con-
vert the Indians.
As said once before, the fret settlers ofSouth
Carolina shed as little Indian blood as any Of
her sister colonies; but why did they shed
any at all? The first settlers brought rum
with them, and they came prepared to make
rum. One of the utensils they brought with
them when they first came to the country was
an "alembic" "a still. The Indians soon learn.
ed to drink rum, and the rum made them per-
petrate deeds of violence amongst themselves
and among the settlers. During the admin.
istration of Sothell, both powder and rum
were forbidden to be distributed amongst the
indians. The law was evaded then as now.
A musket in the hands of savage, whose
brain was fevered by rum, was dangerous
weapon. During the administration of Arch
dale an Indian was allowed pound Of pow
der and thirty bullets for every wolf, tiger or
bear he might kill, and for every two CATS
IT, aottlora 70 onnht tho Indians the llsa of fire