Port Royal, South Carolina

“ Some strong military and naval expeditions were fitted out to invade us and occupy the ports where cotton and other valuable products were usually shipped. An advance was made up the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers and down the Mississippi, as has been stated elsewhere. The ports of Beaufort, North Carolina, Port Royal, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana, were declared by proclamation of the President of the United States to be open for trade under the new system. ”

“ The channel up to Port Royal harbour is deep enough for the largest ships that sail on the sea; and the whole royal navy of England may ride with safety in it. Nature has evidently ordained this place for trade and commerce, by the many advantages with which she hath favoured it. ”

“ PORT ROYAL, an island in Beaufort county, South Carolina, U.S.A., at the head of Port Royal Sound, about 16 m. from the Atlantic coast, and about 50 m. S.W. of Charleston. It is about 13 m. long (north and south) by about 7 m. wide. The surface is generally flat, and there is much marshland in its southern part, and along its north-eastern shore. The principal settlement is Beaufort, a port of entry, and the county-seat of Beaufort county, on the Beaufort river (here navigable for vessels drawing 18 ft.) ”

“ Of the South Carolina slaves, the most ignorant and debased, beyond all question, were those on the sea islands about Port Royal. Engaged in unhealthy work, to which none but the coarsest of fiber were likely to be subjected, and steeped in the normal ignorance of the rice swamp and the cotton field, they were likewise isolated on their islands, and shut out from that mysterious transmission of intelligence, concerning their own interests, which seemed to permeate, like a magnetic current, all large communities of negroes. ”

“ It is served by the Charleston & Western Carolina railway, has inland water communication with Savannah, Georgia, and its harbour, Port Royal Sound (between Bay Point on the north-east and Hilton Head on the south-west) , is one of the largest and best on the coast of South Carolina. ”

“ Other vessels began to appear, moving in the same direction; and before noon we were off Port Royal entrance, with ten or eleven ships in company. Stragglers continued to come up as the time passed, and on Monday morning when the flagship arrived, there were already twenty-five or thirty sail around her.
Any land looks pleasant from the sea, when you have been knocking about for [Pg 48] some days in bad weather; and the South Carolina shore had a particularly attractive appearance for us, partly no doubt because we knew it would still be rather hard work getting there. ”

“ Coligny, with the assent of Charles IX, equipped two vessels which he despatched on February 18, 1562, under the command of Jean Ribault, to found the first colony attempted in North America since the return of Roberval in 1540. After exploring the coast, Ribault chose Port Royal Sound in the present State of South Carolina, as the most promising site for a colony; began the construction of a fort, to which he gave the name of Charles-fort, for the protection of those whom he intended to leave behind; and returned to Europe. ”

“ West of the channel is a lighthouse with a flashing light at an elevation of 133 feet. The harbor defenses include Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island—where the Federal Government, at an expenditure of over $500,000, is making extensive improvements designed to render the artillery post at that point one of the most completely equipped in the United States—and Fort Sumter. The other forts, well known in history, are now abandoned. The United States Navy Department has decided to transfer the naval station at Port Royal, S. C., to Charleston. ”

“ With a new fort at Beaufort (Port Royal) , and abundant artillery and ammunition furnished by his majesty, and ships of war protecting the harbor, we have but to look forward a few years to the settlement and improvement of the healthy and fertile “up country” by overland immigration from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the moving up of population from the coast, to reach the period of permanent prosperity and the greater development of the material resources of the province. Many families moved to the upper part of South Carolina when Governor Glen established peace with the Cherokees ”

“ The troops were landed on the south shore of Port Royal harbor and established themselves in regular camps. From this base of operations the land and naval forces, during 1862, gradually reëstablished the Federal authority, not only along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, but also at points on the Florida coast, including Fernandina, Jacksonville, and St. ”

“ Good transportation facilities, by rail and water, form a feature of its equipment as a commercial centre. The Clyde Line connects Charleston with New York, Boston, and Jacksonville, and freight-steamers go to important foreign and domestic ports; the Atlantic Coast Line, Southern, and Plant System railways afford railroad communication.
In the early years of the Nineteenth Century Charleston was the chief cotton port in the United States, and down to 1860 it held third place among the cotton-receiving ports. ”

“ Again, in South Carolina I have nominated a colored man to fill a vacancy in the position of collector of the port of Charleston, just as in Georgia I have reappointed the colored man who is now serving as collector of the port of Savannah. Both are fit men. Why the appointment of one should cause any more excitement than the appointment of the other, I am wholly at a loss to imagine. ”

“ Twelve thousand pounds sterling, a large sum at that day, were expended in preparation for founding, in what is now South Carolina, a colonial government calculated to bring both glory and emolument to their lordships. In August, 1669, three vessels were ready to sail from England: the “Carolina” frigate, the “Port Royall,” and the sloop “Albemarle.” On board the first-named were ninety-three passengers. How many were in the other vessels is not at present known; but the intention appears to have been to begin the settlement with at least two hundred. ”

“ We read of buccaneers and filibusters; of Morgan, the last of the tribe, knighted and made Vice-Governor of Jamaica; of the doings of the redoubtable Kidd; of the bloodiness of Blackbeard; of the countless list of names, some high-sounding, which at last were painted in crimson splashes on the gallows slip at Port Royal headland. Port Royal itself deserves a niche in the temple of fame. The richest and the most vicious town the world ever knew; so it was before the clean ocean washed away its vice and corruption, and buried it deep in the pure water of the blue Caribbean. ”

