Each Family had a Bower of Palmetto Leaves
finished upon the back Street in their own Lands. The side toward the front
Street was set out for their Houses. These Palmetto Bowers were very
convenient shelters, being tight in the hardest Rains; they were about 20
Feet long and 14 Feet wide, and in regular Rows looked very pretty, the
Palmetto Leaves lying smooth and handsome, and of a good Colour. The whole
appeared something like a Camp; for the Bowers looked like Tents, only
being larger and covered with Palmetto Leaves."*
* Moore's "Voyage to Georgia". Quoted in Winsor's "Narrative and
Critical History of America", vol. V, p. 378.
Their life sounds idyllic, but it will not always be so. Thunders will
arise; serpents be found in Eden. But here now we leave them -- in infant
Savannah -- in the Salzburgers' village of Ebenezer and in the Moravian
village nearby -- in Darien of the Highlanders -- and in Frederica, where until
houses are built they will live in palmetto bowers.
Virginia, Maryland, the two Carolinas, Georgia -- the southern sweep of
England-in-America -- are colonized. They have communication with one another
and with middle and northern England-in-America. They also have
communication with the motherland over the sea. The greetings of kindred
and the fruits of labor travel to and fro: over the salt, tumbling waves.
But also go mutual criticism and complaint. "Each man," says Goethe, "is
led and misled after a fashion peculiar to himself.
Pages:
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196