HISTORY OF GEORGIA,
FIRST DISCOVERY BY EUROPEANS
TO THE ADOPTION OF
THE PRESENT CONSTITUTION
MDCCXCVIII
REV. WILLIAM BACON STEVENS, M.D..
L\ T W O V O L U M E S .
VOL. I,
NEW-YORK:
D APl'LETON AND CO., 200 BROADWAY.
SAVANNAH : WILLIAM THORNE WILLIAMS.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by
REV. WILLIAM BACON STEVENS, M.D.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
E . O . J E N I I U S . P K liV T ;i K . Is'o . 114 X a:-sau S'treef.

C 0 N TENTS.

BOOK FIRST.

ANTE-COLONIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

KARLV ENGLISH. FRENCH, AND SPANISH VOYAGES TO GEORGIA,

1

CHAPTER II.

TRAVELS AND DrscovjsHiEs or FEEDINANP Di; SOTO.

35

CHAPTER III.

FRENCH AND SPANISH SETTLEMENTS AND DISCOVERIES,

30

CHAPTER IV.

BOOK SECOND. GEORGIA.UN.BER THE TE.USTEES.

' -' CHAPTER I.

THE COLONIZATION .(>;: 'GEORGIA. . , . , .. .

57

CHAPTER li.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. .......

85

CHAPTER III

PROGRESS OF COLONIZATION, . '. .'..

117

CHAPTER IV

OGLETIIORPE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FORTIFICATIONS AT FEEDEEICA

ATTACH ON ST. AUGUSTINE.

. , . .- .

140

CONTEXTS. CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
MKKTOJI OF OGLETHOHPTJ AFTER LEAVING GEORGIA
CHAPTER VII.
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF GKOKOIA.
CHAPTER VIII.
RKVIFAV OF THE TRUSTEES' POLICV.
CHAPTER IX.
ORIG-IN OF SLAVE LABOTJI: IN GEORGIA, .
CHAPTER X.
RELIGIOUS HISTOHV OF :rifii Cof,o.\v.

BOO K T I! IR D .

GEORGIA UNDER ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

.CHAPTER I.

SETTLEMENT OF I,iiiE;i.T lr .COUKTV, .

..... 371

CHAPTER II. ADMINISTRATION OF (<OVERNOR REYNOLDS, .

.' ..-'.

. 385

' 'CHAPTER HI.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR Ems, .....

1:27

. APPEINDIX
LIST OF TRUSIEES, WITH NOTICES OF THE SAME, CHARTER OF THE COLONY OF GEORGIA, .

E RRATA

Owing la the inability of the author lo superintend Lhe first 170 or ISO pages, several errors of nain*.-:< 'And construction of sentences, made in transcribing the original manuscript, have crept in ; in only onecase, however, aflecting the sense of the text. There arc a few merely orthographical errors, which the reader will readily correct.

Page 6, line, 5, for himself, read lie,.

I'oge 26, line 3. for placed, read planned.

"' 16, " 30, " jYicaiatra.a, " Nicaragua,

23 ( . o0j < Talipc, " TaliKsc-

" " '' 25," they,

L " (/(d soldiers,

34,

Paruconstij, " Paracousti

39, " n. " Spaniards '' Spaniard.

" 20, " 2, " found,

" founded.

71, in note, " Joltai,

" Josio.lt.

" " '' 4, semicolon after rule, and not after

76,

'' Cruckcr. " Oroker.

arms.

17, line i.7, " Hazlemcre, " Haslem&rc,.

" 27, " 13, erase not and but. Since the text

81,

29,

Was printed, 1 have had the privilege of examining

107,

7,

" f^allenses.

the collection of Mr. K. G. Squier, whose most

110,

S, G-ronan, t: Gronatt.

valuable observations on American Antiquities

112, 21,

will soon be published by the Regents of the Smith

" Scnauky,

sonian Institute ; and from conversations yyirh Him. ',

'' Hillispilly.

and an examination of his valuablo/liwh" > aid exceedingly rich collection, 1 anc ^friyii.Ltd that

" .123,

^ $*o'.

" Batfiurst. " Spcncr.

some of the works alluded to ve"e for military as " 125,

Bertkolds

well as for civil and religious purposes. 1 am grati

fied to find that, all my olher ,- ; ews upon this subject " 12G,

" Stralbdean,* " Strathldea.it,

are confirmed by 'Mr. Sfpu'er, -,vho must now lie

" I7" f

considered tiie highest ant,boi try on this subject.. ^ ,.~

PREFACE.
A HISTORY OF GEORGIA has long been needed : the pres ent work is an attempt to supply the deficiency. In 1779, a History of South Carolina and Georgia was published in London, which, though brought out anonymously, was known to be written by the Rev. Dr. Hewitt, a Presbyterian min ister of Charleston, who left the country just before the war, and died soon after in England. It has been republished by Mr. Carroll, in his valuable " Historical Collections of South Carolina," and embraces much important matter relating to the Colony of Georgia. Dr. Hewitt was almost a contemporary of our early settlers ; and, being a near neighbour, was enabled to write under favourable circumstances, and generally with great accuracy, though it must be acknowledged that he some times allowed himself to be biased by his peculiar ecclesiastical views, on the one hand, and by his local prejudices, on the other. The first attempt to write a history of this State alone, originated with Mr. Edward Langworthy. This gentleman was first a pupil, then a teacher at Whitefield's Orphan House; but on the occurrence of the Revolution, he became warmly inter ested in the rebel cause was one of the prominent " Liberty boys " was Secretary of the Provincial Congress of Georgia, and ultimately a representative of the State in the Congress of the United States. Mr. Langworthy had collected a variety of papers, and. from his peculiar position during the period of our difficulties with England, must have been possessed of rare

viii

PREFACE.

materials for our revolutionary history. Re left Georgia alter the establishment of the Constitution, and settled in Maryland, where he died, and his papers have never been recovered.
Rev. Mr. Smith, of the Episcopal Church, next undertook the task, but his efforts ended in the mere gathering of a few papers, which his death caused to be lost to the community.
Of M'Call's History of Georgia, it is unnecessary to say much. His volumes are mostly made up from Hewitt and other authors, from whom he has borrowed ten, twenty, and thirty pages at a time, without the slightest acknowledgment. The revolutionary portion of his work is valuable, but many of his statements a.re not trust-worthy, and his errors can only be pardoned by a consideration of the difficulties under which he compiled his history. Made a cripple by his exposure as a military officer during the last war, he composed his work upon a bed of pain, writing with his port-folio on his knees, between the paroxysms of suffering which embittered and eventually de stroyed his life. Major M'Call deserves far more credit than he has received for this undertaking. It was, for him, a great effort: and, under all the trials and drawbacks of his situation, was well accomplished. But for his pages, much pertaining to the history of Georgia, particularly during the period of the Revolution, would have been irrevocably lost; and though he has not effected all that we might have wished, let us award him honour, that, under afflictions which would have borne to the earth the spirit of many men, he was enabled to triumph over his sufferings, and give to the world, from his bed of pain, his valuable and instructive pages.
Following M'Call, was the effort of Mr. Joseph V. Bevan. who gathered many valuable materials, having received pecu niary aid from the Legislature " for the purpose of collecting, arranging, and publishing all papers relating to the original settlement or political history of this State now in the Executive

PREFACE.

ix

or Secretary of Stale's office," He died, however, almost at the beginning of his labours.
Entering a field of enquiry which has been reaped by four predecessors, I could scarcely expect to do more than glean here and there a sheaf which the sickle had spared, or the reaper neglected. My success in collecting materials has more than equalled my most sanguine expectations, and enabled me to present a fuller and more authentic work than could have been written at any former time.
By virtue of a resolution of the Georgia Legislature, passed December 23d, 1837, the Governor appointed the Rev. Charles Wallace Howard an agent of the State, " to repair to London, for the purpose of procuring the colonial records, or copies thereof, now in the Colonial Departments of Great Britain, that relate to the history and settlement of this State."
By the further liberality of the same body, the papers which were the result of his mission, were placed in my library, for the purpose of preparing this history.
These documents fill twenty-two large folio volumes, averag ing over two hundred closely written pages each. Fifteen are from the ofnce of the Board of Trade; six from the State Paper Office, and one from the King's Library.
By the exertions of the Georgia Historical Society there have also been placed in my hands complete journals of the Proceed ings of the Trustees and the minutes of the Common Council of that body, from their organization in 1732 to the period of their dissolution. These, however, are mere minutes few re ports or papers of importance being spread upon their pages. Most of my remaining materials consist of manuscript letters, journals, despatches,&c., which have never before been published..
In 1841,1 was, through a Committee of the Georgia Histori cal Society, requested to prepare a new and complete History of Georgia; and, us illustrating the views of the Society and

x

PREFACE,

myself in this matter, I introduce here the report of that Com mittee :

" The Committee appointed at the last meeting of the Society, authorized to confer with Dr. Wm. B. Stevens, upon the sub ject of his preparing and publishing a new and complete History of Georgia, beg leave to offer, as their report, the following Correspondence and Resolutions :

" SAVANNAH, llth March, 1841.

' DEAR SIR The undersigned, Committee of the Georgia

Historical Society, take pleasure in communicating to you, that

the Society, deeming it of the utmost importance that a History

of the State of Georgia should be given to the public in a more

detailed, connected, and satisfactory manner than has hitherto

been done, have, by a resolution, unanimously adopted at their

meeting on the 8th instant, selected you as one in whose talents

and ability they have every confidence, and request that you

would undertake to prepare such a work, under the auspices of

the Georgia Historical Society.

'' We have, therefore, in obedience to the desire of the So

ciety, to ask, whether you can, consistently with your profes

sional avocations, devote yourself to the writing of a new and

complete History of Georgia ? And, in such an event, we are

authorized to proffer to you the use of the abundant materials

in the archives of the Society, and every aid which their Li

brary will afford.

"We cordially unite in the views of the Society, and sin

cerely hope that you will undertake a task, which, we believe,

will result in infinite credit to yourself and honour to the State.

" We are. very respectfully, yours,

W. B. BULLOCH,

)

CHARLES S. HENRY, ', Committee,

JOS. W. JACKSON, )

" To DR. WM. B. STEVENS."

" SAVANNAH, March 19, 1841.
" GENTLEMEN In replying to your communication of the nth instant, permit me to express my thanks for the honour

PREFACE.

xi

conferred upon me by the Association which you represent, in selecting me to prepare, under its auspices, a History of Geor gia. I fee! that the task which they would assign me, is one involving much labour, and a responsibility from which I would fain be excused, were I not sustained by the assurances of the Society to aid me in the undertaking. Confiding in these en couragements, I have been induced, after long and anxious deliberation, to comply with your request; and I shall bestow upon the work all the attention consistent with the strict per formance of paramount professional duties. With regard to the proffered ' auspices of the Society,' I deem it proper to state, that it is not my design to subject its treasury to any pecuniary engagements ; my reliance on its aid being solely of a literary nature. The free use of the Society's Library the medium of its official organ in obtaining documents from abroad, and its assistance in procuring copies of papers to which personal access is difficult, or unattainable are the only 'auspices' which I desire.
" In whatever light we view it, the preparation of a History of Georgia is a great and arduous work. In the volumes of Hewitt, the annals of this Province occupy but a subordinate place, and are merely subsidiary to his greater design, the His tory of South Carolina ; and M'Call, the victim of infirmities, demanding our sympathy for his sufferings, and our admiration of his zeal in prosecuting such a labour on a bed of anguish and disease, though he has rescued many important events from oblivion, has yet failed in producing a work at all adequate to our wants, in consequence of his not having those materials which now enrich our archives. The ground, therefore, must all be gone over anew, and that too, not by the secondary helps of former histories, but by the careful study of original, contem porary, and official documents.
" To collect these papers, will be both tedious and expensive: to arrange and digest them, will require much time and consid eration ; and the completion of a work at all commensurate with our necessities, must necessarily involve the labour of in dustrious years.
" Tendering to you severally, gentlemen, my sincere acknowl edgments for the kind manner m which you have expressed

xii

PREFACE

your confidence in my abilities, and assuring you that it will

be my aim to give to your hopes a pleasing fruition, I remain,

" Yours, with respect,

' Hon. Win. B. BuLLoca. i

" WM. BACON STEVENS.

Judso CiiAJLMS S. HEKKY, \ Committee of the Georgia Historical Society."

Col. JOS. W. JACKSON.

)

" To carry out the views of Dr. Stevens and the Society, and to give its aid to the undertaking, the Committee beg leave to submit the following resolutions :

, That the free and unreserved use of the Library of the Society be granted to Dr. Stevens, with power to make such selections from its documents as he may deem proper.

" .ReaoZoed, That for the purpose of facilitating his labours, he be permitted to conduct his correspondence with the various literary and historical institutions, and departments of govern ment, through the medium of the Corresponding Secretary.

" JZeaoZ6J, That the Society undertake, so far as may be consistent with its means, to obtain the originals, or copies, of the most valuable documents and papers relating to this State,

for the purpose of preserving the same in its archives, and that

the Corresponding Secretary and Dr. Stevens be empowered to make all necessary arrangements for obtaining the same.

" Respectfully submitted by the undersigned.

W. B. BULLOUH,

)

CHARLES S. HEXRY, (

JOS. W. JACKSOX, )

AMMAit, 3th Mnrcli, 1841."

Acting under this honourable appointment, 1 have written this volume, and now present it to my beloved State, as an offering of first fruits from the harvest of her past memorials.
For the very generous assistance which I have received from literary friends, I desire to be truly grateful. First among these, is T. K. TefTt, Esq., of Savannah, whose unflagging zeal, intelligent research, persevering energy, and self-sacrificing

PREFACE.

xi'.i

labours entitle him to that which he shall ever receive, my warmest gratitude. To Mr. George Wymberley Jones, son of the late Dr. Geo. Jones, of Savannah, a young but ardent lover of historic lore, and whose library is more complete in works relating to Georgia than any private collection I have met with, I am under peculiar obligations for most generous aid. The plates of the bust of Oglethorpe and of Whitefield's Orphan House were presented by him. To Prof. Wm. Mac kenzie, of Edinburgh, who has most liberally contributed to the library of the Historical Society, and laboured most dili gently in collecting manuscript materials, I render sincere thanks for his important and disinterested researches. To James Hamilton Couper, Esq., of St. Simons Island, and to my young friend, George Hull, of Athens, I am indebted for several maps, drawings, and other important assistance. To the Hon. Mitchell King, of Charleston; Prof. Jared Sparks, of Harvard College ; Robert Habersham, Esq., of Savannah; Dr. Wm. C. Daniel, of Hall county; and Wm. B. Hodgson and A. A. Smetts, Esqs., of Savannah, are grateful acknowledg ments made for the loan of valuable manuscripts and books, in the absence of which my work would be quite incomplete. To Bishop Elliott, the Rev. Dr. Church, the respected President of the University of this State, and the Hon. Jos. H. Lumpkin. many thanks are tendered, for their counsel, assistance, and encouragement in my labours. The Historical Society of Georgia has fully redeemed its pledge, and, in every way de sired, has aided and sustained my undertaking. But for that Society, this work would probably have never appeared ; it originated in its hall, and has been accomplished under its fostering care.

The Second Volume of this work is partly prepared, and will, I trust, soon be published.

HISTORY OF GEORGIA.

HISTORY OF GEORGIA.

BOOK FIRST, ANTE-COLONIAL HISTORY,

CHAPTER I.

EARLY ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH VOYAGES TO GEORGIA,

THE early history of America is obscure and unsat isfactory. Its " Ante-Columbian" period reaches backward five hundred years before the voyage of the Genoese navigator, and embraces, in its annals, the fables and traditions of the wild and sea-faring North men.
Whether Georgia, in common with the country which now constitutes her neighbouring states, was discovered by the Celtic and Irish navigators in the tenth century,1 and named, as is asserted in their chron icles, and on their charts, " Great Ireland," or " White Man's Land ;"~ whether it was ever visited by Madawc, son of Owen Gwynedh, Prince of Wales, in his celebrated expedition in the twelfth century;3 or

1 So supposed by Professor Rafn, Antiquitates Americans, p. 448.
2 Sagas of Thorfin and Eyrbyggja, in Beamish's Discovery of America by the Northmen, Lond. 1841. Vide map in the same, p. 169, where the name is

set down as Hvitramannaland, Albania Irland ed Mikla. Whcaton'a "Hist, of the Northmen, or Danes and Normans;" p. 29,
3 Powcil's Hist, of Wales, Shrewsbury, 1832, 178 ; also Hakluyt's Early

EARLY VOYAGES TO GEORGIA.

whether the account of the Venitian navigators, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno,4 who are said to have sailed about the close of the fourteenth century to countries, which Malte Brun surmises to have been along the borders of Georgia, have any truth or not; are still among the vexed questions of history, and will, doubtless, ever remain open to antiquarian research. If these differ ent navigators did come to America, they left no evi dence of occupancy, and but few traces, which can, with any show of reason, be referred to their visits; and their alleged discovery of a Western Hemi sphere had been long forgotten, when Columbus gave a new world to Castile and Leon.5
Although England, through the misfortune of Bar tholomew Columbus,6 lost the honour of discovering the new world, she acquired, through the energy of one of her subjects, much of the North American continent. This feet, the result of the enterprising commercial spirit of Bristol, though often controverted by interested princes, has ultimately compelled general acknowledgment, and is now one of the unalterable truths of history.

English Voyages, iii. 1. The edition 4 Hakluyt, iii. 121 ; Irving's Colum

of Hakluyt here and elsewhere quoted bus, iii. 295; VVheaton's Hist, of the

in this work, is that " imprinted at Lon Northmen, 30; Beamish's Discovery

don by George Bishop," and 1599-1600; of America, &c., 58.

three volumes bound in two. 4to. ; with 5 Inscrption on the monument erect-

Supplement to Hakluyt, Loud. 1812, ed by King Ferdinand to the memory

one volume 4to. Anderson, in his of Columbus, in the Carthusian Mon

History of the Colonial Church, i. 195, astery of Las Cuevas, at Seville :

Lond. 1845, has an interesting sketch

"A Castilla y a Leon

of this distinguished annalist, whose

Neuvo Mundo dio Colon."

labours contributed so much to the 6 Lord Bacon says, " Neither was it

.planting and discovery of America. a refusal on the king's part, but a delay

There is also a life of this most worthy by accident, that put by so great an

chronicler in the " Biographia Britanni- acquest." Hist, of the Reign of King

ca," and in the " Biographie Univer- Henry VII. Works, i. 780, London,

selle."

(Ball's edition,) 1838.

VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS.

3

On the morning of the 24th of June, 1497, John and Sebastian Cabot, of Bristol, England, in the ship Mathew, discovered land on the coast of Labrador, more than fourteen months before Columbus touched the main-land of the Western Hemisphere.7 The voyage of Columbus to the supposed country of India, which was fraught with such results, that " all men, with great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine than human,"8 excited such a spirit of maritime adventure, that all the nations of western Europe were anxious to seek out the new lands of the west, and several of them entered with zeal upon these distant adventures. The extent of the voyages of the Cabots north and south of "Prima Vista," has been the subject of much learned criticism and speculation, and still remains a mooted and unsettled point. The northern limits of their voyages are, however, better denned than the southern, which afford a latitude of thirteen degrees between the statements of conflicting histo rians. The evidence, though somewhat contradictory, and exceedingly perplexing, seems to favour the opin ion that he coasted along our shores. His own words are: " Despairing to find the passage to India, I turned back again, and sailed down by the coast of that land toward the equinoxial, and came to that part of this firm land which is now termed Florida, where my victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England."9 But it must be borne in mind, that the imperfect state of geographical knowledge at that time, makes it difficult for us to locate Florida, as,

" Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, with a Review of the History of Maritime Discovery, Loud. 1831, p. 56 ; known to bo written by Richard Biddlo, Esq.

8 Sebastian Cabot's Discourse to tho Pope's Legate, in Hakluyt, iii. 7.
9 Ibid. 6.

4

VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS.

at one period, the name was given to all the land north of the Gulf of Mexico; so that even what is now Canada, was then termed Florida. The language of Peter Martyr, of Anghiera, counsellor to the King of Spain, who says of Cabot, " He is my friend, whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keep me company in my own house,""" upon this point is: " He sailed likewise in this track (south and west) so far toward the west, that he had the land of Cuba on his left hand in manner in the same degree of lon gitude."" This statement, as well as his own to the Pope's Legate, though both are obscure, are sufficient to make it at least probable, that the coast of Georgia was part of the land which he discovered. At this distance of time, however, and with the imperfect materials extant, any opinion advanced must partake more of the speculative than positive character. The hint was indeed made use of by General Oglethorpe, in his memorial on the Spanish invasion of Georgia; but the discussion cannot now be of any practical importance, for, as Livy well says, the majority of readers have comparatively little interest in the origin and remote antiquities of a nation. Among the won derful tales so eagerly circulated in Spain, concerning the new world, was the beautiful fiction, that in the western Archipelago there was a fountain, which had the power of giving youth and immortality to all who bathed in its waters.'* Urged by the love of adven-

* Peter Martyr, IX'C. iii. cap. vi. ** Ibid. i* Peter Martyr, Dec. ii. cap. x., says, that it was an island about 325 leagues from Hispanioln, named Eriucn. or Agiianes. And ho assurpp Pope Leo X., to whom this second Uecadn i?

inscribed, that ' not only all t!ie poopli? of the court, but also many of them, whom wisdom mid fortune harp divided from ihp common sort, think it to be true." Hrrrcra, Dec. i. lib. ix. cap. v., say?, " lie \vaa intent upon finding out the spring of liimini and a river in Flo-

VOYAGE OP PONCE DE LEON

5

ture, Juan Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus in his second voyage, and more recently Governor of Porto Rico, fitted out three ships, well stored with provisions and men, for the double purpose of making discoveries to the northward, and of searching out this life-giving fountain. He sailed from the port of St. Germain, in Porto Rico, on Thursday, 3d March, 1512; and, after touching at several islands, came in sight of a level and delightful country, having many pleasant groves and lawns. It was on Easter Sunday, the 27th March, that he saw this new land, which, in honour of the day, (called by the Spaniards " Pasqua de Flores,") he named Florida. 13 On the 3d of April, Ponce de Leon landed about nine miles to the north of the pres ent city of St. Augustine, and took formal possession of the country, in the name of Ferdinand of Spain. He spent five days in that vicinity, and several more in coasting north and south of his newly discovered land; and doubtless, in some of his excursions, he entered the present limits of Georgia.
On his return to Porto Rico, in October following, he transmitted to his sovereign an account of his dis covery, who, in return for so valuable a service, ap pointed him Governor of Florida, with the onerous

rida, the Indians of Cuba and Ilispaniola affirming that old people bathing themselves in them became young again." Irving's Voyages and Discoverics of the Companions of Columbus, 312. The idea of a fountain of immortality is as old as the days of Plato. Glaucus, as is said, discovered it, but paid <;. sad penalty for not being ahle to show it to others. DeRepub.. 10, c. xi. Ovid, Met. xiii. 904, seq. " Recueil lie Pieces sur la Floride. Par H. Ternaux-Compans," 18, Paris,

1841. In the last named work, the full title of which is, " Voyages, Relations et Memoires Originaux pour servir a 1'Histoire fie la Decouverte de 1'Amerique, publics pour la premiere fois en Francjais, par H. TernauxCompans." are several pieces relating to the early Spanish navigators. In the relation of Hernando cl'Escalante Fontanedo, the Voyage of Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon is made to precede the first visit of Ponce de Leon, pp. 16,17.
I3 Herrera, Dec. i. lib ix. cap. v.

HIS DEFEAT AND DEATH.
condition, however, that he was to conquer and colonize it for the crown.
After many delays, he returned to it, in 1521, with two ships and sufficient force to establish a colony. But his party were repulsed by the Indians, himself was mortally wounded in the conflict; and the ships, with the few survivors, returned to Cuba, with the sad story of failure and defeat. The wonderful foun tain which was to confer youth and immortality, he never found ; and though he bathed in many streams, the shadow on the dial of his life went not back wards the dew of his youth never returned and the only immortality he found, was in the name of " the first discoverer of Florida." He died of his wound in Cuba, in 1521.
About the year 1520," Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon,

i * Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. vi., says, " Much about this time." Peter Martyr gives no date. Galvauo in Hakluyt, quoting from Gomera, Hist. Gen. lib. iii. cap. vii., says, 16:20. It is certain that the first part of this year was taken up with his mission to Cuba, as a Commissioner from the Royal Audience of St. Domingo to Don Diego Velasquez, who with in temperate zoal was fitting out a fleet to send against Cortcz, then on his conquering march to Mexico; and failing in preventing its departure, Vasqucz sailed with tho expedition, in March, 1520, to Mexico, that ho might avert, if possible, an open rup ture between the parties. (rroscott's Hist. Conquest of Mexico, ii. 226.) The course which the licenciato Ayllou pursued, who remonstrated against all the proceedings of Panfilo de Xarvaez, and, in conjunction with Father Ol-

medo, endeavoured to arrest his efforts: (Prescott, Hist. Con. Mcx., ii. 233, im plies they did not meet, but Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. iv., saya thoy did,) which so fretted Narvacz that ho sent him back to Cuba, hut, by the influence of Ayllon with the sailors, he was lauded in St. Domingo. (Dc Soils, ii. 68.) How long those transactions occupied we know not, but the more probable opinion is, that the first voy age of the ships fitted out by Ayllon and his confederates sailed without him. Fetor Martyr doos not mention the name of Ayllon, but says, " Certain Spaniards in two barks, built at the charge of sovon men," &c. (Dec. vii. cap. ii.) There is no date to the De cade, but the next which has one, the ix. cap. of vi. Dec., is dated 14th July, 1524. Indeed, it is clear from what he says, that De Ayllon had not boon in Chicora at that time, for in Dec. vii.

LUCAS VASQUEZ DE AYLLON.

7

of Toledo, a licenciate of the court of Spain, and a member of the Royal Audience or Senate of St. Do mingo, in company with six others, residents of Hispaniola, fitted out two10 ships for the purpose of pro curing Lucaian Indians, to work on their plantations, For the King of Spain, upon the report of the licen ciate Roderick de Figueron, had ordained that all those Indians whom he had declared cannibals, might be captured and sold for slaves.
But, failing to obtain any of these, they sailed away northward, having had some information of Ponce de Leon's voyage, and made land at the mouth of the Combahee river, in South Carolina, which was called the river Jordan in honour of the pilot of the expedi tion. The country was called, by the natives, " Chicora," and the sound in which they dropped anchor, now known as St. Helena, had never before been visited by Europeans. The natives flocked to the shore to see these ships, " astonished at the miracle and strangeness thereof." 10 But a few presents secured their confidence, and lured them into the net, which European perfidy and cunning had spread to entrap them. Quieted in their fears, and suspecting no evil, great multitudes of them, on a day appointed, visited the ships. But no sooner were the decks well crowd ed, than the anchor was weighed, the sails unfurled, the ships put to sea; and, in a few days, the hundreds

cap. ii., he writes, that while Ayllon was in Spain soliciting the government of Chicora, he sometimes had him at his house, and then prefaces an account of the manners and customs of the Carolina Indians, by saying, " Such things there as Ayllon himself, the licentiate, showed unto me. set down in writing ty report of Iris fellows,

and which the Chicorans by word of mouth confess, I will here recite." Holmes, Cardenas, Charlevoix, Carroll, and others, have fallen into the mistake here corrected.
' 5 Herrora says, three ships. Recueil de Pieces sur la Florida.
lfi Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. ii,

8

DE AYLLON'S EXPEDITION TO CHICORA.

whom he thus tore away from Chicora, freemen, either perished at sea, or were landed at St. Domingo, slaves. One of his twTo vessels foundered on its homeward passage, and all on board, about two hundred, per ished ; and but few in the other vessel lived to wear the yoke of Spanish bondage.
Undismayed by the disasters of this voyage, Vasquez de Ayllon spread an account of his discovery before Charles V., having been sent over to the court of Spain as procurator from St. Domingo to the Coun cil of the Indies; and, after long entreaty, obtained of the Emperor permission to conquer and govern Chi cora. In 1524, he fitted out, from Hispaniola, a new fleet for the conquest of Chicora. It consisted of three ships, and he joined the expedition as its leader. But his enterprise met the fate it deserved. Two hundred of his men were massacred by the natives; one of his ships was lost at the mouth of the Jordan; and but a dejected remnant of that proud and hope-lured band, returned to Hispaniola. Of the fate of Ayllon wre are uncertain. Some say17 that, wounded in spirit, he only survived his repulse to return to St. Domingo, to die of a broken heart; while others assert, 18 that he was killed, with his companions; leaving nothing wor thy of remembrance.
Thus were the first visits of the Spaniards to this country marked by crime and blood. Their perfidi ous conduct, and their inhuman outrages, sowed broad cast the seeds of a sanguinary harvest. From every drop of Indian blood thus spilt, there sprang up armed warriors; who, for years, visited the early settlers with the torch, the tomahawk, and the scalping knife, as if to avenge the shades of their slaughtered ancestors.

11 Herrera.

ie Galvano in Hakluyt.

VOYAGES OP JEAN DE VERRAZZANO.

9

While Spain and England were thus following up the great discoveries of Columbus and Cabot, France was not inactive. Her monarch, Francis I., possessed a chivalric and enterprising spirit; and, though fond of war, was a generous patron of letters and the arts. Interested in the discoveries which the bold fishermen of Normandy and Brittany had made on the banks of Newfoundland and the Isle of Breton, he engaged the services of Jean de Verrazzano, a celebrated navigator of Florence, to seek, in the great ocean of the west, countries yet unexplored by the maritime adventurers of the age.
It was about the 19th of March, 1525, that he was greeted with the sight of land, which, in his letter to the King19 of France, he says, " had never before been seen by any one, either in ancient or modern times." This, by some authors,20 is supposed to have been near Cape Fear River in North Carolina; but there is not wanting authority to fix this point off the mouth of the Savannah river; 31 and his description of the place seems to confirm the statement. He writes : " The whole shore is covered with fine sand, about fifteen feet thick, rising in the form of little hills about fifty paces broad. Ascending further, we found several arms of the sea, which make in through inlets, wash ing the shores on both sides, as the coast runs. An outstretched country appears, at a little distance, rising somewhat above the sandy shore in beautiful fields and broad plains, covered with immense forests of trees, more or less dense, too various in colors, and too

13 See this letter, dated " Dieppe, 8th July, 1524," in full, in Collections of New York Hist. Soc., second series, vol. i. 5, from which the facts related in the text are taken.

20 Bancroft, History U. S., i. 16. Rev. Dr. Miller, in N. Y. Hist. Col. i. 23.
2 1 Forster's Voyages, 432-436.

10

EXTENT OP HIS DISCOVERIES.

charming and delightful in appearance, to be described, I do not believe that they are, like the Hyrcynian for ests on the rough wilds of Scythia and the northern regions, full of vines and common trees, but adorned with palms, laurels, cypresses, and other varieties un known in Europe, that send forth the sweetest fra grance to a great distance."
Verrazzano mentions incidentally, in his letter to the King, his being in latitude 34 degrees; but, as this was after he had returned from coasting fifty leagues to the south, it is evident that part of the land which he saw, and with which he held communica tion, must have been the coast of Georgia. This opinion is strengthened by the assertion of Laudonnier,23 in his description of Florida, written within forty years from the voyage of Verrazzano ; who says that Verrazzano discovered all the coast from the 28th to the 50th degree of north latitude, and called it New France. It was not the object of Verrazzano to plant colonies, but to discover lands. And this voyage pro duced no other results than " the earliest original account, now extant, of the coast of the United States,"23 and the setting up of a claim, by France, to the territory included between the 25th and 54th de grees of north latitude.
With this voyage ceased, for a time, the maritime explorations of the French.24 In seven months from the return of Verrazzano from this first voyage, Fran cis I. was taken prisoner by Charles V., at the battle of Pavia, and confined nearly a year in Madrid; and France, without a sovereign on her throne, without money in her treasury, without an a'rmy in the field,

" Laudormier's Narrative in Hak- 23 Bancroft, Hist. U. S., i. 17,

luyt, iii. 305.

24 Eobertson's Charles V., book iv.

THE UNCERTAINTY OP HIS FATE.

11

and encompassed on all sides by a victorious and active enemy, was in no condition to prosecute the discove ries made by her daring navigator. This enterprising Florentine again visited America, probably in the ex pedition fitted out under the auspices of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey; for Hakluyt speaks of an old, excellent map of this coast, which Verrazzano gave to the king, evidently showing that he was in the service of the English monarch.25
Various are the reports as to the subsequent fate of Verrazzano.26 All that we know with certainty is, that one great action distinguished him from the mass of ad venturers, in an age which produced a Columbus, and a Cabot, and a Cortez; while doubt and mystery have enveloped the rest of his career.27 Thus, through the sons of the small maritime states of Genoa, Venice, and Florence, did the three great kingdoms of Europe Spain, England, and France become possessed of America. Yet Italy has never planted a colony, nor owned a province, in the New World. Her older bards38 sung of lands yet to be discovered, when " ocean should relax its bounds." Her cities cradled and nursed the men who made the prophecies of her poets truths of history; yet they laid no filial offering of new-found lands at the feet of their classic mother.
Following up the voyage of Cabot, the design of Cor-

25 See these statements examined in Memoirs of Seb. Cabot, 276.
36 Common tradition reported that he died at sea. Bancroft i. 18. Ramusio (torn, iii.) states that Verrazzano, " having gone on shore with some companions, they were all killed by the natives, and, in the sight of those who remained in the ship, were roasted and eaten."

37 N. A. Rev.. Oct. 1837, art. "Life

anJ Voyages of Verrazzano," written

by Geo. \V. Green, Esq., U. S. Consul

at Rome.

2S Seneca, Medea, act ii., chorus:

"

Yemeni annis

Secula seris," etc.

Dante, Inferno, canto xxvi. v. 115.

Pulci, " Morgante ilaggiore," canto

xxv. stanzas 229, 230.

12

THE VOYAGE OF STEPHEN GOMEZ.

tez, and the universal hope of the Atlantic kingdoms, Stephen Gomez, of Corunna, under the patronage of Charles V., sailed, in 1525, on an expedition to discover the long sought northern passage to Cathay. He was a skilful navigator; and having shared with Magellan the enthusiasm of a discovery of the South Pacific, he now hoped to enjoy the honour of first reaching the same ocean hy a northern route. Only one caraval was fur nished him, and he was directed to search out whether any such passage could he found, north of Florida. He coasted along our shores to the 46th degree of north latitude, when, neither finding the strait, nor Cathay, he returned to Spain, after a voyage of ten months; seeking to cover the mortification of defeated hopes hy freighting his ship with Indians, of both sexes, whom he sold as slaves.20 He was the first Spaniard who navi gated the whole Atlantic coast of our Union.
The highway to the New World once opened to those commercial enterprises in which kings were competitors, crowds of adventurers flocked thither, ani mated hy every motive, and governed hy every interest. To the aborigines of America, it was an age of crime, perfidy, and blood. The avarice for gold towered over every other passion : it swayed the minds, it seared the conscience, it hardened the heart of noble and ignoble, of leader and follower; and, like the outburstings of a volcano, it left the blackened traces of its desolation in the loveliest portion of the western hemi sphere. From a friend, the Indian was turned into a

29 Peter Martyr, Dec. viii. lib. x. vs, that no man should offer violence He says : " This Stephanus Gornez to any nation, freighted his shipp with hauing attained none of those thinges people of both sexes, taken from cerwhich hee thought hee should haue taine innocent halfe naked nations who found, lest hee should returne empty,* contented themselves with cottages in contrary to the lawes sett downe by steede of houses."

EXTRAVAGANT VIEWS OP THE "NEW WORLD." 13
foe; from peace, it became war; from liberty, it was slavery and death.
The various descriptions which had been written of Florida, gave rise to much of public hope and interest. Its conquest became, with the chivalrous spirits of Spain, an object of magnitude and importance. The minds of adventurers were inflamed with glowing descriptions and high-wrought fictions. The avaricious were al lured by the hope of gain; the ambitious by the lust ol power; and the church linked with the state, to foster expeditions which should plant the cross upon the altars of paganism, and bring the idolatrous savage within the pale of Christianity. The sword and the crozier were to revolutionize the western hemisphere ; and Spain, under Charles V., was to be the political mistress of the world. But her rapacity was her ruin ; and she, who once called America her own, has now not a province to acknowledge fealty to her crown. Not one of the Spanish enterprises of the sixteenth cen tury was founded in justice or integrity. They were based on false principles, which carried with them their own destruction. Attached to the idea of the "New World," were the most extravagant and fictitious views. Its shores were sought, not by the careful husbandman, the industrious artizan, and those who would have col onized its solitudes and cultivated its fields; but by ambitious courtiers, by gay cavaliers, by haughty hidalgos and superstitious priests. The Indians, re garded by them more as wild beasts to be slaughtered or captured, were subjected to their merciless tyranny slain by myriads in their native land, or carried away by thousands to toil in the mines and on the plantations of their self-appointed conquerors. To all this, how ever, they were blinded by the glare of wealth and

14

PANF1LO DE NARVAEZ.

the lustre of conquest. The victories of Cortez and Pizarro atoned, in their eyes, for any outrage, and threw a halo of glory over their miscreant deeds.
Hitherto, the knowledge of this southern coast had been gained by the transient visits of hurrying naviga tors, who held but few communications with the na tives, and those mostly of a treacherous and bloody nature. Panfilo de Narvaez had, indeed, with five ships and over four hundred men, attempted to pene trate the country granted to him by Charles V., com prising " all the lands lying from the River of Palms to the Cape of Florida." But his expedition, from his landing in Florida, was one series of disasters. He was lost; and of the splendid equipment which sailed from Cuba, in March, 1528, only five persons survived. Four of these, after great sufferings, succeeded in reaching Mexico, on the 22d of July, 1536, having wandered more than eight years among the Indian tribes bordering on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.30
Since this defeat of Narvaez, in 1528, ten years had elapsed, and yet no one dared to embark in that dan gerous enterprise. Cabeza de Vaca, however, one of the survivors of that ill-fated armament, persisted in the assertion that Florida was the richest country in the world; and he went over to Spain, to beg of Charles V. its government and its conquest, He arrived too late. It had already been conferred on Ferdinand de Soto. 31

30 Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. iv., Palms to the Cape of Florida." This also Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. v. In "Re- is a very curious document, showing cueil de Pieces sur la Floride," is a in a very strong light the ground on French translation of the summons, which the Spanish sovereigns claimed " made by Panfilo de Narvaez to the jurisdiction over America, inhabitant; of the countries and prov- 3 x Virginia Richly Valued, etc., in inces extending from the River of Hakluyt, Supplement, 696.

CHAPTER II.

TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES OF FERDINAND DE SOTO. 1

IT seems strange, that the disasters consequent upon the several expeditions to Florida, did not deter from further enterprises in that region. But the mag nificent results of the conquest of Mexico by Cortez,

*_In sketching the character and Reino de la Florida, y de otros Hero-

travels of De Soto, I have been guided, icos Cahalleros Espanoles. e Indies;

1st, by the Portuguese relation in Hak- escrita por el Inca GarciJaso de Ja

Inyt, entitled, " Virginia richly valued Vega, etc. Madrid, fol. 1723.

by the description of the main-land of 3d. Herrera's General History of the

Florida, her next neighbour; out of vast Islands and Continents of Amer

the four years' continual travel and ica. Vols. v. and vi. of the English

discovery, for above one thousand miles translation, by Captain John Stevens.

east and west, of Don Ferdinand de Lond. 6 vols. 8vo. 1740.

Soto and six hundred able men in his These are the three original author

company. Wherein are truly observed ities from which all succeeding writers the riches and fertility of those parts, have drawn their statements. The

abounding with things necessary, use account in " Universal History," (Mod

ful, and profitable for tho life of man, ern, vol. 36,) is condensed from the re

with the nature and dispositions of lation of Garcilaso de la Vega.

the inhabitants. Written by a Portu McCnlloch, in his " Researches Phi

guese gentleman of Elvas, employed losophical and Antiquarian, concerning

in all the action, and translated out of the Aboriginal History of America,"

the Portuguese, by Richard Hakluyt." Baltimore, 1829, endeavours to trace out

Loud. 1609.

the route of De Soto. Appendix iii.

2d. La Florida del Tnca. Historia pp. 523, 531. Theodore Irving. in his

del Adelantado, Hernando de Soto, " Conquest of Florida," 2 vols., at

Governador, y Capitan General del tempts the same thing.

16

FERDINAND DE SOTO.

and of Peru by Pizarro, gave rise to the hope, that in the wilds of Florida there might be found cities and mines, as rich and productive as those wrested from the Aztec Kings, and the Peruvian Incas. The rest lessness of human ambition, spurred on by the splen did victories already gained, sought new fields of triumph, where valour might find reward in wealth or power, equal to any yet obtained. In the desire for renown, many bartered well-earned laurels for shadowy titles, and spent ample fortunes in fitting out the splendid equipments of their ruin. Peculiarly was this illustrated in the character of Ferdinand de Soto. Springing from an humble origin, with " nothing but his sword and target," he entered into the wars then. raging in the West Indies; and, passing through the several lower grades of service with renown, rose to a most distinguished rank as an able and high-minded general under Pizarro, in his conquest of Peru.
Here he surpassed most of his fellows in deeds of daring and stout-hearted valour; but, foreseeing the difficulties arising between the Pizarros, Alvarado, and Almagro, he wisely left the country; and carrying with him the wealth he had acquired from the spoils of Atahuallpa and the pillage of Cuzco, returned, in 1535, to Spain.
He left his native land more than twenty years before, a poor adventurer; he returned with riches and fame; set up the establishment of a nobleman; became the associate of the proud and the titled; married the daughter of Arrias, the Governor of Nicaiagua; and, presenting himself at court, begged of the king the conquest of Florida.
His desire was granted, and he was made Governor of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida, with the title of

DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION ITS GRANDEUR.

17

Marques of certain portions of the land he should conquer.
The fitting out of the expedition was magnificent beyond anything which had yet sailed for America. The reports of Cabeza de Vaca, and the military prowess of De Soto, drew together a great multitude, of noble birth and fortunes, to serve in the undertaking. They gathered from Badajoz, and Salamanca, and Valencia, and Elvas, in such numbers, that many men of good account, who had sold estates, in order to equip them selves for the voyage, were obliged to remain behind for want of shipping. Such was the zeal to engage in this enterprise, that fortunes were given for offices un der De Soto. The brother of the Marques of Astorga dispossessed himself of 60,000 reals of rent; his kins man Osorio exchanged a town of vassals; and Baltazar de Gallegos sold houses and vineyards, and ninety ranks of olive trees in the Xarafe of Seville, to fit themselves out for the conquest of Florida.
From the thousands who pressed forward to unite their fortunes with De Soto, he selected six hundred, mustered them into service, and distributed them among the vessels prepared for the voyage.
On Sunday morning, the 6th of April, 1538, the ships of De Soto, together with the fleet for New Spain, set sail from St. Luca, at the mouth of the Guadalquiver.
They departed amidst the sounding of trumpets, the roar of cannon, and the shouts of the populace. Joy shone in every eye, and hope swelled every heart: little did they imagine that all this pomp and gaiety was only like hanging garlands of roses round the necks of victims destined for sacrifice. After touching

18

SAILS FROM CUBA AND REACHES FLORIDA.

at the Canaries, the fleet reached Cuba in May, where De Soto was received with honours and rejoicings.
From Havana, he sent Juan Dannusco, with three vessels and fifty men, to discover a haven in Florida. He brought back with him two Indians, who said, by signs, that there was much gold in Florida, which infused new life into the bosoms of the adventurers.
After a year's delay in Cuba in arranging its gov ernment, and rebuilding Havana, the fleet, consisting of five great ships, two caravals, and two brigantines, aboard of which were two hundred and thirteen horses, and nine hundred men, beside the sailors, embarked for Florida. They set sail on Sunday, the 18th of May, 1539; and on Friday, the 30th of May, landed in Florida, two leagues from the town of an Indian chief, called Ucita. The point of debarkation was on the western coast of Florida, in what is now called Tampa Bay; but which, because they first saw it on Whit sunday, they named the Bay of Espiritu Santo. Here he landed his horses and his men, and pitched his camp on the sea-side.
It was a proud moment for De Soto, when he stood upon the soil of his Marquisate, and unfurled over his tent the standard of the Adelantado of Florida. He had reached the land of his hopes; and in the haughty daring of a conqueror, as if victory was already within his grasp, he soon ordered his ships back to Havana, that there might be no retreat but in death. The day after their landing, there was a grand review of the army. The troops, horse and foot, were drawn up in battle array, and dressed out in their gay and glit tering armour. With their prancing steeds, floating pennons, gleaming lances, bright arquebuses, and slung cross-bows, they looked formidable and imposing.

DE SOTO'S AMBITION. HE MARCHES INLAND.

19

De Soto surveyed with a complacent eye, the gal lant band who hailed him as their leader; and his heart burned for conquests that should rival the glory of Cortez and the riches of Pizarro. Why should he not ? They each began their triumphs with a less numerous army,3 and with far less experience of Indian warfare; and what had been done by the few, could certainly be excelled by the many. Hitherto all had been gaiety and pleasure ; the daring adventurers, caressed by the court, flattered by the nobles, admired by the popu lace, rejoiced in the morning splendour of their fame ; little imagining how soon their sun of glory was to set amidst the perils of that very land in which they sought renown. They hoped to find in Florida palaces and cities but, alas! they only found their graves.
Splendid was the martial array, as, under the ban ners of their several leaders, they began their march on the first day of summer. It was the most imposing expedition which had yet reached these shores, and the Indians having never before seen a horse, believed that the horse and his rider formed one animal, and hung back in terror from the path of such supernatural and steel-clad men. Terror lent wings to the report of their arrival, and the dismal news rang through the southern forests, that the warriors of fire had invaded their land. Here they were so fortunate as to recover

3 Comparative view of the several forces of De Soto, Cortez and Pizarro, when they severally began the conquest of Florida, Mexico and Peru :

Authorities.

Men.

' Herrera,

.... 900 .

De Soto. <? Portuguese Relation, . . 600

( Vega, ..... 1000

Horses.
330 213

C,,ortez. S PrescottS's Conquest of Mexico,

553 508

16
16

r,.

^ Herrera,

185

37,

P1Zarro. Prescott'.s reru, .

180

27

20 RECOVERS JUAN ORTIZ. ANOTHER POCAHONTAS.
a Spaniard, Juan Ortiz, who had accompanied the ex pedition of Panfilo De Narvaez to Florida, but who had been twelve years a captive in the hands of the Indians.
His knowledge of the Indian language and customs, made him most valuable to De Soto, who immediately equipped him as an officer in the cavalry. To the honour of the female heart, wherever found, be it said, that his life, like that of Captain John Smith, eighty years after, was preserved by an Indian princess. Ortiz, when brought before the Indian King Ucita, was ordered by him to be bound to four stakes, and burned alive. But the daughter of the chief inter posed and entreated him to spare his life, which he did, and appointed him keeper of the Temple of the Dead. Nor was this the only time her humanity saved him from death; for, three years afterwards, being deliv ered for sacrifice to an Indian god, this same princess again rescued him, and aided him in his flight to another tribe. The story of Pocahontas, and her rescue of Captain Smith, has long been celebrated in history; and the poet and the painter have been eloquent upon the lyre and canvass, in praise of the Virginia Prin cess. But the double rescue of Ortiz by the daughter of the Floridian chief, influenced by no motive but compassion, and effected at personal hazard, not en countered by Pocahontas, is worthy of an equally noble record, and demands an equal tribute of admiration.
The summer, the autumn, and the winter, were passed in their various expeditions in Florida ; during which they tarried a long while upon the Appalachee Bay, and discovered the commodious harbour of Pensacola. In March, 1540, De Soto and his company en tered what is now the State of Georgia, at its south-

CROSSES THE OCMULGEE AND REACHES AYMAY. 21
west border, and travelling for the most part in a north-easterly direction, passed through the pine bar rens of Lowndes, Ware and Invin ; which they de scribe as lo vv and full of lakes, and in some places very high and thick groves, whither "the Indians that were in arms fled, so that no man could find them, and no horses enter in them ;" and by the last of March, came upon the Uchee town, near the Ocmulgee.
Here, the chief of the country demanded of De Soto who he was, whence he carne, whither he went, and what he sought. He replied, that he was a descendant of the sun, came from the land of the sun, was travelling through that country, and sought the greatest lord and richest province that was in it. He departed from this place on the 1st of April, leaving a high cross of wood standing in the market-place, and, telling them that the cross was in memory of the same whereon Christ, who was both God and man, and created the heavens and the earth, suffered for our salvation, exhorted them to reverence it ; which, from fear, they promised to do.
Crossing the Ocmulgee, he came, on the 10th of April, to the Ogeechee. Now their praise of the land is great; they say it is a fat country, beautiful and very fruitful, and very well watered, and full of good rivers. They wandered on, led about by the caprice or ignorance of their Indian guides, suffering much from want of proper food, and the excessive toils of the march, until they reached Aymay, on the 26th of April, which, because of its furnishing seasonable supplies of maize, the sol diers named the town of Relief. Here four Indians were taken, and because neither would confess their acquaint ance of other habitations, De Soto, to extort their know ledge, ordered one to be burned; which cruelty soon drew from the others the intelligence, that two days'

22

GENEROSITY OF A PRINCESS ILL REQUITED.

journey from thence, there was a province called Cutifiachiqua. On his way to this place, he was met by the princess of this tribe, who told him: "I am sorry that provisions are so scarce; I will give you of my two store-houses, and two thousand bushels of maize. I will leave my own house, and half of the town shall be given up for quarters to your men." De Soto most court eously returned thanks, expressing himself satisfied with what she pleased to give. While he was speak ing, she took off a string of pearls, and cast it about the neck of the governor. De Soto, in return, presented her with a ruby ring. Thus the peace was ratified. The lady retired; and the Spaniards were loud in their praises of the demeanour and beauty of the Georgia princess.
This country is described as "very pleasant, and fat, with goodly meadows by the rivers." The people were brown, well made and well proportioned, and more civil than any others they saw. Here, in the burial-places of the Indians, they found baskets, made of reeds, full of pearls, and in such abundance, that they soon gath ered three hundred and ninety-two pounds; beside pikes, with copper heads, that looked like gold, and clubs, and staves, and axes, of the same metal. So charmed were the adventurers with this beautiful country, which was represented by the natives to be only two days' journey from St. Helena Sound, and was probably on the Savannah river, that they desired to inhabit it. De Soto objected ; and none would say aught when his resolution was taken. He departed from this place on the 3d of May, and illy requited the generosity of the lady of Cutifiachiqua, by taking her captive, and making her march on foot with his men, as a hostage, through the towns subject to her rule.

DE SOTO ADVANCES TO THE MISSISSIPPI.

23

But in a few days she effected her escape. In seven days' march, north-west of this, they reached the Cherokee country, where he found rough and high hills. He had now got to the mountainous country; and bending his course west, a little southerly, we find him on the 1st of June at Conesauga, in Murray county.
On the way, there met him twenty Indians, every one bearing a basket of mulberries, which, as well as nuts and plums, were said to be abundant. On the 5th of June, he entered the Indian town on the banks of the Etowah. Here he was informed, that towards the north there was a province named Chisca, where were mines of copper and gold. Accordingly, he sent to spy out that land two soldiers and some Indians ; but they returned without finding it, and represented the way to be so rough, and the mountains so high, that the army could not travel there.
Thence he journeyed to the Coosa river, passing through a town of that name, and advanced to Talipe; a large and well-fortified Alabama town, on one of the tributary branches of the Alabama river, which he reached on the 18th of September. From this point, after a very circuitous route, and through many dan gers, they penetrated to the banks of the Mississippi, which, on account of its size, they called the Rio Grande. They pushed their discoveries into Arkan sas, and the upper part of Louisiana, until at last, find ing neither gems, nor gold, nor cities, and being entan gled among the bayous and thickets of the Red river, they turned back, to seek again the sea, that they might return to their native land. Once more upon the banks of the Mississippi, their hearts rejoiced as they beheld its swift-flowing current. But their troubles were not

24

DE SOTO'S DEATH. LOUIS MOSCOSO.

ended. De Soto was here taken with a fever, and after seven days' sickness, expired on the 20th of May, 1542, three years from his first landing in Florida. He died in the prime of manhood, being only forty-two years old; lamented by all his followers, who loved him as a man, and honoured him as a chief. He was, says one who knew him,3 a man of comely presence, agreeable both on foot and horseback, very skilful at martial exercises, of a pleasant countenance, inured to hardships, brave, and always the first in any danger; affable, generous, severe in punishing, but easy to for give ; always inclined to please, when it might be done without lessening his authority.
His successor, Louis Moscoso, determined to con ceal his death from the Indians, because De Soto had made them believe that the Christians were immortal; and he also feared that the knowledge of his death would cause them to attack their now weakened ranks; for De Soto had acquired such an ascendency over their superstitious minds, by pretending to super natural knowledge, that they durst attempt no expedi tion against him while he lived. Three days after his death, he was buried at night at one of the gates of Guachoya, within the wall; and when the cacique of the country asked what had become of his brother, lord and governor, Moscoso told him that he was gone to heaven ; and because he was to stay there certain days, he had left him in his place. As the natives, however, wT ere becoming suspicious, Moscoso ordered the body to be taken up at night, wrapped in mantles made heavy with sand, and hollowing an oak for a coffin, sunk all in the middle of the river.

3 Herrera, vi. 9.

DE SOTO AND ALARIC THE VISIGOTH.

25

Like Alaric, who ravaged the Roman empire, De Soto came from a far country to waste and to destroy. The one poured his barbarian hordes from the Alpine hills over the plains and valleys of Italy; the other, crossing the Atlantic with destruction at his prow, and terror at his helm, desolated the fairest portions of the sunny South. The one had beaten down the ironbreasted legions of Rome, and hoisted his Visigothic banners on the Palatine, boasting that where he went the spot was cursed; the other had vanquished the stern warriors of the forest, thrown out his Castilian flag over conquered tribes, and scathed, with more than vandal barbarism, the aborigines of America. The one, scorning the pageant train, and hollowT pomp, and marble bust, commanded his soldiers to hollow out his grave in the bed of the river Busento, which was turned from its course till he was interred, and then caused to flow back again in its original channel, that no man might know his secret resting-place; the sepulchre of the other, to prevent a like discovery, was beneath the waters of the great father of western rivers. No pillar or mound marks the spot of cither's grave; but each left a lasting record of his deeds, and each, in his sphere, realized the boast of Attila, that he was " The Scourge of God."
The survivors of that once gallant band, now toilworn and sick at heart, after more than a year's wan dering, reached the Gulf of Mexico; and not one half those who landed in Florida, lived to enter the city of Mexico.
It is almost impossible to trace, with accuracy, the route of De Soto through Georgia; for so little did the narrators of this expedition understand the Indian lan guages, and so migratory were the natives in their

26

DE SOTO'S ROUTE THROUGH GEORGIA.

habits, that but few of the names mentioned can now be identified/ He found no settlements. Remains of ancient fortifications have been found in this State, made in accordance with military rule and arms; coins and implements of various kinds, have been dug up in various places; but it is very evident that the mounds, terraces, pyramids, and embankments, found upon the Altamaha, the Ogeechee, the Savannah, in the valley of Naucoochee, in De Kalb, upon the Chattahoochee and Etowah rivers, are not of Spanish origin. They are but portions of a series of ancient mounds

* This is the opinion of all who have attempted to trace his course. McCulloch (Researches) says, p. 523:" I have found this inquiry concerning Soto's route attended with many circum stances of difficulty and perplexity, not only from the uncertain orthogra phy of the Indian names, often spelt three or four different ways, and maps also sufficiently inaccurate, hut espe cially from the vague and imperfect manner in which the route of the march is described. Sometimes estimates of the length of the journey are given in days' marches, and at other times in so many leagues, while again it is also evident, that no notice has been taken of other joumies in any manner what soever. The direction or course has been partially given for about the first half of their route, hut in the latter part no such aid has boon afforded to our research." Albert Gallatin writes: " It is extremely difficult to reconcile in all their details either of the two re lations, (the Portuguese or Vega,) as they respect distances and courses, with the now well-known geography of the country." Arch. Amor. ii. 102.

McCulloch thinks that he identifies the following places : Anaica or Anhyca, where De Soto wintered, he places north of the Uchee river, in Decatur co.; Achalaqui, in Houston co.; Talomeco, in Monroe co.; Chonalla, in Hall co.; and Ichiaha, or Chiaha, is evidently the Etowah. Galla tin suggests that Anaica is in the vi cinity of the Ocklockne river, and Cofachiqui indeterminately on the Oconee or Savannah river. Bancroft (Hist, i. 46) is very indefinite upon the route of De Soto in Georgia. Leaving their winter quarters, ho says, they "hastened to the north-cast, crossed the Altamaha, passed a northern trib utary of the Altamaha, and a southern branch of the Ogeechee, and at length came upon the Ogeechee itself." Then all is indistinct, until he makes him to pass fiom the hoad-waters of the Sa vannah, or the Chattahoochee, to the head-waters of the Coosa ; then, with a mere mention of Cannesauga, he takes him out of Georgia. Upon this subject there is but little that is positive, while there is much that is conjectural.

MOUNDS AND RELICS THEIR ORIGIN.

27

and relics, commencing in the State of New York, stretching along the western slope of the Alleghanies; thence crossing this range to the eastward, they enter Georgia in Habersham county, and are terminated by the Atlantic in Florida; while the branch of the series, spreading over the valley of the Mississippi and the Missouri, is lost among the splendid ruins of Mexico and Central America,5
The ancient monuments of art, the identity of which can be fully settled, were not the product of a roving expedition, or the hastily thrown up entrenchments of migratory tribes. They are the substantial workman ship of a permanent people built, for military, Tft civil and religious purposes. They are the remains of cities and temples, of which history has no record tradition, no legend. A conjecture has been, indeed, thrown out, and sustained by well-digested evidence, that these were the works of the Toltec tribes, who led the great van of the Aztec migration from the North to Mexico; and whose migrations, according to the hieroglyphical records, occurred at successive dates, ranging from the middle of the seventh to the end of the twelfth century.
The pre-existence of a people in America, charac terized by many of the elements of ancient civilization, centuries before its discovery by Columbus, is abun dantly evident.6 What are all the tumuli and mural

s Bradford, Antiq. America, 37, 60. Adair, Amer. Indians, 378.
6 Bradford, 63. Prof. Rafinesque on Ancient Annals of Kentucky, in Marshall's Hist, of Kentucky. Gene ral Harrison's Historical Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, p. 46. See also Gallatin: s Sy

nopsis of Indian Tribes, sect. v.; the chapter on the origin of Mexican civil ization in Proscott's Conquest of Mex ico, vol. i.; Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, vol. i. book ii., Cullen's translation, London, 1787.
This assertion derives further sup
port from the comparative craniology

28

EVIDENCES OF REMOTE CIVILIZATION.

remains scattered throughout the South and West, formed upon scientific principles, and some of them placed with all the skill of military engineering 1 What are all the still existing temples and palaces, rich in their oriental architecture, teeming with the sculpture of antiquity, which are now found in Central America ? History has not preserved the record of a single fact concerning them. The very language of the inscriptions over their altars and porches is lost; and yet, from those massive marble roofs, upheld by gigantic columns, carved all over with the curious de vices of Shemitic art from those court-yards, surrottnded by heay=corridors and halls of banqueting, have grown up trees many centuries old, almost burying the ruins by their hanging branches, and ripping open the solid masonry by their spi'eading roots. Whence came the people who reared these struc tures ? Where have they gone 1 Echo reverberates the sound through those silent chambers and along those deserted walks, but gives back no answer, save that one word, " Gone." From the remains which still exist, we must conclude that millions of people there lived and moved in all the pride and splendour of a gorgeous magnificence; but now, like Babylon, once " the glory of kingdoms," they are but the abodes

of the skulls found in these mounds, race, and probably to the Toltecan and those of the Toltecs and Aztecs family." The same fact is stated by in Mexico and Peru. Vide Delafield's Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, in a Enquiries into the origin of the Anti- communication made to the " British quities of America ; also Crania Ameri- Association for the Advancement of cana of Dr. Morton, who expressly de- Science," at Liverpool, 1837. clares, as the result of his persevering, McCulloch, in his Phil, and Hist, precise, and scientific collections and Researches, has also condensed much measurements, " that the cranial re- and valuable information on this submains discovered in the mounds from ject. Peru to Wisconsin belong to the same

NATURE OF SPANISH COLONIZATION.

29

of " wild beasts and doleful creatures. Dragons are in their pleasant places, and the satyrs dance upon their walls." This is the " terra incognita " of Ameri can History; and as in the maps of old geographers they placed pictures of divers men and beasts over every unexplored country, so in this unknown region of antiquity we may paint upon its surface a variety of imaginary creations; but they will be, after all, imaginary still.
Seventy years had passed since Columbus opened the way to the New World, and the Atlantic coast of North America was still uncolonized by any European nation. Every attempt of the Spaniards had failed; and they deserved to fail. Their treatment of the Indians was cruel and oppressive. They regarded them as specially given to them by the God of nature for their use and convenience. They tried to make them converts to religion by force ; and, failing of this, they burnt their villages destroyed their fields menaced their aged and helpless reduced to chains and slavery those whom they captured and killed in open battle, or by midnight surprise, whole tribes and armies which met to defend the graves of their forefathers. The Spaniards found this country bloom ing and beautiful its inhabitants simple and unsus pecting ; they changed the character of both, and tracked their way from the Atlantic to tlfe Mississippi in fire and blood.

CHAPTER III.
FRENCH AND SPANISH SETTLEMENTS AND DISCOVERIES.
HITHERTO the exploration of America had been pros ecuted for purposes of gain and conquest; but the disturbed state of religious affairs in France, created, new desires of colonization, based on loftier and more peaceable motives.
Gaspard de Coligni, high-admiral of France, and one of the leaders of the Protestant or Huguenotic party, foreseeing the troubles which they were destined to undergo, through the rage of papal power, and the treachery of royal faith, sought in the New World a refuge from the persecutions of the old. The tenets of this body, styled " The Reformed Protestants of France," were Calvinistic in theology, and Presbyte rian in polity. Under the preaching of Calvin and Beza, and through the circulation of the Bible of Olivetan, and the Psalms of Marot and Guadimel, the re formed religion made great progress; penetrating even into the court of Henry II., and making converts among the counsellors of parliament, the nobles of the king dom, and the princes of the blood! 1
1 Holmes' Memoirs of the French ing's History of the Huguenots, i. 45, Protestants, Cambridge, 1826, pp. 3,4, London, 1829. quoted from Quick's Synodica. Brown-

THE ADMIRAL DE COLIGNI.

31

Coligni, of princely descent, and brother to Odet, Cardinal of Chatillon and Bishop of Beauvais, was the first nobleman in France who dared to profess himself a Protestant, and espouse the Huguenotic cause. In conjunction with John Calvin, he attempted, in 1555, to settle a colony of French Protestants in Brazil, and fourteen missionaries were sent over by the Genevan Christians, to plant the Reformed Church among the Brazilian savages.2
The Chevalier de Villegagnon, who was selected to conduct this expedition, soon renounced the Hugue notic faith, abused the confidence of his employers, and a total failure was the consequence. The few French who remained in Brazil were massacred by the Portu guese, in 1558.
But Coligni was not the man whom failure made ir resolute. Obstacles but increased his zeal, arid spurred on his efforts. In the Assembly of Notables which convened at Fontainbleau, on the 21st August, 1560, Coligni, as soon as the business of the assembly was opened, went on his knees before the king, and pre sented a petition from the Calvinists of Normandy for the free exercise of their religion.3 But the stand which he took in favour of the Protestants was unsuccessful. Edicts of greater severity than before were published. The King of Navarre deserted the Protestants after the conference of Poissy; and though the well-known edict of the 7th January, 1562, was considered a tri umph for the Calvinists, yet the massacres and out rages committed on them at Vassy, Cahors, Toulouse, Amiens, arid other places, proved that the queen-

2 Le Plutarque Frangais, etc., torn. 3 Brou. ing, i. 81, Holmes, 6. ii. Southey's Hist, of Brazil, part i. c, ix.

COLIGNI RESOLVES TO COLONIZE FLORIDA.

mother, Catherine de Medicis, was performing a per fidious part, and only dallying with the Protestants, in order the more effectually to compass their ruin.
Taking advantage, however, of this temporary lull, Coligni determined to prosecute his original design of founding a settlement in Florida/ which the French claimed, under the title of discovery through Verrazzano, in 1524. Two ships were fitted out, under com mand of Jean Ribault of Dieppe, " so well furnished," says the historian of the expedition, " with gentlemen and with old soldiers, that he had means to achieve some notable thing, and worthy of eternal memory."
They sailed from Havre de Grace the 18th February, 1562, and in two months reached Florida, at a place which they named Cape Frangois, a little north of the 30th degree north lat. Thence coasting north, they soon entered the mouth of the St. John's, which, be cause discovered on the first day of May, they called

^ The authorities which I have con sulted for the statements in the remain der of this chapter, arc the following. Tho account of tho four voyages, viz. Ribauh nrst, Laudonn'&re socond, Ri bault third, Gourgucs fourth ; the first three written by Ren6 Laudonni&re, in Hakluyt, iii. 301-360. London, 1600. This is a translation from tho original French work of Basanier Le Moyne's Gallomm in Floridam Amorics provinciam altera navigatio, Duce, Laudonniero, anno M.D.Lxiv.
Brevis Narratio eorwm qua: in Flo rida America; Provincia, Gallis acciderunt, etc.
Libcllus Rive Epistola Supplicatoria, Regi Galliorum Uarolo LX. ejusdcm nominis oblata, etc. Anno 1566.
De Quarts. Gallorum in Floridam Navigatione aub Gourguesio. Anno

1667, written by Challus or Ch:UlusiuE of Dieppe.
All uf the above Latin narrations arc contained in tho second part of Do Dry's rare and valuable work, for the loan of which I am indebted to the kindness of the Hon. Mitchcll King, of Charles ton, South Carolina.
Histoire ll&norable du dernier voy age aux Indes, lieu appele la, Florida, fait par le Capitaine Jean Ribaut, et entrepris par lo commaudement du Roi, en 1'au M.c.Lxv. A Lyon, par Jean Savgoain, M.D.LVi.
Coppie d'un Lettro venant de la Floride envoyee a Rouen et depuis au Seigneur d'Eueron ; a. Paris, 1565.
La Reprinse de la Floride par If Capitaine Gourgue.
Those Frencli works are in the Kof Teniaux.

COLIGNI ON THE SEA-BOARD OP GEORGIA.

33

the river of May. Here, on a sandy knoll, near the mouth of the river, he erected a pillar of stone, on which were engraved the arms of France, as a memo rial of their discovery. Coasting northward, they dis covered " another fair river," the St. Mary's, but which Ribault named the Seine, " because it is very like unto the river of Seine in France." Having searched out this river, they trimmed their sails to voyage toAvard the north, and to descry the singularities of the coast. They were now upon the sea-board of Georgia, and their course was arrested every few leagues by the rivers and harbours, which demanded their notice ; " for," says he, " it is a country full of havens, rivers, and islands; and it seemeth that men may sail with out danger through all the country, and never enter into the great sea."
Leaving St. Mary's, they soon cast anchor off the mouth of the Satilla, termed by them the Somne ; and manning two boats, rowed up the river, to examine its banks and hold intercourse with its Indian king. They next discovered the Altamaha, which, when they had viewed it, they called the Loire ; further north, they opened upon Newport river, emptying into Sapelo Sound, which they termed Charente; next, St. Cath erine's Inlet, which they called the Garonne; then, Osabau Sound, receiving the waters of the Ogeechee river, to which they assigned the name of Gironde; still onward, they entered the broad mouth of the Sa vannah, styled by them the river Grande; thus bestow ing upon the noble streams of Georgia the names of the beautiful rivers of their own beautiful France. Each of these waters was well explored, and glowingly described.
The remaining part of their narrative has but little 3

34

A COLONY ESTABLISHED NEAR BEAUFORT.

to do with Georgia; but, as illustrating the efforts, with their results, which were made by the Huguenots of France to plant colonies of Reformed Protestants on our southern Atlantic coast, upon each side of our borders, which, had they succeeded, would have altered the entire character of our State, it certainly deserves a record in the history of the most southern colony planted by the English on the American shores.
Having examined the islands and country between St. Helena Sound and Port Royal, Ribault determined to build a fort, and leave a colony near to the spot on which Beaufort now stands. Thirty men, " gentle men, soldiers, and mariners," with Captain Albert de la Pierria, " a soldier of long experience," at their head, desired to remain; and a small fort, about one hundred feet long and eighty wide, with proportiona ble flanks, was built and munitioned for their protec tion. This was the first European fort built in our Union; and, in honour of the King of France, was named Charles Fort. Ribault arrived in France on the 20th July, 1562, intending to return with addi tional stores, and an increased force; but the distracted state of the country prevented his obtaining the requi site supplies, and this minor design was, for the pres ent, lost, amid the greater commotions which then rocked the kingdom to its base. Indeed, the very day of his arrival at Dieppe, letters patent were issued by the Parliament of Paris, declaring rebels all Hugue nots who had taken arms; and this, too, when but three weeks before, they had passed a decree author ising all persons to take arms and fall upon the Hugue nots, wherever they could meet with them.
The sieges of Orleans, Bourges, and Rouen, and the bloody hostilities raging betwTeen the Papists and the

FAMINE. THE COLONISTS SAIL FOR FRANCE.

