724 A. D. 1702. 



' of the name of AVoodward. From part of this he had a very good' 



* crop, but was ignorant for fome years how to clean it. It was foon 



* difperfed over the province, and by frequent experiments and obfer- 



* vations they found out ways of producing and manufacturing it to fo 

 ' great perfedion, that it is thought to exceed any other in value. The 



* writer of this hath feen the faid captain in Carohna, where he receiv- 



* ed a handfome gratuity from the gentlemen of that country, in ac- 

 ' knowlegement of the fervice he had done the province. It is like- 

 ' wife reported, that Mr. Dubois, then treafurer of the Eaft-India com- 

 ' pany, did fend to that country a fmall bag of feed-rice fome fliort 



* time after, from whence it is reafonable enough to fuppofe might 

 ' come thofe two forts of that commodity ; the one called red rice, in 

 ' contradiftindion to the white, from the rednefs of the inner hufk or 



* rind of this fort, although they both clean and become white alike.' 

 Before this important new produdion, Carolina was not a little- 

 puzzled to fupply the mother-country with merchandize fufficient to 

 pay for all the necelTaries conftantly wanted from England. That fine 

 grain, we fhall fee, has fince been exported in immenfe quantities, as 

 have alfo been the pitch, tar, turpentine, &c. of Carolina, in no incon- 

 liderable quantities and value. 



1703 — The neceflity which all maritime trading nations lie under 

 of being fupplied with naval flores, and more efpecially England's very 

 great need thereof, as well for the royal navy as for her numerous mer- 

 cantile Ihipping, has often put it in the power of the northern crowns 

 to diftrefs fuch nations as had none of their own. This eminently ap- 

 peared in the year 1703 from the tar company of Sweden, who abfo- 

 lutely refufed to let the Englifli nation have any pitch or tar, although 

 ready money was always paid for it, unlefs England would permit it all 

 to be brought in Swedifli fhipping, and at their own price, and likewife 

 only in fuch quantities as that company fliould pleafe to permit. This 

 dilappointment (as the late ingenious Mr. Gee likewife obferves in his 

 T'rade and navigation of Great Britain confide.red, />. 82) ' put the govern- 

 ' ment and parliament on the method of allowing bounties for raifing 

 ' pitch, tar, hemp, flax, and fhip-timber, in our own North-American 

 ' colonies; as particularly in Carolina, (the fouthernmofl parts of which 

 ' lying near the latitude of Lower Egypt, and the northernmofl: nearly 

 ' in thofe of Ancona and Bologna in Italy, in which parts the befl hemp 

 ' and flax grow).' The firfl: ftatute of this kind was the ad: for encou- 

 raging the importation of naval fl:ores from her majefl:y's plantations in 

 America, judicioufly fetting forth, ' that as, under God, the wealth, 



* fafety, and ftrength, of the kingdom, fo much depend on the royal 



* navy and navigation thereof, and that the floras necefl^ary for the fame 

 ' being hitherto brought in chiefly from foreign parts and by foreign 



* ftiipping, at exorbitant and arbitrary rates, which might be provided 



