George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[91] The tents on James Island contained at least five hun-

Chap. XLVI.} 1775. July to Oct.

dred men well armed and clad, soldier-like in theirdeportment, and strictly disciplined. They were taught not merely the use of the musket but the ex-to ercise of the great guns. The king's arsenal supplied cannon and balls. New gun carriages were soon constructed, for the mechanics, almost to a man, were hearty in the cause. Hundreds of negro laborers were brought in from the country to assist in work. None stopped to calculate expense.

The heroic courage of the Carolinians, who, from a generous sympathy with Massachusetts, went forward to meet greater danger than any other province, was scoffed at by the representatives of the king as an infatuation. Martin, of North Carolina, making himself busy with the affairs of his neighbors, wrote in midsummer: ‘The people of South Carolina forget entirely their own weakness and are blustering treason, while Charleston, that is the head and heart of their boasted province, might be destroyed by a single frigate, and the country thereby reduced to the last distress. In charity to them and in duty to my king and country, I give it as my sincere opinion, that the rod of correction cannot be spared.’ A few weeks later, Lord William Campbell chimed in with him, reckoning up the many deadly perils by which they were environed; ‘the Indians;’ ‘the disaffected back country people;’ their own social condition, ‘where their slaves were five to one;’ and the power of Britain from the sea. Before the world they offered their fortunes, the safety of their families, and their own lives in witness to their love of freedom. From Charleston harbor Campbell wrote in October: ‘Let ’