VG/VG+. Jacket in mylar. Clean owner's stamp (name & address) on front end page. Small (1/8-inch) dark spot on edge of spine of book (jacket unaffected). (NY: Bobbs-Merrill, 1960). First Edition. Map, illustrations, photographs, bibliography, 368 pages.

"There is no fayrer or fytter place." So said Jean Ribaut in the year 1562 when he spoke of Port Royal, a group of islands lying off the Atlantic Coast between Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia

Discovered in the early sixteenth century by the Spanish Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, these islands have been under six flags: Spanish, French, English, Scotch, United States and Confederate. Seven flags, actually, for twice they were under the Palmetto Flag of South Carolina.

Katharine Jones has selected writings of explorers, settlers, defenders, visitors, planters, reformers, Marines -- people of all sorts and conditions who have been involved in the dramatic history of the islands. Arranged in chronological order with illuminating headnotes, the pieces present a running story of great variety and interest.

Accounts of the terror, hope, fear, humor -- emotions experienced by the men and women who discover, settle, fight for and win a new land -- are forcefully expressive in the original language of the time in which they were written.

The settlement of Port Royal is vital to the early history of America because the first colony, under command of Ribaut, in 1562, predates Jamestown by forty-five years. The religious wars in France left Ribaut's colony unvisited and unprovided, and the colonial survivors sailed home in a makeshift craft. There is a moving account of this horror-filled voyage, with its near-starvation and ultimate resort to cannibalism by the desperate crew.

Because of their position, the Sea Islands were strategically important to the coastal warfare of the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Miss jones has included vivid selections written during these two periods, from the points of view of both invaders and defenders. Of particular interest because of their mixture of pathos and homor, idealism and realism, are the writings from the last years of the Civil War and the early Reconstruction, when Northern do-gooders moved into the disturbed area to educate and care for the freed slaves.

Miss Jones brings her account up to date with letters from Marines stationed at Parris Island and an eyewitness story of the great hurricane of 1959.

Originally published at $5 in 1960, now OUT OF PRINT. Very nice copy of first edition in unchipped, unfaded jacket.