35

Huguenots, in which the latter party looked up to the Prince of Conde and Coligni as their leaders, so occu pied the Admiral that he found no time, amid his warlike pursuits, to send the requisite succours across the Atlantic. The little band left in America soon began to feel the effects of famine, from which they were twice relieved, through the generous assistance of two Indian kings, Oseade and Conexis, whose do minions, so far as we can judge, bordered on the Savannah river. These twice freighted their pin naces with corn and beans, and such good things as they possessed, and saved the little colony from the horrors of starvation. But this was not the only diffi culty. The alleged tyranny of Captain Albert pro voked a mutiny, that resulted in his death; and Nich olas Barre, who had probably been with Villegagnon in the expedition which he conducted for Calvin and Coligni to Brazil, in 1553, was chosen in his place.
Finding their subsistence upon the Indians too pre carious cultivating not a foot of land themselves, and looking and hoping for supplies from France in vain they resolved to abandon the fort and return to their native land. In a wretchedly built brigantine, caulked with the moss that so beautifully festoons, with its grey drapery, our seaboard forests, rigged with Indian cord age, and sails made from their clothes and bedding, they hastily put to sea, vainly hoping to reach France; and in the intoxication of their joy, at the thought of once more seeing their homes, they neglected to lay in sufficient stores for th'e'uncertain voyage.
A third part --of their passage had. been prosperously made, whfeu they were becalmed, ard for nearly a month scarcely advanced a league a day, i The famine from wLIqh they had, fted, oft .\and, pursued them on the

36

DISASTROUS PATE. COLIGN1 PERSEVERES.

water; and their shoes, leather jackets, and sea-water, became for a time their food and drink.
Storms arose and nearly sunk their vessel in the waves head-winds turned them from their course death lessened their number; and, after being three days without anything to eat or drink, the horrible motion was made, that one should die to sustain the rest: the dire expedient was resolved upon, and the body of Lechau was equally divided among his com rades. But the sight of land turned their sorrow into joy ; a small English bark supplied them with provis ions; and of the few survivors, the more feeble were landed in France, and the rest sent to the Queen of England. Thus ended the first European colony in America; a fate too mournful for the cause which originated, and the enterprise which projected, such an undertaking. But, though twice disappointed in his colonial designs, Coligni still clung to his purpose. The cessation of intestine hostilities by the treaty of Amboise, and the nominal favour into which the Ad miral Coligni had been received at court, enabled him to renew his colonizing scheme ; and he obtained from the young king three ships and fifty thousand crowns, and putting them under command of Rene de Laudonnier, despatched them to Florida in April, 1564, which place they reached the following June. They found the memorial pillar set up by Ribault, crowded with garlands of bay, and surrounded by baskets of maize; and they rejoiced at this token of peace and friendship. In seeking for a place to settle, they visited the mouth of the Satilla river, which flows through Ware, Wayne, and Camden, into St. Andrew's Sound. Here they cast anchor, ar/cl went on shore to make discoveries. They were graciously receiver! by the Paracoasty or

RENE DE LAUDONNIER VISITS GEORGIA.

37

chief of the country, a very tall and well-proportioned man. His wife made a present to Laudonnier of some bullets of silver, and he gave him his bow and arrows; which was a sign of amity and alliance, such as he had before given to Captain John Ribault. " In our dis coursing with one another," says Laudonnier, " we en tered into speech as touching the exercise of arms; when the Paraconsty caused a corslet to be set on end, and prayed me to make a proof of our arquebuses and their bows. But this proof pleased him very little; for as soon as he knew that our arquebuses did easily pierce that, which the utmost force of their bows could not hurt, he seemed to be very sorry, musing with himself how this thing might be done ; nevertheless, going about to dissemble in his mind that which his countenance could not do by any means, he began to fall into another matter, and prayed us very earnestly to stay with him that night in his house or lodging; affirming that no greater happiness could come unto him than our long abode, which he desired to recom pense with a thousand presents."5 This is all the description which he leaves us of the natives of Georgia, as they then appeared to European eyes; for he soon sailed to the river of May, now St. John's, where, with his companions, he determined to settle. On the 30th of June, 1564, at the break of day, the Frenchmen assembled themselves at the sound of the trumpet, that they might praise God for their favoura ble and happy arrival. They sung a Psalm of thanks giving, offered up a prayer for aid in their undertaking, and then began the work of building their triangular fortress, which, in honour of their Prince, King Charles,

6 Thevet, in his " Vies des Homines this Indian prince, whom he styles Illustres," has published a biography of Saturioria.

38

VOYAGE OF PEDRO MELENDEZ DB AVILEZ.

they also named Fort Carolina. The remaining his tory of these adventurers must be briefly told. While the brave and generous Coligni was thus endeavouring to found in these regions an asylum for the Hugue nots, the haughty bigotry of Spain could not brook even a transatlantic resting-place for the enemies of her faith.
A crusade was planned by Philip II. against the unoffending Protestants; and with an army of over twenty-six hundred men, and a fleet of eleven ships, Pedro Melendez de Avilez sailed to Florida. In his voyage he lost over one-half of his fleet, but this did not deter him from his boastful design, for he had still five vessels and one thousand men.^
It was on St. Augustine's day, in the Romish calendar, (August 28th, 1565,) that Mclendez discovered the coast

There are three Spanish accounts from a manuscript in the royal library. of this expedition, vi%.: 1st, in the Kn- Since this chapter was written, I have sayo Chronologico para. la. Historia de perused the life of Ribault by Professor la Florida, written nominally by Ron Sparks, in vol. vii., new series, Ameri Gabriel de Cardenas z Cano, but in can Biography. This admirable me reality by Andreas Gonzales J3arcln'a. moir, compiled entirely from original 2. A Memoir inserted in Barcbia's sources, must be considered as the work written byDeSolis de lasMeras, standard account of the events and a bro'Jier-in-lj.\v of Melendez, and an fortunes of theso colonists. Having eye witness of the massacre of Rthault. consulted all the authorities which he 3. Memoir do 1'heureux rcaultat et du quotes except two, his " Life " furnishes boo Voyage que l)ieu, notro Seigneur, me with no additional particulars pro a bien voider accorder a la Flottc qui per to be introduced into this brief partit de la ville de Cadiz pour se rcn- chapter. dre a la cote et dans la .province de la The assigning of the French names Floride, et dont etait general 1'illustre to the rivers of Georgia was done after Seigneur Pero Mulcndez de Aviloj, careful consultatiun of old authorities, commandeur de 1'ordro dp Saint Jac especially " Hondios his Ma p ofFlorida," ques, etc. Far Francisco Lopoz de in Purcha's Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 869, Mendoza, chapelaine de Texpudition. 1636, where the rivers arc all put This latter account Tcrnaux in his down, though without geographical Reeueil, (having translated it into accuracy.
French,) publishes for the first timo

THE CITY OP ST. AUGUSTINE FOUNDED.

3<J

of Florida; the same day on which Ribault, with a fleet of seven vessels, arrived at Fort Charles from France. But he did not discover the French fleet until the 4th of September, when they ran in near the bar, and dropped their anchors within speaking distance of the ships of Ribault.
A sullen silence on both sides was at length broken by a hailing from the Spanish admiral as to their nation and religion. The reply from the ships, that they were French and Lutherans, drew out the rankling vengeance of the Spaniards; and in answer to the question, who he was, and what his business, he replied : " I am Melendez of Spain, sent with strict orders from my king to gibbet and behead all the Protestants in these regions. The Frenchman who is a Catholic I will spare: every heretic shall die."
As soon as day dawned, the French, who had loosed their sails during the night, and had gotten all things in readiness, cut their cables and ran out to sea. The Spaniards pursued till towards evening, when they tacked, and stood in to the land. The French also hove about, and now pursued the pursuers, who did not return to the river of May, but to the beautiful stream and harbour which they had a few days before seen; and which, in honour of the saint on whose day they discovered land, they had named St. Augustine. Here, on the 8th of September, 1565, with all the im posing ceremonies of the papal church, conducted by Mendoza, the chaplain of the expedition, with masses and processions, with festive and solemn pomp, the foundations of the first city in America, St. Augustine, were laid. Philip II. was proclaimed monarch of North America., and the continent was taken possession of in the name of the King of Spain.

40

MELENDEZ MAKES WAR UPON THE FRENCH.

While the Spaniards were thus refreshing themselves after their tempestuous voyage, the French, at Fort Car oline were divided, and alarmed. Ribault, with nearly all the ships, sailed away on the 10th of September, and left only eighty-six persons, some of them women and children, with Laudonnier, to defend the fort.
With revolting atrocities, Melendez made war upon the feeble French. The fortress was betrayed into his hands, and easily taken. Laudonnier, with others, made their escape; the rest were slain, some in their beds, so sudden was the attack; and their bodies were hung upon gibbets, and over them Melendez placed the in scription, " I do this, not as unto Frenchmen, but as unto Lutherans!" Laudonnier, with the little remnant of his party, reached Wales in November, and thence passed over to London and Paris; while the ships of Ribault were mostly wrecked by a severe tempest soon after leaving Fort Caroline, and all who escaped the waves were massacred by the Spaniards, except ten or twelve who professed themselves Papists. Thus, as Laudonnier well says, did Ribault beget his own un doing ; for had he, as soon as he reached the coast, on the 14th day of August, embarked the men at the fort, and departed, he would have had ample time to have escaped the Spanish fleet, which did not arrive until two weeks after. This delay put them in the power of Melendez, and dyed the last pages of their history with blood.
But the ruthless butcheries of the Spaniards were soon to be avenged. The French king refusing to pun ish this breach of international faith, though strongly petitioned to do so by the relatives of those who had fallen in Florida; a gallant soldier, Dominique de Gourgues, whose abilities had been tested by twenty-five

DE GOURGUES RETALIATES ON THE SPANIARDS. 41
years of service in the army and navy of France, as well at home as in Africa and Brazil, determined to avenge the death of his countrymen, though he lived and died in the Romish Church.
His zeal was shown in spending his own fortune in fitting out his little fleet, and his courage in facing not only the storms and dangers of three thousand miles of ocean, but daring, on his own responsibility, and with an inferior force, to meet the arms and entrench ments of the cruel Spaniards. With three ships, eighty sailors, and one hundred and fifty soldiers and volun teers, he set sail from Bordeaux, on the 22d of August, 1567. He masked his design under a commission from De Montluc, the king's lieutenant in Guienne, for the purpose of trading on the coast of Africa. Having spent some little time there, he suddenly steered away for America, and touching at Cuba, reached Florida in the spring of 1568. He landed at the mouth of the St. Mary's river, and having learned from the friendly savages the number, nature and position of the Spanish forts and forces, he attacked them with such skill and energy, as to capture all their fortresses and upon the boughs of the same trees whereon the Spaniards had hung the French, Gourgues now suspended the Spaniards, placing over them, in imitation of Melendez, an inscription : " I do this, not as unto Spaniards, nor as unto mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers!" With a force too small to maintain his conquests, he razed the forts, and, satisfied with his revenge, set sail on the 3d May, 1568. and soon arrived in France, having lost only one pinnace and a few men in all the expedition.
Proud of his enterprise, he sought the king, to tell him of his success, and to urge him to conquer the

42

ECCLESIASTICAL PERSECUTIONS.

country to his crown. But the court of Spain demand ed him of the French monarch, and offered a large sum for his head; so that, unprotected by his own sover eign, and hunted by another, his life was only saved by flight and secretion. He died in 1582, at Tours, on his way to take command of the fleet of Don Antonio, fitting out in the service of Elizabeth of England, for the recovery of the crown of Portugal from the hands of Philip II.; feared by the Spaniards for his bravery, , and esteemed by the queen for his virtues.
Shortly after, the Admiral Coligni was assassinated during the dreadful massacre of the Protestants on St. Bartholomew's day; and with him perished,, for the time, all attempts to plant the French flag on the southern shores of North America.
Ecclesiastical persecution originated the first settle ment in America by the French, and the first by the Spaniards. The French were driven from their homes by fire and sword, and edicts of the severest rigour; the Spaniards came hither for the purpose of exter minating the former, and levelling their forts in the dust. Both professed to act under pious impulses; but the French came to save themselves the Spaniards to destroy others; the one to find an asylum of peace, the other to perpetuate the horrors of relentless war. Had Charles IX. possessed but the spirit of a man, he would have resented this inhuman havoc, supported his forlorn colony, and thus maintained his right to North America by the occupancy of its territories. But his imbecile mind was a stranger to the first impulse of moral courage ; and he lost New France, because he dared not sustain it.
In all these voyages the sea-board of Georgia was well explored, but no settlement was made; though a

PROGRESS OP ENTERPRISE.

43

few miles north of the Savannah, and a few miles south of the St. Mary's, the French and the Spaniards had erected forts and planted colonies. Thus, the western, middle, northern, and south-eastern portions of Geor gia had been traversed by the representatives of the two great European powers nearly three centuries ago. But though all the coast of the northern conti nent had been explored by different voyagers, and though various attempts at colonization had been made on its shores, yet along that fifteen hundred miles of sea-board, there was at this time founded but one city, St. Augustine; and there was colonized but one people, the Spaniards. The age of inaction soon passed away; the spirit of enterprise, so long wasted by European wars, crowded the highway of the Atlan tic with the fleets of American adventurers; and soon the wild and rock-bound coasts of the north, and the fair and fragrant lowlands of the south, smiled into beauty beneath the hand of culture and the arts of peace.

CHAPTER IV.
ABORIGINES IN GEORGIA.
THE history of those who peopled this country oh , its first discovery by Europeans, must ever be a sub ject of peculiar interest. A great change has been ' wrought in the condition of the Indians within the last two hundred years. Once their broad hunting ground was washed by the waters of the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west, and spread from the dreary pines of the north to the jessamine-scented forests of the south.
They lived in their native wildness, amid the sub lime solitudes of America; now hunting the timid deer now paddling the birch canoe now dancing at their simple festivals now going forth, painted and plumed for battle or now, gathered around their council fires, to the grave debates of chiefs and war riors.
According to the statements of early writers, the number of Indians in and around Georgia was once very great; though it is somewhat difficult, at this dis tance of time, and with the imperfect records which we possess, to separate them with much accuracy into

CHARACTER OP THE ABORIGINES.

45

their several tribes, or define their respective bounda ries. They were eminently a shifting population; having few local ties settling themselves for a season or two raising their rude wigwams planting a crop reaping its harvest and then, by the love of adven ture or the fortunes of war, led away to other lands, to be as soon again removed from these. Some, indeed, had more fixed abodes, though the general habits of all were migratory and unsettled. It will be needless to recapitulate here, descriptions already given of the character and condition of the Indians when first vis ited by the Europeans. Simple in their manners, superstitious in their customs, warlike in their actions, they strangely mingled the barbarities of the savage, with the artlessness of nature's untutored children. With minds of strong powers and original thought, they wasted them upon the groveling sensualities of savage life. With affections warped by the dark superstitions of their religion, they worshipped with bloody rites, and were devout through fear. With no permanent abode, they wandered and warred under their ancient leaders, and founded a society, based on the physical supremacy of martial prowess. Thus they met the Europeans. They first beheld them as dei ties ;] they received them as gods; but intercourse soon stripped the white man of his supposed divinity, and they saw in him a being like themselves, only more steeped in crime, because possessing greater means and agencies of guilt. And, surely, there can be no moral deformity more loathsome, than that created by engrafting upon savage character the vices of civilized society. The progeny of these blended crimes, like

1 Irving's Columbus, i. 104. Du Simitiere MSS. hi New York Historical Collection, new series, i. "273.

46

THE YAMASSEBS ATTACK. THE SPANIARDS.

the union of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men/' is, indeed, giant-like in turpitude and sin. Suck it proved to be in America. At the period of the settlement of Georgia, several tribes occupied what * now constitutes its territory. Along the Savannah river were the Yamassees/ a large and powerful tribe, which, for many years from the settling of Carolina, were in friendly alliance with the colonists. Archdale, who entered upon the government of Carolina in 1695, describes them as " good friends, and useful neigh bours of the English." It was only recently, however, that they had become such ; having renounced their allegiance to the Spaniards in 1680, when the Gov ernor of St. Augustine ordered the execution of one of their chiefs; by which the feelings of the tribe were so wrought upon, that six years after they made a general attack upon the Spaniards, and drove them within the walls of the castle, and became such mor tal enemies to them, that they never gave a Spaniard quarter/" Then they proffered their friendship and services to the Caroliniaus, and proved themselves allies, by the valuable service they rendered Carolina in the attack upon St. Augustine by Governor Moore in 1702; and also in his war upon the Tuscaroras, (who then lived between the Savannah and the Altamaha,) whose towns he laid in ashes, killing many of the peo ple in battle, or carrying them away to Charleston to be sold as slaves. The Yamassees were regarded by the Carolinians as peculiarly inimical to the Spaniards;

3 Called also Savannahs by Gov. name of the rive? on which they lived. Archdalo in his " New Description of Gullatin's i^yiiupsis of Indian Tribes, that fertile and pleasant province of Archzol. Amor., ii. p. 84. Carolina," &c., London, 1707. They ^ I<awnun's \,ew Voyage to Caiowore probably called thus from the lina, &c., Lond. 1709, small 4to., p. 4.

TREACHERY OF THE YAMASSEES.

47

and their frequent capture and butchery of the strag glers from the fort of St. Augustine, assured them of the sincerity of their hatred. Through the presents and machinations of the Spanish Governor, their fidelity to the English was gradually shaken, and they were finally prepared to strike a blow upon their unsuspect ing friends, which shook the colony to its centre, and threatened its extinction.4
They began by slaying the Indian traders in their chief town of Pocotaligo, on the 12th of April, 1715; and then swept down in fury upon the unprotected settlements, murdering the people, laying waste their fields, burning their dwellings, until over four hundred inhabitants had been made the victims of their bar barity. The entire colony was roused; an embargo was laid on the ships in port; martial law was pro claimed on land; the forts were refurnished with means of defence; bills of credit were stamped for the expenses of the war; agents were despatched to the northern colonies for help ; and the country popu lation, abandoning their homes, fled to the stronger set tlements, or hurried on to the city. Governor Craven pat himself at the head of the forces raised to repel this invasion, consisting of between fifteen hundred and two thousand militia; and after a cautious march, he met them in battle at the Salt-ketchers, and, not satisfied with conquering them on that well-fought field, drove them across the Savannah; nor did the Yamassees find rest until within the walls of St. Augustine, where they were received with joy and

4 An Account of the Yamassee War, Boston News .Letter, June 18th, 1715. Narrative of tlie Proceedings of the People of South Carolina in

1719 : Lond., printed in 1726. Hewitt's Hist, of South Carolina and Georgia, vol. i. chap. iv. London, 1779.

48

THE CHEROKEES IN GEORGIA.

triumph. Henceforth the Yamassees took up their residence in Florida, as the scouts and allies of the Spaniards; atoning for their defeat, by years of merci less revenge upon the outer settlements of Carolina.
The Cherokees were settlers in Georgia in the time of De Soto, who travelled through a part of their country in 1540. They derive their name from cheera fire,5 which, in their mythology, constitutes the lower heaven; and their medicine men, or prophets, are hence called ehee-ra-tahge, men of divine fire. They dwelt principally in the northern and north western parts of the State ; among the ridges and val leys of the Alleghany Mountains, and the head-waters of the Savannah and other rivers, which empty into the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Their first intercourse with the English was in 1693, when twenty chiefs of that nation went to Charleston and craved the assistance of Governor Smith and the Carolinians, against the Etaws and Congarees, who had burnt some of their towns, and taken several of their nation captive." In 1712 they assisted the Carolinians in their attack upon the Tuscaroras, by furnishing two hundred warriors; and in various ways exhibited their attachment and fidelity, and maintained the relations which had been established among them by Governors Smith and Nicholson.
On the purchase of Carolina from the proprietary grantees by Parliament, in 1729, and the erecting of it into two royal provinces, under the names of North and South Carolina, it was deemed essential, by the government, to secure the alliance of this large and warlike tribe, computed at this time to number twenty

6 Bartram, p. 44. Adair'sHist. Am. Indians, p. 226, 4lo, London, 1775.

6 Howitt, vol. i, chap. iii.

TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEES.

49

thousand, distributed in sixty-four towns and villages, affording at least six thousand warriors.
To effect this, Sir Alexander Gumming was sent over by Great Britain, in 1730, as a commissioner to negociate the requisite treaty; an object of vast conse quence to the colony, as well as to the mother country.7
As soon as the spring opened, Sir Alexander left Charleston to meet the chiefs of the nation.
The congress assembled at Nequassee, on the 3d of April, 1730; and by the nomination of the commis sioner, Moytoy was proclaimed emperor. The proffered alliance of the English was readily embraced; the treaty was drawn up and confirmed; and the assem bled chiefs and Indians acknowledged themselves duti ful subjects of King George II., and on their knees called down on themselves terrible judgments should they fail of their duty. To confirm their loyalty, the crown of the nations, five eagles' tails, and four scalps of their enemies, were presented to Sir Alexander, with the request that he would lay them at their great father's feet. But the commissioner, though he took the crown, preferred to have several of the chiefs go to England with him, and there make their fealty to the king. Seven chiefs accompanied him to London, where they arrived in June, and were presented at court. They were received by the king and nobles with great kind ness; saw, and were astonished at, the magnificence and strangeness of everything around them, so differ ent from their own simplicity; and at a formal intro duction to George II., repeated their professions of amity and peace. Having spent a few months there,

1 Salmon's Modern Hist., &c., iii. Hist, of South Carolina, i. 99. Old569. Hewitt, ii. chap. vii. Ramsay's mixon, i. 498; London, 1741.
4

50

THE UCHEE INDIANS.

they returned to their mountain home; trod again the war-path against their enemies; but remained for many years the firm friends of the English.
Thus, to use the figurative language of the preamble of this treaty, " the king had fastened one end of the chain of friendship to his breast, and linked the other to the breast of Moytoy of Telliquo, and to the breasts of all their old wise men, their captains, and their peo ple."
During the French and Indian war, the Cherokees fought on the side of the English; but on their return home from the capture of Fort Duquesne, they gave such offence by their misconduct in Virginia, that sev eral of their warriors were killed; which circumstance lighted a flame of war against the English, that was not extinguished until two expeditions of British troops reduced them to the royal power. Before they were corrupted by the white men, the Cherokees were frank, sincere, industrious; living in the most beautiful region of the southern States, the "Hill Country" of Carolina and Georgia, secure in their mountain homes, rich in their valley lands, and strong in the arms and prowess of their death-defying warriors.
The Uchees were a smaller band of Indians than the former, and inhabited the country on both sides of the Savannah, above and below Augusta, and as far down as the Ogeechee. Their original seat is supposed to have been near the Coosa and Chattahoochee rivers, of which they considered themselves the most ancient inhabitants; and were, perhaps, the nation described in De Soto's travels as the Appalachees.8 They had again abandoned the Savannah, and gone southward, to the right bank of the Chattahoochee, and shortly after
8 Gallatin's Synopsis, 95.

MOSCOGEE8. THE CREEK CONFEDERACY.

31

were incorporated into the Creek confederacy, though they retained all their ancient customs, and adopted none of those of the Muscogees. Their language was peculiarly harsh and -guttural; and is less expressible by our letters and spelling than any known Indian tongue. They were more civil, orderly, and indus trious than those around them; their women more chaste; their men more constant in their attachment to them, assisting them in their labours, when not en gaged in the hunt or in war.
Muscogee is the name of an Indian nation bordering on the Savannah river, the Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico, the Cherokee lands on the north, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws on the west. They came from the west. There is a tradition among them, that there are in the forks of the Red river,, west of the Missis sippi, two mounds of earth, where they first found themselves; but being distressed by wars, they jour neyed eastward, towards the place where the sun rose; and settling below the^Falls of the Chattahoochee, spread out from thence to the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Savannah, and along the sea-board. Another tra dition assigns their origin to a cave near Alabama river; while yet another traces their descent from the sky. Originally a small people, they increased in size and strength by incorporating into themselves the broken remnants of other tribes and nations; until a union of several people was formed by them, called, from the small streams with which their country abounds, the Creek confederacy.9
Of this confederacy the Muscogees constituted seveneighths; the remaining portion being made up of Uchees, Natches, Hilchitees, Alibamous, and Seminoles. These
9 Bartrarn, 47. Adair, 257. Gallafm, 95.

52

THE CREEK CONFEDERACY.

last, called also Semole or Wildmen, are pure Muscogees, as well as the Appalachians, residing at the head of the Appalache bay. The Seminoles are called " wild," because they left their old towns, and made irregular settlements to the south and south-east. They were induced to go thither by the game, the climate, the soil, and the rich pasturage for cattle.10
The confederacy at one time was divided into four principal towns: the Corretal, Oscoochee,Cussetah, and Tukawbatchie.11 Besides this political division, there was also a geographical one: those living up towards the mountains being called .upper Creeks; those to wards the sea-board, lower Creeks. A hundred years ago, the nation had fifty towns or villages, and could send three thousand five hundred warriors into the field. Uniting with themselves the remnants of so many other tribes, they became the most powerful nation in the south; and their early successes so whetted their appetite for war, that it became a necessary element of their existence. They defeated the Cherokees, though the latter were the more nu merous ; they humbled the Choctaws, the most artful of Indian strategists; and, bordering as they did on the territories of three European nations the English in Carolina, the Spanish in Florida, and the French at Mobile they were made to vacillate in their fidelity to each, and changed their allies at the bidding of profit or revenge.
Artful in all their designs, far-reaching in their polit ical views, judicious in their internal arrangements, attentive to the necessities of culture, loving the strife

10 Manuscript Journal of Colonel Benj. Hawkins, written in the Creek Country in 1798-9, while U. S. Agent of Indian Affairs, p. 17,
1 ' Gallatin's Synopsis, 95.

INDIAN WARS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

53

of war and the high-sounding titles of the warrior, they heeded not distance, and contemned suffering, and braved danger, in seeking out their enemy; and sel dom, met their foes but to subdue them.
Each tribe of the above nation had its chief, and each body of chiefs its head chief, or great warrior; and the hereditary descent was always in the female line. These chiefs and beloved men, as their counsel lors were called, ruled the nation, holding frequent councils, hearing complaints, adjusting differences, re ceiving European agents, making replies to their friend ly talk, declaring war, leading out to battle, announc ing cessation of hostilities, and gathering all around the council fire, to smoke the calumet of peace.
Their wars were seldom fair-fought fields, where each met each in full array; but a series of ambus cades, stratagems, massacres, and surprises, wasting and fretting each other by harassing blows, until one party retired from the contest. The prowess of the warrior was reckoned by the number of his war-scalps; and the death of a warrior was lamented and avenged. Their prisoners they treated with cruelty, turning them over to the women and children, whose joy it was to inflict upon them horrid tortures, and make their deaths as lingering and painful as the ingenuity of merciless savages could devise.
Their social institutions were necessarily imperfect. They were united by the affinities of tribes. Marriage with any of a kindred blood, though far remote, was forbidden. The wrife was sought by the females of both parties, and bargained for as merchantable wares. The rites of marriage were simple, its duties stringent, its liberties none. Infidelity was punished with death, .though before marriage great looseness of virtue pre-

54

OCCUPATIONS, LANGUAGES, AMUSEMENTS.

vailed. Divorce could be easily obtained, and poly gamy was permitted to all who could afford the addi tional expense. The children remained with the mother, and the property she brought with her could not be used by the husband.
The occupation of the Indians was mostly hunting, fishing, and war; their weapons were the bow and arrow, and the scalping-knife. Their warlike character was graduated by the number of their scalps ; and when conquered, they exulted in that fortitude which en abled them to bear the severest tortures with the un flinching spirit of a true Brave. The women were generally made to bear the burden of labour, though among the Creeks the men gave some assistance. Their dress was simple, consisting mostly of skins, variously painted, and decorated with tawdry orna ments, according to their fancy or ability. Their wig wams were rude and temporary, and the conveniences of life few and unrefined. The languages of the tribes inhabiting Georgia were diverse in their character, the Muscogee being the most prevalent; though there were tribes which formed a part of this confederacy which did not use the Creek tongue. All the Indian lan guages were susceptible of strong expressions and forcible appeals of abrupt sentences and bold meta phors which gave a vigour and strength to their elo quence, at times approaching to the sublime.
The Indians loved the dance, of which they had many kinds, and especially did they rejoice in the " wardance," and the "war-song," on the eve of battle, in which they recounted the deeds of their ancestors, and expressed their contempt of death. They all be lieved in a Great Spirit; in a future world, where the brave men would live in a glorious hunting-ground,

THEIR VIEW OP DEATH. THEIR DESTINY.

55

accompanied with beautiful women; and that they should pass their eternity in a round of perpetual pleas ures. When death came to the Indian, he looked boldly in his face, and quaked not at his terrors. He called indeed upon the Spirit he had worshipped, and invoked the aid of the " medicine men;" but believ ing that when he departed this life he should enter upon another and perhaps similar scene, he bowed his head, and was laid in the grave, with his pipe and tomahawk, his bow and arrows, his bowl of corn and venison, that he might hunt and be refreshed in his journey to the land of spirits.
Thus lived and died the Indian. The light of their council-fires has been removed from the sea-board to the mountains; from the mountains to the great valley of the Father of Waters. Eastward of the Alleghany range, scarcely an Indian can now be found. They have vanished before the march of the pale man journeying towards the setting sun hastened onwards by the advancing waves of civilization; and will either be swept away by that civilization, or become parta kers of its benefits. " Passing away" is the destiny of the red men; their memorials are fast displaced by the structures of civilized society; and soon the In dian will live but in the traditions and history of the past. The prophecy uttered over four thousand years ago, " God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,"12 is daily fulfilling; and ere long its full accomplishment shall be recorded in the book of time, and in the great volume of our future history.

12 Genesis ix. 27.

BOOK SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA.

THE story of our colonial birth and infancy, is ever interesting and attractive. We love to trace back our political lineage, and run. up the civil genealogy of our forefathers. The same spirit which caused the earlier Athenians to call themselves Autochthones, and wear golden grasshoppers in their hair, in proof of their indigenous origin,1 and which led the Romans to link their genealogy to the gods,2 still lives and animates the human bosom. Ours, however, is a more rational feeling. We seek not our origin among the fictions of mythology; nor boast a descent from grovel ing insects or fabled divinities. Satisfied at finding our infant colony born of philanthropy, cradled by benevo lence, and guarded by valour, we seek no higher source, and say to mercy, Thou art our mother; and to charity, Thou hast nurtured us.
By the first charter of Charles II. to the Lords Pro-

1 Thucydides, i. 6.

% Mebuhr's Rome,

58

SETTLEMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

prietors of Carolina,3 (March 24th, 1663,) that body was put in possession of all the lands lying between 31 and 36 degrees north latitude, and thence westward to the ocean.
This domain was, two years after, (June SOtli, 1665,) enlarged by another charter, which granted to them all the province situated between 29 deg. and 36 deg. 30 min. north latitude.
The first settlement under these proprietors, at the head of whom was the Earl of Clarendon, the Lord High Chancellor of England, was made in 1670, by Governor William Sayle, at Port Royal, which the little party left next year for the " first highlands of the Ashley river," a few miles above the present site of Charleston. Eight years after they again removed to Oyster Point; and in 1680 the foundations of the present city of Charleston were laid.4
They attempted, however, no settlement south of the Savannah river, though their jurisdiction extended over all its present territory. It was not until 1717 that any effort was made to improve the lands between the Savannah and the Altamaha. In that year Sir Robert Montgomery, Bart., whose father was joined with Lord Cardross in his measures for establishing a Scots colony in Port Royal, published " A Discourse con cerning the designed Establishment of a new Colony to

3 See both charters in Cooper's by Carroll in his valuable work, en-

" Statutes at largo of South Carolina," titled, " Historical Collections of South

22-40.

Carolina," N. Y., 1836, 2 vols. 8vo.

4 Carolina ; or a Description of the In an interesting note, (vol. i. 49,) Car-

Present State of that Country, by T. A., roll corrects, with much plainness and

(Thos. Ash,) published in 1682. Wil- patience, the error into which Hewitt

son's Account of the Province of Caro- had fallen respecting the first landing

lina in America, also printed in 1682. of Governor Sayle.

Both these rare tracts are republished

A NEW EDEN.

59

the south of Carolina," in what he termed " the most delightful country in the universe."5 This pamphlet was accompanied by a beautiful but fanciful plan rep resenting the form of settling the districts or county divisions in his province, which he styled " the Margravate of Azilia." In his description of the country he writes, " that Nature has not blessed the world with any tract which can be preferable to it; that Paradise, with all her virgin beauties, may be mod estly supposed, at most, but equal to its native excel lencies." Having obtained, from the Lords Proprie tors of Carolina, a grant of the lands between Savan nah and Altamaha, he issued his proposals for settling this " future Eden;" but, though garnished with the most glowing descriptions, and set forth under the most captivating attractions, they were issued in vain; and the three years having expired, within which he was to make the settlement, or forfeit the land, the territory reverted to Carolina, and his scheme of colo nization came to an end. The Margravate of Azilia was magnificent upon the map, but was impracticable in reality.
The Lords Proprietors of Carolina having failed in their scheme of government, and their authority being crushed by the provincial revolution of 1719, they sold their titles and interest in that province to Parliament in 1729; reserving to Lord John Cartaret the remain ing eighth share of the country, as he refused to join the others in disposing of the colony. After the pur chase of the territory of Carolina, which then extended from the St. John's to Albemarle Sound, it was deemed too large for one government, and was therefore

5 The above is the title to the tract " Tracts and other Papers," i., Washwbich he published in 1717. Force's ington, 1836.

60

COMMITTEE FOR THE INSPECTION OF GAOLS.

\

divided into two provinces, under the respective titles ' of North and South Carolina. The territorial bound ary of South Carolina, however, on the south, was the Savannah river; the remaining portion being then held in reserve by the British crown. The same year that the House of Commons resolved on an address to the King to purchase the rights of the Lords Proprietors to this territory, a committee was appointed by Parlia ment,6 " to enquire into the state of the gaols of the kingdom, and to report the same and their opinion thereupon to the House." This committee, raised on the motion of James Oglethorpe, Esq., in consequence of the barbarities which had fallen under his own ob servation while visiting some debtors in the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons, consisted of ninety-six persons, and Oglethorpe was made its chairman. A more honour able or effective committee could scarcely have been appointed. It embraced some of the first men in Eng land ; among them thirty-eight noblemen, the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, the Master of Rolls, Admiral Vernon, and Field-Marshal Wade. They entered upon their labours with zeal and diligence, and not only made inquiries through the Fleet prison, but also into the Marshalsea, the prison of the King's Bench, and the gaol for the county of Surrey. It was this committee which Thomson eulogised, in his poem of Winter, as
" The generous band, Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched Into the horrors of the gloomy gaol."

For in these abodes of crime and misfortune, they be held all that the poet had depicted:" The freeborn Briton

e Journal of House of Commons, 1728.

THE PHILANTHROPY OF OGLETHORPE.

61

to the dungeon chained," marked " with inglorious stripes;" the " lean morsel snatched from the starving mouth;" " the tattered weed torn from cold wintry limbs;" and "lives crushed out by secret, barbarous ways, that for their country would have toiled and bled." Nor in this instance did the poetry exceed the fact; for one of her own authors has well said, " No modern nation has ever enacted or inflicted greater legal severities upon insolvent debtors than England."7 " For the encour agement of that ready credit by which commercial en terprise is promoted, they armed the creditor of insol vent debtors with vindictive powers, by the exercise of which freeborn Englishmen, unconvicted of crime, were frequently subjected, in the metropolis of Britain, to a thraldom as vile and afflicting as the bondage of negro slaves in the West Indies." This committee, besides redressing the grievances connected with prison discipline, also reported a bill for the relief of insolvent debtors; thus, not only remedying present abuses, but preventing their recurrence, by legislative enactment.
The philanthropy of Oglethorpe, whose feelings were easily enlisted in the cause of misery, rested not with the discharge of his parliamentary duty, nor yet in the further benefit of relaxing the rigorous laws which thrust the honest debtor into prisons which seemed to garner up disease in its most loathsome forms crime in its most fiend-like works humanity in its most shameless and degraded aspect; but it prompted still further efforts efforts to combine present relief with permanent benefits, by which honest but unfortunate industry could be protected, and the labouring poor be

' Grahame, History of the U. S.. iii. 179, Lond. 4 vols. 18mo, 1836.

62 CHARTER GRANTED FOR A COLONY IN GEORGIA.
enabled to reap some gladdening fruit from toils, which now wrung out their lives with bitter and unrequited labours. To devise and carry out such efforts, himself, Lord Percival, and a few other noblemen and gentle men, addressed a memorial to the Privy Council, stating, " that the cities of London, Westminster, and parts ad jacent, do abound with great numbers of indigent per sons, who are reduced to such necessity as to become burthensome to the public, and who would be willing to seek a livelihood in any of his majesty's plantations in America, if they were provided with a passage, and means of settling there." The memorialists promised to take upon themselves the entire charge of this affair, to erect a province into a proprietary government, provided the crown would grant them a portion of the land bought in 17^9 by Parliament from the lords proprietors of South Carolina, lying south of the Savan nah river; together with such powe.rs as shall enable them to receive the charitable contributions and bene factions of all such persons as are willing to encourage so good a design.
This petition, referred at first to a committee of the Privy Council, was by them submitted to the considera tion of the Board of Trade, who, after a second com mitment, made their report, that the attorney and soli citor-general should be directed to prepare a draft of a charter. This report, being laid before his majesty, was by him approved, and he directed the proper officer to make out the charter.8 The charter thus prepared was approved by the king, but in consequence of the formali ties of office, did not pass under the great seal until the 9th of June, 1732.
8 These several memorials and petitions are copied into Georgia MS. trans cripts.

PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.

63

This instrument constituted twenty-one noblemen and gentlemen a body corporate, by the name and style of the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia, in America; giving to the projected colony the name of the monarch who had granted to them such a liberal territory for the development of their benevolence.9
By the provisions of this charter, which commenced with a recital of the causes which led to the proposed colonization, this body was entitled, for twenty-one years, to all the legal rights and immunities of a body corporate. They were to meet yearly, on the third Thursday in the month of March, when new members were to be elected. They were to have a common council, of fifteen members; and when the members of the corporation were increased, the common council was also to be augmented to twenty-four. The offices of President, of the Trustees, and Chairman of the Board of Common Council, were to be rotary by election. The members of the corporation were debarred from holding any office of profit, or receiving any salary, fees, perquisite or profit whatsoever. They were au thorised to take subscriptions and collect moneys; and were required to lay, annually, before the chancellor,

9 In the London Magazine for Oct., 1735, are the following lines," On giving the name of Georgia to a part of Carolina :"
" While ripening slow, the future purpose lay, And conscious silence plann'd the op'ning way ; Kind o'er the rising schemes an angel hung, And dropt this counsel from his guardian tongue : Wish you, this way, the royal pair inclined ? To Carolina be a Georgia joined ; Then shall loth colonies sure progress make, Endeared to either for the other's sake ; Georgia shall Carolina's favour move, And Carolina bloom by Georgia's love."

64

PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.

|

or speaker, or commissioners for the custody of the great seal of Great Britain, an account of all moneys ! and effects by them received or expended. They were empowered to make constitutions, laws and ordinances for the government of their province; to set, impose, and inflict reasonable pains and penalties upon offend ers. It granted to them " all those lands, countries ? and territories situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, in America," between the Savannah and Altamaha; and westerly, from the heads of the said rivers, respectively, in direct lines, to the Pacific, and the islands within twenty leagues of the coasts. It > gave them permission to transport and convey out of Great Britain into the said province of Georgia, to be there settled, as many subjects, or foreigners willing to become subjects, as shall be willing to inhabit there. It also declared, that "all and every the persons" " born within the said province, shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities of free denizens, as if abiding and bom within Great Britain." It also established and ordained that there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all persons inhabiting, or who shall inhabit, or be resident within the province ; and that all such persons, except Papists, shall have a free exercise of religion, so they be con tented with the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, not giving offence or scandal to the government, It was further provided, that no grant of land should be made to any one of the corporation, or to any one in trust for any member of the same ; and no grant of land to any other individual was to exceed five hundred acres. They were authorised, also, to establish judicatories, courts of record, or other necessary courts, embracing all cases which could come within the limits

PROVISIONS OF THE CHARTER.

65

of colonial judiciary, whether criminal or civil, capital or venial. It decreed, that no act of the common coun cil or corporation should be effectual and valid, unless eight members, including the chairman, should be present. It permitted this board to appoint whatever magistrates, civil or military, by land or sea, the prov ince required, except such as were connected with the revenue department. It required them to defend the province by all military means, both by sea and land, against either internal or external foes. It con stituted the governor of South Carolina chief com mander of the Georgia militia; and, finally, declared, that at the expiration of twenty-one years, such a gov ernment should be established as should then be judged best, in which the governor, and all officers, civil and military, should be nominated and appointed by the king.
This was the great legal instrument which lay at the political foundation of Georgia. Its provisions were commensurate with its design; and its privileges were as ample as the benevolence which called it into being. It gave to those over whom it stretched its fostering care, the privileges of freeborn Britons the privileges of English law, and, with -one exception, the privileges of religious liberty. Nor was this exception the result so much of England's Protestantism as Eng land's politics. It was but transferring to the charter of Georgia some of the civil disabilities which then lay upon Romanists in the mother country disabilities growing out of civil rather than ecclesiastical relations. The exception was wrong in the abstract; but, inter posing itself as Georgia did between the Protestant colonies on the north, and the French and Spanish possessions on the south, it was determined to draw around it such an ecclesiastical cordon as should, effec-
5

66

THE DESIGNS OF THE TRUSTEES.

tually prevent any Romish intrigues or ascendency in a colony thus singularly situated.
The charter revealed two purposes as the object of this colonization the settling of poor but unfortunate people on lands now waste and desolate; and the inter posing of this colony as a barrier between the northern colonies and the French, Spanish, and Indians on the south and west. These designs the trustees amplified and illustrated in their printed papers and official cor respondence ; and before we enter upon the results of their labours, it is well to turn back a century, and look at what they proposed to accomplish by estab lishing such a colony.
In a published account of their designs prior to their being carried into execution,10 " the trustees state that they intend to relieve such unfortunate persons as can not subsist here, and establish them in an orderly manner, so as to form a well-regulated town. As far as their fund goes, they will defray the charge of their passage to Georgia give them necessaries, cattle, land, and subsistence, till such time as they can build their houses and clear some of their land. They rely for success, first, on the goodness of Providence, next, on the compassionate disposition of the people of Eng land ; and they doubt not that much will be spared from luxury and superfluous expenses, by generous tempers, when such an opportunity is offered them, by the giving of 20 to provide for a man or woman, or J&10 to a child forever."
" By such a colony, many families who would other wise starve, will be provided for, and made masters of houses and lands; the people of Great Britain, to whom these necessitous families were a burden, will
1 Force's Tracts, i. 2d paper, 5.

THE BENEVOLENCE OF THEIR PURPOSE.

67

be relieved; numbers of manufacturers will be here employed for supplying them with clothes, working tools, and other necessaries; and by giving refuge to the distressed Salzburghers and other Protestants, the power of Britain, as a reward for its hospitality, will be increased by the addition of so many religious and industrious subjects."
Oglethorpe, in his " New and Accurate Account," de clares11 " These trustees not only give land to the unhappy who go thither; but are also empowered to receive the voluntary contributions of charitable per sons to enable them to furnish the poor adventurers with all necessaries for the expense of the voyage, occupying the land, and supporting them till they find themselves comfortably settled. So that now the un fortunate will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long servitude, to pay for their passage ; for they may be carried gratis into a land of liberty and plenty, where they immediately find themselves in possession of a competent estate, in a happier climate than they knew before; and they are unfortunate, indeed, if here they cannot forget their sorrows."
This was the main purpose of the settlement; and such noble views were " worthy to be the source of an American Republic." Other colonies had been planted by individuals and companies for wealth and dominion; but the trustees of this, at their own desire, were restrained by the charter " from receiving any grant of lands in the province, or any salary, fee, per quisite, or profit whatsoever, by or from this under taking." The proprietors of other colonies were looking to their own interests; the motto of the trus tees of this was, " Non sibi, sed aliis." The proprietors
11 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 58.

68

THE PRODUCTION OP SILK, WINE, OIL, &o.

of other colonies were anxious to build up cities and erect states, that should bear their names to a distant posterity ; the trustees of this only busied themselves in erecting an asylum, whither they invited the indi gent of their own, and the exiled Protestants of other lands. It was the first colony ever founded by charity. New England had been settled by Puritans, who fled thither for conscience' sake New York, by a company of merchants and adventurers in search of gain Mary land, by Papists retiring from Protestant intolerance Virginia, by ambitious cavaliers Carolina, by the scheming and visionary Shai'tesbury and others, for pri vate aims and individual aggrandizement; but Geor gia was planted by the hand of benevolence, and reared into being by the nurturings of a disinterested charity.
But the colony was not to be confined to the poor and the unfortunate. The trustees granted portions of five hundred acres to such as went over at their own expense, on condition that they carried over one servant to every fifty acres, and did military service in time of war or alarm. Thus the materials of the new colony consisted of three classes: the upper, or large landed proprietors and officers the middle, or free holders, sent over by the trustees and the servants indented to that corporation or to private individuals.
Subsidiary to the great design of philanthropy was the further purpose of making Georgia a silk, wine, oil, and drug-growing colony. " Lying," as the trus tees remark, " about the same latitude with part of China, Persia, Palestine, and the Madeiras, it is highly probable that when hereafter it shall be well peopled and rightly cultivated, England may be supplied from thence with raw silk, wine, oil, dyes, drugs, and many other materials for manufactures, which she is obliged

ADVANTAGES OF RAISING SILK IN GEORGIA.

69

to purchase from southern countries." The secretary of the trustees, in his official account of the " Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia," says : 12 " The Italian, French, Dutch, Indian, and China silks, im ported, thrown and wrought only, (including what are clandestinely run,) may, on the most moderate compu tation, be reckoned to cost us five hundred thousand pounds per annum ; which may all be saved by raising the raw silk in Georgia, and afterwards working it up here, now we have attained the arts of making raw silk into organzine, and preparing it for our weavers, who can weave it into all sorts of wrought silks in as great perfection as any nation of the world; so that we only want the staple, (or raw silk,) and to have it at a reasonable rate. With this Georgia will abun dantly supply us, if we are not wanting to ourselves, and do not neglect the opportunity which Providence has thrown into our hands.
" The saving this five hundred thousand pounds per annum is not all; but our .supplying ourselves with raw silk from Georgia carries this further advantage along with it, that it will provide a new or additional employment for at least twenty thousand people in Georgia, for about four months in the year, during the silk season and at least twenty thousand more of our poor here, all the year round, in working the raw silk, and preparing such manufactures as we send in return; or to purchase the said raw silk in Georgia, to which country our merchants will trade to much greater advantage than they can expect to do in Italy; and yet the exportation to this place will (as I said before) be, in all probability, preserved."
Oglethorpe, also, in his " New and Accurate Account,"
12 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 209.

TO

ADVANTAGES OF RAISING SILK IN GEORGIA.

writes :]3 " We shall be their market for great quanti ties of raw silk; perhaps for wine, oil, cotton, drugs, dyeing stuffs, and many other lesser commodities. They have already tried the vine and the silk-worm, and have all imaginable encouragement to expect that these will prove most valuable staple commodities to them. The raw silk which Great Britain and Ireland are able to consume, will employ forty or fifty thousand persons in that country. Nor need they be the strongest or most industrious part of mankind : it must be a weak hand indeed that cannot earn bread where silk-worms and white mulberry trees are so plenty. The present medium of our importation of silk will not be the mea sure hereafter of that branch of trade, when the Geor gians shall enter into the management of the silk-worm. Great Britain will then he able to sell silk manufac tures cheaper than all Rurope besides; because the Georgians may grow rich, and yet afford their raw silk for less than half the price that we now pay for that of Piedmont. The peasant of Piedmont, after he has tended the worm and wound off the silk, pays half of it for the rent of the mulberry trees and the eggs of the silk-worm; but in Georgia the working hand will have the benefit of all his labour. This is fifty in a hundred, or cent, per cent, difference in favour of the Georgians; which receives a great addition from another considera tion, viz., the Georgian will have his provisions incom parably cheaper than the Piedmontese, because he pays no rent for the land that produces them he lives upon his own estate. But there is still another reason why Great Britain should quickly and effectually encourage the production of silk in Georgia; for, in effect, it will cost us nothing: it will be purchased by the several

13 Geo, Hist, Col. i. 68-9.

FURTHER OBJECTS OP THE TRUSTEES.

71

manufacturers of Great Britain, and this, I fear, is not our present case with respect to Piedmont; especially if (as we have been lately told) they have prohibited the importation of woolen goods in that principality."
Wine was to be raised in sufficient quantities, not only for part of our consumption at home, but also for the supply of our other plantations, instead of our going to Madeira for it. Flax, hemp, and potashes were to be produced in such abundance, that the balance of trade with Russia was to be reduced 130,000; and indigo, cochineal, olives, dyeing woods, and drugs of various kinds, were to be as abundant as the demand for their consumption.
Incident to their primary design was the expectation of thereby relieving the mother country of a body of indigent paupers and unfortunate debtors. It was argued, that these people were not only unprofitable, but absolutely an expense to the government; that their detention in England was a physical, moral, and pecuniary loss to the nation ; while their emigration to America not only freed the country from those who would otherwise be burdensome to its charities, but made them profitable to themselves, to Georgia, and to England itself; and Livy was quoted, to show that the Romans often sent some of their citizens abroad for the very increase of her power.
Thus, the poor-rates were to be reduced, the parishes relieved., the workhouses emptied, the debtors' prisons thrown open,, and even the population of the kingdom advanced,, by the plantation of Georgia.14
The extension of Christianity was another aim which they kept in view. They reasoned that the good dis-

1 * Jolial Child's Calculations, Gea. Hist, Col i. 229,

72

ENTHUSIASM OF THEIR VIEWS.

cipline 15 established by the society, would reform the manners of those miserable objects who should be by them subsisted; and the example of a whole colony, who should behave in a just, moral, and religious man ner, would contribute greatly towards the conversion of the Indians, and taking off the prejudices received from the profligate lives of such who have scarce any thing of Christianity but the name.
Such were the principal purposes of the trustees in settling Georgia. Extravagance was their common characteristic ; for in the excited visions of its enthu siastic friends, Georgia was not only to rival Virginia and South Carolina,16 but to take the first rank in the list of provinces depending on the British crown. Neither the El Dorado of Raleigh, nor the Utopia of More, could compare with the garden of Georgia; and the poet, the statesman, and the divine lauded its beau ties, and prophesied its future greatness. Oglethorpe, in particular, was quite enthusiastic in his description of the climate, soil, productions, and beauties of this American Canaan. " Such an air and soil," he writes, " can only be fitly described by a poetical pen, because there is but little danger of exceeding the truth. Take, therefore, part of Mr. Waller's description of an island in the neighbourhood of Carolina, to give you an idea of this happy climate : 17
" ' The kind spring, which but salutes us here, Inhabits there, and courts them all the year. Ri;ie fruits and blossoms on the same trees live At once they promise, when at once they give. So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, None sickly lives, or dies before his time. Heaven, sure, has kept this spot of earth uncurst, To shew how all things were created first.' "
vs F orce's Tracts, i. L-rief Acct., 6. Iij Force's Tracts, i. Brief Acct, 7. I'Geo, Hist. Col. i. til.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY.

73

With such blazoned exaggerations, strengthened by the disinterested efforts of a noble and learned body of trustees, and by the personal supervision of its dis tinguished originator, it is no matter of wonder that all Europe was aroused to attention; and that Swiss and German, Scotch and English, alike pressed forward to this promised land. Appeals were made by the trus tees to the liberal, the philanthropic, the public-spirited, the humane, the patriotic, the Christian, to aid in this design of mercy, closing their arguments with the noble thought: " To consult the welfare of mankind, regardless of any private views, is the perfection of virtue, as the accomplishing and consciousness of it is the perfection of happiness."18
Having obtained their charter, and set forth officially their designs, they now proceeded to carry them into execution. In July, 1732, they held their first meet ing as a corporate body, and organized themselves according to the provisions of the charter. They appointed a commission of twenty-four noblemen and gentlemen 10 to solicit and receive subscriptions, in various parts of England, towards their design. With great diligence they proceeded to frame a government digest a code of laws establish under their seal2"

18 Geo. Hist. Col. i. 232. 18 Gent. Mag., 1732, p. 1032 ; also MS. Jour, of Trustees, vol. i. 20 It was formed with two faces: one for legislative acts, deeds, and commissions ; and the other, " the common seal," as it was called, to he affixed to grants, orders, certificates," &c. Tile device on the one was two figures resting upon urns, representing the rivers Savannah and Altamaha, the north-eastern and south-western bound-

aries of the province ; between which the genius? of the colony was seated, with a cap of liberty on her head, a spear in one hand, and a cornucopia in the oilier, with the inscription, Cohe nia Georgia Aug. On the other face was a representation of silk-worms, some beginning and others completing their labours, which were characterized by the motto, Non sibi, sed aliis. This inscription announced the beneficent disposition and disinterested motives

74

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE COLONISTS.

appropriate judicatures appoint officers for their new colony; as well as receive petitions and select individ uals as proper subjects of their bounty, and fit persons for their first embarkation.
The trustees met every week to receive benefac tions, digest plans, and examine persons offering them selves for their new colony; which they resolved should be planted on the Savannah river, as near to Port Royal, the station of His Majesty's ships, as possible.
In selecting objects for their bounty, they exhibited peculiar care and discrimination. They permitted none to emigrate who were sailors, soldiers, husbandmen, or labourers from the country; they required good moral characters, and examined into the causes and con dition of the misfortunes of each. They confined the charity to such only as fell into misfortunes of trade; and even admitted none of these who could get a sub sistence in England. They suffered none to go who would leave wives or families without a support none who had the character of lazy and immoral men, and none who were in debt a,nd would go without the con sent of their creditors: nay, further, the trustees, at the suggestion of Oglethorpe, appointed a committee to make out a list of such insolvent debtors as could compound with their creditors, discharge the sum, effect their release, and settle them in Georgia. Touchingly did this beneficence of the trustees to these, and to the Protestants from Germany, fulfil the words of Isaiah; for their language to the prisoners was, " Go forth; and to them that were in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways .... for he that had mercy on them shall lead them; even by

of the trustees, while the device was they had in view th production of an allusion to a special object which silk.

GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE.

75

the springs of water shall he guide them, with those that come from far."31
These preliminaries settled, we are brought to the period when the plan, the charity, the labours of the trustees, were to be put into efficient operation. For tunate was it for the corporation that they had among their number one whose benevolence, whose fortune, and whose patriotism, as well as his military distinc tion, conspired to make him the fittest leader and pioneer of so noble an undertaking. That one was James Oglethorpe, the originator, the chief promoter, the most zealous advocate of the colony; an honour conceded by his associates, and acknowledged by all. Let us then pause awhile ere we embark with him in his first mission of mercy, and look upon the early por traiture of one who was destined to be the founder, governor, and preserver of Georgia.
Each American colony delights to cherish the mem ory of him who was pre-eminent in its origin and set tlement. Virginia glories in the chivalric Smith; Massachusetts, in the stern virtues of Bradford ; Pennsylvania magnifies the excellencies of Penn; Maryland treasures up the memory of Calvert; Rhode Island lauds the broad liberality of Roger Williams ; Connecticut honours the character of Winthrop; New York will never forget the old Dutch Governor, Wouter Van Twiller; and Carolina will remember the Earl of Shaftesbury as long as the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which bear his name, shall roll their waters into the Atlantic. But no colony can point to a leader or founder in whose character meet more eminent qualities, or more enduring worth, than in that of James Oglethorpe, the father of Georgia.

21 Isaiah xlix. 9-11.

76

THE FAMILY OF OGLETIIORPE.

It is remarkable that one whose character was so exalted should be so little known and appreciated. Though dead but little over half a century, we have but meagre memorials of his life, notwithstanding the declaration of Doctor Johnson, that he knew of no man whose biography would be more interesting,22 The outlines of his character have, however, been well delineated: it is the filling up, the minuter shades and lineaments, the spirited colouring of domestic life, the graphic touches of epistolary intercourse, the fin ishing strokes of the social circle, which are wanting to make up the full picture of the man, that he may stand before us in life-like dignity and power.
The family of Oglethorpe was one of the most ancient in England. We can trace it backwards eight hundred years to the Norman conquest, when one of his ancestors held the office of High Sheriff of the dis trict now known as the county of York, on the eastern borders of England. William Oglethorpe, the great grandfather of James, was a member of the household of King Charles the First. His grandfather was page to Charles the Second ; and his father, Sir Theophilus, was with the Duke of Monmouth in the battle of Bothwell Bridge was an officer of distinction under the Duke of York, and afterwards First Equerry and Major-General of the army of King James the Second. When this weak and bigoted monarch was obliged to abdicate, Sir Theophilus was encouraged to go over to the court of St. Germain with offers of assistance to the exiled king. But though politically a staunch ad herent to the fortunes of James, he was so unkindly used on account of his religion being a decided Prot-

22 Croeker's Boswell's Johnson, i. 521, New York, 1835.

THE FAMILY OF OGLETHORPE.

77

estant that he soon returned to England,23 and pur chased a seat called Westbrook Place, near the town of Godalming in Surrey, a little to the south and east of London; whither he retired from the jealousies of courts, and the toils of party strife. On this elegant estate James Oglethorpe was born, on the 21st De cember, 1688; a year memorable for the revolution which gave to England that democratic bill of rights which has been justly styled " her second Magna Charta."
He was the seventh in a family of nine children, most of whom became eminent for their station or service.94 His eldest brother, Lewis, after leaving the University of Oxford, was aid-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough, equerry to Queen Anne, and in 1702 succeeded his father as member of Parliament for the borough ofHazlemere. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Schelienburgh, and died in 1704, at the early age of twenty-two. His second brother, Theophilus, was aid-de-camp to the Duke of Ormond, and also member of Parliament for Hazlemere, after the death of his elder brother. His elder sister, Eleonora, married the Marquis de Mezieres, a French nobleman; and her son is spoken of, by Thomas Jefferson,23 as a gentleman of singular personal merit an officer of rank, of high connexions, and patronised by the royal ministers.

23 Memoirs of the Secret Services ofJohnMackey,Esq.,duringthereigns of King William, Queen Anne, and King George I., Lond. 1733, xli. Scott introduces him in Guy Mannering, ch. ii., though not in very good company.
24 There is a good genealogical account of the family of Oglethorpe in

Harris's Memorials of O., 325, taken from Nichol's Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century, ii. p. 17; which in its turn was mostly copied from the Gent, Mag., 1785, p. 572-602.
25 Tucker's Life and Writings of Jefferson, i. 195. Vide also Horace Walpole's Letters, ii. 164,

78

OGLETHORPE AND BISHOP BERKELEY.

Another sister, Frances Charlotte, married the Mar quis de Bellegarde, a distinguished Savoyard; and their son corresponded with Washington28 concerning his uncle's estates in Georgia. At the age of sixteen, James was entered at Oxford University; and six years after wards was commissioned as ensign in the English army.
Peace being proclaimed, in 1713, he accepted the invitation of the Earl of Peterborough, ambassador from the court of Great Britain to the King of Sicily, and other Italian States, to become his aid-de-camp, and accom panied him as one of his diplomatic suite. Here he met with the justly celebrated Bishop Berkeley, then chaplain of the ambassador a man " who, like Penn and Locke, garnered up his hopes for humanity in America." It is an interesting point, that Oglethorpe and Berkeley should thus meet in early life as associates; little surmising that both would ere long migrate to America, and both derive a lasting fame from schemes of noble and disinterested benevolence connected with that continent. Little did they imagine that the funds which should be collected byJ Berkeley/ for his collegoe at Bermuda,27 should, on the failure of his plan, be used by the other for like benevolent designs in Georgia. Little did they know that one would descant in grace ful verse the almost prophetic lines on the prospect of the arts and sciences in America:

" There shall be seen another golden age, The rise of empire and of arts ;
The good and great, inspiring epic page, The wisest head and noblest heait

26 Sparks's Writings of Washingtori, x. 76.
27 "A Proposal for the better Supplying of Churches in our Foreign Plantations, and for Converting the Savage Americans to Christianity,"

Berkeley's Works, iii, 211, Lond. 1820. Sir James Mclntosh's " General View of the Progress of Ethical Philosophy," 129, 130, Philadelphia, 1832. Hawkins's " Mission of the Church of England," 168, Lond. 1846.

MILITARY CAREER OF OGLETHORPE.

79

Not such as Europe breeds in her decay, Such as she bred when fresh and young,
When heavenly flame did animate her clay By future poets shall be sung.
Westward the course of empire takes its way, The four first acts already past;
The fifth shall close the drama with the day Time's noblest offspring is the last;"

and that the other should, in these happy climes, and on that virgin earth, the seal of innocence, found a colony which he should live to see become a part of that great independent nation, which has proved itself, indeed, time's last and noblest offspring. To this day, Georgia feels the influence of these two friends; and we have reason to remember George Berkeley as well as James Oglethorpe. Returning from Italy, in 1714, he was promoted to a captaincy in the first troop of Queen Anne's guard; and he is also spoken of as adjutant-general of the queen's forces. Through the influence of his friends, the Duke of Argyle and the Duke of Maiiborough, he was made aid-de-camp to the Prince Eugene, the first general of the age. Nothing could be more gratifying to the military pride and ambition of the young soldier than this appointment; for while it brought him in daily contact with the prince, as one of his staff, it opened before him every prospect of future advancement and renown. He was with Prince Eugene during nearly all the battles of the Austrians with the Turks, on the frontiers of Hungary. He was present at the battle of Peterwardine, where Eugene, with an army of sixty thousand, completely routed the Grand Vizier, with a force of twice that number. He was in the siege of the almost impregna ble town of Temeswaer, which capitulated to the prince, after being held one hundred and sixty-four

80

OGLETHOB.PE AT THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE.

years by the Turks; the success of which victorious campaign filled not only Germany but all Europe with

At the siege and battle of Belgrade, Oglethorpe was in active command. This town, the capital of Servia, the key of Hungary, and the most important military post between Vienna and Constantinople, was a place of great strength, and built round a high castellated rock, that boldly defied invaders. The Turkish sultan had garrisoned the place with a force of twenty-eight thousand men, and defended it by five hundred pieces of artillery; and had given positive assurance that he would relieve the place within fifty days, or his head was to answer for the fulfilment of his word. Prompt ness was, therefore, necessary; and Eugene, the hero of Turin, the conqueror of Italy, appeared before Bel grade, with an army of eighty thousand; and so invested the place by lines of circumvallation and contravallation, as to completely isolate it from the surrounding country. These works, mounted with one hundred and forty-three pieces of artillery, were of great strength and solidity. The batteries of Eugene soon opened upon the fortress ; but little had been effected when the vanguard of the Grand Vizier's army was seen ad vancing to its relief. Troop followed troop, and under an exulting salute from all the guns of Belgrade, the host of Moslems, computed at one hundred and fifty thousand, settled along the amphitheatre of hills by which the town is surrounded. The situation of Eugene was now critical in the extreme. Upon the one side was the frowning fortress of Belgrade, its ramparts lined with troops, and its embrasures filled with the death-dealing artillery; and on the other, the bound less camp of the Grand Vizier, with its thousands of

OGLETHORPE ELECTED MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 81
many-coloured tents, its waving flags, its gay stream ers, its glittering crescents, its fiery steeds, and its train of wagons and camels, extending farther than the eye could reach; forming a picture of the most animated and stirring magnificence. It was, as the Vizier declared, "one Belgrade besieged by another;" and, therefore, instead of an assault, the Turks opened upon the Ger man army by regular approaches; and the extraordinary spectacle of a besieging army besieged within its own camp a spectacle not witnessed since myriads of Gauls encompassed Caesar and his legions before Alesia was again exhibited. But it is not necessary to detail the attack, the repulse, the capture of the Turkish host, or the fall of Belgrade, which soon surrendered to Eugene; and three days after the capitulation, the solemn mass of Te Deum was performed by the Germans in the tent of the Grand Vizier. The peace of Passarowitz was the next year concluded; and Belgrade, the eastern bulwark, not of Germany only, but of all western Chris tendom, remained in the hands of the Austrians. This was the school of arms, and this the general tinder whom Oglethorpe learned the art of war. In all these sieges and battles he acquired great reputation, and the com mendation of the distinguished Prince.28 Peace between the Emperor and the Sultan threw Oglethorpe once more on the shores of England; and he employed it in the cultivation of the arts of peace. In 1722 he was elected member of Parliament for Hazlernere, the same borough which had been so long represented by his father, his brother Lewis, and his brother Theophilus; and for thirty-two years he was returned by successive elections to the House of Com-
28 " Military Hist, of the late Prince folio, ii. 214-228. Campbell's Life of Eugene of Savoy," &c., Lond., 2 vols. Prince Eugene, &c.
6

83

HIS CHARACTER AS A STATESMAN.

mons. In looking over the journals of the House of Commons for those thirty-two years, we find that be was frequently on important committees; and ] influence and activity were great in matters affecting interests both at home and abroad. His first effort in the British Senate was in 1723, against the motion ibt the banishment of Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Roch ester. The bishop, on the death of Queen Anne, had, in full canonicals, and in the city of London, pro claimed Charles Stuart, King of Great Britain. He thus, in his maiden speech, exhibited the political pre dilections so long cherished by the Oglethorpe family. Nearly all of his legislative movements were directed to benevolence and philanthropy. The distressed, the persecuted, the needy found in him a friend and advo cate ; the great interests of the country a faithful rep resentative; and the throne a Arm and loyal supporter. Many of his parliamentary speeches have been pre served ; but all are imperfect, as no reporter was then admitted to the gallery. We can therefore only get at his general thoughts, though the drapery of words, which clothed his ideas with grace and beauty, is for ever lost. Enough, however, is left to show us that he was a bold, able, and persuasive speaker.
His benevolence was shown, not only by his con nection with Georgia and the Prison Discipline Com mittee, but by his private and public benefactions; and by his readily yielding his name, and influence, and fortune to schemes of charity and philanthropy. He was deputy-governor of the Royal African Society, of which the King was governor; and member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. He was one of the council of fifty, at the head of whom was the Duke of Bedford, for the maintenance

TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER.

