Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 285
on Yamacraw Bluff, there posted three four-pounder guns, which bore
directly upon the shipping. But prior to opening fire, two officers
(Lieut. Daniel Roberts and Capt. Raymond Demefe) were dispatched,
to demand the immediate release of Captain Rice, and his boat's crew,
who were by them detained as prisoners. The officers not returning,
upon a renewal of the peremptory requirement for the liberation of the
Americans, such an insulting retort was evoked, that fire was at once
drawn from the Yamacraw breastwork. The reply was received, that
if the most reputable envoys should be sent, the enemy would treat
with them. Whereupon two officers (Captains Screven and Baker), with
a small detail, repairing to the ship's side, made requisition for the
.prompt restoration of their brethren.
Such scant courtesy, however, was accorded the officers that one
of them, infuriated, fired into the crew. This was evidently exactly what
the foe wished, for, strange to say, a discharge of swivels came from the
vessel, almost sinking the boat, and wounding one of the escort. At
this, the envoys, surprised at this murderous breach of military etiquette,
retired toward Savannah, balls speeding after them, until they were
beyond gun-reach. The Yamacraw battery now took a hand in the affair
and for several hours maintained a brisk cannonade, which was returned
by the British troops on the merchant vessels.
It being now decided that the shipping must be destroyed, the Coun
cil of Safety called for volunteers for the accomplishment of that im
portant object. The desired end was attained when the Inverness,
loaded with rice and deer skins, was ignited and turned adrift in the
stream. "Upon this," writes President Ewen, "the soldiers, in the most
laughable confusion, got ashore in the marsh, while our riflemen and
field-pieces, with grape-shot, were incessantly galling them. The shipping
was now also in confusion. Some got up the river, under cover of the
armed schooner, while others caught the flame, and, as night approached,
exhibited a scene, as they passed and repassed with the tide, which at
any but the present time, would be truly horrible, but now a subject
only of gratitude and applause." "With the co-operative aid of the
South Carolinians, the dislodgment of the enemy was at length consum
mated ; three of the merchant vessels being burnt, six being dismantled,
and two escaping to sea. Thus ended a martial episode which, while
of comparative insignificance, was instinct with the spirit of the Georgia
revolutionists.
The republican constitution, as already referred to, was purely tem
porary in its character, and was intended merely as the forerunner to
a more satisfactory instrument. With a view to realizing the ideas of
its framers, by the formulation of another and more complete consti
tution, which would be thoroughly adapted to the needs of the embattled
republic, a convention for that important purpose was, accordingly, con
voked. The opening session of that distinguished body was held on the
1st of October, 1776, and for four months and more were its noteworthy
deliberations uniterruptedly continued, its interesting labors being con
cluded on the 5th of the following February. In pursuance of the
provisions of that admirable document, the parish system was abolished,
and the sturdy counties of Chatham, Effingham, Burke, Liberty, Cam-
den, Glynn, Richmond and Wilkes were installed in its stead. On the