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|Bicentennial commission of...
|General editor's preface
|Title Page
|Table of Contents
|Chapter I
|Chapter II
|Chapter III
|Chapter IV
|Chapter V
|Chapter VI
|Table of Contents
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Bicentennial commission of Florida
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Chapter I
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Chapter II
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Chapter III
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Chapter IV
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Chapter V
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Chapter VI
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|Full Text
Of the ENGLISH PROVINCE of
By the Spaiar cal'd
And by the FrAec
La LOUISIANE
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Colonel Daniel Coxe, 1673-1739.
Of the ENGLISH PROVINCE of
By the Spaiiard: called
And by the French
La LOUISIANE.
By DANIEL COXE, Efq;
of the 1722 EDITION
with an INTRODUCTION
by William S. Coker
and an INDEX
by Polly Coker.
published under the sponsorship of the
SAMUEL PROCTOR, General Editor.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Coxe, Daniel, 1673-1739.
A description of the English province of Carolana, by the
Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisiane.
(Bicentennial Floridiana facsimile series)
Photo reprint of the 1722 ed. published by B. Crowse, London.
"A University of Florida book."
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
1. Mississippi Valley-Description and travel. I. Title: A de-
scription of the English province of Carolana ..
Governor Reubin O'D. Askew, Honorary Chairman
Lieutenant Governor J. H. Williams, Chairman
Harold W. Stayman, Jr., Vice Chairman
William R. Adams, Executive Director
Dick J. Batchelor, Orlando
Johnnie Ruth Clarke, St. Petersburg
A. H. "Gus" Craig, St. Augustine
James J. Gardener, Fort Lauderdale
Jim Glisson, Tavares
Mattox Hair, Jacksonville
Thomas L. Hazouri, Jacksonville
Ney C. Landrum, Tallahassee
Mrs. Raymond Mason, Jacksonville
Carl C. Mertins, Jr., Pensacola
Charles E. Perry, Miami
vi Bicentennial Commission.
W. E. Potter, Orlando
F. Blair Reeves, Gainesville
Richard R. Renick, Coral Gables
Jane W. Robinson, Cocoa
Mrs. Robert L. Shevin, Tallahassee
Don Shoemaker, Miami
Mary L. Singleton, Jacksonville
Bruce A. Smathers, Tallahassee
Alan Trask, Fort Meade
Edward J. Trombetta, Tallahassee
Ralph D. Turlington, Tallahassee
William S. Turnbull, Orlando
Robert Williams, Tallahassee
Lori Wilson, Merritt Island
HE post-Civil-War era made it a
commonplace thing for railroad
companies and promoters and de-
velopers like Hamilton Disston and
Henry Morrison Flagler to advertise Florida.
They were responsible for the publication of all
kinds of printed material designed to sell land to
prospective settlers. In the twentieth century,
particularly during the boom era of the 1920s
and the years since World War II, the promo-
tion of Florida land has come to be recognized
almost as a way of life. Large and small devel-
opers have printed and circulated books, pam-
phlets, articles, brochures, photographic essays,
and a variety of other materials. The effort to
advertise and promote Florida to would-be set-
tlers had its beginnings in the book published
in 1722 which is being reprinted as one of the
facsimiles in the Bicentennial Floridiana Facsim-
ile Series. A Description of the English Province
of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida, and
by the French, La Louisiane was written by Col-
onel Daniel Coxe, who hoped to entice colonists
to the vast tract of land, Carolana, which the
family had acquired at the end of the seventeenth
century. It was quite a property, about one-
eighth the total land area of Canada and the
United States, and the largest grant by the Eng-
lish crown in America to a private individual.
Carolana extended from 310 to 360 north lati-
tude, or from the River St. Mattheo (the St.
Johns River) north to Passo Magno (Albemarle
Sound) and west to the South-Sea. Dr. Daniel
Coxe, the colonel's father, developed the first
plans to establish the colony. Many of the con-
cepts which he devised for the governing of his
colony anticipated the later Oglethorpe settle-
ment in Georgia.
At the very moment that Dr. Coxe was try-
ing to develop Carolana, the French were de-
veloping their plans for colonizing the Gulf
Coast. The Spanish in Florida were particularly
alarmed at these threats to their security, al-
though they took no steps until the enemy was
already approaching their threshold. They were
spurred to action early in 1698 when it was re-
ported that he French were fitting out four ships
for an expedition to the Gulf of Mexico. After
the years of procrastination and delay, the Span-
ish now moved rapidly, and a settlement was
made at Pensacola Bay on November 17, 1698.
Earlier that year, May 2, 1698, Dr. Coxe had
transferred 500,000 acres of land west of the
Apalachicola River to Sir William Waller and
his French Huguenot associates. The conditions
of the transfer required that the new owners
settle 200 Protestant families on the land in two
years. Shortly after this transaction, a one-page
pamphlet, Proposals for Settling a Colony in
Florida, appeared. Extolling the valuable prod-
ucts of Florida and the prospects for trade, Dr.
Coxe invited dispersed Protestants in England
and northern Europe to settle in Florida. There
was enough of a response for him to fill two
small brigantines which left England in October
1698 for the Gulf Coast. The Spanish arrived
in Pensacola in November, and a French expe-
dition under Pierre Lemoyne, Sieur d'Iberville
settled at Biloxi, February 22, 1699.
Dr. Coxe and his associates were pushing
their settlement plans for Carolana. The brigan-
tines arrived in Charleston where they were
forced to remain through the winter. The fol-
lowing spring, one vessel sailed south along the
Florida east coast, around the Keys, and into
the Gulf of Mexico, past both Pensacola and
Biloxi without observing the settlements. The
English ship explored the Mississippi, and there
encountered d'Iberville's brother, who had en-
tered the river earlier. Although the English
claimed prior settlement rights, the French per-
suaded the captain of Coxe's expedition to with-
If Dr. Coxe had failed, he had helped precipi-
tate the French-Spanish settlement race for the
Gulf Coast. The War of the Spanish Secession,
which involved the great powers of Europe,
seriously interrupted Dr. Coxe's promotional
enterprises. His interest in America continued,
however, and he tried to keep the Carolana
project alive. More and more, though, it had
become the responsibility of his son, Daniel
Coxe, the author of A Description of the Eng-
lish Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards
called Florida, and by the French, La Louisiane.
The publication of this volume was intended to
revive interest in Carolana. In the preface, Coxe
explained that the purpose of his book was to
provide a description of the colony, the Indian
nations, and the flora and fauna of the area. It
was also designed to defend Britain's claim to
the province and to show what an attractive
place it would be for settlement. The project
was never successful. The Coxe family con-
tinued to hold title to it until 1769 when, finally,
Daniel Coxe V surrendered the claim in ex-
change for a crown grant of 100,000 acres in
New York.
If the book had value in the eighteenth cen-
tury in focusing attention on an area about
which so little was known, it continues to have
value for twentieth-century scholars who are
working in Florida and Southern history. It pro-
vides interesting data on the Indians and on the
resources of the Carolana area. Many questions
as to its accuracy have been raised, and there is
good reason to doubt some of Dr. Coxe's state-
ments. Yet as Professor Coker, the author of the
introduction to the facsimile, notes, "Colonel
Coxe's Carolana has earned its niche in the liter-
ature of the colonial history of America."
This facsimile is one of the twenty-five be-
ing published under the auspices of the Florida
Bicentennial Commission as part of its program
of Bicentennial activities. To plan Florida's role
and involvement in the national celebration, the
Florida legislature created the Commission in
1970. Governor Reubin O'D. Askew serves as
its chairman. Other members represent the Flor-
ida legislature and several state agencies. Also,
ten persons are appointed public members by the
governor. Florida is the oldest state in the United
States, and it is the fastest growing major state.
All Floridians and all Americans are interested
in knowing and sharing in its rich heritage. Pub-
lication of the facsimiles of the twenty-five rare,
out-of-print volumes will make a substantial con-
tribution to the scholarship of Florida history.
The titles were selected to represent the whole
spectrum of Florida's rich and exciting history.
Scholars with a special interest and knowledge
of Florida history will edit each volume, write
an introduction, and compile an index.
William Coker, professor of history at the
University of West Florida, is a graduate of the
University of Southern Mississippi and the Uni-
versity of Oklahoma. The Spanish borderlands,
Latin American and United States diplomatic
history, and Florida history are his special re-
search areas of interest. Professor Coker has been
actively involved in the activities of the Gulf
Coast History and Humanities Conference, and
is the editor of The Americanization of the Gulf
Coast, 1803-1850. He is editor of the Papers
of Panton, Leslie and Company, and his articles
have appeared in scholarly journals in the United
States and Latin America.
General Editor of the
University of Florida.
HE Rose and Crown press located
in St. Paul's Churchyard, London,
printed in 1722 a volume entitled
A Description of the English Prov-
ince of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida,
and by the French, La Louisiane.1 Published as
promotional literature by Colonel Daniel Coxe
to defend the family title to Carolana, to attract
settlers to America, and to assert the priority of
British claims to the Mississippi Valley, the vol-
ume has been the subject of praise or censure
ever since. The book capped a half century of
collection of travel accounts, maps, and writings
about America by Coxe's father, Dr. Daniel
The first Daniel Coxe of interest to this
study, the colonel's grandfather, came from
Stoke Newington, now a borough of London.
He died on September 3, 1686, and was buried
in the church there. His son, Daniel Coxe II,
born in 1640 or 1641, had lived to about age
ninety when he died on January 19, 1730. Dr.
Daniel Coxe II married Rebecca, daughter of
John Coldham, an alderman of London, on May
12, 1671, and Daniel Coxe III, the colonel, was
the first son of this union.
Dr. Coxe lived on Aldersgate Street in Lon-
don for many years, but by 1723 he had moved
to Hoxton. He had revealed an active interest
in science before receiving his degree in medi-
cine from Cambridge in 1669. He performed
an experiment upon animals, using nicotine of
tobacco, and had read a paper on that subject to
the faculty of Gresham College on May 3, 1665.
It was about the same time that the Royal Soci-
ety elected Coxe to membership in that dis-
tinguished body. Two papers written by him
appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of
1674: A Discourse on Alcalizates and Fixed
Salts, A Way of extracting Volatile Salt and
Spirit out of Vegetables, and The Improvement
of Cornwall by Sea Sand. Coxe owned a chemi-
cal laboratory and once described the pictur-
esque effects produced by crystallization during
one of his experiments. He became physician to
Charles II and later to Queen Anne. The Royal
College of Physicians of London admitted Dr.
Coxe as an Honorary Fellow on September 30,
1680. He was noted as a "physician of eminence,
a man of learning, and an author."2
Besides his interests and writing about scien-
tific and medical subjects, Dr. Coxe wrote the
preface to A Short Account of the Kingdoms
around the Euxine and Caspian Seas, which was
published along with other works in 1677 by
J. Phillip.3 Dr. Coxe next turned his attention
and literary talents to the New World. In this
connection he has been characterized as a "man
of grandiose ideas & one of the great American
speculators of his age."' He was first interested in
the Jerseys, and in 1684 acquired an interest in
West Jersey. Two years later Coxe purchased
property in East Jersey. On February 26, 1686,
he bought from the heirs of Edward Byllinge an
extensive estate and the right of government in
West Jersey. Within a short time his land in the
Jerseys and elsewhere in America exceeded one
million acres. Coxe established the seat of gov-
ernment for West Jersey in Burlington, where
his agents and deputy governor settled. John
Skene, Byllinge's deputy, acted for Coxe until
Skene's death in December 1687, after which
Coxe appointed Edward Hunloke as deputy
Dr. Coxe and Governor Robert Barclay of
East Jersey agreed upon a boundary line be-
tween the two colonies in 1688. This line was
later challenged, but because of the opposition
of Colonel Coxe, its resurvey was delayed until
1743.6 Dr. Coxe sought to organize the Church
of England in West Jersey, a province heavily
populated by Quakers, and successfully solicited
the Reverend Thomas Bridges to move there
from Bermuda. Dr. Coxe's avowed intention to
bring the gospel to the Indians was probably
why he was proposed for membership in the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts.7 Most noteworthy, however, was
Dr. Coxe's attempt to exploit his West Jersey
holdings, which brought forth his first piece of
New World promotional literature.
That advertising tract, published about 1688,
held out the prospect of great whaling and fish-
ing along the Jersey coast. There were adjacent
salt works, naval stores, and lumber of all kinds,
agricultural products including grapes for good
wine and brandy, mines and minerals, and the
possibility of a thriving trade with the West
Indies and Europe. Important to those interested
in early westward exploration and trade were
Dr. Coxe's assertions of significant discoveries
toward the Great Lakes. He claimed to have es-
tablished a close friendship with the Indian chiefs
in that region where the French and English
trappers caught 100,000 beavers annually, and
he promised prospective colonists exclusive
rights to the fur trade.8 The thrust of the article,
which he wrote from accounts of colonial trav-
elers-Dr. Coxe never visited America and ac-
cepted somewhat naively such memoirs and
maps-was to advertise his Jersey lands in glow-
ing terms.9 With this tract Dr. Coxe had planted
the seed which, nurtured by subsequent publica-
tions, would blossom full blown in 1722 in the
volume to be published by his son.
In the fall of 1689 Coxe's Hall was built just
above Cape May overlooking Delaware Bay.
This estate, complete with quit rents and feudal
services, is cited as one of the few attempts to
establish a medieval manor in West Jersey.1
According to Coxe, he invested 3,000 on
whaling and sturgeon fisheries on the bay and
sent French artisans to pan salt in order to ship
salted fish to the West Indies, Spain, and Portu-
gal.1 An account in 1696 by Edward Randolph
indicated that a Frenchman did pan some salt
for Coxe, but the doctor's agent failed to pay
the man, who went elsewhere and left the salt
works to be ruined.12
In his report of the progress of his West Jer-
sey plantations Dr. Coxe wrote that one ship of
30 to 40 tuns was under construction at Cape
May and another ship of 130 tuns had been built
either at Cape May or Burlington. At the latter
place Coxe had erected a pottery at a cost of
about 2,000 and claimed to have sold 1,200
worth of china from it in the neighboring col-
onies and in the West Indies where it was in
great demand.13 Dr. Coxe's enthusiasm seemed
to inspire him more than it did his prospective
tenants and clients.
