The fame of the beautiful land of South Carolina, “the region where every month had its succession of flowers,” soon led to the attempt to introduce and cultivate the olive, the orange, the mulberry for the production of the silk-worm, and vines for the production of wine. Charles II. himself sent over to the colony two small vessels with these plants, and Protestants from the South of France for their cultivation; he also exempted the province from the payment of duties on these commodities for a limited time, which caused dissatisfaction at home, and the remonstrance against “encouraging people to remove to the plantations, as too many go thither already to the unpeopling and ruin of the kingdom.” Emigrants continued to come over from England, and these of various classes, not only impoverished cavaliers and discontented churchmen, but the soundest element for colonisation, sturdy dissenters, to whom their native land no longer afforded a secure abode. Among other companies of emigrants, were a considerable number from Somersetshire, who accompanied Joseph Blake, the brother of the celebrated admiral, now dead. Blake was himself no longer young, but unable to endure the present oppressions of England, and dreading still worse from a popish successor to the crown, devoted the whole of the vast fortune he had inherited from his brother to the purposes of emigration. A colony of Irish went over, under Ferguson, and soon amalgamated with the population. Lord Cardross also took over a company of brave Scotch exiles, who had suffered grievously at home for their religion—men who had been thumb-screwed and tortured for conscience-sake, but they, having established themselves at Port Royal, fell victims to the animosity of the Spaniards, who claimed that portion of the district as appertaining to St. Augustine, and consequently destroyed their settlement. Many returned to Scotland; the rest, like the Irish, became blended with the original colonists.