smaller islands, which, together with Hilton Head, make the district occupied by our forces.  The largest and most populous of these islands is St. Helena, being fifteen miles long and six or seven broad, containing fifty plantations and three thousand negroes, and perhaps more since the evacuation of Edisto.  Port Royal is two-thirds or three-quarters the size of St. Helena, Ladies half as large, and Hilton Head one-third as large.  Paris, or Parry, has five plantations, and Coosaw, Morgan, Cat, Cane, and Barnwell have each one or two.  Beaufort is the largest town in the district of that name, and the only one at Port Royal in our possession.  Its population, black and white, in time of peace may have been between two and three thousand.  The first lots were granted in 1717.  Its Episcopal church was built in 1720.  Its library was instituted in 1802, had increased in 1825 to six or eight hundred volumes, and when our military occupation began contained about thirty-five hundred.

The origin of the name Port Royal, given to a harbor at first and since to an island, has already been noted.  The name of St. Helena, applied to a sound, a parish, and an island, originated probably with the Spaniards, and was given by them in tribute to Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, whose day in the calendar is August 18th.  Broad River is the equivalent of La Grande, which was given by Ribault.  Hilton Head may have been derived from Captain Hilton, who came from Barbados.  Coosaw is the name of a tribe of Indians.  Beaufort is likely to have been so called for Henry, Duke of Beauford, one of the lord proprietors, while Carolina was a province of Great Britain.

The Beaufort District is not invested with any considerable Revolutionary romance.  In 1779, the British forces holding Savannah sent two hundred troops with a howitzer and two field-pieces to Beaufort.  Four companies of militia from Charleston with two field-pieces, reinforced by a few volunteers from Beaufort, repulsed and drove them off.  The British made marauding incursions from Charleston in 1782, and are said to have levied a military contribution on St. Helena and Port Royal Islands.

There are the remains of Indian mounds and ancient forts on the islands.  One of these last, it is said, can be traced on Paris Island, and is claimed by some antiquaries to be the Charles Fort built by Ribault.  There are the well-preserved walls of one upon the plantation of John J. Smith on Port Royal Island, a few miles south of Beaufort, now called Camp Saxton, and recently occupied by Colonel Higginson’s regiment.  It is built of cemented oyster-shells.  Common remark refers to it as a Spanish fort, but it is likely to be of English construction.  The site of Charles Fort is claimed for Beaufort, Lemon Island, Paris Island, and other points.