TRANSPORTATION- IN SOUTH CAROLINA, G15 



nor could negroes be employed in tlieir place, and hence arose an ad- 

 ditional influence tending to restrict Indian traders to the use of water 

 transportation for their goods between Charleston and the several trading- 

 posts, while they and their agents passed on horseback by the trails 

 through the woods. 



Until after 1730, no settlement had been made above the tide-water 

 line, and there was little occasion, near the coast, for any but short roads. 



The early history of the roads, bridges and ferries of the State can be 

 traced in the statutes of the Colonial Legislature. There it appears that, 

 during fifty years, these public works were confined to the strip of land 

 along the coast, about twenty miles wide, and to the settlements along 

 the navigable rivers and watercourses ; but. 



In 1737, An Act was passed which refers to the settlements lately made 

 by several families in Orangeburg township, and directs a road 

 to be made to them from the " head of the path that leads from 

 Dorchester to Captain Izard's cow pen." 



In 1739, A ferr}' for " passengers, horses and cattle," was authorized 

 across the Savannah river, from Fort Moore, in South Carolina, 

 to the Sand Bar, in Georgia, but it appears not to have been 

 established, even in 1747, when another Act was passed for the 

 purpose. 



In 1742, An Act provides for a ferry across the Santee, and a road to be 

 made in connection with it, " to facilitate the passage of travel- 

 ers from Charlestown to Williamsburg and other, the northwest 

 parts of this Province." 



Up to 1750, all the white inhabitants of South Carolina were Europeans, 

 who reached the province by sea, and passed to their destination in the 

 interior by boat; hence the interior settlements of that day were at or 

 near river landings. These settlements were no where far from the coast, 

 except at Windsor (near Hamburg), on the Savannah river, the " Conga- 

 rees " (near Columbia), on the Congaree river, Camden, on the Wateree, and 

 Cheraw, on the Pee Dee, these places being respectively at the head of 

 schooner navigation on each of the four great rivers of the State. 



By reference to the map, it will be found that a line drawn from Ham- 

 burg, through Columbia and Camden, to Cheraw, will be nearly straight, 

 nearly parallel to the coast, and will about divide the State in half. The 

 upper country which lay beyond this line began to be peopled about 

 1750, by settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia, whose numbers were 

 afterwards greatly increased by the effects of Braddock's defeat, in 1755. 

 The few immigrants who made their way there from the coast were absorbed 



