Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/298

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A contemporary writer describes this, the first Governor of South Carolina, as "of Bermuda, a Puritan and Non-Conformist, whose religious bigotry, advanced age and failing health promised badly for the discharge of the task before him." Governor Sayle died within the year and the colonists selected Joseph West as his successor. When the news of Sayle's death reached England, the Lords Proprietors again appointed Sir John Yeamans Governor, in which position he served most unsatisfactorily to the Proprietors until his death in 1674.

The settlers of Charles Town had not been two years on the western bank of the Ashley before they recognized the unfitness of its location, and settlements were soon made on the peninsula called Oyster Point, two miles away, and in sight of the sea. These settlements increased, and in 1680 the public offices were removed to the present site of Charleston.

In spite of religious dissensions between Churchmen and Dissenters and the opposition to law and order natural to the many adventurers and enfans perdus who flocked to Carolina as to other colonies, and despite wars with the Indians in 1712 and 1715, commerce