Hughes was an observing traveller; he returned to Charles Town from his first inland tour intoxicated by what he had seen. 'This Summer,' he wrote to his brother-in-law at home,95 'I've been a considerable way to the Westwd. upon the branches of the Mesisipi, where I saw a country as different from Carolina as the best parts of our country are from the fens of Lincolnshire.' [Note 95: Hughes to 'Bro. [John] Jones,' [circa October, 1713], MS in possession of Maggs Brothers.] The natives he described as friendly, the land as abounding 'with many fine navigable Rivers, pleasant Savannahs, plenty of coal, lead, iron, lime and freestone wth. several salt springs; a th[o]rough intermixture of Hills and Vales and as fine timber as the largest I ever saw in England.' 'There's no land in America now left y'ts worth anything,' he declared roundly, ‘but what's on the Mesisipi.' Thither he was now determined to lead the great numbers of Welshmen who, he believed, would come over to Carolina at his bidding. ‘If they refuse,' he charged his correspondent, John Jones, ‘tell them I let them starve for timorous drones. It was on their account I and my brother came over.' At first only adults should be sent, especially men able to march overland to the colony. Bristol was named as the port of embarkation. From his friends in Wales he selected leaders to assemble the colonists and advance the funds. But the enterprise, he knew, must be upon a national footing. A ship, tools, supplies were required; permission must be had to transport poor colonists, for Hughes disclaimed an intention to rob the country of others, and at least the tacit support of the Crown in what might be made to appear an intrusion into the French dominions in America. These requests Hughes incorporated into a petition to be presented to the Queen; 96 and from Charles Town he set hopefully to work to create an interest at court. [Note 96: Apparently not extant; described in letters cited in notes] The Duchess of Powis was his friend; through her Jones was advised to cultivate the Duchess of Ormonde, the wife of that great personage the Captain-General in Flanders,97 and thus gain access to the Queen. [Note 97: Dictionary of National Biography, VIII. 60-5. 98 The quotations that follow are from the latter.] In letters to Jones and the Duchess of Ormonde written in October, 1713,98 Hughes developed his plan. The Queen, he argued, could not better bestow her charity than in aiding the great numbers of poor in Wales who should begin the settlement. ‘But I hope that the secureing so fine and spacious a countrey to her Crown will clearly out ballance so small a Charge, and be a lasting fund for the settling poor Familyes hereafter.' The support furnished by Louis XIV to Louisiana was held up for her emulation. ‘The French King has given the utmost encouragement to his Colony at Movile. 'Tis he that sends over settlers thither and in a manner bestows the carriage of all the goods. Besides this (to his immortal memory be it spoken) he maintains Missionaryes.' At the same time he recalled the barbarities of the French ‘to the New England men.' To prevent ‘the like fate here ' ... can be done no otherwise than by possessing ourselves of those vacant parts of this Province: which they will otherwise so soon be Masters off.' Herein nothing shall be done that's contrary to the Law of nations & the general rights of Mankind. We'le not encroach upon the acquisitions of the French; but in an industrious way seek an honest Settlement in those parts we've allready fixt upon to that purpose: unless our delays will Suffer them when sensible of our designs to slip in before us, wch otherwise they do not for some time design. We have several traders on the Mesisipi & its branches; & the settlement which the French have at Movile is ab[ou]t 120 miles to the Eastward of the place we have fixt upon’ [i.e., Natchez or Yazoo?].99 [Note 99: In the letter to Jones, Hughes referred to an accompanying map: 'Where the Messisipi divides you see I've markt on the places designd for a town.' Unfortunately this does not appear on Spotswood's copy of the Hughes map (C.O. Maps, N.A.C. Virginia, 2). But from various indications it could not have been farther north than the Yazoo.] ‘A great part of both the Rivers [Alabama and Mississippi] we are allready possest off as we were long before the French settled at the mouths thereof. So that they are but encroachers at best. As to what they pretend of being the first discoverers of those parts I flatly deny it; & ,can prove what I would otherwise assert w[i]th undeniable Reasons. But if some huffing Memorial like what the Spanish Ambassadour gave King William against the Scots (at Darien) should be offerd: her MaJesty I hope will give us leave to argue the matter fairly ac-cording to the Law of Nations & we desire no more. But in the mean time let this settlement go on least they Supplant us not only in it but in our Trade. The French when sensible of our designs will probably send some settlers to our neighborhood from Movile. But probably they'le be little the better for it when we have a precedent title both by claim and possession. If the English think proper to follow their garbe at home: the Britains I believe will not be Subject to their Prescriptions in America, Having as yet some little of our old courage as well as discretion left.’ None of the Carolinians had asserted more boldly their western claims, based upon the pioneer exploits of their traders. Hughes apparently expected to dispute with the French the navigation of the Mississippi; though the first settlers should go overland 'to the place designed for a town near the mouth of the Messisipi to erect magazines of corn and provisions,' future colonists would be sent round by sea.100 [Note 100: Hughes to Jones.] Like Nairne he foresaw expansion west of the great river; he advised that the mines be kept unpatented, 'for such assuredly there are the other side the Mesisipi: the Indians having brought me pieces of oar from two Several mines they discoverd to me.' Her Majesty, too, should 'keep that colony in her own hands & not grant it to any body. It may indeed for some time yet pass under the name & government of Carolina; but with the leave of the Honourable Persons owners of that Province, as well as of the King of France who has styld that part of it Louisania, I'le make bold to give it the worthyer name of Annarea in honour of her Majesty through whose bounty 'twill I hope be settled.'101 [Note 101: Hughes to Duchess of Ormond. In this letter Hughes also gave an account of the Cherokee Indians, who 'desr'd me to send that good Woman (for so they styI'd her) [Queen Anne] a present from them viz a large carpet made of mulberry bark for herself to sit on and twelve small ones for her Counsellours.'] Though nothing came of this forgotten project of western empire, the scheme was not altogether chimerical.