0)12 TRA.NSPORTATION IX SOUTH CAROLIXA. 



tlie first permanent European settlements, in 1670, we shall find that 

 these characteristics of the country influenced materially the course of 

 colonial development. 



In the first place it was probably owing to the sub-division of the land 

 by these water courses that the Indians in lower South Carolina were 

 found in detached tribes, of only a few hundred each, which were too 

 weak to contend singly against the whites, and too much separated from 

 each other by physical barriers and old feuds to combine successfully. • 



In the next place the first settlers found the Indians well supplied with 

 boats, but without roads, bridges, or domestic animals of burden, hence 

 all the earlier needs of the colonists, in the way of transportation, were 

 supplied by using the vessels they brought with them and the Indian boats. 



These. Indian boats were of the same sort as were found along the 

 whole coast from the Delaware capes to Florida, where they had been 

 seen by Verazzani, in 1524, nearly a century and a half before the settle- 

 ment of Charlestown. His description of them is thus translated by 

 Hackluyt : 



" We saw many of their boats made of one tree, twenty foote long and 

 four foote broad, which are not made with iron or stone, or any other 

 kind of metall ; ******--!= they help themselves with fire burning 

 so much of the tree as is sufficient for the hollownesse of the boat, the like 

 the}^ doe in making the stern and fore part untill it be fit to sail upon 

 the sea." 



This sort of boat, constructed however with tools, continued in use by 

 the colonists for a long time, under the names of Perriaguer, Pettiauger, 

 and Dug-out. In 1(396, the Colonial Legislature passed an Act to punish 

 " any person who should steal, take away, or let loose any boat, perria- 

 guer, or canoe," and from the earliest dates the statutes are full of the 

 provisions made for opening and keeping open navigable waters. 



It happened, too, that rice soon became the chief product of the coun- 

 try ; it was grown in the swamps extending between the oozy water 

 courses near the coast, and, being a heavy grain, is peculiarly dependent 

 upon water transportation. The row boats and sloops that brought the 

 rice to " town " belonged to the planters, and were manned by slaves ; 

 they carried back the family and plantation supplies, and at a later period 

 were used in the annual moving to and from the city, in spring and 

 autumn, which came into vogue. The rice was conveyed from the plan- 

 tation to the landing in flats upon canals, or, when that was not practi- 

 cable, it was hauled by oxen, on sleds. 



Lumber, the next most important product of the country, was rafted 

 to Charlestown, and on the rafts came also the wood to supply the city 

 demand for fuel. 



