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RAMSAY'S HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
From ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1670 
TO THE YEAR 1808.
by David Ramsay, M.D. 

Volume I
Preface dated "Charleston, December 31st, 1808"
Published in 1858, by W.J. Duffie, Newberry, S.C.  
Reprinted in 1959, by the The Reprint Company, Spartanburg, S.C.   

CHAPTER V, Section II, pp 89-94

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In the year 1715 South Carolina was visited with an Indian war so formidable
as to threaten its total extirpation. The numerous and powerful tribes of
Indians called Yamassees, were the most active in promoting this conspiracy;
though every tribe in the vicinity were more or less concerned in it. The
Yamassees possessed a large territory, lying backward from Port Royal Island,
on the northeast side of Savannah river, which, to this day, is called Indian
land. This tribe had long been esteemed by the Carolinians as friends and
allies. They admitted a number of traders into their town, and several times
had assisted the settlers in their warlike enterprises. 

For twelve months before the war broke out, the traders among the Yamassees
observed that their chief warriors went frequently to St. Augustine, and
returned loaded with presents. John Fraser, an honest Scotch highlander, who
lived among the Yamassees and traded with them, had often heard these warriors
tell with what kindness they had been treated at St. Augustine. One had
received a hat, another a jacket, and a third a coat, all trimmed with silver
lace. Some got hatchets, others knives, and almost all of them guns and
ammunition. These warriors told Fraser that they dined with the Governor at
St. Augustine, and that he was now their King, and not the Governor of
Carolina. 

About nine days before hostilities commenced, Sanute, an Indian warrior
attached to Fraser's family, came to his house and told his wife that "the
English were all wicked heretics, and would go to hell, and that the Yamassees
would also follow them if they suffered them to live in their country - that
now the Governor of St. Augustine was their King - that there would be a
terrible war with the English, and they only waited for the bloody stick to be
returned from  the Creeks before they began it." He told them that "the
Yamassees, the Creeks, the Cherokees, and many other nations, together with
the Spaniards, were all to engage in it, and advised them instantly to fly to
Charlestown." Fraser, not a little astonished at the news, asked him how the
Spaniards could go to war with the Carolinians while at peace with Great
Britain? To which Sanute replied, the Spanish Governor told him that there
would soon be a war with the English, and again advised him to fly with all
expedition. Fraser still entertained doubts, but finally resolved to get of
the way, and fled to Charlestown with his family and effects. 

At the time in which this dark plot was to be put in execution, Captain Nairn,
agent for Indian affairs, and many traders, resided at Pocotaligo, in a state
of false security, in the midst of their enemies. The case of the scattered
settlers on the frontier was equally lamentable, for they had no suspicions of
danger. On the day before, the Yamassees began their bloody operations,
Captain Nairn, and some of the traders, observing an uncommon gloom on the
countenances of the savages, went to their chief men, begging to know the
cause of their uneasiness, and promising, if any injury had been done, to give
them satisfaction. The chiefs replied they had no complaints to make against
any one, but intended to go a hunting early the next morning. Captain Nairn
accordingly went to sleep, and the traders passed the night in apparent
tranquility. But next morning, about the break of day, being the 15th of
April, 1715, all were alarmed with the cries of war. The leaders were under
arms, calling upon their followers, and proclaiming aloud designs of
vengeance. The young men flew to their arms, and in a few hours massacred
above ninety persons in Pocotaligo and the neighboring plantations. Mr.
Burrows, a Captain of militia, by swimming one mile and running ten, after he
had received two wounds, escaped to Port Royal and alarmed the town. The
inhabitants generally repaired on board a vessel in the harbor and sailed for
Charlestown. But a few families fell into the hands of the savages, and by
them were either murdered or made prisoners of war. While the Yamassees, with
the Creeks and Apalachians, were advancing against the southern frontiers and
spreading desolation add slaughter through the province, the colonists on the
northern borders found the Indians down among the settlements in formidable
parties. The Carolinians had entertained hopes of the friendship of the
Congarees, the Catawbas and Cherokees, but soon found that these nations had
also joined in the conspiracy and declared for war. It was computed that the
southern division of the enemy consisted of above six thousand bowmen, and the
northern of between six hundred and a thousand. Every Indian tribe from
Florida to Cape Fear River had joined in this confederacy for the destruction
of the settlement. The dispersed planters had no force to withstand such
numbers, but each consulting his own safety and that of his family, fled in
great consternation to the capital. They who came in, brought the Governor
such different accounts of the numbers and strength of the savages, that even
the inhabitants of Charlestown were doubtful of their safety. The men in it
were obliged to watch every third night. The most spirited measures were
pursued both for offence and defence. In the muster roll there were no more
than twelve hundred men fit to bear arms. The Governor proclaimed martial law,
laid an embargo on all ships, and obtained an act of Assembly empowering him
to impress men, arms, ammunition and stores, and to arm trusty negroes. Agents
were sent to Virginia and England to solicit assistance - bills were stamped
for the payment of the army and other necessary expenses. Robert Daniel was
appointed Deputy Governor in town, and Charles Craven, at the head of the
militia, marched to the country against the largest body of savages. 

In the meantime the Indians on the northern quarter had made an inroad as far
as the plantation belonging to John Kearne, about fifty miles from
Charlestown, and entered his house apparently in a peaceable manner, but
afterwards murdered him and every person in it. Thomas Barker, a Captain of
militia, collected a party consisting of ninety horsemen, and advanced against
the enemy; but was led by the treachery of an Indian guide into a dangerous
ambuscade, where a large party of Indians lay concealed on the ground. Barker
having advanced into the middle of them before he was aware of his danger,
they sprung from their concealment and fired upon his men. The captain and
several more fell at the first onset, and the remainder retreated. After this
advantage, a party of four hundred Indians came down as far as Goose creek.
Every family there had fled to town, except in one place where seventy white
men and forty negroes had erected a breastwork and resolved to remain and
defend themselves. When the Indians attacked them they were discouraged, and
rashly agreed to terms of peace; having admitted the enemy within their works,
this whole garrison was barbarously butchered. The Indians advanced still
nigher to town, but meeting with Captain Chicken and the Goose creek militia,
they were obliged to retreat. 