83

and education of exposed and deserted young chil dren. He defended seamen against impressment, in a spirited pamphlet entitled " The Sailor's Advocate." He supported in Parliament the act for naturalizing foreigners, Protestants, in America. He ably advo cated the petition of the Moravians in the House of Commons, and sustained Sir John Barnard's motion for relieving the poor of some of their onerous taxes. His private charities to his tenants, dependants, and others, were numerous; and though they sometimes came to light, yet were mostly of that scriptural char acter which lets not the left hand know what the right hand doeth.
Such was the character of the man, who, at the prime of life, had devoted himself, without fee or reward, to the cause of colonizing the poor and the persecuted; and was now about to sail with the emi ogrants,] and establish them in their new and distant home. Well might a contemporaneous writer say39 that he doubts whether the histories of Greece or Rome can produce a greater instance of public spirit than this. " To see a gentleman of his rank and for tune visiting a distant and uncultivated land, with no other society but the miserable whom he goes to assist, exposing himself freely to the same hardships to which they are subjected, in the prime of life, instead of pursuing his pleasures or ambition, on an improved and well concerted plan from which his country must reap the profits; at his own expense, and without a view or even a possibility of receiving any private advantage from it; this, too, after having done and ex pended for it what many generous men would think sufficient to have done to see this, I say, must give
20 Political State of Great Britain, Feb., 1733, xlv. 181.

84

TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER.

every one who has approved and contributed to the undertaking, the highest satisfaction ; must convince the world of the disinterested zeal with which the set tlement is to be made, and entitle him to the truest honour he can gain the perpetual love and applause of mankind."

CHAPTER II.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.
WE are brought now to the dockyard at Deptford, to behold the first embarkation of the Georgia pilgrims.
But little over a hundred years ago, and the seedbud of that State, which to-day numbers its eight hun dred thousand, lay rocking in a small and uneasy galley, on the waters of the Thames. Truly, " a little one has become a thousand, and a small one, a strong nation." Isaiah ix. 22.
The Trustees, having selected from the throng of emi grants thirty-five families, numbering in all about one hundred and twenty-five " sober, industrious, and moral persons,"1 chartered the Ann, a galley of two hundred tons, Captain John Thomas, and stationed her at Deptford, four miles below London, to receive her cargo and passengers. In the meantime, the men were drilled to arms by sergeants of the guards; and all needed stores were gathered, to make them comfort able on the voyage, and to establish them on land.
It was not until the early part of November that the embarkation was ready for sailing.
The last Sunday of the emigrants in England was spent at Milton, on the banks of the Thames, whither they went in a body, to attend divine service at the
1 Transcripts of Colonial Documents, p. 18,

86

THE COLONISTS PREPARE TO DEPART.

parish church. It was to them a time of peculiar so lemnity. Never again did they expect, on the soil of their native land, to unite in the prayers and praises of their mother church. They were pilgrims to a far country, seeking out an unknown inheritance; and when the chimes of old England should again ring but the call to prayer, they would be tossed upon the great waters, exiles of penury, voyaging to the southern " Canaan of America." But they were not left with out religious instructions in their long voyage ; for, in the spirit of his Divine Master, the Reverend Henry Herbert, D.D., having offered to go without any fee or reward,2 to assist them in settling, was with them, ready and willing to afford any of the offices of the church, or any of the consolations of religion.
The government, also, extended its protecting care over the adventurers. Horatio, Lord Walpole, wrote letters to his deputies. The Duke of Newcastle, then at the head of colonial affairs, addressed circulars to the governors of the North American provinces; and the Lords of the Admiralty issued directions to all the naval commanders on the Virginia and Carolina sta tions, to render all needed assistance to Oglethorpe and the colony under his command.
On the 16th, they were visited by the Trustees, "to see nothing was wanting, and to take leave" of Ogle thorpe ; and having called the families separately before them in the great cabin, they inquired if they liked their usage and voyage ; or if they had rather return, giving them even then the alternative of remaining in Eng land, if they preferred it; and having found but one man who (on account of his wife, left sick in Southwark) declined, they bid Oglethorpe and the emigrants

2 MS. Journal of the Trustees, vol. i. p. 35.

THEY LAND IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

87

an affectionate farewell. The ship sailed the next day, November 17th, 1732, from Gravesend, skirted slowly along the southern coast of England, and, taking its departure from Stilly light, spread out its white sails to the breezes of the Atlantic.
Day after day, and week after week, the voyagers seem the centre of the same watery circle, canopied by the same bending sky. No milestones tell of their progress. The waymarks of the mariner are the sun by day, and the moon and stars by night; no kindred ship answers back its red-cross signal; but there they float, the germ of a future nation, upon the desert waters. Sailing a circuitous route, they did not reach the coast of America until the 13th of January, 1733, when they cast anchor in Rebellion Roads, and furled their sails at last in the harbour of Charleston.
Oglethorpe immediately landed, and was received by the Governor and Council of South Carolina with every mark of civility and attention. The king's pilot was directed by them to carry the ship into Port Royal; and small vessels were furnished to take the emigrants to the river Savannah. Thus assisted, in about ten hours they resumed their voyage, and shortly dropped anchor within Port Royal bar.
The colony landed at Beaufort, on the 20th January, and had quarters given them in the new barracks. Here they received every attention from the officers of His Majesty's Independent Company, and the gentle men of the neighbourhood ; and refreshed themselves after the fatigues and discomforts of their long voyage and cramped accommodations.3
Leaving his people here, Oglethorpe, accompanied

3 "A Brief Account of the Estab- Force's Tracts, vol. i. Tract 2d, p. 8. lishment of the Colony of Georgia."

88

OGLETIIORPE ON THE SAVANNAH.

by Colonel William Bull, of South Carolina, went for ward to the Savannah river, to select a site for the projected settlement. Winding among the inlets, which break, into numerous islands the low flat sea-board, thek canoe at last shot into the broad stream of the Savan nah; and bending their course upward, they soon reached a bold, pine-crowned bluff, at the foot of which they landed, to inspect its localities.
Reaching its top, a beautiful prospect met their eyes, At their feet, some fourteen yards below, flowed the quiet waters of the Savannah, visible for some distance above, and traceable, through its green landscape, till it emptied itself into the ocean. Before them lay a beautiful island, of richest pasturage, beyond which was seen the north branch of the Savannah, bordered by the slopes of Carolina, with a dark girdle of trees resting against the horizon. Behind them was the unbroken forest of tall, green pines, with an occasional oak, draperied with festoons of the grey moss, or the druidical mistletoe. A wide expanse of varied beauty was before them, an ample and lofty plain around them; and, though spring had not yet garnished the scene with her vernal glories, sprinkling the woods with gay wild flowers and charming creepers, and making the atmosphere balmy with the bay, the jessamine, and the magnolia; yet, even in winter, were there sufficient charms in the spot to fix on it the heart of Oglethorpe, and cause him to select it as the home of his waiting colony. " The landscape," he writes,4 " is very agree able the stream being wide, and bordered with high woods on both sides."

4 Oglethorpe's Letter to the Trus- Collections, i. 233. Oldinixon's Brittees, Feb. 10th, 1733; Gentleman's ish Empire in. America, i. S25, London, Magazine, 1733, p. 168. Geo. Hist. 1741.

OPENS A TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.

89

On the northern end of this bluff they found a trading house and an Indian village called Yamacraw. The chief of this little tribe was Tornochichi; and the trader's name was Musgrove, married to a half-breed,
named Mary. By an ancient treaty of the Creeks Avith the Gov
ernor of South Carolina, no white settlement was allowed to be made south of the Savannah river with out their consent.
Satisfied with the eligibility of this situation, Oglethorpe applied to Mary Musgrove, who could speak both Indian and English, to obtain from the tribe their agreement to his settlement. They at first appeared uneasy,3 and threatened to take up arms; but were pacified by her representations of the benefits which would accrue to them; and she gained from them a provisional treaty, until the consent of the whole nation could be obtained. The Indians, once made sensible of the advantages they would derive from the erection of a town within their limits, hailed their coming with joy, and busied themselves in many offices of service and regard. The land selected, the consent of the tribe obtained, and the services of Mary secured as an interpreter in their subsequent inter course with the red man, Oglethorpe returned to Beaufort on the 24th of January; and the Sunday after was made a day of praise and thanksgiving for their safe arrival in America, and the happy auspices which clustered round the opening prospects of Georgia.
During the stay of the colonists in South Carolina. they were treated with genuine hospitality; and when they departed, they were laden with most substantial and valuable tokens of interest and benevolence.

s MS. Documents from State- Paper Office, London, vol. ii., part 2d, p. 15.

90

THE COLONISTS RECEIVED BY THE INDIANS.

Leaving the ship at Port Royal, Oglethorpe engaged a sloop of seventy tons, and five plantation boats, and embarked the colonists on Tuesday, the 30th; but, detained by a storm, they did not reach their destina tion until the afternoon of Thursday, 12th February, (new style,) 1733.
The people immediately pitched four large tents, being one for each tithing, into which municipal divi sions they had already been divided; and, landing their bedding and other necessaries, spent their first night in Georgia.
As soon as the tents had been pitched, the Indians came forward with their formal salutations. In front, advanced, with antic dancings, the " medicine man," bearing in each hand a spread fan of white feathers, fastened to a rod hung from top to bottom with little bells; marching behind this jingling symbol of peace and friendship, came the king and queen, followed by about twenty others, making the air ring with their uncouth shouts. Approaching Oglethorpe, who walked out a few steps from his tent to meet them, the medi cine man came forward with his fans, declaiming the while the deeds of their ancestors, and stroked him on every side with the emblems of amity. This over, the king and queen bade him welcome, and after an interchange of compliments they were conducted to Oglethorpe's tent, and partook of a pleasant entertain ment hastily prepared for the occasion.6
And now all was bustle upon that bluff. The un lading of goods, the felling of trees, the hewing of tim ber, the clearing of lands, the erection of palisades all supervised by the watchful eye, and directed by

" Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, 6th June, 1733.

GENEROUS ASSISTANCE OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

91

tlie energetic mind of their leader gave a brisk and industrious air to the novel scene.
On the 9th, Oglethorpe and Colonel Bull marked out the square, the streets, and forty lots for houses ; and the first clapboard house of the colony of Georgia was begun that day. On the 12th of March, Ogle thorpe writes, " Our people still lie in tents; there being only two clapboard houses built, and three sawed houses framed. Our crane, our battery of can non, and magazine, are finished. This is all we have been able to do, by reason of the smallness of our num bers, of which many have been sick, and others unused to labour, though I thank God they are now pretty well, and we have not lost one since our arrival."7
The most generous assistance was given them by South Carolina. The assembly, which met in Charles ton three days after the arrival of the emigrants, immediately resolved to furnish the colony with large supplies of cattle and rice to provide boats for the transportation of the people from Port Royal to Sa vannah ; and placed under Oglethorpe's command the scout-boats and a troop of fifteen rangers for his protection. They further appointed Colonel William Bull one of the governor's council, and a gentleman esteemed " most capable of assisting Oglethorpe in settling the colony by reason of his experience in colo nial affairs, the nature of lands, and the intercourse with Indians," to attend him, and offer him his advice and assistance. Such was the readiness of all to assist him, that the governor wrote, " Had not our assembly been sitting, I would have gone myself."8
Nor was private benevolence in any way behind

1 Lediard's Naval Hist, of England, 8 Georgia Historical Collections, i,

pp. 921-2, London, 1735, fol.

233-237.

92

PRIVATE MUNIFICENCE TO THE COLONY.

public munificence. It is pleasant, in looking over the list of individual benefactions, to read such records as these: February.--Colonel Bull came to Savannah with four labourers, and assisted the colony for a month; he himself measuring the scantling, and set ting out the work for the sawyers, and giving the pro portion of the houses. Mr. Whitaker and his friends sent the colony one hundred head of cattle. Mr. St. Julian came to Savannah and staid a month, directing the people in building their houses and other work. Mr. Hume gave a silver boat and spoon for the first child born in Georgia, which being born of Mrs. Close, were given accordingly. Mr. Joseph Bryan himself, with four of his sawyers, gave two months' work in the colony. The inhabitants of Edisto sent sixteen sheep. Mr. Hammerton gave a drum. Mrs. Ann Drayton sent two pair of sawyers to work in the col ony. Colonel Bull and Mr. Bryan came to Savannah with twenty servants, whose labour they gave to the colony. His Excellency, Robert Johnson, gave seven horses, valued at 25, Carolina currency.9
These, with many other like records, evince their spirit in promoting the settlement of Georgia. And well they might; for the planting of this colony to the south of the Savannah, increased their security from invasion by the Spaniards, and from the incursions and massacres of the Indian tribes; and still further ope rated as a preventive to the enticing lures held out to the negroes, by which desertion was rendered com mon, and insurrection always dreaded. They were prepared, therefore, to hail the new colony as a bul wark against their Floridian and savage enemies; as

9 MS. Account of Benefactions made by South Carolina to the Province of Georgia.

INTERESTING COINCIDENCE.

93

opening further opportunities of trade ; and as en hancing the value of their frontier possessions, which, according to the best authorities, were raised to five times their former value, about Port Royal and the Savannah river. The fostering care of South Carolina was to be repaid by the protecting service of Georgia. The labours of the colonists were great, but they had much to cheer them ; and the assiduity and attention of Oglethorpe won upon their hearts, so that they styled him " Father;" and he exercised his paternal care by unremitting efforts to advance their welfare. He spared not himself in any personal efforts, but took his turn regularly in doing night-guard duty, as an example to the rest; and at times worked at the hardest labour, to encourage their industry.10
An interesting and striking coincidence exists be tween the settlement of Georgia, and that of Mary land. It was in June, 1632, that the charter of Maryland passed the great seal; and it was in June, 1732, that the charter of Georgia received a like con firmation. The first ship-load of each left England on a Friday in November, and both reached their new home in February of the respective years following their departure. One was named in honour of a queen of England, and the other in honour of a king of England. This coincidence is the more interesting the further we pursue it for in the character of the projectors of each colony, in their family connexions, in their political predilections, in their personal char acteristics, in their treatment of the Indians, and in the equity and benevolence of their several govern ments, there was a marked and delightful similarity. If to Oglethorpe we give the honour of planting the

10 Wyse's Letter, London, 27th June, 1733.

94

OGLETHORPE PROCEEDS TO CHARLESTON.

first colony ever founded by philanthropy, to Calvert is due the praise of being the first in the history of the Christian world, who united liberty of conscience with popular institutions; and who, in a remote corner of the world, on the banks of the Potomac, himself a Roman Catholic, and in the midst of an asylum of Roman Catholics, first adopted religious freedom as the fundamental law of States. Calvert and Oglethorpe were not merely the founders of now large and flourish ing States; but they were the first in the history of mankind, who gave political embodiment to the great principles of Christian charity, and Christian liberty.
Having put Savannah in a posture of defence, sup plied it with provisions, and taken hostages of the Indians, Oglethorpe set out for Charleston., attended by Tomochichi and his two nephews, being desirous of cultivating the acquaintance and securing the good offices of the Governor, Council, and Assembly of South Carolina. At Charleston he was met at the waterside by his Excellency the Governor and Council, who con ducted him to Governor Johnson's house; where the speaker and house of assembly came to present their official congratulations on his arrival. His solicitations for assistance were promptly answered. The assem bly voted 2000, currency, for the assistance of Geor gia, the first year; and soon after the committee of supply brought in a bill for granting 8000, currency, for the use of the new colony, the ensuing year.11 The citizens also subscribed 1000, currency, 500 of which were immediately paid down. Grateful for this munificence, Oglethorpe returned to Georgia, to meet the great council of the towns of the Lower Creeks, whom he had desired to meet him in Savannah, to
1 1 Statutes at Large of South Carolina, iii. 362.

TREATY WITH THE INDIANS CONCLUDED.

95

strengthen the provisional treaty already made with Tomochichi, and secure their abiding amity for the future. In answer to this desire, eighteen chief men and their attendants, making in all about fifty, came together from the nine tribes of the nation, and met him in solemn council on the afternoon of the 18th of May. Speeches not lacking in interest, but full of Indian hyperbole and the inflations of interpreters, were made by the chiefs, and answered by Oglethorpe, through the medium of Messrs. Wiggin and Musgrove; and on the 21st of May the treaty was concluded. The principal stipulations of it were, that the Trustees' people should trade in the Indian towns; their goods being sold according to fixed rates mutu ally agreed upon : thus a white blanket was set down at five buckskins: a gun, at ten; a hatchet, at three doeskins; a knife, at one; and so on. .**'R* ' estitution and reparation were to be made for injuries committed and losses sustained by either party; the criminals to be tried by English law. Trade to be stopped with any town violating any article of the treaty. All lands not used by the Indians were to be possessed by the Eng lish ; but, upon the settling of any new town, certain lands agreed on between the chiefs and the magis trates, were to be reserved for the former. All run away negroes were to be restored to Carolina; the Indians receiving for each one thus recovered, four blankets and two guns, or the value thereof in other goods. And lastly, they agreed, with " straight hearts" and " true love," to allow no other whit people to settle on their lands, but ever to protect the English. The Indians, having received suitable pres ents, were dismissed in amity and peace ; 12 while Ogle-
13 Force's Tracts, i., Tract 2, pp. 10, 11.

96

PRE-EMINENCE OP OGLETHORPE.

tliorpe left, the same day, for Charleston, satisfied at having obtained, by such honourable means, the ces sion of such a fine country to the crown of England. This treaty was ratified by the Trustees, the following October.
The judicious and honourable conduct of Oglethorpe towards the Indians, was of more security to the col ony than its military defences.
For a long time he had regarded the Indians with kindly feelings. At his suggestion, Bishop Wilson, one of the bright and shining lights of the English Church, wrote "An Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians," which he dedicated to Oglethorpe; and now that he met them on their native soil, he evinced the same care for their interests, and through life manifested, in all his acts, his regard for their welfare. He was the red man's friend; showing, in his inter course with them, the honourableness of William Penn, without his private interests to subserve ; the gen erosity of Lord Baltimore, without a patent of immense tracts to secure to his descendants; the compassion of Roger Williams, without his mercantile views, to incite mm to foster among the Indians kindness and regard.
Oglethorpe stands superior to all, because he had no private end to gratify; no lands to secure; no prop erty to invest; no wealth to accumulate from or among the tribes, whose amity he cultivated.
The art of the painter has commemorated the treaty of Penn with the Leni Lenapes, under the elm tree of Shakanmxon; but neither this scene on the north edge of Philadelphia, nor the treaty of Roger Williams with " the old Prince Canonicas " at Seconke, nor the alli ance of Leonard Calvert with the Susquehannahs at

FESTIVITIES IN CHARLESTON.

97

Yoacomoco, excels, in any element of philanthropy, or in any trait of nobleness, the treaty of Oglethorpe with the tribes of the Muscogees, under the " four pine trees" on the bluff of Yamacraw.
His Indian relations satisfactorily adjusted, his heart was rejoiced, and his hands strengthened by the arri val of a few more colonists in the ship James, Captain Yoakly, which reached Savannah while he was in Charleston; and to the captain of which was aAvarded the prize offered by the Trustees " to the first ship that should sail up the Savannah river, and unload at the town."
Returning to Charleston, he was again received with every demonstration of regard. A public dinner was given to him by the legislative bodies, which he returned by a ball and a supper to the ladies in the council-chamber; at which, says the chronicle of the day, " there was the greatest appearance of people of fashion that has been known upon such an occasion." 13
But amidst this interchange of festivities, Georgia was not forgotten. Increased interest and increased benefaction followed his appeals; which encourage ment he acknowledged in a speech made before the provincial legislature. " I have long wished," said he, " for an opportunity of expressing my sense of the uni versal zeal which the inhabitants of this province have shown for assisting the colony; and could not think of any better opportunity than now the whole province is virtually present in its general assembly. I am therefore, gentlemen, to thank you for the handsome assistance given by private people, as well as by the public. I am to thank you, not only in the name of the trustees and the little colony now in Georgia; but
13 South Carolina Gazette, June, 1733.
7

9S

ACCESSION OP SETTLEES.

in behalf of all the distressed people of Britain, and persecuted Protestants of Europe, to whom a place of refuge will be secured by this first attempt."
To illustrate the value of the colony to Carolina, he appealed to their knowledge " of the dangerous blows it had escaped from French, Spanish, and Indian arms ;" of the formidable barrier it would present on the southern frontier; of the lessening of their taxes by the taking up of else vacant lands; and of the positive increase of wealth, by the multiplying of plan tations, and their great rise in value since the colony was settled. And he ended by saying: "As I shall soon return to Europe, I must recommend the infant colony to your further protection, being assured, both from your generosity and wisdom, that you will, in case of any danger and necessity, give them the utmost support and assistance." 14
He returned immediately to Georgia, where his presence was required, to settle " some small divisions and differences." These he quieted; and then, with Captain McPherson and the rangers, proceeded to the Ogeechee river, in order to choose a proper site for a post, to command the passages by which the Indians used to invade Carolina; "which, in honour of his friend, John, Duke of Argyle, he called Fort Argyle."
It was deemed important to fortify this place, as an outpost of the Savannah settlement; and it was accord ingly garrisoned with a detachment of rangers; and ten families were sent from Savannah to cultivate lands in the neighbourhood.
Having received one hundred and fifty-two settlers, sent over by the Trustees, and there being a number of houses erected, and much land cleared, Oglethorpe re-

14 Force's Tracts, i. Tract 2, pp. 13-15.

SAVANNAH DIVIDED INTO WARDS.

99

solved to have a public and formal designating ofthe town and wards; and to blend the assigning of the several lots to the settlers with religious exercises, appropriate (o the occasion of laying what proved to be the corner-stone of a great commonwealth. Accordingly, on the 7th July, the emigrants met in a body upon the bluff, before his tent; and having joined in offices of prayer and thanksgiving, imploring upon themselves and the colony they were to found the blessing of God, they proceeded to name the wards and assign the lots. One square was laid out, which, in honour of the Governor of South Carolina, they named Johnson Square. Four wards were marked off, to which were severally given the names of Heathcote, PerciA^al, Derby, and Decker; to commemorate the valuable services of Lord Percival, the first Presi dent of the Trustees, the Earl of Derby, Sir William Heathcote, and Sir Matthew Decker, large benefactors to the design.
These four wards were divided into sixteen tithings,15 of which fourteen bore the names of the follow-

15 The division of the town into ties, for the surer conservation of the lithings, and the appointment of tith- peace, and the more easy aclminisrra-

ing-men, was an old Saxon custom, tion of justice ; for the head man of

styled by some the peculiar invention these ten, who was called teotbing-man,

ot King Alfred. But in the oldest of or tithing-man, was charged with the

all histories (Exodus xviii.) we learn governance of those uuder him. But that Moses, in his administration of t}^ s division of towns and boroughs inthe government of Israel, " chose able to tithings was quite obsolete, so that

men out of all Israel, * * * and made ;t did not exist in a single corporation them rulers of thousands, rulers of in England. This name of titbinghundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of men was stilt preserved, but it de-

teas." Garcillasso de la Vega also nominated a kind of petty constable,

informs us that this .was the ancient eiected by parishes and sworn in their

system practised under the Incas in offices j,j t'ne Court-Leet; and some-

Peru,

times the office and authority of a

This arrangement was introduced tithing are equal to those of a corista-

into the Saxon code for the belter ble, where there is no constable. (Toul-

holding together of families in socie- ruin's Law Dictionary, iii. 6^3.) The

100

THE NAMING OF THE TITHINGS.

ing Trustees, viz.: Digby, Carpenter, Frederick, Tyrconnel, More, Hucks, Tower, Heathcote, Eyles, Laroche, Vernon, Belitha, Holland, and Sloper; the other two wTere named respectively after the Earl of Wiliningtoii, and Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, who, with his lady, had contributed 600 towards the Trustees' design.
These wards and tithings were intersected at right angles by six streets, which, in honour of Colonel William Bull, who first accompanied Oglethorpe to Georgia; of Mr. Whitaker, of Mr. Joseph Bryan, of Mrs. Ann Drayton, and of Mr. St. Julian, each of South Carolina, all of whom gave liberally to the iniant col ony ; and of James, the Earl of Abercorn, who also made a generous donation to its funds, were respect ively named Bull, Whitaker, Bryan, Drayton, St. Julian, and Abercorn streets. Thus were the names of the benefactors of Georgia made to become the municipal and household words of the colony. The streets, and wards, and tithings of Savannah will bear their names to far-distant generations ; and so long as Savannah stands, shall these names be spoken, ever bearing with them the commemoration of the zeal and benevolence of those whom they recall.
Having apportioned out to the inhabitants their seve ral lots, and settled, in an amicable way, all differences

system of tithing-men was only partially introduced into America. The Plymouth Colony divided the Indians tinder their jurisdiction into tithings, over which were set tithing-men to " take the inspection, care and oversight of his nine men, and present their faults and misdemeanors to the overseer." (Plymouth Colony Laws, 194.) But iu no instance was a town origin-

ally laid out as Savannah was, into wards and tithings, with officers appropriate to these divisions. It is true that the plan of government designed by Gorges for the "Province of Maine," about 1640, was based upon these old Saxon forms ; bat the system was not carried into effect. Polsom's Discourse, delivered before the "Maine Historical Society," Sept. 6th, 1846, p. 60.

ARRIVAL OF FORTY ISRAELITES.

101

as to choice and locality, the people, at noon, sat down to a plentiful dinner, provided by Oglethorpe; and made the day festal, with the thanksgiving of the lips, and the gladness of the heart.
Dinner over, the Town Court of Record, instituted by the Trustees, was established; the bailiffs were inducted into office; the first session of the magis trates held; and the first jury in Georgia empanelled.10
Scarcely were these festivities over, when a company of forty Israelites, direct from London, landed on the bluff. Acting under the broad principle of the charter, which gave freedom to all religions, save that of the Romish church, the Trustees early scaled a commission to Mr. Anthony da Costa, Mr. Francis Salvador, jun., and Mr. Alvarez Lopez Suasso, " to take subscriptions for purposes specified in the charter." These gentle men, having collected funds, instead of paying them into the Bank of England, which had been made the treasury of the board, appropriated it to sending over this body of Israelites. This procedure gave offence to the Trustees, who immediately declared their com missions to collect money vacated; and as they had been told that the sending over of these people to Georgia had prejudiced the scheme of the Trustees, and turned away from their treasury many intended benefactions, a committee was appointed to draw up a statement of the matter, to disabuse the public of the idea that they designed to "make a Jews' colony of Georgia." And they further required of the gentlemen

18 The following persons composed the first jury in Georgia: Samuel Parker, Thos. Young, Joseph Cole, John Wright, John West, Timothy Bowling,

John Milledge, Henry Close, Walter Fox, John Grady, James Carwell. and Richard Cannon.

103

THK TRUSTEES OPPOSE THEIR RECEPTION.

who had thus abused their commissions, "to use their endeavours that the said Jews be removed from the colony of Georgia, as the best and only satisfaction they can give to the Trustees for such an indignity; offered to gentlemen acting under His Majesty's char ter." They also wrote to Oglethorpe, that they had heard with concern of the arrival of forty Jews in Savannah; and expressed the hope, that they would meet with no sort of encouragement; and desired him "to use his endeavours to prevent their settling with any of the grantees;" alleging for these instructions the apprehension that they would be prejudicial to the trade and welfare of the colony. But while the secret tary was writing thus to Oglethorpe, the letters of Oglethorpe contained encomiums on their good con duct, and especially commended Doctor Nunis for his humane attentions to the sick, and other valuable services.
The Trustees, in reply, acknowledge the kindness of this good physician, and request Oglethorpe to give him a proper gratuity for his medical offices; but reiter ate the command to withhold from them any grants of land in the province.
The course of the Trustees ill comported with the liberality of their charter, and the general benevolence of their design; but it must be remembered, in extenuation of their apparent illiberality, that at this time they had not received the pecuniary aid of Parlia ment, and were dependent for funds to carry out the provisions of their charter upon voluntary subscriptions; and it was important, therefore, to remove all causes of prejudice, and every obstacle that might obstruct the Qow of any private benefactions into their slender treas-

THEIR SERVICES TO THE COLONY.

103

ury. Besides, they took umbrage, and that justly, at the irregular proceedings of the three commissioners, who, with money collected under powers conferred by them, and without consulting the corporation, or any of its members, undertook so greatly to interfere with their plans, by taking away from the Trustees the right to select, and bind to certain agreements, all who settled in their colony.
Oglethorpe did not remove them from Georgia ; for to have done so would have been to strip the colony of some of its most moral, worthy, and industrious citi zens. One of their number was the principal physi cian of Savannah; as benevolent and kind as he was skilful and deserving. Another of them was the vigneron of the colony, who laboured assiduously to improve its horticulture, and extend its usefulness, by introducing and cultivating valuable foreign plants and drugs;" and the principal importer and merchant was

*? Stephens's Journal of the Proceed ings in Georgia, i. 48. This JonmtJ, in 3 vols., kept by Col. Win. Stephens, then Secretary for the aSairs of the Trustees in Georgia, is one of the rarest of works relating to America. The Trustoea ordered only seventy co pies tu bs printed, and thoii to have the press broken. (Journal of Trustees, ii. 349.)
In his Jowual, Col. Stephens thus speaks of a visit to Mr. Abraham De Lyon, referred to in the text: " No thing has given me so much pleasure, since roy arrival, as what I found here; though it was yet (if I may say it prop erly) only in miniature ; for he h:td cultivated only for two or thrco years past about half a score of them, which he received from Porhign.1 for an ex periment ; and by his skill and manage

ment in pruning, &c., they all bore this year very plentifully, a most beartiful large grape, as big as a man's thumb, almost pellucid, and bunches exceed ing big; nil which was attested by persons of unquestionable credit, (whom I had it from;) but the season now would allow me only to see the vines they were gathered from, which were so Nourishing and strong, that T saw one shoot, of this last year only, which he allowed to grow from the root of a bearing vine, as big as my walkingcane, and run over a few poles laid to receive it, at least twelve or fourteen foot, as nua.r as I could jtid^e. From these ho had rained more than a hun dred, which ho hns planted all in his little garden, behind his house, at about four foot distance each, in the manner and fbrm of a vineyard : they have

104

THE TRUSTEES SEEK AID FROM PARLIAMENT.

an Israelite, with whom Oglethorpe and the Trustees had dealings to a large amount. The low state of the colony, the civil disabilities under which they laboured, and the superior prospect held out to them at Charles ton, drew away many; so that only three of the orig inal families remained in Georgia the Sheftalls, the Minises, and the De Lyons. 18 The descendants of these have occupied many distinguished offices under the federal, state, and municipal governments; and though in the narrow views which then influenced the Trustees, they deplored their arrival into their infant colony, yet we, looking back through the vista of a hundred years, can aver that their settlement in Sa vannah was a benefit to Georgia; and while the Trus tees were expending large sums in subsisting many slothful and discontented emigrants, whose idleness weakened, and whose factions almost ruined, their scheme of benevolence, these descendants of the "father of the faithful" asking for no charity, clam ourous for no peculiar privileges, demanding from the Trustees nothing but the freeholds which their money purchased proved their worth by services of real value and by offices of tried devotion. The success of Oglethorpe in " establishing the people," gave great satisfaction to the Board, and every letter from his pen "raised the credit of the undertaking."
Encouraged by these tokens for good, the Trustees applied to Parliament for assistance; and their peti-

taken root, and are about one foot and a half high. The next year, he says, he does not doubt raising a thousand more, and the year following at least five thousand."
' a A portion of these interesting facts were preserved by Mr. Benjamin

Sheftall, one of the original settlers, in the Hebrew language. Translations and Extracts from the original manuscript have been published in " The Occident and American Jewish Adrocate," i. 247, 379, 486.

A LIBERAL BENEFACTION.

105

lion, delivered to the house by Sir Joseph Jekyll, the Master of the Rolls, seconded by Sir John Barnard,, and advocated by Horace Walpole and Colonel Bla~ den, met with the desired success.
In May, Sir Charles Turner reported a resolution from the Committee of the Whole House, " that His Majesty be requested to issue, from moneys remaining in the receipt of the Exchequer arising by sale of lands in the island of St. Christopher, the sum of ten thousand pounds to the Trust, for establishing the Col ony of Georgia in America, to be applied towards de fraying the charges of carrying over and settling foreign and other Protestants in said colony."19
This liberal benefaction enabled the Trustees to carry out a plan which they had for some time been interested in, and which is indeed hinted at in the res olution of the House of Commons.
As early as October the 12th, 1732, the " Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge" ex pressed to the Trustees a desire "that the perse cuted Salzburgers should have an asylum provided for them in Georgia."20
The proposition was favourably entertained by the Trustees, who stated their willingness to grant them lands, and to become the almoner of any benefactions that might be contributed towards defraying their ex penses thither; but did not deem it proper for them to expend for the Salzbiirgers any of their funds, con tributed for an express purpose. A correspondence was immediately opened, between the Reverend Doc tor Bundy and Hon. James Vernon, with the " Society

19 Journal of House of Commons, kin's Missions of the Church of Eng-

xxii. 147.

land, 91.

20 Journal of Trustees, i. 20. Haw-

106

COLONIZATION OP THE SALZBURGERS.

for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge," and thfeit correspondents in Germany, to ascertain if any were willing to embark for Georgia, and become British subjects by conforming to the Trustees' rules.
Satisfied by the answers sent to the Society, that there were such, and warranted by the special con tributions for that purpose, the Trustees, in Decem ber, 1732, sent over to Germany an invitation to fifty Salzburgers' families from Bertholdsgaden,21 to be transplanted to Georgia; the venerable Society having resolved to pay their expenses from Ger many to Rotterdam, and also to support a minister and catechist in Georgia. Temporary hindrances prevented the cai'rying out of this design; but on obtaining this grant from Parliament, together with three or four thousand pounds from private benefac tions, they were enabled to meet, more fully than before, the wishes of the Society. Immediately,, therefore, on the passage of the bill, they wrote to Germany for some Salzburgers to be sent over to England, thence to embark for Georgia. To those thought worthy, the Trustees resolved to defray the charges of their passage and sea-stores; to provision them gratis in Georgia till they could take in their harvest; to give them three lots, viz., a lot for house and yard within the town ; a lot for garden near the town, and a lot for tillage at a small distance from the town; the said lands to be a freehold to themselves and heirs forever." In consideration of these privi leges, they were to obey the Trustees' orders and become denizens of Georgia, with all the rights and privileges of Englishmen.22

21 Colonial Transcripts, 20. Jour- 2a Journal of the Common Council,

nal of Trustees, i. 51.

i. 83.

ORIGIN OP THE SALZBURGERS.

107

These Germans belonged to the Archbishopric of Silzburg, then the most eastern district of Bavaria; tat now, forming a detached district in upper Aus tria, and called Salzburg, from the broad valley of the Salzer, which is made by the approximating of the Nome and Rhetian Alps. Their ancestors, the Vallenges of Piedmont,23 had been compelled by the bar barities of the Dukes of Savoy, to find a shelter from the storms of persecution in the Alpine passes and vales of Salzburg and the Tyrol, before the Reformation; and frequently since, had they been hunted out by the hire lings and soldiery of the Church of Rome, and con demned for their faith to tortures of the most cruel and revolting kind. Such was the case in 1620, when the head of one of their pastors was nailed to his pulpit, and others murdered by ingenious ways. In 1684-6, they were again threatened with an exterminating persecution; but were saved in part by the interven tion of the Protestant States of Saxony and Branden burg, though over one thousand then emigrated on account of the dangers to which they were exposed.24
But the quietness which they had enjoyed for nearly

23 Those who desire to trace them back further can consult" Ausfiihrliche Historie derer Emigrantem oder Vertfiebenen Lutheraner aus dem Ertz Bislithum Salzburg," etc. Das ii. Capitale, p. 5: Leipzig, 1732.
24 For an account of these early persecutions, vide Geschichte dor Auswanderung der Evangelischen Salzbnrger in yahro 1732 : Karl Panse, Leipzig, 1827. The first book in this work contains notices of former perse cutions. Die Protestantischen Salzburger in ISten Yahrhundert: Gustav Eierik, Leipzig, 1840. MenzeFs His

tory of Germany. Mosheim's Eccle siastical History, vol. iii. " History of the American Lutheran Church," a valuable compend, by Rev. Ernest L. Hazelius, D.D., Professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Synod of South Carolina, published at Zanesville, Ohio, 1846. At the end of " Aktenmaskige Ge schichte der veruhmpten Salzburgischen Emigration," Salzburg, 1790, is a valuable collection of original agree ments, letters, confessions. &c., relating to these several periods, 242-288.

108

PERSECUTION OF THE SALZBURGERS.

half a century, was now rudely broken in upon by Leo pold, Count of Firmian, and Archbishop of Salzburg, who determined to reduce them to the Papal faith and power. He began in the year 1729, and ere he ended in 1732, not far from thirty thousand had been drives from their homes, to seek among the Protestant States of Europe, that charity and peace which were denied them in the glens and fastnesses of their native Alps, More than two-thirds settled in the Prussian States; the rest spread themselves over England, Holland, and other Protestant countries.
Thrilling is the story of their exile. The march of these Salzburgers constitutes an epoch in the history of Germany. They were an army of martyrs, setting forth in the strength of God, and triumphing in faith even under the rigour of persecution. Marshalled under no ensigns but the banners of the Cross; led on by no chieftains but their spiritual pastors; armed with no weapons but their Bibles and hymn-books, they jotirneyed on, everywhere singing pseans, not of military victory, but of praise and thanksgiving to Him, who, though they were cast out, and oppressed, had yet made them " more than conquerors." Arriv ing at Augsburg, the magistrates closed the gates against them, refusing them entrance to that city, which two hundred years before had, through Luther and Melancthon, and in the presence of Charles V. and the assembled Princes of Germany, given birth to the celebrated Augsburg Confession, for clinging to which, they were now driven from their homes; but overawed by the Protestants, the officers reluctantly admitted the emigrants, who were kindly entertained by the Lutherans.
The sympathies of Reformed Christendom were

, EVIDENCES OF PUBLIC SYMPATHY.

109

awakened on their behalf, and the most hospitable entertainment and assistance were everywhere given them. Reigning princes, heads of universities, stu dents of colleges, re.ctors of churches, vied with each other in doing honour to those who preferred to forsake the haunts of their youth, rather than the religion of their hearts. In answer to the invitation addressed by the Trust to the venerable Samuel Urlsperger, forty-two men with their families, numbering in all seventy-eight, left Augsburg on the 21st of October, 1733, and took up their melancholy journey to the sea-board. Furnished, through the kindness of their Augsburg friends, with three rude carts, one to carry their baggage, and the other two to carry their feeble women and children the rest travelling on foot they began their pilgrimage as strangers to a far country. Various were the fortunes of their toilsome journey ; now cheered by the charities of their brethren, now threatened by their adversaries, and now turned out of their course by the intolerance of Romish zeal. But their sorrows seemed for a moment forgotten in the heartiness of their reception by the pious Lutherans of Frankfort, in Nassau. These worthy burghers, learning of their approach, went out on the road to meet and welcome them.. Joyous were the con gratulations, affecting the interview with the toilworn pilgrims; and hastily forming a procession, they marched towards the city two and two, and entered the gates singing one of their much-loved psalms. Remaining here a few days for refreshment, they embarked upon the Maine, and soon entered the beautiful Rhine; and as they sailed down its cur rent, now passing under beetling cliffs, now hurry ing by some grim and frowning castle, now floating

110

THE SALZBURGERS SAIL FOR GEORGIA.

through vine-clad slopes, and now sweeping past 'its beautiful towns and villages, they spent their days in holy converse, and the hymnings of devotion.
On the 27th of November they reached Rotterdam, where they were joined by " their chosen teachers of the Divine Word," Rev. Mr. Boltzius, deputy superin tendent of the Latin Orphan School at Halle, and Rev, Mr. Gronan, a tutor in the same.25 They embarked on board the Trustees' ship at Rotterdam, on the 2d of December ; and after a long passage down the chan nel, having been much tossed by the weaves, they reached Dover on the 2ist of December. Here they were visited by the Trustees, and treated with every kindness and attention; engaging the sympathies of their English friends by the piety and sobriety of their lives and actions. With an " oath of strict piety, loy alty, and fidelity," they began their long sea voyage on the 8th of December. In the minute diaries which they kept, as well as in the letters of the pastors, are abundant records of their thoughts, sayings, and doings on this voyage. All was new to them: coming

- 5 The authorities consulted respecting what is mentioned here and elsewhere in this work concerning the SaJzburgers, are, " De Prastantia CoIonia; Georgico Anglicanse pra Coloriiis Aliis :" Augsburg, 1747 ; the books mentioned in former notes ; and also Ansliihrliche Nachricht von den Salzburgischen Emigraiiten die sich in America nied ergelassen haben, von Kami. Urlsperger, 4 vols. small 4to, llalle, published respectively in 1736, 1741, 1744, 1752. Urlsperger also published, under the title of "Continuation dor Ausfiihrlicben Nachrichten Salzburgischen Emigranten," &c., thirteen other volumes of the same

size, containing the .Diary of the Eleven Ministers, their various records, correspondence, &c., down to 175ii. Americanisches Ackerwerk Gottes; odef zurer lassige Naehrichten, etc., also compiled by Urlsperger, in 4 vols. 4to, brought down to 1767. These twentytwo volumes contain a vast number of minute facts and incidents of little historical importance, forming what might be termed the daily annals of the Salzburgers for many consecutive years. Would that the English had had some of the persevering energy in writing of the Germans : our early stock of {lis torical materials would not then be so scanty as it now is.

OGLETHORPE MEETS THEM AT CHARLESTON.

Ill

from the interior of Europe, they knew the ocean only in name; but now this world of waters, with all its strangeness and sublimity, was around them. The wonders of the deep inspired them with awe and humility, but did not cower or dispirit them ; for no sooner had the last hill of England sunk behind the horizon, than with united voice they broke forth in a psalm of glory. Sunset upon the ocean, the silvery path of the moon upon the waters, the cloud-lilled sky, the storm howling through the rigging, the sea cloven into waves by the mighty tempest, the favouring gale that speeds them merrily on their course; furnish the,m with new themes of praise, new emotions of gratitude, and new topics for their daily journals or unwearied correspondence. Their good ship reached Charleston in March; and here they were so fortu nate as to meet with Oglethorpe, who had come thither for the purpose of embarking for England. Abandoning this design for the present, in order that lie might settle the Salzburgers, in whose welfare he had taken such deep interest, he returned to Georgia.
The " Purisburgh " left Charleston on the 9th; and "the next day, which, in the Lutheran calendar, was ''Reminiscere Sunday," they entered the river. And truly it was to them a day of remembrance; and memory busied herself in retouching with her magic pencil the half-faded pictures of former joys, and in recalling also the days when they " endured a great fight of afflictions," among those who would stamp out with the iron-shod heel of religious tyranny, the last glimmering spark of freedom of conscience in matters of religion. But amidst the thronging recollections of that Reminiscere Sunday, their minds were tranquil lized by the promises of peace, and buoyed up by the

112

THEIR ARRIVAL AT SAVANNAH.

swelling hopes of the future. " While we lay off the banks of our dear Georgia/' writes one, " in a very lovely calm, and heard the birds singing sweetly, all was cheerful on board. It was really edifying to', us that we came to the borders of this promised land, this day, when, as we are taught in its lessons from the Gospel, that Jesus came to the borders by the seacoast, after he had endured persecution and rejection by his countrymen."
On the 12th they reached Savannah, and were received with shouts of gladness and the utmost hos pitalities of the colonists. Oglethorpe met them there, and told their leader, Baron Von Reck, that they should have a choice of the unappropriated lands, They expressed the wish to be settled at some dis tance from the sea, in a hilly country, where there were springs of water; that being the nature of their native land. To seek for them such a location, him self, with Paul Jenys, Esq., Speaker of the South Car olina House of Assembly, Baron Von Reck, Rev. Mr, Gronan, Doctor Twiflen, their physician, and one of the Lutheran elders, with some Indians, went up to search for some tit place, while the body of the people refreshed themselves after their voyage in Savannah.
After penetrating about thirty miles into the inte rior, the explorers came " to the banks of a river of clear water, the sides high, the country of the neigh bourhood hilly, with valleys of rich cane land, inter mixed with little brooks and springs of water." The Salzburgers of the party were greatly pleased with the place; and fitly ending their journey as they began it, kneeled down by the river side, and returned thanks to God for giving them such a goodly heritage; and, singing a psalm, named the place, in commemoration

THE SETTLEMENT OF EBENEZER.

113

of their wondrous deliverances and present joys, Eben ezer, (the stone of help;) for they could truly say, with the prophet of old, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
Oglethorpe marked out for them a town ; ordered workmen to assist in building houses; and soon the whole body of Germans went up to their new home at Ebenezer. The wanderings of the exiles were over; they were now at rest, where persecution could no more alarm, and where the heart and the tongue, free from the censorship of man in his spiritual life, acknowledged fealty and paid obedience alone to God, How the Salzburgers esteemed their place, may be learned from the Journal of Baron Von Reck, who states : " The lands are enclosed between two rivers which fall into the Savannah. The Salzburg town is to be built near the largest, which is called Ebenezer, in remembrance that God had brought them thither. It is navigable, being twelve feet deep. A little rivulet, whose water is clear as crystal, glides by the town; another runs through it; and both fall into the Ebenezer. The woods here are not so thick as in other places. The sweet zephyrs preserve a delicious coolness, notwithstanding the searching beams of the sun. There are very fine meadows, in which a great quantity of hay might be made with very little pains. The hillocks also are very fit for vines. The cedar, walnut, pine, cypress, and oak, make the greatest part of the woods. There are likewise a great quantity of myrtle-trees, out of which they extract, by boiling the berries, a green wax, very proper to make candles with. There is much sassafras, and a great quantity of those herbs of which indigo is made, and abundance of China roots.
8

114

OGLETHORPE VISITS ENGLAND.

" The earth is so fertile, that it will bring forth any thing that can be sown or planted in it, whether fruits, herbs, or trees. There are wild vines, which run up to the tops of the tallest trees; and the country is so good, that one may ride full gallop twenty or thirty miles an end.
" As to game, here are eagles, wild turkeys, roe bucks, wild goats, stags, wild cows, horses, hares, partridges, and buffaloes."
On the first of May, lots were drawn for the houses to be erected at Ebenezer; and a plan was adopted for building a chapel.
Prior to the arrival of the Salzburgers, Oglethorpe, with suitable attendants, had visited the coast and islands to the south. Skirting along the sea-board, and through the inland passages, they reached St. Simons island, and proceeded on to Jekyll; thence returning up the Ogeechee, landed at Fort Argyle, having made a valuable tour of observation along the ocean frontiers of Georgia. The results of this little voyage were of great consequence to the colony, as it placed in his possession a point of defence, which was ultimately to become the Thermopylae of Georgia.
Nothing further occurring to detain him in Georgia, Oglethorpe soon returned to Charleston; and, declin ing his original purpose of making the tour of the north ern colonies, and consequently unable to accept the pressing invitation of the Governor, Council, and Assembly20 of Massachusetts to visit that province, he embarked in the Alborough, man-of-war, on Tuesday, the 7th of May, for his native land.
How stood the colony now ? Fifteen months of colonial existence had expired, and the most encour-

29 Gent. Mag., 1734, p. 460.

CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

115

aging results were visible. Savannah had been beau tifully laid out, with open squares and wide streets, crossing each other at right angles. About forty houses had been built, which, being disposed of in as many large lots, gave an airy and pleasing appearance to the place. A court of judicature had been erected, and the town placed under appropriate municipal officers. To protect it from incursions landward, Oglethorpe had stretched around it a heavy barrier of palisade; while, to guard it seaward, he had erected on the east end of the bluff a small battery of five cannon, commanding the passage of the river. An ample storehouse, and a guardhouse, near which towered the flagstaff, stood upon the edge of the bluff, upon which goods were landed from vessels lying beneath, by means of a large crane and windlass. At the eastern extremity of the town, he had laid out ten acres as a public garden, and placed it under the care of an experienced gardener. The object of this was, to cultivate in this land, as a nursery, such plants and trees as the Trustees should deem profitable for the colony, and then, having tested their qualities, distribute them to the several settlers, to be cultivated on their respective farms.
To secure the best horticultural stock, the Trust, aided by benefactions from the Earl of Derby, the Duke of Richmond, and Sir Hans Sloane, had commis sioned William Houston, an able botanist, to visit Madeira, the West India islands, and the northern parts of South America, to secure vines, roots, seeds, and cuttings of their best and most valuable plants and trees, to propagate in Georgia.30
Sailing up the river fifteen miles, we find the village

30 Minutes of Common Council of Trustees, i. 5, where articles of agreement are inserted.

116

DESCRIPTION OF THE SETTLEMENTS.

of Abercorn, situated on a creek, three miles from the river, containing ten families. Further up still, we reach Ebenezer, on a river of the same name, empty ing into the Savannah, where the energetic Salzburgers are busily engaged in clearing their lands, framing their dwellings, planting their crops, and stockading the town. Eastward of Savannah, on the island of Tybee, lying at the mouth of the river, was begun a large light house, ninety feet high, which, when built, would be the loftiest in America. South from Savannah, four miles, we meet with two small villages, liampstead and Highgate. East of these, upon Augustine creek, was a good timber fort; and three families at a place called Thunderbolt, so named from a meteoric explo sion, which left its sulphurous effects plainly discerni ble, in the taste of some of its waters. Directly south of Savannah, and upon the banks of the Ogeechee, stood Fort Argyle a small square fortification of wood, musket-proof, but having no cannon, and garrisoned by a party of rangers, and ten families.
These were the points occupied by the emigrants, and this the condition of the colony, when Oglethorpe left it for England. Some of the people, it is true, had misbehaved, and some had been sick; but their bene factor had appeased their tumults, and visited and nursed the sick; at all times blending the firmness of the magistrate with the humanity of a friend.
The thoughts of benevolence which, far away across the Atlantic, had arisen in the minds of a few philan thropists, were here developed in visible form; beauti fully realizing their designs of mercy, making a hundred glad homes in the New World echo back praises to the charity of the old.

HAPTER III.
PROGRESS OF COLONIZATION.
A VOYAGE of forty days brought Oglethorpe to the shores of England. He returned after an absence of more than eighteen months, having in that brief time led a colony across the Atlantic, planted it in a new country, established treaties of peace and amity with the Indian tribes, settled several frontier villages, advanced many improvements, explored large districts of country, and erected such fortifications as gave effi cient protection to the newly-created province. Sharing with the colonists their humble fare, enduring with them their manifold toils, exposing himself for their sakes to the dangers of the climate and the pathless wilds, remaining with them until completely settled, he bore all the fatigues, and perils, and perplexities, and la bours incident to the planting of a new colony, with a loftiness of heroism and grandeur of philanthropy truly sublime.
To enlarge the views and strengthen the friendship of the Indians, as well as to interest the people of Eng land in these sons of the American forest, Oglethorpe brought over with him Tomochichi, the King of Yamacraw, Senanky, his wife, Tooanhouie, their nephew, Hillipili, the war captain, five chiefs of the Cherokees. and one of the chiefs of the Palachocalas.

118

TRIBUTES TO OGLETHORPE.

A few days after his return, he waited upon the king and queen,1 by whom he was graciously received; and at a full meeting of the Trustees, he received their formal and unanimous thanks " for the many and great services he has done the colony of Georgia." 2 In the evening, at an entertainment given in honour of his return, he related to the Trustees the state and condition of the settlement, and the bright prospects which it opened before them in the future.
Nor did these alone feel interested in his enterprise; btit his success and benevolence gave inspiration to the bard who sung, in impassioned stanzas, the "deeds of his heroic life." Let nervous Pope, in his immortal lays,

" Recite thy actions, and record thy praise.

No brighter scenes his Homer can display

Than in thy great adventures we survey.

*

*

*

*

*

Hail, Oglethorpe ! with nobler triumphs crowned Than ever were in camps or sieges found."

And true was the prophecy which closes this poetic tribute:
" Thy great example shall thro' ages shine, A fav'rite theme, with poet and divine ; People unborn thy merits shall proclaim, And add new honours to thy deathless name."3

With a similar desire also, to honour this great pioneer of active benevolence, Mr. Cave, the proprietor of the " Gentleman's Magazine," offered, as the first of four prizes to be given for the four best poems entitled, "The Christian Hero," a gold medal, having on one, side the head of the Rt. Hon. Lady Elizabeth Hastings, and on

J Gentleman's Magazine, 1734, 329. 3 Gentleman's Magazine, September, 3 Jour. Trustees of Georgia, i. 192. 1734.

ADDRESS OF TOMOCHICHI.

119

the other the head of Oglethorpe, with the motto, " Eng land may challenge the world." 4
Yes, in its grand schemes of charity, England might challenge the world; and the two heads upon that medal might well serve as types of the massive benev olence of England; for Lady Hastings, the, daughter of the Countess of Huntingdon, had not only given liberally to the colony of Georgia, but made herself conspicuous among her sex for the nobleness of her benefactions and the zeal of her devotion.5 Soon after tlie Indians arrived from Westbrook Place, where they had remained for a few days to refresh themselves after tie voyage, and were formally introduced to the Trustees at the Georgia office.
Addressing the members, Tomochichi said, that " he had come over the great seas to see England and the king, and for the good of his posterity, that they may be instructed in what is right and necessary for them; that he does not expect to live long, but hopes when he is gone, they and the English in his country may live together in peace; that he little thought of coming over, not knowing how to trust the people of Carolina; but as the Trustees have sent a family to settle in his country, and as Mr. Oglethorpe has always been good and just, he readily trusted him. When he was young, he took delight in war and hunting, and did not mind the instructions of the old men, to which they must impute his ignorance; but that wiser men may come; and in the meantime he will give the kings of the nation an account of what he has seen, and how he has been treated by the Trustees." He concluded with sayiag, " he had been preserved from all his enemies by the

4 Gentleman's Magazine, 1735, end. 17th Century," New York, 1847, p. 5 English " Churchwomen of the 392.

120

THE INDIAN'S PRESENTED AT COURT.

Great One above to see this happy day." Then the president made the following answer: " You have done very well to trust yourselves under Mr. Oglethorpe, The Trustees are very glad to see you. They will be fathers to you. You shall receive from them all the kindness and security you ever desire; and you are under a king who is good and gracious to all his peo ple. The Trustees will endeavour to cement a strict alliance and friendship with you : your children shall be ours, and ours shall be yours; and we are all under one God, who will punish any who are guilty of breach of truth. If you have at any time anything to offer, the Trustees will be very ready to hear you, and assist you on every occasion."0
In the following month, these chiefs were presented at court; Tomochichi and his queen being dressed in scarlet robes trimmed with gold; and the others painted and ornamented with barbaric art and aboriginal dis play, being prevented by Oglethorpe, though at some trouble, from appearing at Kensington in the undress of an American savage. Tomochichi, in studied phrase, addressed the king; and handing to him some feathers, said : " These are the feathers of the eagle, which is the swiftest of birds, and who flieth all round our nations. These feathers are a sign of peace in our land, and have been carried from town to town there; and we have brought them over, to leave with you, 0 great king, as a sign of everlasting peace." 7 He ad dressed a few words to the queen also; and both their Majesties replied, in terms of courtesy and peace. Having been presented at court, many of the nobility

6 Journal of Trustees, i. 95.

the most valuable of the editions of

' Oldmixon's British Empire in Ame- Oldmixon, as it is the only one Which

rica. i. 533, London, 1741. This is contains an account of Georgia.

FURTHER PROPOSALS FOR EMIGRATION.

121

showed them pleasing attentions. They visited the places of public interest most calculated to give them ideas of the resources, greatness, and grandeur of Eng lish wealth, power, and civilization. The churches, the palaces, the colleges, the Horse Guards, the arse nals, the hospitals, the dockyards, were seen and ex plained ; and they were deeply impressed with the strength and riches of the white men : particularly was Tomochichi struck with the solidity of the English houses, and expressed his surprise that short-lived men should build such long-lived habitations.8
In another interview of the Indians with the Trus tees, Tomochichi remarked, " that though all travel lers in our country are entertained without any expense, I am sensible while we stay in England we must be a charge to the Trustees ; and as the cold weather is coming on, I am desirous of returning liome;" and then proceeded to ask the Trustees to make out a proper tariff of prices, by which their trade with the whites might be regulated and protected; and the Trustees promised compliance with his request.
The interest manifested by the Trustees and the "Venerable Society," for the Salzburgers, excited de sires in other foreign Protestants to participate their charity, and enjoy their asylum.
In November, 1733, the Trustees9 received letters recommending several Vaudois or Piedmontese as proper emigrants ; and shortly after they received from His Majesty's resident at Rotterdam,10 a proposal from two hundred Vaudois in the canton of Berne, desirous of going to Georgia, stating that the canton would defray their expenses to Rotterdam on their

8 Grahama's History of the United 9 Journal of Trustees, i. 146.

States, iii. 189 : London, 1836.

lo Minutes of Com. Council, i. 81.

122

THE INDIAN CHIEFS RETURN TO GEORGIA.

way to America. This overture the state of the funds of the Trustees compelled them to decline, engaging, however, to send over forty Vaudois, provided the seignory of Berne obtained permission of the Mag through their agent in London; and Jean Louis Poyas was commissioned to engage that number of Vaudois " who are most fit for the raising and winding off silk and vine-dressing." But these eventually demanding through their leader, such terms as the Trust could not agree to, the negotiations were terminated. Ap plications also were made by Baron Von Reck ii behalf of some Bohemians; but they could not be entertained.11
A further embarkation of Salzburgers was, how ever, ordered; and fifty-nine, under the care of Mr. Vat, embarked on board the Prince of Wales, in No vember. In this ship also, besides twenty-two British emigrants, went passengers the Indian chiefs, who, having staid four months in England, were now return ing to their native woods, laden with costly presents; and bearing, what was even more valuable, renewed and strengthened love to the colony of Oglethorpe, Among the passengers in this ship was Sir Francis Balthurst, Bart., of the county of Gloucester, with Ms lady,12 son, three daughters, and servants. A German baron also applied for lands in Georgia; but failed in settling upon proper terms.
The presence of Oglethorpe in England, the flatter ing accounts received from the colony, and the rumour that he was soon to go over again to America,

1 1 Minutes of Common Council, 116, thurst Bluff, on the Savannah river; ia

120. Journal of Trustees, i. 217. the spring of 1736, the Baronet re-

Georgia Transactions, 59.

turned to England, and his plantation

12 On the death of Lady B. at Ba- was soon divided among the colonists,

CHARACTER OP COUNT ZINZENDORF.

123

great repute to the undertaking. Many applied for ieare to go; and upwards of eleven hundred names were registered for examination by the Trustees, who subjected to a rigid scrutiny every applicant for their bounty.
Among the foreign solicitors was the celebrated Mcolaus Ludovicus, Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, the founder of the Society of the United Breth ren,13
This nobleman, educated by his pious grandmother, under the auspices of the learned Sponer, early devel oped the religious bias of his mind. When a mere child, he wrote little letters to his Saviour, and threw them from his window, if perchance the Lord might find them. He instituted among his young com panions, when but ten years old, a mystic religious society called the " order of the mustard-seed." When seventeen years old, he refused to participate in the centennial celebration at Wittemberg of the estab lishment of the Reformation; and spent his time in his chamber, mourning over the degeneracy of the church of Luther with fasting and weeping.
A student of theology, under an assumed name, he passed an examination, and got a license to preach. A traveller, he published his journeys under the title of " The Pilgrimage of Atticus." An officer of gov ernment, yet resigning it for his religious exercises. The founder of Herrnhut, Count Zinzendorf early entertained an idea of shaping a Christian community "on the model of the primitive Apostolic congrega tions ;" and in his efforts to effect this, gave birth to the .sect of Moravians, better known by their official title, " The United Brethren." Leaving out of view,
13 Minutes of Common Council, i. 145.

124

FIRST MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA.

in their creed, the more distinctive doctrines of the several Protestant denominations, they took, as tlie basis of union, a few broad and positively enjoined articles of faith; and though they leaned in general towards the Augsburg Confession, yet there was a great latitude of doctrine and practice, and some gross perversions of several of the leading truths and insti tutions of the Gospel. Pious in their lives, godly In their conversation, upright in their dealings, they soon became noted for their staidness and gravity; and notwithstanding some of their social extravagances and theological errors, they bore about with them a zeal that warmed at dangers, a love that the enmity of foes could not quench, a devotion that no pleasures coakl interrupt, and a holiness of mien that compelled the homage of respect, even while the judgment frowned upon the errors with which it was associated. 14
Troubled by the intestine commotions of his own country, and anxiotis to seek a shelter from the threat ened storms, he no sooner learned of the noble scheme of the Trustees, than he opened a correspondence witli the English minister at Copenhagen, which resulted in his determination to apply to the Trustees for such grants of land as would enable him to carry out his plans. The Trustees, counting on the morality and regularity of those whom he designed to settle in Georgia, gave the Count a grant and enfeoffment of five hundred acres; and in January, 1735, ten persons, ut the head of whom was the Rev. Mr. August Gottlieli Spangenberg, M.A., were sent over to begin the first

14 "The Ancient and Modern His- the United Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum, tory of the Brethren," Sic., by David by August Gottlieb Spangenberg. LosCrantz, translated by Benj. La Trobe. kiel's Missions of the United Brethren, An Exposition of Christian Doctrine, as taught in the Protestant Church of

LARGE PARLIAMENTARY GRANT.

125

Moravian settlement in America.15 The Trustees directed their township to be laid out on the north side of the Ogeechee river, near the old fort Argyle, in tie regular manner ordered by the plan of Oglethorpe. They expected to realize in Georgia what they had not fully found at Berthaldsdorf; and in the new Herrnhif of America they hoped to carry out to perfection tiieir social system, their church polity, and their religious views. With these embarked also ninety Swiss and Grisons, part of whom were destined for Georgia, and part for Purysburg in South Carolina.18
The jealousy of Spain at what her ambassador termed an encroachment on the rights of his sover eign, by the planting of Georgia, began to be mani fested more and more. The rivalry of France, also, was developing itself by building forts in the Upper Creek nation, well garrisoned and mounted with can non, arid by striving to gain over the Indians to their exclusive trade. Urged by these weighty considera tions, the province of South Carolina represented to the king the designs of these inimical nations; and set forth at large in their memorial the necessity of strengthening Georgia, as the most efficient barrier between them and their enemies at the south. This representation of the governor, council and assembly, sustained by the general tenor of the conduct of France and Spain, and the important services already rendered by Georgia, and those still further expected, ifiduced Parliament, on the petition of the Trustees, (March 10th, 1735,) to grant to that body the sum of 26,000, for the settling, fortifying and defending of their colony 17

15 Minutes of Common Council, i. 145. Transcripts, 102. Loskiel, book ii. 3.

16 Minutes of Com. Council, i. 149. 17 Journal of the House of Commons,

126

NEW COLONIES ESTABLISHED.

Possessed of these ample means through the liber ality of Parliament, and having views enlarged III experience and the pressing necessities of the colony, the Trustees resolved, in accordance with the intima tions of the South Carolina memorial, to strengthen the southern part of Georgia by establishing a colony on the banks of the Altamaha. And as they found that many of the poor who had been useless in Eng land were inclined to be useless here also, they re solved that their next embarkations should consist chiefly of persons from the Highlands of Scotland, and of persecuted Protestants from Germany. They there fore invited one hundred Germans, under Baron You Reck, from the city of Ratisbon; and commissioned Lieutenant Hugh Mackay " to agree with, and bring together, one hundred and ten freemen and servants, to which fifty women and children are allowed, from that part of Britain called Scotland."18
This enterprising officer soon collected the required number, in the vicinity of Inverness. These were not reckless adventurers, or reduced emigrants, volun teering through necessity, exiled by insolvency and want; they were men of good character, and carefully selected for their military qualities. In fact, they were picked men, numbers of them coming from the glen of Stralbdean, about nine miles distant, commanded lj officers most respectably connected in the Highlands; some of whose descendants have held, and still hold, high offices of honour and trust in the United King dom. Leaning in their political sympathies with the fallen fortunes of the Pretender, and having been con nected in some of their clans with the rising of 1715, they found themselves objects of jealousy and suspi-

. 18 Minutes of Common Council, i. 189, 190.

THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW INVERNESS.

127

eism, and resolved to seek in America that unmolested quietude which they failed to find in their native Highlands. The Trustees were rejoiced to find so ?aliiable and hardy a company to plant on the banks of their southern boundary, and begin a new town on the Florida frontier.
The town council of Inverness, grateful for the kind offers of Oglethorpe to the Highlanders, and to express their regard for his philanthropy, conferred on him the honour of a burgess of the town, through his proxy, Captain Dunbar.19
Besides this military band, others among the Macknys, the Dunbars, the Bailies, the Cuthberts, applied for large tracts of land to people with their own serfaits; most of them going over themselves to Georgia, and finally settling there for life.
The Highlanders sailed from Inverness, October 18th, 1735, on board the Prince of Wales, com manded by one of their own countrymen, Captain George Dunbar; and reaching Georgia in January, 1736, they went down immediately to the southward, where on the north side of the Altamaha, they built a village which, in honour of the town they had left in Scotland, they called New Inverness; while the sur rounding district was called Darien in honour of the useful, but, " through the influence of faction and private interest,"20 unsuccessful settlement of the Isthmus of Darien, in America, in 1698.
These settlers were of a bold and hardy race.

19 I here take pleasure in acknowledging the kind interest manifested in tbfe work by Prof. Win. Mackenzie, of the University of Edinburgh, Scotlaid; to whose researches I am in-
1 for many interesting facts con-

nected with the Scotch emigration, as well as for various other historical favours.
20 Universal History, quoted in Holmes's American Annals, i. 471.

128

THE FIRST SCOTTISH COLONISTS.

Brave by nature, virtuous by education, robust by martial exercise, inured to fatigue and willing to labour, they brought to Georgia the virtues of tie Highlanders; and under their energetic toils the banks of the wild Altamaha, wTbose " various ter rors" Goldsmith has so darkly portrayed, put on the smiling face of Scottish civilization. These also, like the first settlers of the English the first of the Sabburgers the first of the Moravians brought their minister with them, the Rev. John McLeod, a native of the Isle of Skye. Thus Christianity went hand in hand with civilization, and the several national em barkations which peopled these shores went forth with the great charter of English liberty in one hand, and in the other the glorious Gospel of the Son of Goi
Ogiethorpe determining to go over again to Georgia, the Trustees resolved to send with him a large rein forcement to the colony; and to leave no one in doubt as to their designs, and their beneficence, they gave to the public the purposes which they contemplated, and the rules by which their charities should be governed.
They announced that they intended to lay out a county and build a new town in Georgia; and they also declared,31 " they will give to such persons as they send upon the charity, to every man, a watchcoat; a musket and bayonet; a hatchet; a hammer; a hand-saw; a shod-shovel or spade ; a broad hoe ; a narrow hoe ; a gimlet; a drawing-knife ; an iron pot, and a pair of pot-hooks; a frying-pan; and a public grindstone to each ward or village. Each working man will have for his maintenance in the colony for one year, (to be delivered in such proportions and at such times as the Trust shall think proper,) 3l21bs.of
31 Georgia Hist. Collections, i. 80.

ALLOWANCE TO THE COLONISTS.