In 1690 Dr. Coxe and others petitioned for
an extensive grant of land between 36030'N and
4630'N stretching westward from Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and New York to the South Sea
(the Pacific Ocean). This modest request in-
cluded about one-fourth of the land in what is
now the United States and Canada. This was
part of Dr. Coxe's schemes for a vast inland
trading empire. The Lords of Trade declined
the petition.4 At the same time, Dr. Coxe's Jer-
sey properties were not doing well either.
The Andros interlude, 1688-1689, had
placed the Jerseys under the Dominion of New
England and its Governor Edmond Andros. No
sooner had that issue been resolved with the
flight of the king and the imprisonment of An-
dros, than war with France erupted. Coxe's an-
ticipation of attracting French settlers to his Jer-
sey holdings, which seemed to have bulked large
in his settlement plans, were obviously dashed.
Even the prospect of the impeachment of the
proprietary charters threatened. As a result,
Coxe negotiated the sale of most of his Jersey
properties with the West Jersey Society, a group
of London merchants and businessmen, for
9,000. He received 4,000 cash and took
a mortgage for 5,000. He reportedly made a
modest profit from the sale. By 1697, Coxe had
sold most of his land in West Jersey."1
During the years that Coxe worked to pro-
mote his New World holdings, he was also en-
gaged in commercial ventures in America. In
March 1687, he and others applied to the crown
for incorporation of a mining and trading com-
pany for New England. They planned to exploit
the lead and copper mines, forest products, salt
deposits, drugs, and dyestuffs of that region. In
the ensuing debates over the charter, the two
functions of mining and trading were separated.
King James II approved the petition for incor-
poration of the mining company, but formal
preparation of the charter was interrupted by
the revolution which deposed the king. Four
years passed before Coxe and his associates re-
newed their request. The new king, William III,
granted the charter for the mining company in
1692.'1 The problems arising from the French
victories and the lack of cooperation among the
various colonies during the last year of King
William's War, 1697, caused Dr. Coxe and
others on behalf of the New England agents to
recommend a modified plan of colonial union.
They called for New England and New York
to be united under one civil governor and sug-
gested the Earl of Bellomont for the position.
The governor was also to have military com-
mand over Connecticut, the Jerseys, and the
adjacent charter colonies." Dr. Coxe's associa-
tion with the idea of colonial union is of interest
because it would later be more fully developed
by his son.
In August 1702, following the outbreak of
the War of the Spanish Succession, Coxe and his
friends petitioned Queen Anne to charter a com-
pany to deal in naval stores from America which
they believed would be of great service to the
crown during the war. Queen Anne granted the
request in March 1704.18 Nothing about the suc-
cess or failure of these companies has been dis-
Sometime after the disposal of his Jersey
lands, Dr. Coxe embarked on a venture which
guaranteed him a place in the annals of colonial
America. Unsuccessful in 1690 in the effort to
secure the vast area between 3630'N and 460
30'N, Coxe turned his attention farther south.
Sometime between 1692 and 1698, the exact
date is unknown, Dr. Coxe acquired title to
Carolana. This province, named for Charles I,
had been granted by that monarch to his attor-
ney general, Sir Robert Heath, in 1629. Heath
disposed of it to Lord Maltravers who passed it
on to Coxe. The details of Dr. Coxe's acquisition
remain a mystery. Carolana extended from 31N
to 36N, or (as it was described) from the River
St. Mattheo to Passo Magno and west to the
South Sea. It did not include the Spanish settle-
ments of St. Augustine and New Mexico, but it
did take in Norfolk County, Virginia.1 Carolana
and Carolina were two distinct provinces. Caro-
lana joined Carolina at its western boundary."
The area involved was about one-half as large as
that requested in the 1690 petition, about one-
eighth the total land area of Canada and the
United States. It was the largest grant by the
English crown in the New World to a private
Geographic knowledge of America was
neither accurate nor concise. Passo Magno is
now Albermarle Sound and the 36th parallel
passes through the sound. The mouth of the
River St. Mattheo, present-day St. Johns River,
was actually at 30010'N. The point where the
Satilla River empties into St. Andrew Sound,
just south of Brunswick, Georgia, is almost ex-
actly 31 N.21 But Spain and England had not
yet settled the Florida-Carolina boundary. The
English, based on the Carolina grant of 1665,
still claimed title to 290N, a full degree south of
St. Augustine. The contest over what is now
Georgia would not be resolved for years.22
After acquiring Carolana, Dr. Coxe began to
make plans to establish a colony on his huge
grant. One of the early suggestions, the exact
date of which is also unknown but prior to 1700,
recommended the formation of a great common-
wealth. Coxe delegated preparation of the char-
ter and bylaws to a James Spooner, probably an
attorney. They called their brain child the "New
Empire" and specified that a governor, deputy-
governor, and a dozen assistant officers should
preside over it. Spooner recommended the ap-
pointment of several committees: religion, law,
trade, accounts, poor, criminals, charity, and
natives. Creation of the Imperial Company with
a capital stock of 400,000 (80 thousand shares
at 5 each) was one of the central provisions of
the plan. Fourteen original proprietors were to
hold 20,000 shares, the rest would be distributed
among a thousand associates and others accord-
ing to a scheme intended to entice subscribers.
In order to create a national interest, Spooner
thought that the associates should include some of
the outstanding public figures of England and
Wales. Two important features of the plan were
an obligation to bring the gospel to the Indians
and infidels and the transportation to the New
World of the poor, especially persons impris-
oned for debts. Thus, they anticipated the Bray-
Oglethorpe project in Georgia by a generation.23
What Coxe did with the plan after Spooner de-
livered it to him is not known. There is no evi-
dence that he ever presented it to the crown.
That Coxe intended to do something, however,
is amply documented. His ambition to plant a
settlement in Carolana triggered an international
contest which had as its ultimate objective the
control of the entire Mississippi Valley.
The narratives of two colonial travelers,
Father Louis Hennepin and Henri de Tonti,
inspired Dr. Coxe in his plans for Carolana. Hen-
nepin knew of English designs to establish a
colony on the Mississippi before he wrote his
notorious Nouvelle decouverte d'un tres grand
pays site dans l'Amirique in 1697, because he
referred to them in the book. He had even sent
his English correspondent (probably William
Blathwayt, a colonial expert and member of the
Board of Trade) some information on the sub-
ject. Hennepin believed that once the boundaries
of Carolina and Carolana were established, there
would be plenty of room for both the English
and the French. Dr. Coxe is thought to have
been responsible for having the Nouvelle decou-
verte and other travel tales published in London
in October 1697. The London volume, A New
Discovery of a Vast Country in America, ended
with a bid for a colonization project for Caro-
lana and referred to a map and an account of
the natives, commodities, and materials of the
region which was under preparation.24 Likewise,
Coxe secured a copy of Tonti's Dernieres de-
couvertes (Paris, 1697). According to Coxe, it
was his copy which was translated into English
and published in London in 1698. It is doubtful
that Coxe needed any spurring for his Carolana
project, but, if he did, the Hennepin and Tonti
tales provided the inspiration.25
On May 2, 1698, Coxe transferred 500,000
acres of land west of the "Spiritu Santo" River
(Apalachicola)26 to Sir William Waller and sev-
eral French Huguenot refugees, the Marquis
Olivier de la Muce, and M. Charles de Sailly.
Conditions of the quit-rent sale required that the
new owners must settle 200 Protestant families
on the land in two years. After seven years, pro-
vided all conditions had been met, they could
secure an additional 500,000 acres of land.27
Not long after the land transaction, perhaps
that summer, there appeared a one-page pam-
phlet entitled Proposals for Settling a Colony in
Florida. It appealed for assistance for the dis-
persed Protestants in northern Europe and Eng-
land. The valuable products of Florida, the
prospects for trade, and other inducements were
dangled before the public view. It proposed
creation of two organizations: a company to han-
dle all matters pertaining to land and trade, and
a group of merchants to provide food and trans-
portation. Sale of stock in the enterprise offered
investors land and profits. A one-quarter share
bought a settler one hundred acres of land, trans-
portation, and food for the trip to the Florida
colony. Meetings were scheduled at a tavern
near Cheapside and at the home of the marquis."8
But Coxe and his friends were not the only ones
interested in a settlement in Florida (Carolana).
France and Spain had been laying plans for ex-
peditions to the Florida Gulf Coast for some
For more than a decade, the French had in-
tended to follow up on the disastrous La Salle
expedition. It was, of course, the same ill-fated
La Salle adventure which had stimulated the
Spaniards to renew their long-dormant plans for
a base on the upper Gulf. Thus, on-again-off-
again plans were afoot in France and Spain pre-
cisely at the same time that Coxe was readying his
plans for an expedition for the Carolana colony.29
Coxe had seized the psychological moment.
Coxe's plans for his colony reached the French
Minister of Marine, the Comte de Pontchartrain,
in June 1698.30 The following month the min-
ister learned that Hennepin had been in cor-
respondence with the English. France was not
worried about the Spanish pretensions to the
Mississippi Valley, but Coxe was a problem.
France had sent a secret agent to keep watch on
the English company. The Sieur d'Iberville,
leader of the French expedition, who had pre-
viously been informed of the English activities
and was already rushing preparations for his de-
parture, was urged to even greater efforts by
For her part, Spain had intended to establish
a post at Pensacola (La bahia de Santa Maria de
Galve) and a cedula to that effect was issued
on June 13, 1694, but lack of funds prevented
occupation of the site. When news reached Spain
of the French expedition, a new cidula dated
April 19, 1698, made the establishment of a settle-
ment at Pensacola a matter of urgency.32
The Spaniards were also aware of England's
interest in the Gulf Coast. During the summer
of 1698 Francisco Romo de Uriza, an officer
from St. Augustine, visited Charleston. While
there he met several Indians and was startled to
learn that they were from Pensacola. The En-
glish governor, Joseph Blake, countered Romo's
claim that Pensacola belonged to Spain, and as-
serted that France and England no longer rec-
ognized the Spanish title to Pensacola Bay. Blake
told Romo that the two countries had agreed
that when one of them first occupied Pensacola,
the other would recognize that nation's claim to
it. Blake also informed Romo that he intended
to take Pensacola the following year anyway.
Romo's warning of England's intent was sent to
Havana, but by that time the Spaniards needed
no further prompting.33
By the fall of 1698, Coxe and the French
Huguenot leaders had joined hands in their plans
for a settlement in Carolana. Coxe proceeded
with plans to dispatch several ships, and the
Marquis de Muce and his accomplices selected
one Ceuhu to head the advance party of French
settlers.34 Two small brigantines, one under the
command of Captain William Bond, left Eng-
land in October 1698.3" That same month,
Iberville departed for Santo Domingo and the
Gulf Coast, and Andres de Arriola left Veracruz
for Pensacola. The race was on! Iberville hoped
to beat Coxe's ships, and Arriola hurried to pre-
cede the French to Florida. The Spaniards won
the race, reaching Pensacola in November 1698.
Iberville arrived at Pensacola the following Jan-
uary, but finding that site occupied, he pushed
on to the Biloxi area."3 Interestingly, two schol-
arly studies of the Spanish race to beat France to
Pensacola failed to mention Coxe or his expedi-
tion." Only the English seemed unconcerned
about reaching the Gulf Coast ahead of their
When Coxe's ships and its passengers, which
included a party of English gentlemen along
with the Frenchmen, arrived in Charleston for
provisions to continue the voyage, they decided
to winter there. The leaders learned of the
western travels and explorations of the Caro-
linians, and made plans to rendezvous with sev-
eral of the Chickasaw traders on the Mississippi
in 1699. One of the ships remained at Charleston
and the Carolina Galley, a British corvette of 12
guns which had replaced the other, sailed in May
1699 with Captain Bond in command."
Bond coasted westward along the Florida
coast. He missed the Espiritu Santo (Apala-
chicola) River. He also passed Spanish Pensacola
and French Biloxi without observing those set-
tlements, and reportedly sailed on to the Rio
Panuco (Tampico). Coxe later stated that Bond
only went one hundred leagues west of the Mis-
sissippi, which would have left him far from
Panuco.39 In either event, Bond doubled back to
arrive at the mouth of the Mississippi on August
29, 1699. Bond was aided in his search for the
great river by a map constructed by Dr. Coxe
from Spanish sources and believed accurate
within twenty leagues.'4 Unknown to Bond,
Iberville had preceded him by nearly six months
and had entered the Mississippi by way of the
Gulf of Mexico on March 2, 1699.41
During the next several days Bond sailed up
the river and observed that while he could not
make headway in the middle of the stream, he
could run up the side of the river where the cur-
rent was not so strong. Some details of this part
of the voyage are contained in a 1766 letter by
Phineas Lyman who had Bond's journal with
him while he wrote. Traditional accounts give
September 15, 1699, as the date Bond encoun-
tered the Sieur de Bienville, Iberville's brother,
about 23 leagues upriver. If Lyman's account
can be trusted, the meeting was probably on
September 5 or 6 rather than September 15.42
Bienville and his small party in two canoes were
sounding the river when to their surprise they
saw an ocean-going vessel approaching. During
the ensuing conference Bienville informed Bond
that the French had established a settlement on
the coast. Because he had not observed the Biloxi
colony, Bond did not believe Bienville and con-
cluded that the Frenchmen had come downriver
from Canada to trade with the Indians. Bienville
also told him that the river was not the Missis-
sippi, but had a communication with it higher
up. Bond was not deluded by this obvious at-
tempt to confuse him as to his location. Bienville
advised Bond that he must turn around and re-
trace his route to the Gulf. Bond retorted that
the area had been discovered by the English fifty
years previously and that the English had a
stronger claim to it than the French. Bienville
must have been surprised when Bond showed
him Coxe's map which he had used to reach his
destination. Nevertheless, Bond did not press the
issue and left with a warning that he would re-
turn with a larger force and that he intended to
lay claim to the country. This meeting place has
ever since been known as the English Turn.
