narrow escape, and the entreaties of a tender mother,
Francis Marion was induced to abandon the sea, for an element, on which
he was to become singularly useful. His mother's maiden name was Cordes,
and she also was of French extraction. Engaged in cultivating the
soil, we hear no more of Marion for ten years. Mr. Henry Ravenel, of
Pineville, now more than 70 years of age, knew him in the year 1758;
he had then lost his father; and, removing with his mother and brother
Gabriel from Georgetown, they settled for one year near Frierson's lock,
on the present Santee canal. The next year Gabriel removed to Belle
Isle, in St. Stephen's parish, late the residence of his son, the Hon.
Robert Marion. Francis settled himself in St. John's, at a place called
Pond Bluff, from the circumstance of there being a pond at the bottom
of a bluff, fronting the river low grounds. This place is situated
about four miles below Eutaw, on the Santee; and he continued to hold it
during life.* Others fix his settling in St. John's, at a later period:
this is of little consequence, but what is of some, was that in this
most useful of all stations, a tiller of the ground, he was industrious
and successful. In the same year, 1759, the Cherokee war broke out,
and he turned out as a volunteer, in his brother's troop of provincial
cavalry. In 1761, he served in the expedition under Col. Grant, as
a lieutenant in Captain Wm. Moultrie's company, forming part of a
provincial regiment, commanded by Col. Middleton. It is believed that he
distinguished himself in this expedition, in a severe conflict between
Col. Grant and the Indians, near Etchoee, an Indian town; but, if he
did so, the particulars have not been handed down to us, by any official
account. General Moultrie says of him, "he was an active, brave, and
hardy soldier; and an excellent partisan officer." We come now to that
part of Marion's life, where, acting in a more conspicuous situation,
things are known of him, with more certainty. In the beginning of the
year 1775, he was elected one, of what was then called the provincial
congress of South Carolina, from St. John's. This was the public body
which agreed to the famous continental association, recommended by
congress, to prevent the importation of goods, wares, and merchandizes,
from Great Britain: they likewise put a stop to all suits at law, except
where debtors refused to renew their obligations, and to give reasonable
security, or when jus