Note 704 — Chapter V

All the country of which North and South Carolina form a part was known for a long time by the name of Florida, a name given by early Spanish explorers. The English, after the settlement of Virginia, called the region in that direction South Virginia. From 1629, in the reign of Charles I., the name Carolana (as in Heath’s claim), and at times Carolina, began to be used (see S. C. Hist. Soc. Coll., i. p. 200). At length, when the new charter was obtained, the name as it now stands was definitely applied to the region granted to the Proprietors. If they had wished, they could have adopted some other name. It happened that the fort built by the French in Florida was called in Latin “arx Carolina”; a Charles fort was also built by them in what is now South Carolina,—both so named in honor of Charles IX. of France; yet they did not apply the name to the territory, which they continued to call Florida. Gov. Glen in his Description of South Carolina (1761) says: “The name Carolina, still retained by the English, is generally thought to have been derived from Charles the Ninth of France, in whose reign Admiral Coligny made some settlements on the Florida coast.”