Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe: Founder of the Colony of Georgia, in North America.Harris, Thaddeus Mason
History
Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe: Founder of the Colony of Georgia, in North America.
Harris, Thaddeus Mason
Georgia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Oglethorpe, James Edward, 1696-1785
[Footnote 2: Capt. FREDERICK McKAY, in a letter to THOMAS BROUGHTON,
Esq., Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, dated July 12,1735,
written to justify his conduct as Indian Commissary, in turning out
four traders who would not conform to the rules stipulated in the
licenses, has the following remarks on the difficulties which he had
to encounter: "It was impracticable to get the traders to observe
their instructions, while some did undersell the others; some used
light, others heavy weights; some bribed the Indians to lay out their
skins with them, others told the Indians that their neighboring
traders had heavy weights, and stole their skins from them, but that
they themselves had light weights, and that their goods were better."]
[Footnote 3: "_Report of the Committee appointed to examine into the
proceedings of the people of Georgia, with respect to the Province of
South Carolina, and the disputes subsisting between the two Colonies_."
4to. Charlestown, 1736, p. 121.
This tract was printed by Lewis Timothy. There was no printer in
Carolina before 1730, and this appears to have been one of the
earliest productions of the Charlestown press, in the form of a book.
RICH's _Bibliotheca Americana Nova_, p. 53.]
"The Committee cannot conceive that a charter from the crown of Great
Britain can give the grantees a right or power over a people, who, to
our knowledge, have never owned any allegiance, or acknowledged the
sovereignty of the crown of Great Britain, or any Prince in Europe;
but have indiscriminately visited and traded with the French,
Spaniards, and English, as they judged it most for their advantage;
and it is as difficult to understand how the laws of Great Britain, or
of any Colony in America, can take place, or be put in execution in
a country where the people never accepted of, nor submitted to, such
laws; but have always maintained their freedom, and have adhered to
their own customs and manners without variation or change."
Hence the Committee inferred that the Regulations which were passed
by the Trustees, could not be binding upon the Indians, nor serve to
effect any exclusive trade with them. Oglethorpe acknowledged this
independency of the Indians; and asserted that, in perfect consistency
with it, they had entered into a treaty of alliance with the Colony of
Georgia; and, having themselves indicated certain terms and principles
of traffic, these were adopted and enjoined by the Trustees; and this
was done, not to claim authority over the Indians, nor to control
their conduct, but to indicate what was required of those who should
go among them as traders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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