Orange River Colony

“ There was a general meeting of the governor and council once in every three months. The population of the colony was estimated at not less than fifteen hundred; they inhabited seventeen or eighteen plantations, of these the greater part, lying toward the falls of the James River, were well fortified against the Indians by means of palisades. The planters dwelling above Jamestown, found means to procure an abundant supply of fish. On the banks of that river the red men themselves were now seldom seen, but their fires were occasionally observed in the woods. ”

“ It was with difficulty, too, that the settlers became inured to the climate. Within a year forty-two are reported to have died, chiefly of fever and dysentery. The colony, however, enjoyed a measure of prosperity until the War of 1812 broke out, when the Americans under General M'Arthur, moving from Detroit, despoiled it of stores, cattle, and sheep, and almost obliterated it. In 1818 Lord Selkirk {20} sold the land to John M'Nab, a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company. Many descendants of the original settlers are, however, still living in the neighbourhood. ”

“ On this occasion he anchored his fleet at Pensacola, proceeding afterward with one of his vessels to Mobile. A period of inaction in the affairs of the colony follows, coincident with the war of the Spanish Succession, during which the settlement languished, and its history can be told in few words. Free transportation from France to Louisiana was granted to a few unfortunate women and children, relatives of colonists. Some Canadians with Indian wives came down the river with their families. Thus a semblance of a settlement was formed. ”

“ The project of establishing a chain of military posts to the Pacific, and of building a colony at some point near the mouth of the Columbia river, is again spoken of in the newspapers. We hope that it will be postponed yet a little while it is not the interest of either the old Atlantic or the new states of the west, that a current of population should now be forced beyond the settled boundaries of the republic. ”

“ And it is hereby declared, that it shall not be lawful to or for the rest of the Colonies to invade or molest the native Indians or any other inhabitants inhabiting within the bounds and limits hereafter mentioned, they having subjected themselves unto us, and being by us taken into our special protection, without the knowledge and consent of the Governor and Company of our Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. ”

“ The recent disturbances at Grand Cape Mount, noticed in the accompanying Lecture of our Agent, will create a necessity for its speedy settlement; and, if we do not secure it for the colored people of Ohio, it must be given to others, to prevent the native population from being shipped off to the West Indies or Brazil.
The Committee feels assured, that, with a few thousand dollars, it can prevent this transfer to other parties, and secure the settlement of Grand Cape Mount as an Ohio Colony. This it considers very important, as a means of encouraging emigration. ”

“ When the first effectual settlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the sea-coast to the mountains, and from Potowmac to the most southern waters of James' River, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of these the Powhatans, the Mannahoacs, and Monacans, were the most powerful. Those between the sea-coast and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the Powhatans as their link of union. ”

“ No mountain chain breaks the monotony of the central portions of the Colony. In the interior hills are called mountains, and a line of hills, ranges, for want of a better name.
The first settlement was formed on the Swan River in 1826, and gradually spread to the South and North, until to-day we find the occupied portion of the Colony extending along the western seaboard for about 1,200 miles, with an average breadth of perhaps two hundred miles. In the North the occupied country is confined to the watersheds of the two main rivers, the Fitzroy and the Ord. ”

“ The name Carolina, which that section still bears, was given to
a fort at Port Royal, or St. Helena. Ribault returned to France, where
civil war was then raging between the Catholics and the Protestants or
Huguenots. His colony, waiting for promised aid and foolishly making no
attempt to cultivate the soil, soon languished. Dissensions arose, and
an effort was made to return home. Famine having carried off the greater
number, the colony came to an end. In 1564 Coligny sent out Laudonniere,
who built another fort, also named Carolina, on the River of May. ”

“ It was far better to present an imposing force to them on the borders of the colony, than to suffer them to come down amongst us, where we should have been completely in their power, in our scattered habitations. At the request of the chief officer I accompanied the boats, and set off with him for the Company's Post at Pembina, about the middle of May. We arrived on the Friday, and soon after divine service on the Sunday morning the Sioux Indians were seen marching over the plains, with several colours flying, towards the Colony Fort, which was immediately opposite to that of the Company. ”

“ De Rochefort, in his Histoire Morale des Isles Antilles (p. 284.) mentions the English and French killing the Caribb Chiefs, in the following terms: 'Ils se defirent en une nuit de tous les plus factieux de cette nation!' Thus in usurpation and barbarity was founded the first colony established under the authority of the British and French governments in the West Indies; which colony was the parent of our African slave trade. ”

“ They loved him so much that the highest praise they could give any man was to say "he is like the great Onas," and it was said that any one dressed like a Quaker was far safer among the Indians than one who carried a gun.
Life seemed so easy in Pennsylvania that in the first years thousands of colonists came flocking to the new colony. It grew faster than any other colony, so fast indeed that houses could not be built quickly enough. So for a time many of the new settlers had to live in caves dug out of the banks of the Delaware River. ”

“ To crown this enterprise with success, they believe it to be expedient to have a road cut from some of the towns on the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains to Astoria, at the mouth of the Oregon River. As soon as this passage can be opened, a colony of farmers and mechanics should be conducted across the mountains and settled, with a military power, stationed strong enough to protect the colony. Donations of land should be made to those who would become actual settlers, sufficiently large to induce emigration. ”

