Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-02-16

ince, directed MS altenuOn 10 the var
ious Indian tribes amongst which the
settlers were located. The ostensible
object which the proprietors had in
view in planting the colony was to
spread the gospel amongst the heathen.
This was not the chief object, their
declarations to the contrary, notwith-
standing; or, II so, 1t was soon lost
sight Of, almost entirely by both pro-
prietors and people. Indians were re-
duced to slavery and put to work on the
plantations of the settlers or sold to
the settlements farther south. We
dare not say the proprietors approved of
this course in every instance; but on
the contrary they were not as careful
to prevent 1t as they were to prevent
intercourse with pirates or to collect
their quitrents. Captives taken in war
were reduced to slavery, or otherwise
ransomed by the tribe to which they
belonged.
The people generally imposed upon
Indians by encouraging broils and
wars among the different tribes. This
course was pursued for the two-fold
reason that it served as kind Of pro-
lection to the colony, from the fact
that so long as the Indians fought
among themselves, they would leave
the colonist undisturbed. This was
not all. The captives taken by the
successful party were brought into the
colony and sold, often for toys and
rum. These were either kept as labor
ers in the colony, or sent to Jamaica or
Barbados and sold.
To Archdale such practices were re-
voting, and he set about In earnest to
treat the Indians as human beings and
to establish peace and friendship be-
tween them and the colony. His kind
and humane treatment Of the Indians
was not without good results to the
colony, and to settlers in various other
sections Of the country. The ideas of
Archdale, respecting the mode Of
Christianizing the Indians was strange,
not to say silly and unpracticable. He
thought that the missionaries who were
sent amongst them should in his own
language, "be we'll skill'd in chymistry,
and some natural genius to seek the
virtues Of herbs, metts and minerals,
etc." He seems to have thought that
men who were chemist and botanist,
we're the very kind Of persons to make
a favorable impression on the savages.
He also advised that the children Of
the colonists and the Indian children be
allowed to associate together. This
would have been good advice II we 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 opposite
would have been the case. 1t requires
no effort to descend into barbarism, but
to rise from the savage state to that
country and at all times, rowing against
the inclinations Of human nature.
AmaIgamation Sanctioned.
At a later period Lawson recon-
mended intermarriage as the quickest
and only sure way Of Cfristianizing the
savage Indians. It sounds strange to
recommend Christian woman to mar
ry a savage man, or for Christian
man to marry a 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 convert the In
dians.
AS said once before, the first settlers
of South 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 "a!embic"-a still. The Indians
soon learned to drink rum and the rum
made them perpetrate deeds Of violence
amongst themselves and among the
settlers. During the administration Of
Sothell, both powder and rum were for
bidden to be distributed amongst the
Indians. The law was evaded then as
now. A musket in the hands Of the
savage, whose brain was fevered by
rum, was a dangerous weapon. Dur
ing the administration Of Archdale an
Indian was allowed a pound Of powder
and thirty bullets for every wolf, tiger
or bear he might kill, and for every two
cats. The settlers taught the Indians
the use Of firearms and to drink rum,
the Indians taught the settlers to cul-
tivate maize and make ask cakes.
no BE CONTINUED.