1684: UNSETTLING PORT ROYAL

In 1684, Port Royal was transformed from a sleepy, sparsely populated region of scattered Indigenous towns to a bustling and messy multicultural frontier. In February of that year, the coastal Indians ceded their lands to the Lords Proprietors, although they continued to live in their towns and remained “very kind and serviceable” to the English. In November, they were joined by religious refugees from Scotland, who planted their settlement along the banks of the Port Royal river not far from the Wimbee village. By then, a mixed medley of some three hundred Natives, made up of pagan Yamasee and Christian