“ That year, "about eighteen families settled themselves at Fort Orange, under Adriaen Joris, who 'staid with them all winter,' after sending his ship home to Holland in charge of his son. As soon as the colonists had built themselves 'some huts of bark' around the fort, the Mahikanders or River Indians [Mohegans] , the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, with the Mahawawa or Ottawawa Indians, 'came and made covenants of friendship ... ”

“ They do not possess public confidence.
“But the Hudson’s Bay Company—the colonial office of this unfortunate new colony—has positive interests antagonistic to those of an important settlement.
“It is a body whose history, tendency, traditions, and prospects are equally and utterly opposed to the existence, within its hunting-grounds, of an active, wealthy, independent, and flourishing colony,” (we Americans say settlements) “with all the destructive consequences of ruined monopoly and wide-spread civilization.” ”

“ It is now almost one hundred years since the American Colonization Society was established and sent its first freed negro settlers to the West Coast of Africa; it is almost seventy years since, in 1847, the society severed its relation with the colonists and urged them to establish an independent form of government. We have no right to take any great amount of credit to ourselves for the original establishment; it was less from philanthropy or altruism than from selfishness that we began the colony ”

“ A colony, known as the "Ex-Soldiers' Colony," was formed in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1883. It accepted members from everywhere, and now April 24, '84, shows a roll of over two hundred members, many of whom have gone to the location, forty miles north-east of North Platte, in unorganized territory, and near the Loup river. Six hundred and forty acres were platted into a town site in spring of '84, and named Logan, in honor of Gen. John A. Logan. Quite a number are already occupying their town lots, and building permanent homes, and most of the land within reach has been claimed by the colonists. ”

“ If, then, a Colony of colored men, beginning with less than 100, and gradually increasing to 9,000, has, in 30 years, established an Independent Republic amidst a savage people; destroyed the slave trade on 600 miles of the African coast; put down the heathen temples in one of its largest counties; afforded security to all the missions within its limits; and now casts its shield over 300,000 native inhabitants; what may not be done in the next 30 years, by Colonization and Missions combined, were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their energies? ”

“ Those colonies in which the English or European element is very small can best be governed, it is found, by the Crown Colony system. The native, dark-skinned population are not fit to govern themselves—they are too ignorant and too uncivilised, and if the government is left entirely in the hands of the small number of whites who may happen to live in the colony, they are apt not to take enough care of the interests of the coloured inhabitants. The simplest form of the Crown Colony is that found in some of the smaller groups of islands in the West Indies. ”

“ Having found much fault with the Colonization Society, it is pleasant to believe that one portion of their enterprise affords a distant prospect of doing more good than evil. They now principally seek to direct the public attention to the founding of a Colony in Africa; and this may prove beneficial in process of time. If the colored emigrants were educated before they went there, such a Colony would tend slowly, but certainly, to enlighten Africa, to raise the character of the negroes, to strengthen the increasing liberality of public opinion, and to check the diabolical slave trade. ”

“ If only Ladysmith is held, the Colony is safe. This shocking flight of women and children from town after town is too awful to witness. Shame on the British Government to make our Colony the scene of this bloody struggle, and leave the handful of soldiers sent out all unsupported, unprepared—unprepared as usual—all smug and self-confident in the little overcrowded, over-comfortable island, and forgetful of the horrors to which unfortunate colonists are exposed across the sea. ”

“ It can best be done, we think, by augmenting the means at the command of the American Colonization Society, that the colony of Liberia may be strengthened and improved for their gradual reception. The greater the number of persons sent thither, from any part of this nation whatsoever, so much the more capable it becomes of receiving a still greater. Every encouragement to it, therefore, though it may not seem to have any particular portion of emigrants directly in view, will produce a favorable effect upon all. ”

“ All men fit to bear arms were required to bring their pieces to the church on occasion of public worship. No person within the colony, upon any rumor of supposed change and alteration, was to presume to be disobedient to the present government, nor servants to their private officers, masters, and overseers, at their uttermost peril. No boats were permitted to go and trade to Canada or elsewhere that be not of the burthen of ten tons, and have a flush deck, or fitted with a grating and a tarpauling, excepting such as be permitted for discovery by a special license from the governor. ”

“ Others have obtained as handsome results, in proportion to their forces; some went to the seashore, where the wax tree grows wild, in order to use it in its natural state. It is the only luminary used here by the inhabitants, and it is exported to other parts of America and to France. We stand in need of tillers of the ground, and of negroes. The colony prospers rapidly from its own impulse, and requires only gentle stimulation. In the last three years, forty-five brick houses were erected in New Orleans, and several fine new plantations were established. ”

“ He says they have, within the bounds of that Colony, between three and four hundred thousand people, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island, or Delaware, or in some of our newer States, and less than in some of our larger ones. They are not all American colonists or their descendants. ”

“ The object of the colony of La Caroline was a permanent establishment—a place of refuge from persecution—where the seeds of a new empire might be planted on a basis which should ensure civil liberty to the citizen. The proper aim of such a settlement should have been security, self-maintenance, and peace with all men. These could only have been found in the economizing of their resources, in the application- 124 - of all their skill and industry to the cultivation of the soil, and in the preservation of the most friendly relations among the Indians. ”