129

beef or pork; 104 Ibs. of rice; 104 Ibs. of Indian corn tfr pease; 104 Ibs. of flour; 1 pint of strong beer a day to a man when he works, and not otherwise ; 52 quarts of molasses for brewing beer; 16 Ibs. of cheese ; 12 Ibs. of butter; 8 ounces of spice ; 12 Ibs. of sugar; 4 gallons of vinegar; 24 Ibs. of salt; 12 quarts of lamp oil; 1 Ib. of spun cotton, and 12 Ibs. of soap.
To the mothers, wives, sisters or children of such men, for one year that is to say, to every person of the age of twelve years and upwards the following allowance, (to be delivered as before:) 260 Ibs. of beef or pork; 10 Ibs. of rice; 104 Ibs. of Indian corn or pease; 104 Ibs. of flour; 52 quarts of molasses, for brewing beer; 16 Ibs. of cheese ; 12 Ibs. of butter; 8 oz. of spice; 12 Ibs. of sugar; 4 gallons of vinegar; 24 Ibs. of salt; 6 quarts of lamp oil; half a pound of spun cotton; 12 Ibs. of soap.
For every person above the age of seven, and under the age of t\velve, half the said allowance being esteemed half a head.
And for every person above the age of two, and under the age of seven, one-third of said allowance being esteemed one-third of a head.
The Trustees pay their passage from England to Georgia; and on the voyage they will have, in every week, four beef days, two pork days, and one fish day; and their allowance served out daily.
After stating in what manner the lots will be granted, they further remarked : " None are to have the benefit of being sent upon the charity, in the manner above mentioned, but, first, such as are in decayed circum stances, and thereby disabled from following any busi ness in England ; and who, if in debt, must have leave from their creditors to go. Second, such as have numer-
9

130

RULES ESTABLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES.

ous families of children, if assisted by their respective parishes, and recommended by the minister, church wardens, and overseers thereof.
" The Trustees do expect to have a good character of the said persons given; because no drunkards, or other notoriously vicious persons, will be taken.
" And for the better enabling the said persons to build the new town, and clear their lands, the Trustees will give leave to every freeholder to take over with him one male servant, or apprentice, of the age of eighteen years and upwards, to be bound for not less than four years ; and will, by way of loan to such free holder, advance the charges of passage for such servant or apprentice, and of furnishing him with the clothing and provision hereafter mentioned, to be delivered in such proportions, and at such times, as the Trust shall think proper, viz., with a pallias, and bolster, and blanket, for bedding; a frock and trowsers, of linseywoolsey ; a shirt, and frock, and trowsers of osnaburgs; a pair of shoes from England, and two pair of country shoes, for clothing; and two hundred pounds of meat, and three hundred and forty-two pounds of rice, pease, or Indian corn, for food, a year.
" The expense of which passage, clothing, and pro vision is to be repaid the Trustees by the master, within the third year from their embarkation from England.
" And to each man-servant, and the heirs male of his body forever, after the expiration of his service, upon a certificate from his master of his having served well, will be granted twenty acres of land, under such rents and agreements as shall have been the last granted to any other men-servants in like circumstances."
The publication of these rules drew many petitioners to the Georgia office. These the Trustees scrutinized

THE WESLEYS SAIL WITH OGLETHORPE.

131

with a care made vigilant by former impositions; and out of the many applications, " chose those who had the lest characters, and were the truest objects of com passion." They honestly acquainted those who applied of the dangers and hardships they must undergo ; and if they thought they should not be able to go through
difficulties, they advised them by no means to undertake the voyage.
Two ships were chartered; and in these what is called " the great embarkation" sailed for Georgia, con voyed by His Majesty's sloop Hawk, Captain Gascoigne.
Two hundred and thirty-one persons were sent over at the charge of the Trustees; and among them twentyire Moravians, under Bishop David Nitschman; and a farther number of Salzburgers, under the charge of Mr. Philip George Frederick de Reck.32 Oglethorpe also sailed with this embarkation; and though His Majesty had ordered one of his ships of war to attend him and escort the emigrants, yet he preferred taking passage in one of the Trustees'vessels, "though crowded with tlie colonists, that he might be able to take care of the people in their passage."
Thus was this generous man again to sacrifice home, friends, comforts, ease, and official honours, for the inter ests of his youthful colony, that he might go out with a new embarkation, and lengthen the cords and strength en the stakes of his beloved Georgia. John and Charles Wesley were also fellow-passengers with Oglethorpe in this voyage,33 living with him at his table, and treated

32 Minutes of Common Council, i. M, 227.
31 Of this voyage we have two jourmils; one kept by Francis Moore, the
at Frederica, and formerly to the " Royal African Com-

pany," as also author of "Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa ;" the other by the Rev. John Wesley. The former is published in the first volume of the Collections of the Geo. Hist. Soc., and the latter is found in his works, vol. i.

l?,-2

STORM AND TEMPEST.

by him with courtesy and kindness. Though they em barked early in October, it was not until the lOtlntf December that they passed the Needles, and bade adieu to England. The passage was long and tempestuous, On one occasion, the sea breaking over them from stem to stern, burst through the windows of the state cabin, and drenched its inmates. A week after, and another storm rolled its heavy waves over the vessel, in one of which John Wesley nearly found a watery grave. After a few hours of calm, the elements renewed their onset, in a tempest that sent up the crested waves to the sky, and opened yawning depths below the wind whistling through the strained cordage like human wails, and shaking the ship, as it staggered from billow to billow, until every mast and stanchion seemed starting from their sockets.
But in all these storms and dangers, the humble Moravians were fearless and unappalled. It was Sunday noon when this tempest began. In the midst of the psalm which commenced their service, the sea broke over the ship, split the mainsail, and poured down between the decks as if the great deep had swallowed them up. The English screamed out in terror the Germans calmly sang on. " Were you not afraid ?" said Wesley to one of them. " I thank God, no." " But were not your women and children -afraid 1" " No," he mildly replied ; " our women and children are not afraid to die." Beautiful exam ple of the power of a living faith, and the strength of a Christian's hope!
Thus, at one time vexed with storms, at another en joying the calm ; now bounding along before a merry breeze, and now turned from their course by contrary winds; they at last crossed the Atlantic, and about

ARRIVAL AND THANKSGIVING.

133

noon on the 4th of February, the trees of America were visible from the mast, and in the afternoon from the main deck; and as the Wesleys read the evening lesson in Corinthians, their hearts were cheered by the almost prophetic words, " A great door and effect ual is opened unto me;" but they were sooner to find the truth of the latter clause of the verse, " and there are many adversaries," than to enjoy the fulfilment of the former. On the following Thursday, between two and three P. M., they cast anchor near Tybee island, where the groves of pine waving along the shore, made an agreeable prospect, showing as it were the bloom of spring in the depth of winter; and the next day, being landed on Peeper island, Oglethorpe led the passengers to a rising ground, and there all kneel ing, gave thanks to God for their deliverance from the perils of the deep, and their safe arrival in America.
After Oglethorpe had made a hasty visit to Ebenezer, and given permission to the inhabitants to re move from their present locality to a more eligible site upon the river Savannah, he returned to the ship, and got ready the embarkations destined for the new town, which the Trustees had ordered to be built on St. Simons island, and which, in honour of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, and only son of George II., they named Frederica. Oglethorpe was anxious to land the emigrants at their destined home, yet was somewhat perplexed as to the method by which the ship should get there, having no pilot, and the cap tains of the vessels being unwilling to risk them in such new discoveries. At last, having engaged a sloop of light draught, the captains of the Simond and London Merchant went on board, and with the com mander of the sloop undertook to navigate her into

134

EXPEDITION TO ST. SIMONS ISLAND.

Jekyll sound. Putting on board the sloop, men, can non, arms, ammunition, and tools for entrenching, the "Midnight" steered outof the river, and passing the bar, trimmed her course to the southward. In a strong-built and swift boat, mounting three swivel guns and ten oars, kept for visiting the river passages and islands, hence called scout-boat, Oglethorpe started on the evening of the 16th of February, through the inland passages, and on the morning of the 18th arrived at St. Simons.
The " Midnight" reached the bar almost as quickly as himself. The men and stores were soon landed, and the busy hum of labour broke for the first time the stillness of the island scene. The party made a few booths of earth and poles, thatched with palmetto leaves, for a temporary accommodation, and passed a merry evening, " having a plentiful meal of game brought in by the Indians."
The next day Oglethorpe marked out a fort, with four bastions, and taught the men how to dig the ditch and raise and turf the rampart. Leaving Captain Hermsdorf and Mr. Horton, with fifty men, to con tinue the work on St. Simons, he paid a visit to the Highlanders at New Inverness, and in compliment to them, appeared himself in the Highland garb. They were all paraded under arms, with their plaids, broad swords, targets, and firelocks, by Captain Mackay; and when the boat of Oglethorpe hove in sight, they gave him a hearty salute. He was pleased with their town, which already began to put on a thriving appearance; arid willing to set them an example of endurance and self-denial, he declined the invitation of Captain Mackay, to sleep in his tent, on his bed, which the chronicler of that day is careful to say had sheets on it, a rarity as yet in these parts; but threw

OGLETHORPE VISITS VARIOUS ISLANDS.

135

his plaid around him and lay at the guard-fire, in the open air, though the night was very cold.24
After many difficulties the people were landed on St. Simons, and the work of colonization was carried briskly forward. For the purpose of making still fur ther explorations along the sea-board, Oglethorpe pro ceeded, with a select party of colonists and Indians, to Jekyll island, which had already been visited by him in his first expedition. The next island they landed upon25 was termed by the Indians Missoe Sas safras; by the Spaniards San Pedro ; but Toonahouie, taking out the gold watch given him by the Duke of Cumberland, desired that it should thenceforth bear his name. Here Oglethorpe directed a fort to be built on the north part, which, as it was erected by Captain Mackay and his Highlanders, was called St. Andrews, in honour of their patron Saint; and on the south-east he planned Fort William, to command the sound between it and the adjacent island. They next landed on a delightful island, writh orange trees, myrtles and vines, that grew to the top of the trees, and hung from the limbs in rich festoons, as if trimmed and twined by art. The Spaniards called this St. Maria, but Oglethorpe changed it to Amelia, in honour of one of the royal princesses. Reaching next day the island of St. Juan, they named it George's; and the next they named Talbot, after the Lord High Chancellor of England. This excursion made him well acquainted with the localities of the islands, rivers, and seaboard, and was of vast service to him in his subsequent troubles with the Spaniards.

24 Georgia Historical Collections, \. 2S Documents from State Paper-

110.

Office, j. 33.

136

FRKUERICA. RUMOURED INVASION.

Under his animating presence the fortifications and houses at Frederica progressed rapidly; and at the southern end of the island also, he erected Fort St. Simons, to command the entrance to Jekyll sound. The design of building Frederica on St. Simons, and erecting forts on the islands below, was to check the incursions of the Spaniards; and by arresting them near to their own borders, prevent any descent upon the plantations to the north. Frederica, like Savan nah, was prettily laid out; and, like it, placed under municipal government, with its minister, bailiff, re corder, constables, tithing-men, freeholders, and ser vants. The island was healthy, beautifully wooded; the soil was rich and fertile; and its pleasantness and advantages were greatly lauded by the early settlers. The return of Oglethorpe and the Indians from the southward, was celebrated by Tomochichi and his tribe, with dancing, and their rude native music; who, having the next day received presents for their fidel ity, were dismissed to their homes.
Rumour wTas now busy in circulating many reports concerning the threatened invasion of the Spaniards; and much time, anxiety, and vapouring bravery, were expended in the many false alarms which the fearful in heart were so ready to foster and enlarge. Steadily and efficiently Oglethorpe went on with his buildings, fortifying the island, supplying the people, and ani mating the labourers; now strengthening his alliance with the Indians by a treaty with several tribes of the lichees, and now rejoiced by the arrival of a detach ment of troops from South Carolina, at a time when military aid was vastly important to the colony.
While these active preparations were making for the defence of the southern borders, he had not

OGLETHORl'E AGAIN VISITS ENGLAND.

137

been negligent of its northern frontiers. By his directions, a military post had been designated at a place seven miles above New Windsor, on the Geor gia side of the Savannah, which, in honour of one of the royal princesses, was named Augusta. Roger de JLacey, an Indian agent, was one of its first settlers; and it soon became a great mart for Indian trade, su perior to any other either in South Carolina or Geor gia. A garrison was kept here at the Trustees' expense, under command of Captain Kent. The annual fair of the Indian traders was held in spring; and to it re sorted many from all the neighbouring tribes ; so that over two thousand pack horses and six hundred men were computed to annually visit the place.
Having thus colonized the northern, eastern, and southern borders of Georgia, with outposts in the rear of each settlement to guard and protect its frontier, Oglethorpe returned to England, in January 1737, in order to lay before His Majesty and Parliament the state of affairs in Georgia, and obtain from government such military stores and succours as would enable him to maintain the province of Georgia against the threat ened invasion of the Spaniards; or to commence suc cessful offensive operations, should such be deemed expedient by the ministry and crown. Over one thou sand persons had been sent over to Georgia on the Trustees' account. Several freeholders, with their ser vants, had also taken up lands; and over fifty-seven thousand acres had been granted out to them and to others settling in the province. Five principal towns had been laid out and settled Augusta, Ebenezer, Savannah, New Inverness, and Frederica, besides sev eral smaller forts and villages. The colonists were from different nations, possessed widely variant char-

138

DIVERSITY OF THE COLONISTS.

acters, and represented differing religious creeds and governments. There were Vaudois from under the shadow of Mount Jura; Swiss from the mountainous and pastoral Grisons; Piedmontese from the silk-grow ing districts of Lombardy; Germans from the archbish opric of Salzburg in Bavaria; Moravians from Herrnhut; Jews from Portugal; Highlanders from Scotland; and English from London and its circumjacent counties. There was the mercurial Italian, the reflecting Swiss, the phlegmatic German, the solemn Moravian, the blithesome yet hardy Scotchman, and the tame and depressed Briton. There too was seen the priest of the Church of England, the minister of the Presbyte rians, the bishop and elders of the United Brethren, the pastors of the Lutherans, the disciples of the Ger man creed, and the ancient service of the Israelitish faith. It was a colony of nations and a colony of creeds; and like the ancient mundus of the Romans, each colonist seems to have brought, if not his native earth, at least his peculiar habits, customs, and feel ings, out of which time and intercourse were destined to educe social union and provincial strength.
The kindly feelings of Carolina had been embittered by the contests between the authorities of Georgia and those of that province respecting the admission of ardent spirits into the colony, and the licensing of traders to the Indians.20 The first arose from the fact that rum being prohibited by the Trustees, their agents in Savannah were ordered to stave all that passed up their side of the river; and the second took its rise from the requisitions issued by the Trustees, at

26 Whitehead's Life of Wesley, ii. Journal of Trustees, i. 347. Stephens's 15, where John Wesley gives a very Journal, i. Transcripts, 73. good resume of the whole mutter.

DIFFERENCES WITH SOUTH CAROLINA.

139

the request of the Indians, that no traders should be permitted to sell goods in their towns, but such as had the Trustees' license ; and as each province could regulate affairs within its own boundaries, they under took to make what they esteemed wholesome laws for protecting the traders on the one hand, and the rights of the Indians on the other, within the limits of their charter. These restrictions gave umbrage to the authorities of South Carolina, because their traders and their goods were thus thrust out from the Indian nations, unless licensed by the authorities in Sa vannah. Several conferences were held, and though much ill-feeling was thus avoided, and a better under standing effected, yet the harmony of the two colonies was not fully restored, but was rather placed in that balancing position, in which the slightest influences could turn it for good or for evil. Unfortunately new causes of complaint were not long wanting to increase, even to wrangling, the half-slumbering feuds. It is painful to dwell on the bickerings of colonial sis ters, especially when we cannot fully justify either. Let them pass, then, as the little quarrels of childhood, and let us not spread on the grave page of history the juvenile follies of those two noble States, which now stand side by side in the confidence of a mature friendship, and in the glow of a generous rivalry.

CHAPTER IV

OGLETHORPE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FORTIFICATIONS AT FREDERICA.

THE controversy which the settlement of Georgia had occasioned with the government of Spain, was fast ripening into open hostilities. Rumours of war and invasion were rife in England and America; and the most casual observer could not fail to see that if negociations failed, war must be declared.
The discussion, though new to the colonists, was yet one of long standing, and dated back from the days of Queen Elizabeth; whose admiral, the famous Sir Fran cis Drake, had, in 1586, attacked the Spanish settle ments in Florida, and sacked the Fort of St. John, driving its garrison into the neighbouring city of St. Augustine. 1
In 1630, Charles I. granted, by patent, to Sir Robert Heath, then attorney-general, a tract of land lying betAveen the river St. Matteo in the 31st degree, and the 36th degree of north latitude, and westward to New Mexico. This, in honour of the monarch, he called Carolina.2 Eight years after, Sir Robert conveyed the grant to Arundel, Earl Marshal of England; but he being prevented from settling it by the war with Scot land, and afterwards by the civil war and the lunacy

1 Hakluyt, iii. 547.

~ Coxe's Carolana, 2 : London, 1741.

ENGLISH A.MD SPANISH TREATIES.

141

of his eldest son, the patent became void; and in 1663, it was granted by Charles II. to the Earl of Clarendon, and several other noblemen, who erected the territory into a province, which they called Carolina. Thus the right of England to this territory, predicated on the discovery of Cabot, in 1497, and maintained by several royal grants, was then considered, by all but Spain, as true and incontestable.
Four years after this, a treaty was concluded between England and Spain, the 8th article of which recognized, for the first time, the existence of American commerce ; and expressed, though in the usual loose way of treaties at that time, a tacit agreement to the " uti possidetis " of the respective crowns in America.3 These articles prepared the way for the more explicit treaty which Sir William Godolphin concluded at Madrid, in 1670. The 8th article of this also stipulated the right of Eng land to the lands in America then held and possessed by British subjects, " insomuch that they neither can nor ought hereafter to be contested under any pretence whatever." 4 As then the lords proprietors of Carolina were already in possession of their grant, which bounded their territory on the south by the 31st degree, and as two subsequent treaties with Spain acknowledged and guarantied this right, it follows, that though the Altamaha was made the southern boundary of the Trustees' province, yet the right of England extended much beyond, and was, therefore, properly asserted and defended by Oglethorpe in all his negociations and contests with the Spaniards. But the object of these several treaties was rendered almost nugatory by the implacable hatred of the Spaniards to the English; and

s Anderson's History of Commerce, ii. 654, Coombe's Edition, Dublin, 1790, 4 Ibid. iii. 11.

14:2

SPANISH AGGRESSIONS.

though they refrained for a time from open aggression, they yet put in motion many secret agencies, by which the peace of Carolina was frequently disturbed; for the murders perpetrated by the Indians, the desertions practised by the negroes, and the insurrections which broke out among the slaves, were all plotted by the Spaniards in Florida.
These depredations, constantly thwarting the opera tions of the colonists, made them both disheartened and discontented. Learning this state of things by their spies, the Spaniards seized upon it as a good time to make a descent upon the new settlements, and blot them out from America. They reached St. Helena; but finding a body of men, under Colonel Godfrey, marching against them, they retreated, without effect ing their design.5 Thus was the danger warded off, but not overcome. In 1682, Henry Erskine, second Lord Cardross, being one of thirty-six noblemen and gentle men who, burdened by the tyranny of the Duke of Lauderdale, High Commissioner of Scotland, resolved to seek a refuge in America, led a colony of Scots to Port Royal island.0 Having settled the ten families which accompanied him, Cardross soon after returned to England. But in 1686, three gallies from St. Augus tine arrived there, for the purpose of dislodging them. The Spaniards killed several, whipped many, plundered all, and broke up the colony. Flushed with success, they continued their depredations on North Edisto river, burning the houses, wasting the plantations, and rob bing the settlers; and they finished their marauding excursion by capturing the brother of Governor More-

5 Ramsay's South Carolina, i. 127. short sketch of him in " The Life of 6 Bancroft (ii. 173) says, 1684, but Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay," Lauderdale died in 1682. There is a 2d edition, London, 1842, p. 85.

FRUITLESS ATTACK ON ST. AUGUSTINE.

143

too, and burning him alive in one of the gallies, which a hurricane had driven so high up on land as to make it impossible to have it relaunched.7
The intestine troubles which at that period raged in Carolina, prevented their taking any measure of redress; and misinterpreting this silence into fear, the Spaniards planned another and larger scheme for the ruin of the colony. With nine hundred Appalachee Indians, they resolved, in 1702, to fall upon the interior settlements, and so reach Charleston by land. But they were met by a body of friendly Creeks, led on by some English traders, who, by a wily stratagem, killed and captured many, and routed all. To delay retaliation would be cowardice; and Governor Moore, the same year, re solved by one bold effort to capture St. Augustine itself. War was then existing between England and Spain, known as Queen Anne's War; and this, as well as the former depredations of the Spaniards, justified the at tempt. With a force of a thousand or twelve hundred men, half whites and half Indians, he sailed direct to the bar of St. Augustine; the remainder, under Col. Daniel, went by land, and entered the town the same day that the Governor with his vessels entered the harbour, and drove the Spaniards into the castle. Un able to dislodge them for want of artillery, Governor Moore sent Col. Daniel to Jamaica, to procure a proper supply ; but the arrival off the bar of two Spanish ships, compelled the Governor to raise the siege before the return of Col. Daniel, who, boldly standing into the harbour on his return from Jamaica, narrowly escaped capture. The Spanish Governor, Don Joseph de Zufiiga,

Chalmers's Political Annals, 544, Historical Collections, ii. 97. Ramsay, folio, London, 1780. Oldmixon,i. 469. i. 127. Archdale's Description in Carroll's

144

OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE WARS.

behaved with credit; and though the English Governor lost only two men, yet the failure of the expedition en tailed upon the colony such a debt, that the Assembly could only cancel it by issuing stamped bills of credit, redeemable in three years. "Thus war, debt and paper money were coeval in Carolina." This expedition was gotten up for private ends, prosecuted with languor, and ended in disgrace to its leaders, loss to the colony, and renewed triumph to the Spaniards.8
In 1704, Governor Moore, now succeeded in office by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and appointed by him Lieutenant-General of the English forces, marched with a body of whites and friendly Indians against the Span iards and Indians at Appalachee, about eighty miles west of St. Augustine. He was here entirely success ful. The Indians were subdued, and the province freed from frontier danger.
A demonstration by the united forces of the French, from Martinique, and the Spaniards, from Cuba and St. Augustine, under Le Feboure, was made against Charleston, in 1706. The attacking fleet consisted of six sail, and nearly one thousand men; but they met with defeat and misfortunes, and retired, after losing many men, having created much alarm, but effected nothing.9
Though peace was concluded between England and Spain, the colonists still remained in hostile attitudes; and Carolina was frequently menaced with invasion. After the memorable defeat of the Yamassee Indians, in 1715, who, with other tribes, were incited to their attacks by the Spaniards, it was resolved, for the de-

8 Oldmixon, i. 476-7. The History of the British Dominion in North America, part ii. 142, London, 1773, large 4to. Archdale's Description,

Ilewitt, &c. Ramsay, i. 129. 9 Ramsay, i. 130. Hewitt in Car-
roll, i. 163.

JEALOUSY OF SPAIN.

145

fence of the country, to build a fort in the forks of the Altaraaha claiming the country that far, as the right ful portion of the proprietary grant. This gave great offence to the authorities in Florida. A conference of the two governors was held in Charleston, which ended without a proper understanding; and the fort itself was soon after burned down. Yet the aggressions of the Spaniards and Indians still continued; and in 1727, Colonel Palmer again marched almost to the walls of St. Augustine, destroyed the Yamassee town, and chas tised them into a temporary peace. But it was the peace of belligerent powers, sleeping upon their arms, ready at the first truinpet-note to grasp their weapons and renew the fight.
Such was the state of things when Georgia was settled. Spain and England were nominally friends, though causes of hostility were thickly accumulating, and the pent-up flame of war was soon to burst forth with volcanic fury. 1'1 The settlement of Georgia by General Oglethorpe gave great offence to the court of Spain, because of its infringement upon their asserted boundaries. So long, however, as the settlements were confined to the Savannah, and its adjacent rivers, nothing was done; but when, on his return from Eng land, in 1735, he determined to colonize the banks of the Altamaha, and fortify some of the islands on the sea-board, their ancient jealousy revived; and minor acts of offence were not wanting as precursors and pro vocatives of more serious outbreaks. 13 The aim of Ogle thorpe, from the first, was to secure peace by gentle means; and with this view, he obtained from the Spanish minister in London the appointment of a com-

I Ramsay, i. 138.

Territory, State Paper Office Docu-

II The Right of England to this merit, i. 62, 74.

10

146

TREACHERY OF THE SPANISH AUTHORITIES.

missioner who should act as an internuncio between himself and the Governor of St. Augustine, in settling the boundaries of their respective frontiers. This gen tleman, the Hon. Charles Dempsey, accompanied him on his return to Georgia, in 1736; and on their arrival was immediately sent to St. Augustine, with letters to Don Francisco Moral Sanchez, Governor of St. Augus tine, assuring him of his amicable feelings, and of his desire to preserve the tranquillity already existing, by cultivating friendly relations. The reply of the gov ernor was courteous, but guarded, and plainly evinced the irritation which the proceedings of Oglethorpe had caused, encroaching, as he declared, upon the lands of the king, his master. 1'2 Several letters passed, contain ing, on the side of the Spaniards, complaints of savage incursions and trespassing on their land; and on the part of Oglethorpe, vindications of his right to the occu pied territory, and assurances of succour and redress of the former. In the fulfilment of his promises, Ogle thorpe stationed guard-boats along the St. Johns, to patrol the river, and thus prevent any Indian difficul ties ; and sent Major Richard to treat with the Gov ernor of St. Augustine, and establish if possible the amicable relations which both seemed so earnestly to desire. Major Richard was well received by the gov ernor, and carried back with him letters of mingled compliments and crimination.
Oglethorpe replied to these again, despatching Major Richard and Mr. Horton to St. Augustine to explain and settle these harassing matters. But they now met with a very different reception. They were soon arrested and placed under a sergeant's guard, as spies; and because they refused to answer
13 State Paper Office, i. 16.

FEAR AND SUBMISSION OF THE SPANIARDS.

147

the interrogatories of the governor, as to the military strength and resources of the colony, were threatened with the mines. The troops were then put under anas, and the cavalry ordered out on various scouting expeditions along the frontier. So soon as Oglethorpe learned this, he set out at once for the southward, determined to act promptly and vigourously at this keach of international law and courtesy.
On his way he met the garrison of St. George's fort, which had mutinied, returning to Frederica. He led them back, and resettled them in their duties, and by means of what he calls " some small stratagems,"13 im pressed the Spaniards who were near with an idea of their numbers far beyond their true force. This, with the driving away of a large launch carrying four guns, and laden with soldiers, sailors and Indians, under the command of Don Ignatio Rosso, lieutenant-colonel of the garrison, by the fort near Jekyll sound and at fort St. Andrews, alarmed the Spaniards, as the scouting parties on all sides had exaggerated ideas of the strength and numbers of the English ; and the popu lar alarm thus spread abroad compelled the governor to call together a council, in which the bishop, the officers, and the people declared unanimously that they were for preserving a good harmony with the King of Great Britain's subjects, and desired the governor to release the messengers and send up an officer with them to apologize for their having viola ted the law of nations and of hospitality. This was done, and Mr. Charles Dempsey, Don Pedro Lamberto, captain of horse, and Don Manuel De Arcy, adjutant of the garrison/4 were sent as commissioners to Oglethorpe. They were received with due atten-

13 State Paper Office, i. 30.

14 Georgia Hist. Collections, i. 148,

148

FAVOURABLE TREATY WITH SPAIN.

tion, and great care was taken, by artfully disposing o! the troops and Indians, to impress them with the military resources of the colony. With these gentlemen Oglethorpe concluded a treaty, (Oct. 1736,) which was sub sequently ratified by a board of war and the GovernorGeneral of St. Augustine, stipulating for cessation of all hostilities; the dispeopling and dismantling of St, George's island, inhibiting its occupancy by either nation; and the referring of all disputes as to bound aries to their respective governments. These -terms were generous and pacific, and met the favour-of the Trustees, and the English government; but they were disliked by the court at Madrid, and the governor was recalled to Spain, and there executed, to satisfy the vengeance of his Catholic Majesty,15 who declared to the court of St. James, through his ambassador Gerstdino, "he would as soon part with Madrid as with Ms territory in Florida." While these negociations were going on, Sir Thomas Geraldino, the Spanish minister at the court of St. James, addressed a memorial to the British cabinet, complaining of the settlements made by the Trustees of Georgia, demanding the recall of Oglethorpe, and claiming all the territory south of thirty-three degrees fifty minutes, which took in all South Carolina and Georgia, as part of the dominions of the King of Spain.
A second memorial from the same minister, request ed that no forces should be sent to Georgia, and no fortifications be erected there, though at this very time the Spaniards were augmenting their forces at St. Augustine, with the design of making a secret invasion upon Georgia. When this memorial was read to the king in council, there was a long pause, until
15 Campbell's Spanish America, 101: London, 1741, 8vo.

RENEWAL OP DIFFICULTIES.

149

the Duke of Argyle broke the silence by saying, "The memorial should be answered, but not in the usual way the reply should be a fleet of line-of-battle ships upon the coast of Spain;" upon which the king replied, "Well done, your Grace your advice is agree able to mine." It is no wonder, then, that the articles agreed on by Oglethorpe and the Captain-General of Florida, were disapproved by the court of Madrid, and that Don Francisco del Moral should be superseded in his government by Don Manuel Joseph de Justis.
Shortly after the treaty of October, 1736, a commis sioner reached St. Augustine from the Captain-General of Cuba, for the purpose of proceeding to Frederica aad making certain demands on Oglethorpe. This person was Don Antonio Arredondo, a captain of engiifeers. They met at the anchorage in Jekyll sound, and the Spanish commissioner demanded that the English should evacuate all ports and towns south of St. Helena sound, as being located on the dominions of the King of Spain. The commissioner had no power to treat. His only office was to demand. It was in vaia that Oglethorpe attempted to reason with one whose orders were peremptory, and the conference ended without changing the purpose of either.
The recall of the governor, the demands of this com missioner, the increase of the garrison of St. Augustine, and the augmenting of the naval force of that colony, so impressed Oglethorpe with the necessity of imme diate and active measures for the defence of the colony, that in November he sailed from Georgia, in the ship Two Brothers, for England; and barely escaping ship wreck in the Bristol Channel,, reached London the 8th of January, 1737. The next day he waited on Her Majesty, the king being then absent on a visit to his

150

OGLETHORPE AT THE BRITISH COURT.

German dominions, and was graciously received by her, as also by Sir Robert Walpole; and when, a few days after, he presented himself before the Trustees, he received a unanimous vote of thanks, for his valuable and generous services. He proceeded at once to urge upon the Trustees and government the importance.of defending the colony of Georgia, not only for its intrin sic value, but as the frontier of all the North American colonies. In this effort he was aided by the singular disclosures of an individual, who, deserting the cause of Spain, which he had ignominiously entered, laid before the Trustees and the Duke of Newcastle the plans and purposes of the cabinet at Madrid. This person was John Savy, an Englishman, born in Lon don, who emigrated to South Carolina, was made a bailiff of the town of Charleston, and married into a respectable family there, but was compelled by debt to leave, and go over into Georgia.56 Thence, in June, 1735, he embarked for London. In the British Chan nel he was, at his own request, put on board a French fishing-boat, and carried into Dieppe. Arriving in Paris, penniless and forlorn, he conceived the design of betray ing the interests of his country. He applied to Don Fernando Trivinio Figuero, the Spanish secretary, there being then no ambassador, who sent his letter to the minister at Madrid, Don Joseph Patinho, containing an account of the state of things in Georgia, and promising to disclose more. By return of post, Patinho directed the secretary to pay Savy one hundred pistoles, fur nished him a captain's commission, and a salary of one thousand pieces of eight per annum. Now furnished with money and passports, Savy took upon himself the name and title of Colonel Miguel Wall. He set out
16 State Paper Office, i, 69.

VALUABLE DISCLOSURES OP JOHN SAVY.

151

for Madrid, where he arrived on the 24th May, 1736. After ample conferences with the leading authorities, he was sent to Havana, to concert measures there, and aid in the projected reduction of Georgia to the Span ish crown. He reached Havana in December, 1736; and exhibiting his commission and despatches from the king, was received into favour and official consultation. Here he remained, witnessing, as he writes, " so much villainy against my God, my king, and my country, that my conscience would never let me rest till I could get to England."17 Under pretence of communicating farther plans to the new ministry at Madrid, he left Havana on the 29th of August, 1737, and reached old Spain in October. After various unsuccessful applica tions to the British consuls and minister, he effected his escape in disguise; and sailing in a ship for Lisbon, there delivered himself as a prisoner to Lord Tyrawly, Envoy Extraordinary, who sent him to England, where he laid many disclosures of the proceedings of the Spaniards before the Trustees and the Duke of New castle.18 According to his representations, (and they were subsequently verified,) several ships of war, large quantities of munitions, numerous soldiers and officers, with some skilful engineers, were despatched to Flor ida, not only for the defence of the town of St. Augus tine, but for whatever offensive movement should be determined on by the governments of Havana and St. Augustine.
Such being the disposition of the Spaniards, and such their infraction of the treaty of Frederica, the appeals of Oglethorpe and the memorial of the Trustees were successful with Parliament. In June,

17 State Paper Office, i. 67.

regiments of foot raised in America

13 In 1740 Savy was appointed for the Spanish war. Gentleman's

raptain-lieutenant of one of the 3d Magazine, 1740, 204.

15-2 RETURN OP OGLETHORPE WITH REINFORCEMENTS.
1737, he was appointed general of the forces in South Carolina and Georgia; and in September, he was made colonel of a regiment to be raised for the defence of Georgia. This regiment he mustered into service in a short time; officered it with gentlemen of family and character; attached to it twenty cadets, whom he after wards promoted, as vacancies happened; and in addi tion, took out with him forty supernumeraries at his own expense. With a view to attach the soldiers to the colony, and give them a local interest in its defence, each man was allowed to take out a wife, for whom rations and extra pay were provided. So soon as his regiment was organized and drilled, he sent over part of it, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cochran, in the spring of 1738; which, landing in Charleston on the 3d of May, proceeded thence to Frederica, where a fort had previously been built by Oglethorpe. On the first of July, Oglethorpe, having received full in structions from the king, embarked with the remainder of his regiment on board the Hector and Blandford menof-war, and five transports. On the 19th of September they reached St. Simons, and disembarked amidst the salvoes of artillery from the newly-erected fort. Thus the general had now at his command a full and wellappointed regiment, with forty supernumeraries; and every officer was at his post, on active duty.
This was a most seasonable relief to the colony; for during Oglethorpe's absence the southern settlements had been frequently menaced with invasion; and au thentic intelligence was received of the large prepara tions making at Havana and St. Augustine for the purpose of destroying the colony. But this expedition, which the Governor of Cuba and St. Augustine had planned, under the command of Colonel Don Juan Bap-

TRAITORS IN THE COLONY.

153

de Echererria, to dislodge the settlers of Georgia, during the absence of Oglethorpe, was, by order of the king, given up; and its relinquishment was a cause of great sorrow to Montiano, who promised himself happy results from the wisdom, firmness, and adequate means which had marked the arrangements for this expedi tion. 19
But Oglethorpe had foes within as well as without the colony, who, by their treachery and mutiny, well High brought the province to the verge of ruin. Wri ting to the Trustees, on board the Blandford at Plymouth, July 3d, 1738, he says: " We have discov ered that one of our soldiers has been in the Spanish service, and that he hath strove to seduce several men to desert with him to them, on their arrival in Geor gia. He designed also to murder the officers, or such persons as could have money, and carry off the plun der. Two of the gang have confessed and accused him; but we cannot discover the rest. The fellow has plenty of money; and he said he was to have sixty or a hundred crowns, according to the number of men he carried. He is yet very obstinate ; refusing to give any account of his correspondents. We shall not try him till we come to Georgia, because we hope we shall make more discoveries." And again, on the 8th of October, he writes to the Duke of Newcastle: " We have discovered some men who listed themselves as spies. We took upon one of them his furlough from Berwick's regiment in the Irish troops. They strove to persuade some of our men to betray a post to the Spaniards; who, instead of complying, discovered their

19 Manuscript Letters of Don Man- Guemes y Horcasitas. Captain-General uel de Montiano, Governor of East of the island of Cuba; copied from the Florida, to .Don Juan Francisco de original archives in St. Augustine.

154

ARREST AND EXECUTION.

intentions. I have ordered a general court-martial for the trying of them, who have not yet made their report. One of them owns himself a Roman Catholic, and denies the king having any authority over him." One of the persons implicated in this plot was Will iam Shannon, a Papist, who was whipped and drum med out of the regiment. The following year he was discovered by General Oglethorpe in the Indian coun try, endeavouring to persuade the Creeks to join the French. Being apprehended and sent to Savannah, he there, in company with a Spaniard who professed to be a travelling doctor, but was evidently a spy, broke prison in August, 1740. Soon after killing two persons at Fort Argyle, they were again arrested at the Uchee town, taken to Savannah, tried, condemned, and in November executed.20 Nor was this the only danger to which he was exposed. He was placed in a more perilous situation while inspecting the troops at Fort St. Andrews on Cumberland island. The two com panies who occupied this post came over with Colonel Cochran in May, and were drawn from the garrison at Gibraltar, where, in addition to their pay, they also received their rations. These rations were continued six months after their arrival in America. But wr hen, by order of the government, they were withdrawn, and nothing but their pay left, they became dissatis fied ; and one, more bold than the rest, went up to the general, who was standing at the door with Captain Mackay, and demanded a continuance of rations. This the general refused. The soldier returned some im pertinent answer, upon which Captain Mackay drewhis sword to cut him; but the villain snatched it from him, broke it in two, and throwing the hilt at his
20 Stephens's Journal, iii. 32.

DANGER AND ESCAPE OP OGLETHORPE.

155

head, ran for the barracks, where, taking his gun and crying out, " One and all!" he marched out with five others, and one of the ringleaders shot at the general at a few yards' distance : the ball whizzed above his shoulder, and the powder burnt his face and scorched his clothes. Another flashed his gun twice, but it did not go off. By this time the faithful soldiers sur rounded their officers, and apprehended the culprits, who were also tried by court martial, and received sentence of death.
Thus was Oglethorpe and Georgia preserved from the nefarious designs of Spanish emissaries, and the mutinous assault of infuriated soldiers. The discovery and punishment of these attempts did not deter the Spaniards from plotting other and more infamous schemes for the extermination of Georgia and the Carolinas. By their intrigues with the slave popula tion, they excited an insurrection which threatened for a time appalling consequences. They sent secret emissaries among them, who told of the liberty and protection extended to them in St. Augustine, and of the honours to which some who had fled thither were promoted; fora regiment of runaway slaves had been organized by the Governor of St. Augustine, officered by negroes with arms, uniform, and pay equal to the regular troops; and by the artifices of their negro re cruiting sergeants many were inveigled away from their Carolina homes. This plan was not however sufficiently expeditious; and more prompt measures were decided on. Assem bling at Stono, the negroes killed the keepers of the public stores; seized the guns and ammunition ; elected a captain; and, augmenting their numbers as they proceeded, marched for Charleston with drums

156

ATROCITIES OP SI'ANISII EMISSARIES.

beating and colours flying, flushed with success, and desperate with revenge. For twelve miles they con tinued their bloody course, killing every white person they met, burning every house, stripping, as far as their haste permitted, every plantation, and compel ling the negroes on their route to join their band.
Fortunately they were discovered by Governor Bull; and he gave the alarm to the planters who had gathered to church at Wiltown. They heard it in the midst of the service, and, grasping their arms, which the law compelled them to carry at all times, they joined the militia hastily summoned by Captain Bee, and pressed forward, leaving the women and children, fainting and trembling with alarm, in the church.
The insurrectionary band having prostrated them selves by intoxication, encamped in a field, and fearing no evil, began to dance and sing in the wild revels of bloody bacchanals.
Surrounding them in the midst of these orgies, the planters and militia poured upon them a dreadful fire, broke up their camp, and routed the fiendish crew. The ringleaders were taken, and paid the penalty of death for their rapine and murders.31 Such were some of the means used by the machinating Spaniards to effect the ruin of the English plantations. Is it to be wondered at that the people should be incensed, when for years they had been subjected to open or covert attacks of such an enemy as regardless of mercy, as of justice; as treacherous to promises, as to treaties; under cover of ambassadors, sending spies; under pre text of commissions, planning invasion; and under the shadow of conventional articles, gaining time to plot new artifices and enact new atrocities ? The Indians,
21 Hewitt, ii. 72.

THE GREAT COUNCIL OF THE INDIANS..

157

also, as well as the soldiers and the negroes, were made to do their part in the plan of Georgia's annihilation. They were, during Oglethorpe's absence, decoyed to St. Augustine, under pretence of seeing him there; but not being seen by them, the Spaniards excused them selves-by declaring that he was taken suddenly ill on board of a ship in the harbour. They then strove to buy them off from their allegiance to the King of Great Britain; and failing in this, they put forth threats; but these were as unavailing as their gifts; and foiled in their efforts, they were compelled to let them depart.32
As soon, therefore, as Oglethorpe returned, he saw the necessity of renewing his treaties with the Indian tribes, and cultivating their friendly alliance. To secure this, he wTent, in October, 1738, to Savannah, where he met the chiefs of four towns of the Creek Indians, and strengthened their fidelity to the British king. Anxious, however, to secure a still larger co operation of the Indians in the event of hostilities breaking out, he resolved, though at much personal risk and fatigue, to attend the great council of the tribes, which was to assemble in July and August at Covveta, BOW Fort Mitchell, on the Chatahoochee. Thither he went, with only a few pack-horses, travelling by day along the narrow^ war-paths or the blazed roads of the trader; crossing streams by ford or swimming; press ing through morasses and thickets; camping at night in some vast forest of pine, or by the river's bank; ex posed to the Indian and the betrayer, to the heats of a southern summer, and the perils and trials incident to a journey of nearly three hundred miles at such a season, through a wilderness country, bordering on the savage allies of the French, and the territories of the

22 State Paper Office, i. 89.

158

DEATH AND BURIAL OF TOMOCIIICHI.

Spaniards. " It is impossible," says Oglethorpe,23 " to describe the joy they expressed at my arrival. They met me forty miles hi the woods," and laid supplies of provisions for him along the road. At Coweta, he was received by the assembled chiefs of the Creek confed eracy with assurances of high regard ;24 and with the usual formalities, and with singular harmony and good will, he concluded a treaty with them, on the 21st of August, 1739, confirming the right of the English to their lands, and strengthening the ties which bound them to each other in mutual dependence. Their al liance secured, he returned, by the way of Augusta, to Savannah, which he reached on the 22d of September. While here, he was called upon to assist in the funeral obsequies of his devoted friend and ally, Tomochichi. His last illness was a lingering one; and he expired at his Indian town, near Savannah, on the 5th of Octo ber, 1.739. His desire to be buried among the Eng lish was granted. The body was brought down in a canoe, from his late residence, and was met at the foot of the bluff by General Oglethorpe and the civil authori ties, who formed a procession, and carried it into Percival Square; Oglethorpe and Colonel Stephens, the President, being two of the pall-bearers. During the march of the funeral train, minute guns were tired from the battery; and when the corpse was lowered into the grave, the militia fired three vollies over him; and all felt that they had committed to the earth, one whose early countenance and continued support had greatly assisted in settling and protecting the colony. Faithful as an ally, generous as a friend, active and efficient as a warrior, Tomochichi merits the encomiums of the historian, and the respect of Georgians. During his

23 State Paper Office, i. 123,

24 Ib. i. Ill, 122.

ENGLAND ANT D SPAIN.

159

stay at Savannah, Oglethorpe received the orders, rumours of which had reached him among the Indians, to make reprisals on the King of Spain the prelude to that war which neither professed to desire, but which neither strove to avoid.
In looking at the relations subsisting between Great Britain and Spain, we find other causes of rupture than those arising from the settlement of this province. This was but one count in the national indictment. The prime cause was, on the side of the Spaniards, the ille gal trade which English colonies and English vessels carried on with the colonial dependencies of Spain, by which means the commerce of the mother country was reduced to one-seventh of its tonnage and value; and on the part of the British, the oppressive restrictions imposed on English bottoms trading in her colonies, the interruptions to her lawful traffic, and the seizure and condemnation of her vessels, to the great destruc tion of her colonial commerce. Ever since the treaty of Seville, in 1730, these violent and unjustifiable meas ures towards British trade had been carried on in Span ish America. The merchants had remonstrated and pe titioned; and the British minister at Madrid had memo rialized and threatened the court of Spain; but there was no relaxation to this almost piratical devastation. To this disregard of England, the court of Madrid was doubtless incited by the timourousness of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and his unwillingness to sacrifice his administration, which he felt he must do, if the country was plunged into war.
The Spaniards gathered courage from his timidity, and felt that they could tyrannize while he could hesitate. At last the minister, finding himself com pelled to act, agreed to a convention by which

100 NEW TREATY. ITS PROVISIONS DISREGARDED.
plenipotentiaries, mutually appointed, should adjust all differences between the two kingdoms. By the articles of this convention, dated Pardo, Jamiary 14th, 1739, and signed by Benjamin Keene, His British Majesty's minister plenipotentiary to the court of Madrid, and Don Sebastian de la Quadra, knight and first secretary of state, it was declared with regard to the disputed territories of Great Britain and Spain, in Georgia, that things " shall remain in the situation they are in at present, without increasing the fortifications there, or making any new post;"25 and as for the great interests of com merce, in which not the Trustees of Georgia alone, but the whole British nation, were absorbed, they were sacrificed by the envoy for the sum of ninetyfive thousand pounds; which sum, so insignificant to cover mercantile losses running back to 1718,26 was even withheld by His Catholic Majesty, on the pretext of a debt of the South Sea Company, of sixty-eight thousand pounds, confessedly due as duties per -capite on imported negroes. Such a mockery of justice as was exhibited by this convention, could not fail to rouse the British nation; and though Sir Robert Walpole strove to stem the current, yet the voice of the kingdom was with Pitt, who declared not only that the conven tion was unsatisfactory and dishonourable, but nothing more than a stipulation for national ignominy. The King of Spain himself did not respect the terms of the convention, but opened hostilities even before war was declared, by ordering seizures of British goods and vessels, and compelling the withdrawal of all British subjects from his dominions. George II. met these orders of the Spanish monarch by directing his sub-
25 Gentleman's Magazine, 1739, 69. 36 Anderso:A- Commeree, iii. 480,

WAR WITH SPAIN DECLARED.

161

jects to make reprisals, and these were the orders which met Oglethorpe on his return to Savannah. The convention, however, had been of some service to Georgia. As soon as Oglethorpe received it, he acted upon it; and trusting to its pacific terms, not only discontinued fortifying his posts, but took occa sion of this lull to make his important journey to the Indian council, which he would not have felt war ranted in doing, had there been no such armistice. His promptness was now peculiarly manifested. So soon as he received the " orders," he addressed him self to the work of putting South Carolina and Georgia, of which provinces he was commander-in-chief, in a state of defence. He sent up an officer to bring down a thousand Indians to his aid,27 raised a troop of horse,
called upon the men-of-war to cover the harbour and sea-coast. By further instructions from the king, he was directed, after consulting with the governor and council of South Carolina, to proceed, if both thought it advisable, to Florida, and either demolish St. Augustine, or capture it and leave in it a proper English garrison. Such hostile instructions, emanating from both monarchs, made war inevitable ; and on the 22d of October, 1739, it was declared, in London, with the usual formalities.
As yet, however, Oglethorpe had only been acting on the defensive; and it was reserved for the Span iards, even before the news of the declaration was received in America, to begin the hostilities of the ensuing campaign, by an act of cruelty and atrocity worthy, not of soldiers, but of dastardly cowards.
A party from St. Augustine landed on Amelia island and killed two unarmed men, who were carrying

21 State Paper Office, i. 114. 11

162

EXPEDITION UP THE ST. JOHN'S.

wood, cut off their heads, and mangled their bodies; arid failing in an attempt to surprise the fort, fled to their boats and precipitately retired. Oglethorpe im mediately manned all the boats at Frederica with the Highland rangers, a detachment of the regiment, and a number of the inhabitants, and placing himself at their head, pursued the enemy to the St. John's, de stroying all the boats he found on that river, and proceeded one day's march towards St. Augustine, repulsing the cavalry and foot which for a moment dis puted his progress. Unable, from the hurried nature of his expedition, to take advantage of his success, he hastened back to Frederica and sent Lieutenant Dunbar, with forty soldiers and ten Indians,28 up the St. John's, to destroy the remaining boats and recon noitre the fort, which, contrary to express treaties, the Spaniards had built at Picolata. Having exam ined this place, and discovered what he supposed a pregnable part, Lieutenant Dunbar attacked it with much spirit; but having no cannon, was obliged to retire, three of his party being wounded, and one Spaniard killed in the conflict. Returning to Frederica, the story of this disaster only elevated the ardour of the troops and Indians; and the latter, in particular, were clamourous to be led against the enemy who had built on their hunting ground and invaded their territories. Finding his own impulses thus seconded, the general organized a large military and Indian force, and with several pieces of cannon, embarked on the first day of December for Florida. Steering up the St. Johns, he sent a party of Indian

28 JMou'dano (IHS. Letters) makes the fort which he attacked was, accordthis force to consist of two hundred ing to the same authority, defended and forty English and Indians, while with but seventeen men.

CAPTURE OF FORT ST. FRANCIS.

163

scouts before him, who, suddenly falling upon Picolata, surprised and burnt it at daylight, on the seventh, two hours before Oglethorpe with his forces arrived. Proceeding onward, he landed under shelter of the woods near Fort St. Francis; and, while the Indians aad Highland rangers under Adjutant Hugh Mackay, skirmished from an adjoining wood, he with his regu lars, screened by the dense forest, erected two bat teries, mounted his artillery, and then, at five in the afternoon, cutting down the intervening trees, dis covered his position, fired his cannon, and summoned the fort to surrender. The Spaniards sent back an answering volley, one ball of which well nigh proved fatal to Oglethorpe; but a second discharge from the battery brought them to terms, and in the evening the fort was surrendered with all its munitions, and the garrison marched out as prisoners of war. The object of his expedition was accomplished, and leaving a small garrison in Fort St, Francis, he returned to Frederica to repose his troops and devise new plans for the future. This little expedition was valuable to the English, as it gave them the navigation of the St. Johns, and was a serious loss to the Spaniards, as it cut off their communication with Appalachee, and pre vented the passage of couriers to West Florida or to the friendly Indians. " To endure this occupation of the St. John's," says Montiano, with Spanish grandilo quence, " would subject to scorn the sacred honour of the king give a hideous stain to the Catholic arms and offend the pride of the nation;"29 and therefore he entreated Guemes y Horcasitas, the Captain-General of Cuba, to send him schooners and seamen to dislodge the English and recover Francisco de Pupo. Such
29 Moutiano 1ISS.

164

NOTICE OF CHRISTIAN PR1BER.

were the opening scenes of the bloody contests that were soon to follow.
While Oglethorpe was thus engaged in Florida, a plot was discovered among the Indians, which threat ened serious consequences to all the southern colo nies. This was occasioned by the artful intrigues of a German Jesuit named Christian Priber, who was em ployed by the French to spy out the condition of the English provinces, and to seduce the Cherokees from their allegiance to the English. He went up into the nation in 1736, and conforming at once to all their manners and customs, made himself master of their language, and gradually insinuated into their minds a distrust of their allies, a love for the French, and such notions of independence and importance as made them tit to assert rights never before claimed, and which he knew would not be conceded; and upon this antici pated refusal, he based his scheme of bringing them to an open rupture with the English. Acting upon their vanity, he got up what in the eyes of the savages was a splendid coronation .scene, in which he crowned the chief as king of the confederated towns, and bestowed upon the other head-men and warriors such pompous titles as flattered their pride and stimulated their am bition. Priber was appointed royal secretary to the King of the Cherokees, and under this official title cor responded with the English Indian agents and the colonial governments. An attempt was made by South Carolina to secure him, and Colonel Fox was sent up as a commissioner to demand him of the Indian authorities; but he had so ingratiated himself with them that they refused, and with such a spirit and resentment that the commissioner was compelled to return without securing his prey. His ascendency

PLAN OF CHRISTIAN PRIBER.

165

over the nation was great. He used the Indians as the tools of his machinations, and they looked upon l)im with feelings of profound veneration, and pro fessed subservience to his scheme of linking their interest to that of the French on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. His plans, however, were de feated by his capture at the Tallipoose town, when within a day's journey of the French garrison, to which he was hastening. Thus secured by the traders, he was sent down with all his papers under a strong Indian guard to Frederica, to be judged and punished as Oglethorpe should direct. On the return of the general from Florida, he ordered his strange prisoner to be examined, and was not a little surprised to find under his coarse dress of deerskins and Indian mocca sins, a man of polished address, great abilities, and extensive learning. He was versed not only in the Indian language, of which he had composed a diction ary, but also spoke the Latin, French, and Spanish fluently, and English perfectly. Upon being interro gated as to his design, he acknowledged that it was "to bring about a confederation of all the southern Indians, to inspire them with industry, to instruct them in the arts necessary to the commodities of life, and, in short, to engage them to throw off the yoke of their European allies of all nations." He proposed to make a settlement in that part of Georgia which is within the limits of the Cherokee lands at Cusseta, and to settle a town there of fugitive English, French, and Germans; and they were to take under their par ticular care the runaway negroes of the English. All criminals were to be sheltered, as he proposed to make his place an asylum for all fugitives, and the cattle and effects they might bring with them. He

166

PRIBER'S SCHEME OF GOVERNMENT.

expected a great resort of debtors, transported felons, servants, and negro slaves from the two Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia, offering as his scheme did tolera tion to all crimes and licentiousness, except murder and idleness. Upon his person was found his private jour nal, revealing, in part his designs, with various memo randa relating to his project. In it he speaks not only of individual Indians and negroes, whose assistance had been promised, and of a private treasurer in Charleston for keeping the funds collected; but also that he expected many things from the French, and from another nation whose name he left blank. There were also found upon him letters for the Florida and Spanish governors, demanding their protection of him, and countenance of his scheme. Among his papers was one containing articles of government for his new town, regularly and elaborately drawn out and digest ed. In this volume he enumerates many rights and privileges, as he calls them, to which the citizens of this colony are to be entitled, particularly dissolving marriages, allowing a community of women, and all kinds of licentiousness. It was drawn up with much art, method, and learning; and was designed to be privately printed and circulated. When it was hinted to him that such a plan was attended with many dan gers and difficulties, and must necessarily require many years to establish his government, he replied: " Proceeding properly, many of these evils may be avoided ; and as to length of time, we have a succes sion of agents to take up the work as fast as others leave it. We never lose sight of a favourite point; nor are we bound by the strict rules of morality in the means, when the end we pursue is laudable. If we err, our general is to blame; and we have a merciful

DEATH OF PRIBER.

367

God to pardon us." " But, believe me," he continued, "before this century is passed, the Europeans will have a very small footing on this continent." Indeed, he often hinted that there were others of his brethren labouring among the Indians for the same purpose. Being confined in the barracks at Frederica, he exhib ited a stoical indifference to his fate, conversed with freedom, conducted with politeness, and attracted the notice and favourable attentions of many of the gen tlemen there. His death in prison put an end to all further proceedings, and his plans died with him.
Such was the strange being, whose Jesuitical in trigues well nigh eventuated in the destruction of Georgia. A thorough Jesuit, an accomplished linguist, a deep tactitian, far-sighted in his plans, and far-reach ing in his expedients, he possessed every qualification for his design, and only failed of bringing down great evil upon the English, because he was apprehended before his sclieme had been matured.30
The hostilities already begun, were in the estimation of Oglethorpe but a preface to severer contests that were soon to follow. But before we enter upon the recital of these stirring events, let us take a survey of

30 State Paper Office, ii. 142. Dods- her, like Rasles, was deeply versed in ley's Annual Register, 1760, Charac- the Indian dialects was of the order ters, 22. Extracts from South Caro- of Loyola was identified with the Inlina Gazette, 1743. Adair's American dians was strong in his hatred to the Indians, 240-3. Grahame, in la's His- English; but they had scarcely any tory of the United States, ii. 73, 139, other points in common, and it is rather American edition, compares him to Fa- degrading to the character of Rasles ther Sebastian Rasles, the able French to put him in comparison with the inJesuit among the New England In- -triguing Priber. Vide Life of Rasles, dians. But Rasles busied himself by Dr.Francis, in Sparks's Amer.Biog., about no scheme of conquest no vii. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, fanciful city of refuge no con- viii. 2fiO. Kip's Early Jesuit Missions federation of tribes no wide-spread in North America, Letters i. ii. iii. destructi on of coloni :>.l settlements. Pri-

168

UNPROTECTED STATE OP ST. AUGUSTINE.

the belligerent powers, as they then appeared in Flor ida and Georgia.
Don Manuel Joseph de Justis, who had succeeded Moral as Governor of St. Augustine, was himself dis placed in 1735, and Don Manuel de Montiano, a cap tain in the grenadier corps of infantry of Aragon, with the rank of colonel, was appointed to the office the same year. He found the city without proper protection or defences, there being neither bomb-proof vaults, nor counter-scarp, nor covered way, nor ravelines in the curtains, nor other outer works that could make a de fence. Its interior was dilapidated, and its ordnance such that it had no cannon that could fire twenty-four hours.31 He promptly set to work to repair and ex tend the fortifications; and on his representations Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas, Captain-Gen eral of Cuba, sent over from time to time money, can non, munitions of war, soldiers, sailors, convicts, cloth ing, and other fort supplies, besides the skilful engineer Don Antonio de Arredondo, under whose supervision the works were rapidly perfected and enlarged. The ramparts were heightened and casemated ; a covered way was made by planting and embanking four thou sand stakes; bomb-proof vaults were built, and en trenchments were thrown up all around the town, pro tected by ten salient angles and the usual accompani ments of such fortifications. The castle was built of tabby, with four bastions, the curtains forty yards long, the counter-scarp faced with stone, and a covered way well protected. It was garrisoned by about a thou sand foot, artillery and cavalry, besides the militia of the town, the convicts sent by the Archbishop of Virrey, and their Indian allies. Situated behind the
5 ' Montiano MSS.

MILITARY FORCE OF GEORGIA.

169

island of Anastasia, which protected it from the sea, it was further defended from attacks by water, not only by the natural shallowness of its bar, but by a fort erected on the north end of Anastasia, covering the entrance to the harbour. Well located therefore as to its geographical advantages, it was put in a good state of defence by Don Antonio Arredondo and other skilful engineers, who fortified every assailable point and strengthened every defensible position. Besides all this, St. Augustine was nigh to Havana, where was posted a considerable body of troops as well as vessels and munitions of war.
The military force of Georgia was small. Its only fort of importance was at Frederica on St. Simons Island. This work was constructed in the form of half a hexagon, with two bastions, and two half bas tions, and towers upon the point of each bastion, after Vauban's method. The walls were of earth, faced with timber ten feet high in the lowest places, and thirteen in the highest, the timbers being from three to twelve inches thick.3- These were surrounded by a deep entrenchment, with gales which admitted the tide. Landward it showed two strong bastions; riverward there was a water battery; and seaward, just beyond the review ground, was a dense wood com pletely hiding the fort from all advancing vessels; while in front of that wood, and protected by a deep creek and wide miry marsh, was a battery of twelve heavy guns, which perfectly commanded the entrance to the harbour of Frederica. The place was garri soned by a part only of General Oglethorpe's regi ment, the remainder of the forces being distributed in

32 State Paper Office, i. 125.

170 PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACKING ST. AUGUSTINE.
the small forts on the other islands commanding the passages and frontiers of Georgia.
Such was the relative position of parties when the news arrived that war had been declared.
Resolved now to attack St. Augustine, Oglethorpe, after putting the forts on the islands and main in good defence, repaired to Charleston, where he urged upon the assembly their co-operation. They passed an act for the raising of a regiment of four hundred men, and a company of rangers; which latter being found imprac ticable, a hundred men were added to the regiment in its place, for four months; and they also made appro priations for manning and equipping a colonial schooner, with ten carriage and sixteen swivel guns, and a crew of fifty men. This force was only placed at Oglethorpe's disposal after much debate and much opposi tion, though his presence tended to rouse some enthu siasm and call forth some volunteers. Hastening to Frederica, he was actively employed in arranging and training his forces for the proposed expedition. Num bers of his Indian allies were called down to Frederica; a vessel was despatched to Providence, in the Bermu das, for mortars, powder, bombs, and cannon; while Captain Pearce, in the Flambo, and Captain Warren, in the Squirrel, sixth-rates of twenty guns and a hun dred and thirty men each, co-operated by sea. Sir Yelverton Peyton, in the Hector, a forty-gun ship, was requested to assist at the siege; and the Assembly of South Carolina also augmented their regiment by rais ing two hundred additional men.
The entire force destined for the attack of St. Augustine consisted of a detachment of five hundred officers and men of His Majesty's regiment of foot, one troop of Highland rangers, one troop of English

DISPOSITION OF TROOPS.

171

rangers, one company of Highland foot, one company of English foot, one Carolina regiment of six hundred Men, under Colonel Vander Deusen, besides Indians, boatmen, and some few volunteers from Charleston.
It was under great obstacles that the general col lected his forces, which he divided into two bodies, aad directed his course towards Florida. One body, , consisting of the Carolina troops, the Highlanders, and the Indian allies, were to proceed by land for the St. Johns; the other, with the artillery, convoyed by the men-of-war, went round with Oglethorpe by water. He crossed the St. John's on the 9th of May, and on the 10th took Fort St. Diego, three leagues from St. Augustine, containing fifty-seven men, nine small and two large cannon, seventy small arms, and much am munition. Leaving Lieutenant Dunbar and fifty men to garrison this post, he returned to the St. John's, to await the arrival of the Carolina troops. These soon joined him; and on the 15th, he entered the Spanish territories, with a force consisting of nine hundred regu lar and provincial troops, and eleven hundred Indians. With these he marched upon Fort Moosa, which the Spaniards evacuated without resistance, and retired into St. Augustine, two miles distant. Having failed in his design to surprise the city, he now held a con ference with the naval officers, and resolved to attack the place from three points, combining as much as pos sible the strength of the land and naval forces. Ac cording to this plan, the Hector, the flag-ship of the Commodore, Sir Yelverton Peyton, the Flamborough, Captain Pearce, the Phoenix, Captain Fanshaw, the Squirrel, Captain Warren, the Tartar, Captain Townshend, of twenty guns each, and the two sloops, the Spence, Captain Laws, and the Wolf, Captain Dan-

172

PLAN TO ATTACK ST. AUGUSTINE FAILS.

dridge, were to blockade the northern and Matanzas passages to St. Augustine. Capt. Warren was to land with two hundred sailors on Anastasia, and throw up works for the purpose of commanding and bombarding the town ; while Oglethorpe, with the land forces, designed to attack the town in the rear. When the general had drawn up his troops in attacking columns, he was to notify Sir Yelverton of the commencement of the action by certain signals mutually agreed upon, when the batteries on Anastasia, consisting of six eighteens, three mortars, and twenty cohorns, were to open upon the town in front. All things being ready, Oglethorpe gave the signal of attack, but no answer was returned. In great impatience, his forces being judiciously posted and eager for the onset, he repeated it, but failing to obtain the counter-sign, he was com pelled to march the army back to its quarters, until he could learn the cause of this unlooked-for and painful derangement of his well-laid schemes. He found that the co-operation of the ships was rendered impractica ble in consequence of the drawing up of the Spanish gallies just inside the bar, sufficiently removed to be protected from the fire of the ships, and yet so disposed that no boats could land troops without being exposed to the fire both of the gallies and the batteries of the town; while the shallowness of the bar did not permit of their being dislodged by the advance of the English ships.
Mortified at the failure of his cherished design, of the success of which he had been so confident, he was now compelled to change his plan of operation from a storm to a siege. To prevent succour being given to the garrison, which was now closely invested, General Oglethorpe directed Colonel Palmer, with eighty-five

CAPTURE OF PORT MOOSA.

173

whites and forty Indians, to scour the vicinity of St. Augustine as a flying party, showing themselves now here and now there, taking care not to let the enemy know their numbers, not to engage in suspicious places, not to encamp two nights in the same spot, but to take the thickets in the night and the plains in the day, and at all times to keep open a passage to St. Diego, to which post they were to retreat if attacked by superior force. These judicious orders Colonel Palmer dis obeyed; and by remaining at the negro fort, or Moosa, two or three nights in succession, under the impression that the Spaniards would not venture out to attack him, subjected himself and his brave troops, most of whom were Highlanders, to the dreadful surprise and massa cre which followed. On Saturday night, June 25th, at eleven o'clock, three hundred men, tinder the com mand of Don Antonio Salgrado, made a sortie from the gates of St. Augustine, and early on Sunday morning, after most desperate resistance by the troops under Colonel Palmer, succeeded in capturing Fort Moosa. In this bloody conflict the colonel, a captain, and twenty Highlanders were killed, besides several Indians and twenty-seven soldiers taken prisoners; the rest, effect ing their escape, brought the dismal news to Oglethorpe. This victory, bought by the Spaniards at the cost of over a hundred lives, opened to them the country, and was valuable as it enabled them to pro vision their already straitened garrison. Thwarted in this important measure, his troops already wasting under the effects of the noon-day sun and the midnight dews, his Indian allies restive from inaction, and the ships compelled soon to depart, Oglethorpe, unwilling to give up all further efforts, resolved to make one more attempt for the reduction of St. Augustine. He now posted the

174

ECMlIURDMENT OP SI'. AUGUSTINE.

Carolina regiment on a neck of land between the North Channel and St. Mark's river, called Point Quartel, commanding the castle on the north-east, while the rest of his troops passed over to Anastasia island, and joined the seamen, under Captains Warren, Laws, and Townshend, who were detached from the squadron, which lay at anchor just outside the bar. The landing of the soldiers and sailors on the island was not effected without opposition, for the Spaniards had erected a sand battery opposite the north breakers, which com manded the landing-places for some distance on both sides; but this was soon taken, and the enemy retreated to the half gallies, which, after taking them on board, anchored a little to the south of the town/in Matanzas river. The cannon and mortars being already placed in battery, the English opened upon the town on the 24th of June, from a mortar of grenades, some of which fell and exploded within the enemy's fort, but from which, says Montiano, " glory be to God, we received no corporeal damage."
The cannonading and bombardment was continued at intervals, with occasional feints of open attack, to test their prowess or draw out sorties, until the 1st of July, when Oglethorpe sent in a flag demanding its surrender. Montiano refused; and a severe fire was poured upon the city, which the Spaniards returned with much briskness from the castle and half gallies, drawn up in Matanzas river. But though little execu tion was clone by the artillery, and no breach that would admit a storming party was made in the walls or castle, yet the distress of the besieged for food was very great, and nearly forced them to capitulate. "My greatest anxiety," writes the Spanish Governor, " is for provisions; and if they do not come, there is no doubt

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4 Tartar, ' /%'/<',

GARRISON RELIEVED.

175

of our dying by the hands of hunger." Yet they bravely maintained their posts, and heroically sustained the siege. The bombardment was kept up twenty <ia?s; but owing to the distance at which the batteries were placed, the small calibre of their guns and mor tars, and the want of proper platforms and carriages on which to mount them, the lire was mostly ineffectual, as were also the discharges of the Spanish artillery.
The determined bravery of Montiano was now re warded; for in less than twenty-four hours from the time when he wrote so despondingly about their iccessities, three bilunders laden with provisions, sent by the Governor of Cuba, entered the Musquito bar, and gave indescribable joy to both governor and people. This supply changed the entire aspect of affairs. All hopes of reducing the place by starva tion were at an end. To break the walls, and pour storming parties into the city and castle, was imprac ticable with their light park of artillery; to remain where they were, exposed to the intense heat of the summer sun, was a reckless hazard; and to attempt to take the town in any way, by storm or siege, with out a lleet to blockade the harbour, was an utter im possibility ; yet the naval council of war informed the general that they could not remain on the coast longer than the 5th of July, when they must retire into har bour at the approach of the hurricane season. They were, indeed, induced to remain a few days longer, but with an ill-concealed reluctance. The Indians, also, became exceedingly uneasy at the slow advances of the siege, a mode of warfare unsuited to their nomadic habits, and it was only by offering high premiums that Oglethorpe induced them to remain a little longer. In addition to these untoward events, the Carolina and other

176

SIEGE RAISED.

troops were becoming quite sickly, over fifty a daj being- sometimes reported on the surgeon's roll, their effective force being further weakened by the frequent desertions of non-commissioned officers and private. Finding it impossible, therefore, to continue the siege with soldiers whose term of enlistment was mostly
#
expired, with Indians sulkily retained by bribes, with cannon unequal to the task required, amidst the pros trating heats of an almost tropical sun, and without a blockading fleet, Oglethorpe ordered the siege to te raised on the 20th of July. Such of the train, ammu nition and provisions as were serviceable, were em barked on board the men-of-war for Charleston; and breaking up his camp at Anastasia, he crossed over with his troops to the main land, and with drums beating and colours flying, marched in the day-time, within gun-shot of the castle, to his encampment, three miles distant. The next day he marched nine miles, and the day following reached the St. John's, having driven back a party of five hundred men who made a sortie upon his rear-guard.
He reached Frederica the last of July, from which point the different corps returned to their several homes. The formal siege lasted thirty-eight days, from the 13th of June to 20th of July, during which the English lost less than fifty killed, including those in Fort Moosa, and about as many wounded, while the Spaniards, by their own account, lost four forts, with their ordnance, munitions and garrisons, and more than four hundred killed and taken prisoners. Though Oglethorpe failed to capture St. Augustine, the siege was yet very serviceable to the colony by deterring the Spaniards from their meditated invasion of Georgia/
and restraining the negroes within the English borders.