Iberville, who knew Bond from an earlier en-
counter on Hudson's Bay, later referred to the
Englishman as un estourdy peu capable, best
translated as "a scatter-brain of little efficiency."43
The sight of the English ship gave sufficient
fright to the French that by February of 1700
they had begun construction of Fort de Missis-
sippi, more rarely called Fort de la Boulaye. Lo-
cated about fifty miles from the mouth of the
river, this short-lived fortification was intended
to protect the Mississippi from further English
Captain Bond returned to England in Febru-
ary 1700, about fifteen months after he had de-
parted for Carolana.45 The companion ship
which had remained in Charleston had already
sailed for England, but it was wrecked and all
hands were lost on the voyage.46 When Coxe in-
troduced Bond to the members of the Board of
Trade in mid-February, the captain presented
them several maps which he had drawn of the
Gulf Coast and Dr. Coxe gave the Board a re-
port on the health, fertility, and pleasantness of
the country.4 The French refugees who had
failed to secure a home in Carolana under Eng-
lish protection petitioned Louis XIV to be per-
mitted to settle in the Mississippi Valley under
the French flag. The French monarch, who had
no sympathy for the Protestants, "replied that
he had not chased heretics out of his kingdom to
create a republic for them in America."48
The significance of the expedition Coxe sent
to Carolana was several-fold. Inspired by the
Hennepin-Tonti narratives, it had precipitated
the French-Spanish race for the Gulf Coast. The
Bond-Bienville encounter was the first meeting
between England and France in the lower Mis-
sissippi Valley.49 Bond's journal laid the basis for
Lyman's arguments many years later that sailing
ships could reach settlements on the Ohio and
other tributaries by sailing up the Mississippi,
even against northerly winds, more easily than
French reports suggested." More important,
Bond's voyage up the Mississippi and later the
sight of his maps at Paris created a sensation and
established Dr. Coxe "as the leading exponent of
the English transappalachian movement.""1 That
movement had at its heart destruction of the
French-Indian commerce in the Mississippi Val-
ley and warned of the danger of French encircle-
ment of the English Atlantic colonies. The meet-
ing of Bond's corvette and Bienville's canoes
touched off the contest for control of the Mis-
sissippi Valley which lasted until the end of the
Seven Years' War in 1763.52 Before Captain
Bond and his French charges returned to Eng-
land, Dr. Coxe seemed to despair for the success
of his little expedition.
During the winter of 1699-1700 Coxe spon-
sored several alternative proposals. On Novem-
ber 13, 1699, he submitted a memorial for the
incorporation of a trading and colonizing com-
pany. Coxe claimed to have determined at great
expense that the soil and natural products of
Carolana were ideally suited for settlement and
trade. He offered to surrender his title to that
province provided a joint stock company could
be organized and 50,000 raised by June 24,
1700. He suggested that the company be in-
corporated as the Florida Company, and that it
be granted the same privileges and protection as
other English trading companies. He requested
a large land grant to be added to the north of
Carolana. Aware that the southern boundary of
Carolana at 31N did not reach the Gulf, he
asked for some small tracts on the coast to pro-
vide access to his lands in the interior.53 Since
there was some question about crown jurisdic-
tion over the territory, Coxe followed his me-
morial with an interesting paper entitled "A
demonstration of the just pretensions of the
King of England to the Province of Carolana
alias Florida.""' This assertion of English priority
in the Mississippi Valley, along with other ma-
trials which Dr. Coxe collected over a period of
many years, served as the basis for his son's 1722
Although the attorney general upheld the
validity of Coxe's title to Carolana, some adja-
cent islands, and Norfolk County, Virginia, the
Board of Trade did not support his bid for in-
corporation of the Florida Company. The Board
feared that a settlement in Carolana would weaken
the crown's other possessions in America. If the
conditions were as good as Coxe claimed, the
Board held, the new colony might attract set-
tlers from the older colonies and depopulate
them. The Board had other objections as well.
French Huguenots in Carolana might incite an
attack upon them because of their religion. The
Board probably recalled the Spanish massacre of
the French Protestants in East Florida in 1565.
The Spaniards were also certain not to like the
idea of a foreign colony in Carolana for the
potential threat it would pose to Spanish ship-
ping in the Gulf. Accordingly, the Spaniards
might retaliate against English commerce. In
addition, there was the prospect that the colo-
nists would engage in illicit trade and that the
coast settlements might offer a haven for pirates.
There was also the possibility of stockjobbing in
the proposed company.
Still, the Board recognized that considera-
tions of state were involved in Coxe's proposal
and submitted it with their objections to the king
Introduction. xxxiii
for his consideration.5" Colonel Coxe later wrote
that this Carolana project met with crown ap-
proval and that William III promised to aid the
venture. Lord Lonsdale, Lord Privy Seal, and
other gentlemen also pledged their patronage.
Again, according to Colonel Coxe, Lord Lons-
dale's death in the summer of 1700, followed
by the king's death and the War of the Spanish
Succession, both in 1702, forced abandonment
of the project.6"
There is reason to doubt the accuracy of
Colonel Coxe's claims of such impressive support
for the project. On January 2, 1700, just twelve
days after the Board had listed its objections to
the scheme, Dr. Coxe proposed abandoning ef-
forts to settle Carolana by way of the Gulf of
Mexico, and intimated that he would ask for a
grant of land at the head of the Morisco River
in Virginia, where he hoped to plant a settle-
ment of those who had wanted to go to Caro-
lana.57 It does not seem likely that Dr. Coxe
would have offered to give up the Carolana proj-
ect at such an early date if he had been promised
the kind of official support later implied by his
son. In fact, a Monsieur Galdie on January 25,
1700, predicted that the Carolana project was
not likely to succeed because of a shortage of
money and the opposition of the French and
Spanish. Galdie revealed that the Board had con-
sidered diverting the Protestants to Jamaica, but
because the French were not naturalized subjects
they could not own land and they did not have
the necessary capital for the development of
plantations: on that island.5' By that date, Dr.
Coxe had withdrawn his proposal of January 2,
and had substituted other plans, including a pro-
posal to shift the French settlers from Carolana
to Norfolk County.
By January 8 Dr. Coxe had informed the
French refugee leaders of the difficulties which
he anticipated in establishing a colony in Caro-
lana. Since he did not know of Bond's fate, his
fears at this point were undoubtedly motivated
by news of the French on the Mississippi. The
objections of the Board probably influenced him
too. At the time, the French leaders unanimously
rejected Coxe's offer to provide an alternate site
in Norfolk County and accused him of having
deceived them. They feared that they would
lose their investment and that they would be
taken advantage of by those already established
in Norfolk County. Coxe, who valued his repu-
tation, argued that, on the contrary, he had not
deluded them. The controversy so upset Coxe
that he announced plans to publish an account
of what he had done in the New World during
the last twenty years which had cost him per-
sonally more than 10,000. If this account did
not reveal that he had always acted in the best
interests of his country without regard to his
own private welfare, he would be willing to be
censured."' If Coxe ever published the paper in
his defense, no copy of it has been discovered
by this author.
A month later, February 1700, Coxe's plans
were still not firm. He submitted to the Board a
request to settle the French in either of two
locations: at the head of the River Mattheo (the
St. Johns) which he believed was in the north-
east coast of the Gulf of Mexico, or, as formerly
proposed, in Norfolk County.6
A few days later Sailly attended a meeting
of the Board as a substitute for Dr. Coxe, who
was ill. The Board was informed that Coxe, who
looked upon the French Catholics as dangerous
neighbors, still planned to prevent them from
settling on the Mississippi. Nevertheless, he
would await word from the Board about where
the French Huguenot refugees should go. The
Board also learned that the Archbishop of Can-
terbury had offered to provide charity money
for the refugees on their voyage."
A memorial from the French leaders on
February 20 reported that they had negotiated
with Dr. Coxe for a tract of land on the Nanse-
mond River in the vicinity of the Dismal Swamp
in Norfolk County. Because some of them were
poor and distressed, they asked the king to rec-
ommend them to the governor of Virginia and
to grant some assistance for their trip..2 By
March 7 the decision to send the French to Nor-
folk County was firm and the Board asked the
king to consider the French request for assistance
and to appoint them denizens (subjects) of Eng-
land, which would permit them to enjoy many
privileges not ordinarily accorded foreigners. On
the same day, the king approved the request,
designated certain forms of assistance to be given
to the refugees, and authorized letters of deniza-
tion for those petitioners that were properly cer-
tified before they left England. The king ad-
dressed a letter to the governor of Virginia,
Francis Nicholson, and directed him to give all
possible aid and encouragement to these poor
colonists destined for Norfolk Country." The
king advanced 3,000 through the Committee
for the Distribution of the Royal Bounty for the
passage of the Frenchmen to Virginia and di-
rected that Dr. Coxe supervise the emigration."
The first shipload of the refugees--110 men,
59 women, and 38 children-under the general
supervision of the Marquis de la Muce and M.
de Sailly departed England in mid-April aboard
the Mary-Anne. After a passage of thirteen
weeks they arrived at the mouth of the James
River on July 23. But Norfolk County was not
the promised land they had expected to find.
Because of the poor soil, unhealthy climate, and
a boundary dispute between Virginia and North
Carolina involving Norfolk County, Governor
Nicholson decided against settling them there.
Instead, he selected Manikin Town in the Pied-
mont, about twenty miles above the falls of the
James River, as their future home. On July 31
the refugees left for the new location, where
good land was available for them.65 A few weeks
later, Sailly wrote: "We are, thank God, in a
fine and beautiful country, where, after the first
difficulties, we shall live well and happily."66
Governor Nicholson and the French leaders
were critical of Dr. Coxe. Nicholson had some
acquaintanceship with Coxe and believed him
to be an honest gentleman and an able physician.
The governor was familiar with the poor success
of Coxe's Jersey venture, and thought the doctor
had given up such projects. But Coxe had ven-
tured forth on two more: Carolana and Norfolk
County. Nicholson was afraid that some people
had taken advantage of Coxe's good nature and
generosity, had told him of strange lands, and
had supplied him with maps. He wished that
Coxe would come to America to survey his great
holdings, which he believed would include so
much of the country that he would not care to
come again. In spite of the happy ending to the
Muce-Sailly expedition, those two French
worthies considered their association with Dr.
Coxe and his Norfolk County holdings a dis-
tinct failure.67 Coxe might well have agreed with
them. He had sponsored three projects: West
Jersey, Carolana, and Norfolk County. Not one
had succeeded, but their failures did not diminish
his determination to sponsor a winner.
xxxviii Introduction.
The War of the Spanish Succession (Queen
Anne's War) between England on the one hand
and Spain and France on the other seriously
interrupted Dr. Coxe's promotional enterprises.
That his interest in America continued during
those years is evidenced by his continued collec-
tion of information and documents about the
New World. One student of the period believed
Dr. Coxe responsible for the printing of the 1705
alliance between South Carolina and the Creek
Indians. This broadside entitled The Humble
Submission of Several Kings, Princes, Generals,
etc., to the Crown of England appeared in Lon-
don in 1707. In it the Creeks pledged to rout the
French and Spaniards and not to permit them to
settle in their territories nor within reach of their
arms."8 Such an alliance would have received
Coxe's blessings because the Creeks lived in
Carolana, to which he still held the patent.
The aftermath of the war in Europe gave Dr.
Coxe yet another opportunity to assert his claim
to Carolana. During the peace negotiations at
Utrecht, it was decided to leave for later discus-
sion the boundaries of the French and English
colonies of America. In 1718 the appearance of
Guillaume Delisle's map, which restricted the
English middle and southern colonies to the
Appalachians, created concern regarding French
western claims. The next year Colonel Martin
Bladen, a member of the Board of Trade, was
one of the commissioners selected to treat with
the French for a settlement of the colonial boun-
daries between the two countries. The Board
was asked to draft Bladen's instructions, and the
search began to secure all possible evidence to
bolster England's claims to the American West.
The Board summoned Dr. Coxe immediately.
He jumped at the opportunity, hoping of course
to revive his project for a colony on the Missis-
Coxe produced his considerable collection of
papers, journals, and maps, and a revised copy of
his 1699 memorial at several appearances before
the Board during the summer of 1719.70 One of
the most striking features of the 1719 memorial
was Coxe's suggestion to draw the boundary
with France at the Mississippi.71 This meant that
he was willing to give up his claims to Carolana
west of the Mississippi for an unquestioned right
to the area east of the river. After the confer-
ences with Dr. Coxe the Board thought it ad-
visable to get the settlement of Carolana under-
way at once. In spite of the Board's decision,
nothing was accomplished, however. War be-
tween France and Spain in 1719, which saw
Pensacola fall to the French, may have discour-
aged Coxe, but he did not give up his efforts to
keep the Carolana project alive. In 1720 Dr.
Coxe was suspected of trying to resurrect the
project in order to make a bubble out of it.72 But
that attempt fell through, too. As for Carolana
after 1720, Colonel Coxe picked up where his
father had left off, although Dr. Coxe lived on
for another ten years. Likely he played a sig-
nificant role in the younger Coxe's plans to pro-
mote the colony.
As for evidence of certain English explora-
tions and priority in the Mississippi Valley for
use at the Paris conference by Colonel Bladen,
Dr. Coxe could not find the papers necessary to
support some of his statements. His failure to
locate the missing documents undoubtedly caused
some of his contemporaries to believe "that his
numerous explorers' tales were indications of a
credulous temperament and a penchant for exag-
gerated statements.""7 Nevertheless, one of Dr.
Coxe's defenders has analyzed the 1719 memo-
rial and has shown that only two of the five ex-
ploration tales related therein are questionable,
and even those may have some basis in fact yet
undiscovered. The two stories represented only
a very small fraction of the entire memorial."
What does an evaluation of Dr. Coxe's activi-
ties to 1720 indicate? Presumably, he was a
good medical doctor, confirmed by his appoint-
ment as physician to two English monarchs and
by his membership in several prestigious pro-
fessional societies. As an author his writings cov-
ered medicine, travel, and promotion. No con-
troversy has been disclosed over his medical
tracts. His travel and promotional publications,
which have undergone considerable criticism,
were largely incorporated in the 1722 publica-
tion of his son. He was a collector of New
World literature, reports, maps, and related ma-
terials, although he was not always discerning
about their authenticity. He failed as a promoter
of colonial projects. Factors such as the three
major wars between 1689 and 1720 diminished
his prospects for success. Even without Coxe,
France and Spain would have eventually occu-
pied the upper Gulf Coast, but he served as the
spur which hurried these operations. Several
ideas came from Dr. Coxe's plans for the New
World. The transportation and settlement of
imprisoned debtors was original. He foresaw the
desirability of colonial union when he endorsed
the 1697 plan of the New England agents. He
was foremost in his era as a propagandist for
western expansion. Dr. Coxe was the first in
England to promote the idea that the destiny of
England in America demanded expansion west
of the Appalachians. He warned of the dangers
of French encirclement through their occupation
and control of the Mississippi Valley. Contrary
to his own personal interests, Dr. Coxe first pro-
posed division of the continent at the Mississippi
River."7 Unfortunately, Dr. Coxe was a prophet
crying in the wilderness. Colonel Coxe soon
added his voice to that of his father.
