corn, and about
eight hundred thousand weight of tobacco.

{1688}

About this time, an event occurred in the southern settlements,
showing as well the poverty of the people, as the manner in which the
affairs of the proprietors were conducted. Joseph West, their agent,
was appointed to succeed Yeamans in the government; and, the colony
being unable to pay his salary, the plantation, and mercantile stock
of the proprietors, were assigned to him in satisfaction of his
claims.

In England, the opinion had been long entertained that the southern
colonies were adapted to the production of those articles which
succeed in the warmer climates of Europe. In pursuance of this
opinion, Charles, in 1679, employed two vessels to transport foreign
protestants into the southern colony for the purpose of raising wine,
oil, silk, and other productions of the south; and, to encourage the
growth of these articles, exempted them, for a limited time, from
taxation. The effort, however, did not succeed.

Old Charlestown being found an inconvenient place for the seat of
government, the present Charleston became the metropolis of South
Carolina. This situation was deemed so unhealthy, that directions were
given to search out some other position for a town. The seat of
government, however, remained unaltered until the connexion with Great
Britain was dissolved.

Carolina continued to increase slowly in wealth and population without
any remarkable incident, except the invasion of its most southern
settlement by the Spaniards from St. Augustine. This was occasioned,
in part, by the jealousy with which the English colony inspired its
neighbours, but was principally, and immediately attributable to the
countenance given, in Charleston, to the buccaneers who then infested
those seas, and who were particularly hostile to the Spaniards. It was
with difficulty the colonists were prevented by the proprietors from
taking ample vengeance for this injury. Their resentments, though
restrained, were not extinguished; and, until the annexation of the
Floridas to the British crown, these colonies continued to view each
other with distrust and enmity.

[Sidenote: Constitution of Mr. Locke abandoned.]

The dissatisfaction of the colony with its constitution grew with its
population. After some time a settled purpose was disclosed, to thwart
and oppose the wishes of the proprietors in every thing. Wearied with
a continued struggle to support a system no