TRANSPORTATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. G13 



Among the exports, beef and pork occupy positions next in importance 

 to lumber; the cattle and hogs, we know, were driven through the woods, 

 for among the early Statutes is one prohibiting the slaughtering of ani- 

 mals within a certain time after they had been driven to " town." 



A third consequence of the character of the country was, that when 

 the colonists, who at first were planted only at Charleston and its imme- 

 diate vicinity, began to push their settlements into the surrounding 

 territory, their movements and location were determined by the direc- 

 tions and naviga])ility of the water courses. 



Georgetown, Beaufort, Goose Creek, Dorchester, Coosawhatchie, Salt- 

 ketcher and Pocotaligo, were early occupied by traders with the Indians, 

 and became, afterwards, rallying points of the colonists who took up the 

 lands around them. 



It was only after some settlements had been thus made that the colo- 

 nists seemed to turn their attention to communications by land. In 1682, 

 there is mention of a hundred and fifty mares and some horses that 

 had been brought into the Province from New York and Rhode Island ; 

 and in the same year, on tlie 2Gth May, the Colonial Assembly passed 

 the first law to provide for the making of roads. 



Unfortunately, the text of the statute is lost, but the title has been pre- 

 served. It is " An Act for Highways." This Act was followed b}^ many 

 others of a special character, i. e , relating to particular localities, or pro- 

 viding for some particular work, all, however, conforming to a general 

 plan which placed the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, 

 as well as the conservation of ivavigable water courses, in the hands of 

 prominent residents of the vicinity. Two or three of the leading planters 

 in each neighborhood constituted the board of commissioners for that 

 road district, and the confines of their territory were precisely defined. 



Every male inhabitant between sixteen and sixty years of age was com- 

 pelled bylaw to work on the roads of the district in which he lived; and all 

 the timber recpiired foi bridges and causeways could be taken by the 

 commissioners without compensation to the owner. 



The location of roads and bridges, during the early days of the colony, 

 was obviously governed by military considerations,- rather than by thoi^e 

 relating to trade and peaceful travel. The colonists Avere never free from 

 attacks by the Spaniards and Indians until after 1715, and both before 

 and after that time the apprehension of servile insurrection seemed 

 always present to their minds. 



To secure the public safety was, therefore, necessarily a prime con- 

 sideration, and since the roads were at first regarded chiefly as lines of 

 communication by which the scattered colonists could concentrate for 

 defence, it is not surprising that the whole labor of the community should 