Daniel Coxe was born in 1673, and was bap-
tized in the church of Botolph, Aldersgate, Lon-
don, on August 31. There are no details of his
early years or education in England. He probably
arrived in America with Lord Cornbury in 1702.
Subsequently, Coxe held a number of offices in
the government of the Jerseys. He eloped with
Sarah Eckley, the pretty daughter of John Eck-
ley, a wealthy Quaker of Philadelphia. The
Reverend John Sharp, Lord Cornbury's chaplain,
who just happened to be present on the Jersey
side very early on the morning of May 8, 1707,
married the couple by firelight. Reverend Sharp
later christened the young bride. After a long
and stormy career in Jersey affairs, Daniel Coxe
III died on April 25, 1739, and was buried at St.
Mary's Church, Burlington.76
The first evidence of Colonel Coxe's interest
in America came in 1701, the year before he
emigrated. By that date the proprietors were
negotiating to surrender to the crown their right
of government in the Jerseys. That summer Coxe
supported the continuation of Colonel Andrew
Hamilton as governor of New Jersey, but by
December he had changed his mind and with
others presented a list of objections against
Hamilton.77 Queen Anne ended the matter in
April 1702 when she appointed her cousin, Ed-
ward Hyde, Lord Cornmbury, the first royal gov-
ernor of New Jersey."7 The following August,
Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham, recommended
Coxe as a member of the Council for New Jer-
sey. In order that there should be sufficient va-
cancies, it was further recommended that certain
Quakers should be expelled from the council and
Coxe and others appointed in their place. The
Board of Trade advised Nottingham that all
members of the council had good estates, but it
was unaware that Coxe held property in the
Jerseys. If that was not enough, the Board had
already received twelve names for the council
unanimously approved by the proprietors, and
the group agreed that it should stick to those
The exact time that Coxe arrived in America
is not known, but his first stay was short. Perhaps
he came with Lord Cornbury in 1702.80 But
whether he did or not, Cornbury favored him,
and soon after they arrived Coxe was appointed
colonel and commander of the military forces
of West Jersey."8 Little is known about his role
in the military, but thereafter he was referred to
as Colonel Coxe. By December 1703 Coxe was
back in London, where he delivered some papers
from Cornbury to the Board of Trade.82 He
had returned to England, however, primarily to
defend himself against charges brought by the
The proprietors had advised the Board of
Trade that Coxe had been recommended for
membership on the Council of New Jersey with-
out their approval. They stated that Coxe had
no lands in New Jersey except those he claimed
to have received from his father. The proprie-
tors claimed that Dr. Coxe had sold all of his
lands to them. They planned to proceed against
both father and son in the courts, and to place
Coxe on the council might prejudice their case.
They also protested that Colonel Coxe had stirred
up the people in the Jerseys by arguing that
landownership should not be a qualification for
election to the assembly.84
In February 1704 Colonel Coxe answered the
charges against him, utilizing a tone that has
been characterized as far more dignified than
the criticisms lodged against him. He had been
recommended for appointment, he claimed,
without his knowledge, but he was willing that
someone else be given the position. He denied
that his father had sold all his land in the Jerseys;
he still owned several large tracts there."8 One
study shows that Dr. Coxe conveyed 4,500 acres
plus other interests to his son on July 29, 1701,
who then disposed of this conveyance to Wil-
liam Penn on April 21, 1707.86 Colonel Coxe
contended that he did own land in West Jersey.
During the ensuing years, he acquired thousands
of acres in the Jerseys."8
While Colonel Coxe remained in England,
Lord Cornbury was having problems with the
Quakers, and he sought Coxe's aid in the effort
to reduce the Quaker influence particularly in
West Jersey where they were especially numer-
ous. Cornbury recommended Coxe for member-
ship on the Council of New Jersey.88 The Board
of Trade endorsed this recommendation, and
Queen Anne appointed Coxe November 29,
1705."9 In the meanwhile, Coxe launched a strong
protest against the Quakers to the Board of
Trade. Coxe's opposition stemmed from his ap-
pointment to command the West Jersey military
and from his near-fanatic support of the Angli-
can Church. The Quaker members of the assem-
bly and council, he wrote, could not be expected
to support the militia or the revenue bills to
finance it since they opposed military service.
They had also refused to pay tithes on pretense
of conscience and opposed acts favoring the
Church of England. The Quakers, he argued,
intimidated and frightened those who might
otherwise come over to the Christian Church.
He asked the Board of Trade to prohibit the ad-
mission of Quakers to public office in the Jerseys
since there were enough good people to fill the
position without them.90 He was unsuccessful on
that score, and Colonel Coxe's animosity toward
the Quakers continued over the years. A few
years later he vehemently protested that the con-
tinued admission of Quakers to public offices
hurt the Anglican Church; they intended to "de-
stroy our religion, lives, liberties, reputations and
By the summer of 1706 Coxe had returned to
New Jersey and had taken his council seat.92 He
quickly became a member of the inner circle,
known as the Cornbury Ring. He led the anti-
Quaker faction, and along with his co-conspira-
tors helped himself to the proprietors' lands."9
In 1708, when the opposition attacked Corn-
bury and his corrupt administration, Coxe de-
fended the governor and blamed his problems on
the Scotch-Quaker-dominated assembly."9 John
Lovelace replaced Cornbury as governor in De-
cember 1708, but the proprietors' efforts to pre-
vent Coxe's reappointment to the council were
unsuccessful.95 Although their protests temporar-
ily went unheeded, the proprietors continued to
complain about Coxe's position on the council.9
Conditions did not improve during the Love-
lace governorship nor during that of his succes-
sor, Richard Ingoldsby, whose rule ended in the
spring of 1710.97
During at least part of the time that Coxe
served on the council, he was also an associate
justice of the supreme court of the province.
Cornbury may have appointed Coxe to the
court, but the first documented record of his
service on the bench does not appear until 1709."9
There is nothing to substantiate one author's
statement that Colonel Coxe "was an eminent
lawyer."99 His judgeship ended about 1713, but
he returned in later years to the bench.
Robert Hunter, who became governor in
June 1710, proved more than a match for Colo-
nel Coxe and his associates. When Hunter first
arrived, Coxe made overtures to him, and despite
the proprietors' cries of alarm, Hunter seemed
pleased to have him on the council.1" It wasn't
long, however, before the governor began to
defend the Quakers from the incessant attacks
upon them and sided with the proprietors in
their efforts to prevent the continued peculation
of their lands. Coxe, whose opposition to the
Quakers was well known, was still in dispute
with the London proprietors over his Jersey
lands. Thus, on both counts-the Quakers and
the land-Coxe and his friends declared war on
the governor.10 It quickly became a struggle for
political survival. Hunter complained to Lon-
don that unless Coxe and his friends were re-
moved from office, there was no hope for peace
and quiet in New Jersey.102 Coxe retaliated, and
among other charges he accused the governor of
soliciting his removal because Coxe was a mem-
ber of the Church of England.1' But the Queen
sided with her governor and dismissed Coxe
from the council on April 15, 1713.'" The
colonel, his father, and brother Samuel, aided
by the Anglican minister, the Reverend John
Talbot, then endeavored to prevent the renewal
of Hunter's commission as governor.1' But they
were prominent Tories, and any political influ-
ence which the Coxe family may have had ended
with the change in governments following the
death of Queen Anne and the rise to power of
the Whig party.10e Although Governor Hunter
had emerged victorious, Colonel Coxe refused to
xlviii Introduction.
concede defeat. Unable to continue influential
in New Jersey politics as a member of the coun-
cil, Colonel Coxe turned to the assembly.
In 1714, much to Governor Hunter's chagrin,
Coxe was elected to the assembly through the
political support of the Swedish vote.107 Before
the next election and without any foundation,
Coxe and his henchmen spread rumors that the
governor was to be replaced. Apparently the
fear that Coxe might be a favorite of the new
governor, whoever that might be, produced a
majority for Coxe's party in the spring election
of 1715.'08 Hunter accused Coxe of using false
suggestions and the rum bottle to secure his re-
election and subsequent selection as speaker of
the assembly. On the grounds that the voters had
been deceived, Hunter dissolved the assembly,
only to see Coxe re-elected and again chosen
speaker on April 4, 1716. The governor then
prorogued the assembly until May 7. Coxe and
his friends refused to attend the May 7 meeting,
and it was May 21 before Hunter managed to
get a quorum. Coxe was again expelled and de-
clared ineligible for re-election. But he was re-
elected anyway, only to be expelled for the third
time. This time Coxe circulated a petition for
Hunter's removal. When the governor learned
of it, he ordered Coxe's arrest. The council and
the assembly also charged Coxe with disturbing
the peace and forming a combination against the
government. Coxe fled to Pennsylvania and then
to England.110
During the next two years, Colonel Coxe and
his father did their utmost to get Hunter re-
placed as governor. The fight became so intense
that rumors circulated that the colonel and his
accomplices had even encouraged the governor's
assassination. But, for all his efforts, Colonel
Coxe did not succeed, and in February 1718 the
Board of Trade wrote Governor Hunter that
his troubles with Coxe were over.111 The colonel
remained in England for several additional years,
during which time he assisted his father in efforts
to revive the older Coxe's Carolana project.
In 1723 Colonel Coxe was back in New Jer-
sey. Two years later he was a candidate for the
assembly from Burlington and, true to form, was
again involved in controversy. Governor Wil-
liam Burnet, Hunter's successor, accused the
sheriff of Burlington of favoring Colonel Coxe
against his Quaker opponent. The sheriff had
moved the polling place to the edge of the county
without the Quakers' consent and had kept the
poll open for two weeks.112 Whatever the out-
come of that election-it is not recorded--Coxe
demonstrated his sense of survival when he be-
came a member of the Council of Proprietors of
West Jersey in 1728.11 In 1734 confidence had
been sufficiently restored in Coxe to secure his
appointment as third judge of the provincial su-
preme court; he held that position until his death
in 1739.114
During his residence in West Jersey, Colonel
Coxe became one of the largest landowners in
that colony, but his claims often led to disputes
with others. On one occasion Coxe was a de-
fendant in a suit over some land at Hopewell.
When he turned the property over to two other
persons, they were attacked and seriously beaten
by a dozen disguised men. The assailants chased
the two men off the property and threatened to
murder the colonel. If the colonel was intimi-
dated by the threat, it did not affect his continued
claim to the property, which was left to his
Whereas Dr. Coxe wrote of his extensive
commercial activities in America, there is no
evidence of any comparable activity by Colonel
Coxe. In 1725 he was part owner of an iron
work. When that property was put up for sale
in 1739, it also included a grist-mill.116 Colonel
Coxe's wealth, whatever that may have been,
appears to have derived from his speculation in
land. He may not have played an important role
in the commercial history of the English colonies,
but Colonel Coxe does deserve brief mention in
the history of the Masonic Order in America.
Daniel Coxe III was a member of Lodge 8
on the roll of the Grand Lodge of England. On
June 5, 1730, the Duke of Norfolk, Grand Mas-
ter of that lodge, deputized Colonel Coxe as
Provincial Grand Master of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Coxe visited the Grand
Lodge of England on January 29, 1731, and on
that occasion his health was drunk as the "Pro-
vincial Grand Master of 'North America.'"
Extensive research by Masonic historians has
failed to produce any record of Masonic activity
by Colonel Coxe in America. It has been sug-
gested that the lodge known to have existed in
Philadelphia in 1732 may have been warranted
through the provincial masonic authority of Col-
onel Coxe. The same source seems to believe that
Benjamin Franklin was made a Mason under the
deputation to Daniel Coxe. In both cases there
is nothing more than inference to Colonel Coxe's
part in these events. The colonel's priority of ap-
pointment as the first provincial grand master of
Masons in America is the only fact we have re-
garding his part in the history of masonry in the
New World.11
Colonel Coxe's animosity toward the Quakers
has been registered, but he disliked the Roman
Catholics even more. In 1715 he and his party
in West Jersey encouraged the residents not to
pay their taxes because the assessor was a Roman
Catholic. The colonel considered it a betrayal to
the crown and to all true Protestants for any
Roman Catholic to hold an office of profit or
trust. In 1716 when he refused to pay his taxes,
his goods were seized and sold at public auction.118
On the other hand, the colonel was a staunch
defender and supporter of the Church of Eng-
land. He was one of the first subscribers and
incorporators of St. Mary's Church in Burling-
ton. In 1723 the Reverend Mr. Talbot credited
Coxe with doing his part in maintaining the
Society house and property in Burlington. There
is some question, however, about whether he
gave 200 acres of his land for a glebe for a mis-
sionary at Hopewell. In his will, written in 1737,
he devised 100 acres for the use of the church
at Maidenhead. His son, John, deeded the ground
in Trenton where St. Michael's Church now
stands.'1 Although the family's support was not
extraordinary, they did make some contribution
toward the growth and progress of the Anglican
Church in New Jersey.
Unlike his father, who left a well-marked
trail of literature which stretched over a period
of more than thirty years, Colonel Coxe did not
exhibit much of a literary persistence. Over the
years he penned or endorsed a number of peti-
tions and memorials to the London Board of
Trade, which more often than not took the form
of polemics. No learned legal treatises or judicial
opinions have survived, if, indeed, the colonel
ever wrote any. He authored one short tract in
defense of West Jersey's claim to the Island of
Burlington in the Delaware River. It contained
something of the social and economic import-
ance of the island to the town of Burlington, but
the piece was hardly more than a sketch.' But
his obvious lack of literary experience proved
no handicap for the production of Carolana.
The colonel got along reasonably well under
Governors Cornbury, Lovelace, and Ingoldsby,
although the London proprietors were out to
unseat him because of his clouded land titles.
Considerable controversy arose over the legal
and ethical manner by which Coxe and his ac-
complices in the Cornbury Ring engrossed thou-
sands of acres of the proprietors' lands. The col-
onel found things extremely unfavorable during
Hunter's administration, and the governor man-
aged to oust Coxe from the council, the supreme
court, and the assembly. The combined efforts
of the Coxe family and friends to depose Hunter
fell on barren ground. Little can be said in de-
fense of the colonel's attitude toward the Quak-
ers and Catholics, except that it was not uncom-
mon to discover religious partisans at that time.