“ The vessels containing the infant colony, which was intended to be constituted according to the Grand Model, entered the harbour of 225Port Royal, on the shores of which, a century before, the Huguenots had erected their fort—the early Carolina—and of which even yet, some traces remained. The country around Port Royal, like that occupied by the early New England settlers, was in a great measure depopulated of natives, partly by an epidemic, and partly by sanguinary wars among themselves ”

“ Free persons of color, citizens of Massachusetts, and, according to the institutions of this Commonwealth, entitled to equal privileges with other citizens, being in service as mariners, and touching at the port of Charleston, in South Carolina, have been seized, and, with no allegation against them, except of entering this port in the discharge of their rightful business, have been cast into prison, and there detained during the stay of the vessel. ”

“ The mate plead a preference for Savannah, asserting, according to his own knowlege, that a ship of any draft could cross that bar at any time of tide, and that it was a better port for the transaction of business.
The Janson was headed for Charleston, the queen city of the sunny South, and, as may be expected from her disabled condition, made very slow progress on her course. During the gale, her stores had become damaged, and on the third day before making Charleston light, Manuel Pereira came aft, and with a sad countenance reported that the last cask of good water was nearly out ”

“ The Governor writes very good proclamations, nevertheless, and his confidence in South Carolina is unbounded. “If we stand alone, sir, we must win. They can’t whip us.” A gentleman named Pringle, for whom I had letters of introduction, has come to Charleston to ask me to his plantation, but there will be no boat from the port till Monday, and it is uncertain then whether the blockading vessels, of which we hear so much, may not be down by that time. ”

“ South Carolina is literally one of the Nine primitive Muses of American Liberty. "Before the thirteen were—she is." We must never forget that the parent of the revolution, the very Ovum Reipubliæ, was the Congress which convened in New York, in 1765. But nine colonies were represented, as four were overpowered by the royal party. But South Carolina beat down the strong opposition of the crown, and was the only one, south of the Potomac, that sent a delegation. ”

“ He is remembering that Jean Ribaut landed a Huguenot emigration in Port Royal fifty-eight years before the Puritans landed in Massachusetts Bay. The Knickerbocker has no boast to make before the South Carolinian, because the Dutch126 settled New York over half a century later than Port Royal was begun.
Charleston was settled by aristocrats from France, and later from England—men who came from the court and wore the garments and spoke the language of the world’s highest circle. Like New Orleans, it sprang into life as a cultured community. ”

“ Port Royal Island, S. Carolina. 32N. 80W. Huguenot colony settled on by Ribault, and soon after deserted, 1562; settlement on by Lord Cardross, who a few years afterwards was dislodged by Spaniards, 1686.
Port Royal Sound, S. Carolina. 32N. 80W. Confederate posts taken, 1861 (Civil W.) .
Portsmouth, N. Hampshire. 41N. 70W. Bp. T. B. Aldrich, poet and prose writer (1836-1906) .
Potomac, river, Virginia and Maryland. 38N. 76W. Explored by John Smith, 1608.
Potosi, Bolivia, S.A. 19S. 65W. Silver mines discovered by an Indian, 1545; exploited by Spaniards in 16th century. ”

“ There is a much larger population of blacks than of whites. Charleston, the metropolis of South Carolina, is an active seaport with sixty-five thousand inhabitants, having a good export trade in cotton, timber, naval stores, rice, fruits and phosphate rock, of which there are extensive deposits on Ashley River nearby. It is a low-lying city, built upon a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, just inland from the ocean, and having a good harbor. ”

“ Britain first furnished a number of bold and enterprising settlers, who carried with them the knowledge, arts, and improvements of a civilized nation. This may be said to be the chief favour for which Carolina stands indebted to the parent state during the proprietary government. But since the province has been taken under the royal care, it has been nursed and protected by a rich and powerful nation. Its government has been stable, private property secure, and the privileges and liberties of the people have been extensive. Lands the planters obtained from the King at a cheap rate. ”

“ She continued. “It was therefore widely known that you were consulting our South Carolina archives at the library—and then that notebook you bring marked you out the very first day. Why, two hours after your first lunch we just knew all about you!”
“Dear me!” said I.
“Kings Port is ever ready to discuss strangers,” she further explained. “The Exchange has been going on five years, and the resident families have discussed each other so thoroughly here that everything is known; therefore a stranger is a perfect boon.” ”

“ The genius of John Locke, more fitted for philosophy than affairs, devised a constitution for the colony, — an idle work, as it proved. In 1670, the first emigrants, under Governor William Sayle, arrived at Port Royal, with the purpose to remain there hut~, disturbed probably with apprehensions of Spanish incursions from Florida, they removed to the banks of the Ashley, and, after another change of site, founded Charleston. In 1682, a colony from Scotland under Lord Cardross was founded at Port Royal, but was driven away four years later by the Spanish. ”

“ The State of Rhode Island has men that can administer the Connecticut or the Mississippi; that can organize Niagara into a cotton factory; yes, that can get dominion over the ocean and the land: but the State of South Carolina has men that can manage the Congress, can rule the North and South, and make the nation do their bidding. ”

“ Sullivan's Island, the scene of fierce conflict during the Revolution, and later, during the Rebellion, is to-day the Long Branch or Coney Island of South Carolina, containing many beautiful cottages and fine drives, and furnishing good sea bathing. The village occupies the point extending into the harbor.
As one approaches Charleston from the sea, the name which has been applied to it, of the "American Venice," seems not inappropriate. The shores are low, and the city seems to rise out of the water. ”

“ In short, the people are not only blessed with plenty, but with a disposition to share it among friends and neighbours; and many will bear me witness, when I say, that travellers could scarcely go into any city where they could meet with a society of people more agreeable, intelligent and hospitable than that at Charlestown. ”