of foreign control. Of their condition in Carolina, we have a brief but
pleasing picture from the hands of John Lawson, then surveyor-general of
the province of North Carolina.* This gentleman, in 1701, just fifteen
years after its settlement, made a progress through that portion of the
Huguenot colony which lay immediately along the Santee. The passages
which describe his approach to the country which they occupied, the
hospitable reception which they gave him, the comforts they enjoyed,
the gentleness of their habits, the simplicity of their lives, and their
solicitude in behalf of strangers, are necessary to furnish the moral
of those fortunes, the beginning of which was so severe and perilous.
"There are," says he, "about seventy families seated on this river, WHO
LIVE AS DECENTLY AND HAPPILY AS ANY PLANTERS IN THESE SOUTHWARD PARTS OF
AMERICA. THE FRENCH BEING A TEMPERATE, INDUSTRIOUS PEOPLE, some of them
bringing very little of effects, YET, BY THEIR ENDEAVORS AND MUTUAL
ASSISTANCE AMONG THEMSELVES (which is highly to be commended), HAVE
OUTSTRIPT OUR ENGLISH, WHO BROUGHT WITH THEM LARGER FORTUNES, though (as
it seems) less endeavor to manage their talent to the best advantage.
'Tis admirable to see what time and industry will (with God's blessing)
effect," &c.... ... "We lay all that night at Mons. EUGEE'S (Huger), and
the next morning set out farther, to go the remainder of our voyage by
land. At ten o'clock we passed over a narrow, deep swamp, having left
the three Indian men and one woman, that had piloted the canoe from
Ashley river, having hired a Sewee Indian, a tall, lusty fellow, who
carried a pack of our clothes, of great weight. Notwithstanding his
burden, we had much ado to keep pace with him. At noon we came up with
several French plantations. Meeting with several creeks by the way, THE
FRENCH WERE VERY OFFICIOUS IN ASSISTING US WITH THEIR SMALL DORIES TO
PASS OVER THESE WATERS: whom we met coming from their church, BEING
ALL OF THEM VERY CLEAN AND DECENT IN THEIR APPAREL; their HOUSES AND
PLANTATIONS SUITABLE IN NEATNESS AND CONTRIVANCE. They are all of the
same opinion with the church of Geneva,** there being no difference
among them concerning the punctilios of their Christian faith; WHICH
UNION HATH PROPAGATED A HAPPY AND DELIGHTFUL CONCORD IN ALL OTHER
MATTERS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD; LIVING AMONGST THEMSELVES AS
ONE TRIBE OR KINDRED, EVERY ONE MAKING IT HIS BUSINESS TO BE ASSISTANT
TO T