As an Anglican he was a strong advocate and
supporter of the established church. Although
not completely devoid of controversy, condi-
tions were far less difficult politically after Col-
onel Coxe returned to New Jersey in 1723 than
they had been prior to his departure for England
in 1716.121 His deputation as the first provincial
grand master of North American Masons indi-
cates that his character was above reproach as
far as his fellow brethern of the craft were con-
cerned. Of his second appearance on the pro-
vincial supreme court, one New Jersey historian
concluded that "his judicial duties appear to
have been discharged with ability and integ-
rity."122 Whatever his political and religious suc-
cesses and failures he is best remembered as the
compiler and author of the description of Caro-
The volume published by Colonel Coxe in
1722 was intended to revive the Carolana proj-
ect which, despite the favorable endorsement of
the Board of Trade in 1719, had still not mate-
rialized. As the colonel admitted, the book was
compiled largely from his father's collection of
Americana.128 Verner W. Crane called it the
literary salvage of Dr. Coxe's memorials.12 A
glance at the facsimile reprint will show that the
book consisted of a preface, text, appendix, and
In the preface Colonel Coxe wrote that the
purpose of the volume was to provide a brief
description of the colony of Carolana, the Indian
nations, and the flora and fauna of the area. His
account, he claimed, would be more accurate
than anything yet published by the French.125
Of course, the book was also designed to defend
Britain's claim to the province and to make it
attractive to prospective colonists. He con-
demned the seizure and occupation of the prov-
ince by France as an insult to the British crown
and people.1"" Coxe believed that, provided the
French were moved elsewhere, Spain would di-
vide the country with Great Britain. He sug-
gested such a division at the Mississippi River,
with everything east of the river going to Brit-
ain, except St. Augustine.12 It will be recalled
that in 1719 Dr. Coxe had recommended the
Mississippi as the boundary, but between France
and England, not between Spain and England.
Because of the lack of cooperation on matters
of defense among the British colonies in Amer-
ica, Colonel Coxe recommended a colonial plan
of union.128 This draft is often cited as one of the
most important, if not the most important, fea-
tures of the treatise because it was one of the
earliest printed plans of union for the American
colonies.129 Although there is some similarity
between them, it is an exaggeration to allege, as
one Coxe partisan did, that Benjamin Franklin's
Albany Plan of Union of 1754 was little more
than a transcript of Coxe's plan.1'
Parts two and three are the text and appen-
dix. The text presents an attractive picture of
the Mississippi Valley and the region beyond it.
The appendix consists of three parts: an extract
of the charter granted by King Charles I to Sir
Robert Heath, the Board of Trade's acknowl-
edgment of Dr. Coxe's title to Carolana, and an
abridged copy of Dr. Coxe's 1699 memorial.181
The final part, the map, is similar in places to
the 1718 map of Delisle and was obviously
copied in part from that map.132 Coxe acknowl-
edged Delisle's map to be the best of America
recently published, but he called attention to the
limits assigned the English colonies on the map
by this royal cartographer of France."88 The
editors of the 1840 edition, taking into account
the primitive state of geographical knowledge
at the time, called it a well-executed map of as-
tonishing accuracy."'
On the surface Carolana seems to have en-
joyed considerable success. Between 1722 and
1940 seven editions of the volume were pub-
lished. Clarence W. Alvord refers to a 1705
edition, but a thorough investigation has failed
to produce it.'85 From all evidence, it must be
concluded that a volume that early never existed.
The first edition appeared in 1722. George Wat-
son Cole thought that it sold out and rather
quickly went through several new editions.a18
On the contrary, everything except the title
pages in the three succeeding editions of 1726,
1727, and 1741, were from the 1722 printing.
Thus, it was not a success. It did not sell out for
nineteen years despite periodic efforts to adver-
tise the original as a new edition.'8 Of the 1726
reprinting there is nothing to say. But an exami-
nation of the 1727 issue shows that there were
two different title-pages. Typographically they
were nearly identical, but close examination re-
veals that they were the result of different type
settings.'88 In 1741 Carolana appeared as a part
of A Collection of Voyages and Travels printed
by Oliver Payne. Included were "The dangerous
voyage of Capt. Thomas James in his intended
discovery of a northwest passage into the South
Sea (in 1731-1632)," "An Authentick and par-
ticular account of the taking of Carthagena by
the French in 1697 by Sieur Pointis," and Colo-
nel Coxe's Carolana.19
After a lapse of almost a century, Churchill
and Harris published another edition in 1840.
In their "Preface to the American Edition" the
editors praised the book: it threw light on the
history of the aborigines; after comparing its
statistical data with other historical accounts,
the preface claimed that the Mississippi Valley
once teemed with Indians; Carolana could serve
as a textbook for the original uncorrupted Indian
names (they cited the Massourites-the Missouri
-and the Meschacebe-the Mississippi-as ex-
amples); and it showed the value and resources
of the country beyond that of gold and silver.
The products of the region could be used to
produce a favorable balance of trade; commer-
cial nations such as England and Holland would
trade gold and silver for these products. The
volume predicted the rise of King Cotton and,
the editors pointed out, it was Tench Coxe, Col-
onel Coxe's grandson, who played such an im-
portant role in the development of America's
cotton industry. This praise of Carolana by
Churchill and Harris was motivated by their
desire to achieve a better sales record than the
earlier editions.
Two later editions appeared. In 1850 B. F.
French published the account without the pref-
ace and appendix as part 2 of the Historical Col-
elections of Louisiana. And in 1940 the Sutro
Branch of the California State Library issued a
mimeographed reprint (Occasional Papers No.
11) sponsored by the Works Progress Admin-
istration.10 The facsimile copy of the 1722 edi-
tion which follows this introduction makes a
total of eight editions of Carolana.
Since its first appearance over 250 years ago,
Carolana has received attention from a wide
variety of readers. In 1756 James Maury inti-
mated that it had spurred Colonel Joshua Fry
in his 1753 scheme of western exploration."1
The anonymous author of An impartial enquiry
into the right of the French King to the territory
west of the great river Mississippi . (1762)
acknowledged that he owed many of his facts
to some authentic materials collected by Dr.
Coxe. It is believed he was referring to Coxe's
Carolana."1 Phineas Lyman wrote in 1766 that
Coxe's imperfect description of the South Seas,
which he must have obtained from others, should
not prejudice acceptance of those parts of his
book of which he had knowledge.14 In London
in 1768 there appeared The present state of the
British empire in Europe, America, Africa and
Asia. Since Florida was a new acquisition of the
British Empire, more space was allotted to it
than to any of the other colonies. The author,
thought to have been J. Goldsmith, included
material on the Coxes' interest in Florida (Caro-
lana)."44 The History of North America ..
(1776) discussed British claims to Florida and
devoted nineteen pages to the activities of the
two Coxes."' It is of interest to note that Thomas
Jefferson, whose concern for the West was well
known, owned a copy of Coxe's Carolana.1" In
1816 the North American Review called Caro-
lana "a crude performance, drawn from various
journals and voyages, to impress the public
with the great importance of the region de-
scribed, and to make them jealous of its occupa-
tion by the French.""4 About Dr. Coxe's title to
Carolana, the same author concluded, "Probably
there is no other instance on record of any pri-
vate individual pretending to such an extensive
property.""4 Jared Sparks, distinguished early
nineteenth-century editor and historian, was es-
pecially critical of Dr. Coxe's memorial ap-
pended to Carolana. Sparks could not find any
supporting evidence for some of Dr. Coxe's
expeditions, especially his tales of discoveries to
the northwest. As a result, Sparks wrote "we are
disposed to doubt all Dr. Coxe's statement rela-
tive to English travellers upon the Mississippi."149
Since Sparks, many historians and bibliophiles
writing about the early western explorations
have seen fit to mention the volume. If for no
other reason than the continued attention de-
voted to it, Colonel Coxe's Carolana has earned
its niche in the literature of the colonial history
of America.
On the other hand, if we judge the book on
whether it accomplished its primary objective
to revive the Carolana project; it failed. The
Coxe family continued to hold title to Carolana
until 1769. In that year Daniel Coxe V and the
other heirs surrendered their title to Carolana
to the crown in exchange for a grant of 100,000
acres of land in New York. It was within this
grant that Cox's Manor, Coxboro, and Carolana
were established in honor of the family name
and the province which Dr. Coxe and Colonel
Coxe worked so diligently to colonize.15
University of West Florida.
1. Hereinafter cited as Carolana.
2. G. D. Scull, "Biographical Notice of Doctor Daniel Coxe,
of London," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
7 (1883): 317-18.
3. Ibid., p. 318.
4. John E. Pomfret, Colonial New Jersey (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), p. 61.
5. Gabriel Thomas, An Historical and Geographical Ac-
count of the Province and Country of Pensilvania, and of
West-New-Jersey in America . (London, 1698), also pub-
lished in Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey,
and Delaware, 1630-1707, ed. Albert Cook Myers (New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1959), pp. 346-47; Justin Winsor, ed., Narra-
tive and Critical History of America (New York: AMS Press,
1967), 3:442; Scull, "Coxe," pp. 324-25, 327; Pomfret, Colonial
NJ., pp. 46, 61-62.
6. Pomfret, Colonial N.J, pp. 62-63, 94-95, 160; Scull,
"Coxe," p. 325; Francis Bazley Lee, New Jersey as a Colony
and as a State: One of the Original Thirteen (New York: Pub-
lishing Society of New Jersey, 1902), 1:168-69; Journal of the
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations from January 1722
to December 1728 (London: HM Stationery Office, 1928), pp.
440-42, 438-39.
7. "Notes and Queries," Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography 5 (1881): 114-16; Scull, "Coxe," p. 324; Justin
Winsor, The Struggle in America between England and
France, 1697-1763 (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press,
1895), p. 46.
8. Scull, "Coxe," pp. 327-29.
9. Clarence Walworth Alvord and Lee Bidgood, The First
Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny region by the Virginians,
1650-1674 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co, 1912), p. 232n184.
Although Dr. Coxe made plans to go to America and the
Board of Trade drafted instructions for him to do so in 1693,
he never made the voyage, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial,
America and West Indies, 1693, no. 138, p. 36 (hereinafter
cited as CSPAWI); Scull, "Coxe," p. 325.
10. Pomfret, Colonial N.J, pp. 48, 62; Lee. New Jersey,
11. Scull, "Coxe," p. 327; Pomfret, Colonial N.J, p. 62;
Thomas, West Jersey, p. 352.
12. CSPAWI, 1696, no. 108, p. 54.
13. Scull, "Coxe," pp. 328-29.
14. Verner W. Crane, The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964), p. 50. The
Lords of Trade became the Board of Trade in 1696 and will
hereafter be referred to as the Board of Trade.
15. Pomfret, Colonial NJ, p. 62; Lee, New Jersey, 1:167;
Scull, "Coxe," p. 325. The date of sale varies from March 4,
1691 to March 4, 1693; see Scull. For much on Dr. Coxe and
East and West Jersey see John E. Pomfret, The Province of
West New Jersey, 1609-1702: A History of the Origins of an
American Colony (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1956); The Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702: The Re-
bellious Proprietary (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
16. CSPAWI, 1692, no. 2, 467, pp. 701-2; W. L. Grant and
James Munro, eds., Acts of Privy Council of England, Colonial
Series, 1680-1720 (London: HMS Office, 1910; reprint ed.,
Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1966), 2:107, 193-95.
17. CSPAWI, 1697, no. 620, p. 318; Scull, "Coxe," pp. 323-
24; Justin Winsor reviewed the intercolonial congresses and
plans of union but failed to mention this 1697 recommendation,
Narrative History, 5:611.
lxii Introduction.
18. CSPAWI, 1702, no. 282, p. 187; Grant and Munro, Acts
of the Privy Council, 1702-4, 2: 196-98; Scull, "Coxe," p. 324.
19. Scull, "Coxe," p. 318; Winsor, Struggle, p. 46; Crane,
Southern Frontier, pp. 50-51.
20. William P. Cumming, The Southeast in Early Maps
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1958), p. 25.
21. See any detailed atlas of the Atlantic coast.
22. Herbert Eugene Bolton and Mary Ross, The Debatable
Land: A Sketch of the Anglo-Spanish Contest for the Georgia
Country (New York: Russell & Russell, 1968), pp. 69-70, 108-
23. Crane, Southern Frontier, p. 58; Scull, "Coxe," pp. 323-
24. Louis Hennepin, A New Discovery of a Vast Country
in America, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites (Chicago: A. C. Mc-
Clurg, 1903), 2:672-73; Crane, Southern Frontier, pp. 51-54, 56.
25. Crane, Southern Frontier, p. 54; Alvord, First Explora-
tions, pp. 231-34.
26. Various rivers on the Gulf Coast have been identified
as the Espiritu Santo, including the Mississippi River, but the
reference here is definitely to the Apalachicola. See Crane,
Southern Frontier, p. 55.
27. Scull, "Coxe," pp. 320-21; Crane, Southern Frontier,
pp. 54-55. See also Charles W. Baird, History of the Huguenot
Emigration to America, 2 vols. (New York: Dodd, Mead &
Co., 1885; reprint ed. Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co.,
1966), 2:88-90, 177.
28. Crane, Southern Frontier, p. 55.
29. William Edward Dunn, Spanish and French Rivalry in
the Gulf Region of the United States, 1678-1702 (Austin: Uni-
versity of Texas Press, 1917), pp. 146-47; Robert S. Weddle,
Wilderness Manhunt: The Spanish Search for La Salle (Aus-
tin: University of Texas Press, 1973), pp. 232-40; Lawrence
Carroll Ford, The Triangular Struggle for Spanish Pensacola,
1689-1739 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America
Press, 1939), pp. 4-21.
30. Frank E. Melvin, "Dr. Daniel Coxe and Carolana,"
Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1 (1914-15): 261-62.
31. John C. Rule, "J6rtme Phelypeaux, Comte de Poht-
chartrain, and the Establishment of Louisiana, 1696-1715," in
Frenchmen and French Ways in the Mississippi Valley, Jbhn
Francis McDermott, ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1969), pp. 189-90; Winsor, Narrative History, 5:13; Crane,
Southern Frontier, p. 48.