CAUSES OF FAILURE.

177

It is due to the general to say, that had his original been carried out, St. Augustine would in all
human probability have fallen into his hands ; but a series of events occurred, over which he could have ao control, which frustrated one by one his well-laid schemes, until he was compelled to raise the siege and march back to Frederica. His first misfortune
was in the tardy arrival of his troops. He purposed to attack the city in March, when he knew that its defences were imperfect and its supplies small;
bat the delay incident to raising, equipping and marching the Carolina regiment and the Georgia angers, lost him nearly two months of most prec ious time, in an operation to be conducted in a climate the damps and heats of which presented such formidable obstacles. Having at last got the
arrny in motion, his next misfortune was the failure of Colonel Vander Deusen to make the appointed junction, where he again lost several invaluable days of service. This was followed by the surprise and capture of Fort Moosa, in consequence of disobedience to his positive orders. But even this error and mis
fortune might have been retrieved had he possessed
the thirty-six cannon promised by Carolina; instead of
which, he had but twelve, with a few mortars and cohorns, all of which were illy mounted, badly served, arid too light for breaching service. Nor would even these deficiencies have materially hindered the reduc tion of the city, straitened as it then was for provis ions, had the blockade been vigilantly sustained, or had there been sufficient tenders of proper draught to have sailed inside the bar and met and driven away the half-gallies of the Spaniards; but the Matanzas inlet was not properly guarded, and the vessels
12

178

CAUSES OF FAILURE.

of the English drew too much water to go in and cope with the well-protected gallies of the enemy. Besides these serious misfortunes, his Indian allies were discon tented, the Carolina troops were refractory, the climate was unhealthy, the artillery was inefficient, the gar rison had been succoured by adequate supplies, and there was no hope of reducing the place unless he had a sufficient battering force to break down the walls, or ability to invest their town until hunger forced them to capitulation. The former could not be obtained, the latter would consume the months of an ardent summer. What then could Oglethorpe have done! To have made a desperate assault without the support of artillery, would have been a wasteful expenditure of life. To have continued the siege without the block ading squadron, would have inevitably ensured his capture; and for the whole naval and military force to have remained, could only end in a warfare not so much with the Spaniards as with miasma, sickness, and death.
The plans of Oglethorpe were eminently military and judicious ; his valour was unimpeached ; his zeal untiring, and his energy unexhausted. It was not, therefore, the fault of his skill or of his courage, that the expedition failed. The causes of this disaster. were such as no commanding general could control, and for the results of which no one could be made responsible.
It has been asserted by some historians, that the raising of the siege was owing to the defection of Colonel Vander Deusen and the Carolina regiment. On the contrary, he remained with Oglethorpe till the last, and General Oglethorpe acknowledged his anxiety to fight for his country, by saying that Colonel Vander

CAROLINA REGIMENT.

179

Deusen had made several handsome offers of service, which necessity had compelled him to decline. Some of the South Carolina troops did, indeed, desert, but not more in proportion to their numbers than fell off From other corps.
Colonel Vander Deusen remained in Florida until Oglethorpe left it, and did not, with his regiment, reach Charleston until the 13th of August, having lost only fourteen men by sickness and desertion. It is true that the people of South Carolina cast many unjust reflections upon Oglethorpe, and endeavoured to elevate the military character of Colonel Vander Deusen by building it up on the ruins of his comfliander-in-chief. The controversies were bitter, but worthless. Let us not exhume such a theme, long buried in the ivy-covered tomb of the past, but rather conceding to Colonel Vander Deusen the full share of honour which the Assembly of Carolina voted to him, award-to Oglethorpe also the renown he so richly Merits for his skill, valour, and untiring devotion to the protection and preservation of his beloved Georgia.33

33 Hewitt, vol. ii. 75-81 ; British Dominions in North America, part 2d, 162-166; Harris's Memorials of Ogle-
thtirpe, 223-240 ; and other writers, have given accounts of this siege, but

the above is drawn from the official MS. papers of Oglethorpe and Montiano. This may account for any dis-
crepancy between this and any previously published statement.

CHAPTER V.
SPANISH INVASION OF GEORGIA.
THOUGH compelled to abandon the long-cherished plan of capturing St. Augustine, Oglethorpe did not resign himself to inaction and repose.
His position, however, was one of great trial one which demanded peculiar virtues, such as are not often associated with high military daring or impetuous courage. His lot was to bear in patience, yet with firmness, the taunts of Spanish foes, the calumny of his Carolina enemies, the censure of those who could not comprehend his retreat; and yet, amidst it all, to sustain with a small force the posts he had established along our frontiers, protect Georgia from invasion, and rescue it from impending ruin at a time when even the smallest military knowledge conceded its almost defenceless state. The preservation of Georgia depended at this juncture upon the firmness, courage, and self-control of Oglethorpe. If he failed in any ot these, all was lost. Fortunately he had the qualities required, and Georgia was saved from destruction.
Unrelaxing in his vigilance, he still kept up parties of Indians hovering about the frontiers of Florida, who occasionally brought in a Spanish prisoner; he fitted

BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES.

181

out small vessels as cruisers to protect the islands and observe the operations of the enemy, and fortified all his outposts, strengthening and defending every assail able point, himself superintending the operations with unremitting zeal and distinguished ability. The prin cipal seat of war in this Spanish contest was now removed from Florida to Cuba, and the forces of England under Vernon and Wentworth were aiming at the reduction of Havana. But the sudden lustre which gilded the arms of the Admiral at Porto Bello, was dimmed by that lack of energy and tameness which he subsequently exhibited; and the hopes which clustered around the land forces as they em barked from England, or were enlisted and mustered into service in America, were dissipated by the death of the brave Earl of Cathcart, and the consequent de volving of the command on General Wentworth, a man whose incapacity brought disaster and disgrace on the British arms. Cuba being thus menaced, all its resources were required for its own defence; and Florida was left to the energy and care of its brave and gallant governor. Occasional but inefficent de scents were made upon the coasts of Georgia ; alarms were often sent abroad among the settlers, and once (21st of August, 1741) Oglethorpe, with a number of officers, pursued some privateers even within sight of the castle of St. Augustine, and cruised off its bar and the Matanzas inlet, where they were very nearly wrecked by a hurricane.1 Thus wore away nearly two years, usefully occupied in preparing for the threat ened invasion of Georgia by the Spaniards, which was only delayed by the expected attack upon Cuba of the land and marine forces of Admiral Vernon and Gen-
1 MS. Doc. from State Paper Office, ii. 7.

182

ARMAMENT LEAVES HAVANA.

eral Wentworth. This restraint removed by the recall of the fleet and the disbanding of the troops, the Governors of Cuba and Florida directed their efforts to their long-meditated plan for the reduction of Georgia.
Aware of the coolness which the government of Carolina manifested towards Oglethorpe since the un fortunate failure of the siege of St. Augustine, owing to the mutual criminations of the Carolina and Georgia troops, the Spaniards hoped that that province would not come to his help, so that he would be thrown upon the resources which he could call around him in Geor gia.
In May, the armament destined for the conquest of Georgia,2 consisting of fifty-six vessels and about seven thousand men, left Havana for St. Augustine. One of their large vessels, with one hundred and fifty men, was lost in passing the Moro Castle; and soon after the fleet was dispersed by a storm. On their passage His Majesty's ship Flambo, Captain Hamar, engaged and drove ashore some of them, losing, how ever, a boat and seventeen men in the attack.3 Of the arrival of this force in St. Augustine, Oglethorpe was informed by his Indian spies, deserters, and the letters of Captain Hamar; and he addressed himself at once to the task of preparing for their attack. " It is too late now," says the General,4 " to desire your Grace to represent this to His Majesty, and ask succours; be fore they can arrive the matter will be over. I hope I shall behave as well as one with so few men and so little artillery can." Messengers were despatched to Charleston, but no help was sent, owing to the dissen-

2 Gentlemen's Magazine, 1742. 695. 4 Ib. 25.

3 State Paper Office, ii. 28.

HEROIC SPIRIT OF OGLETHORPE.

183

sions of the Carolinians among themselves, and their wrongful distrust of the commander-in-chief;" and he was left to bear alone the formidable invasion which threatened the destruction of the colony.
But his heroic spirit rose with the danger; and his noble language was, " We are resolved not to suffer defe.at; we will rather die like Leonidas and his Spar tans, if we can but protect Georgia, and Carolina, and the rest of the Americans, from desolation." Well might he add, " and the rest of the Americans from desolation;" because it entered into the design of the Spaniards not only to capture the forts of Georgia, but to invade and lay waste the coasts of both the Carolinas, and carry the terror of their ravages as far as their ample means would allow.
On the 21st of June, 1742, nine sail had attempted to come into Amelia sound, at the mouth of the St. Mary's river, but were repulsed by the cannon of Fort William on Cumberland island, aided by an armed schooner of fourteen guns and eighty men. They reappeared the next day off St. Simons sound; and General Oglethorpe, who, at the first intelligence, had gone from Frederica to Fort St. Simons, seven miles distant, ordered a party of horsemen to range the coast northward for six miles all night, to give notice should they attempt to land men or arms; and he also ordered down two companies to reinforce the fort. Having made this demonstration, the Spaniards suddenly tacked about, and stood in for Cumberland sound; whereupon the general, with his cutter, five large boats, with a few four-pounder and swivel guns, manned by eighty soldiers and some Indians, started on the 24th to inter cept them. He soon began a conflict with some of the
5 Ib. 28.

184

SPANIARDS REACH ST. SIMONS.

enemy, and maintained it so stoutly and desperately, that, feeble as he was, he drove them off and suc coured Captain Dunbar, the commandant at Fort Will iam.
The next day he returned in the guard schooner to St. Simons, and called in the Highland company from Darien, Captain Carr's company of marines, and the Georgia rangers from the several posts to which they had been detached, and sent fresh messages to Charles ton to tell, not of anticipated attacks, but of actual invasion by an overwhelming force. On the 28th the Spanish fleet, largely reinforced, again appeared off St. Siznons bar; and having taken the bearings and soundings, lay off and on, waiting for a fair wind, to run up to Frederica. All was now activity on St. Simons. The general raised another troop of rangers, armed the planters, extended his fortifications, dis mantled many of the small vessels, and from them rigged out a merchant ship called the Success, with an armament of twenty-two guns, which he placed under the command of Captain Thompson. On the 4th of July the attacking vessels had ranged them selves in the channel at the entrance of St. Simons sound, into which the river leading to Frederica emp ties. The general then went on board the Success, and in the expectation of an attack next day, ad dressed the seamen, calling upon them " to stand by their liberties and country; for himself, he was pre pared for all danger the enemy wTere more numerous, but he relied for victory on the valour of his troops and the aid of the Almighty."15
The following day, favoured by a strong easterly wind and a flood tide, the squadron of thirty-six ves-
" Smith's Journal, in Goo. Hist. Col., i. 276.

PORT ST. SIMONS ABANDONED.

185

sels, comprising one of twenty-four guns, two ships of twenty guns, two large scows of fourteen guns, four schooners, four sloops, and the rest half-gallies, en tered St. Simons harbour.
Here Oglethorpe had stationed Captain Thompson's ship, two guard schooners, and some small trading vessels, reinforced by Captain Carr's corps of marines, to dispute the passage; while the fort of St. Simons, with its eighteen-pounders and the lower or water battery of four-pounders, in charge of Lieutenant Wall and Ensign Oterbridge, also defended the pas sage. General Oglethorpe commanded all in person, now delivering his orders on board ship, and now from the fort; for, left without an engineer officer by the departure of Lieutenant-Colonel Cook and Lieutenant Eyre, he was compelled himself to plan his redoubts, put in battery his cannon, and arrange his forces. For four hours the vessels and two small batteries of the English maintained the unequal contest; but the fleet was too numerous, and they passed up the river with a leading breeze, sinking one guard schooner, and dis abling several of the trading craft. A council of war was now held, in which it was resolved, in order to prevent being cut off in their retreat to Frederica, as they might be should the land forces immediately disembark, to destroy the munitions of war at Fort St. Simons, spike the guns, burst the cohorns, and withdraw the troops to Frederica. The Success and guard schooner, which, in spite of the enemy, got out of the river, Oglethorpe directed to sail to Charles ton to arouse the people and obtain succours. In this engagement the Spaniards lost seventeen killed and ten wounded ; the English, not a man. All night the &general was active, removing the troops, and only

186

SPANISH CAMP AT FORT ST. SIMONS.

reached the camp at Frederica just before the break of day. The Spanish vessels proceeded up the river, and anchoring below Gascoigne's bluff about four miles by water from Frederica, landed about five thou sand men. Marching down to Fort St. Simons, they took possession of the unmanned and dismantled fort, the size and strength of which they multiplied ten fold in their despatches.7 Higher up than this the vessels could not proceed without great difficulty and extreme exposure to the batteries at Frederica. The land troops were therefore debarked upon the bluff, while a demonstration was made with some of the vessels to draw the attention of the garrison to the water attack. Anticipating that they would land at Gas coigne's, Oglethorpe ordered about ninety Indians to hover around and among them by their peculiar war fare. This party brought in five prisoners to Ogle thorpe the next day, and these acquainted him that the invading force was made up of two armies, the Cuba troops, commanded by De Rodendo, and the Florida force by the Governor of St. Augustine.
They made their camp at the fort which he had abandoned, and hoisting the bloody flag on the com modore's ship, erected a battery and planted in it twenty eighteen-pounders. Among the troops landed were a regiment of artillery, a regiment of dismounted dragoons, a regiment of negroes, officered by negroes, in the style and pay of grenadiers, and a regiment of mulattoes, besides the Havana battalion, the Havana militia, and the St. Augustine forces. On the seventh a part of this force was put in motion, and reached within a mile of Frederica, when they were discovered by the rangers, and the alarm given. Oglethorpe immedi-
7 Gentleman's Magazine, 1742,696.

FIRST BATTLE WITH SPANIARDS.

187

ately advanced with a party of Indians, rangers, and the Highland company, that were then on parade,, ordering the regiment to follow, being resolved to engage them in the denies of the wood, before they could get out and deploy in the open savannah. He charged at the head of his force with such effect that nearly all of the party, consisting of one hundred and twenty-five of their best woodsmen, and forty-five Indians, were either killed, wounded, or taken pris oners. The commander of the detachment, Captain Sebastian Sanchez, was captured. Captain Mageleto was shot dead by an Indian chief, and Oglethorpe took two prisoners with his own hand. The pursuit was continued several miles, to an open meadow or savannah, upon the edge of which he posted three platoons of the regiment and a company of Highland foot, so as to be covered by the woods from the enemy, who were obliged to pass through the meadow under the English fire. Hastening back to Frederica, he got in readiness the rangers and marines; but scarcely were they in marching order when he heard firing in the direction of his ambushed troops, and speeding thither, met two of the platoons, who, in the smoke and drifting rain, had retreated before the advance of Don Antonio Barba, who, with one hundred grenadiers and two hundred infantry, consisting of Indians and negroes, had pushed into the meadow and drove out the ambuscade with loud huzzas and rolling drums. The soldiers informed Oglethorpe that all his force was routed; but find ing one platoon and a company of rangers missing, and still hearing firing in the direction of the woods, he ordered the officers to rally their men and follow him.

188

BATTLE OF BLOODY MARSH.

In the meantime this platoon and company of ran gers, under the command of Lieutenants Sutherland and Mackay, instead of retreating with their com rades, no sooner reached the wood than by a skilfully executed detour they gained the rear of the pursuing enemy, and at a point where the road passed from the forest to the open marsh across a small semicircular cove, placed themselves in ambuscade in the thick palmettoes by which this narrow pass was nearly sur rounded.
Scarcely had they secreted themselves near this defile, when the Spaniards, on their return, marched out of the wood; and, supposing themselves secure from attack, protected as they were, on the one side, by an open morass, and on the other by the cres cent-shaped hedge of palmettoes and underwood, they stacked their arms and yielded themselves to repose. Sutherland and Mackay, who from their hiding place had anxiously watched all their movements, now raised the signal of attack a Highland cap upon a sword and the soldiers poured in upon the unsuspecting enemy a well-delivered and most deadly fire. Volley succeeded volley, and the sand was .strewed with the dead and the dying. A few of the Spanish officers attempted, though in vain, to re-form their broken ranks; discipline was gone, orders were unheeded; safety alone was sought, and when, with a Highland shout of triumph, the platoon burst among them with levelled bayonet and flashing claymore, the panicstricken foe fled in every direction some to the marsh, where they mired, and were taken some along the defile, where they were met by the toma hawk and the broad-sword and some into the thicket, where they became entangled and lost; and a few

OGLETHORPE PURSUES THE ENEMY.

189

only escaped to their camp. Their defeat was com plete. Barba was taken, after being mortally wound ed ; another captain, a lieutenant, two sergeants, two drummers, and one hundred and sixty privates, were killed, and a captain and nineteen men were taken prisoners. This was a feat of arms as brilliant as it was successful, and won for the gallant troops the highest praise.8 Oglethorpe, with the two platoons, did not reach the scene of this action, which has ever since borne the appropriate name of "Bloody Marsh," until the victory was achieved; and to show his sense of their services, he promoted the brave young officers who had gained it, on the very field of their valour. Here they rested a few minutes, until they were joined by the marines and the reserve of the regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Heron, when they pursued the retreating foe to within a mile and a half of the Spanish camp. They passed the night there, sleeping upon their arms, and at break of day the general ad vanced a party of Indians to observe their position, who reported that they had all retreated within the ruins of the fort, and under the protection of their cannon.
On the 8th of July the Commander-in-chief, with the soldiers, returned to Frederica; and the two fol lowing days were employed in strengthening the works at Frederica, while the Indians were kept out as scouts to watch the motions and cut off strag glers from the enemy's camp. In discharge of this service, they brought in some scalps and several pris oners.
On the llth of July some of the gallies advanced

8 Spalding's Memoir of Ogiethorpe, lection of Voyages, (Navigantium atin Geo. Hist. Col., i. 284. Harris's Col- que Itinerantium Bibliotheca,) ii. 341.

190 DISSENSION BETWEEN CUBA AND FLORIDA TROOPS.
towards the town, but were driven off and pursued by the general, in his boats, until they were covered by the cannon of the fleet. The ill success which had attended the Spaniards thus far; the unfavourable nature of the ground, on which they could neither deploy nor manoeuvre large bodies of troops; the peculiar intricacies of the channel impeding the ascent of the vessels; and the impatience and ill feeling consequent on the reverses of the 'Seventh, led to a council of war, which resulted in divisions between the attacking body of such bitterness that the commodore ordered the marines on board the ships, De Rodondo refused to encamp with the Augustinians, and the regiment of dragoons sepa rated from both. Learning the existence of this dissension, Oglethorpe resolved to surprise them in their divided state, and by a judicious night attack drive them from the island. For this purpose he marched down, on the twelfth July, five hundred men, and leaving them within a mile of the Spanish quarters, went forward at night with a small party to reconnoitre, intending to surprise them, but was pre vented by the treachery of a Frenchman among Cap tain Carr's marines, who, firing his musket, sounded the alarm, and, favoured by the darkness, deserted to the enemy. Finding himself thus discovered, the general distributed the drums about the woods, to represent a large force, and ordered them to beat the grenadier's march, which they did for half an hour; and then all being still, they noiselessly returned to Fred erica.
Aware of his weakness, and fearing that the dis closures which the Frenchman might make would embolden them to surround and destroy him, which

. STRATAGEM WITH A FRENCH DESERTER.

191

their superior force by land and sea easily enabled item to do, he devised an ingenious stratagem to de feat his information and retrieve the effects of his desertion. The next day he prevailed with a pris oner,9 and gave him a sum of money, to carry a letter privately and deliver it to that Frenchman who had deserted. This letter was written in French, as if from a friend of his, telling him he had received the money j that he should strive to make the Spaniards Relieve the English were weak ; that he should under take to pilot up their boats and gallies, and then bring them under the woods where he knew the hidden batteries were; and that if he could bring that about, he should have double the reward he had already received; but if he flailed in thus decoying them under the guns of the water battery, to use all his influence to keep them at least three days more at Fort St. Simons, as within that time, according to advices just received, he should be reinforced by two thousand infantry and six men-of-war, which had already sailed from Charleston ; and by way of postscript, he was cautioned against mentioning that Admiral Vernon was about to make a descent on St. Augustine. The Spanish prisoner got into the camp, and was immediately carried before the General Don Manuel de Montiano. He was asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters; but denying his having any, was strictly searched, and the letter found in his possession. Under a promise of pardon, he confessed that he had received money to deliver it to the French man, for the letter was not directed. The Frenchman denied his knowing anything of its contents, or having received any money, or having had any correspondence
a Letter of Oglethorpe in State Paper Office, ii. 97.

192

SPANIARDS PRECIPITATELY RETIRE.

with Oglethorpe, and vehemently protested that he was not a spy.
The commander of the Spanish forces was much perplexed by the contents of this letter, and called a council of war to consider the subject. The French man, who, it seems, had been employed by Montiano as a secret agent among the English, was now looked upon as a double spy, and would have been immediately executed but for the intervention of that officer, who, with several members of the council, was of opinion that it was intended to deceive and to ward off the threat ened attack upon Frederica. The majority, however, took a different view; and looking upon the French man as a real spy, believed in the information which the letter contained. These urged an immediate abandoning of a place in which they had already suf fered so much, and a return to Florida, as the only chance of reaching St. Augustine before Vernon should arrive. The parties thus at issue in the council, grew warm in their debates, neither willing to yield to the other, when the report was brought to the commander that three vessels were descried off the bar. Supposing these to form part of the fleet mentioned in the letter, the council no longer doubted the truth of all its con tents, and resolved to fly before they should be hemmed in by sea and by land. They immediately set fire to the fort, and precipitately embarked their troops, aban doning, in their hurry and confusion, several cannon, a quantity of military stores, and even leaving unburied some of the men who had just died of their wounds.
When Oglethorpe withdrew from St. Augustine, Montiano wrote10 to the Governor of Cuba, that " he could not comprehend the conduct nor rules of this
1 MS. Letters of Montiano, fol. 53.

OGLETHORPE PURSUES THEM.

193

general; and that he was surprised above measure that he should have retreated so precipitately." But what shall we now say of the precipitate retreat of Montiano? Oglethorpe had not one-third the men, was left without ships, and had for a month invested and besieged the well-defended garrison and castle of St. Augustine, marching away within cannon range of the fort, with drums beating and colours flying but Montiano had a large squadron of vessels, and ample land forces, yet never even reached Frederica, weak and undefended as it was, but hastily retreated at the sight of three topsail schooners, to reap the contumely which such a lack of generalship deserved.
The Cuba squadron, to the number of twenty sail, stood out to sea. General Montiano, with the St. Augus tine fleet, returned to Cumberland sound, having burnt Captain Horton's dwelling and out-houses, on Jekyll. Oglethorpe, with his boats, followed him, and discov ered a great many sail under Fort St. Andrew's, of which eight appeared plain; but being too strong for him to attack, he sent the scout-boats back, and went in his own cutter to Cumberland, whence he sent a letter to Lieutenant Stuart, at Fort William, with orders to defend himself to the last extremity. The enemy discovered his boats, and believing they had landed Indians in the night, set sail with great haste, insomuch, that not having time to embark them, they killed forty horses which they had taken there, and burnt the houses. The gallies and small craft, to the number of fifteen, went through the inland water pas sages. The men from several of these attempted to land near Fort William, but were repulsed by the rangers. They then attacked it with cannon and small arms, from the water, for three hours; but the
13

194 THE FORCE EMPLOYED BY THE SPANIARDS.
place was so bravely defended by Lieutenant Alexan der Stuart, that they were driven off, and ran out to sea, to join the twelve other sail of Spanish vessels which had lain at anchor outside the bar during the attack without stirring; but the gallies being chased out, they all set sail, and stood to the southward. Oglethorpe followed them, with the boats, to Fort William, and thence sent out the rangers, and some boats, who followed them to St. John's; but they went off, rowing and sailing, to St. Augustine.
Thus, the vigilance of Oglethorpe, the skilfulness of his plans, the activity of his operations, the determined spirit of resistance, the carnage of Bloody Marsh, the havoc done to the enemy's ships, and his ingenious stratagem to defeat the designs of the French deserter, saved Georgia and Carolina from falling into the hands of the Spaniards.
The force employed by the Spaniards in this invasion comprised one regiment of dismounted dragoons, a Havana battalion, consisting of ten companies of fifty men each, ten companies of one hundred men each, of Havana militia, one regiment of artillery, one of St. Augustine militia, one of negroes, officered by negroes, one battalion of mulattoes, ninety Indians, six hundred marines, and one thousand seamen; making in all a force of over five thousand men, commanded by Montiano, Governor of St. Augustine, and brought to Geor gia in fifty-six vessels. The command of Oglethorpe consisted of only six hundred and fifty-two men, includ ing Indians and militia.
The triumph of Oglethorpe was complete. For fif teen days, with only two ships and six hundred men he had baffled the Spanish general, with fifty-six vessels and five thousand men, and at last compelled him to

OGLETHORPE APPOINTS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 195
retreat, with the loss of several sail, scores of his best troops, and much of his provisions, munitions, and artil lery. The repulse of such a formidable invasion by such a handful of troops is unparalleled in colonial his tory. Here at least the " race" was not " to the swift," nor the "battle" to the "strong;" for a little band ekised a thousand, and a small one overcame a large people. The news of his success filled the whole North American continent with joy; and the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir ginia, North Carolina, and the Bahama Islands,11 sent Mm letters, congratulating him on his victory, and as suring him of the interest they felt in the honour he had acquired " by his indefatigable exertions, constant exposure, extraordinary courage, and unequalled mili tary conduct;" and offering their thanks to the Supreme Governor of nations, "for placing the fate of the south ern colony under the direction of a general so well qualified for the important trust." Flushed as Oglethorpe was with his glorious victory, he did not forget that he owed his success to the God of battles; but immediately on the defeat of the enemy issued a pro clamation1'2 appointing a day for a public thanksgiving to Almighty God, " for his great deliverance, and the end that is put to this Spanish invasion."
The succours, both naval and military, which he had pleaded for from South Carolina, only arrived in time to share the joy of his victory, or chase into the port of St. Augustine the few straggling vessels of their Amer-

11 Harris's Voyages, ii. 343. 12 For a copy of this proclamation, fide Whiteiield's Works, ii. 7, edition of 8 vols., London, 1771. There is a

copy of it also in Harris's Memorials of Oglethorpe, 367 ; but this is an English translation from a German translation of the original, by the Rev. Mr. Bolzius4

196

INEFFICIENCY OF THE SPANISH GENERAL

ican Armada which yet hovered about the islands of Georgia.
Such an expedition as this was peculiarly disgrace ful to the Spanish arms. The commander of the forces seemed to lack energy, and even common military quali fications; for such was the weakness of the fortifications on the islands, and such the smallness of the force to defend them, that one-third of the invading army, under a courageous and daring general, would have taken the island in almost as many hours as Montiano spent days ; and yet, though he was on the island over two weeks, he never once approached Frederica, nor fired a gun at its works, nor gained a single advantage in any encounter in which even his veteran troops were engaged. Severely was he censured by military men for his want of skill, tactics, and energy; while Rodondo, the engineer-general, was thrown into prison in Havana, and left there as a disgraced man, by the justly-offended Governor of Cuba. The Spaniards gave as a reason for their retreat, that Oglethorpe had sheltered himself, with one thousand men, in an inaccessible wood; that he was daily expecting four English men-of-war, two gallies, and four transports of soldiers; that they were in want of provisions, and apprehended the usual bad weather at this season of the year; thus covering their disgraceful flight by the falsehoods of cowardice and the assumptions of a fear-stricken imagination.
Oglethorpe was not satisfied with the mere repulse of the Spaniards. The following month, joined by Capt. Frankland, of His Majesty's ship Rose, and with seve ral small government and provincial vessels, he cruized off St. Augustine for several days, but gained no other advantage than that of showing the large naval force

ADVANCE OP OGLETHORPE TO ST. AUGUSTINE. 197
at Ms command, and the unintimidated spirit of the English officers.
Rumours of a new invasion, by the joint co-operation of the French and Spanish, were now rife; and an offer from the Governor of Cuba to invade Georgia and Caro lina with ten thousand men, most of whom were already at Havana, was intercepted by an English frigate. Ogletkorpe, with his bills protested, Carolina disaffected, and his force reduced, was left to bear alone the oner ous labours of preparing for a new defence of Georgia, and new efforts for the preservation of the North American colonies. Finding the Spaniards resolved to extend their territories, he determined to oppose their incipient measures, and dispute with them the field before their garrison was reinforced from Cuba. Accordingly, on Saturday, February 26th, 1743,13 the detachment destined for Florida, consisting of a portion of the Highlanders, rangers, and regulars, appeared under arms at Frederica, and on the 9th of March they landed in Florida; and the Indians attacked a party of Spaniards with such success, that they killed over forty of them. Advancing towards St. Augustine, the gene ral posted his troops in a most advantageous position near that city, and endeavoured, by going personally with a few men near the walls, to decoy them into the ambush so felicitously planned; "but they were so meek, there was no provoking them, and they kept close within their walls." As the general had no can non nor entrenching tools, and his only purpose by these strategic operations being to cut off detachments and lay waste the country, he countermarched to the St. John's; and after a short cruise off the bar of St.
13 State Taper Office, ii. 127. Most be found in these documents from the of the despatches of Oglethorpe may State Paper Office.

198

UNPROTECTED CONDITION OF GEORGIA.

Augustine and Matanzas Inlet, returned to Frederica, without the loss of a man. 14 This expedition was at tended with vast toil, fatigue, and privation; but they were borne with cheerfulness, and the duties of the camp were performed with alacrity, because their general shared their labours, " partaking the same fatigue as the meanest soldiers."
A few slight eruptive efforts were subsequently made ; but each party kept its own borders ; and the war with Spain, which now, in spite of the pacific counsels of Fleury, drew in France also, was trans ferred to other fields, of greater carnage. " The little conflicts in America were lost in the universal confla gration of Europe." Oglethorpe still felt the impor tance of keeping up the defences of Georgia, and maintainingan interest with the friendly Indians; especially, as the Yamassees on the south, and the Florida Indians on the borders of the Gulf, might otherwise descend upon the unprotected colonists, and burn their villages, lay waste their fields, and massacre their inhabitants. He therefore continued to press upon the Trustees and Parliament the necessity of protecting Georgia, as the key of the southern provinces, and the bulwark be tween them and the Florida and Spanish powers on its borders. In this respect, Georgia, the weakest of the thirteen colonies, was the least protected, and the most exposed, having an extensive line of undefended sea-

14 "A Relation or Journal of a late Expedition to the gates of St. Augustine in Florida, conducted by the Hon. General Oglethorpe, with a detachrnent of his regiment, &c., from Georgia, &c., by a Gentleman Volunteer in said Expedition," (G. L. Campbell,) London, 8vo, 1744. I am indebted to

the kindness of Professor Mackenzie of Edinburgh for a manuscript copy of this rare work, transcribed from the one in the British Museum. From this Journal and Oglethorpe's Letters in State Paper Office, ii., the narrative of the text is drawn.

PRAISE DUB TO OGLETHORPE.

199

board, a larger number of Indians in its borders than any other province, an unprotected frontier of several hundred miles, and hostile Indians, and inimical French, and threatening Spaniards, all around. And though we may not be enabled to point out any brilliant achieve ment which shall give prominence to the prowess, or stamp the generalship of Oglethorpe, yet the single fact, that he preserved a province thus situated, amidst re peated invasions, with such small forces, and under such vast discouragements, so that its integrity was preserv ed, its colonization advanced, and its border rights sus tained, is proof sufficient that the blended talents of the warrior and statesman met in his character, giving to him, not that applause which is mutable as the fickle wind, and as vanishing as the breath which proclaims it, but rather that steady praise which outlives the boisterous huzzas, and that quenchless light of honour, which burns brighter and clearer with advancing years.

CHAPTER VI.

SKETCH OF OGLETHORPE AFTER LEAVING GEORGIA.

FROM the period of the unfortunate siege of St. Augustine, misunderstanding and disputes had arisen between Ogletliorpe and the province of South Caro lina.1 The charges preferred against that colony by Oglethorpe, were of a grave character, such as evinced unskilful advisers, impolitic measures, and deep ingrat itude, as well as want of military discipline and cour age ; while they, on the other hand, retaliated against him charges of incapacity, weakness, and lack of mili tary abilities highly disadvantageous to Georgia. But these were the sentiments of only a portion of the Carolinians, and the sentiments themselves changed with the passing away of the irritating causes which evoked them ; so that all came to regard him at last as the de liverer of the southern provinces of America.
The views of Oglethorpe's enemies in Carolina gave

1 Thesa controversies were carried on with much acrimony and bitterness. A number of pamphlets were pub lished on each side, the most impor tant of which, were, " An Impartial Account of the late Expedition against St. Augustine, nnder General Ogle thorpe," 8vo, 1742 ; " The Spanish Hireling- Detected, being a Refutation

of the Several Calumnies and False hoods" in the above, " by George Cadogan, Lieutenant in General Ogle thorpe's Regiment," London, 8vo, p. 68, 1743, (I quote from the second edition ;) " A Full Reply to Lieutenant Cadogan's ' Spanish Hireling Detect ed,' &c.," Svo, 1743.

TROUBLES IN THE REGIMENT.

201

him but little concern, as he knew their unjustness, and busied himself in altering them by his wise and heroic deeds, rather than by loud and boastful preten sions. But there were other enemies whom he could not thus easily forgive enemies springing from his own military family, into whose charges himself, as well as the public, demanded an investigation. The regiment which Oglethorpe raised in England for Georgia, had in it elements of peculiar discord. Among the privates some of them were discovered before they left the waters of England, and others were developed soon after their arrival in Georgia; but these were soon put down by the strong arm of military power. Other dissatisfaction soon evinced itself among the officers. Charges and criminations were mutually preferred against several of them; many and fatal duels were fought ;2 and several courts-martial were held to try and adjudge the cases.
The report of a court-martial held at St. Simons, January 10th, 1739, by thirteen officers, represented to Oglethorpe that Lieutenant-Colonel James Cochran had made malicious and false charges concerning a brother officer; had behaved insultingly to the court; and had knowledge of and concealed a mutiny.3 At the request of Oglethorpe, Lieutenant-Colonel Coch ran was withdrawn from Georgia, and transferred to Colonel Douglass's regiment of marines, forming a part of General Wentworth's forces, and of which he was, in 1741, made colonel by the death of Colonel Douglass.4 This source of trouble removed, a new one soon after arose with Lieutenant-Colonel Cooke, who suc ceeded to the place vacated by Colonel Cochran, and

3 Stephens's Journal, ii. 403, iii. 104, 3 State Paper Office, i. 95.

204.

4 Gentleman's Magazine, 1741, 442.

202

RESULT OP COURT-MARTIAL.

his son-in-law, Lieutenant Eyre, who left his post at Freclerica just before the invasion of the Spaniards. The former returned to England, and the latter did not reach Georgia until after the defeat of the enemy. These circulated slanders against Oglethorpe, greatly to his prejudice, and finally the former preferred charges against him at the Horse Guards.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cooke, who owed all his promo tion to the favour of Oglethorpe, exhibited nineteen articles against the moral and military character of his patron, but gave in as witnesses on the part of the accusation, the names of several officers and sol diers in Georgia; so that though the general reached England in September, 1743, the court-martial, in the absence of these witnesses, did not meet until the 4th of June, 1744. A board of general officers then sat for two days, and after examining all the charges, spe cifications, and witnesses on both sides, the whole accusation, in each and all of its articles, was pro nounced " false, malicious, and without foundation ;" and the board of general officers having made a report to His Majesty of the same, together with several facts proved against the lieutenant-colonel, the king ordered him to be dismissed and turned out of the
service." 5 Such were some of the discordant elements which
Oglethorpe had around him. When, therefore, we add this to the many other difficulties with which he had to contend, arising from Spanish foes, reckless

5 Gentleman's Magazine, 1744, 336. tal by the court-martial. It paints in In the poetical essays of this Magazine dark colours the character of his slanfor September, 1744, 501, is a poem derers, and sets out in bright hues the " On Envy and Slander," inscribed to virtues of Oglethorpe. It is too long Brigadier General Oglethorpe, evi- to quote here, dently written on occasion of his acquit-

INCREASE OF GEORGIA UNDER OGLETHORPE. 203
Indians, clamourous settlements, discontented troops, meagre supplies, the lukewarmness of Carolina, his bills returned protested, his calls for naval help disre garded, his officers inimical to each other, and some few of them to himself; when we aggregate these facts, the wonder is that with such opposing influences and such discordant materials, he effected anything. That he achieved so much, under these adverse circum stances, proves him to have been a firm, bold, sagacious man to have possessed eminent military qualifications, and those sterling virtues which mock at the petty malice of the envious, and triumph over the machina tions of malignity. After this triumphant vindication of himself, and the signal punishment of his bold traclucer, Oglethorpe never returned to Georgia, though he ever regarded it with a paternal feeling, and watched over its interests with parental care. Under his wise administration the single ship-load of emi grants, which, eleven years before, he had led to the wilds of Georgia, had increased more than two hun dred fold. Instead of the little settlement on the bluff" of Yamacraw, towns and forts were scattered from the sea-board to the mountains, from the Savannah to the St. John's. It had " stretched forth its boughs unto the sea, and its branches unto the river;" and ere long " the hills were covered with the shadow of it."
On the declaration of war with England by France, (March 4th, 1744,) and the threatened invasion of England by a large force under Count Saxe, for the purpose of enforcing the claims to the throne of the Chevalier de St. George, eldest son of Charles Edward ; Field-Marshal the Earl of Stair was appointed to the chief command of the forces raised in Great Britain; and it is greatly to the honour of Oglethorpe, that

204 APPOINTED BRIGADIER-GENERAL. MARRIED.

though then uncleared of the charges preferred against him, such was the confidence of George II. in his mil itary abilities, that he appointed him second brigadiergeneral under Lord Stair, even over Lord Delaware and the Duke of Marlborough. The English fleet, under Sir John Norris, maintained the ascendency in the Channel, and De Roquefeuille,6 the French admi ral, returned storm-worsted into Boulogne, by which means the Gallic invasion came to naught, and tlie forces raised to repel it were disbanded with the pass ing danger which had called them into being.
On the 15th September, 1744, he married Elizabeth, the only daughter and heiress of Sir Nathan Wright. Baronet, of Cranham Hall, Essex county, and retired to his ancestral home at Godalming, that he might there, or in the delightful manor of Cranham Hall, enjoy that quiet and repose which years of toil had taken from him. Beautiful was the epithalamiuia which called for "joy" to "attend the nuptial rites," for "each charm that general bliss imparts" "to cement their hearts, and virtue crown their loves;" adding in graceful stanzas, the deserved praise :
" In senates learned, in armies brave, Thy cares shall threatened Georgia save ; Thou still must be her shield ; Thy temp'ranoe prov'd, thy wisdom shewn, She ever thy fatigues will own, And conduct in the field.
' When thy rough toils of war shall cease, In the reap'd sweets of plenteous peace, May thy mild age be past: Pleased with the country's grateful praise Unmixed be all thy happy days, And happiest be thy last."?

6 Smollett's History of England, ii. 280, London, 1828.

7 Gentleman's Magazine, 1744,558.

APPOINTED MAJOR-GENERAL.

205

The father of his lady was a statesman of high political distinction, having been Lord Chancellor of England under William III., and also under Queen Anne. But Oglethorpe did not long enjoy the com forts of domestic life. On the breaking out of the Hebellion of 1745, in consequence of the efforts of Charles Edward, the Pretender, to recover the throne of his fathers, Marshal Wade was appointed commander-in-chief, and Oglethorpe made one of his inajor-generals. Among the forces under his com mand, were four companies of cavalry, one of which, in honour of their chief, bore the name of the " Geor gia Rangers," all of whom " did very signal service to their country."
Joining the army under the Duke of Cumberland, he was ordered by His Royal Highness to continue the pursuit of the now retreating rebels, who had penetrated to Derby, within one hundred miles of London, after their brilliant victory at Preston Pans. Oglethorpe, who had a large body of dragoons under him, had been previously ordered by Marshal Wade to intercept, if possible, the retreating Highlanders, aad in the execution of this order he had marched his troops one hundred miles to Preston, in three days, in the midst of severe weather and a most panic-stricken country ; -and it was at this juncture that he was ordered by the duke to continue the pursuit. He did so, with worn-out troops and jaded horses, and met the rebels at the village of Shap ; but a council of officers deem ing it hazardous to attack them with troops exhausted by forced marches over wretched roads, in the severest of winter weather, he deferred the attack till a night of rest could restore and give tone to the spirits of his exhausted soldiers. This delay drew upon Oglethorpe

i!06

SECOND COURT-MARTIAL.

the disapprobation of the duke, and he was subse quently arraigned by him before a court-martial, under charge of haying lingered on the road. Such an un founded charge as this would not, doubtless, hare been made, had not the duke been stung by the remonstrances which Ogiethorpe made to him and to his other generals, Cope and Hawley, against the cruelties perpetrated on the adherents of the Pretender, barbarities not needed to quell invasion, and disgrace ful to victorious arms. He professed a willingness, nay, anxiety to crush this rebellion, but he refused to be a party to those ignominious practices which seemed to delight in adding to the woes of the conquered and the pains of the dying. The Duke of Cumberland, a victor by fortune, rather than by valour, was a stranger to those humane feelings, as is evident not only by his conduct during iiis suppression of this rebellion, but by his support of the policy to " desolate America by fire and. sword, rather than pacify them by concessions," when the principle of taxing America was denied by the colonies.* Ogiethorpe was again tried by his mili tary peers, at the Horse Guards, and on the 7th Octo ber, 1746, " was honourably acquitted." This triumph was the more complete, because at this time his accuser, the Duke of Cumberland, was, by his military successes, the idol of the British nation : his praise w~as proclaimed from the pulpit ; his name was the inspiration of the poet; cities conferred on him their freedom; univer sities uttered their classic plaudits; Parliament voted him almost regal honours, and the nation hailed him as its deliverer. Yet not the name, nor the influence, nor the proximity to the throne of the Duke of Cum
berland, could iix a stigma upon the founder of Geor-

8 Grahame, ii. 411, Amur. ed.

DECLINES SERVING AGAINST AMERICA.

207

gia. The king approved the finding of the court, and the next year, October 10th, appointed him lieutenantgeneral in the British army.
Relieved from all public duties save his attendance upon Parliament, in which he served until 1754, he devoted his parliamentary vacations to his estate of Godalming, or his possessions at Cranham Hall, resid ing during the sessions at his house in St. James, Westminster. On the 22d February, 1765, he was made general of all His Majesty's forces, and for many years before he died was at the head of the army list as the oldest general officer in Great Britain.
The assertion has frequently been made, though the authority for it is not conclusive, that being the senior of Sir William Howe, he had offered to him the com mand of the forces destined to subjugate America in .the war of the Revolution, but that he declined the appointment, assuring the ministry that " he knew the Americans well; that they never would be subdued by arms, but that obedience would be secured by doing them justice."
That his political sympathies were with the Ameri cans, we learn incidentally from the circumstance, that on meeting in London with Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, who had been most active in planning and executing " deep and studied affronts to that province," then struggling for civil rights and immu nities, and whom the American-hating court had honoured with a baronetcy for his services to regal tyranny Oglethorpe personally expressed to him " the utmost disgust and abhorrence of his conduct."9
Many have indicated their surprise that some royal mark of distinction was not conferred upon Ogle-
0 Wm. Wirt, quoted in Grahame, ii. 444, 518, Amer. el.

208

OGLETHORPE'S FAMILY.

thorpe; that like his father and his wife's father, he was not knighted or even elevated to the peerage; for, much inferior services to the British crown have received far greater rewards than were bestowed upon this generous soldier. But he was not suffi ciently sound in his political creed to suit the tastes of the House of Brunswick, or of that splendid minis terial paradox, Sir Robert Walpole. The attachment of his ancestors and relatives to the House of Stuart and the interests of France was well known and remembered. It Avas not forgotten that his father was a courtier of James II., and was proclaimed by the queen a Jacobite traitor10 that his brother was aid-de-camp to the Duke of Ormond, one of the lead ers of the Pretender's party that two of his sisters had married French noblemen of high birth, and that of one of them Lord Bolingbroke wrote, speaking of the opposition cabinet, " No sex was excluded from this ministry ; Fanny Oglethorpe kept her corner in it."11 It was not forgotten that Frances Shaftoe had published a narrative,12 declaring that the pretended Prince of Wales was foster-brother of Oglethorpe, and that his mother was at one time the medium of communication between Oxford, Bolingbroke, and even Queen Anne herself, with the exiled Stuarts.
These tacts must have greatly operated against him, and it cannot be doubted that they had their influence in preventing the bestowment of those favours which were so freely lavished on others. But he needed not stars, nor ribbons, nor a peerage to give him dis tinction : he had a nobility superior to them all. His

10 Smollett, ii. 23, 35.

tended Prince of Wales ;" Lond. 1707,

11 Bolingbroke's Letters.

4to, by Mrs. Frances Shaftoe.

13 " Narrative relating to the Pre-

VISITED BY JOHN ADAMS.

209

name had already been given in charge of the epic poet and historic muse; and the untitled name of Gglethorpe will be the familiar household word of fu ture generations, when the gilded aristocracy which then glittered in the beams of royalty shall be forgot-
teo,
" For it is freedom's now and fame's One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die." HALLECK.

He purchased a title to glory by deeds of heroic lenevolence.
It is an interesting fact, in his history, that he lived to see his infant colony become a great and free State. Among the earliest to call on John Adams, the first ambassador of the United States to the Court of St. James, was Oglethorpe. 13 He who had planted Geor gia, and nursed it in its feebleness till it grew up to be i royal colony of England, joined hands with him who liad come to the British Court the representative of its national independence. Well might Edmund Burke tell him that he looked upon him as a more ex traordinary person than any he had ever read of; for he had founded the province of Georgia, had absolute ly called it into existence, and had lived to see it sev ered from the Empire which created it and become an independent State.14
The evening of his life was mild and pleasant; his bodily and mental vigour remained to the last; and in the society of one of the delightful literary circles of England, composed of Johnson, Goldsmith, Wharton, Burke, Burton, Mrs. Garrick, Mrs. More, and others, he passed in London or at Cranham Hall the quiet and

13 Holmes's Annals, ii. 530, Cam- I4 Life arid Letters of Hannah

bridge, 1829.

More, i. 204.

14

210

HANNAH MORE'S DESCRIPTION.

peaceful hours of social life. Hannah More, whose praise is itself renown, thus graphically describes him in a letter to her sister : 15 " I have got a new admirer, and we flirt together prodigiously. It is the famous General Oglethorpe, perhaps the most remarkable man of his time. He is the foster brother of the Pre tender, and much above ninety years old. The finest figure you ever saw. He frequently realizes all my ideas of Nestor. His literature is great; his knowl edge of the world is extensive; and his faculties as bright as ever. He is one of the three persons men tioned by Pope, still living : Lord Mansfield and Lord Marchmont are the other two. He was an intimate friend of Southern, the tragic poet, and all the wits of that time. He is, perhaps, the oldest man of a gentle man living; and he could have entertained me by re peating passages from Sir Eldered. He is quite a preux chevalier heroic, romantic, and full of the old gallantry."
Defects in his character there certainly were, which his enemies sedulously paraded before the public eye. Naturally impatient, of a hasty temper, fond of praise, and rather boastful of his military acts, he sometimes gave occasion of real or fancied offence, and laid him self open to imputations of tyranny, irresolution, and egotism, which his conduct as a whole, fully disa vowed. The conceited Horace Walpole stigmatized Oglethorpe as always a bully ; 1G but he who could call Washington " an excellent fanfaron," 17 was not capa ble of rising to the loftiness of Oglethorpe's sentiments, or of appreciating the great schemes to which he gave birth. The contempt of such men is praise. But Oglethorpe did not go unhonoured and undefended even

13 Ib. 181.

16 Walpole's Letters, i., Phil., 1842.

1T Ib. ii. 219.

TRIBUTES TO OGLETHORPE.

211

in his own age. Poets, such as Pope, and Thomson, and Goldsmith, and Brown, sung his praises; moral ists, such as Johnson, the Abbe Raynal, Wharton, and Hannah More, testified his virtues; divines, such as Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, and Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, and Benson and the Wesleys, did honour to Ms goodness; generals, such as Prince Eugene, and the Dftke of Marlborough, and Field-Marshal Wade, ac knowledged his abilities; and statesmen, such as the Duke of Argyle, and Lord Peterborough, and Edmund Burke, lauded his distinguished merits.
From the council-fires of the mountain Indians, from the lowly huts of the enfranchised debtors in Savannah, from the cells of the prisons of England, from the fire sides made cheerful by his bounty, rose a tribute to his worth, which to the listening ear of his soul sounded as sweetly grateful as that which flowed from the camp, and court, and senate of Great Britain. The song which rises from one widow's heart, made " to leap for joy" at the bounty of retiring benevolence, is a sweeter carol to the noble heart than the chanted anthems of a nation's pseans over the victorious yet bloody fields ol war. Detraction, like death, "loves a shining mark." He who passes through life unslaridered, is a pointless man. He who, calumniated and abused, outlives the malignity of the envious, and the defamations of the tile, rising in honour with advancing years, is the man of true greatness and of lasting fame. Popular clamour is often wrong; enlightened public opinion is always right; and the verdict of cotemporaries is often reversed by the maturer judgment of posterity.
Like a setting sun, which seems larger as it descends to the west, he sank down into the grave with unclouded disc, leaving the rays of his sunset glory still gilding the

212

HIS DEATH.

hoary memories of the past. He died, of a sudden ill ness, at his seat, Cranham Hall, on the 30th,of June, 1785, aged ninety-seven.
" The first of chiefs," says Euripides, " is he who laurels gains, and buys them not with life." Such a chief was Oglethorpe. Laurels he did indeed gain on the field of battle ; but it is not for martial prowess only that his name is remembered. It is for the self-sacri ficing devotion of himself to the cause of human misery; for his benevolence, which stretched out its hands to both hemispheres, and blessed each by their benefac tions; for his unremitted patriotism, amidst reproach and oppression; for his perseverance, under neglect and scorn, to carry out the charitable schemes which he originated schemes that were the precursors of the philanthropy of Howard, and that gave birth to the noble State which hails him as its founder. These are his credentials of glory the laurels which make him "the first of chiefs." His sepulchre is indeed in Eng land, but his monument is Georgia.
Before we take our final leave of Oglethorpe, let us survey the progress of the colony under his civil and military jurisdiction. He departed from Georgia in 1743. What at that time was its condition ? Savan nah, expanding according to the beautiful plan of its founder, had increased to about three hundred and fifty houses, besides the public edifices. Some of these were elegant dwellings, surrounded by pleasant gardens. The land adjoining the town was mostly well cleared; and there were delightful plantations in the vicinity, particularly Beaulie, belonging to Colonel William Ste phens, and Oakstead, the country-seat of Mr. Causton. " Pity it is," says a writer who visited Savannah at this

CONDITION OF SAVANNAH AND FREDERICA.

213

time,18 " that a spirit of opposition to the wholesome rules this colony was first established upon; ingratitude to their great and humane benefactor; an ignorance of their true interest, and a cursed spirit of dissension among themselves, has rendered this sweet place so much less flourishing than it was at the beginning of the settlement." In addition to the hindrances men tioned by this traveller, the war, in which Georgia was especially involved, drove many from Savannah, and prevented many more from emigrating thither. But Savannah found no foe to her peace and welfare equal to those she nursed from the Trustees' store, and who, supported by their bounty, lived but to thwart and calumniate their plans.
At this period of Georgia's history Frederica pre sented much the most attractive scene. Entering the town by either of the two gates the land port oi" the water port we behold on the north side the camp of the general's regiment, and the barracks, a large quadrangular building, of tabby-work; on the west, the parade-ground; on the east, the residences of the settlers; and on the south, a small grove, for the con venience of fuel and pasture. The streets were spa cious, and planted with orange trees. The soldiers' camp was regularly laid out, and, neatly kept and fortified as the whole was with bastions and ramparts, redoubts and ravelins, with their frowning cannon and their slowpacing sentinels, their reveilles and guard mounting, their daily markets and their thronged streets, where met the soldier and the citizen, in their varied attire, the place was made gay and business-like, and bore an aspect the most pleasing and inviting of any town south of Charleston. In its neighbourhood were the

18 " Itinerant Observations concerning Georgia, made in 1744," MS. fol. 33,

214

DARIEN EBENEZER AUGUSTA.

beautiful plantations of Captains Dunbar and Demere, Doctor Hawkins, and the quiet village of the Salzburgers. " In short," says a visitor at that time,19 "the whole town and country adjacent are quite rurally charming; and the improvements everywhere around are footsteps of the greatest skill and industry, con sidering its late settlement." Such was Frederica in the days of its glory.
New Inverness, or Darien, had suffered severely by the invasion of Florida. Its numbers were greatly weakened, and the whole settlement went backwards in consequence of its reverses. It still, however, main tained an independent company of foot, consisting of seventy men; and the almost crushed hopes of the Highlanders were just beginning to revive at the restoration of tranquillity upon their borders.
Ebenezer had been increased by several emigrations, over one hundred being sent over in 1741, and others since; and the "Evangelical Community," quietly pur suing their simple duties and labours, were much pros pered in the work of their hands.
Augusta advanced slowly, yet gained something in population, and wealth, and trade, each succeeding year. A small garrison was still maintained there, as also at several other points along the frontier.
The ten years which had elapsed since Oglethorpe landed on the bluff at Yamacraw had changed the entire aspect of the country, there being now twelve or fourteen towns scattered through the territory. The experiment had been tried, and to a great extent had succeeded. That the colony had not progressed more, was owing not so much to the legislation of the Trus tees though that did somewhat to hinder it as to the
' 9 Ib. fol. 9.

THE PROGRESS OF GEORGIA.

315

wars and rumours of war, which made life and property insecure, harassed trade, did away commerce, and al most palsied the energies of the few who remained. It, lad survived the savage menaces which threatened its infancy; it had outlived the searching scrutiny of par liamentary investigation; it had borne the brunt of war, and repelled the invading foes; and yet, amidst these depressing trials from within and from without, God had "lengthened its cords and strengthened its stakes," and gathered many thousands under the curtain of its habitation.

CHAPTER VII.
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF GEORGIA.
THE departure of Oglethorpe from Georgia caused an entire change in the government of the colony. The administration of its affairs, during his residence there, has been briefly alluded to; but its civil his tory demands other than a passing notice, and shall therefore receive a more ample examination.
According to the royal charter the Trustees had the power of forming and preparing laws, statutes, and ordinances proper for the administration of the colony, not repugnant to the laws and statutes of the English realm. The task of framing a body of laws that should be the civil and judicial constitution of Geor gia, was one which required of them much legal knowledge, large political experience, profound wis dom, and a full acquaintance with the wants and ne cessities of the people for whom they legislated.
The forming of statutory codes requires peculiar wis dom ; but the " animation " of those laws, the giving to them life and activity, demands other qualities the calm judgment, the strong will, the firm hand, the quick eye, and that weight of dignity and uprightness of character which command respect, and ensure obe-

TOWN COURT ESTABLISHED.

217

dience. " For," as Lord Bacon well observes, 1 " the wisdom of a law-maker consisteth not only in a plat form of justice, but in the application thereof, taking into consideration by what means laws may be made certain, and what are the causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and uncertainty of law; by what means laws may be made apt and easy to be executed, and what are the impediments and remedies in the execu tion of laws." The Trustees, debarred by the char ter from having any personal interest in the colony, other than as its public managers, had no other motive to govern them in erecting this " platform of justice," than the sincere desire to benefit those committed to their care. They were competent to make laws, hav ing the requisite wisdom, intelligence, and expe rience; but, separated three thousand miles from the territory they governed, they were not able to apply their laws with that aptness and ease which would have made them sit wrell upon the people, to whose tempers and necessities they should have been care fully fitted. Their primary scheme of government was of the simplest kind, and unlike any that had been previously established in America. Before the first embarkation sailed, they appointed from among the emigrants, officers for the new town, consisting of three bailiffs, a recorder, two constables, two tithingmeu, and eight conservators of the peace.2 At the same time they erected a court of judicature, in which " all manner of crimes, offences, pleas, processes, plaints, actions, matter, causes, and things whatever, arising or happening within the province of Georgia, or between persons inhabiting or residing* there,

1 Bacon's Works, vol. i., Introduc- 2 Minutes of Common Council, i. 15. tory Essay, xxvi.: London, 1838.

218

JUDICIAL POWER OF BAILIFFS.

whether the same be criminal or civil, or whether the said crime be capital or not capital, and whether the said pleas be real, personal, or mixed, are to be tried according to the laws and customs of the realm of England and of the laws enacted for the said prov ince."3 This tribunal, known by the name and style of the " Town Court," was composed of the three bail iffs, the recorder acting as clerk; and freeholders only were admitted as jurymen. It was opened with due form by Oglethorpe, on the 7th of July, 1733, when the first case was tried, and the first jury in Georgia empannelled.
The conferring of such civil and judicial powers upon a bailiff's court, was as unsound in law as it was unique in practice. The French bailiff, from whom our officer and name is borrowed, was the prefect of a province, administering justice within one of the seve ral districts pertaining to each of the eight parliaments of that kingdom. In England the term and office have various significations and various powers, but none an swering to the character of the officers styled such in Georgia.4 The bailiffs of Savannah and Frederica, like those of Scotland, were empowered by the Trus tees, as proprietors of Georgia, to give enfeoffment; and like them were magistrates of burghs. They had more judicial power than the English bailiff of hun dreds ; they had a different power from that possessed by the bailiff of courts baron; and though, to this day, in some parts of England, the chief magistrate of par ticular towns is styled bailiff, yet he exercises no

8 Journal of Trustees, ii. 319.

Words and Terms, used either in the

4 Tomline's Law Dictionary, article Common or Statute Laws," &c.; Lon-

Bailiff. Dr. CowePs " Interpreter of don, folio, 1701, sub. Bayliff.

GREAT POWER OP THE TOWN COURT.

219

such civil or judicial jurisdiction as did the bailiff of Savannah.5
It was giving large powers to men with humble titles; and though it is the power, and not the title, which confers greatness, yet the majesty of law, and the dignity of the colony, demanded that its executive officers should bear a name more linked with the nobler offices of state and the higher tribunals of jus tice, than with a sheriff's court or a baronial steward. In England these minor courts communicated with others of larger jurisdiction, and these again with others of still greater power, ascending gradually from the lowest to the supreme courts; the course of justice, as Blackstone happily describes it,6 " flowing in large streams from the king as the fountain, to his superior courts of record, and then subdivided into smaller channels, till the whole and every part of the kingdom were plentifully watered and refreshed." But the Town Court of record of Savannah had no communica tion with a higher it was itself supreme, blending in one tribunal the several powers usually lodged in common pleas, chancery, probate, nisi prius, sheriff's, coroner's, and exchequer, and all committed to men unread in the principles of law, and unversed in the usages of courts. As for some years there was no lawyer in Georgia, every suitor, as in the old Gothic courts, was obliged to appear in person to prosecute or defend his cause. The common law of England was the groundwork of all judicial proceedings, except so far as certain provincial necessities made other laws necessary;

5 It is observable that all the corpo- as heads or assistants in municipal rations in the county of Surrey, where affairs. Oglethorpe resided, had bailiffs, either 6 Commentaries, book iii. chap. iv.

220

UNHAPPY SELECTION OF OFFICERS.

which new enactments of the Trustees had, however, no force or legality until they had received the sanc tion of the king in council.
But while the colonists were nominally vested with the fundamental rights of Englishmen, the guardian ship of those rights was entrusted to hands unaccus tomed to poise the scales of justice. In making their first selection of officers, the Trustees were compelled to do it upon slight knowledge of the individual's character, appointing them rather on probation than for permanency, which gave rise to frequent changes and unhappy wranglings.
During the earlier years of its existence, the civil gov ernment of Georgia was mostly vested in Oglethorpe as the executive and representative of the Trustees, though without any formal commission or official title. While Oglethorpe therefore was in Savannah, the power of the bailiffs was merged in him; his views were their guide, and bis decisions their law. But his residence was an intermittent one, and at his second return to Georgia he was seldom there; and then it was that the evil of the magisterial system of the Trustees became apparent. Forced, as the Trustees were, to support the colonists for several years, they erected for that purpose a depot for provisions, and stored in it such supplies as they sent to Savannah. This was placed under the care of Mr. Causton, the second bailiff, whose office it was to deal out the monthly supplies to the proper recipients, and to purchase such articles as were needed for their sustenance. He was the commercial agent of the Trustees, and his position as their storekeeper, joined to his office as second bailiff, placed him at the head of power in Georgia. That power he soon exhibited by grasping

CHARACTER OP CAUSTON.

221

the entire control of affairs; and he made the other magistrates subservient to his will by giving or with holding supplies at pleasure, and making such repre sentations to the Trustees as he chose concerning his associates. Arrogant in his behaviour, aping a dignity which he could not sustain, and browbeating all whom he dared to put down, he soon played the part of dic tator and tyrant in the infant colony; and as all were more or less dependent on him for their support, he ruled Savannah with a domineering haughtiness, as of fensive as it was oppressive to the public. Complaints of the most serious kind were soon made against him. "He proves," says the Rev. Mr. Quincy,7 "a most in solent and tyrannical character." " He became," writes another,8 "a dictator whose will and pleasure were the only laws of Georgia." He ruled the people through their necessities, making their daily wants the means of keeping them in subjection to his will; and yet so carefully covered up his arbitrary proceedings from the scrutiny of the Trustees, that, though petitions and remonstrances were sent to them relating to his con duct, and though even the grand jury, breaking at last, by a bold effort, through the trammels which he had thrown around the administration of justice, made a solemn representation to the Trustees of the illegal conduct and dangerous power of Caustou; yet all failed of procuring immediate redress, though it excited in quiry among the Trustees, and led to a closer examina tion of his large accounts. These they found confused and incorrect; and the more they were examined, the more apparent became his wasteful expenditures, his partial disbursements, and his absolute deficits in goods

1 MS. Letter to Hon. Samuel Quincy Mass. Hist. Soc., xii. 10. of Boston, Oct. 23, 1735. Letter-book s Geo. Hist. Coll., ii. 201,

J-2-2

CAUSTON DISMISSED FROM OFFICE.

and money. The investigation resulted in an order from the Trustees to remove him from office. Accord ingly, on General Ogiethorpe's return to Georgia, "lie called all the inhabitants together at the town house, and there made a pathetic speech to them, setting forth how deeply the Trust was become indebted by Mr, Causton's having run into so great exceedings beyond what they had ordered." " This," says the honest, chronicler of the fact," " had such an effect, that many people appeared thunderstruck, knowing not where it would end; neither could the most knowing determine it."
The next day Mr. Causton was dismissed from office, Oglethorpe requiring from him a bond, and an assign ment of his improvements at his beautiful residence at Oakstead, as security for his appearance to answer the charge of fraud and embezzlement. Ordered to Eng land by the Trustees, he reached London after many delays, and attended the common council in person; but failing to produce proper vouchers for his accounts, he was directed to return to Savannah, where, as he said, he could more easily arrange them. He sailed for Georgia at the close of the year, but died on his passage, and was buried in the great tomb of the ocean.
The displacement of Causton removed one great evil to make way for several lesser ones; for the new officers were inefficient, quarrelsome, and disposed to make the interests of the public subserve their private aims. The Trustees did what they could to give dig nity and authority to the bench of magistrates, and well knowing the respect which is inspired by the badges and trappings of office, sent over magisterial gowns : those for the three bailiffs being purple, edged with
9 Stephens's Journal, i. 306-7.

MAGISTRATES SIT IN ROBES.

223

for, and that for the recorder being black tufted.10 Bat even this favour of the Trustees was made a mat ter of disputation among the mag istrates, so that it was nearly three months before they could agree to put on their robes of office when sitting on the bench ; but when they did wear them the effect designed by the Trustees was immediately secured, for the business oi the court was " carried on with great order and deco rum, such as they had not seen a great while." 11 But these robes of justice, while they gave a more imposing aspect to the court, could not cover up the moral defi ciencies so manifest in the character of the men who composed it, but rather made more glaring the dispar ity between the dignity of the office, and the unworiness of the incumbent.
When Frederica was settled, a similar court was es tablished there, and its officers excelled in injustice and ignorance the magistrates of Savannah. Some of the bailiffs appointed could not write, and scarcely one was qualified for the bench. The power was too great for the irresponsible hands that wielded it; for, having never before held the staff of office, they be came intoxicated with their elevation, and used their little brief authority like so many autocrats in minia ture.
They were charged with setting aside the laws of England, making false imprisonments, wrongfully dis charging grand juries, threatening petit juries, blas phemy, irreverence, drunkenness, obstructing the course of law, and other equally grave and heinous offences. Indeed, the frequent courts, the arbitrary adjournments, the bickering of the magistrates, the

1 Minutes of Common Council, ii. 99.

'' Stephens, i. 83

224

TRUSTEES CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT.

illegal proceedings, the insufficient securities, the want of proper juries, and the supplanting of justice by pri vate piques and personal prejudices, made the whole system of the town courts, both at Savannah and Frederica, a burden to the people, giving them the shadow of English law without its substance, and compelling them to bow to .decisions which, under the name of justice, were but mocking insults to that priestess of human rights.
The picture of these times, which the secretary for Georgia has so fully delineated in his journal, shows the sad condition of the colony, and the racking feuds and general distrust which reigned throughout the province.
This scheme of government having failed, the Trustees resolved to change it; and in January, 1741, a committee consisting of the Earl of Egmont, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Vernon, and the several Trustees who were members of Parliament, were appointed to digest and prepare a plan and instruction for remodelling the government, and in stead of a bailiffs magistracy, establishing a consti tution, to be administered by a president and several assistants. Conformably to the report of this commit tee, the common council, (15th April, 1741,) divided the province of Georgia into two counties; one, to be called Savannah, including all the territory north of Darien ; the other, to be called Frederica, comprising St. Simons, and the Altamaha settlements. Over each of these there was to be a president and four assistants, who were to constitute the civil and judicial tribunal of their respective departments. For the county of Savannah, the Trustees appointed William Stephens President, and Henry Parker, Thomas Jones, John

NEW GOVERNMENT COMMENCED.

225

Fallowfield, and Samuel Mercer, Assistants. No ap pointments were made for the county of Frederica, the council waiting until they could communicate with Oglethorpe and receive his nominations.
The instruments containing this new constitution, and these appointments, were read in open court on the 7th of October, 1741, and on the 12th the new officers, having met for the first time, took upon them selves the administration of government.
This was an advance on the former plan, and gave an elevation and dignity to the colony in the eyes of her neighbours; but Georgia herself received little benefit by the change. The reason was, that society did not possess those elements of refinement and civilization upon which a good government could lay hold, and by them elevate and dignify the whole people. It lacked unity, morality, industry, and social integrity; and where these are wanting, there will always be degradation and misery, no matter how wise the laws or how just their administration. A virtuous people will flourish under bad government; an immoral society will display its wretchedness under the wisest administration.
Notwithstanding the division of Georgia into these two counties, Oglethorpe, as general and comrnanderin-chief, exercised civil and military control over the entire colony. The evils, therefore, which would have arisen from the rivalries, and jealousies, and collis ions of these two independent boards of presidents and assistants, were obviated by the centralizing of supreme power in himself; and at his expected return to England, the Trustees recommended (April 9th, 1743) to the common council of that body to unite
15

326 DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT AND ASSISTANTS.
both counties under one executive, and in May they revoked the former constitution, and consolidating the government into one body politic, appointed the offi cers of the county of Savannah to be President and assistants for the whole province. As no appointment of President and assistants had ever been made for Frederica, the old bailiffs were now to be considered only as local magistrates, subordinate to the superior authority at Savannah. The President and assistants were to hold four courts each year, in Savannah, for regulating public matters and adjusting civil suits, They were also entrusted with the management of Indian relations, and the disbursement of money, of which monthly returns were to be made to the Trus tees in England. In the prosecution of their duty as managers of Indian affairs, the President and assistants found their chiefest and most embarrassing labours, especially after the departure of Oglethorpe, and thedisbanding of his regiment. It had ever been the care of the Trustees to cultivate friendly relations with the aborigines of Georgia, and to secure them to their interests by protective legislation and useful presents. But especially was it necessary now to renew the treaties made with the Trustees, when several adverse circumstances threatened danger, and brought great alarm to the colony. The chief of these difficulties was occasioned by the conduct and extraordinary demands of the Rev. Thomas Bosomworth, and his Indian wife, Mary. There is so much discrepancy in the various statements and voluminous documents which bear on this point, that at first view it seems almost impossible to reconcile them; but patient re search has unravelled the tangled mass, and ena-

CONSAPONAKEESO.

