Life of Francis Marion | Page 4

me from indulging my
inclination; and the public attention, being long fixed upon the bloody
wars and great battles in Europe, had lost all relish for our
revolutionary history, and its comparatively little conflicts. However,
when Dr. RAMSAY announced that he was about to publish his history
of South Carolina, I hastily sketched out from memory a short history
of MARION'S brigade, for him; which he inserted in fifteen pages of
his first volume. This brings it down no lower than the arrival of
General GREENE in South Carolina. Fortunately the events of the late
war revived the national spirit, and with that a taste for our own history;
by it too, my inclination was renewed to communicate that of
MARION'S brigade. However, I still wanted materials to confide in
more certain than memory.
The last year I happened to mention my wish to Mr. RICHARD

SINGELLTON, of Colleton, son-in-law of Major JOHN POSTELL,
and he obligingly placed in my hands a bundle of original letters from
General MARION to that distinguished officer. Not long after I heard
that the late General PETER HORRY had preserved copies of General
MARION'S correspondence with General GREENE and other officers;
and I applied to his executor, Mr. JAMES GUIGNARD, who very
politely placed five duodecimo volumes in my hands, closely written
by the general. The originals were left by General HORRY with the
Rev. M. L. WEEMS, but it appears he made no use of them in his life
of MARION. The dates and facts stated in these copies agree pretty
well with the account in the history of South Carolina by Dr.
RAMSAY, and General MOULTRIE'S memoirs of the American
revolution.
I have also taken the pains to consult several of MARION'S officers
and men, who still survive. The Hon. THOMAS WATIES gave me
considerable information respecting the first part of the general's
operations, which I did not witness; as, after MARION'S retreat to the
White marsh, I was left sick in North Carolina. During MARION'S
struggle with WATSON I had returned, but was confined to my bed
with the small pox; and the greater part of that account was received
from Captain GAVIN WITHERSPOON, ROBERT WITHERSPOON,
Esq. and others. Respecting the affairs about Camden, General
CANTEY and Dr. BROWNFIELD gave me much information; and the
present sheriff of Charleston district, FRANCIS G. DELIESSELINE,
Esq. and myself have compared notes generally on the subject.
Of all these sources of information I have availed myself; besides
having recourse to every account of the events of that period which I
had it in my power to consult. This, I hope, will account satisfactorily
for any departures made from the statement I furnished Dr. RAMSAY.
There are no doubt many errors in my narrative, as nothing human is
exempt from them; but it is believed there are not more than usually
occur in what is considered accurate history. It may also need
correction in other matters, and it may not be pregnant with great
events; but still it is a kind of domestic history, which teaches lessons

of patience and patriotism, not surpassed in modern, and seldom in
ancient times.
WM. DOBEIN JAMES.

Introduction.
A view of the first settlement of the French Protestants on the Santee.
Lawson's account of them. The ancestors of General Marion emigrate
among them.

The revocation of the edict of Nantz, by Lewis XIV., though highly
detrimental to France, proved beneficial to Holland, England and other
European countries; which received the protestant refugees, and
encouraged their arts and industry. The effects of this unjust and
bigoted decree, extended themselves likewise to North America, but
more particularly to South Carolina: About seventeen years after its
first settlement, in the year 1690, and a short time subsequently,
between seventy and eighty French families, fleeing from the bloody
persecution excited against them in their mother country, settled on the
banks of the Santee. Among these were the ancestors of General
FRANCIS MARION. These families extended themselves at first only
from the lower ferry at South Santee, in St. James' parish, up to within
a few miles of Lenud's ferry, and back from the river into the parish of
St. Dennis, called the Orange quarter. From their first settlement, they
appear to have conciliated their neighbours, the Sewee and Santee
Indians; and to have submitted to their rigorous fate with that
resignation and cheerfulness which is characteristic of their nation. --
Many must have been the hardships endured by them in settling upon a
soil covered with woods, abounding in serpents and beasts of prey,
naturally sterile, and infested by a climate the most insalubrious. For a
picture of their sufferings read the language of one of them, Judith
Manigault, bred a lady in ease and affluence: -- "Since leaving France
we have experienced