Unfortunately for the reverend historian, his known eccentricities as a writer, and fondness for hyperbole, must always deprive his books -- though remarkably useful and interesting to the young -- of any authority which might be claimed for them as histories. As fictions from history, lively and romantic, they are certainly very astonishing performances;have amused and benefited thousands, and entitle the writer to a rank, in a peculiar walk of letters, which has not yet been assigned him.
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Francis Marion was one of these survivors. The puny boy lived through the terrors and sufferings under which the strong men perished.
So intense were their sufferings, so terrible the trial, that it will not greatly task the imagination to recognize in the preservation of the youth, -- looking to his future usefulness --the agency of a special providence. The boy was preserved for other times and fortunes; and, in returning to his mother, was perhaps better prepared to heed her entreaties that he should abandon all idea of an element, from which his escape had been so hazardous and narrow.
It was well for himself and country that he did so. It can scarcely be conjectured that his achievements on the sea would have been half so fortunate, or half so honorable to himself and country, as those which are now coupled with his name.
Returning to his home and parents, young Marion sunk once more into the humble condition of the farmer. His health and strength had continued to improve. His adventures by sea had served, seemingly, to complete that change for the better, in his physical man, which had been so happily begun on land; and, subduing his roving inclinations, we hear of him only, in a period of ten years, as a tiller of the earth.
In this vocation he betrayed that diligent attention to his duties, that patient hardihood, and calm, equable temper, which distinguished his deportment in every part of his career. He is represented as equally industrious and successful as a farmer. The resources of his family seem to have been very moderate. There were several children, and before Francis was yet twenty-five years of age, he lost his father.
In 1758 he was planting with his mother and brother Gabriel, near Friersons Lock on the Santee Canal. In 1759 they separated.
Gabriel removed to Belle Isle -- the place where the mortal remains of Francis Marion now repose -- while the latter settled at a place called Pond Bluff in the Parish of St. John.* This place he continued to hold during life. It is still pointed out to the traveller as Marion's plantation, and is the more remarkable, as it lies within cannon shot of the battle ground of Eutaw, which his valor and conduct contributed to render so justly famous in the history of his native state. During this long period of repose --the interval between his shipwreck, and removal to Pond Bluff, -- we are only left to conjecture his employments. Beyond his agricultural labors, we may suppose that his chief tasks were the cultivation of his mind, by close application to those studies which, in the condition of the country, sparsely settled, and without teachers, were usually very inadequately urged.
It does not appear that his acquisitions in this respect were more valuable than could be afforded at the present day by the ******st grammar-school of the country. Here again we may trace the resemblance between his career and that of Washington. Equally denied the advantages of education, they equally drew from the great mother-sources of nature.
Thrown upon their own thoughts, taught by observation and experience --the same results of character, -- firmness, temperance, good sense, sagacious foresight, and deliberate prudence -- became conspicuous in the conduct and career of both. In the fortunes of neither --in the several tasks allotted to them, -- in their various situations, --did their deficiencies of education appear to qualify their successes, or diminish the respect and admiration of those around them, --a singular fact, as indicative equally of the modesty, the good sense, and the superior intrinsic worth of both of these distinguished persons.
In the case of Marion, his want of education neither lessened his energies, his confidence in himself, nor baffled any of his natural endowments.
On the contrary, it left his talents free to their natural direction.
These, it is probable, were never of a kind to derive, or to need, many advantages from a very superior or scientific education. His mind was rather practical than subtile -- his genius prompted him to action, rather than to study, -- and the condition and necessities of the country, calling for the former rather than the latter character, readily reconciled him to a deficiency the importance of which he did not feel.
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* Pond Bluff now lies at the bottom of Lake Marion. -- A. L., 1996.
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