227

Med us to draw out from it a clue to the simple and uncontested truth.12 Mary, the wife of the Rev. Thomas Bosomworth, was born about the year 1700, at the Coweta town, on the Ocmulgee river, which was then the chief town of the Creek nation. Her Indian name was Consaponakeeso, and she was by maternal descent, one of the micos or chiefs of the Uchees. Old Brim, the emperor of the nation, as he was usually styled, being her mother's brother, she therefore claimed, and the Indians conceded to her, the title of princess. At the age of ten she was taken by her father to Ponpon, in South Carolina, and was baptized, educated, and instructed in Christianity. While there the Indian war of 1715 broke out; and a party of Creeks, headed by her uncle Chichilli, ad vanced as far as Stono river. But the Yamassees, after their attack of the 13th of April, having been repulsed by Governor Craven, the Creeks returned to their lands without participating in the sanguinary contest.
Mary accompanied the party on their retreat to the nation, and laid aside the civilization of the English for the freedom of the Indian.
The neighbouring tribes, though not actually on the offensive, were still unsettled in their feelings towards the whites; and in 1716, Colonel John Musgrove was sent by the government of South Carolina to form a

12 This account has been drawn entirely from manuscript and official sources, viz., the Memorials and Representations made by Bosomworth; the Proceedings of the President and Assistants ; the Letters of Oglethorpe, Horton, Heron and others, and a large package of valuable original papers,

kindly furnished me by J. K. Teff't, Esq..of Savannah. Scarcely any portion of this history has cost more labour in digesting, arranging and reconciling the various contradictory statements of the parties concerned. The truth has, I trust, rewarded my toil,

228

MARRIED TO MUSGROVE.

treaty of alliance with the Creeks, and thus secure their neutrality, if he could not obtain their friend ship. The treaty lodged with the Indians certain reserved rights, the principal feature of which was, that none of His Majesty's subjects should hold any right to lands, or kill any cattle south of the Savan nah, which was to be the boundary between the Creeks and His Majesty's subjects of Carolina. John Musgrove, junior, the son of the colonel, accompanied his father on this embassy, and having seen and ad mired the youthful princess, was soon united to her by marriage. He remained in the nation several years after the birth of their only child, and about 1723 returned to Carolina, where she resided with her husband upwards of seven years. Mr. Musgrove, by his alliance with Consaponakeeso, obtained considera ble influence with the Creeks, and was held in such high repute as a trader, that, at the request of the nation, and with the consent of Governor Johnson, he removed to the south side of the Savannah, (June, 1732,) and there, on a beautiful bluff belonging to a small tribe of Yamacraws, erected an extensive trading house. Success crowned his efforts, and wealth rewarded his industry. Such was the condi tion of Mary prior to the arrival of the Trustees' colony, enjoying the confidence of her tribes, the friendship of the whites, and versed at once in the English and Indian languages.
God had placed her there for good, and all her prior movements were but the inner wheels within the cir cumference of His great designs. The last day of January, 1733, had closed, and the evening shades gathered over a wilderness relieved only here and there by the flickering light of an Indian wigwam;

MARRIED TO MATHEWS.

229

and when the morning sun called forth the glad wel come of all animated nature, the simple-hearted Mary knew not that it lit up the last day of Indian sov ereignty over the territory around her. That day OgJethorpe stood before her, and in behalf of his colony, solicited permission to settle it upon the bluff on which she dwelt. The Indians were alarmed at the threat ened encroachment; but she quieted their fears, gained their consent, and in concert with Oglethorpe, secured their friendship and alliance. Mary became at once the friend of the colony; guarding its inter ests, relieving its necessities, standing as a mediatrix between the pale and the red man, calming the unea siness of the one, and repressing the excitement of the other. She was the Pocahontas of Georgia; and by her influence the little band of unprotected emigrants were often preserved from impending ruin. Within three years her husband died ; and Oglethorpe, then fortifying the southern section of the province, pro posed to her the establishment of a trading house on the Altamaha, for the several purposes of drawing the Indians away from Savannah, strengthening the south ern frontier, and securing her residence in the vicinity of Frederica, whither she was frequently called when her services as interpreter were required by the gen eral, or her counsel and co-operation needed in time of war. She complied with his request, and estab lished a trading house on the south side of the forks of the Altamaha, which she called Mount Venture. This soon became a place of much resort, and greatly strengthened this exposed border of the colony. She here formed a new matrimonial alliance with Captain Jacob Mathews, who was appointed by Oglethorpe to command the garrison of twenty men which had been

230

IMPORTANCE OF MARY TO THE COLONY.

raised for the defence of that place. The colony was now exposed to Spanish and Indian invasion; the entire southern frontier was the seat of a merciless and savage warfare; and nothing but the fidelity of the Creeks prevented the abandonment of the prov ince. These, through the instrumentality of Mary, were held firm in their devotion to the English inter est. In the repulse of the Spaniards in 1742, the Indians sent down through the exertions of Marj, had, according to Oglethorpe, great share in the slaughter; and his frequent and urgent comrmffiieations to her requesting advice and assistance, show in what estimation he held her services. His view of her worth may be inferred from a letter dated Dur ham, England, November 13th, 1745, in which he says: "I find there is the utmost endeavour, by the Spanish faction, to destroy her because she is of con sequence and in the king's interest; therefore it is the business of the king's friends to support her, be sides which I shall be desirous to serve her out of the friendship she has always shown me as well as to the colony." If a " talk " was to be held with the Indians at Frederica, Savannah, or any other point, nothing could be done without the important aid of Mary. If warriors were required for the defence of the colony, it was through Mary's influence that they were ob tained. Did disaffection, leaning on French intrigue or Spanish guile, hold aloft the " bloody stick" and threaten the massacre of the inhabitants, her power became conspicuous in the soothing of asperated feel ings, and in the recall of half-alienated affection. In 1742, her husband, being ill, removed to Savannah, where about June he died; and during her absence

MARRIES BOSOMWORTH.

'231

the Yamassees fell upon her establishment at Mount Venture, and laid it in ruins.
While in Savannah, she was brought into official connexion with Mr. Thomas Bosomworth, who had succeeded Mr. Clarke as agent for Indian affairs, and who,'besides being a person of liberal education, had farther recommended himself to Oglethorpe by having been a volunteer under him in his invasion of Florida.
Having fitted himself for the ministry, he went to England to obtain holy orders, and was appointed by the Trustees to perform religious and ecclesiastical offices in Georgia. Returning to the colony, he soon married Mary, and took her with him to Frederica, where he officiated as deputy chaplain; though the Trustees, disapproving of this, directed him to go to Savannah, to which station he had been appointed, it haying been vacant since the death of the Rev. William Norris in 1742. Mr. Bosomworth was sup ported in part by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge; and one of the objects of his mission was the conversion of the Indians.
The motives which prompted this strange alliance with Mrs. Musgrove, need not be scanned. Had Bo somworth really desired to engage in his missionary labours, no course could have been more effectual, and the opportunity which his union with the sostyled princess afforded was pre-eminently favoura ble ; but the spirit and the zeal to seize upon and im prove it, was wanting; and once gone, he never attempted to regain it. Other views opened before him; other schemes, which comported neither with his profession, nor with the good of the savage, nor with the welfare of the colony, engaged his mind; schemes which aimed solely at his own aggrandize-

232

CHANGE IN HER CHARACTER.

ment, and which spread among the tribes faction and discontent, rather than the enlightening and restrain ing influences of the Gospel of peace. Hitherto the career of Mary had been one of generous self-denial, and of unremitted labours for the good of the colony. She had not indeed received the full reward of her services; but she rested in security on the faith of the government, and was, until her marriage with Bosomworth, quiet in her conduct, and moderate in her demands. But, from 1744, her whole character was changed ; and the colony which her services had kept in peace and security, was now, through her misdi rected influence, to feel the dreadful horrors of ex pected massacre and extermination. The year after his marriage, he returned to England, and meeting with Oglethorpe as he was marching against the reb els, joined his regiment and proceeded with it to the seat of war. At the same time he wrote to the Trus tees that he did not design to return to Georgia. But the next year (1746) he did return to Savannah, and giving up all ecclesiastical offices, openly showed his contempt of the Trustees by introducing six negroes on his place on the Altamaha.
The Trustees resented this marked affront to their authority, and directed the President and assistants to remove the slaves from the colony. This order pro voked his long-cherished indignation, and spurred him on to revenge. He first strengthened himself by con ciliating the Indians; and having laid his plans with much artfulness and caution, he began carefully to develope his designs and arrogate his pretensions. His objects were to obtain from the government full indemnification for the losses and services of his wife, and to secure to himself, in her name, the absolute

MEMORIALIZES THE DUKE OP NEWCASTLE.

233

possession of the islands Ossaba, Sapelo, and St. Cath erine's, and a large tract above Pipemaker's creek near Savannah, which had been reserved to the In dians in their former treaties.
The first of these objects was laudable, and within certain limits, just. Up to 1743 she had received only about one thousand dollars for her services, as much that was due to her was withheld. Justice, and the plighted faith of Oglethorpe, rebuked the delinquency; gratitude for her fostering care, the last feeling to influence a corporate body, called for the long-promised requital; and she would have received a full and suffi cient recompense, had not the management of her affairs been assumed by her avaricious husband, who now stepped in with an exorbitant demand for nearly twenty-five thousand dollars. He now cast aside every clerical restraint, and put on the iron features of the extortioner, determined rather to light up through the nation the fires of the war-dance, than cancel one claim, or relinquish one acre. By his talents and address he secured to his interests Major William Horton, the commander of Oglethorpe's regiment at Frederica, and the other officers stationed there, who suggested to Bosomworth to draw up a memorial in favour of his wife Mary, which he promised to for ward to the Duke of Newcastle, and a memorial with a large appendix of papers was accordingly transmit ted to England. On the arrival of Lieut. Colonel Heron to take com mand of the regiment, May, 1747, he also was brought over to Bosomworth's interest, the more easily swerved because of his hatred of the local civil officers of Georgia, between whom and the military there had been some jealousy and discord as to the extent of

234

INDIANS VISIT FRBDERICA.

their respective authority. Taking advantage of what was declared to be a pretended rupture with tie whites, Heron, at the suggestion of Mrs. Bosomworth, sent Abraham Bosomworth as a commissioner to treat with the Creek Indians. With whatever of good faith Colonel Heron may have acted in this matter, it is very evident that the appointment of 'Abraham Bosomworth was suggested by Thomas Bosomworth, for the double purpose of securing the interests of the Indian traders in his behalf, and for the bringing down to the sea-board such chiefs as would confirm the titles of Mary and his claim to the reserved lands. Both purposes were effected, and the plot was daily thickening. While Abraham was gaining a represen tation in his favour from the traders, Colonel Heroa was pressing the claims of Mary on the Duke of New castle, and Bosomworth was busy drumming up a petition to Lieut. Colonel Heron, which he was to despatch to England. This synchronous movement showed the firmness of their design, to secure which their most laborious efforts were directed.
As soon as the harvests were housed, a body of Indians, with Malatchee at their head, went down, at the instance of Abraham Bosomworth, to have a " talk" with the commander at Frederica. This chief, with his " very grand retinue," held a conference with Lieut. Colonel Heron on the 7th of December, 1747, and delivered to him a speech, reviewing the history of the whites and Indians since 1733, stating the services of Mary desiring that Abraham Bosomworth should be sent to England to tell the king that he is Emperor of the Creeks, and has two thousand fighting men. He also complimented the Duke of Cumber land by sending to him a " pipe of peace, with the

ILLEGAL CONFERENCE.

235

arms and dress of his forefathers," and concluded by declaring that Mary, his sister, was confided in by the whole nation, who had resolved to abide by what she determined, and, in case of her death, to regard her hus band, Thomas Bosomworth, in the same light. To this artful speech Col. Heron replied, among other things, that he would send Abraham Bosomworth to England, (which he accordingly did,) persuaded that the king would do the Indians justice. But not content with this illegal conference, the farce was still further car ried on by the mockery of a public ceremonial, in which fifteen Indians, styling themselves kings, warkings, head warriors, warriors and beloved men of seven different towns, formally, and by deed, signed December 14th, 1747, acknowledged Malatchee to be their " rightful and natural prince," and themselves bound " to ratify and confirm every act and deed of his," and declaring to all subjects of the crown of Great Britain that Malatchee " has full power and authority, as our natural prince, to transact all affairs relating to our nation, as firmly and fully, to all intents and purposes, as we, the whole nation, might or could do if present."
Sovereign power being now lodged in the hands of Malatchee, Bosomworth obtained from him a deed of conveyance, putting him in possession of the islands Ossaba, Sapelo, and St. Catherine's, for and in consid eration of 10 pieces of stroud, 12 of duffles, 200 weight of powder, 200 weight of lead, 20 guns, 12 pair pis tols, and 100 weight vermilion." This was the first step in his great design, but the whole proceedings had been exparte and illegal. Colonel Heron was not authorized to appoint an agent to go to the Creeks, nor to summon them in council to Frederica, nor to

236

WHY NOT HELD IN SAVANNAH.

receive a speech from them on public affairs, nor to depute a messenger on their behalf to England. AH this properly belonged to the Trustees' agents, who, by the act empowering them to make treaties and secure peace with the Indians, were vested with the entire control of Indian affairs in Georgia, even to the licens ing of the traders and the adjusting a tariff of prices for the Indian market. Why then did not the Presi dent and assistants, and Indian agents at Savannah, manage this affair ? The answer embraces several par ticulars. Frederica was in a state of opposition to Savannah the magistrates of the latter conceiving that the officers of the former infringed upon their civil jurisdiction, and the military men of the former unwilling to submit to the civil and judicial decisions of the latter. This fact of itself prepossessed the officers at Frederica in favour of Bosomworth, whom the Savannah magistrates justly repudiated ; and this bias was strengthened by the associations which Bosomworth formerly, and now virtually, held with the regiment as its deputy chaplain. Had Mary complained to the magistrates of Savannah, instead of sending Abraham Bosomworth as Heron did, and thus securing the Indian traders to her interest, they would have despatched Mr. Grahame, who would have dis covered the cheat and exposed the fraud. Had Mary drawn Malatchee and the chiefs to Savannah, they would not have dared to speak as they did, as all their statements could have been disproved.
Had they not assembled in the presence of a sufficient body of whites, the public acknowledging of Malatchee as emperor, and the public conveyance of lands by him to Bosomworth, might have been suspected as forgeries; but by having all this transacted among his personal and

MACHINATIONS OF BOSOMWORTH.

237

party friends, it gave to all the proceedings an air of truth and honesty which would deceive all but the well-informed and unprejudiced. Nor, be it observed, could this formal vesting of sovereign authority have been conferred on Malatchee, nor this deeding away of lands have been made, had the transac tions at Frederica been attempted at Savannah. It was the interest of Bosomworth, therefore, to avoid the place where his machinations would be exposed, and conduct all these proceedings at Frederica, where he could work every wire in this puppet-show of Indian royalty and imperial benevolence. Thus far every thing had worked to his satisfaction. No one but Col. Heron would have appointed Abraham Bosomworth as Indian agent; no one but Abraham Bosomworth would have gotten the interest of the Indian traders in behalf of his brother, and drawn down to Frederica such chiefs and warriors as would subserve his brother's purposes; while by assembling the Indians at Frederica, and pro claiming Malatchee emperor, Bosomworth secured to his wife's uncle supreme power; and this effected, he got from him his imperial cession of the lands he desired; and by so managing it as to have Col. Heron send his brother Abraham as bearer of despatches to England, he was enabled to place near the ear of authority at home, one who would enforce his claims, prejudice all other interests, and secure to him his avaricious ends. It was an exhibition of adroitness in planning, of ability in executing, and of triumph in apparent victory, wor thy of a better cause and more righteous designs. The machinery of the scheme thus far was perfect, but the motive power was defective, and its workings were disastrous. While Abraham Bosomworth was absent in London,

238

INDIANS VISIT SAVANNAH.

the chaplain remained mostly at Frederica; but on the disbanding of the regiment, May 29, 1749, he moved into the Creek nation, preparatory to making, and by force, if necessary, sustaining his demand for a moiety of the Indian presents which His Majesty was to send over to Georgia.
On the 21st of July, Bosomworth, Mary, Malatchee, and two other chiefs, came to Savannah, and acquainted the President and assistants that two hundred others would soon follow them. To the inquiry, as to the pur port of their visit, their answers were "very trifling and dark." They gave out, however, that they had come to meet Mr. Abraham Bosomworth, who had a few months before returned from England, to know what answer he had brought from the great king; and "if he did not bring them satisfaction, they intended, in a very absolute and open manner, to forbid any of His Majesty's subjects to settle in Georgia, above the flow ing of the tide," and to insist upon Mr. Bosomworth's being put in possession of the three islands deeded to him by Malatchee, and the lands fronting the river, lying between the town and Pipemaker's bluff; threat ening a breach of the peace if all this was not granted. The true reason of their coming at this time was, that as Abraham Bosomworth had failed in most of the ex pected results of his mission to England, they thought that, now the "red wall" (as they called Oglethorpe's regiment) was broken down, they could so intimidate the resident officers as to secure most, if not all, the Indian presents which they knew had been sent to Georgia, and also wring from the affrighted Board such concessions as would validate their claims. The con duct of the Indians in Savannah was full of outrage and

PARADE AT THEIR ENTRANCE.

339

instill; alarming the citizens, disturbing the peace, and threatening the very existence of the colony.
The President and assistants, by kind words and social courtesies, endeavoured to keep them under their control, and repress the outrages which they were disposed to commit, though with ill success. The 10th of August, 1749, was appointed for the public reception of, and conference with, the Indians. They were received at the limits of the Savannah line by a party of horse, under Captain Noble Jones, who, find ing them with loaded arms, told them that he had orders not to admit a single one until they had first laid them down; upon which they all discharged their pieces, by way of salute, and then deposited them at the appointed place. The procession was then formed, and entered the town. In the rear of the horse, and in front of the Indians, walked Thomas Bosom worth, in full canonicals, with his brother Abraham; behind them, Mary and Malatchee, the rest following in due order. On reaching the parade, they were saluted by thirteen guns; and the foot, one hundred and seventy strong, then marched in front, while the cavalry brought up the rear, until they reached the President's house, where the formalities of reception were per formed. The interview showed how much the Indian mind had been warped by the influence of the Bosomworths; and the civilities of the public dinner that fol lowed were broken in upon by the refusal of Mary, Malatchee, and a few others, to partake of the enter tainment. Dinner was scarcely over, when a body of armed Indians appeared in the streets; and the town, alarmed by the beat of the drum, and the wild uproar of the Indians, was thrown into still greater excitement by the report that they had cut off the head of the

240

INSOLENT CONDUCT OF MARY.

President, and were going to massacre the people. A hundred men were under arms in a few minutes; and the President and assistants, rushing in unarmed before the Indians, boldly seized Messrs. Abraham and Thomas Bosomworth, and Mr. Thomas Bosomworth's white ser vant, and committed them to prison. The militia, ex asperated by repeated insults, could scarcely be dis suaded from firing upon the Indians, and they were only preserved by the resoluteness of the Board, who stood between them and the soldiers, until the former had dispersed.
Still desirous of treating them kindly, the President invited the chiefs to repair to his house, " to drink a glass of wine and talk the affair over." They had barely gotten to the door of his house when Mary, like a mad and frantic woman, came running in among then*, endeavouring all she could to irritate the Indians afresh. To such height did her insolence rise, that she threatened the lives of the magistrates, and the de struction of the colony. " You talk," said she, " of your white town, your general, and his treaties. A fig for your general! you have not a foot of land in the colony;" and stamping upon the ground, declared, " This very earth is mine." She was immediately ordered into confinement, but upon promises of sub mission, and the assurances of her husband, was released. But the irritation remained, and through the outward covering of respect could be seen the dark flow of Indian passions, intent on deeds of evil.
The presence and conduct of the Indians was the engrossing affair of the town. It was a season of intense excitement, and the fluctuations of feeling in the minds of the inhabitants were frequent and pain ful. The militia were kept under arms most of the

BOSOM WORTH AND MARY HUMBLED.

241

time; the Board of President and assistants sat daily, and the utmost vigilance was maintained lest the In dians, in some drunken rage, stimulated by the equally intoxicated Bosomworths, should rise upon and mas sacre the inhabitants. A. week of such horrible sus pense had nearly passed, marked by scenes of outrage and alarm, when Mary again gave vent to her pentnp wrath, and in unmeasured terms threatened the colony, and spirited up the Indians to an Indian revenge. True to their duty, the magistrates, at great risk, again arrested her and locked her up in a room in the guard-house. A party of Indians sallied forth to the rescue. They were met by Captain Jones and a few of the horse, who ordered them to lay down their arms at once or he would cut off every man of them. They obeyed his commands, and dispersed. A hesitating look, a faltering word here, would per haps have overturned the colony. The energy of these proceedings, and the firmness of the magis trates, had the desired effect. Bosomworth and Mary were humbled, and the former, with tears, entreated that lenity might be shown to him, " if only to see his future behaviour and amendment." To test their sincerity, the Board required that he should at the court-house, and in the presence of the Indians, acknowledge his and his wife's error and ill behaviour, which the next day he did, in the most ample and satisfactory manner; and the Indians left on the 19th of August, laden with presents and with professions of amity. Thus, for nearly a month, had the Board and the inhabitants been kept in a most painful and perilous condition. A large party of In dians, stirred up to wrath by the machinations of white men excited by the most rancorous passions
16

242

COLONEL WILLIAM STEPHENS.

stimulated by spirits, and flushed with hopes of ob taining their end, swelled and raged in the colony like the intestine fires of a pent-up volcano, ready at a moment's uncapping, to pour out its desolating tide. No portion of the duty of that Board, during its contin uance, called for more talent to guide it, or more firm ness to sustain it, than the negociations with this incensed band of Creeks, led on by Bosomworth and his furious wife. All felt the impending danger, and acknowledged the prudence and sagacity of the meas ures which averted those evils which they so much and so justly dreaded. At the head of this Board was Colonel William Stephens, the first President of Geor gia. He was the son of Sir William Stephens, Bart., Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Wight,13 at which place he was born January 28th, 1671, O. S. He graduated at King's College, Cambridge, and after leaving the university was entered at the Middle Tem ple, in London, though he was never called to the bar. In the twenty-fifth year of his age he married Mary, second daughter of Sir Richard Newdigate, Bart., of Harefield and Arbury, member of Parliament for Warwickshire, and one of the most ancient fami lies in the county of Surrey.14 Shortly after his mar riage he was elected a member of Parliament for Newport, and during the twenty-six years in which he represented that town, he behaved, in every change, with great steadiness and truth to his constituents. Being acquainted with Colonel Horsey, who was sub sequently appointed Governor of South Carolina, he was prevailed on to visit Carolina; thence he crossed

13 The Castle-builders, or the His- tion, 8vo, p. 18. tory of William Stephens of the Isle 14 Burke's Commoners, ii. 700. of Wight, &c., London, 1759, 2d edi-

ASSISTANTS DESIRE HIS RESIGNATION.

243

the Savannah river to Georgia, where he met Oglethorpe, whom he had already known in Parliament, and with whom he returned to England. In August, 1737, he was appointed " secretary to the Trustees in Georgia," and recrossing the Atlantic, arrived in Savannah the following November. His office was, to take a general oversight of affairs, to act (yet unof ficially) as a counsellor to the magistrates, and to acquaint the Trustees with all the events of importance which transpired in the colony. The journal which lie kept from day to day, and transmitted at stated times to the Trustees, is full of interesting points and incidents, told with much plainness and simplicity, interspersed with occasional remarks developing his views of the political and religious condition of Geor gia. In politics, he was the unwavering friend of the Trustees. In religion, he was opposed to Wesley and Whitefield, and often commented on their doings and preaching with much severity. In 1741 he was made President of the county of Savannah, and in 1743, President of the whole colony. He was over seventy years old when he entered upon this office; and the infirmities of age, hastened upon him by private misfortunes and domestic bereavements, soon inca pacitated him for his duties. The Assistants for a long time laboured under great difficulties in con ducting public business, in consequence of his infirmi ties, and at last (26th September, 1750,) waited upon him and frankly stated their embarrassments, result ing from his age and incapacity for business. The renerable President immediately comprehended their intentions, and told them to proceed without him; " that he would soon retire into the country, where he should be at liberty to mind the more weighty

244

CAUSES OF HIS INCAPACITY.

things of a future state, not doubting but the Trustees would enable him to end his few remaining days with out care and anxiety." 15
Henry Parker was accordingly appointed Vice-presi dent, Colonel Stephens retaining his titular connexion with government until May, 1751, when he resigned; and the Trustees, " in consideration of his great age and infirmities, and his past services," granted him an annuity adequate to his support.
It was rather unfortunate that the putting in opera tion of this new system of government under the Presi dent and assistants should have been confided to Col. Stephens, whose age rendered him inadequate to the duties, and whose infirmities caused him to be too pliant to the wishes and importunities of others. He had knowledge, wisdom, and experience, yet not the active qualities requisite for an executive station of such responsibility. But he lacked energy, only be cause the fire of his early zeal was burning low in life's socket; he wanted firmness, only because the tense nerve had been unstrung by age, and the strong will had been bent by afflictions; he failed in diligence, only because the twilight of life's evening called him to repose after a long day of active and eventful toil. He had reached to fourscore years, yet "found their strength, labour and sorrow." In great bodily weak ness, his memory and reason visibly failing, he languish ed until the middle of August, 1753, when, being asked to tea, a cup was handed to him at table, of which he just tasted ; and saying, with great composure, "I have done eating and drinking in this world," was led awar to his bed, in an adjoining room. Here he lay, unable to speak or receive nourishment, until the next day at
1 5 Journal of the President and Assistants, fol. 56. MS,

HENRY PARKER MADE PRESIDENT.

245

noon, when the " silver cord was loosed, and the golden bowl was broken." He had gone to his long home, and the mourners went about the streets.
Henry Parker succeeded him as President of Geor gia; and his former office of secretary for the affairs of the Trust, was filled by the appointment of James Habersham. The people still laboured under many grievances, and sought for redress; but the Trustees, deceived by their agents in Georgia, and wedded to a system which was beautiful in theory, kept back the helping hand, or only conceded what was wrung from them by the glaring necessities of the impoverished and fast-depopulating country.
One of these plans, which necessity thrust upon the Trustees, was the establishment of an annual repre sentative assembly, to be held in Savannah. In the preamble of the report of the committee of correspond ence to the common council of the Trustees, dated March 14, 1750,16 they state, that " having taken into consideration that many settlements are made in dif ferent parts of the province, the true state of which in particular, as wTell as of the province in general, it is necessary the Trustees should from time to time be acquainted with, the better to enable them to procure all the advantages they can for the good of the people, and provide for the welfare and security of the prov ince, they had resolved upon a proposal to be offered to the common council."
The plan of this proposal was, that an " assembly be formed, and authorized to meet in the town of Savan nah, in Georgia, every year, at the most leisure time, and such time as shall be appointed by the President

1 6 Minutes of Common Council, iii. 235.

246

PLAN OF AN ANNUAL ASSEMBLY.

and assistants; no such meeting to continue longer than three weeks, or a month at farthest.
" That every town, or village, or district, in the prov ince, where ten families are settled, be empowered to depute one person; and where thirty families are set tled, to depute two persons, to the said assembly.
" That for the town of Savannah there be four depu ties ; for the town of Augusta, two deputies ; for Ebenezer, two deputies; and if thirty families are settled at Frederica, that they be empowered to send two also.
"That the power of making laws being, by His Majesty's charter, vested solely in the Trustees, the assembly can only propose, debate, and represent to the Trustees what shall appear to them to be for the benefit, not only of each particular settlement, but of the province in general.
"That the deputy or deputies from every place shall deliver to the assembly, within three days after their meeting, an account, in writing, of the state of his or their settlement, signed by such deputy or deputies, which account shall contain the number of people, as well of negroes as of whites, (distinguishing men from women and children, of either kind, and the children's sex and age,) the quantity of land cultivated by each inhabitant of such settlements, and in what manner; the number of negroes kept, and the number of mul berry trees standing (properly fenced) on each planta tion ; and the progress made by each man or family in the culture of wine, silk, indigo, cotton, etc.
" That the said accounts, as likewise the proposals and representations of the assembly, shall, when signed by the person presiding in it, be delivered to the Pres ident and assistants, in order to be transmitted to the Trustees for their consideration.

QUALIFICATIONS OF DEPUTIES.

247

"That the person to preside in the assembly be chosen by them, to be approved or disapproved of by the President; and if disapproved of the President, that he be obliged, if it is demanded by any three of the assembly, to give his reasons for so doing, and trans mit the same, in writing, to the Trustees.
" That the assembly be empowered and called to meet as soon as conveniently may be; but that from and after the 24th day of June, 1751, no person shall
be capable of being chosen a deputy who has not one hundred mulberry trees planted, and properly fenced, upon every fifty acres he possesses; and that from and after the 24th day of June, 1753, no person shall be capable of being chosen a deputy who has not strictly conformed to the limitation of the number of negro slaves in proportion to his white servants, who has not at least one female in his family instructed in the art of reeling silk, and who does not yearly produce fifteen pounds of silk upon fifty acres of land, and the like quantity upon every fifty acres he possesses.
" But as the Trustees are desirous of seeing some immediate good effects from this assembly, and are sen sible that at present there are not many in the province who may have the aforesaid qualifications, they do not insist on requiring any of these in the deputies who meet in the assembly within the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty."
Thus tenaciously did the Trustees cling to some of the original purposes of their settlement; and so strangely did they engraft upon the legislature of Georgia the unusual qualifications, not of freehold and income, but of mulberry trees and raw silk, as consti tuting eligibility to a seat in the assembly. This was sealed, and became the law of the Trustees, on the

248

ASSEMBLY MEETS.

27th of March, 1750; and the first assembly was called by the President and assistants to sit on the 15th of January, 1751.17
The assembly, which met on the day appointed, was organized by the choice of Francis Harris as Speaker, a gentleman of sound judgment, right intentions, and large practical knowledge.
The formalities customary on such occasions in the other provinces, of being addressed by the Executive, and replied to by the assembly, was for the first time gone through in Georgia. The President opened their deliberations with a speech, setting forth the reason of their being called together; and the deputies replied in courteous terms, and offered to him sincere con gratulations on his appointment to the supreme com mand in Georgia. The Sunday after, they, in conjunc tion with the President and assistants, went in a body to church, when the Rev. Mr. Zouberbuhler, at the request of President Parker, " preached a sermon suit able to the occasion."
On the 30th of January the assembly delivered to the President and assistants a paper entitled, " Heads of grievances which we are of opinion the President and assistants may have in their power to redress," which set forth their wants under eleven specifications, viz.: l8

1st. The want of a proper pilot-boat. 2d. The want of leave to erect a building under the bluff for the conveniency of boat's crews, negroes, &c. 3d. The want of standard weights and measures. 4th. The want of a survey of the river.

11 MS. Documents from Board of 1S Journal of the President and As-

Trade, iv. 81.

sistants, 88.

SETS FORTH HEADS OF GRIEVANCES.

249

5th. The want of an order to prevent the masters of vessels from heaving their ballast into the river, &c.
6th. The want of commissioners for the regulation of pilots and pilotage.
7th. The want of an inspector and sworn packer to inspect the produce of the colony.
8th. The want of a clerk of the market. 9th. The want of a regulation of the guard. 10th. The want of proper officers to command the militia. llth. The repairs of the court-house. To which the following answers were returned: "The first article requiring a larger expense than the Board could comply with, the assembly were left to represent it to the Trustees. To the second, the Board would readily allot them the ground, provided the Trustees should be at no expense in building, which they said was not desired, intending to be done by subscription. To the third, the Board acquainted them that they had applied to the Trustees for regular standards of weights and measures, and expected soon to receive them. To the fourth, they were answered that the river should be surveyed as soon as persons qualified could be procured. To the fifth, that an order should be published to prevent it, and delin quents, upon proof, should be severely prosecuted. To the sixth, that the Board would endeavour to find proper persons, whom they will appoint to regulate the same. To the seventh, one to be appointed. To the eighth, they would appoint a clerk as soon as a market place was prepared. To the ninth, the Board under took to regulate the same. The tenth was likewise promised to be done. To the eleventh, they were

250

MILITIA ORGANIZED.

acquainted that materials were provided, and the .workmen had orders to do it forthwith."
They continued in session until the 8th of February, and, as it was more of an advisory than a legislative assembly, they could only make representations to the Trustees of what things they thought proper for the benefit of the colony; and accordingly they made eleven representations, and an address, to the Trustees, relating to various matters connected with the magis tracy, the river, the Indians, the introduction of negroes, the silk culture, the continuance of the charter, and others of similar import, and were then dissolved, never again to be convened.
Agreeably to the promise made by the President and assistants to the assembly, the Board, on the 16th of April, 1751, proceeded to organize and commission the militia of the province. All who possessed three hundred acres and upwards of land, were directed to appear well accoutred on horseback as cavalry; and those who owned less property, armed as foot. The militia was thus comprised in four companies, viz., one troop of horse, and three of infantry, amounting in all to nearly three hundred men.
This arming and organizing of the militia was ren dered especially necessary, by reason of the disband ing of the regiment of Oglethorpe, and the constant perplexities and alarm created by the neighbouring Indians. The first general muster in the lower dis tricts was held at Savannah, on Tuesday, 13th of June, 1751, when about two hundred and twenty men, horse and foot, under command of Captain Noble Jones, appeared on parade, properly armed and equipped; and the official records of the colony state, that " they behaved well and made a pretty appearance."19

19 Ib. 106, 119.

SOME DESIRE TRUSTEES TO CONTINUE.

251

The period at which the charter was to expire by limitation, was now at hand; and in the relaxing of their energies for the support of that which they were soon to relinquish, the Trustees did little else than make grants of land, settle their accounts, and prepare for their corporate dissolution. Some good men in the province, knowing the well-disposed intentions of the Trustees, notwithstanding all their mismanagement, wished them to renew the charter, preferring to live under evils already known and measured, than run the risk of introducing new and perhaps greater ones, by a change of government. By the Trust's revoking of several of their early and oppressive laws relating to the tenure of land, the labour of slaves, and other oppressive burdens, the colony was beginning to re cover from that civil marasmus under which it had so long wasted away. They believed that the Trustees, uninfluenced by mercenary aims, would, with their sad-bought experience and enlarged views, legislate only for the well-being of the colony, while they feared that royal officers would seek to subserve their own interests, and only use the colony as the means of their personal aggrandizement.
" We have been," says Habersham, " like a sickly child, which the Trustees, by great application and care, have nursed and brought to a healthy and thriving state ; and if we should fall into the hands of unskilful physicians, they may obstruct the cure being truly perfected."20 The same desire was urged in the official letters to the Trust of the President and assist ants, they telling them that unless the charter was renewed, their condition would be " deplorable," and assuring them that were they to do so, " a few years
20 Board of Trade, iv. 96.

252

COMMITTEE ON SURRENDER OP CHARTER.

will evidence that the colony will not only support itself, but be a benefit to our mother country."
Another fear which they had was, that if the Trus* tees resigned the charter, the colony would be an nexed to South Carolina.21 This greatly disturbed the people, believing that, should it be done, " they might expect to be treated as persons only fit to guard her frontier;" and they dreaded annexation to Carolina more than the erection of the colony into an inde pendent province.
In order to arrange the surrender of the charter with proper care and deliberation, a committee con sisting of twelve persons, at the head of whom was the Earl of Shaftesbury, was appointed by the common council of the Trustees on the 25th of April, 1751, " to adjust with the administration the proper means for supporting and settling the colony for the future, and to take, from time to time, all such measures as they shall find necessary for its well-being." On the 8th of January, 1752, the Earl of Shaftesbury reported from that committee, " That, being informed22 that the Lords of the Council had appointed Thursday evening, December the 19th, to take into consideration the Trustees' memorial to His Majesty, and the reports thereon from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury and the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, the said committee had, at a meeting, De cember 14th, desired and empowered the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Hooper, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Tracy, and Mr. Frederick, to attend and deliver to

21 This scheme was boldly advocated in " The Present State of Great Britain in North America," &c., 8vo, London, 1767, '233. Document from

Board of Trade, iv*. 96. 23 Minutes of Common Council,
iii. 266.

PAPER DELIVERED TO P1UVY COUNCIL.

253

the Lords of the Council the following paper in the name of the Trustees, for establishing the colony of Georgia in case they should be called upon by their lordships," viz.: "To the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesty's
Most Honourable Privy Council. " The Trustees for establishing the colony of Geor gia in America, who are ready, for the service of the crown, to surrender their trust for granting the lands in the said colony, think it their indispensable duty to offer the following considerations to your lordships on behalf of the people settled there. " That the colony of Georgia be confirmed a sepa rate and independent province, as it is expressly declared in His Majesty's charter it shall be, (in con fidence of which the inhabitants, both British and foreign, have gone thither,) and as the assembly of the province of Georgia have petitioned for in a represen tation to the Trustees, dated January 15th, 1750. " That the inhabitants of the colony be confirmed in their titles and possessions which have been grant ed to them under the charter. " That the arrears of quit-rents due at this time be remitted, since most of the inhabitants have been pre vented by the war and the various obstacles that always occur at the first settling of a colony, from cultivating so much of their lands as it might be ex pected they would have done; and that the quit-rents for the future be reduced from four to two shillings for each hundred acres ; this last sum being as much as is usually reserved in any of His Majesty's prov inces in America. " That as there will be occasion for a secretary or agent in England, to transact the affairs of the prov-

254

FURTHER REPORT OF COMMITTEE.

ince here, and to carry on the correspondence with the government in Georgia; and as the Trustees' sec retary, Mr. Martyn, has served them ably and faith fully in that capacity from the very date of the charter, and is much better acquainted with the state of the colony than any other person residing in England; and as the Trustees have the greatest reason to be lieve it will be very agreeable and encouraging to the people there, they humbly desire your lordships will be the means of recommending him to His Majesty for the said employment, with such an appointment as may be thought proper."
The Earl of Shaftesbury further reported, " That on the 19th of December the committee attended the Lords of the Council, and being called in, they were acquainted that the Lords have read the Trustees' memorial to His Majesty, and the reports thereon from the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations; and that the Lords of the Council had observed in the report from the Lords Commis sioners for Trade, that the Trustees who attended them had said, that if it should be expected that for the service of the crown they should surrender their trust for granting the lands in the colony, they should have some conditions to offer to the council on behalf of the people settled there; and therefore the Lords of the Council desired to know if the Trustees had such conditions ready to lay before them. Upon which the committee delivered, in the name of the Trustees, the aforesaid paper, drawn up by the com mittee December the 14th, and then ordered to be delivered in case it should be called for; after which the committee withdrew, and after some time being

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER PROPOSED.

255

called in again, they were acquainted that the Lords of the Council could not advise His Majesty to recom mend to Parliament the granting any sum of money to the corporation of the Trustees, unless they were de sirous to make an absolute surrender of their charter; and if so, they were asked in what manner they pro posed to make the surrender."
"Upon which the committee again withdrew, and then taking into consideration the present state of the colony, and the total inability of the Trustees to defray the civil government thereof from Lady-day, 1751, to furnish the troops stationed in Georgia with provis ions, or to give any encouragements for the produce of raw silk, without a further supply; they immedi ately drew up the following paper and severally signed the same, viz.:
" ' We, whose names are hereunder written, being a committee appointed by the common council of the Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, in America, and being fully authorized by them, do hereby signify that we are ready and willing to make an absolute surrender of all the powers, rights, and trusts vested in the said Trustees by His Majesty's Royal Charter, bearing date the 9th day of June, 1732, without any condition or limitation, humbly recommending the rights and privileges of the inhabi tants of the said colony to His Majesty's most gracious protection.
SHAFTESBURY, ROBERT TRACY, JOHN FREDERICK, SAMUEL LLOYD, EDWARD HOOPER, ' December 19th, 1751.'

256

FURTHER POWERS GIVEN TO COMMITTEE.

" That committee were then called in again, and they presented the said paper to the Lords of the Council and then withdrew, and were soon after acquainted by Mr. Sharpe, clerk of the council, that he was ordered by their lordships to inform them that they had referred the said paper to the attorney and solici tor-general, to consider thereof, and report to their lordships in what manner the same might be most effectually carried into execution."
The common council concurred, and adopted as their own act, the paper delivered by their committee to the Lords of the Council, and in their vote of thanks to this committee, particularized " their care in recom mending the rights and privileges of the inhabitants" of Georgia to His Majesty's protection.
They also empowered the same committee " to take all such further measures as they shall judge necessary in order to perfect the surrender of the trust, in confi dence that His Majesty's subjects inhabiting the col ony of Georgia, will suffer no diminution of their rights and possessions by the Trustees' delivering into His Majesty's hands the charter which they received from His Majesty, on behalf of and for the benefit of his said subjects."
On the 21st of March, 1752, a report was read in the common council from the attorney and solicitorgeneral, in answer to a reference from the Lords of the Committee of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs, directing them to con sider in what manner the Trustees' offer to surrender their trust into the hands of his Majesty might best be carried into execution, setting forth that it was their opinion a deed of surrender should be executed by

LAST MEETING OP COMMON COUNCIL.

257

the Trustees with the privity and by the direction of the common council, under their common seal, thereby to surrender their charter, and likewise to grant to His Majesty the one-eighth part of the lands in Georgia granted and sold to the Trustees by the Right Honour able John Lord Carteret. Accordingly a resolution was passed to the intent that the Trustees, or any three or more of them, do, at such time, and in such manner, as they shall think fit, surrender and yield up to His Majesty the charter granted to the said Trustees, bearing date the 9th of June, 1732; and likewise that they do grant to His Majesty the one-eighth part of the lands and territories lying within the limits described in the said charter, granted and sold to the Trustees by the Right Honourable John Lord Carteret, by an indenture bearing date the 28th of February, 1732; and they further
Resolved, That the Trustees, or any three or more of them, be empowered, and they are hereby empow ered, accordingly, to fix the seal of the corporation to such surrender and grant, which shall be prepared by the attorney and solicitor-general in pursuance of an order of the lords of the committee of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs, bearing date the 19th day of December, 1751.
The last meeting of the common council was held on the 29th of April, 1752. The closing up of the affairs of the Trustees was steadily continued until June 23d, 1752, when this body met for the last time, made their last grant of land, sent their last directions to the President and assistants, paid their last bills, and rendered in to the Lord High Chancellor and the Master of Rolls their last annual account.
The secretary then acquainted the Trustees that he 17

258

TRUSTEES DISSOLVED.

had laid before the Lords Justices the memorial and representation, setting forth the manner in which the Trustees have discharged their trust, and the present state of the colony and its produce, particularly the raw silk, and the necessity of giving proper encour agements to carrying on the culture of this, and of giving early and satisfactory assurances to the people that such encouragements will be granted. He like wise acquainted them that he had laid the memorial and representation of the same before the Lords Com missioners for Trade and Plantations.
The resolution of the common council of the 21st of March was then read, after which the secretary laid before the Trustees a counterpart of an indenture expressing and declaring the said surrender and grant, which indenture he had received from William Sharpe, Esq., by order of the Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs, and which, when sealed, was to be exchanged with a counterpart under the great seal signifying His Majesty's acceptance of the said surrender and grant. The seal of the corporation was then affixed to the counterpart; and having thus effected a surrender of their charter, the seal was ordered to be defaced,23 and the corporation which had planted and nurtured Geor gia ceased to exist.
The number of gentlemen who served as Trustees under the charter was seventy-two, more than onethird of whom were noblemen, distinguished alike by their birth, their official rank, and their public zeal. The remainder were clergymen, members of Parlia ment, officers of the army, eminent lawyers, and exten sive merchants.

23 Journal of Trustees, iii. 195.

JAMES VERNON.

259

Of the original Trustees, six only remained in the Board to its close: General Oglethorpe, James Vernon, Eev. Dr. Burton, Rev. Samuel Smith, Mr. Anderson, and Rev. Dr. Hales. Of these, after General Ogle thorpe, none did greater service to Georgia than Mr. Vernon the only one of the Trustees at the first and the last meetings of that body. Constant in his attend ance, unfailing in his endeavours to promote the inter ests of the colony, the organ through whom most of the negociations with the German and other foreign Prot estants were carried on, he laboured with untiring diligence and disinterested zeal through an arduous service as a trustee and common-council man for twenty-one years, doing more, perhaps, than any one but Oglethorpe to plant, encourage, and protect the colony of Georgia. His services deserve a grateful remembrance, for he was one of the noblest, of the founders of our State.
There was but little pleasure to be enjoyed, and but little reputation to be gained, by being one of the Trus tees. They held office, but without emolument; they held power, but its sway was across the ocean; they laboured in a service that was often little better than drudgery; they toiled through tedious examinations of claimants for their bounty; through long and com plicated accounts, from the settling of the charter party of ships, to the buying of beer or pills for the emi grants; through irksome processes of granting lands and arranging settlers ; through the vexing annoyances of complaining letters, and representations, and memo rials ; through the wearisome business of framing laws, constructing constitutions, and erecting judi ciaries; through the painful reverses occasioned by turbulence, discord, and deceitful rulers; through the

^60

BENJAMIN MARTYN.

wasting years of wars and rumours of war ; through the intricate negociations with numerous Indian tribes; and through the frequent petitioning of Parliament for help ; moving on in the same great work of beneficence through evil report and through good report, in war and peace, in a full and exhausted treasury, until the un cultivated territory which they received of the king in the wilds of America, was returned to his hands peopled with thousands of subjects, wearing the smiling face of culture, and the adornments of civilization.
Nor should we be doing justice to one of the niost faithful servants of the Trustees, did we omit to men tion with commendation the name of Benjamin Martyn, Esq. At the first meeting of the common council, Mr. Hucks, M. P., acquainted the members, that in con sideration of the generosity of their design, Mr. Benja min Martyn oifered to serve them as secretary, for one year, without any pay or emolument; and Mr. George Heathcote, alderman of London, spoke in terms of praise of his worth and character. In this capacity he continued during the existence of the cor poration, conducting their voluminous and laborious cor respondence with great credit and ability. In addition to his onerous official labours, he published three works in defence of the Trustees, and for the advancement of their designs, viz.: " An Impartial Enquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia;" "Rea sons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia;" and "An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Geor gia, in America, from its Establishment." These are all spirited and business-like papers, written in good style, with much force, sound argument, and practical ability. He already possessed, however, somewhat of a literary reputation, having published some works

APPOINTED AGENT FOR GEORGIA.

del

before, and among them a tragedy, called Timoleon. He was also one of the managers of a society, com posed of noblemen and gentlemen, for the encourage ment of learning, of which most laudable institution*1 the Duke of Richmond was president. These honours, however, fade before that more noble merit which he won for himself, that more lasting praise which he deserves from others, by his faithful, earnest, and warm hearted devotion to the colonial interests of Georgia. The Trustees showed their estimation of his services, by a formal resolution, declaring how ably and faith fully he had served them, from their organization as a corporation; and recommended him to the Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council, as the most fit person to be appointed agent for the province of Georgia, to transact its affairs with the several officers of government in England. He was so appointed; and during many years sustained the interests of that province, whose cradled infancy he had watched over with such disin terested zeal.

34 Gent. Mag., June, 1736, 353. Among the fellow-managers of this icstitution were the Earls of Hartford, Oxford, Abercorn and Stanhope, the

nelebrated Dr. Richard Mead, Dr. Addison Hutton, George Sale, the translator of the Koran, and several other distinguished men of learning.

CHAPTER VIII.
REVIEW OF THE TRUSTEES' POLICY.
IT is the office of the historian, says the distin guished annalist of Rome,1 to rejudge the actions of men, that virtues may not be passed over in silence, and that the doers of evil actions may have before them the fear of that infamy which posterity will award to their deeds. .The duty of the historian is thus not unlike that of the judge in a court of law. It is his business to hear the details of many differing witnesses ; to examine documents of diverse charac ters ; to sift evidence from many varying testimonies, and from the pleadings of a hundred great actions from the records of a long series of noble or ignoble deeds from the evidence of multiplied witnesses for good or evil; to sum up in one charge the history of the past, and deliver over his solemn opinion to the unimpannelled jury of the future for their final verdict. Such is the judicial dignity and weighty responsibility of the historian's office ; and if he fails to charge pos terity aright as to the events and character of the past, he proves derelict to the cause of truth, and of human rights. There are times, when this duty
1 Tacitus, Annalos, iii. 65,

DIFFICULTIES OF ALL INFANT COLONIES.

263

becomes one of pain and regret; when the past is reviewed in grief, and judged in sorrow: but as we dare not write what is false, so we dare not suppress what is true, and are compelled therefore, while we accord to the Trustees deserved praise, to expose their errors the errors, not of malice, but of what may truly be termed a parsimonious benevolence.
The early political institutions of Georgia have been the subject of much and just animadversion.
In the infancy of all colonial schemes we find diffi culties, errors, and failings. It is so generally with all experiments, especially in those which have for their object the ordering of masses of men, and the ar ranging and scheming for their guidance, equity, and welfare. Theory has never yet made a good com monwealth. The " Republic " of Plato was even more visionary than the dreams of his philosophy. The "Fundamental Constitutions" of John Locke, though he was one of England's greatest metaphysicians, utterly miscarried in their aim, and brought Carolina to the verge of ruin. William Penn's " Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsylvania," was, after one year, taken down to make room for a new one; and the first constitution, given by the Duke of York to the colony which bore his name, was in eight years changed for a wiser and more liberal patent. Stern experience is the only true teacher of govern mental rules. She sees the necessities of men, and points out the means of compassing them; she ascer tains their wants, and knows how to provide for them; she is the great instructress of nations; arid to go con trary to her teachings, is to do violence to that law, "whose seat is the bosom of God, whose voice the harmony of the world."

264

THE THREE DESIGNS OF THE TRUSTEES.

It is strange, that with so many warning lights hung out from the drifting wrecks of former schemes, the Trustees for the colony of Georgia did not proceed on wiser principles, and more modern legislation. They too theorized the colony into the pangs of civil death, nor saw, nor remedied their error, till, wasted of its strength and substance, there scarcely remained vital ity enough to give it a nominal existence. In review ing the operations of the Trustees, two points de mand special attention the failure of their original expectations, and the ill effects of their legislative policy. The design of the Trustees comprised three points :2 to provide an asylum for the poor debtor and persecuted Protestant; to erect a silk, wine, and drug-growing colony; and to relieve the mother coun try of an overburdened population. No one at all ac quainted with the body of Trustees, but will concede to them the most humane and generous intentions. They were mostly men of high birth and elevated sta tion, of political experience and philanthropic aims; but they allowed their eager benevolence to warp their judgment, and their else cool imaginations to be fired by fanciful theories and overcoloured pictures of colonial success. It was not long however before their credulity was chastened into soberness by a series of disastrous calamities. The noble feature of benevolence was never indeed relinquished, even though the recipients proved unworthy the bounty; for, as early as 1735, the Trustees declared that "many of the poor who had been useless in England, were inclined to be useless also in Georgia." And though a strict scrutiny was made into the character

2 " Reasons for Establishing the New and Accurate Account," &c., in Colony of Georgia in America." " A Geo. Hist. Col, i.

FAILURE OF COMMERCIAL HOPES.

265

and condition of each emigrant, most of the early set tlers were altogether unworthy the assistance they received. Once in Georgia, they were disappointed in the quality and fertility of the lands ; were unwill ing to labour; hung for support upon the Trustees' store; were clamorous for privileges to which they had no right; and fomented discontent and faction, where it was hoped they would have lived together in brotherly peace and charity. The benevolence of the Trustees met no adequate return of gratitude ; and their labours for the welfare of the colony, only pro voked the obloquy and murmurs of those, to whom had been opened the prison-doors of England, and to whom had been granted an asylum in Georgia. The too sanguine hopes of the Trustees as to the commer cial value of the colony, were also destined to disap pointment. The wine which was to supply all the plantations, and to cultivate which they had employed a vigneron from Portugal, and planted in their garden the choicest cuttings from Madeira, resulted in only a few gallons, and was then abandoned. The drugs and exotics, which, at a great expense, they had pro cured and planted in the same place; the olive trees from Venice, barilla seed from Spain, the kali from Egypt, the cubebs cardimas, the caper plant, the mad der root, and other like articles, were mostly de stroyed by the snow and frost shortly after they were planted. The hemp and flax, which were to sustain the linen manufactures of Great Britain, and throw the balance of trade with Russia into England's favour, never came to a single ship-load ; and indigo, though there were one or two plantations of it near St. Simons and on the Altamaha, was never generally introduced, and its culture soon abandoned.

266

INTRODUCTION OF SILK INTO VIRGINIA.

Their most cherished article, silk, maintained a longer struggle, and the efforts of the Trustees to introduce and foster it, deserve to be chronicled. The idea of making America a silk-growing country did not originate with the Trustees. As early as 1609, the subject engaged the attention of the adven turers to Virginia, and in a pamphlet, called " Nova Britannia offering most excellent fruites by planting in Virginia," published that year, the writer says; " There are silkeworms, and plenty of mulberie trees, whereby ladies, gentlewomen, and little children, (being set in the way to do it,) may bee all imploied with pleasure, making silke comparable to that of Persia, Turkey, or any other." In 1650, Mr. Samuel Hartlib published a work entitled " Virginia's Dis covery of Silkworms, with their Benefits," in which he endeavoured to show that the raising of silk was a thing very practicable in Virginia, and even asserted that as a staple, it might be made superior to tobacco, in which opinion he was confirmed by the judgment of several others. That they made some advances in this culture, is evident from the fact that the corona tion robe of Charles II., in 1660, was made of silk reeled in that colony ; and even so late as 1730, three hundred pounds of the raw material were exported from Virginia. Tobacco, however, soon assumed and maintained the ascendency, to the exclusion of this more useful and beautiful produce.
In 1703 Sir Nathaniel Johnson introduced the silk culture into South Carolina, but the astonishing suc cess which rewarded the casual introduction of rice into the plantation about eight years before, precluded a just interest in the undertaking; and as a public and recognized commodity it soon came to naught, though

TRUSTEES INTRODUCE IT INTO GEORGIA.

267

several persons, more for amusement than profit, still gave their attention to it. In 1755, Mrs. Pinckney, the same lady to whom the province was indebted for the first cultivation of indigo, ten years before, reeled sufficient silk in the vicinity of Charleston, to make three dresses, one of which was presented to the Princess Dowager of Wales, another to Lord Ches terfield, and the third, says Ramsay, who narrates the circumstance, "is now (1809) in Charleston, in the possession of her daughter, Mrs. Horrey, and is re markable for its beauty, firmness, and strength."3
But notwithstanding these failures, and the known difficulty of introducing a new branch of agriculture into a country, as was evinced by the compulsion which was necessary by Henry IV., to introduce it into France against the united voices of the merchants and traders, and even in opposition to the Duke of Sully; and also the indifference manifested in England, not withstanding the able proclamation of King James on the subject, commanding its cultivation ; the Trustees for the settlement of Georgia determined to make one more effort, which, if successful, would enrich both the province and the mother country. The views which they entertained, however, of making Georgia supplant every silk-growing country, were extravagant and erroneous. They expected, in fact, to supply all Europe, and to produce an article of equal strength, beauty, and value, with any made on the continent. The Piedmontese, thought they, who pay half of their silk for the rent of the mulberry trees, and the eggs of the worm ; or the peasants of France, burdened with political difficulty, and stinted for conveniences, could not cope with the settlers of Georgia, where the mul-

3 History of South Carolina, ii. 220.

268

SEND OVER MR. AMATIS.

berry (morus alba) trees would grow in the greatest luxuriance, where timber for their fabrics was of BO expense, where room was abundant, and the reward sure. By this transfer, in addition to a direct saving to England of over 500,000, which she paid for this article to foreign countries, twenty thousand people were to find employment in rearing it in Georgia, and as many more at home in preparing it for market.
Before the first embarkation sailed, Mr. Nicholas Amatis, a native of Piedmont, attended the Board, (October 19th, 1732,) and gave intimations of pro posals which he designed to make, relative to the cultivation of silk in Georgia, and which he was re quested to make at a future meeting of the common council of the Trust. In the meantime they addressed a letter, (January 29th, 1733,) through their secretary, to Sir Thomas Lombe, who had set up, at Derby, the first silk-throwing mills in England, " desiring his thoughts of the undertaking to raise raw silk in large quantities in Georgia, of the proper steps to be taken to bring the work to perfection, of the probability of succeeding therein, and of the advantage that will accrue to Great Britain thereby." To this letter Sir Thomas replied (January 31st) in an encouraging manner, stating that it appeared to him " as beneficial to the kingdom, attended with as little hazard or dif ficulty, as much wanted, and which may as soon be brought to perfection in a proper climate, as any undertaking so considerable in itself" that he ever heard of.4
Thus urged, they concluded, (April 3d, 1733,) after some difficulties, an agreement with Mr. Amatis, by which he was to take to Georgia his servant, Jacques
^ Journal of Trustees, i. 57. Force's Tracts, i.

BUSINESS ENTRUSTED TO MR. AND MRS. CAMUSE. 2G9
Gamuse, his wife, . and three sons; the Trustees giving him one hundred acres of land- materials for carrying on the work all the profits of his labour passage to Georgia, and provisions there for himself and servant for one year, a salary of twenty-five pounds per year, for four years, and their homeward passages to England or Italy paid, whenever, after five years, they desired to return to Europe.5
Thus prepared to introduce the silk culture into Georgia, Mr. Amatis and servant embarked in April and reached the new colony in May. For a little while the work went on well. White mulberry trees, which were preferred because the leaf was earlier, the foliage more abundant, and the silk produced by the worms fed on it best approved by the manufacturers., were planted in the Trustees' garden; eggs were hatched, and silk spun " as fine as any from France or Italy." But soon the process, so well begun, was for a time suspended, by the treachery of those employed, who broke the machinery, spoiled the seed, destroyed the trees, and then fled to Carolina. Sufficient had been wrought to show the feasibility of the plan, and to test the value of the silk; and the Trustees, not dis couraged by this inauspicious beginning, still clung to the design, and the more surely to advance it, required of every settler that there should be on his grant ten mulberry trees to each acre. Mr. Amatis having left, the business was now entrusted to Mr. and Mrs. Caniuse, in which superintendence they were continued six years, the first two at a salary of 60 per annum, and the remaining four at 100, besides the use of a dwell ing house and garden.
In June, 1734, General Oglethorpe carried eight
5 Minutes of Common Council, i. 43.

270

THE QUEEX'S ROBES OF GEORGIA SILK.

pounds of raw silk, the first produced in Georgia, to England, Avhich was followed by a small trunk full of the same article on the 2d of April, 1735. These par cels, after being made into organzine by the engine of Sir Thomas Lombe, who said that it had " proved exceedingly good through all the operations," was sent up to London in the summer of 1735, when the Trus tees, together with Sir Thomas, waited on Her Majesty, Queen Caroline, and exhibited to her the elegant specimen of Georgia silk. The queen selected a por tion of it to be wove into a pattern, and being again waited on by these gentlemen, and Mr. Booth, the silk weaver, on the 21st of September, she expressed " a great satisfaction for the beauty and fineness of the silk, the richness of the pattern, and at seeing so early a product from the colony;" and, to express her pleas ure at such a favourable result, a complete court-dress was made from it, and on His Majesty's next birth-day she appeared at the levee in a full robe of Georgia silk.8
On the return of Oglethorpe, in 1735, he renewed his endeavours to bring the silk culture into active operation. For the purpose of obtaining a sufficient quantity of seed, he allowed no silk to be reeled that year, but let the worms deposite their eggs. He required, also, that the Italian women should teach a number of the colonists, and thus render general the knowledge they could impart. The Salzburgers at Ebenezer were the most forward to adopt his views, and, in March, 1736, Rev. Mr. Bolzius gave one tree to each inhabitant as a present from the General, and two of his congregation were instructed in the art of reeling by Mrs. Camuse. But though Oglethorpe gave

"Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1735. Political State of Great Britain, L. 241,469.

fifRMANS RAISE SILK.

271

Mr. Bolzius trees, silkworms, and a book of instruc tions, yet he confessed that he felt no interest in the business, nor inclination to pursue it.
In July, 1739, Mr. Samuel Augspourger carried over a parcel of raw silk which he received from Mr. Jones, the Trustees' store-keeper in Savannah, and which was declared by eminent judges to be " equal to any Ital ian silk, and worth full twenty shillings per pound."7
In 1742, General Oglethorpe s.ent five hundred trees toEbenezer, with the promise of more if required. The indifference of the good Mr. Bolzius had by this time passed away, and he was now a zealous advocate for its extension. A machine was erected near his house, and two women succeeded very well, by which the people were stimulated to renewed exertions, and a public filature was contemplated. The enterprise of these Germans seemed to excite the envious dispo sition of Mrs. Camuse, with whom had been placed two women from Ebenezer; but the conduct of Mrs. C. in withholding information, rendered their ac quirement inadequate, and Mr. Bolzius withdrew them from her charge. The first parcel of silk made was sent to the Trustees, who expressed themselves pleased with its quality. In 1745 the weight of cocoons was two hundred and fifty-three pounds, and of spun silk sixteen and three quarters. In 1746 the weight of cocoons was three hundred and forty-four pounds, and of spun silk eighteen pounds. Early in this year a machine for winding, and coppers for bak ing, together with appropriate treatises on the art, were sent over by the Trustees, but the people were indifferent and apathetic.
The Germans, however, were as active as formerly,
1 Harris's Voyages, ii. 336, folio, London, 1748.

272

TRUSTEES (JIVE BOUNTY ON SILK.

and Mr. Bolzius, in a letter to Von Munch, dated May 6th, 1747, says that " the people last winter planted more mulberry trees than for thirteen years before/' for which he promised them a bounty of one shilling for every tree which yielded one hundred pounds of leaves. In 1748, the Salzburgers reared four hundred and sixty-four pounds, but their small trees were destroyed, and some of the larger ones injured, by the late frost. They this year succeeded admirably in spinning twenty-four pounds of raw silk the want of a chimney and proper basins, which had impeded them before, in their rude building, having been remedied, The President, writing to Secretary Martyn, December llth, 1746, says: "The fundamental cause of its stag nation is the unaccountable backwardness of some of our dames and damsels to employ themselves in attend ing to the worms during the time of feeding, which I have frequently taken notice of, and it cannot be in> puted to the want of leaves."
On the 29th of September, 1749, the Trustees prom ised 2 to every woman who should make herself mis tress of the art of winding in one year. And they also gave Mr. Bolzius permission to erect ten sheds, with clay furnaces, at an expense of not more than 2 each, and ten machines for reeling, at thirty shillings each, which, he said, could be made better than those at Savannah for 3. They also sent them ten basins; and the good Germans felt the impulse of this substan tial encouragement. In 1750, though the people in other parts of the colony mostly relinquished the silk culture, the inhabitants of Ebenezer continued vigourously employed and interested in it. On the 2d of June, they received ten kettles from the Trustees, one of which, and a reeling machine, were given to each mis-

PICKERING ROBINSON ARRIVES.

273

tress in the art of spinning; and two of the best arti sans received 5 for giving instruction to fourteen young women, to each of whom was bestowed 1, for atten tion and industry.
Over a thousand pounds of cocoons were raised at Ebenezer, and seventy-four pounds two ounces raw silk made, producing (the price being then thirty shil lings) over 110 sterling. As illustrative of the luxu riant growth of the mulberry, it may be interesting to state, that two trees in front of the parsonage, ten years old, measured three feet eight inches in circumference, la December of this year, eight more copper basins were received, and public confidence in the success of the andertaking seemed revived, notwithstanding Mr. Canmse and family had left the province, and settled at Purysburgh, in South Carolina.
On the 25th of December, 1750, Mr. Pickering Robin son, who, together with Mr. James Habersham, had been appointed, the preceding August, a commissioner to promote more effectually the culture of silk, arrived in Savannah.8
Mr. Robinson had been sent to France, at the expense of the Trustees, to study the management of filatures, and the necessary processes for preparing silk for mar ket; and thus, though not an operative, was qualified to take the directorship of so important a branch of in dustry. His salary was 100 per annum, 25 for a clerk; and a tract of land was also granted him, which, in 1763, sold for 1,300.
He brought with him to Georgia a large quantity of

8 Most of the preceding and sue- Assistants ; Journal of the Comrnisceeding facts are drawn from the MS. sioners Robinson and Habersham, and Journal and Letters of Rev. Mr. Bol- Letters of Habersham.
zius ; Letters of the President and
18

214

TRUSTEES GIVE BOUNTY ON COCOONS.

silkworm seed; but all failed, save about half an ounce, The commissioners determined at once to erect a fila ture, which should be a normal school to the whole province; and it was their opinion, that it would be "a sufficient nursery to supply, in three or four years, as many reelers as will be wanted, when WTC make no doubt of many private filatures being erected, which can only make their culture a general staple." The dimensions were thirty-six feet by twenty, rough board ed, with a loft or upper story, for the spreading out of the green cocoons. It wras commenced on the 4th of March, 1751: on the 1st of April the basins were put up; and on the 8th of May the reeling began.
To encourage the colonists, the Trustees proposed to purchase all the balls, and wind them at their own ex pense ; and paid from Is. 6d. to 2s. 4d. per pound for g& reen cocoons. The commissioners separated the co coons into three sorts: 1st. Perfect ones; 2d. The spongy and fuzzy; and 3d. The spotted, stained, and dupious. This arrangement, however, gave great of fence to some of the residents in Savannah and Purysburgh; and Messrs. Robinson and Habersham request ed the Vice-president and assistants to determine the respective prices, and publicly announce the same; which they did, on the 26th of April, by a proclama tion, wherein, by way of bounty, they promised to pay for cocoons, delivered at their store in Savannah, the following sums, namely : for cocoons made by one worm, hard, weighty, and good substance, 2s. per pound; for the weaker quality, pointed, spotted, or bruised, Is. 3d.; for dupions, (those made by two worms,) 6d.; for raw silk from first quality cocoons. 14s. per pound; for that made from second quality, 12s.; the product of the double cocoons, 6s. per

RESULTS OF MILK CULTURE.

275

pound. And they also offered, if delivered at the Alature, for best cocoons, 3s. 6d.; for middling, is. 8d.; and for inferior, Is. Id.--a series of prices truly aston ishing, when we reflect that the real merchantable worth of a pound of cocoons is scarcely ever 6d.
Mr. Camuse, son, and daughter, who, it appears, gave the commissioners no little trouble by their perverse conduct, returned to Savannah, and were engaged to labour at the filature, at three shillings per day; at which Mr. Habersham exclaims, " Monstrous wages!" The reelers now advanced with much proficiency; and live of them, on the 10th of May, wound off eleven pounds of cocoons each.
Thus, at an expense--including passages of servants, provisions from public store, bounty on cocoons, sala ries, machines, basins, and filatures--of nearly G1,500, the Trustees had succeeded in raising, up to the date of their surrender of the charter, not one thousand pounds of raw silk; a most costly experiment for so poor a colony, showing the airiness of that dream in which they expected to save &500,000 to England, and employ 40,000 of her subjects. "They looked for much, and lo! it came to little."
Nor were they more fortunate in relieving the mother country of her surplus indigent population. They did not, it is true, entertain the extravagant speculations of the Earl of Eglinton, who subsequently proposed to the king to introduce a hundred thousand settlers into Geor gia and the Fioridas; but they expected soon to locate twenty thousand persons in their territory, and build it up at once into a great commercial colony. It was estimated at the time," that, at a very small calculation, four thousand individuals were annually imprisoned for
" Geo. Hist. Cul., i. 216.

