664 TOWXS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



Port Royal rivers, they may enter Battery creek and reach the present 

 wharves under full sail, where there is a stretch of anchorage five miles 

 in length, with twenty-eight feet depth of water. 



The net- work of broad and deep rivers, the beautiful islands resting 

 in their midst, the verdure of the forests, the immense live oaks, venerable 

 with the growth of centuries, the glistening fronds of the palmetto trees, 

 the orange trees, the vines, laden with grapes, climbing everywhere, the 

 abundance of wild fowl, and the fragrance of flowers that perfumed the 

 air of this healthful and genial climate, attracted the early explorers and 

 settlers to this locality. Here, in 1520, the Senator and Judge, De Ayllon, 

 was the first European to land on Carolina soil. Here, in 1562, the 

 Huguenots, under Jean Ribault, made the first settlement on the North 

 American continent. Coveted and fought for by Spaniards and French- 

 men, the remains of the forts they built are still to be seen here. It was 

 to this point, called then " the beauty and the envy of North America," 

 that the English colony, led by William Sayle, which afterwards settled 

 permanently at Charleston in 1670, first came.* And here, in 1682, 

 Lord Cardross and his Scotch colony were dislodged and driven off by 

 the Spaniards. In 1742, the headquarters of the British squadron on 

 this coast was located here. More recently, this port was selected as the 

 rendezvous of the United States naval force during the late war, as a depot 

 of supplies and for repairs, and as a sanitarium for the troops. The records 

 of the Navy Department bear ample testimony to its many natural ad- 

 vantages. The railroad was projected and built to this port under the 

 idea that it was the most accessible from the interior, that it was the 

 legitimate shipping point for Western produce, and that, in time, it 

 would be the terminus of the great Southern lines of railway to the 

 Pacific. That these hopes and plans have not been realized and accom- 

 plished has in no instance been attributed to anything wanting in the 

 place itself, its surroundings, or its geographical relations to other places. 

 The first settlements were abandoned in consequence of the inroads of 

 Spaniards and pirates. To-day, it is said that hostile railroad combina- 

 tions and the ill-advised jealousies of neighboring towns have checked 

 the growth of this great seaport. As an illustration of this, it may be 

 mentioned that, in 1875, the city authorities of Savannah presented a me- 

 morial to Congress, expressing the fear that the " establishment of a naval 

 station at Port Royal may result in the establishment of a grov/ing com- 

 merce at that point, to the serious and lasting detriment of the commerce 

 of the city of Savannah." 



The present town of Port Royal is built on the southwestern point of 



This colony report seeing, on St. Helena Island, many peach trees. 