By this time the Yamassees, with their confederates, had spread destruction
through the parish of St. Bartholomew, and advancing as far as Stono they
burned the church at that place, together with every house on the plantations
by the way. John Cochran, his wife and four children, Mr. Bray, his wife, two
children, and six other persons, having found friends among them, were spared
for some days, but while attempting to make their escape they were retaken and
put to death. Such as had no friends among them were tortured in the most
shocking manner. The indians made a halt in their progress to assist in
tormenting their prisoners. 

Governor Craven advanced against the enemy by slow and cautious steps. He knew
well under what advantages they fought among their native thickets, and the
various wiles and stratagems they made use of in conducting their wars, and
therefore was watchful against sudden surprises. The fate of the whole
province depended on the issue of the contest. His men had no alternative but
to conquer, or die a painful death. As he advanced, the straggling parties
fled before him until he reached Saltcatchers, where they had pitched their
great camp. A sharp and bloody battle ensued. Bullets and arrows were
discharged with destructive effect from behind trees and bushes. The Indians
made the air resound with their horrid yellings and war-whoops. They sometimes
gave way, but returned again and again with double fury to the charge. The
Governor kept his troops close at their heels, and chased them from their
settlement at Indian Land, until he drove them over Savannah river, and
cleared the province entirely of this formidable tribe of savages. What number
of his army or of the enemy was killed, we have not been able to learn, but in
this Indian war four hundred innocent inhabitants of Carolina were murdered. 

The Yamassees, after their defeat and expulsion, went to the Spanish
territories in Florida, where they were received with bells ringing and guns
firing, as if they had come victoriously from the field. This circumstance,
together with the encouragement afterwards given them to settle in Florida,
gave reason to believe that this horrid conspiracy was contrived by Spaniards,
and carried on by their encouragement and assistance. From the lowest state of
despondency Charlestown was suddenly raised to the highest pitch of joy. The
Governor entered it with some degree of triumph, receiving from all, such
applause as his courage, conduct and success justly merited. His prosperous
expedition had not only disconcerted the most formidable conspiracy ever
formed against the colony, but also placed the inhabitants in a state of
greater security than they had hitherto enjoyed. From this period the Yamassee
Indians harbored the most inveterate rancour against all Carolinians. Being
furnished with arms and ammunition from the Spaniards, they often sallied
forth in small scalping parties, and infested the frontiers. One such caught
William Hooper, and killed him by cutting off one part of his body after
another till he expired. Another surprised Henry Quinton, Thomas Simmons, and
Thomas Parmenter, and tortured them to death. Dr. Rose fell into their hands,
whom they cut across his nose with a tomahawk, and left him scalped on the
spot, apparently dead; but he happily recovered. The Spaniards of St.
Augustine, disappointed in their design of extirpating the English settlement
in Carolina, had now no other resource left but to employ the vindictive
spirit of the Yamassees against the defenceless frontiers of the province. In
these incursions they were too successful; many settlers at different times
fell a sacrifice to their insatiable revenge. 

About the year 1718 a scalping party penetrated as far as the Euhaw lands;
where having surprised John Levit and two of his neighbors, they dispatched
them with their tomahawks. They then seized Mrs. Borrows and one of her
children, and carried them off. The child by the way began to cry, upon which
they put him to death. The distressed mother being unable to restrain from
tears on seeing her child murdered, was informed that she must not weep if she
desired to live. Upon her arrival at Augustine she would have been immediately
sent to prison; but one of the Yamassee Kings declared that he knew her from
her infancy to be a good woman, and begged, but in vain, that she might be
sent home to her husband. When Mr. Borrows went to Augustine to procure the
release of his wife, he also was shut up in prison with her, where he soon
after died; but she survived. On her return to Carolina she reported to
Governor Johnson that the Huspah King, who had taken her prisoner, informed
her that he had orders from the Spanish Governor to spare no white man, but to
bring every negro alive to St. Augustine; and that rewards were given to
Indians for their prisoners to encourage them to engage in such murderous and
rapacious enterprises. At another time a large party of Indians moved towards
Charlestown, and killed several of the inhabitants. A fort was constructed in
haste at Wiltown into which the women and children were put, with a few old
men, for their protection. The militia marched out to meet the Indians, but
missed them. The Indians soon after appeared in force against this party, but
finding they would meet with resistance left it to go against the plantations.
Governor Craven at the head of a body of militia fell in with these Indians
near Stono Ferry, at the place where Lincoln, in June 1779, attacked the
British troops under Provost. A general action took place, in which the
Indians were entirely defeated. This was the last attempt of the Yamassees to
disturb the white people to the southward of Charlestown. In a few years after
the subjugation of the Yamassees, South Carolina became a royal province. The
wise measures adopted by Sir Francis Nicholson, the first royal Governor, the
treaties afterwards entered into with the Indians by Sir Alexander Cumming,
the settlement of Georgia, and the judicious measures respecting the Indians
adopted by General Oglethorpe, the Governors of Georgia and of South Carolina,
together with the increasing strength of the white people, and the decreasing
number of the Indians, all concurred in preserving peace with the savages, so
far that for forty years subsequent to the Yamassee war in 1715, the peace of
the province was preserved without any considerable or general interruption. 

[To be continued....]

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