276

THE NUMBER SENT TO GEORGIA.

debt in England; and though the scheme looked direct ly to the melioration and relief of this unfortunate class, yet what paltry result, compared with such magnificent promises!
During the first eight years, the Trustees sent over on their bounty only nine hundred and fifteen British subjects; and the entire number transplanted to Georgia by their benefactions during their corporate existence, did not exceed twelve hundred British, and one thou sand foreign Protestants; and yet, in this time, they had received from private benefactions over 17,600, and from Parliamentary grants, over 136,600. Of those sent over by the charity of the Trustees, two-thirds left the colony, and but a very few proved worthy of their benefactions. Thus, one by one, all the grand hopes of the Trustees came to naught; every high ex pectation was laid low; and they were taught by a dearbought experience, that however easy it was to plan a colony, it was quite another thing to carry it out into successful execution.
But not only were the Trustees destined to behold the blasting of their agricultural and commercial views; they were also made to feel the ill eifects of their well-designed, but badly-adjusted scheme of colonial legislation. They began wrong, when they resolved to make the tenure of their lands a grant in tail male. Instead of stepping forth in advance of their age, as they might have done, they retired behind it, going back to the middle ages, to feudal times, and drew thence, from the laws of the Salian Franks, this rule, as repugnant to reason as to justice. In sup port of this principle, the Trustees urged, that "as the military strength of the province was particularly to be taken care of, it seemed necessary to estab-

TENURE OP LAND.

277

lish such tenures of lands as might most effectually preserve the number of planters, or soldiers, equal to the number of lots of land; and therefore, each lot of land was to be considered as a military fief, and to con tain so much in quantity as would support such planter and his family. Fifty acres were judged sufficient, and not too much, for that purpose; and provision was made to prevent an accumulation of several lots into one hand, lest the garrison should be lessened; and likewise to prevent a division of those lots into smaller parcels, lest that which was no more than sufficient for one planter should, if divided amongst several, be too scanty for their subsistence.
" And in the infancy of the colony, the lands were granted in tail male, preferable to any other tenure, as the most likely to answer these purposes; for if the grants were to be made in tail-general, it was thought that the strength of each township would soon be diminished, inasmuch as every female heir in tail, who was unmarried, would have been entitled to one lot, and consequently, several lots might have been united into one ; and if such tenant in tail-general had had several daughters, his lot must have been divided equally amongst them all, as co-partners."10
They announced that they did not grant estates in tail-general, or in fee-simple, for the following reasons: Because, "the persons sent over were poor, indigent people, who had for the most part so indiscreetly man aged what they had been masters of here, that it did not seem safe to trust so absolute a property in their hands, at least in the infancy of the colony, and before they had, by a careful and industrious behaviour, given
10 An Account Showing the Prog- don, 1742. Georgia Historical Collecrcss of the Colony of Georgia, etc., Lon- tions, ii. 276.

378

REASONS FOR THESE RESTRICTIONS.

some reason to believe they would prove better mana gers for the future :" Because, " they were sent over to inhabit, cultivate, and secure, by a personal resi dence, the lands granted to them within the province, and they voluntarily engaged so to do; and in expec tation that they would perform those engagements, they were maintained at the expense of the public during their voyage, and their passage was paid for them, and they were provided with tools, arms, seeds, and other necessaries, and supported from the public store, many of them at least for four years together, from their first landing; in which respect the public may be said to have purchased those people for a valua ble consideration, their personal residence, and all the industry and labour they could bestow in the cultiva tion of this province, and to have given them even pay for the hazard they might run in the defence of it:" Because, " it was thought unsafe to grant them such an estate as might be the means of introducing such sort of people as might defeat what the Trustees had always at heart, viz., the preservation of the Protestant religion in that province, which was necessary to be taken care of, both on a political and religious account the French lying to the west, and the Spaniards to the south, of the province of Georgia:" Because, " a monopoly of seve ral lots into one hand would necessarily have been the consequence of a free liberty of buying and selling lands within the province; which would have been directly contrary to the intent of the charter, whereby the grant of lands to any one person is limited not to exceed five hundred acres."
Other onerous provisions of the grant were : " That no person should alien his land, or any part of it, or grant any term estate or interest therein to any other person,

FREEHOLDERS PETITION TRUSTEES.

279

without a special license from the Trustees;" and that, "if any of the lands should not be planted, cleared, and fenced within the space of ten years from the date of the grant, every part thereof not planted, cleared, and fenced, should revert to the Trustees."11
These feudal restrictions subjected the emigrants to a kind of villanage galling to their minds, and incon sistent with their promised freedom; for they had been told that " every man who transports himself thither is to enjoy all the privileges of a free-born subject." In December, 1738, one hundred and sev enteen settlers and freeholders presented a represen tation to the Trustees,12 setting forth some of their grievances, and among others, mentioning " the want of a free title or fee-simple to our land." To this appeal, the Trustees replied,13 (June 20th, 1739,) "that they should deem themselves very unfit for the trust reposed in them by His Majesty on their behalf, if they could be prevailed upon by such an irrational attempt to give up a constitution framed with the greatest caution for the preservation of liberty and prosperity."
The petition, in a rhetorical peroration, had spoken of the sounding praises which posterity would award them " to all future ages." if their desires were grant ed, and of the condemnation which it would give " as the cause and authors of all their misfortunes and calamities," should the sought-for privileges be de nied." The Trustees replied that they " readily join issue with them in their appeal to posterity, who shall judge between them who were their best friends,

11 An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia, London,

1742, 277-8.

13 Ib. 220.

ls Ib. 232.

280

SOME RELIEF AFFORDED.

those who endeavoured to preserve for them a prop

erty in their lands by tying up the hands of their

unthrifty progenitors, or they who wanted a power

to mortgage or alien them." This reply of the Trus

tees was prompted, it should be observed, rather by

a sense of insulted authority and of conscious honesty

of purpose, than by an examination of the real merits

of the case. Before this representation, however, was

received by the Trustees, they had themselves begun

to move in the matter, so far as the tenure of lands

was concerned, and at their anniversary meeting in

the vestry room of St. Bride's Church,14 (March 15th,

1739,) had appointed three gentlemen, learned in the

law, among the Trustees, to prepare a law that the

legal possessors for the time being of lands in Geor

gia, being tenants in tail male only, shall be empow

ered, in default of such issue male, by any deed in

writing, or by their last will and testament, attested

by two or more credible witnesses (to be registered

within

time, in

court to be appointed for

that purpose,) to appoint any daughter as his suc

cessor, to hold to her and the heirs male of her body;

and in case he shall have no daughters, to appoint any

one male or female relation, and the heirs male of his

or her body, as his successor."

In addition to this, the common council (May 2,

1739) instructed15 this committee to go a step further,

and in case of no issue, male or female, to empower

the proprietor of any lot to appoint any other person

(not possessing the errors of the Church of Rome) as

his successor. This committee reported, on the 8th of

August, 1739, several resolutions1" for releasing the

14 Journal of Trustees, ii. 113. 16 Ib. 255.

15 Minutes of Com. Council, ii. 208.

FURTHER PRIVILEGES GRANTED.

281

proviso of the grants heretofore made, by which the lands in Georgia reverted to the Trust on failure of male issue, and for granting leave to freeholders to name their successors. At their next meeting, 28th of August, the Trustees, in common council, adopted these resolutions, by which the old tail-male tenure was abolished, and more liberal terms made the basis of their grants. Widows of tenants, "not having done or suffered any act, matter, or thing, whereby his estate therein may be forfeited or determined," should hold and enjoy the house, garden, and if children, one moiety of lands during her life ; if a widow, without children, to possess all; if again married, the person marrying her to give security for the keeping in order the said premises, and if no security given, to enure to such person or persons as would be heirs if the widow was naturally dead.
Daughters were permitted to inherit with or with out will, in default of male issue, to the extent of five hundred acres. Every future grantee had right, power, and lawful authority, to give and devise his lands by his or her last will and testament in writing, duly executed. These concessions of the Trust, fol lowing so speedily upon their reply to the Savannah representation, showed that they legislated for no private ends, but cheerfully granted privileges where they saw their advantage and propriety. Yet the release had not the full effect which they expect ed, owing to the perverse conduct of their agents in Georgia.
In May, 1750, they still further enlarged the tenures of their grants already made, so as to make them " an absolute inheritance," and all future grants of lands

282

RUM PROHIBITED IN GEORGIA.

were also to be " of an absolute inheritance to the grantees, their heirs and assigns." 17
Another subject upon which the Trustees legis lated, was the prohibition of rum in Georgia. The experience of other colonies taught them that ardent spirits was the bane of all social and domestic institu tions; they had seen its workings in the northern provinces, and Oglethorpe, in his first letters from Sa vannah, had told them of its evil effects, even under his own eye, attributing the death of some and the disturbances of others to this source. The Trustees, on reading Oglethorpe's letter in the common coun cil, promptly ordered, " that the drinking of rum in Georgia be absolutely prohibited ; and that all which shall be brought there be staved ;"18 and prepared and passed an act entitled " An act to prevent the importation and use of rum and brandies in the prov ince of Georgia, or any kind of spirits or strong waters whatsoever." At the same time they sent over fifteen tuns of " the best strong beer," " molasses for brewing beer, and Madeira wines, which the people might purchase at reasonable rates, and which would be more refreshing and wholesome for them." Ale-houses were licensed, but, with the strictest prohibition of selling, or even having, ardent spirits. It was de signed to be a temperance colony, although no tem perance movement had roused up the nations to the guilt and woe of drunkenness. The Trustees acted upon their own knowledge as to what ill effects rum had produced, causing the people to be disorderly, un healthy, and less vigorous, and the good effects which they witnessed in Ebenezer, and at first in Frederica,

17 Journal of Trustees, iii. 124.

13 Minutes of Com. Council, i. 80.

MAGISTRATES STAVE RUM IN THE RIVER.

283

where this article had been prohibited. The motives therefore for enacting this law, were based on sound morals and sound policy; and though the idea of establishing a colony on temperance principles, was a novel one, it was nevertheless attempted and vigor ously sustained. In this effort they were much coun tenanced by the Rev. Doctor Hales, one of the Trus tees, who wrote thus early "A Friendly Admonition to the Drinkers of Gin, Brandy, and other Spirituous Liquors," two hundred copies of which were sent over in 1733 to Georgia.
Thus did temperance strive with her sister charity to lay pure foundations, and build up a spotless super structure of colonial virtue ; but it was a movement too much in advance of the age, and too much opposed to the already settled habits of the colonists, to meet with the success it merited; and the faithlessness of some of their officials, who, with the law in their hands, bought, drank, and sold it, rendered nugatory their well-meant designs. But while the magistrates were violating this law themselves, they resolved that it should be infringed by no one else. In carrying out the Trustees' act, Mr. Causton and the bailiffs arrogated to themselves the jurisdiction of the waters of the Savannah, and undertook to stop and examine all boats passing up either branch of the river before the town. In one instance they stopped two boats laden with dry goods and rum, proceeding from Charleston to New Windsor on the Carolina side; the packages in which were opened, and three hogsheads and ten kegs of rum staved, and the men of the boats imprisoned. This high-handed measure called for redress; and at the next meeting of the assembly, three gentlemen,, John Hammerton, Charles Pinckney,

284

RUM ACT REPEALED.

and Othiel Beale, were appointed a committee to pro ceed to Georgia, and confer with Oglethorpe, relative to the condition of the Indian trade. They were kindly received by the General, " who told them he would send orders to his agents and officers in the Indian nations, not to molest or seize the traders of that province, and that the navigation up the river should be settled."
The matter was subsequently brought into Parlia ment, and the Trustees, by a vote of the House of Commons, were directed to repeal the Rum Act, which they accordingly did, July 14th, 1742.
The colonists early manifesting a disposition to be extravagant in their dress and furniture beyond their means, and the Trustees believing that the effect would not only be evil to the persons themselves, but also prejudicial as an example to the other settlers, resolved, April 23d, 1735, to prepare a sumptuary law, to prevent the use of gold and silver in apparel, furni ture, and equipage in Georgia. But such legislation was scarcely needed, for the poverty of the settlers, and their harassed condition, were the best sumptuary law, and the surest preventive of personal and do mestic extravagance.

CHAPTER IX.

ORIGIN OP SLAVE LABOUR IN GEORGIA.

ANOTHER obnoxious but fundamental regulation of the Trustees, was the prohibition of negroes within Georgia. "Every one'of the colonies received slaves from Africa in its borders ;' n and it is important to the right settling of the question which the Trustees orig inated, that the condition of this institution, as it then existed, should be known. Begun, as the trade was, by Sir John Hawkins in 1563, patronized by Queen Elizabeth, maintained by repeated acts of Parliament, and openly countenanced by the Dutch in their municipal, charter, and corporate societies, slavery was forced upon the American colonies. In nearly every instance the earliest legislation in each colony was directed to putting down such a species of labour. Virginia early discouraged it, and, during her colonial existence, passed twenty-three acts2 imposing duties on slaves imported into the colony, thus virtually pro hibiting them ; and Madison truly said, that " the Brit ish government constantly checked the attempts of

1 Bancroft's History of the United 2 Tucker's Blackstone, vol. i., part

States, ii. 171.

ii., 49-51, Appendix.

286

SLAVERY FORCED UPON THE COLONIES.

Virginia to put a stop to this infernal traffic."3 South Carolina soon passed a law prohibiting their further importation. It was rejected by the king in council, who declared the trade " beneficial and necessary to the mother country." Massachusetts, the first State in America which directly participated in the slavetrade, and that, too, though a member of one of the Boston churches earnestly rebuked, the traffic, imposed duties upon negroes imported, and aimed at other efforts; but as late as 1774, when the assembly of Massachusetts passed an act " to prevent the importa tion of negroes and others as slaves," Governor Hutchinson refused his assent, and dissolved the assembly; because to sanction it would have violated his instruc tions. The royal orders to Governor Went/worth, of New Hampshire, directed him not to give his assent to, or pass, any law imposing duties on negroes imported into New Hampshire. Slaves were introduced into Pennsylvania by William Penn ; and though before he died he did somewhat to meliorate their condition, "he died a slaveholder."
But what could the remonstrances of colonies, or the labour of individual philanthropy accomplish, when kings and queens, and cabinets, and cities, and parliaments, and associations, for two hundred years, were the patrons and participants in this evil traffic ? The treaty of Utrecht, in 1711, constituted Her Brit annic Majesty, Queen Anne, and His Catholic Majesty, Philip V., the crowned slave merchants of North Amer ica ; the queen agreeing, in the space of thirty years, to bring into the Spanish West Indies one hundred and forty-four thousand negroes, to the exclusion of every other slave-trader; and in her speech to Par-
3 Madison Papers, iii. )390. Walsh's Appeal, 327.

REASONS WHY DISALLOWED IN GEORGIA.

28?

liament the following year, she boasted of her plan in thus obtaining for English subjects a new slave-market in the Spanish West Indies.
In 1729 Parliament, at the recommendation of the king, granted supplies for keeping up the slave-traders' forts in Africa; and in 1745 a British merchant em bodied the views of the mass of the English people, when he entitled his tract, " The African Slave-Trade, the great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America."
Such then were the views of the king, Parliament, and merchants, respecting negro slavery, when Geor gia was called into being by the benevolence of Oglethorpe.
Oglethorpe himself was Deputy Governor of the Royal African Company, which alone had the right of planting forts and trading on the coast of Africa ; and the question naturally arises, how was it that in a period so favourable to the slave-trade, and among men for its Trustees who were connected with its legal ized traffic, a colony was projected from which negroes were excluded ? It was policy and not philanthropy which prohibited slavery; for though one of the Trus tees, in a sermon to recommend the charity,4 declared, " Let avarice defend it as it will, there is an honest reluctance in humanity against buying and selling, and regarding those, of our own species as our wealth and possessions;" and though Oglethorpe himself, speaking of slavery as against " the gospel as well as the fun damental law of England," asserted, "we refused, as Trustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid crime ;" yet in the official publications of that body,
4 A Sermon Preached at St. George's Feb. 17, 1733-4, &c., by T. Rundle, Church, Hanover Square, on Sunday, LL.D., London, 1734.

288

REASONS WHY PROHIBITED.

its inhibition is based only on political and prudential, and not on humane and liberal grounds; and even Ogiethorpe owned a plantation and negroes near Paraehucla in South Carolina, about forty miles above Savan nah.5 In the Swedish and German colony, which Gustavus Adolphus planted in Delaware, and which in many points resembled the plan of the Trustees, negro servitude was disallowed; yet the motives which actuated the Scandivavian emigrants, " that it was not lawful to buy or keep slaves," did not influ ence the founders of Georgia. Their design was to provide for poor but honest persons, to erect a barrier between South Carolina and the Spanish settlements, and to establish a wine and silk-growing colony. It was thought by the Trustees that neither of these designs could be secured if slavery was introduced. They reasoned, that nothing but a free white colony could arrest the incursions of the savages and Span iards ; that plantations of great extent, widely sepa rated, with a large negro population, and but few whites, \vould be no effectual obstacle, because the blacks could be easily seduced from their masters, who were too feeble and scattered to resist.
The Governor of St. Augustine, by virtue, as he said, of mandates from Spain, proclaimed freedom and protection to all negroes who should join his stand ard ; and a regiment was actually formed of runaways, clothed, fed, and equipped like the royal troops, with subaltern and field officers of their own colour. It was known, also, that emissaries from Florida had fre quently been found tampering with the blacks on the frontier settlements, enticing them to desertion, insur rection, and blood. From these facts they argued,
5 Stephens's Journal, iii. 281. South Carolina Stnt"f.es, ii.- 526.

FURTHER REASONS FOR PROHIBITION.

389

that should negroes be introduced into Georgia, that which had taken place at the distance of Carolina, would be still more likely to occur in Georgia; and therefore, it would be no protection to Carolina on the north, and only peril the existence of their new colony by throwing it, with such internal materials, into the very arms of the Spaniards.
But though they regarded this as a strong argument, they built up a further defence of the prohibition, upon the character of the settlers, and the grants which had been made to them. Their reasons under this general head may be reduced to the following: 1st. Its ex pense ; which the poor emigrant would be entirely unable to sustain, either in the first cost of a negro, or his subsequent keeping. 2d. Because it would induce idleness, and render labour degrading. 3d. Because the settlers, being freeholders of only fifty-acre lots, requiring but one or two extra hands for their culti vation, the German servants would be a third more profitable than the blacks. Upon the last original design I have mentioned, in planting this colony, they also based an argument against their admission, viz., that the cultivation of silk and wine, demanding skill and nicety, rather than strength and endurance of fatigue, the whites were better calculated for such labour than the negroes. These were the prominent arguments, drawn from the various considerations of internal and external policy, which influenced the Trustees in making this prohibition. Many of them, however, had but a temporary bearing; none stood the test of experience.
But while the Trustees disallowed negroes, they in stituted a system of white slavery, which was fraught with evil to the servants and to the colony. These
19

290

SYSTEM OF WHITE SLAVERY.

were white servants, consisting of Welch, English, or German, males and females families and individuals who were indented to individuals or the Trustees, for a period of from four to fourteen years; work to a cer tain amount being required of all over the age of six. On arriving in Georgia, their service was sold for the term of indenture, or apportioned to the inhabitants by the magistrates, as their necessities required. The sum which they brought when thus bid off, varied from 2 to 6, besides an annual tax of 1, for five years, to defray the expense of their voyage. On the expiration of their indentures, they received, if they had served their masters faithfully, a small portion of land, and were then thrown upon their own resources. The limited number of these, and their early unwill ingness to continue in a servile condition, left the grants without the means of efficient cultivation, and the evils of the scheme became speedily apparent. Two years had not elapsed since the landing of Oglethorpe, before many complaints originated from this cause ; and in the summer of 1735, a petition, signed by seventeen freeholders, setting forth the unprofitable ness of white servants, and the necessity for negroes, was carried by Mr. Hugh Sterling to the Trustees, who, however, resented the appeal as an insult to their honour.
In a representation made to the Honourable Trus tees, on the 1st of September, 1737, by the grand jury, they declare, " that the great want of servants in this town and county doth render the freeholders thereof incapable of proceeding with proper vigour in cultivat ing their lands;" and three years after, in a paper entitled, " A State of the Province of Georgia, attested upon oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10th,

WELCH AND GERMAN SERVANTS SENT TO GEORGIA. 291
1740," signed by twenty-four of the most respectable settlers, this language is used: " We humbly conceive nothing could be a greater inducement to the cultiva tion of the land, than that the Honourable Trustees would please to import yearly, so long as they see good, a number of English or Welch servants, such as are used to hard labour in the country, and strangers to London, to be contracted with in England, to serve the Trustees five years." These requests were but par tially complied with. Speaking of sixty-one Germans brought over in one vessel, Rev. Mr. Bolzius says : " One-and-twenty grown persons are picked out at Savannah, partly by the magistrates, partly by the people, having paid 6; and the rest, being forty souls, mostly bakers, millers, shoemakers, some wo men, and ten children, are sent to our place, (Ebenezer,) where I endeavoured to accommodate them in the best manner I was able. No more than nineteen hus bandmen could be supplied with servants, each with one servant, and some of these with small families." This is an interesting fact, as it shows that though, numerically, the reinforcement was large, it was, phy sically, small but nineteen efficient labourers in a party of sixty-one. Nor would it be a very difficult matter to prove, upon the strict principles of political economy, that such an accession was rather a burden than a benefit. The paucity of even this questionable help, was still further lessened by constant refusals to fulfil the terms of contract, and by desertions ; as many escaped to Carolina, and thus weakened the colony in the available means of agriculture and defence. Even the German servants, so lauded as faithful and efficient assistants, so often pointed to as patterns of industry and sobriety, even these were complained of by Mr,

292 DIFFICULTY OF PLANTING WITH WHITE SERVANTS.
Bolzius and Mr. Meyer, as being "refractory, filled with ideas of liberty, and clandestinely quitting their masters;" who, he says, in many instances, " were com pelled to resort to corporeal punishment, or other sum mary methods, to bring them to obedience." The Hon. James Habersham, subsequently President of His Majesty's Council, and, during the absence of Sir James Wright, Governor of the colony, whose high moral integrity gives weight to every remark from his pen, says of the unprofitableness of white servants: " Though the people have been as industrious as possible, they are not able to live ; for I believe there is not an in stance of one planter in the colony who can support his family with his own produce. Besides, the sun is so extremely hot here in the summer, that no white man can stay in the field the best part of the day. All who come to settle here are put into a wilderness, which they have to clear before they can plant it; which is so intolerably costly, with white hands, that I have heard some affirm, that to clear our good land which is swamp effectually with them, would cost almost as much as they could buy land for in some parts of Eng land." And writing to General Oglethorpe, two years after, in 1741, he remarks: " You are not insensible, honoured sir, that from the great wages of servants and monthly hands, upon the present footing, it is impossi ble, I think, from experience, to live comfortably," or " to defray the expense; I mean, to pay 25s. per month for a labourer, and to feed him, so that he may be able to do a day's work. Possibly, could we hire servants as farmers do in England, for 4 or 5 per annum, plant ing might do; but these men and maid-servants are scarce, and not only so, but ignorant and saucy. If I was ever so intent upon settling a farm now, I don't

INEFFICIENCY OF THIS MODE.

293

know where I could purchase, or hire, at any reason able rate, one servant, of either sex. Alas! honoured sir, what must a poor friendless man do, with his wife and children .settled upon fifty acres of land, perhaps pine-barren, but suppose it the best, without either servants to help clear, or steers to plough the ground ?"
The views entertained by this accurate observer, were corroborated by a publication entitled, "A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia," published in 1741, in which it is stated that the clear ing and cultivation of new lands originated fevers and diseases of various kinds, " which brought on to many cessation both from work and life." And so general were these disorders, that during the hot season, which lasts from March till October, hardly one-half of the servants or working people were even able to do their masters or themselves the least service; and the yearly sickness of each servant, generally speaking, cost his master as much as would have maintained a negro for four years."
One of the most estimable of the Georgia clergy, the Rev. Mr. Zouberbuhler, thus expresses his views, in 1748: " I cannot learn, nor do I know any planters who have employed servants in cultivating lands, that have found them advantageous. On the contrary, I have heard frequent complaints that servants so em ployed have rather been an expense than a benefit."
This system, inefficient as it was, was not a new one to the colonies. In Virginia it had existed from its foundation. Men and women brought up in Eng land, were taken over to Virginia, and sold for the term of indenture, sometimes even as high as 60. To supply the emptiness of their exchequer, the company of Patentees, in 1621-2, sent over on speculation one

294

STATE PRISONERS SOLD IN AMERICA.

hundred and fifty women, young, handsome, and well recommended for their virtuous education and de meanour, who were sold as wives to the planters, fetching from one hundred and twenty to three hun dred and fifty pounds of tobacco, i. e., from 18 to 52 sterling,6 and this traffic continued for many years. The battles consequent on the civil wars of the king dom, furnished large material for this trade in British slaves; and Scots taken at Dunbar, and two hundred and seventy of the royalist prisoners taken by Crom well in the battle of Worcester, were landed for sale in New England, in 1652; and the insurrectionists of Penruddock, Roman Catholics from Ireland, and nearly one thousand state prisoners engaged in the Monmouth .rebellion, were shipped to America to supply hands to the colonial freeholders. Yet while this scheme of white servitude was pursued in Geor gia, one of its Trustees declared from the pulpit, "The name of slavery is here unheard, and every inhabi tant is free from unchosen masters and oppression." It had not then, indeed, developed its evil effects; but could they have foreseen the shrivelled and attenuated state of the colony in consequence of this misguided legislation, they would not have vaunted the humanity which substituted for the negro, the free-born Briton and the persecuted German ; nor while they sold the indentures of servants in the white slave-market of Savannah, would they have boasted that " Slavery, the misfortune if not the dishonour of other plantations, is absolutely proscribed."
The plan for substituting white for black labour, failed through the sparseness of the supply, and the refractoriness of the servants. As a consequence of
e Stith's Virginia, 197.

EVILS OF THE SYSTEM APPARENT.

295

the inability of the settlers to procure adequate help, the lands granted them remained uncleared, and even those which the temporary industry of the first occu pants prepared, remained uncultivated; for the people, leaving their unfurrowed fields, clustered about the town, eking out a beggarly subsistence by such handicraft as they were partially acquainted with, or else living upon the Trustees' stores. The silk and wine which were to have been the staple productions of the colony, failed through want of encouragement; the planting of indigo was mostly abandoned; the preparing lumber for exportation became impossible, because, say the freeholders in a representation made to the Trustees, December 9th, 1738, " We cannot manufacture it for a foreign market but at double the expense of other colonies, as, for instance, the river of May, which is but twenty miles from, us, where, with the allowance of negroes, vessels load with that com modity at one-half the price that we can do." Every profitable employment, therefore, which would have lengthened the cords and strengthened the stakes of the colony, was neglected ; discontent supplied the place of labour, and rebellion well nigh followed. For these reasons there accumulated on the Trustees' hands, a body of idle, clamourous, mischief-making men, who employed their time in declaiming against the very government whose charity both fed and clothed them. So great was this evil, that, in 1739, the Trustees gave orders for " striking off the store all such as, having had time to cultivate their lands, had neglected them;" a measure which strengthened still more the popular indignation against this cor poration. Writing in 1739, Mr. Habersham says: " Now a word for the poor people of Savannah.

296

DEPOPULATION OF THE COLONY.

They are really, some of them, in want, and must, I believe, leave the colony. Everything appears worse and worse, rather than any tokens of amendment. If this sore chastisement, only starves the idlers away, it will be a matter of joy; but I am afraid the industrious must suffer, the torrent bearing so very hard against us that they cannot stem it. Captain Thompson has carried away near thirty souls, men, women, and children, to Charleston and England. He sailed last night." And again he remarks : " The colony, with out some proper remedies, must dwindle away into nothing, or at least become a mere garrison. Many are already gone to other provinces to seek their bread, and those who remain have laid out their all." In a communication made to the Trustees on the 10th of August, 1740, by David Douglass, William Sterling, and Thomas Baillie, they state, that " the colony is reduced to one-sixth of its former number," and that " the few who remain were in a starving and despica ble condition." Nor can I believe, from the most diligent research, that this was much exaggerated; the strong feelings under which they laboured might have slightly tinged, but did not deeply colour their re monstrance ; and the private letters of Mr. Habersham, who was ever faithful to the interests of the Trustees, and who signed neither of the early petitions, confirm this de scription of the weak and languishing condition of the province. In one of his letters to General Oglethorpe, remarking upon the difficulty of poor people obtaining a subsistence without labourers to help them, he adds : " They droop under these difficulties, grow weary of the colony, get into idle and refractory company; from thence naturally to drinking, and which perhaps ends in the total ruin of themselves and families.

ITS VERY LOW CONDITION,

297

Honoured sir, this is no chimera of my own. I have seen too many sad instances to confirm me in the truth of it." Writing to Governor Belcher of Massa chusetts, in 1741, he further says : " This colony, which has made so much talk abroad, is almost left deso late." Mark the following strong language which he employs in a letter dated September 25th, 1747: "The few remaining inhabitants here are so dispirited and heart-broken, that, supposing any real encourage ment could be proposed, I almost reckon it an impos sibility to persuade them that anything of this nature can be done, and he that would attempt it would be looked upon rather as their enemy than their friend ; and I must confess that things have had such a dread ful appearance for some time past, that, rather than see the colony deserted and brought to desolation, and the inhabitants reduced to want and beggary, I really, with the Trustees, would have consented to the use of negroes, and was sorry to hear that they had written so warmly against them." What can more strikingly illustrate the utter wretchedness of the colonists than that sentence of the above extract which shows that " he who would propose anything for their encouragement, would be looked upon rather as an enemy than a friend 1" And how deplorable must those be, when even hope, which, " like Heav en's own sunbeam, smiles on all," does not send one ray of comfort into the thick gloom of their desolate condition! In a document sent to the Trustees on the 9th of December, 1738, and signed by one hun dred and seventeen freeholders, it is said: " Your Honours, we imagine, are not insensible of the num ber which have left this province, not being able to support themselves or families any longer; and upon

298

THE DECLINE OF THE WHOLE PROVINCE.

account of the present establishment, not above two or three persons, except those brought on charity and sent by you, have come here for the space of two years past, either to settle land or encourage trade." By a return made to the Trustees in 1739, there were but one hundred and nine freeholders in Sa vannah, notwithstanding there had been sent over by the Trustees alone, in the six preceding years, one thousand three hundred and eighty-three persons. In this debilitated state the colony continued for sev eral years; its strength daily weakened by the de sertion of servants and the removal of settlers; its public and private buildings falling into decay; and its inhabitants clamourous for redress, and irritated by penury. Not only was this decline visible in Savan nah, but it existed in every part of the province, as is evidenced by the magistrates, who, in a letter to Mr. Martyn, secretary of the Board, state, " that the whole inhabitants of Augusta, who have had negroes among them for some years past, declare that if they cannot obtain that liberty, they will remove to the Carolina side ; and many of late, finding us strenuous to see the Trustees' orders fulfilled, express themselves in the same strain." Thus this colony, once the pride of the philanthropic, the object of so many hopes, and the theme of so much eulogy, was pining in misery, and gasping for vitality, even under the eye of its great founder, and within seven years of its first establishment.
For nearly fifteen years from 1735, the date of the first petition for negroes, and the date of their express law against their importation, the Trustees refused to listen to any similar representations, except to con demn them; and the law relating to negroes was, at one period, so rigidly enforced, that every one found

INHABITANTS PETITION FOR NEGROES,

299

in the place, unless speedily claimed, was sold back to Carolina. Stephens, in his journal, mentions two Instances of this sale: the first in 1739, who brought 23 5s.; and the second in 1741, for whom only 8 10s. was bid, In December, 1738, nearly all the free holders united in addressing a communication to the Trustees, setting forth the state of the colony, and the absolute necessity of some change to repair its ruinous condition. One of the remedies proposed was, to use their own language, " the use of negroes, with proper limitations, which, if granted, would both occasion great numbers of white people to come here, and also to render us capable to subsist ourselves, by raising provisions upon our lands, until we could make some produce fit for export, in some measure to balance our importations." In opposition to these tenets, counter petitions were drawn up at Darien and Ebenezer, the former dated January 3d, 1739, the latter March 13th, 1739, strongly disapproving their introduction, and urging the Trustees to persist in their refusal. Ste phens, in his peculiar language, says : " In this whole affair Darien led up the dance, though there were not wanting others ready to follow them." But these counter petitioners, by whom the Trustees were so much strengthened in their persistence, were a very unfair criterion of judgment. The Highlanders of Darien derived great subsist ence from furnishing the garrison and troops at Frederica with provisions, &c. ; and the Germans at Eben ezer were not only accustomed to the toils of hus bandry at home, to which most of the English settlers were strangers, but, as Mr. Habersham says, speaking of the impropriety of adducing them as examples that persons can live comfortably on the present foun-

300

CONVENTION OF LANDHOLDERS.

dation " it ought to be remembered what great sup i plies they have had, and are frequently receiving; otherwise I am persuaded they could not have sub sisted," " I once thought," said he, " it was unlawful to keep negro slaves, but I am now induced to think God may have a higher end in permitting them to be brought to this Christian country, than merely to support their masters. Many of the poor slaves in America have already been made freemen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and possibly a time may come

when many thousands may embrace the gospel, and thereby be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. These, and other considerations, appear to plead strongly for a limited use of negroes; for, while we can buy provisions in Carolina cheaper than we can here, no one will be induced to plant much." None of these things, however, moved the Trustees, who rigidly adhered to their original design.
Resolved to make one more effort, some of the land holders and settlers met in Savannah on the 7th of October, 1741, to consider the best mode of securing redress to their many grievances, and resolved to appoint an agent to represent their case to the proper authorities in England, " in order to the effectual set tling and establishing of the said province, and to re

move all those grievances and hardships we now labour under." The person selected as agent was Thomas Stephens, the son of the President, who had resided about four years in Georgia, and who, it was thought, from his connection with the President, would give great weight to their proceedings. A committee con sisting of five persons was also appointed to corre spond with Mr. Stephens, and the whole proceedings were signed by one hundred and twenty-three land-

INSTRUCTIONS TO THOMAS STEPHENS.

301

holders in the province. In the instructions which the committee of correspondence gave to their agent, Mr. Stephens was desired, on his arrival in England, " to apply, petition, and solicit for redress of grievances, in such manner as he should think most, advisable, (appli cation to the Trust only excepted.) He was required to solicit, " that a regular government be established in Georgia, as in other of His Majesty's provinces in America;" grants of land equal in extent to those in South Carolina; quit-rents to be the same in Georgia as in South Carolina; negroes to be allowed ; " en couragement to be given for making potash, silk, wine, oil, indigo, hemp, flax, or other commodities ;" and in the event of his being unsuccessful in these applica tions, he was to pray, " that the money which may hereafter be granted for the use of the colony may be applied for removing them to some other part of His Majesty's dominions, where they may be able to sup port themselves and families, and be of use to the public, instead of a burden, as they are now."7
Thus furnished, Mr. Stephens sailed for England, and, on the 26th of March, 1742, presented a petition to the king, representing the deplorable condition of the colony occasioned by the extraordinary laws and government thereof, and by the many arbitrary and ille gal proceedings which have hindered its progress and defeated His Majesty's intentions of making provision for his poor subjects and others sent thither; stating that complaints have from time to time been made to the Trustees without any grievance or discouragement being redressed, and therefore humbly imploring His Majesty's protection and encouragement, whereby they may be enabled to proceed effectually in the improve-

Georgia Historical Collections, ii. 155.

302

PETITIONS PARLIAMENT.

ment and preservation of the colony.8 The king referred this petition to a committee of the Lords of Council for Plantation Affairs, who transmitted a copy to the Trustees and desired their answer to its con tents.
Nearly at the same time Stephens presented a peti tion to Parliament, in which he animadverted upon the Trustees' management from the date of their char ter, and charged them with refusing to listen to the representations of the people with misapplication of the public money with great delays in discharging debts " and many abuses in the civil power ; closing with an appeal to the ' Commons,' to grant such redress as to the House shall seem meet."9
The subject was considered of such importance, that it was " Resolved, that this House will upon this day sevennight resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to consider of the said petition;" and the mem bers of the Privy Council were requested to obtain from the king the petition of Stephens to him, and also the answer of the Trustees.
The answer of the Trustees, drawn up by the Earl of Egmont, was read before them on the 3d of May, and received their seal and approval, and was presented to the House of Commons on the 6th. The same day the House passed another resolution, instructing the committee of the whole to "admit counsel to be heard for and against the said petition, if the parties concerned in it think fit."
To give full time for the members to read this peti tion and reply, which were ordered to lie upon the table for their perusal, the consideration of them was

8 Journal of Trustees, ii. 202. 9 Journal of House of Commons, 1742, xxiv. 191,

PARLIAMENT INSTITUTES ENQUIRIES.

303

postponed a week longer, when it was ordered that Mr. Stephens should then attend, and " bring with Mm his appointment to be agent for the people in Georgia, as also all written instructions he may have received from them for the discharge of that office."
Determined upon a full investigation, the House also ordered, a few days after, that the Trustees should lay before them " all resolutions which they have at any time agreed upon concerning the tenure of lands in the colony, the petition of the inhabitants for negroes, sent over in 1735, and the remonstrance of the inhabi tants to the Trustees, in 1740."
On the day appointed, before the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole, it directed that there should be laid before that committee " An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia, in America, from its first establishment to 1740;" a copy of "The Humble Petition and Representation of the Council and Assembly of South Carolina to His Majesty, dated July 26, 1740;" the Memorial of the Trustees to the King; the Petition of Stephens; the Answer of the Trustees; a Letter from Patrick Tailfer, and others, received in August, 1735; the Remonstrance of the In habitants ; and all the Trust resolutions concerning the tenure of lands in the colony.
The committee of the whole, which was now constituted by the appointment of Mr. Carew to the speaker's chair, had thus before them ample materials for a full and searching investigation. The public feel ing demanded it; and it wras due to the Trustees and to the colony that nothing should be wanting to sift the many charges and rumours levelled against them, and if they must be condemned, give them a public and authoritative condemnation; or if they could be

304

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE REPORT.

vindicated, establish that defence, after the most severe scrutiny by the highest legislative assembly in the realm, and through its approving voice proclaim to the world, that Parliament vindicates and sustains the Trus tees in their grand design.
The remainder of the day was spent in hearing coun sel, and in examining witnesses for the petitioner, when the committee rose, and asked leave to sit again. The committee continued its sessions at intervals until the 29th of June, when the chairman, Mr. Care w, reported to the House the resolutions which the committee had directed him. These resolutions declared it to be the opinion of the committee, " That the province of Geor gia, in America, by reason of its situation, may be an useful barrier to the British provinces on the continent of America against the French and Spaniards, and In dian nations in their interests; that the ports and har bours within the said province may be a good security to the trade and navigation of this kingdom; that the said province, by reason of the fertility of the soil, the healthfulness of the climate, and the convenience of the rivers, is a proper place for establishing a settlement, and may contribute greatly to the increasing the trade of this kingdom; that it is very necessary and advan tageous to this nation that the colony of Georgia should be preserved and supported; that it will be an advan tage to the colony of Georgia to permit the importation of rum into the said colony from any of the British colonies; that the petition of Thomas Stephens con tains false, scandalous and malicious charges, tending to asperse the characters of the Trustees for Establish ing the Colony of Georgia, in America."
Upon the passage of the resolution respecting the importation of rum, an attempt was made to amend it,

THOMAS STEPHENS REPRIMANDED.

305

by.adding, "As also the use of negroes, who may be employed there with advantage to the colony, under proper regulations and restrictions;" but it was nega tived, by a majority of nine votes.
After receiving the report, it was ordered, " that the said Thomas Stephens do attend this House to-morrow morning, in order to be brought to the bar thereof, to be reprimanded on his knees by Mr. Speaker for the said offence." Accordingly, the next day, he was brought to the bar of the House of Commons, and there, upon his knees, before the assembled counsel lors of Great Britain, was reprimanded for his conduct by the Honourable Speaker, and then discharged, on paying his fees.
Such was the solemn verdict of the Parliament of Great Britain upon the subject of the colony of Geor gia. The Trustees had passed through the ordeal of public, severe, minute investigation into all their do ings, from the beginning, and came forth justified and approved, to the confusion and downfall of their untir ing enemies.
The following year, Thomas Stephens made one more effort to obtain a hearing from Parliament; but on the presentation of his petition, a call was made for the reading of the minutes of the 29th of June, of last session, and when read, the petition was ordered " to lie on the table."
This conduct of Thomas Stephens was peculiarly displeasing to his aged father, the greatness "whereof none can judge but such only as have the misfortune to deal with an unruly son of his own. * * * What a shock, therefore, must an old man feel from such a blow given by his own son !" w

20

306

ACTION ON THE QUESTION POSTPONED.

Though the Trustees were sustained by the House of Commons, the enquiry then instituted caused them to see the necessity of relaxing some of their laws; and accordingly, they directed acts to be prepared repealing some of the obnoxious features to which the greatest objection had been made. They went so far as to order, that the President should make enquiry among the people " whether it is their opin ion in general, that it is proper to admit the use and introduction of negroes," and requiring him to certify their opinion and his own, " how far it may be proper under any, and under wrhat limitations and restric tions." At the same time a committee was raised, " to consider how far it may be convenient or proper to admit the introduction and use of negroes in the province of Georgia.""
This prompt action on the part of the Trustees, showed how willing they were to yield their own views to what was more generally esteemed the public weal; but the absence of Oglethorpe, the war with the Spaniards, the turmoils of the colony, and the disaffection and fault-finding of many, made most of their schemes nerveless, and thus decisive action on the negro question was put off from time to time, until the people, unable longer to endure such restrictions, gradually assumed the responsibility of violating their injunctions. The terms of many of the white servants having nearly expired, and those who had further service to perform, mostly refusing to comply with their contracts, several of the bolder sort hired negroes from the Carolina planters, who, in case of trouble, came over and claimed them as their property. This plan being found secure, the periods
1 ' Journal of Trustees, ii. 210.

PLANS TO EVADE THE RESTRICTIONS.

307

of hire were extended to a lifetime, and a hundred years, the full price of the negro being paid, on con dition that the former ma>ster was to appear in their behalf in case of seizure. In addition to this finesse, many families from the adjoining State moved into the province, particularly into the southern portion, with their negroes, and when molested, threatened to leave the colony, which many of them did. These proceed ings coming to the knowledge of the Trustees, they severely reprimanded the magistrates for their negli gence, and commanded them at once to put an end to these illicit encroachments. To this the President and assistants replied, October 2d, 1747 : " We are afraid, sir, from what you have wrote in relation to negroes, that the Honourable Trustees have been misinformed as to our conduct relating thereto ; for we can with great assurance assert, that this Board has always acted an uniform part in discouraging the use of ne groes in this colony, well knowing it to be disagree able to the Trustees, as well as contrary to an act existing for the prohibition of them, and always gave it in charge to those whom we had put in possession of lands, not to attempt the introduction or use of negroes. But notwithstanding our great caution, some people from Carolina, soon after settling lands on the Little Ogeechee, found means of bringing and employ ing a few negroes on the said lands, some time before it was discovered to us; upon which they thought it high time to withdraw them, for fear of being seized, and soon after withdrew themselves and families out of the colony, which appears to us at present to be the reso lution of divers others." But these gentlemen exhib ited a different aspect to the colonists: they stimulated their clamours, and secretly connived at the constant

308

TROUBLES IN COXSEQUEXCE.

accession of negroes. This is abundantly proved by letters of Mr. Dobell, in June and July, 1746, (who appears, from Messrs. Habersham and Bolzius's re marks, to be an honest, upright man,) in which he openly accused them of duplicity and dissimulation. These were written more than a year before the above paper was signed; and a note penned by the Honourable Colonel Alexander Heron, 'May llth, 1748, indicates that the same artifices were then practised by these officers. After stating that " his opinion is really for negroes, and that the colony will never come to anything without them," he boldly avers, " It is well known to every one in the colony, that negroes have been in and about Savannah for these several years past; that the magistrates knew and winked at it, and that their constant toast is ' the one thing needful,' by which is meant negroes." Those who still adhered to the Trustees were the objects of peculiar rancour; and the leading men, both of New Inverness and Ebenezer, wrere traduced, threatened, and persecuted. The whole province dwelt, as it were, on the brink of a volcano, whose intestine fires daily raged higher and fiercer, threat ening, at no distant period, a desolating eruption. In deed, to such height had this turmoil reached, that the opponents of the negro scheme shrank from fur ther contest with its advocates. Even Mr. Bolzius, one of the most determined supporters of the Trustees' views, thus writes to them on the 3d of May, 1748 ;. " Things being now in such a melancholy state, I must humbly beseech your honours, not to regard any more our or our friends' petitions against negroes.'' The Rev. George Whitefield, the celebrated divine, and Mr. Habersham, were mainly instrumental in

WHITEFIELU'S VIEWS.

309

bringing the Trustees to relax this prohibition. Mr. Whitefield, as early as 1741, gave that body a most practical lesson on his views, by planting a portion of land in Carolina which he called " Providence" with negro labour, bought and paid for as his own slaves, with the design of thereby supporting his Orphan House at Bethesda, in Georgia. " I last week," he writes12 under date of March 15th, 1747, " bought at a very cheap rate a plantation of six hun dred and forty acres of excellent land, with a good house, barn, and out-houses, and sixty acres of ground ready cleared, fenced, and fit for rice, corn, and every thing that will be necessary for provisions. One negro has been given me some more I propose to purchase this week." And again, in June of the same year, he says : " God is delivering me out of my embarrass ments by degrees. With the collections made at Charleston, I have purchased a plantation and some slaves, which I intend to devote to the use of Bethes da." In addition, however, to this practical illustra tion of his own views, he came forward the next year as the public advocate of slave labour, and in a letter to the Trustees, December 6th, 1748, says : " Upwards of five thousand pounds have been expended in thatundertaking, and yet very little proficiency made in the cultivation of my tract of land, and that entirely owing to the necessity I lay under of making use of white hands. Had a negro been allowed, I should now have had a sufficiency to support a great many orphans, without expending above half the sum which has been laid out. An unwillingness to let so good a design drop, and having a rational conviction that it must necessarily, if some other method was riot fixed
!2 Whitefield's Works, ii. 90, 105, 208.

310

HABERSHAM'S INFLUENCE.

upon to prevent it these two considerations, hon oured gentlemen, prevailed on me about two years ago, through the bounty of my good, friends, to pur chase a plantation in South Carolina, where negroes are allowed. Blessed be God, this plantation has succeeded ; and though at present I have only eight working hands, yet in all probability there will be more raised in one year, and with a quarter the ex pense, than has been produced at Bethesda for several years last past. This confirms me in the opinion I have entertained for a long time, that Georgia never can or will he a flourishing province without negroes are allowed."
This strong language, based on a thorough'knowl edge of the facts, and an honest conviction of their truth, had a good effect upon the minds of the Trus tees. The instrumentality of Mr. HabershaiB, at that time President of this celebrated Orphan House, was also important. For the private use, and at the special request of Rev. Mr. Bolzius, he had, in Sep tember, 1747, drawn up a long communication, ably setting forth the actual position of affairs., and the means by which to remedy the distresses. A copy of this was sent to the Rev. Mr. Zeigenhagen, German chaplain to His Majesty, who was so pleased with its ability and force, that he forwarded it to the Trustees, by whom it was taken into the most serious and delib erate consideration; and the facts, arguments, and appeals of that paper, were among the earliest causes of opening their eyes, and unstopping their ears, to the fearful and crying grievances of their political off spring.
As a proof of their sincerity, Mr. Habersham was Immediately appointed one of the assistants, in the

PRESIDENT AND ASSISTANTS PETITION FOR SLAVES. 311
place of Mr. Mercer; though, when informed that his long letter was before them, he feared lest its bold ness and freedom should beget him their enmity and rebuke. Hardly one opponent of the negro plan now remained, and this " ill-judged and Utopian scheme," as Anderson terms it, in his British Commerce, was destined to give place to a new and more rational ordering of society. At this time purchases were openly made from African traders, and both the magis trates and the people were seizing every opportunity to obtain so desirable a boon.
On the 10th of January, 1749, the President and as sistants, and a large number of the inhabitants of the province, sent to the Trustees a petition to which the town seal was affixed, setting forth several restrictions and regulations, under which they prayed that negroes might be permitted in the colony. This petition was read before the Trustees on the 16th of May, and they resolved, " That it is the opinion of this Board that a petition be presented to His Majesty in council," "that the act for rendering the colony of Georgia more defensible by prohibiting the importation and use of black slaves or negroes into the same, which was made in the year 1735, be repealed." The next day a committee, at the head of which was placed the Earl of Shaftesbury, was appointed to prepare an act repealing the former one. Finding themselves com pelled to admit slaves into the province, they resolved to do it on the best and most humane conditions; ac cordingly, on the 7th of July, 1749, Mr. Martyn, by order of the Trustees, wrote to the President, to con vene the most able persons, and send him their opin ions, signed by all, of what regulations are necessary in order to an introduction of slave labour in the

312

CONVENTION OF FREEHOLDERS.

colony. Of this letter Mr. Habersham says, that " it is really a very handsome one, and plainly intimates the necessity of our having negroes." This conven tion met, and Major Horton of Frederica, the military chief of the colony, presided.
On the 26th of October, 1749, they signed the rep resentation which had been drawn up, and urged that under the limitations then mentioned, slavery should be immediately allowed. These points were, to reg ulate the proportion of negroes to whites ; to prevent their learning any trade except coopering, as it would thereby injure the poor white artizan; to restrain un limited power over their persons, and to keep a regis ter of all imported or brought into the province. This paper was signed by twenty-seven men of the highest respectability, and the assembly was so well conducted, and affairs so harmoniously arranged, that Mr. Bolzius, in a letter to Secretary Martyn, the next day, says: "I must freely confess that all is done to my great satisfaction."
This document, duly attested, was sent home to the Trustees, who approved it with two or three trifling exceptions; but showed their regard for the moral con dition of the slave by enacting that a penalty of 10 sterling should be paid by every master who should oblige or even suffer his negro to work on the Lord's day; and that the omission of " a master's obliging his negro or negroes to attend, at some time on the Lord's day, for instruction in the Christian religion, be deemed a misdemeanour punishable by the courts of Georgia in a pecuniary mulct of no less than 5 for each offence." Thus this perplexing business was brought to a close; and the Trustees, at the" end of their administration, found themselves compelled to give up every one of

INFLUENCE OP THE CHANGE.

313

their peculiar views. They had failed in their philan thropic, agricultural, industrial, commercial, and gov ernmental schemes. The imagination of man could scarcely have framed a system of rules less adapted to the circumstances of the colonists, more detrimental to their prosperity, or more hostile to those results which they designed should flow from their benevolent but unwise schemes; and they did not therefore gather that harvest of lasting praise which they might have reaped had their wisdom been proportioned to their benevolence.33 Well has it been said, that "a corporation, whether commercial or proprietary, is perhaps the worst of sovereigns."14 Yet no body of men began with purer principles, or progressed with more honest designs, or sought for nobler ends, or laboured with more diligent zeal, than, the Trustees of Georgia.
The change in the tenure of grants, and the per mission to hold slaves, had an immediate effect on the prosperity of the colony. In 1750 the number of white persons in Georgia was only about fifteen hun dred ; but on the intimation of these changes, the President and assistants say in one of their official documents, " people from all parts of His Majesty's dominions in America, as well as from Germany and Great Britain, are almost daily coming hither."
Under the Trustees' government the colony had scarcely any commerce. During the seventeen years immediately .succeeding the founding of Georgia, but one vessel was loaded at Savannah with the proper produce of Georgia. In 1744, Messrs. Charles Harris and James Habersham (who had resigned his office of President of the Orphan House) entered into partner-

13 Grahame's Hist. United States, iii. 190.

I4 Bancroft, i. 185.

314

COMMERCE OP GEORGIA.

ship and established the first commercial house .in Georgia. Prior to this, the only business had been transacted by the Trustees' store-keeper, as the agent for the Trustees ; and they imported only such things as were needed at their store to supply the wants of those who drew their weekly rations from their bounty.
Trade with the West Indies, which, through the abundance of lumber in Georgia, might have formed a lucrative branch of commerce, was disallowed, lest it should bring rum and negroes into the colony ; and, though the act of Parliament, by which, in 1729,w Carolina merchants and planters were permitted to export rice directly to any part of Europe southward of Cape Finisterre, in vessels fitted out according to the navigation act, was, in 1735,10 extended to Georgia, yet it was almost a commercial mockery, as it would be impossible with the white labour of Georgia to com pete in the production of rice with the slave-grown staple of Carolina. It was holding out temptation to break the very laws which they had enacted, for rice could not be produced by white labour.
The very monied circulation of the colony was an obstacle in the way of commercial transactions. In place of the British currency, the Trustees issued what they called Sola Bills, or bills of exchange, to be issued in Georgia by their agents, and made payable in England, in form following, viz.: "

GEORGIA BILL OF EXCHANGE, J

A. No. 1.

PAYABLE IN ENGLAND.

$ Westminster, 24ft July, 1735.

Thirty days after sight, we, the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of

Georgia in America, promise to pay this, our Sola Bill of Exchange, to James

Oglethorpe, Esq., or his order, the sum of one pound sterling, at our office at

I 5 Stat. 2, Geo. II., cap. 28 et 34.

" Minutes of Common Council, i.

6 Stat. 8, Geo. II., cap. 19.

193.

COLONIAL MONEY.

315

i

Westminster, to answer the like value received by him in Georgia, on the issue

hereof, as testified by indorsement herein signed by himself.

Sealed by order of the Common Council of the said Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.
The first issue was of 4000, of which sum 500 was in bills of 20s. ; 1000 in bills of 40s.; 500 in bills of 5 ; 1000 in bills of 10, and 1000 in bills of 20. These and all others issued by them were sealed with the Trustees' seal, and signed by the accountant. While Oglethorpe was in Georgia, they were to be issued only by him ; at his departure, by the President and assistants, or any three of them, they keeping a record of every such bill, with the specific purpose for which issued. More than one hun dred and thirty-five thousand dollars were thus sent over at different times, in payment of salaries and other corporate expenses. When redeemed, they were cancelled by a punch through the seal in pres ence of one common council man and two Trustees. At the expiration of their charter, the accountant reported bills to the amount of 1149 not yet delivered in for payment, and the common council immediately placed a similar amount into the hands of Mr. Lloyd, a distinguished silk merchant, to redeem them when presented; and by a public notice in the several gazettes of America, they were required to be pre sented before the first of January, 1756.
The financial affairs of the Trustees were managed with great caution, prudence, and economy. The va rious reports of the commissioners on accounts spread upon the records of the common council, evince the scrupulous care and stringent exactness with which they examined each item of expenses, and each draught upon their exchequer,

318

FIRST SHIP CHARTERED IN GEORGIA.

They were most faithful stewards of the money com mitted to their trust, husbanding their resources, sus taining their credit, liquidating their dues, and finally closing their accounts with every debt cancelled, and every demand secured. Yet the substitution of this peculiar currency fettered the commercial transactions of Georgia, by almost restricting the colony to a spe cies of money unknown to the other colonies, and which could not always command a par value in the other provinces or in England. For the first few years the trade of Harris and Habersham was mostly with Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, where their credit was good, and their mercantile reputation high. Success prompted an enlargement of their business, and in 1747 they opened a correspondence in London, and began the system of direct importation. In a let ter to Secretary Martyn, in May, 1749, they say: " We have ordered our correspondent, Mr. John Nickleson, in Mansfield street, Goodman's Fields, London, to char ter us a small ship to be loaded here next winter with what may offer." This was the first ship ever char tered to a mercantile house in Georgia, with a design to be laden with its produce for England, and by this vessel they remitted nearly $10,000 in exported arti cles.
The principal exports at this time were pitch, tar, rice, and deer-skins; and they hoped by furnishing an easy and accessible medium of intercommunication, to encourage the growth of indigo, and by adding that to the list of staple products, turn towards America a large portion of the 200,000 which England annually paid France for that article.
The difficulties consequent on the establishment of such commercial relations at that time were neither

OBJECTS OF HARRIS AND HABJSRSHAM.

317

few nor trivial. From the produce of the colony but little could be expected. Agriculture was greatly neglected; rice plantations could not be tilled; and the whole produce of the colony was not sufficient for its own consumption, being entirely supplied with seve ral articles of food from South Carolina. The Indian trade was unsettled and fluctuating; its principal arti cle was skins; and those brought to Savannah had to be shipped to Charleston, at an expense of 7s. 6d. ster ling per hundred weight, where they were obliged to be entered at the custom-house, and pay a duty of Is. per skin, making a total of duty and freight of nearly 30s. sterling per hogshead.
The objects of Harris and llabersham were to open commercial intercourse with other places, in order to induce the inhabitants to give such attention to agricul ture, as that the several staple products might be raised in sufficient quantities for exportation; to draw towards Savannah the trade and the produce of the planters in parts of Carolina contiguous to the Savannah river; to prevent the onerous freightage of skins to England, by furnishing a direct outlet from their own port; and by inducing ships to visit the place, to call around it the various artizans requisite for a seaport; thus drawing from the necessary expenses of the shipping a large revenue to the colony. These enlarged views met, in part, the prosperity they deserved; and the firm had the satisfaction of knowing, that their operations afford ed sensible relief to the colony, greatly increased its strength, and added to its wealth. That it did so, is evident from a letter of one of these merchants, where in he writes: "My present thoughts are that the colony never had a better appearance of thriving than now. There have been more vessels loaded here within these

318

EXPORTS INCREASE,

ten months, than have been since the colony was set tled." " Our exportations for a year past is an evident proof, that if proper labouring hands could have been had years before, this colony before now would have demonstrated its utility to the mother country and the West India Islands. Two days ago a large ship ar rived here, addressed to my partner and I, which is the fifth sea vessel which has been here to load within a year; more, I may affirm, than has ever been loaded in this colony before, since its first settlement, with its realpi'oduce."
Such were the feeble beginnings of the commerce and mercantile operations of Georgia.18 Kept down by the ill legislation of the Trustees, it was no sooner re lieved of its oppressions, than it asserted its rights, and established its beneficial sway.
In closing this review of the Trustees' policy, it must be admitted that their plan of colonization was extreme ly defective, and often contravened the very object of their incorporation. They legislated on too narrow a platform; and instead of taking broad and generous principles, such as became the originators of so noble a design, took positions which a few short years proved to be untenable; cherished hopes which were soon blasted; and, compelled to abandon all their primary purposes, their policy had no permanence, their insti tutions no solid basis, and both crumbled away when they surrendered up their charter to the king.

* 3 Letters of James Habersham.

CHAPTER X.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OP THE COLONY.
THE proposition to found a new colony in America, which should be an asylum for the persecuted, and a home for the impoverished, enlisted at once the sym pathies of the clergy, and the beneficence of the Church.
As ministers of that Gospel which was in an especial manner to be " preached to the poor;" and as servants of Him who, though himself having " not where to lay his head," yet came to "heal the broken-hearted," and to "open the prison doors to them that were bound;" the clergy readily entered into this scheme of benevo lence, and by personal labours, individual subscriptions, pulpit exhortations, and published sermons, did much to awaken attention to the noble design, and to call out the fostering care of the people and government of Eng land. Among the original twenty-one Trustees were five clergymen of the Established Church, and four others were afterwards added. More than one hun dred clergymen and churches received, at their own request, commissions to take up collections for car rying out so philanthropic a design; and the Arch bishop of Canterbury, bishops, archdeacons, deans,

320

REV. DR. HERBERT.

chapters, besides collegiate and parochial clergy, gave I liberally, and some munificently, to the funds of the Trustees.
In the first embarkation came over a distinguished divine, the Rev. Dr. Herbert, who volunteered his ministerial services as missionary among the emigrants, until they should be settled in their distant home; and such was the care which the friends of the undertaking felt in the moral welfare of the colonists, that they put on board the first ship, for their use and instruction, one hun dred and fifteen Bibles and Testaments., one hundred and sixteen Common Prayer Books, seventy-two Psalters, three hundred and twelve Catechisms, fifty-six Bishop Gibson's Family Devotions,, besides four hundred and thirty-seven other religious volumes. And in addition to these, there were also given to the colony, during the first two years, over two thousand six hundred Bibles, Testaments, and religious books, and about one thousand dollars in contributions for building a church and supporting a missionary.1
Among the earliest benefactions was a pewter chalice and patine, presented by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, for " present use," as he said, " until silver ones were had," which were sent to Savannah in December, 1732.2 But about six months after, the same reverend gentleman was made the medium of presenting to the Trustees, by a benefactor who did not wish to be known, a silver chalice and patine, for the use of the first church in the town of Savannah; which were also sent to Georgia in May, 1733.3 Little did Mr. Wesley, in presenting them,

1 MS. Journal of Trustee?, i. 35. 2 General Account of the Trustees, subjoined to a Sermon preached before the Trustees by Dr. iiurtoa, London,

1733. Journal of Trustees, i. 31. 35, 63.
3 Appendix to Dr. Burton's iSermon, 47-48.

REV. SAMUEL QUTNCY, MISSIONARY.

32J

think that his brother would administer the sacrament from these vessels at the Lord's table in Savannah; or that an act performed with these in his hands, would result in his persecution, indictment, and flight from Georgia.
At the meeting next following the first embarkation, a memorial was drawn up, and ordered to be presented to the " Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," setting forth that " they had appointed a site for a church, and a sufficient glebe for the minister;" and desiring the society to make an allowance for a mis sionary, and the usual benefaction of books and furni ture.4 The society consenting, the Rev. Samuel Quincy, A.M., was appointed missionary to Savannah, to supply the place of Rev. Dr. Herbert, who left America three months after the colony landed in Georgia, and died on his passage to England.
The new missionary was the kinsman of the Quincys of Massachusetts, so distinguished in politics and literature, and of whom it has been said, that " the Quincys have been friends to liberty and the rights of the people from the most ancient times ;" ' the name of their common ancestor being in the " Magna Charta" of England. He was a native of Boston, and was ordained deacon and priest in 1730, by Doctor Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle.6
Embarking for Georgia, in March, 1733, he reached Savannah the following May, and continued at his post until October, 1735; when, unable longer to brook the " insolent and tyrannical magistrate to whom the

4 Journal of Trustees, i. 40. His- Hawkins, Svo, London, 1845, 92. torical Notices of the Missions of tiie 5 Holmes's Annals, ii. -235, note. Church of England in the North Ainer- 6 Dalcho's Church of South Caroican Colonies, &c., by Rev. Ernest Una, 361.
21

322

JOHN WESLEY APPOINTED MISSIONARY.

government of the colony was committed," and finding that " Georgia, which was seemingly intended to be the asylum of the distressed, was likely, unless things greatly altered, to be itself a mere scene of distress," he applied and obtained leave to return to England.7
The Rev. John Wesley was appointed to succeed him, who reached Georgia in February, 1736, and im mediately entered upon his clerical duties, by expound ing to the people, who, at Oglethorpe's suggestion, had landed near Tybee to return thanks to God for their safe deliverance, the second lesson for the day, (Mark vi.,) several parts of which he thought " wondrously suited to the occasion."
About a week after, while yet on board the ship, at the mouth of the river, Tomochichi and six or seven more Indians, attended by Mrs. Musgrove as inter preter, came on board. Addressing the missionaries,8 Tomochichi said: "I am glad you are come. When I was in England, I desired that some would speak the Great Word to me. And iny nation then desired to hear it. But now we are all in confusion.- Yet I am glad you are come. I will go up, and speak to the wise men of our nation; and I hope they will hear. But we would not be made Christians as the Spaniards make Christians. We would be taught before we are
baptized/'

1 In 1742 Mr. Q,uincy was elected he officiated two year*, and then moved rector of the parish of St. John's, Col- to Boston, where, in 17.50, he publeton, South Carolina, in which he con- Wished a volume entitled. " Twenty tinned until 1745, when, at the request Sermons, &c., preached in the Parish of the vestry of St. George's, Dorches- of St. Philip's, Charleston, South Caroter, he was appointed by the Venerable lina." He was much esteemed by the Society missionary in that parish. This commissary and the clergy of Carocure he resigned the following year, lina, and stood high in the opinion of when he was elected assistant minis- the Society. fer of St. Philip's, Charleston. Here s Wesley's Works, i. 129.

BEGINS HIS MINISTRY IN SAVANNAH.

323

Mr. Wesley answered : " There is but one, He that sitteth in heaven, who is able to teach a man wisdom. Though we are come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you by us or not. If He teaches you, you will learn wisdom; but we can do nothing."
Intent upon the work set before them, the brothers, John and Charles Wesley, rowing by Savannah, passed on to pay their " first visit in America to the poor heathen;" but they found the Indians absent, and so returned, disappointed, to their floating home. " On Sunday, 7th of March," writes John Wesley in his journal, " I entered upon my ministry at Savannah, by preaching on the epistle for the day, being the thir teenth of the first of Corinthians. In the second lesson, Luke xviii., was our Lord's prediction of the treatment which he himself (and consequently his followers) was to meet with from the world; and his gracious promise to those who are content, Nudi nudum Christum sequi: Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or friends, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, which shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come everlasting life." Speaking of this first public exercise in Georgia, he goes on to say: " I do here bear witness against myself, that when I saw the number of people crowd ing into the church, the deep attention with which they received the word, and the seriousness that afterwards sat on all their faces, I could scarce re frain from giving the lie to experience, and reason, and Scripture, all together. I could hardly believe that the greater, the far greater part of this attentive and serious people, would hereafter trample underfoot

324

EARLY SUCCESS.

that word, and say all manner of evil falsely of Him that spake it."
He entered upon his labours with great enthusiasm, was disposed to be pleased with everything, and wrote to his mother, " The place is pleasant beyond imagi nation," expressing to her a desire that some of " the poor and religious persons of Epworth and Wroote would come over to him." He had here seven hun dred parishioners, but no church having been built, they held service in the court-house, which at first was filled with hearers, attracted by the fervour of his discourses, the piquancy of his style, and the dcvotedness of the preacher; and so popular was he during the first few weeks, that a ball and public prayers beginning on one occasion at the same time, " the church was full, while the ball-room was so empty that the entertainment could not go forward."9
Intimate in his associations with the Moravians, his mind, predisposed to asceticism, early imbibed the severe notions of these " monks of Protestantism,"10 and he carried them out by his frequent fastings, and rigid mortifications; and even his theological views became more than tinged with the doctrines of the United Brethren.
Charles Wesley, as the Secretary for Indian affairs, and chaplain of Oglethorpe, had gone with the Gene ral to Frederica on St. Simons. Here he was destined to meet trials and vexations of no ordinary character. The record which he has left us of these is long and painful, and shows the bitterness of his persecutions, and the depth of his sufferings. All his troubles arose from the slanders of two brawling women, who, having lost their virtue in England, so won upon the Wesleys
9 Wcsley's Journal, i. 132. " Madaine Do Stael's " Germany," vol. iii.

CHARLES WESLEY AT ST. SIMONS.

325

by their professions of penitence and reform, that Oglethorpe, who distrusted their sincerity, was persuaded by the two brothers to receive them, though reluc tantly, among the emigrants ; assuring the Wesleys that they would have cause to repent it. 11 The pre diction was true, they did repent it; for, originated by them and seconded by others, plans were soon laid to ruin Charles Wesley with Oglethorpe, or take him off by violence; for his preaching, and his life, were a constant and galling reproof to the heterogeneous society of Frederica. In what he conceived to be his duty Charles Wesley was very resolute, and he attempted the doubly difficult task of reforming some of the female colonists, and reconciling their petty feuds, and hatred of each other; but instead of suc ceeding, he only found the truth of the proverb, " He that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears/' for he made them cordially agree in hating him, and caballing to secure his removal. On the evening of the second day of his residence at Frederica, he re ceived, he said, the first harsh word from Oglethorpe. The next day he received a singular answer. " I know not," says he, " how to account for his increas ing coldness." No! because his simple and affec tionate heart did not understand the secret intrigues which were plotting for his destruction, nor the for geries which were palmed off upon Oglethorpe, to alienate him from his secretary and chaplain. He had not been six days in Frederica before he wrote, "I would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia." His situation was truly alarming;

1 ' Grabame's History of the United had access to the Journal of Charles States, i. 198, (London edition,) who Wesley.

