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through the wilderness to the
Gulf of Mexico, the sav-
ages were overawed; and
Great Britain established anew claim to the central forests that were soon to be named
Georgia.
In the next year, a French squadron from the Ha-
vana attempted revenge by an invasion of
Charleston; but the brave
William Rhett and the governor,
Sir Nathaniel Johnson, inspired courage, and prepared defence.
The
Huguenots, also, panted for action.
One of the French ships was taken; and, wherever a landing was effected, the enemy was attacked with such energy that, of eight hundred, three hundred were killed or taken prisoners.
The colonists fought like brave men contending for their families and homes.
Unaided by the proprietaries,
South Carolina gloriously defended her territory, and, with very little loss, repelled the invaders.
The result of the war at the south was evidently an extension of the
English boundary far into the territory that
Spain had esteemed as a portion of
Florida.
At the north, the province of
Massachusetts alone was desolated: for her, the history of the war is but a catalogue of misery.
The marquis
de Vaudreuil, now governor of
Canada, made haste to conciliate the
Iroquois.
A treaty of neutrality with the Senecas was commemorated by two strings of wampum: to prevent the rupture of this happy agreement, he resolved to send no war parties against the
English on the side of New York.
The
English were less successful in their plans of
neutrality with the Abenakis.
A congress of chiefs, from the
Merrimac to the
Penobscot, met Governor
Dudley at
Casco: ‘The sun,’ said they, ‘is not more distant from the earth, than our thoughts from war;’