Those remarks should be given their proper weight. -- A. L., 1997.
--

Of the education of FRANCIS MARION, we have no account;
but from the internal evidence afforded by his original letters,
it appears to have been no more than a plain English one; for the Huguenots
seem to have already so far assimilated themselves to the country
as to have forgotten their French. It was indeed a rare thing,
in this early state of our country, to receive any more
than the rudiments of an English education; since men were too much employed
in the clearing and tilth of barren lands, to attend much to science.

Such an education seemed to dispose Marion to be modest and reserved
in conversation; to think, if not to read much; and, above all,
not to be communicative. An early friend of his, the late
Captain John Palmer, has stated, that his first inclination
was for a seafaring life, and that at the age of sixteen he made a voyage
to the West Indies. The vessel in which he embarked foundered at sea,
and the crew, consisting of six persons, took to an open boat,
without water or provisions: but, providentially, a dog swam to them
from the ship, whose blood served them for drink, and his raw flesh for food,
for six days; on the seventh, Francis Marion, and three of the crew,
reached land, but the other two perished at sea. Things which appear
accidental at the time, often sway the destinies of human life.
Thus it was, that from the effect of this narrow escape, and the entreaties
of a tender mother, Francis Marion was induced to abandon the sea,
for an element, on which he was to become singularly useful.
His mother's maiden name was Cordes, and she also was of French extraction.
Engaged in cultivating the soil, we hear no more of Marion for ten years.
Mr. Henry Ravenel, of Pineville, now more than 70 years of age,