32. Dunn, Spanish and French Rivalry, pp. 171-74; Ford,
Triangular Struggle, pp. 21-24.
33. Ford, Triangular Struggle, p. 27.
34. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 56, p. 37.
Introduction. lxiii
35. J. B. Tyrrell, ed, Documents Relating to the Early His-
tory of Hudson Bay (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1931; re-
print ed, New York: Greenwood Press, 198), p. 400. From
all evidence this is the same Bond who sailed for Dr. Coxe in
36. Crane, Southern Frontier, pp. 56-57; Alvord, First Ex-
ploration, pp. 246-47.
37. Dunn, Spanish and French Rivalry; Weddle, Wilderness
38. Crane, Southern Frontier, pp. 56-57; Alvord, First Ex-
ploration, pp. 246-48.
39. CSPA WI, 1700, no. 124, p. 69.
40. Crane, Southern Frontier, p. 57; Alvord, First Explora-
tion, p. 244; Scull, "Coxe," p. 319.
41. Richebourg Gaillard McWilliams, 'Iberville at the Bird-
foot Subdelta: Final Discovery of the Mississippi River," in
Frenchmen and French Ways in the Mississippi Valley, John
Francis McDermott, ed. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1969), pp. 127-40; Rule, "Pontchartrain," p. 190.
42. Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Car-
ter, eds., The New Regime, 1765-1767 (Springfield: Illinois
State Historical Library, 1916), pp. 402, 415-18.
43. Crane, Southern Frontier, p. 57; Marcel -Giraud, A
History of French Louisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1953), 1:80; Winsor, Struggle, pp. 45-46;
Winsor, Narrative History, 5:20; Alvord, First Exploration,
pp. 233n184, 244. Bond's encounter with Bienville could not
have been much of a surprise to Iberville, who wrote before
he learned of the event that he knew the English were on the
west coast of Florida; Iberville to Monsieur Touenart, La
Rochelle, October 13, 1699, original in Pierre LeMoyne Iber-
ville folder, Gunther Collection, Chicago Historical Society.
44. Giraud, French Louisiana, 1:39-41, esp. 40n29 on loca-
tion of the fort; Rule, "Pontchartrain," p. 191.
45. CSPA WI, 1700, no. 124, p. 69.
46. Alvord, First Exploration, p. 247.
47. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 127, p. 70.
48. Winsor, Narrative History, 5:20.
49. Jared Sparks, "Early French Travellers in the West,"
North American Review 48 (1839): 102.
50. Alvord and Carter, New Rigime, pp. 405-21.
51. Melvin, "Daniel Coxe," p. 261.
52. Sparks, "French Travellers," p. 102.
53. CSPAWI, 1699, no. 953, p. 517, no. 1082, pp. 578-80;
Petition of Dr. Coxe, Nov. 13, 1699, SP 44/238: 363-65, Public
Record Office, London.
54. CSPAWI, 1699, no. 967, pp. 522-26.
55. CSPAWI, 1699, no. 1082, pp. 578-80.
lxiv Introduction.
56. Coxe, Carolana, pp. iv-vi.
57. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 2, p. 1.
58. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 56, p. 37.
59. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 18, pp. 22-23, no. 20, p. 24.
60. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 124, p. 69.
61. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 127, p. 71, no. 132, p. 73; Baird,
Huguenot Emigration, 2:179-80.
62. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 146, pp. 75-76; see Baird, Huguenot
Emigration, 2:177-78, on the location in Norfolk County.
63. CSPAWI, 1700, nos. 199, 200, 201, p. 113; see also no.
263, p. 140, no. 306, p. 156.
64. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 739 XIII, pp. 501-2; Scull, "Coxe,"
p. 321; Baird, Huguenot Emigraton, 2:176, 179.
65. CSPAWI, 1700 no. 681, pp. 448-50, no. 681 XI, pp.
456-57, no. 704, pp. 472-73; Richard L. Morton, Colonial Vir-
ginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960),
1:367-68; Scull, "Coxe," pp. 321-23; Baird, Huguenot Emigra-
tion, 2:176-77.
66. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 739 V, p. 498.
67. CSPAWI, 1700, no. 739, p. 497.
68. Crane, Southern Frontier, pp. 82-83.
69. Ibid., pp. 59, 224-25; CSPAWI, 1719, no. 323, p. 174.
70. CSPAWI, 1719, no. 349, p. 186; Alvord, First Explora-
tion, pp. 231-49; see Melvin, "Daniel Coxe," pp. 257-62 for a
critique of the copy of Coxe's 1719 memorial in Alvord, First
Exploration, pp. 231-49.
71. Alvord, First Exploration, pp. 248-49.
72. Melvin, "Daniel Coxe," pp. 258-60; Crane, Southern
Frontier, p. 226.
73. Melvin, "Daniel Coxe," p. 260.
74. Ibid., pp. 260-61.
75. Crane, Southern Frontier, pp. 50, 59-60.
76. Scull, "Coxe," p. 326; Collections of the New Jersey
Historical Society, 9:82-83; Hamilton Schuyler, History of St.
Michael's Church, Trenton, 1703-1926 (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1926), p. 339; Charles P. Keith, "Andrew
Allen, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 10
(1886): 364.
77. CSPAWI, 1701, nos. 745i, 745ii, 745iii, pp. 420-22, no.
1083, p. 681.
78. Pomfret, Colonial N.J., p. 87.
79. CSPAWI, 1702, nos. 806, 806i, p. 500, no. 834, p. 518,
nos. 928, 928i, pp. 571-72, no. 932, pp. 574-75.
80. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 9:82;
Robert K. Turner, Jr., "Coxe's A Description of Carolana
(1722-1741)," in Studies in Bibliography, Fredson Bowers, ed.
(Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the University of
Virginia, 1957), 9:252.
81. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:44.
82. CSPAWI, 1703, no. 1372, p. 867.
83. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 9:82;
CSPAWI, 1704, no. 48, p. 23.
84. CSPA W, 1704, no. 48, p. 23; New Jersey Archives,
Series 1, 3:35-38.
85. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 9:82;
CSPA W, 1704, no. 92, p. 37; New Jersey Archives, Series 1,
86. John Clement, "William Penn," Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography 5 (1881): 328.
87. Pomfret, Colonial N.J., p. 137.
88. CSPAWI, 1705, no. 878, pp. 381-88, no. 1010, p. 477;
New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:68-81.
89. CSPAWI, 1705, no. 1465, p. 709, no. 1482, p. 722, 1706,
no. 80, p. 38; New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:115-16, 124-29;
Grant and Munro, Acts of Privy Council, 2:818-19.
90. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:82-85; CSPAWI, 1705,
no. 1010, p. 477.
91. CSPAWl, 1711, no. 58, p. 53, no. 58i, pp. 53-54.
92. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:132, 160.
93. Pomfret, Colonial N.J, pp. 125-28.
94. CSPAWI, 1708, nos. 1329i and 1329ii, pp. 662-64; New
Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:287-90; Pomfret, Colonial NJ., p.
95. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:300-302, 316-17; Pom-
fret, Colonial N.J., p. 129.
96. CSPAWI, 1708, no. 1597, pp. 783-84, 1709, no. 876, pp.
534-35; New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:497-98.
97. Pomfret, Colonial N.J., pp. 129-33.
98. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 9:82;
New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:459; Pomfret, Colonial N.J.,
p. 129 refers to Coxe's appointment to the court as an associate
justice in 1709. Coxe's first appearance on the Court of Quarter
Sessions for Burlington County came on September 13, 1709.
H. Clay Reed and George J. Miller, eds., The Burlington Court
Book: A Record of Quaker Jurisprudence in West New Jersey,
1680-1709 (Washington: American Historical Association,
1944), p. 338.
99. Joseph H. Hough, Origin of Masonry in the State of
New Jersey, and the entire Proceedings of the Grand Lodge,
from its First Organization, AJL. 5786. Compiled from Authen-
tic Sources (Trenton, N.J.: Pub. by Joseph H. Hough, Murphy
& Bechtel, Printers, 1870), p. x.
100. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 4:324-25.
lxvi Introduction.
101. Pomfret, Colonial N.J., pp. 125-38; CSPAWI, 1711, no.
8, p. 2, no. 156, p. 137, 1717, no. 674, p. 355; Winsor, Narrative
History, 5:219; New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 4:325.
102. CSPAWI, 1711, no. 832, pp. 472-86, 1712, no. 65, p. 37,
no. 249, pp. 188-89, no. 413, p. 282, 1715, no. 436, p. 193; New
Jersey Archives, Series 1, 4:51-70, 149-50, 153.
103. CSPAWI, 1716, no. 138i, pp. 70-71; New Jersey Ar-
chives, Series 1, 4:242-46.
104. CSPAWI, 1713, no. 315, p. 168, no. 324, pp. 170-71;
New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 3:35-36.
105. CSPAWI, 1715, no. 164, p. 69, no. 229, pp. 102-3, 1716,
nos. 176 and 176i, p. 97, no. 195, pp. 105-6; New Jersey Ar-
chives, Series 1, 4:199; Pomfret, Colonial N.J., p. 136.
106. CSPAWI, 1717, no. 674, p. 355; George Morgan Hills,
"John Talbot, the First Bishop in North America," Pennsyl-
vania Magazine of History and Biography 3 (1879): 41-42.
107. CSPAWI, 1715, no. 435, pp. 186-88; Collections of the
New Jersey Historical Society, 9:83.
108. Pomfret, Colonial N.J., p. 136.
109. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 9:83;
Richard S. Field, The Provincial Courts' of New Jersey, with
Sketches of the Bench and Bar (New York: Published for the
Society, 1849) in Collections of the New Jersey Historical
Society, 3:92-99; CSPAWI, 1716, no. 135, pp. 68-70, no. 176,
p. 97; Pomfret, Colonial N.J., pp. 137-38; Lee, New Jersey,
110. CSPAWI, 1716, no. 192, pp. 104-5, no. 349, p. 183, nos.
392 and 392i, pp. 202-3; New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 4:258,
260-62, 266-67.
111. CSPAWI, 1717, no. 523, p. 284, no. 565, pp. 299-300,
no. 588i, pp. 312-13, no. 690, pp. 363-64, no. 195, p. 103, 1718,
no. 344, pp. 169-70, no. 373, pp. 182-83; New Jersey Archives,
Series 1, 4:291-97, 262-64, 315.
112. CSPAWI, 1725, no. 788, pp. 468-69; Schuyler, St.
Michael's Church, pp. 12-13, contains a letter from the Rev.
John Talbot dated Sept. 20, 1723, which indicates Col. Coxe,
had returned to New Jersey, by that date.
113. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 5:211-12.
114. Field, Provincial Courts, pp. 132, 137.
115. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 11:400, 431-32, 439, 581.
116. Ibid., pp. 586-87.
117. Hough, Masonry in New Jersey, pp. vi-ix; Schuyler,
St. Michael's Church, p. 361; Conrad Hahn, Executive Secre-
tary, The Masonic Service Association of the U.S. to author,
March 5, 1973.
118. New Jersey Archives, Series 1, 4:213-15, 230-33.
119. Schuyler, St. Michael's Church, pp. 12-13, 32-33, 65,
120. Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Planta-
tions, Nov. 1718 to Dec. 1722, pp. 281-83, 293-95, 362-63; New
Jersey Archives, Series 1, 5:38-43.
121. In 1735 Coxe got into a dispute over a debt he owed
Lord Clinton, which resulted in on expos of Coxe's affairs by
Robert Hunter Morris; Beverly McAnear, "An American in
London, 1735-36," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biog-
raphy 64 (1940): 194-95, 360, 364.
122. Field, Provincial Courts, p. 137.
123. Carolana, pp. i-ii.
124. Southern Frontier, p! 226.
125. Carolana, pp. vii~viii.
126. Ibid., pp. xxi-xii.
127. Ibid., p. xxxii.
128. Ibid, pp. xv-xx.
129. The Celebrated Collection of Americana formed by
the late Thomas Winthrop Streeter (New York: Parke-Bernet
Galleries, 1967), 2:846.
130. Field, Provincial Courts, pp. 136-37; the editor of the
Franklin Papers never mentioned Coxe's plan in his detailed
analysis of the origin of the Albany Plan of Union, Leonard
W. Larabee, ed, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Ha-
ven: Yale University Press, 1962), 5:374-87.
131. A comparison of the 1699 memorial and the copy
printed by Col. Coxe shows much deleted and some few things
added. See CSPAWI, 1699, no. 967, pp. 522-26.
132. This is especially true of the Florida peninsula in
which the two map are almost identical and both in error.
Compare Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississippi by
Delisle, 1718.
133. Carolana, p. xxxvii.
134. Daniel Coxe, A Description of the English Province
of Carolana . .(St. Louis: Churchill and Harris Printers,
1840), p. iv.
135. Alvord, First Exploration, pp. 234n, 254.
136. A Catalogue of Books Relating to the Discovery and
Early History of North and South America (New York: Peter
Smith, 1951), 4:1836.
137. Turner, "Coxe's Description," p. 253.
138. Ibid, p. 253n7.
139. Winsor, Narrative History, 5:69.
140. Turner, "Coxe's Description," p. 252n2.
141. Winsor, Struggle, pp. 216-17.
142. London: W. Nicoll, 1762; Thomas D. Clark, ed.,
Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography (Norman: Univer-
sity of Oklahoma Press, 1956), 1:230.
143. Alvord and Carter, New Rigime, p. 409.
144. London: W. Griffin, J. Johnson, W. Nicoll, and Rich-
lxviii Introduction.
ardson and Urquhart, 1768; Clark, Old South, 1:217-18.
145. London: Sold by Millar, etc, 1776; Clark, Old South,
146. E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library
of Thomas Jefferson (Washington: Library of Congress, 1955),
147. The North American Review and Miscellaneous Jour-
nal 4 (1815): 1.
148. Ibd., p. 2.
149. Sparks, "French Travellers," p. 104.
150. E. B. O'Callaghan, ed., Documents Relative to the
Colonial History of the State of New-York . (Albany:
Weed, Parsons & Co., Printers, 1855-56), 5:204, 7:926.
2q.'~' en~uq/ iitio~ 1 N
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4, ~ ddI4"le to i)e Za.
Cmpny /a0/f/-9"t1fle /1 /l 1PP.1 KE
he;lt aa
/'it/rY AL4//;z, MaYo~,:_ r1 Mnoq _~
N ~Sa a( oA~n1C2(',iw e cgr
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100* 0., u80,.
