The author of the following performance presents it to the public, not
from any great value he puts upon it, but from an anxious desire of
contributing towards a more complete and general acquaintance with the
real state of our colonies in America. Provincial affairs have only of
late years been made the objects of public notice and attention. There
are yet many, both in Great Britain and America, who are unacquainted
with the state of some of these settlements, and with their usefulness
and importance to a commercial nation. The southern provinces in
particular have been hitherto neglected, insomuch that no writer has
savoured the world with any tolerable account of them. Therefore it is
hoped, that a performance which brings those important, though obscure,
colonies into public view, and tends to throw some light upon their
situation, will meet with a favourable reception.
As many of the inhabitants of the eastern world will find themselves
little interested in the trifling transactions and events here related,
such readers will easily discover in what latitude the author wrote, and
for whose use his work was principally intended. They will also soon
perceive, that this history, like that of Dr. DOUGLAS respecting a
northern settlement in America, is only a rough draught, and far from
being a finished piece; and the author will frankly and candidly
acknowledge it. The case with respect to him is this, to which he must
beg the reader's attention. Having been several years a resident at
Charlestown in South Carolina, he was at some pains to pick up such
original papers and detached manuscripts as he could find, containing
accounts of the past transactions of that colony. This he did at first
for the sake of private amusement; but after having collected a
considerable number of those papers, he resolved to devote such hours as
could be spared from more serious and important business, to arrange
them, and form a kind of historical account of the rise and progress of
that settlement. For the illustration of particular periods, he confesses
that he was sometimes obliged to have recourse to very confused
materials, and to make use of such glimmering lights as occurred; indeed
his means of information, in the peculiar circumstances in which he
stood, were often not so good as he could have desired, and even from
these he was excluded before he had finished the collection necessary to
complete his plan. Besides, while he was employed in arranging these
materials, being in a town agitated with popular tumults, military
parade, and frequent alarms, his situation was very unfavourable for calm
study and recollection.
While the reader attends to these things, and at the same time considers
that the author has entered on a new field, where, like the wilderness he
describes, there were few beaten tracks, and no certain guides, he will
form several excuses for the errors and imperfections of this history.
Many long speeches, petitions, addresses, _&c._ he might no doubt have
abridged; but as there were his principal vouchers, for his own sake, he
chose to give them entire. Being obliged to travel over the same ground,
in order to mark its progress in improvement at different periods, it was
no easy matter to avoid repetitions. With respect to language, style and
manner of arrangement, the author not being accustomed to write or
correct for the press, must crave the indulgence of critics for the many
imperfections of this kind which may have escaped his notice. Having
endeavoured to render his performance as complete as his circumstances
would admit, he hopes the public will treat him with lenity, although it
may be far from answering their expectations. In short, if this part of
the work shall be deemed useful, and meet with any share of public
approbation, the author will be satisfied; and may be induced afterwards
to review it, and take some pains to render it not only more accurate and
correct, but also more complete, by adding some late events more
interesting and important than any here related: but if it shall turn out
otherwise, all must acknowledge that he has already bestowed sufficient
pains upon a production deemed useless and unprofitable. Sensible
therefore of its imperfections, and trusting to the public favour and
indulgence, he sends it into the world with that modesty and diffidence
becoming every young author on his first public appearance.