Ix South Carolina. 39 



were at liberty to elect their pastors indifferently from 

 either of the two denominations, and accordingly 

 the six ministers who served them for half a century 

 were thus chosen — two from the Presbyterian and 

 four from the Independent Church. Their first regu- 

 lar minister was the Rev. Benjamin Pierpont, a Con- 

 gregationalist, a native of Massachusetts, who was 

 graduated at Harvard University in 1681), and emi- 

 grated from near Boston in 1691, with a select company, 

 to found an Independent Church in Carolina. He 

 died, near Charleston, in 1698, aged about thirty 

 Of his successor, the Rev. Mr. Adams, a Congrega- 

 tionalist, most probably from the same region of coun-* 

 try, nothing is known. The Rev. John Cotton, who 

 succeeded him, Nov. 15, 1698, was the son of the cele- 

 brated John Cotton, of Boston, a graduate of Harvard 

 College in the class of 1657, and a Congregationalist. 

 He was eminent for his acquaintance with the Indian 

 language and for his revision of Eliot's Indian Bible, 

 the whole labor of which fell on him. During his 

 brief ministry of nine months in this Church, he la- 

 bored with great diligence and success. He died Sep- 

 tember 18, 1699, of yellow fever, " the horrible plague 

 of Barbadoes, which was brought into Charleston by 

 an infected vessel." 



In 1700 the Rev. Archibald Stobo was returning in 

 the Rising Sun, under the command of Captain Gib- 

 son, wuth the miserable remnants of the colony wdiich 

 had been sent out from Scotland two years before to 

 plant a New Caledonia on the Isthmus of Darien, and 

 which had been well-nigh destroyed by the Spaniards, 

 when the vessel, having encountered a severe gale off 

 the coast of Florida, was brought into great distress, 

 and was forced, under a jury-mast, to make for the 