~ Z~aZT4
Of the ENGLISH PROVINCE of
By the Spaniards called
And by the French
La LOUISIANE.
As alfo of the Great and Famous River
MESCHACEBE or MISSISII,
The Five vaft Navigable Lakes of Frelh
Water, and the Parts Adjacent.
With an Account of the Commodities of the
Growth and Production of the faid Province.
And a PREFACE containing fome Confidera
tions on the Confequences of the vFrec
making Settlements there.
By DANIEL COXE, Efq;
Non minor eft Virtus quam quare part teri.
Printed for B. COWSE, at the Rofe and Crown i.
St. Paul's Church-Yard. M DCC xxI,
HE ensuing Treatie is, for
the moft Part, composed out
of Memoirs, which the pre-
fnt Proprietor of Carolana,
my bonour'd Father, had drawn from fe-
veral Englifh Journals and Itineraries
taken by his own People, whom he
had fent for Ditcovery of this moft
noble, pleafant and fertile Province
and the Parts adjacent, both by Sea
and Land; as well as from the Accounts
of other Travellers and Indian Tra-
B ders,
The PREFACE.
ders, who had often pierced into and
ranged through the Heart of it, and were
Perfons of good Underftanding and
Probity, whofe Relations agreeing fa
well together, th' mofily Strangers to
.acb other, it is not to be fuppos'd, they
could confpire to impose Fables and Fal-
fities on the World.
THE iaft Trouble and Expence
(thofi Two great Impediments of Pub-
lick Good) the faid Proprietor has un-
dergone to effe6 all this, will fcarcely be
credited; for he not only, at his fole
Charge, for federal Years, eflablifb'd and
kept up a Correfpondence with the Go-
vernors and Chief Indian Traders in al
the Englifh Colonies on the Continent of A-
merica, imployfdmany People on Difcove-
ries by Land to the Weft,North and South
of this vaf tExtent of Ground, but like-
wi e in the Tear 1698. he equipped and
fitted out Two Ships, provided with above
Twenty great Guns, Sixteen Patereroes,
abundance of Small Arms, Ammuni-
tion, Stores and Provifions of all Sorts,
not only fir the Ufe of thofe on Board,
The PREFACE.
and for Vifcovery by Sea, but alfo for
building a Fortification, and fettling a
Colony by Land, there being in both
Veffels, besides Sailors and Common
Men, above Thirty Englifh and French
Volunteers, fome Noblemen, and all
0ONE of there Veflels difcover'd
the Mouths of the great and famous
River Mefchacebe, or, as termed by the
French, Miffifippi, entered and afcended
it above One Hundred Miles, and had
perfetled a Settlement therein, if the
Captain of the other Ship had done
his Duty and not dfprted them. They
howfoever took Poffeffion of this Country
in the King's Name, and left, in feve-
ral Places, the Arms of Great-Britain
affx'd on Boards and Trees for a
Memorial thereof.
AND here I cannot forbear taking
Notice, that this was the firft Sbip that
ever entur'd that River from the Sea,
or that perfeEfly difcover'd or defcrib'd
it's federal Mouths, in Oppofition to the
Boafts and Falfities of the French,
B who
The PREFACE.
who in their Printed Books and Ac-
counts thereof, affume to themfehes the
Honour of both ; Providence feeming
to reserve the Glory of succeeding in fo
noble an Enterprize, to the Zeal and
Induftry of a Private Subjelr of Eng-
land, which was Twice in vain attempted
by Louis XIV. of France, the moft
ambitious and powerful Monarch of
BUT as the perfef D/fcovery of that
great River, its Seven Mouths, and
al the Coaft of Carolana, on the Bay
of Mexico, for at leaf 14 gDegrees f
Longitude, was then effeled, and mo.f
of the Perfons who were afually upon
it, with their Journals, Drafts and
Charts, returned fafe to England, the
Proprietor prefinted a Memorial thereof
to bis then Majefly King William of
Glorious Memory, wherewith He was
fo well pleased and fatisfy'd, that in a
General Council called for that Purpofe,
he crder'd it to be read, and taken into
Consideration, Himfelf, and above
Twenty of theCouncil, who were then
The PREFACE.
prefnt, unanimously agreeing, that the
Defign of settling the faid Province
ought to be fpeedily encouraged and prow
His faid Majefty being afterwards
more fuly convinced, that fich an Un-
dertaking would greatly tend to the
Benefit of the Englifh Nation, and the
Security of its Colonies on the Con.
tinent of North America, often declared,
that he would leap over Twenty Stum-
bling-Blocks, rather than not effe it 5 and
frequently afur'd the present Proprietor,
that it should not only receive a Publick
Encouragement, but that he would par-
ticularly contribute towards it, by finding
at his own Coft Six or Eight Hundred
French Refugees and Vaudois, to joyn
with tbofe Englifh who could be procur'd
to begin the Settlement tbfre,
BESIDES divers Noblemen, Gen-
tlemen and Merchants, profer'd the
fame. Particularly the Lord Lonfdale,
then Lord Privy-Seal, being highly
Jenfible of the great Advantages would
redound to the Englifh Nation thereby,
B 5 oferyd
The PREFACE.
ofer'd to affif the Defign with Two
Thoufand Pounds in ready Mony, or a
Ship of Two Hundred Tuns, with
One hundred Perfons of what ever
Trades or Employments should be
thought mo f convenient, and to provide
them with Provifions, neceffary Tools
and Inftruments, for the Space of One
rear; not making the leaft Capitulation
for himfilf or them, beyond the Grant
of a Competent Trai of Land for their
Habitation and neceflary Subfiftance:
But the sudden Death of that Lord,
and foon after of King William, put a
Period, at that Time, to thi6 noble
THE present Proprietor, not long after
the Death of that Monarch, did in the
ubfiquent Reign prc'pofe the reviving
and promoting the aforefaid Enterprize,
but the Wars enfuing, which proved ex-
cef/ive chargeable, and employed the whole
Thoughts and Attention of the Mini-
ftry, hindered the encouraging thereof.
Whereupon he def/ifed from any further
Profecution of that Affair, till a fitter
The PREFACE.
Opportunity Ihould ofer itself, though
very frry his Country had loft fo favou-
rable a Conjundture, when what he had
proposed might have been accompli/h'd with
much lef Trouble and Expence, than
after a Peace Jhould be concluded ; fcr
he forefaw, and often warned the then
Miniftry, that whenfoever that happened,
the French would certainly endeavour to
poffefs and fettle that Country, for Rea-
fons too many and tedious hbre to relate,
as afterwards too manifefly appeared.
HoWSOEVER ,6 this Colony does
moft certainly of Right belong to the
Crown of Great-Britain, if the frft
Difcovery, Grant, Poffeflion, and o.-
ther moft material Circumftances, may
be allowed to carry any Weight with
them, it may be a fatisfafCory Enter-
tainment, if not a real Service, to
the Publick, to attempt a shortt Defcrip-
tion of it in Print, and of the Lands to
the Northwards, as far as, and among
the Five great Lakes, the Nations of
Indians inhabiting therein, and the Lakes
temfilves, as well as of the ufeful A.
B animals
The PREFACE.
animals, Vegetables, Mettals, Mine-
rals, and other the Produce thereof; toge-
thbr with an Account of the great River
Mefchacebe, and the Rivers which in-
creafe it both from the Eafg and the
WeJi t a likewise a brief Relation of
the Coaf of this Province, on the Bay
cf Mexico, and the Rivers, Harbors,
and Iflands belonging to it; all which2
I flatter myfeif, are more particular and
exa& than any Thing the French have
publijh'd relating thereto. The Jame may
be aid of the annexed Map, which no
doubt is the bel of its Kind extant. By
both which the Reader will fee, how
contiguous thu Province lies to our al-
ready fettled Colonies, which are entirely
surrounded by it, and the other Lands
to the Northward, by the French call d
Canada or New France, tho' thofe to
the Southward of the great Lakes they
mnof unjuffly claim the Property of.
For they wrre, about the Beginning of
the Reign of King James II. made
over and furrendr'd, by the Irocois and
their Allies, to the Crawn of England,
The PREFACE.
the Right and Poffeffion whereof we
have ever fince averted and endeavourld
to secure, both by ourselves and the
abovefaid Indians our Confederates,
who on their Parts, on all Occafions
of Difference with the French or their
Indians, do for that and other Con-
fiderations, demand the good Offices
and Prote6tion of the Englifh, who
knowing it their Intereft, never fail,
if the Caufe is juft, to afford it them:
As they did in the Tear 1696. When
the Count Frontenac Governour of Ca-
nada, with federal Thoufand French
and Indians, attacked the Onondages,
One of the Five Nations, and Ra-
vag'd their Country; but on the Ap-
proach o Collonel Fletcher Governour
o New-York, with fome Regular
Forces, Militia and Indians, he was
forced to retire, not without a confide.
rable Lofs from thofe Natives, who
conjfantly attended him in his Retreat
often fell on his Rear, cut off many o
his People, and all the Straglers they
could meet with.
The PREFACE.
THE Five Nations, when fummon'd
on our two laft unfortunate Expeditions
againfJ Canada, readily joined the Eng-
lifh Troops under the Command of Ge-
neral Nicholfon, with about a Thou-
fand Men ; And the refj of them were in
AMotion in different Parts, f me to discover
and obferve the Pofture of the.Enemy in
their own Country5 Others to Scout about
the Rivers and Lakes. And they have
fo great a Reliance on the Friendfhip and
Protection of the Englih, whom they
have ever found and acknowledged to be
truly Juuf, Honeft and Puntual,
in their Treaties and Dealings with
them, that during the late War, they
not only permitted, but alfo invited
them, to build a Fort in the very heart
of their Country and on their Main
River, the Gate of whicb adjoyns to
and Opens into One of their Capital
Towns or Fortifications, Inhabited by
the Mohacks, the chief and moft War-
like Nation among them. The Eng-
lifh Garrifon being a Detachment from
the Independent Companies of New-
The PREFACE.
York and Albany, live with them in
the ftritefl Amity, and dayly enter
their Caffle as the Indians do Our
Fort, who conflantly supply the' Sol-
diers with Venifon, Wild-Fowl, Filh,
and other Necefaries in their Way.
FROM thefe Indians of the Five
Nations, the Englifh of New-York,
purchase the greatest Part of their Furr
and Peltry-Trade, and in Exchange
supply them with Duffels, Strowds,
Blankets, Guns, Powder, Shot, and
other the Manufaaures of Great-Bri-
tain, at a much eafier Rate than the
French ever could.
THAT Nation knowing and envyo
ing the great Friendfhip and Com-
merce the Englifh of New-York cul-
tivate and carry on with thefe Indians,
and being fenfible of the mighty Vfe
and Service they are of, not only to
that Colony, but to all our other Colo-
nies to the Northward, have on, many
Occafons endeavour'd, by all the Artifi-
ces imaginable, to draw them over to
their Party and Interefts, which when
The PREFACE.
they failed in, They have attempted, by
Force or Fraud to Extirpate or Subjeli
them : But that cunning and Warlike
People, by the Advice and Afifance
of the Englihh, have gver prevented their
Defigns, to whom they continue moJf
incens'd and irreconcilable Enemies;
tho' as long as the Englifh have Peace
with them, they are perfuadea to con-
tinue the fame.
INDEED during the Reign of King
James 11. They had certainly been Cut
off and exterminated by the French
(the Englifh being prohibited, to give
them the leaf Afftfance) had not the
happy Revolution of King William
intervened, and the War with France
foon succeeded.
NAY, even Collonel Dungan a Ro-
man Catholick, made Governour of
New-York by King James, was at
that Time Jo very fenjible of the Ruin
intended to the Five Nations our Allies,
and in Confequence to the Englith Plan-
tations, that he ordered the Popifh
Priefts, who were by Leave come into
The PREFACE.
his Government, under pretence of
making Profelytes, to depart from thence,
because he found their Defign was to be.
tray our Colonies to the French, inflead
of making Converts of the Inhabitants.
THE French, as is related above, have
many ways endeavour'd to ruin or diJrefs
the Irocois; but as they are well afur'd,
Nothing will afec' them fo much and near-
ly, as to deprive them of their Filhing
and Hunting, which is mofjly on the Bor-
ders of, and between the Great Lakes,
and without which they muff Starve;
therefore they have attempted to build
Forts on the feveiral narrow Paffages
thereof and the Rivers which empty
them elves thereinto, in order to intercept
them, either in their going or returning
from thofe Places; but the Indians have
as often prevented the fini/ing of them,
or otherwise obliged them to demoliY or de-
fert them.
BUT shouldd the French be permitted to
eftablif their projected Communication,
between Cape Breton the Gulf and
River of At. Lawrence, as far as
The PREFACE.
the Mefchacebe, and o downwards to the
Bay of Mexico, which will be a migh-
ty Addition and Increafe of Territory,
Strength and Power to them, It is much
to be fear'd, They'1 carry their Point
one Time or another, and thereby difirefs
and Subject thefe our Allies, the Confe-
quence of which will not only be very
Shocking, but of the utmofl Concern to
the Safety of our Northern Plantations:
For if we now, info great Meafure, fand
in need of, and depend on them as our
Friends, for the Security of our Fron-
tiers, what mufl we exped, when that
Barrier is removed, and they become our
Enemies; and not only they, but all the
Refi of our Friendly Indians to the South-
ward, which we may ofCourfe depend
WE have lately experienc'd the difinal
and Tragical Confequences attending a
Defeaion, of only one or two Paltry
Nations of Indians, bordering on Caro-
lina, and though other Pretences have
been urg'd as the Caufe thereof, and were
perhaps in fume Meafure true, yet the
The PREFACE.
French, fince their late Settlements on
-the Mefchacebe and thz Bay of Mexi-
co, are violently fufpeHede to have clan-
deflinely fomented and widened the Breach
which occafion'd the butchering of fo ma-
ny hundreds of the Inhabitants of that
Colony, with the Burnings, Devafta-
tions, and almofl intire Defolation there-
IT is well known that the Frontiers
of our Colonies are large, naked, and
open, there being fcarce any Forts or
Garrifons to defend them for near Two
Thoufand Miles. The dwellings of
the Inhabitants are scattering and at a
Diflance from one another; and its almoj im-
fofible according to the present Eftablifh-
ment and Scituation of our Affairs there,
from the great Number of our Colonies
independent on each other, their different
Sorts of Governments, Views, and In.
terefts, to draw any considerable Body
of Forces together on an Emergency,
though the Safety and Prefervation, not
only of any particular Colony, but of
all the Englith Plantations on the Continent,
were never Jb nearly concerned. FOR
The PREFACE.
