Friendly Indians in South Carolina
Bell Island in South Carolina, about an hour from Charleston. Belle Isle is the resting place of General Francis Marion, who was buried in 1795. There was considerable debate over moving the Francis Marion Grave to Francis Marion College, but it was decided to leave the body at Belle Isle.
John Lawson's trip up the Santee River explains how the Indians provided hospitality and mingled with white settlers in South Carolina in the early seventeen hundreds.
John Lawson began his voyage to North Carolina from Charlestown (Charleston) on December 28, 1700. There were six English men in his company, three Indian men, one woman, and the wife of an Indian guide. They traveled Northward of Sullivan's Island in a large canoe. The breach had a lookout for Mariners, also considered a good landmark in such a country.
The Sewee or "Islanders" were a Native American tribe that lived on the lower course of the Santee River and the coast westward to the divide of Ashley River, around present-day Moncks Corner, South Carolina. They were formerly a large Nation. However, Lawson noted that their size had decreased since the English seated their Land. The Indians were very apt to catch any Distemper, and smallpox had destroyed many thousands of Natives. The Indians flung themselves overhead in the water as soon as violent Fevers and the Burning consumed them.
"Distempers which are epidemical, you may find among them Practitioners that have extraordinary Skill and Success in removing those morbific Qualities which afflict them, not often going above 100 Yards from their Abode for their Remedies, some of their chiefest Physicians commonly carrying their Compliment of Drugs continually about them, which are Roots, Barks, Berries, Nuts, and that are strung upon a Thread. So, like a Pomander, the Physician wears them about his Neck. An Indian hath has been often found to heal an English man of a Malady, for the Value of a Match-Coat; which the ablest of our English Pretenders in America, after repeated Applications, have deserted the Patient as incurable; God having furnished every Country with specific Remedies for their peculiar Diseases."
Lawson continues:
"Rum, a Liquor now so much in Use with them, that they will part with the dearest Thing they have, to purchase it; and when the Indians got a little in their Heads, are the inpatient's Creatures living, 'till they have enough to make 'em quite drunk; and the most miserable Spectacles when they are so, some falling into the Fires, burn their Legs or Arms, contracting the Sinews, and become Cripples all their Life-time; others from Precipices break their Bones and Joints, with an abundance of Instances, yet none are so great to deter them from that accursed Practice of Drunkenness, though sensible how many of them (are by it) hurried into the other World before their Time, as themselves often will confess."
The travelers saw several Ships bringing English Supplies from Old England, one chief Part of their Cargo to trade for pelts with the Indians. About seventy families were seated on the Santee River. The French also traded with the Indians and lived conveniently nearby. The French were a temperate, industrious people, some of them bringing very little of Effect, yet by their endeavors and mutual assistance amongst themselves. The English brought more considerable fortunes. The abundant deer in the region afforded even the poorest master the privilege of hunting for game with his rifle.
The Santee River had a strong current as the party rowed fifteen miles up the river to a Christian dwelling where they were well received. The owner of Bell's Island was a Bermudian who stocked cattle and hogs on a poor spot of Land. One side of the roof of his House was thatched with palmetto leaves, the other open to the Heavens, thousands of mosquitoes, and other troublesome Insects.
The Congeree Indians occupied middle South Carolina and were known to be kind and generous to the English. The Queen was very kind to Lawson's group. Her cabin was a Loblolly made with Indian Corn and dried Peaches.
The Congeree Indians had an abundance of Storks and Cranes in their Savannas. They took them before they could fly and bred them as tame as the fowl. They had a tame Crane at one of the Cabins that was scarcely less than six feet in height, his head being round, with a shining natural Crimson Hue, which they all have.
Lawson described the women in the Indian Nations.
"as handsome as most I have met withal, being several fine-fingered Brounetto's amongst them. These Lasses stick not upon Hand long, for they marry when very young, as at 12 or 14 Years of Age."
"The Santee-Indians are a well-humoured and hospitable people, and living near the English, they have become very tractable. They make themselves Cribs very curiously, wherein they secure their Corn from Vermin, which are more frequent in these warm Climates than in Countries more distant from the Sun. These pretty fabrics are supported with eight Feet or Posts, about seven Foot high from the Ground, well daubed within and without upon Laths, with Loom or Clay, which makes them tight and fit to keep out the smallest Insect, there being a small Door at the gable End, which is made of the same composition, and to be removed at Pleasure, being no bigger, than that a slender Man may creep in at, cementing the Door up with the same Earth, when they take Corn out of the Crib and are going from Home, always finding their Granaries in the same Posture they left them; Theft to each other being altogether unpractised, never receiving Spoils but from Foreigners."
Source: A New Voyage to Carolina by John Lawson