FOR, several of thefe Governments;
pretending to or enjoying ome extraordinary
Privileges, which the Favour of the
Crown has formerly granted them, ex-
clu ve of others, if their Affiftance is
demanded or implord by any of their di-
frefs'd Neighbours,attack'd by Enemies,
perhaps in the very Heart of their Set-
tlements, they either by aeffeed Delays,
inffing on Punailios and Niceties flart.
ing unreasonable Objeftions, and making
extravagant Demands, or other frivolous
Pretences, purposely elude their jufi and
reasonable Expeeations and by an in-
acive Stupidity or Indolence, feem in-
fenfible of their particular and mof de.
florable Circumftances, as well as re:
gardlefs of the General or Common Dan-
ger, because theyfeel not the immediate
Effeas of it; Not considering their own
Security is precarious, fiance what hap
pens to one Colony to Day, may reach
another to Morrow: A Wife Man will
not ftand with his Arms folded, when his
Neighbours Houfe is on Fire.
The PRE FAC E.
THE only Expedient I can at pre-
fjnt think of, or ball prefume to men-
tion (with the utmoff Deference to HiU
MAJESTY and His Minifters) to. help
and obviate thefe Abfurdities and In-
conveniencies, and apply a Remedy
to them, is, That All the Colonies
appertaining to the Crown of GREAT
BRITAIN on the Northern Continent
of America, be Vnited under a Legal,
Regular, and firm Eftablifhment; Over
whicb, it's proposed, a Lieutenant, or
Supreme Governour, may be conflituted,
and appointed to Prefide on the Spot,
to whom the Governours of each Colo-
ny hall be Subordinate.
IT is further humbly proposed, That two
Deputies Jhal be annually Elefded by the
Council and Affembly of each Pro-
vince, who are to be in the Nature of
a Great Council, or General Con-
vention of the Eftates of the Colonies;
and by the Order, Confent or Appro-
bation of the Lieutenant or Gover-
nour General, Jhal meet together, Con-
fult and Advife for the Good of the
c wrhle,
The PREFACE.
whole, Settle and Appoint particular,
Quota's or Proportions of Money,
Men, Provifions, &c. that each re/pe-
Uive Government i~ to raife, for their
mutual Defence and Safety, as well,
as, if neceffary, for Offence and Invafi-
on of their Enemies; in all which Ca-
Jes the Governour General or Lieu-
tenant is to have a Negative3 but not
to Ena&c any Thing without their Con-
currence, or that of the Majority of
THE Quota or Proportion, as above
allotted and charged on each Colony,
may, nevertbelefs, be levy'd and raised
by its own Affembly, -in fuch Manner,
as They Jhall judge moft Eafy and Con-
venient, and the Circumfiances of their
Affairs will permit.
OTHER Jurifdihtions, Powers and
Authorities, refpe&ling the Honour of
HiA MAJESTY, thb Intereft of the
Plantations, and the Liberty and Pro-
perty of the Proprietors, Traders,
Planters and Inhabitants in tbem, may
be Vefled in and Cognizable by the above-
The PREFACE.
faid Governour General or Lieute-
nant, and Grand Convention of the
Eftates, according to the Laws of En-
gland, but are not thought fit to be
touched on or inserted here ; Tbis Pro-
pofal being General, and w ithall humi.
lity submitted to the Confideration of our
Superiours, who may Improve, Model,
or Reje6t it, as they in their Wifdom
hall judge proper.
A COALITION or Union of this
Nature, tempered with and grounded on
Prudence, Moderation and Juffice,
and a generous Incouragement given
to the Labour, Induftry, and good
Management of all Sorts and Conditi-
ons of Perfons inhabiting, or, any ways,
concerned or interested in the federal
Colonies above mentioned, will, in all pro-
bability, lay a fure and lafling Founda-
tion of Dominion, Strength, and
Trade, fuffcient not only to Secure and
Promote the Profperity of the Planta-
tions, but to revive and greatly increase
the late Flouri/hing State and Condi-
tion of GREAT BRTITAIN, and there-
c by
The PRE ACE.
y render it, once more, the Envy and
Admiration of its Neighbours.
LET US consider the Fall of our An-
ceffors, and grow wife by their Misfor-
tunes. If the Ancient Britains had
been united among themselves, the Ro-
mans, in all probability, had never be-
come their Maifers : For as Cafar oh-
ferv'd of them, Dum Singuli pug-
nabant, Univerfi vincebantur, whilft
they -fought in feperate Bodies, the
whole land was fubdued. So if
the Englifh Colonies in America were
Confolidated as one Body, and.joyn'd in
one Common Intereft, as they are un.
der one Gracious Sovereign, and with
united -Forces were ready and willing
to aJ in Concert, and aJfif each o-
ther, they would be better enabled to pro-
wide for and defend themselves, against
any troublesome Ambitious Neighbour,
or bold Invader. For Union and Con-
cord increase and eftabli/h Strength and
Power, whilft Divifion and Difcord
bave the contrary Effects.
The PREFACE.
B U T to put a Period to this Di-
greffion; It feems to me a very great
Indignity ofer'd to His MAJESTY and
the Nation, that when there are Five
Hundred Thoufand Britifh Subjecs
(which are above five times more than the
French have both in Canada and Loui-
fiana put together) inhabiting the feve-
ral Colonies on the Eaft fide of the
Continent of North America, along the
Sea Shoare, from the Gulf of St. Lau-
rence to that of Florida, all contigu,
ous to each other, who, for almost a Cen-
tury, have eftabliYh'd a Correfpondence,
conrrac7ed a Friendfhip, and carry'd on
aflourilhing Trade and Commerce with
the federal Nations of Indians, lying
on their Back, to the Weftward and
Northward, for Furs, Skins, &c. a
moft rich and valuable Traffick, the Co.
lonies them elves abounding with Me-
tals and Minerals of Copper, Iron,
Lead, c. producing Hemp, Flax,
Pitch, Tarr, Rofin, Turpintine,
Mafts, Timber and Planks of Oakt
C3 Fir,
The PREFACE.
Fir, and all other forts ofNaval Stores,
in great abundance, and the beft of their
Kind in the World; besides Wheat,
Beef, Pork, Tobacco, Rice, and other
neceffary and profitable Commodities;
with a Noble Fifhery for Whales, Cod-
fifh, &ey. along the Coaft and in the
Bays thereof, 1 fay, it feems a great In-
dignity ofer'd to His MAJESTY and
the Britifh Nation, that the French
Should feize on and Fortify this Province
of Carolana, remote from Canada near
a Thousand Miles, as well as the other
Lands to the Weftward, or on the Back
of our Settlements (the greateft Part of
which are comprehended in divers Pa-
tents granted long ago, byfeveral of His
M.AJESrT's Royal Predecellors, Kings
and Queens of England,) Ejpecialy
fince the Englifh have Planted and Im-
prov'd them, from the Sea Coaft, almost
up to the Sources of the largest Rivers,
by the Confent of the Natives, whofe
Lands they have. aEually purchased and
paid for, and whofe Traffick we are
bhreby entirely depri'd of.
The PREFACE.
MOREOVER if the Englifh j fer
themselves to be thus firaitly coop'd up,
without ftretching their Plantations fur-
ther back into the Continent, what wil
become of their Off-fpring and Defcen-
dants, the Increafe of their Own and
the Nations Stock, who Claim and De-
mand an Habitation and Inheritance
near their Parents, Relations and
Friends, and have a Right to be pro-
wided for in the Country where they are
Born, both by the Laws of GOD and
Man ; and which the Prudence and
Policy of the State does likewise require,
as convenient and neceffary, both for exz
tending our Territories, firengthening
our Hands, and enlarging our Trade.
BESIDES, as the Englifh are not fond
of extending their Dominions on the Con-
tinent of Europe, but confine themselves
to their lands, being content with their
Ancient Territories and Poffeffions, exz
cept what is abfolutly neceffary to promote
and figure their Trade and Commerce,
the very Vitals of the State, I cannot
apprehend with what Reafon or Juftice
C 4 th61
The PREFACE.
the French, or any other Nation, -hould
encroach upon their Claims, Colonys, or
Plantations in America.
THAT They have done this is plain,
from the Accounts we continually received
from France, for many Years paq, of the4
federal Embarkationsfor the Mefchace-
be or Louifiana, and the Encouragement
given to their Weft-India Company, for
the Planting and Raifing Materials for
ManufaCtures therein.
WE have likewise been, with jufi
Reason, alarm'd here in Great Britain,
by the many Letters,Memorials, Repre-
fentations and Remonftrances, which
have, from Time to Time, been tranfmit-
ted, from divers of our Colonies upon the
Continent of America, getting forth the
Danger they are like to be exposed to,
from the Neighbourhood of the French,
if they obtain full Poffefion of this our
Province of Carolana, and the Lands
to the Northward of it, as far as the
Five great Lakes, which comprehends
great Part of what they call la Loui-
i ane.
The PREFACE.
FOR through thefe Countries many
great Rivers have their Courfe, proceeding
from the Back of our Colonies of New
York, New Jerfey, Penfilvania, Mary-
land, Virginia, North andSouth Caro-
lina, (their Springs being not far diflant
from the Heads of the Chief Rivers, that
belong to and run through thofe Colonies)
mof of them Navigable without Interruption
from their Fountains, til they fall into
the Mefchacebe. And by means of their
Settlements on that and the other Inland
Rivers and Lakes, from the Bay of
Mexico, to the River and Bay of St.
Laurence, the French are drawing a
Line of Communication, and endeavour-
ing to surround andfireighten al our Co-
lonies, from Nova Scotia to South Ca-
rolina. Thus are they working out their
own Grandure and Our Deftrution.
INDEED the French,ho all the World
acknowledge to be an Enterpizing, Great
and Politick Nation, are fenfible of the
Advantages of Foreign Colonies, both
in reference to Empire and Trade,that
they ufe all manner of Artifices to lull
The PREFACE.
their Neighbours a fleep, with Fine
Speeches and plausible Pretences, whilft
they cunningly endeavour to compafs their
Defigns by degrees, tho' at the hazard
of encroaching on their Friends and Al-
lies, and depriving them of their Terri-
tories and Dominions in Time of Pro-
found Peace, and contrary to the moft
Solemn Treaties.
FoR besides theirfeizing on, and fet-
ling the great River Mefchacebe, and
fome part of the North Side of the
Bay of Mexico, and the claim they
feem clandeflinely to make to another
of our inhabited Southern Colonies ad-
joyning thereunto, as I fhal in the Sequel
demonfirate, they in fome of their Writings
boaff, that their Colony of Louifiana,
hath no other Bounds to the North than
the Ar6ick Pole, and that its Limits on
the Weft and North Weft are not known
much better, but extend to the South Sea,
Japan, or where-ever they Fhal think fit to
Fix them, if they can be perfwaded to fix
any at al; intending thereby to deprive
the Britilh Nation of all that vaft Tracf
The PREFACE.
of Land Situate between the Gulf of
Mexico and HudfonsBay,which includes
thiU our Province of Carolana, the afore-
faid great Lakes, and the whole Country
of our Five Nations, with the Fur,
Peltry, and other Trade thereof And
what further Views and Defi gns they may
entertain againfi the Spanifh Provinces of
New Mexico and New Bifcay, may be
easily conjecfur'd Jince the World has
been certainly apprizd of the Proje&t
fram'd by Monfieur Dela Salle, to Vifit
and Seize on the Rich Mines of St. Bar-
be, &c. which if he thought no difficult
Task to accomplif#b with about Two Hun-
dred French, and the Ajifiance of the In-
dians adjoining to, and in actual War
with the Spaniards, how much more eafji
ly will they become Mafters of them, when
with the United Strength of Canada
and Louifiana, both French and Na-
tives, they Fhall think fit to attack them.
And after fuch an Acquifition of the Nu-
merous Mines of thofe Provinces, with
the Immenfe Riches thereof, what may
not our Colonies, on the Continent of
America, apprehendfrom them. BE-
The PREFACE.
BESIDES Jamaica lying, as it werelockt
up, between their Settlements in the Ifland
of Hifpaniola, andthofe on the Bay of
Mexico, will foon be in Danger of fall.
ing into their Hands; and whether the
Havana itfelf, and the whole Ifland of
Cuba, with the Key of Old Mexico, La
vera Cruz,will long remain in the PoffeJi-
on of the Spaniards, is very much to be
doubted. And fuppo/fng the bet that can
happen to us, it will be but Uliffes's Fate,
to htve the Favour of being deflroy'd laft:
A very Comfortable Confideration.
WE are all fenible what Clamours were
rais'dat the Conceffions made to France, on
the Conclufion ofthe latePeace at Utrecht.
There's fcarce a Man well vers'd in the
Interest of Trade and Plantations, but
b!am'l the then Miniftry for not inifting
on the Surrender of Canada, as well as
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, fr,
the Security of our Northern Colonies
on the Continent of America, and the
Traffic thereof: Nor ought they to have
allowed them the Poefflion of Cape Bre-
ton, if they had well confider'd or under-
The PREFACE.
flood the Nature of the Fifhery in thofe
THE Hiflory of former Ages, and
the Experience ofthefe latter Times have
informed us, that the French have ever
been troublesome Neighbours, wherefo-
ever they were feated : Hiftorians afert-
ing, that the natural Levity and refilefs-
nefs of their Temper, their enter prizing
Genius, and Ambition ofextending their
Dominions, and ramfng the Glory and
Grandeur of their Monarchf, contribute
in great Meafure to make them fo.
WHEREFORE it's to be hop'd, that the
Britifh Nation, will befo far from conti-
nuing idle or indifferent Speaators of the
unreasonable and unjuft Ufurpations and
Encroachments of the French, on the
Continent of America, that they'll let 'em
know, they have enough already ofCanada
and Cape Breton, and that it's expeEfed
they abandon their New Acquifitions on the
Mefchacebe and the Bay of Mexico,
that River and Country belonging of
Right to the Crown ofGreat Britain. And
1 believe it ill fcarce be deny'd, that at