326

SICKNESS OP CHARLES WESLEY.

many persons lost all decency in their behaviour towards him, and Oglethorpe's treatment of him showed that he had received impressions to his disadvantage. At the same time he was totally ignorant of his accusers, or of what he was accused; but conscious of his own in nocence, he courted investigation of every charge, and firmly relied on his personal and clerical integrity.
At this time he had but few of the necessaries of life, was compelled to lie on the ground, and was abused and slighted in the most indecorous manner. "I could not be more trampled upon," says he, "were I a fall/en minister of state. My few well-wishers are afraid to speak to me; the servant that used to wash my linen sent it back unwashed;" and some had the unblushing effrontery to request that he " would not take it ill if they seemed not to know me when we meet."
"Thanks be to God," he exclaimed, after one of these severe mortifications, " it is not yet made a cap ital offence to give me a morsel of bread."
Sick, neglected, esteeming it to be a great prize to get a bedstead on which a poor scoutman had died, and scarcely lying upon it before it was given away from under him, no wonder he envied the scoutman his quiet grave, or that he looked upon the General as the chief of his enemies. How must his thoughts at this time have turned to the quiet retreats of Oxford, or the endearing tenderness of Epworth, as he lay tossing with a raging fever, alone and unattended. But the dark hour of trial was wearing away, and light and joy were soon to shine into and gladden his heart.
The natural benevolence of Oglethorpe, repressed by the industrious tale-bearers of Frederica, rose at last

RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

327

above the suspicions which clouded his mind; and fearing that, in the excitement consequent on his har assed situation, he had formed too hasty a judgment, his heart relented, and he sought an interview with his much injured secretary. The scene of their reconcil iation is one of thrilling interest, and strongly illus trates the character of each. Mutual explanations without crimination, mutual tenderness without re serve, mutual assurances of future friendship without hypocrisy, marked this singular interview. The storm had passed away, and all was bright and calm. Forci bly had been illustrated to him the text from which, during these troubles, he had preached a sermon : " Keep innocency and take heed to the thing that is right, for this shall bring a man peace at the last."1'2
In May he went to Savannah to attend to his official business as Secretary for Indian Affairs; and, having countersigned all the licences of the traders, he sent in to Oglethorpe his resignation of this civil office, as conflicting with his clerical functions; but he was un willing to accept it, and, at his earnest solicitation, he consented to hold it a little longer. In July he was sent to England as bearer of despatches to the Trus tees, and he accordingly sailed from Charleston on the 16th of August, in a ship that was " very leaky, and with a mere beast of a man for a captain." Obliged to put into Boston by stress of weather, and the un seaworthiness of the vessel, he was cordially welcomed and entertained by the ministers and citizens of Massachusetts. After a detention there of three weeks, he again embarked, though feeble in health,

12 These events, and others of a 78-90) Life of Wesley. Watson's kindred nature, are related in .Moore's Life of Wesley, 34, (vol. i. 220-231) and Whitehead's (i.

328

RESIGNS HIS SECRETARYSHIP.

and much reduced by disease; and, after a severe and tempestuous passage, he reached England in the be ginning of December, 1736, " blessing the hand that had conducted him through such inextricable mazes, and willing to give up his country again whenever God should require it."
To oblige Oglethorpe, Wesley retained his office of secretary until April, 1738, and still resolved to return to Georgia. While recovering from an attack of pleu risy, he was called upon to embark for Georgia, but his physicians absolutely forbade " it, and he again sent in his resignation to Oglethorpe, who, unwilling to lose so honest and faithful an officer, still urged him to retain his place, promising to supply it by a deputy until he was sufficiently recovered to follow." This he declined; in May his resignation was accepted, and his connection with Georgia closed.
In contemplating the facts just recited, we find causes of condemnation in the conduct of both Oglethorpe and Wesley, and yet in both of them much to extenuate their blame. Charles Wesley was young, guileless, and inexperienced. Cloistered from early age within aca demic halls, renouncing all fellowship save with a few kindred spirits, seldom looking beyond the horizon of college life, he was evidently unfitted to undertake the curacy of such a parish as fell to his lot in Georgia. Shrinking in his disposition, distrustful of himself, and having a perplexing secular office united with his min isterial duties, he knew not how rightly to blend the two so as to avoid clerical austerity on the one hand, and undue worldliness on the other. In his pastoral intercourse with the people, he lacked judgment and. discretion; his zeal was not tempered with prudence. Ardent in the workings of his own piety, he too often

ERRORS OF WESLEY AND OGLETHORPB.

329

reproved with harshness the delinquencies of others, and visited with injudicious censure sins which had been far more effectually reproved by mildness and affection; and yet he himself was a man of the finest sensibilities, formed for the endearments of friendship, delighting in the atmosphere of love. But at Frederica he found nothing congenial to his nature, and he failed in properly blending love and discipline, the chidings of clerical authority with the monitions of brotherly kindness.
Oglethorpe was in error in allowing himself to be so hastily betrayed,into enmity to Charles Wesley. Harassed and perplexed by the contentions and troubles among the people, to colonize whom he had sacrificed so much; in jeopardy, not only from the mutinous conduct of the men around him, but from the hostile Spaniards on his rear; he was still more exas perated by the general complaints urged against men in whom he had expected to find his most useful auxiliaries in promoting contentment and subordina tion. He was intimately acquainted with his elder brother Samuel, who addressed him a highly laudatory poem on his voyage to Georgia, in which he descanted on the virtues and benevolence of Oglethorpe, and the blessings present and expected of the colony which he had planted. He also esteemed the learning and abilities and purity of Charles Wesley, and honoured the worth of his brother John. But when insinua tions, thick and dark, were uttered by every voice, his hasty temper yielded to the offensive rumours, and he too readily gave credence to the reports which pure malignity had originated. But no sooner was he disabused than he frankly acknowledged his error, and made every amend for his conduct. This temporary

330

JOHN WESLEY AT SAVANNAH.

rupture but made more firm their future friendship. Ever after the esteem of each was mutual and rever ential, and perpetuated till death.
The condition and circumstances of John Wesley at Savannah were at first much better, but afterwards much worse than those ofhis brother at Frederica. While Charles was suffering under the displeasure of Oglethorpe, and the evil aspersions of bitter enemies, John could write, " How different are the ways wherein we are led; yet, I hope, toward the same end ! I have hitherto had no opposition at all; all is smooth, and fair, and promising. Many seem 4to be awakened ; all are full of respect and commendation. We cannot see any cloud gathering; but this calm cannot last; storms must come hither too; and let them come when wre are ready to meet them." They did come; the calm was soon dissipated; the clouds gathered black ness, and the storm burst upon him with relentless fury.
The first feelings of dislike towards him arose from his rigid adherence to all the rubrics of the Church of England. This he began to exhibit in his first official act, which is thus recorded by himself: " Saturday, 21st of February, Mary Welch, aged eleven days, was baptized, according to the custom of the first church and the rule of the Church of England, by immersion. The child was then ill, but recovered from that hour." And this practice he insisted on, so that he refused to baptize infants except by immersion, unless the parents would certify "that the child could not well endure it."
On the first Sunday of his services in Savannah, he gave notice that he should administer the Lord's Sup per on every Sunday and holyday, and in the celebra tion of this he was so strict that he would not admit

HIS PECULIAR VIEWS.

331

one of the most pious men in the colony to communion, because he was a dissenter, unless he would submit to be re-baptized.13 He soon also divided the public prayers, " according to the original appointment of the Church still observed in a few places in England," beginning the morning prayers at five, the litany, com munion office and sermon at eleven, and the evening service at three ; seemingly forgetful, that by an order of Archbishop Grindal, as far back as 1580, the morn ing services were united, because of the represen tations made to him, " that the people neglected morning prayers, and attended only the mid-day or communion service, on account of sermon being at that time."
These unusual practices chafed a people already angry at his pointed and pungent discourses; and they fretted at these requisitions, by which he would bring them into a bondage to revoked or obsolete rubrics. He roused an opposition which a more yielding, but not less church-like course would have totally avoided; and thus by his injudicious zeal estranged many from his really edifying services. Such was the growing feeling towards him, when an affair took place which resulted in his departure from Georgia.
Unsuspecting in his nature, and but little accus tomed to female society, he had allowed his afl'ections to be ensnared by the artifices of a lady who possessed many attractions both of mind and body, but whose moral character seemed to lack that modesty and in tegrity, the absence of which makes even beauty de ceitful, and favour vain. By her studied graces and apparent piety she was enabled to kindle in the breast
13 Weslev's Works, vi. 108-9.

332

WESLEY IN LOVE.

of the almost stoical missionary, the first fire of earthly affection that ever burned upon the altar of his heart. In a short time Wesley was the accepted lover of Miss Hopkins.
His companion, Delamotte, who had watched all her proceedings, told Wesley his suspicions, that sin ister motives were veiled under a fair exterior, and he plainly asked him if he intended to marry her. Startled by the question and suspicions of Delamotte, he waived an answer, and called on Mr. Nitschman, the Moravian Bishop, to consult him on the subject. The answer of the bishop being unsatisfactory, he had recourse in his difficulty to the Elders of the Moravian Church; but they had already been informed by Dela motte of his suspicions, and therefore, when Wesley appeared, they asked with some suddenness, " Will you abide by our decision 1" With evident reluc tance he replied, "I will." "Then," said the bishop, " we advise you to proceed no further on this busi ness." Wesley replied, " The will of the Lord be done."
His eyes were now opened to see the artifices which had been employed to win him, and his mind was confirmed in the suspicions suggested by Delamotte, by the confessions of one who was in the plot; and he shaped his conduct towards her with the greatest caution, withdrawing as much as possible from her company, and avoiding everything which tended to continue the intimacy between them. She soon per ceived the change, and suspecting the cause, broke off at once the engagement, and, in eight days after, was married to Mr. William W'illiamson.
Painful was the sacrifice which duty, truth, and religion rendered necessary, and his journal bears

WARRANT ISSUED AGAINST HIM.

333

witness of his anguish. But he was soon to rejoice in this very stroke, and regard it as a special favour sent to him from heaven. Not three months had passed since this trying scene, before we rind in his journal the following record : " God has showed me yet more of the greatness of my deliverance, by opening to me a new and unexpected scene of Miss Sophy's dissimulation." Shortly after, acting upon his proper notions of clerical duty, he took occasion, after the communion, to mention to Mrs. Williamsou some things reprovable in her behaviour. This made her extremely angry ; and, declaring that she did not expect such usage from him, abruptly walked away. A month after, having failed to discover in her those marks of penitence which he thought, requisite, he repelled her from the communion; and the next day, August 8th, a warrant was served on him by one of the constables, " to answer the complaint of William Williamson and his wife Sophia, for defaming the said Sophia, and refusing to administer to her the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in a public congregation, without, cause, by which the said William Williamson is dam aged 1000."
Efe refused, most properly, to answer to the court; stating that as it was a matter purely ecclesiastical, he could not acknowledge their power to interrogate him. The bitterest feelings were now excited against him. The controversy engrossed the atten tion of the town, and the partizans on both sides did not hesitate to cast much scandal on their adversa ries. 14 Causton, the uncle of the lady, who had always been his friend, now told him: " I have drawn the

14 Stephens's Journal, i. 9,

334

COUNTS IN HIS INDICTMENTS.

sword, and I will not sheathe it till I have satisfac tion."
On the 1st of September the packed jury, which had been empannelled to try Wesley on the warrant of Williamson, after a long charge from Catiston, " to beware of spiritual tyranny, and to oppose the new illegal authority which was usurped over their con sciences," delivered into court two presentments con taining ten counts or charges. These declared, " that John Wesley, clerk, has broken the laws of the realm, contrary to the peace of our sovereign Lord the King, his crown and dignity
"1. By speaking and writing to Mrs. Williamson against her husband's consent.
" 2. By repelling her from the Holy Communion. " 3. By not declaring his adherence to the Church of
England. " 4. By dividing the morning service on Sundays. " 5. By refusing to baptize Mr. Parker's child other
wise than by dipping, except the parents would cer tify that it was weak and not able to bear it.
' 6. By repelling William Gough from the Holy Communion.
" 7. By refusing to read the burial service over the body of Nathaniel Polhill.
" 8, By calling himself Ordinary of Savannah. " 9. By refusing to receive William Aglionby as a godfather, only because he was not a communicant. " 10. By refusing Jacob Mathews for the same rea son, and baptizing an Indian trader's child with only two sponsors." The more sober part of the grand jury dissented from the finding of the majority; and believing that the whole was an artifice of Mr. Causton, designed

WESLEY URGES TRIAL.

335

rather to blacken the character of Mr. Wesley than to free the colony from religious tyranny, drew up a paper, and sent it to the Trustees, in which, review ing the several counts of the presentment, they say, among other things, that he had declared his adhe rence to the Church of England in a stronger manner than by a formal declaration; that the said William Gough publicly declared that Mr. Wesley had done right in repelling him from the communion; that Thomas Polhill had desired in his lifetime not to be interred with the office of the Church of England, and that not only so, but that Mr. Wesley was at Frederica, or on his return thence, when Mr. Polhill was buried. The whole, in fact, were proved to be mali cious, having only for their object the defaming of Wesley and the driving him from the colony. Upon nine of the counts Wesley told the court they had no cognizance, because they were matters of an ecclesi astical nature ; but on the one concerning writing and speaking to Mrs. Williamson, being of a secular na ture, he demanded a trial. The court, controlled by Mr. Causton, evaded. He urged a trial; but that was not the wish of his enemies, for they knew that no jury, except by perjury, could convict him of a single misdeed. But by delaying the trial, they hoped to har ass him and drive him from the colony. All kinds of charges were now brought against him. He was ac cused of coming into court in a menacing manner; of exciting a riotous disposition in the people ; of the most tyrannous and inquisitorial behaviour; of attempting to enslave the people by debasing their minds, and humbling them with fastings, penances, and mortifications; of unmercifully damning all dis senters, and shutting them out from the religious ordi-

336 MORAVIANS ADVISE HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND.
nances of the Church; arid to crown the whole, of being regarded by all persons of any consideration as a Roman Catholic.
But the solemn farce of these proceedings was visi ble on the face of them. Persons of discernment saw the mockery, and contemned the insult offered by these suborned perjurers to law and equity. From one act performed in the conscientious discharge of his clerical duty, the refusing the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to one whom he honestly believed un worthy of it, originated all this turmoil and conten tion. This was the head and front of his offending; and for this, and this alone, because he dared to do his duty, he was hunted down as a malefactor, wor ried and barked at by a snarling, Cerberus-headed faction, and pursued with relentless rage and vindictiveness, until he quitted our borders. Everything else that was said against him was but the mere scaf folding, to build up this primitive charge. Mr. Causton, the chief man of Savannah, was offended : he determined on revenge. Mr. Williamson, who mar ried his niece, was offended : he also vowed ven geance. And men at the head of society thus excited, can readily find sycophants enough to espouse their quarrel and inflame their rage.
Finding that justice had fallen in the streets, and truth could not enter, he consulted with the Moravian Brethren as to the best course to pursue; and they advised his return to England to vindicate his course before the Trustees, He accordingly called on Canston, and told him of his design ; and the next day he put up this advertisement in the great square :
" Whereas John Wesley designs shortly to set out for England, this is to desire those who have borrowed

DISSIMULATION OP THE MAGISTRATES.

337

any books of him to return them as soon as they con veniently can to John Wesley."
This was what the magistrates most earnestly desired; but in order to cover up their feelings, and carry out a show of law to the last, they sent for him, to say that he must not quit the province till he had entered into recognizance to answer the alle gations against him. Wesley told them that he had appeared at six courts successively, and had openly desired a trial, but was refused it. They said that he must give security to appear again, and demanded of him a bond, under a penalty of 50, to answer Mr. Williamson's action of 1,000 damages. "I then began," says Wesley, " to see into their design of spinning out time, and doing nothing; and I told the recorder plainly: ' Sir, you use me very ill, and so you do the Trustees. I will give neither any bond nor any bail at all. You know your business, and I know mine.'"
In the afternoon, the magistrates published an order prohibiting his leaving the province, requiring all offi cers and sentinels to prevent his departure, and for bidding any person to assist him in so doing. But notwithstanding this public order, they still privately wished his departure, but took this method to keep up appearances in their favour. It is manifest that they had no intention of giving him a candid hearing, or the cause a fair trial. They knew well that the evidence was so strong in Wesley's favour, that they could not even invent a plausible pretence for giving the cause against him. To give it in his favour, would be to con demn themselves, and manifest their own hypocrisy, On the other hand, they hoped, by multiplying accusa tions, and procrastinating the trial, they might weary
22

338

JOHN YVESLEY LEAVES GEORGIA.

his patience, and thus induce him to leave of his own accord ; while, by this proclamation, they could stigma tize his departure, as if it were a flight from justice.
This magisterial order did not alter the resolution of Wesley; and as soon as evening prayers were over15 on Friday, December 2d, 1737, about four o'clock, the tide then serving, he left Georgia, after having resided there one year and nine months. After suffering great hard ships, he reached Charleston, on the 13th of December; sailed thence for England on the 22d and on the 1st of February, 1738, landed on his native soil.16
The main object for which the Wesleys and Rev. Mr. Ingham came to Georgia the conversion of the Indians was entirely defeated; there being no possi bility as yet of instructing the Indians, who were not only too much divided and contentious among them selves, but who had also been made disgusted with European Christianity by the treacherous mummery of the French and Spanish on the one side, and the hy pocrisy and evil living of the English colonists on the other. Whenever Wesley spoke of going to the In dians, Oglethorpe objected, on account of the danger of being intercepted or killed; and when this scarcely restrained him, Oglethorpe told him: "You cannot leave Savannah without a minister." Ingham did in deed live among the Creek Indians for a few months, and had begun to compose a grammar of their language ; but in the then turbulent state of the neighbouring tribes nothing could be effected. " Now," said one of their chiefs, "our enemies are ail about us, and we can do nothing but fight; but if the beloved ones should

15 Stephens's Journal, i. 11, 15, 36. 16 The.-e facts are gathered from Moore, Southey, Watson, Whitehead, and the Journal of Wesley, in the edi-

tion of his Works, 18 vols., New York, 1827. In some places I have given the narrative almost in the words of the journal or biographer.

LEARNING OF THE WESLEYS.

339

ever give us to be at peace, then we would hear the Great Word."
The proceedings of the Wesleys in Georgia have indeed been violently assailed; and even writers who can offer no excuse for their ignorance, accuse them of immorality and blame. But it was not so. They were men delicately brought up, of fine sensibilities, of cul tivated minds, of deep learning, and of ardent devo tion. As scholars, they had few to surpass them; and the rank they took at England's oldest university, shows the strength and character of their minds. In the exact and natural sciences they were well versed. In the classics they were great proficients, reading, writ ing, and conversing in Latin and Greek, with ease and elegance. During their residence in Georgia, the brothers, finding their letters intercepted, frequently corresponded in Greek; and when they met, for fear of eaves-droppers, conversed in Latin.
John was also versed in the Hebrew, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, and German; and while in Savannah, he often held service on Sunday in four different languages English, French, German, and Italian. 17 Charles was also a poet, of great power and excellence; and though his poems were mostly lyrical, he evinced, in some fugitive pieces, a Virgilian strength and ele gance, that, if properly cultivated, would have placed him beside Cowper, and above Montgomery. Accom plished, though reserved, in their manners, associating from childhood with refined and learned society, they could not conform at once to the tastes and habits of communities like those of Savannah and Frederica, but were rather repelled by the gross immoralities and offensive manners of the early colonists. Their error
17 Hawkins'a Mission of the Church of England, 97.

340

CAUSTON ORDERED HOME

was, especially in John, of holding too high ideas of ecclesiastical authority, and the being too rigid and repulsive in their pastoral duties. They stood firmly on little things as well as great, and held the reins of church discipline with a tightness unsuitable to an in fant colony. But no other blame can attach to them.
The Trustees approved the course of John Wesley in leaving Savannah. Causton, his bitter persecutor, was shortly degraded, and ordered home; and Oglethorpe ever after retained for both John and Charles Wesley the highest esteem and veneration. When Oglethorpe first met John Wesley after his return from Georgia, though in a large company, he advanced, and bowing down, kissed his hand.
In connection with the labours of the Wesleys, it is proper to mention, that John Wesley distinguished the origin of Methodism into three distinct periods. "The first rise of Methodism," says he, " was in 1729, when four of us met together at Oxford. The second was at Savannah, in 1736, when twenty or thirty persons met at my house. The last was at London, on this day, May 1st, 1738, when forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together every Wednesday evening." Savannah, therefore, may be regarded as one of the birth-places of Methodism; and differ as we may about ecclesiasti cal forms and theological views, we cannot but admit that the Methodists, as a body, for their piety, simpli city, and integrity, are respectable, as well by their excellencies and virtues, as by the vastness of their numbers and the extent of their communion. It is not a little remarkable, that of the few young men, students of Oxford University, who gave rise to Methodism, four of them, viz., Rev. John Wesley, a graduate of Lincoln College, Rev. Charles Wesley,, of Christ Church Col-

FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL IN AMERICA.

341

lege, Rev. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen's College, and Rev. George Whitefield, of Pembroke College, should visit and settle in Georgia, and three of them have the care of churches in the colony.
As a part of John Wesley's parochial labours, he established a school of thirty or forty children, which he placed under the care of Mr. Delamotte, a man of good education, who endeavoured to blend religious instruction with worldly learning; and, on Sunday afternoon, Wesley met them in the church before evening service, heard the children " recite their cate chism, questioned them as to what they had heard from the pulpit, instructed them still further in the Bible, endeavouring to fix the truth in their under standings, as well as their memories." This was a regular part of his Sunday duties, and it shows that John Wesley, in the parish of Christ Church, Savan nah, had established a Sunday school nearly fifty years before Robert Raikes originated his noble scheme of Sunday instruction in Gloucester, England, and eighty years before the first school in America, on Mr. Raikes's plan, was established in the city of New York. Mr. Delamotte returned to England in the summer of 1737 ; and such was the esteem of the inhabitants for his person and services, that they accompanied him in a body to the water-side, to bid him adieu, and speed him homeward with their heartfelt wishes. These are all interesting events, linking the early history of our State with some of the most remarkable men, and some of the most remarkable movements in the eighteenth century; for Georgia was the scene of the labours, and the cradle of measures connected with the found ers of that religious sect, which, from the twenty or thirty persons who, on Sunday after evening service,

342

REV. JOHN McLEOD AT DARIEN.

used to meet at the rector's house in Savannah, but little more than a hundred years ago, has now in creased to more than a million of members, with its thousands of churches and preachers, spreading from age to age, and nation to nation, until the name of Wes: ley, and the tenets of Methodism, are known and cher ished in every Christian land, and the earth has been almost girdled with the love-feasts of his disciples.
At Darien, Rev, Mr. John McLeod, a Presbyterian, ministered to the Scotch families settled there. This gentleman, a branch of the Dunnegan family, (McLeod of McLeod,) was well recommended by his brother clergymen, and sustained a good examination before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, previous to his ordina tion and commission, 13th of October, 1735. He was appointed by the directors of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, " not only to officiate as minister of the Gospel to the Highland families going thither," and others who may be inclined to join in public worship, according to Presbyterian form, but also " to use his utmost endeavours for prop agating Christian knowledge among Indian natives in the colony." He suffered somewhat for want of a place of worship, but Oglethorpe, who always showed him kindness, promised to build him a plain one until he could get a fund to put up a neat and substantial building; which the missionary hoped to do, as he had heard that a lady in London had left a " disputable claim of several hundred pounds upon the East India Company, to be applied to the use of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia." In his letter to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, dated November 25, 1740, he describes the deplorable con dition of things at New Inverness, in consequence of

EARLY LIFE OP GEORGE WHITEFIELD.

343

the loss of so large a number of its inhabitants at the massacre of Fort Moosa; "those who remain being so situated that the enemy can come upon them to their bedside." 18
He still continued to labour there until the fall of 1741, when he went to South Carolina, and was settled at Edisto.
Urged by the letters of Wesley, the Rev. George Whitefiekl resolved to answer his call for help, and go over to his assistance in Georgia. This young gentle man, born in an inn, of humble yet worthy parents, was early left fatherless, and thrown upon resources so slender as scarcely to give him support. At school his talents for oratory were very nearly turned towards the drama; but, at the age of fourteen, he persuaded his mother to take him from school, and, putting on his "blue apron, washed mops and cleaned gowns" in his mother's tavern. Learning, accidentally, from a Pem broke servitor, that, by the aid of such a menial office, he could go through college with small means, and hav ing already made himself a good scholar in the classics, he hastened, when eighteen years of age, to Oxford, and, by the aid of 10, borrowed from a friend to defray the expense of entering, he was admitted as a servitor in Pembroke College.
Soon drawn towards the religious club of which the Wesleys were leaders, he found in their society just what his earnest and seeking heart desired, and lie cast in his lot among them, preferring to endure their worldly reproach if he might partake of their heavenly joy. He was also so charmed with the mystic dog-

18 "Minutes of the Directors of the For extracts from these records relaCommittec of the Society in Scotland ting to Rev. Mr. McLeod, T am indebted for Propagating Christian Knowledge.'' to Professor Mackenzie of Edinburgh.

314

ORDAINED DEACON.

mas, that he sought for sanctification in works of selfabasement, and therefore practised austerities worthy of monkish penances, or Braminical usage. He chose the worst food, wore mean apparel, put on a patched gown and dirty shoes, as visible signs of humility. He would kneel under the trees in Christ Church walk until he was benumbed with cold, and passed Lent in such rigorous fastings, that by Easter he had to be put under a physician for many weeks. But this sick ness was the means of his deliverance from " this spirit of bondage under which he groaned," and became to him the period of his espousals to the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. Then began, in his soul, that joy, which, like a spring-tide, overflowed its banks, and filled him with the fulness of peace in believing on Jesus.
Recommended to the notice and benefactions of Sir John Philips, Bart., one of the Trustees for Georgia, and winning by his general character the favour of the good Doctor Benson, Bishop of Gloucester, he was by that prelate ordained, 20th of June, 1736, at the age of twenty-one, to the office of Deacon in the Church of England. He commenced his clerical life with six guineas and one sermon ; but soon called to officiate in London, he began to make that impression upon his congregation by his eloquence, for which in after years he was so much noted. Crowds attended his preaching at London, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, and other places; villages and cities were moved by his commanding oratory; and eyes that never knew the tears of penitence, and hearts that never felt the emotions of godly love, wept and stirred at his sound ing appeals. A profitable curacy in London, with the great preferment which his talents opened before him,

HIS STRENGTH OF CHARACTER.

345

he refused; and offering himself to the Trustees, as a missionary to Georgia, was, on December 21st, 1737, when he had just completed his twenty-second year, accepted. Never before, in England, had so young a clergyman produced such wonderful effects. The churches wherein he preached could not contain the multitudes that thronged to hear him, and thousands turned away from the already overflowing aisles. His youth, doctrines, boldness, surpassing oratory, and renunciation of church honours and preferments at home, that he might devote himself to the spiritual wants of a feeble colony abroad, conspired to beget an interest in the young divine which many lordly prelates, and beneficed dignitaries, might have striven for in vain. Yet in the midst of this tide of popular applause, that would have swept away the buttresses of a less firmly grounded character, we find him pre serving his piety, his humility, and his unswerving zeal. It is surely a great proof of the strength of his mind, and the depth of his piety, that he could stem such a current of flattery, swelled by the praises of the press, the pulpit, and the people. No temptation sooner saps ministerial character, and undermines its moral strength, than the flatteries of an admiring yet injudicious people. Troubles nerve the arm of the minister of God; difficulties he can erect himself to bear; reproofs he can patiently endure; opposition he can manfully oppose with the sword of the spirit in his right hand, and the shield of faith buckled upon his left; but flattery, like the shears of a heartless Delilah, cuts off the locks of his strength, and delivers him, weakened and powerless, into the hands of his enemies. Whitefield could say with David, "Let the righteous

346

EMBARKS FOR GEORGIA.

rather smite me friendly, and reprove me, but let not their precious balms break my head ;" for, alas ! many have been the moral deaths caused by the breaking of some alabaster box of precious ointment on the head of the gifted and half-worshipped minister.
He left London December 28th, 1737, after admin istering the sacrament at St. Dunstan, where " the tears of the communicants mingled with the cup," and " ill the strength of God as a poor pilgrim," went on board the Whittaker, to embark for Georgia. 19 He had with him, however, one friend, Mr. James Habersham, whom he affectionately styles his " dear fellowtraveller," who, relinquishing the kind offers of friends in England, and in opposition to the views of his uncle and guardian, resolved to cast in his lot among the people where Whitefield was to labour. The ship in which the two friends were embarked, was a trans port employed to convey part of General Oglethorpe's regiment to Georgia; but it was nearly a month, how ever, before it got fairly to sea, being detained by head winds at Margate and Deal, and January had nearly passed before a favouring wind enabled them to clear the Downs, and shape their course down the Channel. The passage to Gibraltar, whither they were bound to take in two companies which had been detailed as part of the regiment, was one of peril; but the kind ness they received at that military stronghold made

1(1 Gillies's Life of Whitefield. Indians and colonists at Savannah had Philips's Life and Times of Whitefield. before their eyes," is altogether wrong, This latter work is full of errors, and as Herbert, Quincy, Wesley, (John its statements, at least many of them, and Charles,) Whitefield, Morris, Orcan only be received with caution: ton, Dyson, &c., were in Georgia bee. g. p. 60, there is an anachronism of fore his ordination. There are various over ten years; p. 63, " Snch was the other mistakes which need not now be first specimen of a chaplain which the mentioned.

REACHES SAVANNAH.

347

ample amends for the roughness of the voyage.2" He here wrote to the Trustees, enquiring of them if they desired any change in his plans, since Wesley had returned to England; for it so happened, that Whitefield had only sailed from the Downs to Georgia, in the Whittaker, the day before Wesley arrived there from Georgia in the Samuel. They, in reply, commis sioned him to " perform all religious offices as Deacon of the Church of England, in Savannah and Frederica."21 Having taken in their complement of men, the Whittaker sailed in March for Georgia. The voyage was full of incidents, some pleasing, some painful, but on the whole, furnishing him for many years after re membrances of joy refreshing to his soul; hoping as he did, that his labours among his " red-coated and blue-jacketed parishioners," as he called his military and naval congregation, were not in vain in the Lord.
The two friends landed in Savannah on the evening of Sunday, 7th of May, and were warmly welcomed by Mr. Delainotte, the catechist, and the authorities of the town. His induction to Georgia was a severe illness, and when he recovered, the desolate condition of the colony forced itself upon him. "However," he remarked, " that rendered what I had brought over from my friends (he had collected 300 for the poor in Georgia) more acceptable to the poor inhabitants, and gave me an ocular demonstration, which was what I wanted when the hint was given, of the great necessity and promising utility of a future Orphan House, which I now determined, by the Divine assist ance, to get about in earnest." That no time might be lost in carrying into effect this scheme, originally

20 Letters, in edition of Works in 8 vols., London, 1771, i. 37.

31 Journal of Trustees, ii. 71.

348

RESOLVES TO FOUND AN ORPHAN HOUSE.

suggested by Charles Wesley and General Oglethorpe, after the pattern, adopted by the venerable Professor Francke at Halle, and resolved upon before he left England ; it was determined by Whitefield and Habersham, that the latter should at once open a school for children eligible to such an institution, and bring them under a regular course of tuition and discipline ; while the former proceeded on a tour for the collection of funds to carry out the plan. The condition of these little sufferers, in Georgia, was at that time quite de plorable, and is thus depicted by Whitefield: "When I came to Georgia, I found many poor orphans, who, though taken notice of by the Honourable Trustees, yet through the neglect of persons that acted under them, were in miserable circumstances. For want of a house to breed them up in, the poor little ones were tabled out here and there, and besides the hurt they received by bad examples, forgot at home what they had learned at school; others were at hard services, and likely to have no education at all."23
He remained in Georgia until August, visiting the various settlements, labouring in his clerical duties with great diligence, and endearing himself to his parishioners by his piety, generosity and zeal. " Amer ica/' he writes,23 " is not so horrid a place as it is rep resented to be. The heat of the weather, lying on the ground, &c., are mere painted lions in the way, and, to a soul filled with divine love, not worth men tioning. The country, morning and evening, is exceed ingly pleasant, and there are uncommon improvements made (considering the indifference of the soil) in divers

22 Works, iii. 464. "A Further Philadelphia, 1746, p. 53. Account of God's Dealings with the 23 Works, i. 44. Rev. Mr. George Whitefield," &c.,

HIS DAILY LABORS.

349

places. With a little assistance the country people would do well. As for my ministerial office, I can in form you that God (such is his goodness) sets his seal to it here, as at other places. We have an excellent Christian school, and near a hundred constantly attend at evening prayers. The people receive me gladly, as yet, into their houses, and seem to be most kindly affected towards me. I have a pretty little family, and find it possible to manage a house without distraction. Pro visions we do not want to feed on, though WT C are cut off from all occasions to pamper our bodies. Blessed be God, I visit from house to house, catechise, read prayers twice, and expound the two lessons every day ; read to a house full of people three times a week ; expound the two lessons at five in the morning, read prayers and preach twice, and expound the catechism to servants, &c.,at seven in the evening, every Sunday. What I have most at heart, is the building an Orphan House, which, I trust, will be effected at my return to England. In the meanwhile, I am settling little schools in and about Savannah, that the rising genera tion may be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Lord prosper my weak endeavours for this blessed purpose." In the meantime, Mr. Habersham, with character istic ardour, had gathered around him a little flock " of precious lambs," as he affectionately termed them, whom he was diligently training up for the Orphan House, which Whitefield had gone to England to pro mote. He reached England after a most uncomfortable pas sage, in the beginning of December, having been ab sent nearly one year. As yet, he was only in deacon's orders; and to obtain priest's ordination was one of

350

COLLECTIONS FOR ORPHAN HOUSE.

the motives of his return. This he received from Doctor Benson, Bishop of Gloucester, Jan. 12th, 1739; the Trustees having previously, in anticipation of his admission to the priesthood, appointed him missionary of Christ Church, in Savannah, and directed the Rev. Mr. William Norris, who, the July before, had been appointed to succeed Wesley in Savannah, to go to Frederica when Mr. Whitefield should arrive in Sa vannah.24 They also gave him five hundred acres of land on which to erect his Orphan House. In appoint ing him to Savannah, they had annexed to the office the salary of 50, but he acquainted the common council in person that he declined the acceptance of any salary, as a minister at Savannah, or for the man agement of the Orphan House in Georgia. In his mul tifarious labours in England, he did not forget the Orphan House, but generally took up collections for it. So that by August, 1739, having obtained over 1000 for that purpose, he embarked for Georgia, via Phila delphia. Travelling thence over land, he reached Sa vannah on the llth of January, 1740, and found that his faithful coadjutor, Habersham, had selected the five hundred acres grant about nine miles from town, being the best place he had seen for the Orphan House, and had begun to collect materials, and erected a dwell ing. It was the original intention of Whitefield, before he left England, to take in only twenty orphan chil dren ; but finding, on his second arrival in Savannah, so many objects of charity, he enlai'ged his design so as to include all the necessitous orphans, and many of the poor children of the province. lie hired a large house in which to keep them and the school, permitted the poor people to send their children for instruction gratis,

24 Minutes of Common Council, ii. 187.

FOUNDATION OP IT LAID.

351

and gathered about him a family of nearly seventy persons. In addition to this labour of love, he also erected an Infirmary, and placed it under the care of Dr. Hunter, from Bristol, a pious surgeon who had ac companied him, for love's sake, from England. Here between one and two hundred sick people were cured and taken care of gratis, during the succeding four or five years.
In this he permitted his benevolence to outrun his prudence. Encouraged in his noble attempts by the example of Prof. Francke, he yet forgot that the latter built his Orphan House in the populous city of Halle, while his was in a country ill supplied with provisions, and so badly governed, as to make it by far the most expensive of His Majesty's dominions. But he forcibly remarks, in view of these facts : " Had I received more and ventured less, I should have suffered less, and others more."
Urged forward, however, by that strong faith in the providence of God which marked his life, he began at once to develope his plans; and on the 25th of March, 1740, laid the first brick of the central building, and named the institution " Bethesda," praying that it might ever prove to the orphans what its name im ported, "A House of Mercy." In August, having in the meantime made a tour northward as far as New Jersey, in which he had collected, in money and provis ions, over 500, he sailed for New England, and went as far east as Boston, preaching everywhere as he journeyed, and gathering carefully all collections for his Orphan House. He received upwards of 700, in goods, provisions, and money, for the Georgia Orphan House; and returned, in December, laden with the benefaction of New England's love to the tender lambs

352

ORPHAN HOUSE IN OPERATION,

of Georgia. He spent Christmas with his Bethesda family, now, with labourers, numbering over one hun dred, and in ministering to the spiritual wants of Savannah. But on New Year's day, he again set out for England, via Charleston, where, he arrived the fol lowing March. He left his Orphan House affairs in the care of Mr. Habersham ; and such was the energy displayed by him, in the midst of difficulties which it would take many pages to recount, that on the 3d of November, 1741, the buildings were so far completed, that he was enabled to remove the children thither, though the progress of the main building was retarded by the Spaniards capturing a sloop laden with brick and other materials, intended for Bethesda.
The undertaking prospered under the wise adminis tration of Habersharn; the number of children increased, the labourers were faithful; many who would else have been driven from Savannah by poverty were retained; and the buildings reared by the hand of charity in a colony planted by charity, daily grew into shape and beauty, and gave hopeful promise of rich blessings to a far distant posterity.
At the close of 1741, the house contained sixtyeight children, the whole family numbering eighty-four persons, besides nineteen labourers employed about the premises. The routine of family duties is thus described by a young gentleman of Boston, who visited the Or phan House in 1741 : 25 "The bell rings in the morning, at sunrise, to wake the family. When the children arise, they sing a short hymn, pray by themselves, go down to wash; and, by the time they have done that, the bell calls to public worship, when a portion of Scrip ture is read and expounded, a psalm sung, and the exer-
35 Whitcfield's Works, iii. 446.

//or/.vi--. 07- Jjftftetidn Cr

PROSPEROUS CONDITION OF ORPHAN HOUSE. 353
cises begin and end with prayer. They then breakfast, and afterwards some go to their trades, and the rest to their prayers and schools. At noon, they all dine in the same room, and have comfortable and wholesome diet provided. A hymn is sung before and after dinner. Then, in about half an hour, to school again ; and be tween whiles, find time enough for recreation. A little after sunset, the bell calls to public duty again, which is performed in the same manner as in the morning. After that they sup, and are attended to bed by one of their masters, who then pray with them, as they often do privately."
Such was its prosperous condition when the threat ened invasion of the Spaniards, in 1742, nearly blasted these opening blossoms of future usefulness. Situated on the frontier of the Savannah settlement, at a distance from any fort, and with no means of self-defence, it was peculiarly exposed, and its occupants underwent many and painful trials of faith and patience. These are detailed by Habersham, (whom Whitefield had ap pointed president,) in his letter to Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, with much earnestness and minute ness. The danger over, the exercises of the institution were resumed; but the depressed state of the colony, the wars and rumours of wars, the contentions of the magistrates, and the opposition which many of them showed to this institution, made its condition rather precarious, and, in the scriptural imagery which Whitefield loved to use, " the Orphan House, like the burning bush, has flourished unconsumed" amidst the fiery trials by which it was enveloped. " God willing," he exclaims, " I intend to carry on my design till I see the colony sink or swim." Indeed, his devotion to Bethesda was remarkably strong. " I think I could be
23

354

PARISH LIBRARY IN SAVANNAH.

sold a slave," he writes in one of his letters,28 "to serve the gallies, rather than you and my dear orphan family should want." Nor, while attentive to Bethesda, did he forget Savannah, but took every opportunity to minister there in sacred things, and diffuse among the sad-hearted and discontented people the soothing in fluences of our holy religion.
Much, therefore, had been done for the spiritual benefit of the colony. Over 1,400 had been received by the Trustees to be applied to the support of mis sionaries and catechists, and nearly 700 had been contributed towards building churches; but, with the exception of two small buildings at Ebenezer, none had been erected, though two had been contracted for; and religious services had been pretty constantly sustained at Savannah, Ebenezer, Frederica, and Darien.
Schools also had been established, both for Sunday and week days; and an attempt towards founding a parish library in Savannah was begun by the associates of Dr. Bray, who sent, June 2d, 1736, to Christ Church a parochial library, to which the Trustees added some few books, which were subsequently increased by the benefaction of the library of the Rev. Dr. Crow, late rector of St. Bartolph's, Bishopsgate, London. In one of the minutes of their proceedings,27 we find it ordered, that Plato's works, Greek and Latin, and his "Republica," in French, be bought for the use of the mission in Georgia a strange expenditure for such a colony! for a Platonic Christianity is a relined deism; and a Platonized republic** is but a body politic legalizing some of the most licentious crimes, and restricting some

26 Works, ii. 1M. - 7 Minutes of Common Council, ii. 237.

a * Plain, DC Kepub., Kb, v.

NORRIS APPOINTED MISSIONARY.

3H6

of tile surest sources of national wealth and glory. On the 28th of June, 1738, Rev. William Norris, who had been recommended to the " Society for Prop agating the Gospel" by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of London, was appointed missionary at Savannah; the frequent absence of Whitefield render ing such aid necessary.29 He arrived in Savannah on Sunday evening, October 15th, 1738, and appropriately began his ministry the following Lord's day by preach ing a sermon from 1 John i. 5, 6, 7, which, says one of his hearers,30 " was a good practical discourse, such as every good man might improve by in making it a rule of life." He remained in Savannah until the beginning of November, 1739, not, however, without experiencing some of the opprobium and scandal which the more vile portion of the inhabitants cast upon all who ministered in the Gospel. On his return from Frederica, January. 10th, 1740, where he had spent two months, he met with Whitefield, who reached Savannah the day after, and who, showing his authority to resume his cure, began his duties there, Mr. Norris having been appointed minister of Frederica. There was, however, but little harmony of feeling or sentiment between Whitefield and Norris. The tame and moralizing style of Norris's preaching did not suit the impetuous and zealous Whitefield; and as the theology of Norris was of the Tillotsonian school, Whitefield spared not in his almost rude anathemas. In March, Mr. Norris went to Frederica, where his life was made uncomfortable3' by the abusive treatment he met with

28 Journal of Trustees, ii. kins's Mission of the Church oi' England, 100. Mr. Hawkins says Morris it should be 'Vorris ; he says 1740

it ghouls! read 1738. 30 Stephens'^ Journal, j, SOS, 31 lb. jii. 141,

356

LEAVES GEORGIA.

from many of the young officers of Oglethorpe's regi ment, who made it their pastime to ridicule him, until General Ogiethorpe interposed and protected him. His conduct, indeed, as a man and a clergyman, was much impugned, and reports highly deleterious to his charac ter were industriously circulated, and by a large party believed. Nor did his ultimate conduct tend to lessen the force of these reports; even those who did not wish to believe all that was said against him, were compelled to shake their heads at the mention of his name, and indicate their fears by an expressive silence. He left Georgia, under a cloud, in the summer of 1741; and though he laid before the Venerable Society testimonials from high sources33 as to his blameless character, it is to be feared that there was too much occasion for some, at least, of the animadversions which were made upon him. During his ministry, he baptized one hundred and fortytwo persons, of which number seventy-one were sol diers. On his return to England, without waiting the leave of the Society, he addressed a long letter to the secretary of that body,33 setting forth his reasons for the course he had pursued. In this communication, he speaks in the severest terms of General Ogiethorpe, saying, that "he not only several times seized and threatened to destroy me himself, but called, also, on others to fall on me, at a time when, by the most pressing invitations, under the sanction of friendship and colour of concern for the mal-treatment I had re ceived from some of his officers and others, he drew me

32 Original Letters, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, &o., vol. iii. Nos. 152, 154-6.
33 Under date St.. Martin's Street, ]*icesterFields, December 17th, 1741.

This letter is in vol. iii., Original Letters, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and is republished in "Church Record," edited by Rev. Dr. Hawks, (., No. 28, 293.

GIVES HIS REASONS FOR LEAVING.

357

to his apartments." He asserted that Oglethorpe, to show his contempt "of persons and things sacred," ap pointed one of the " most profligate" soldiers "minister in his stead." "Being now," he writes, "declared degraded, and stripped of my gown, my fruitless appli cations to justice, when I had been set upon and as sailed by one Sinclair, when mobbed and abused by the General's servants, hunted and ferreted out of every house I lodged in by his officers, when my servants were seduced and detained from me, and frivolous prosecu tions were made against me these are the reasons which made my retreat from Georgia necessary. I con tinued there till the laws of God and man were tram pled on ; till vice got the victory, and was licensed by authority; till my function and ministry was vilely treated, and virtue and innocence did but endanger me; till it became a crime to entertain or converse with me, and everything dear to me Avas at stake. To greater provocations, or more perilous times than these, I am persuaded the Society would not expose me* nor have me wait for. My general silence on the injuries I received, and the temper with which I complained of them, did but give strength and confidence to the insolence I was treated with, and credit to their pre tences for using me so."
But, on the other hand, it must be remembered, that if the crimes charged against Mr. Norris were true, such treatment was but the natural result of such grave offences. His testimonials of character from Georgia were signed mostly by the enemies of Oglethorpe, who gave them more to pique the general than to sustain the pastor. How far Oglethorpe was to blame is not known, as we have only the statement of Mr. Norris, which is, evidently, overcoloured by anger, and exag gerated by revenge.

358 METCALF, ORTON, BOSOMWORTH APPOINTED.
Prior to the return of Norris, the Trustees, on the recommendation of Rev. Doctors Waterland and Hales, appointed the Rev. William Metcalf, of Lin colnshire, missionary to Savannah; but though im patiently expected at Savannah/' he never reached there, as he died before entering upon his duties. The oflice vacated by his death was conferred, (July 25th, 1741,) upon the Rev. Christopher Orton, but his mission was soon terminated *by his decease, which took place at Savannah in August, 1742. Their next appointment was one disastrous alike to the religious and political well-being of Georgia. It was that made on the 4th of July, 1743, when the Rev. Thomas Bosomworth was licensed to perform all religious and ecclesiastical ofnces in Georgia. He arrived in the colony in November, and soon proceeded to Frederica, " there being at that place and parts adjacent, near one thousand souls, (the regiment included,) des titute of all manner of help and Christian knowledge, which I thought most immediately required my care."" Here he officiated as the deputy of the Rev. Dr. Bur ton, the chaplain of Oglethorpc's regiment, who held the ofnce without performing its functions, deeming it more a place of honour than a post of duty. The ministerial services of Bosomworth were greatly in terfered with by his unfortunate alliance with a Creek woman already noticed. He returned to England the following year, and wrote the Society, under date of 3d of September, 1745,^ a letter notifying them of his marriage, that vile means had been used to injure their reputation, and that the Indians had threatened to take

34 Stephens, iii. 160.

pag-atiou of the Gospel, &e.. vi., No.

-^ Original Tetters. Society for Pro- 676.

3" Ib. No. 682.

SUCCEEDED BY ZOUBERBUHLBR.

359

satisfaction in case justice was not done him. The Trustees revoked his clerical appointment, and sent over the Rev. Bartholomew Zouberbuhler as mission ary to Savannah.^ This gentleman, originally from St. Gall, in Switzerland, emigrated while a youth to South Carolina, where his father was Swiss minister to the colony planted by Colonel Pury, at Purysburg. He received a good English and classical education at Charleston, and being desired by some of his country men to become their minister, he went over to Eng land, and at the recommendation of the Rev. Mr. Gar den, the commissary of South Carolina, he was ordained deacon and priest, by the Bishop of London."" A cir cumstance which particularly recommended him to the Trust, was his ability to speak the French and German languages; for the inhabitants of Vernonsburg, and villages adjacent, had in February, 1743, addressed a petition to the Trustees/" "desiring a minister of Calvinistical principles to be sent to them," and recom mended the Rev. John Joachim Zubli, of St. Gall, in Switzerland^ as the person of their choice. The Trus tees and Mr. Zubli couM not agree upon proper terms, and the matter dropped ; but they were now pleased to have it in their power, while they supplied Savan nah, to minister also to the spiritual wants of the sur rounding villages. He sailed from England on the 4th of November, 1745, and reached Frederica on the 22d of January, 1746. He spoke English imperfectly, and his pteachmg was not well understood, yet the parish seemed to thrive under his labours. The peo ple, he writes, were "in general religiously disposed,

J? Ha.wkins, 100, who writes his Georgia, Trustees to the Venerable

name erroneously XAfr6gZ;'.

Society. Original Letters, vi., No. 694.

3" Memorial of the Secretary of the ^ Journal of Trustee;, iii.

360

VISITS ENGLAND AND RETURNS.

J

but greatly divided by various opinions." The num- \ ber of those attached to the Church of England pre vailed over the number connected with any other denomination; but out of six hundred and thirteen inhabitants in Savannah, in 1748, three hundred and eighty-eight were dissenters.40 Zouberbuhler laboured diligently in his office under many discouragements, the number of communicants gradually increasing, and his usefulness daily acknowledged. At the expiration of three years he returned to England, " with ample testimonials of his good behaviour," and was warmly commended by the Earl of Shaftesbury to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.41 While in England he petitioned the Society for additional help; stating that " there are now about three thousand persons in Georgia, and no other minister of the Church of England in the province." He returned at the close of 1749, with recruited strength, and entered with renewed zeal upon his laborious duties. Up to this time, however, notwithstanding the frequent urgings of the Trustees, the church edifice was not completed, nor in a sufficient state of forwardness for occupation. It was begun on the llth of June, 1740, "a few load of stones being brought and laid down in the place where it is intended to stand;"42 but the war with the Spaniards, the low state of the colony, the want of zealous clergymen, and other minor causes, kept back its completion, so that six years after Stephens wrote that it was yet unfinished : " The roof of it is cov ered with shingles, but as to the sides and ends of it, it remains a skeleton."43 On reading this letter, the Trus-

40 Original Letters to Venerable Society, ix., No. 153.
41 Ib. x.. No. 184.

43 Stephens, ii. 403. " 3 Journal of Trustees, iii. 27.

JONATHAN COPP AT AUGUSTA.

361

tees renewed their commands to have the work proceed ed in with all expedition; but it was not completed until 1750, when, on Saturday, 7th of July, it was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. The day of this solemn service was also noted in the memories of the people, as being the anniversary of the establishment of the first court of judicature, seventeen years before ; and also as the anniversary of the day when Oglethorpe defeated the Spaniards on their invasion of Frederica.44 The petition of Zouberbuhler for help was favourably entertained, corroborated as it was by a memorial46 from the principal inhabitants of Augusta, stating the spiritual destitution of the place. The Rev. Jonathan Copp was, in 1751, sent over as missionary to Augusta. This gentleman was a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College; but there being then no bishop in America, he was obliged to go to England for orders, where, in December, 1750, he was ordained deacon and priest, by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of Lon don.48 Before his arrival, the gentlemen of Augusta had built a " handsome and convenient church," op posite one of the curtains of the fort, and so near as to be protected by its guns, which was the farthest point the Church of England had yet penetrated into the Indian territory. The inhabitants also agreed to build a parsonage, cultivate the glebe, and give 20 per year towards his salary. Such evidences of zeal inspired Mr. Copp with high hopes of comfort and success; but when he reached there, though he found a congrega tion of nearly one hundred persons, and eight commu nicants, he did not find any parsonage or glebe-land,

" ' MS. Documents from Board of " Ib. xi. No. 189.

Trade, iv. 8. Original Letters, &c.. 4 6 Dalcho's Church of South Caro-

xi. No. 191,

lina, 363.

362

THE GERMANS AT EBENEZER.

and had but little hope of receiving even the J620 per year offered by the committee. Separated from any brother clergyman by one hundred and thirty miles of wilderness, on the frontier of civilization, bordering on the Indian territory, and daily liable to the merciless attacks of savages, with but little to cheer, and much to discourage, with small emolument and arduous labour, he continued in the work of a missionary until 1756, when he was invited to the rectorship of St. John's parish, in South Carolina, where he laboured until he died, in 1762.
The Germans at Ebenezer prospered in spiritual things under the instructions of their pastors Bolzius and Gronau. For several years they worshipped in the Orphan House, " enjoying the privilege they had long sought for in vain, of hearing the Word of God in its purity."" Two small edifices, however, were soon erected in the German settlements, which the Salzburgers called "Zion" and "Jerusalem" churches. Amid all the turmoils of the colony, the Ebenezer peo ple were quiet and unaffected. Labouring with dili gence in their various pursuits, trained to virtue and peace by their faithful ministers, and aiming rather to glorify God than aggrandize themselves, they gained the commendations and respect of all. Cut off by their language from free intercommunication with the other inhabitants of Georgia, they were the more closely knit together among themselves, and grew up year by year a unihed and happy, because a peaceful and Christian, community.
Their ministers were pious, diligent, and zealous;

* ? Urlsporgcr Dritto, Conlinvation, American Lutheran Church, 40. &c., Halle, 1740, 2026. Hazelhis,

DEATH OF REV. MR. GROXAU.

363

they were benefactors to the poor, friends to the dis tressed, counsellors to the enquiring; guiding the tot tering steps of the sick and the aged through the dark valley of death, and gently leading the young and tender in those ways of wisdom which are ways of pleasantness, and in her paths which are peace. The people met with a great loss (Friday, llth of January, 1745) in the death of the junior pastor, Israel Chris tian Gronau. The disease which terminated his life, was contracted in the discharge of his ministerial duty. He took cold while preaching to the Germans in Savannah ; and this, settling upon his lungs, event uated in a consumption, which, in less than a year, laid him in the grave. Filled with the love of souls, he made his bed a pulpit, whence he taught the peo ple ; and his sickness, borne so patiently, and gloried in so triumphantly, was a more powerful sermon than ever fell from his lips in the days of his strength and service. His colleague, Bolzius, gives a simple and touching account of his illness and death, and pays a pathetic tribute to his piety and worth. He died lift ing up holy hands; for, desiring one that stood by him to support his raised arms, he exclaimed, " En komm, Her Jesu, amen, amen, amen!" and having said this, he closed his eyes and mouth, and entered into the joy of his Lord/" He was succeeded in his sacred office by the Rev. H. H. Lemke, who reached Ebenezer in the spring of 1746, and whose ministry and services were peculiarly acceptable to Pastor Bol zius and the Salzburg people.^
In addition to the German congregation at Ebene-

<" Urlsporpcr, Der Dronzehenden *"DerAusferh]ichen, &c., partSd, Continuation, &c., 23-26. Hazclius, 180. Hazelius, 64. 61, 62.

364

REV. JOHN U. DRIESLER.

zer, there was also, for several years, a Salzburg church at St. Simons, composed of a few emigrants, and of the men who had enlisted under Captain Hermsdorf for the protection of Georgia. This con gregation, consisting of about sixty persons, was or ganized in 1743 by the appointment of the Rev. John Ulriek Driesler to be their pastor, who was well spo ken of by Bolzius50 and Whiteneld,51 and supported by General Oglethorpe. On the return of the Rev. Mr. Bosomworth, the Trustees appointed Mr. Driesler schoolmaster at Frederica, and requested by a formal resolution52 that the Rev. Dr. Burton would appoint him to officiate for him as chaplain to General Oglethorpe's regiment. This appointment, evincing the esteem and confidence of the Tiuistees, reached Geor gia after the decease of Mr. Driesler; who died at Frederica at the close of 1744, lamented by his people, and acknowledged by all as a faithful servant of the Most High. 53
The Moravians who came over with Spangenberg and Nitschman,54 did not long remain in Georgia. At the departure of the first company from Herrnhut, Count Zinzendorf had given them written instruc tions,35 in which he particularly recommended that they should submit themselves to the wise directions and guidance of God in all circumstances, seek to pre serve liberty of conscience, avoid all religious disputes, and always keep in view that call, given unto them by God himself, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ

50 Urlspergcr, Der Drcnzchenden Continvation, 6.
51 WbitefiekT's Works, ii. 84. Hazelius, 60.
ss Minutes of Common Council. iii. 167.

53 Ltazelius, 63. 54 Vide page 124. " Loskiel's "History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America:" London, 1794, part ii., 2.

MORAVIANS IN GEORGIA.

365

to the heathen ; and further, that they should endeav our as much as possible to earn their own bread.
Their patient industry enabled them not only to fulfil the latter of these injunctions, but also to repay the money advanced them in London, and charitably serve their poor neighbours also.
One of their main designs was to convert the In dians to Christianity, and their first attempt was the establishment of a school-house for Indian children among the tribe of Tomochichi, near Savannah, at a place called Irene, (E/p^vi) ?) At this school-house some of the " Brethren " lived; aiming, by thus domesti cating themselves among the Indians, to acquire over them a more lasting influence. In this plan they were aided by the Rev. Benjamin Ingham, one of Wesley's associates, who began to compile a grammar of the Creek language.
In 1738 the Rev. Peter Boehler, to whose teachings John Wesley attributed his conversion,56 arrived in Georgia to take charge of the mission. How much John Wesley leaned on the Moravians for spiritual help, has been already seen; and what his confidence in Peter Boehler was, the ardent and enthusiastic lan guage of his journal fully testifies. Whitefield, how ever, looked upon them with rather a different feeling, and complained that their conduct'7 " first divided his family, and then his parish in Georgia." And Ste phens animadverts38 with much severity upon an in stance of their cruelty which came to the notice of the magistrates. In fact, a community organized upon their principles, could find but little that was conge-

30 Wesley's Works, i. 181, 186, 193,

*' WhitefieW's Works, ii. 215, 5 " Journal, ii. 101.

306

LEAVE THE COLON V.

uial to them in Georgia, and but few points wherein they could hold fellowship with the colonists.
When the province was threatened with a Spanish invasion, they were called upon to arm in the common defence. This they refused, having declared when in London, that they neither would nor could bear arms on any consideration ; and the Trustees granted them the desired exemption. It produced, however, so much dissatisfaction, that a portion of them left in 1738, and \vent to Pennsylvania, whither Mr. Spangenberg had gone before. The departure of these gave peace for a little season only to those who remained ; for, upon a new application to them to bear arms in 1739, the rest, with Peter Boehler, left the country, and in 1740 joined their brethren in Pennsylvania. Thus ended the first mission of the United Brethren in America/"
Several of the Moravian ministers who came to Georgia were men of eminence in their denomination. Four of them were, Christian Gottieib Spangenberg, David Nitschman, Peter Boehier, and Martin Mack.
Spangenberg had formerly been adjunct Professor of Theology in the University of Halle, in Saxony. At London, whither he had retired, he met the Brethren 'ioeftschey and Layshart, and, becoming a convert to their doctrines, went over to Herrnhut, and joined the congregation of Zinzendorf. He was the one commis sioned by the Count to treat with the Trustees con cerning a settlement in Georgia, which he was happily enabled to effect. After leaving Savannah, he visited Pennsylvania and the island of St. Thomas, and, going over to Europe, was there ordained bishop. Shortly

ui, part li.

NITSC'HMAX BOEHLKR MACK.

367

after he returned to America, the whole affairs of the Brethren in the British colonies having heen committed to his care. He remained, with the exception of one voyage to Europe, until 1762, when he returned to Europe. Bishop Spangenberg was also an author, and wrote the life of Count Zinzendorf, an " Exposition of Christian Doctrine as taught in the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, or Unitas Fratrum," (" The Idea Fidei Fratrum,") and a Manual lor Missionaries.
David Nitschman, one of the companions of Wesley in his voyage to Georgia, was also a Moravian Bishop, and one of the first missionaries among the negroes in the Danish West India Islands. Thence he passed over to Germany, and returned in 1740 to America, where, with a company of brethren and sisters, he founded the settlement of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. The rest of his life was passed in the duties of his ofnce in Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware.
Peter Boehler was from the University of Jena, and was ordained a minister in the Moravian Church in 1737. On the departure of Bishop Spangenberg for Europe, in 1762, Boehler was one of the two bishops who succeeded him in the general superintendency of the United Brethren in North America.
Martin Mack was one of those who came to Georgia and removed thence to Pennsylvania, where he long laboured among the Indians, and afterwards was set apart as Bishop of the Moravian Church among the negroes in the Danish West India Islands/'

"* Notices of tl.ceo Kreflirru an: found scattered throughout i<o.skirl; Crantz's History of the United iJruthren, translated by LaTrobc (Benjamin:) " History of the Protestant Church of

tlic United Brethren," by Rev. John Holmes, 3 vols.; OldoTKlorfs History of the Miasioua in the West India I@la.nds.

368

INFLUENCE OF MORAVIANS.

Among others mentioned in the annals of the Mora vian missions, who, for a time, resided in Georgia, are Layshart, Hayger, and, more intrepid, more laborious, more, self-denying, perhaps, than all, the noble, devoted Zeisberger.
The Moravians left no impress of their peculiar in stitutions on Georgia. They came indeed to the col ony while it was in a formative state, but they did not remain long enough to become influential with the people, and fashion the plastic mass according to those ideas of staidhess and piety which have ever charac terized the United Brethren. Like the Germans at Ebenezer, they were shut out by their language from mingling much with the other colonists; and neither, therefore, ever had an influence proportioned to their worth or numbers. Could their virtues have aided in moulding the rising institutions of Georgia, and shap ing that public opinion which is the embodiment of a nation's thought, many of the calamities of unhappy Georgia might have been altogether avoided, and many virtues might have been developed that would have reflected glory upon her name.
The religious history of Georgia, during this period, would not be complete did we omit to mention the ser vices of the Hebrew congregation which came to Geor gia in the first year of its colonization. True to their ancient faith, and zealous for the worship of the " God of Israel," they no sooner landed on our shores than they resolved to open a synagogue, to which they gave the name of Mickva Israel. A room was obtained and fitted, up for the purpose, with the same Hechal, Safer Tora, cloaks, and circumcision box, which are used to this day in the synagogue of Savannah. In this tem porary house of God, divine service was regularly per-

HEBREW CONGREGATION.

309

formed, and the great "I AM" was worshipped in the same language in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed ; which was heard on Sinai, and in the gorgeous Temple of Solomon; and in which the inspired men of God poured forth their sublime and far-seeing prophecies.61 The guide and rule of their service was the " Minhag Sephardim," arid the officers of the synagogue consisted of a Parnass, Gabay, and several adjuntas. They were not able to employ a regular Hazan, but the worship was conducted by the volun tary services of the brethren, who, even in the pine forests of Georgia, did not forget the God of their fathers, or to lift up their voices in prayer, with " their faces turned towards Jerusalem."
In 1740, owing to the removal of many of the breth ren, there were not left enough to form a congregation, and the services were for a time suspended.
This short sketch of the religious condition of Geor gia up to the time of its erection into a royal province, furnishes many points of interest amid many causes of sorrow. It is a matter of interest that religion was planted with the first settlers, and that the English, the Salzburgers, the Moravians, the Presbyterians, and the Israelites, severally brought over with them the ministers or the worship of their respective creeds. The moral element of civilization, that without which the others are powerless to give true and lasting ele vation, entered largely into the colonization of Geor gia, and did much to nurture and strengthen the infant colony. But it is a matter of sorrow, that though many

6 ' The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, vol. i. 248, 379, 486'. The facts stated in Occident, 379, 486, are derived from a Hebrew MS. kept

by one of the first company of Jews, Mr. Benjamin Sheftall, and there furnished to the public by his grandson, Mordecai Sheftall, Esq., of Savannah.

24

370

INFLUENCE OF RELIGION" UPON A COLONY.

of the clergy acted up to their high responsibilities, there were several who were destitute of that piety and loftiness of character which were necessary to secure respect for their office ; while the people them selves, ignorant, corrupt, and split into angry factions, were in no state to listen to the teachings of the pul pit, or profit by the instructions of their various pastors. Yet nothing was so needed to humanize the feelings, call out the affections, and elevate the soul of the peo ple, as religion. It would have quieted all disturb ances, evoked industry, introduced peace, and pre served the colony from many of the ills and dangers brought upon it by the machinations of wicked and seditious men. Without " goodness," says Lord Ba con,02 which, " of all virtues and diguities^of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing;" a truth which the condition of Savannah sadly illustrated ; for all its busy idleness, its harmful clubs, its mischievous fac tions, sprung from the absence of that " goodness" which the Bible only can instil. History, calmly look ing upon these indubitable facts, is constrained to declare, that moral principle, founded on practical piety, is the corner-stone and the top-stone of the edifice of a good government, and, without it, no people can be come what a commonwealth should be, ' one huge Christian personage one mighty growth and stature of an honest man."'3

63 Work.-, i. 270. 63 Milton's Prose Works, Phil, eel., 2 voK. 1845. \. 17,

BOOK THIRD,
GEORGIA UNDER ROYAL GOVERNMENT,
,/
CHAPTER I.
SETTLEMENT OF LIBERTY COUNTY.
ON the surrender of the charter to the King In 1752, it passed under the control of the " Board of Trade and Plantations " acting " under His Majesty,"1 com posed of the lords commissioners appointed for the superintendence of colonial affairs, of which the Earl of Halifax was then at the head. This nobleman greatly interested himself in the colonies, and when Acadia was ceded to England by the treaty of Aix-laChapelle, (October 7, 1748,) the scheme which had been projected for settling that peninsula, which was now called Nova Scotia, was taken under his paternal care ;- and the capital of the colony, in honour of his generous assistance, received the name of Halifax, He was eminently qualified for his station, as well by his natural and acquired abilities, as his practical knowledge of the details of colonial settlements; and he presided over the Board of Trade and Plantations with honour to himself, comfort to the provinces, and benefit to the Crown.
1 Stokes's ''View of the Constitu- 2 Smollett, ii. 311. HaliburtojiV tion of the British Colonies," &c., History of Nova Scotia, i. 136bond. 1783, 115.

372

ORIGIN OP THE DORCHESTER PEOPLE.

In November, 1752, a proclamation issued by the lords justices under advice of His Majesty's Privy Council, was sent over to Georgia, and publicly read in Savannah,3 declaring the royal pleasure that the magistrates and officers in the said colony of Georgia, should continue in the exercise of their respective offices until His Majesty's pleasure shall be known, and other provision be made for the due government and ordering of the province. Nothing could be more indicative of the prospective success of the province under the anticipated change of rulers, than the fact that in 1751 and 1752 the preliminary applications were made by the entire people of Dorchester, South Carolina, to take up lands in Georgia, whither they soon emigrated and settled at Midway river, in what is now Liberty county. The narrative of this pilgrim colony, of pilgrim sires, constitutes an interesting page in the history of Georgia. Colonial retrospect does not always bring renown; but here honour, piety, and worth blend in the origin and progressive exist ence of this Dorchesterian band which emigrated to Georgia. Early in the year 1630, a little company of Puritans gathered from the counties of Devon, Dorset, and Somersetshire, met in the new hospital at Ply mouth, England;4 and after a day of fasting and prayer, elected the Rev. John Warham of Exeter and Rev. John Maverick5 to be their pastors, and resolved to settle in New England. They sailed on the 30th of March, 1630, in the Mary and John, a ship of four hun dred tons, commanded by Captain Squeb," and reached

3 MS. Doc. from Board of Trade, 5 Morion's New England Memorial,

v. 34,

p. 162 ; Davis's edition, Boston, 1826.

4 Rev.. Die. Harris's Account of 6 Winthrop's Hist, of New England,

Dorchester, Mass. Hist. Col., 1st se- i. 29.

ries, vol. ix.

THEIR EARLY SUFFERINGS.

373

America in two months. But so far from fulfilling his engagement to take them to Charles river, " The cap tain put us," says a passenger, " ashore, and our goods on Nantucket point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forlorn place in this wilderness."7 They soon, how ever, selected a place called by the Indians Matapan, but to which they gave the name of Dorchester, " hecause several of the settlers came from a town of that name in England, and also in honour of the Rev. Mr. White of that place." Dorchester, therefore, is the third oldest town in New England.
In common with all early emigrants, they suffered many privations and hardships, but they bore them with a Christian manliness and fortitude. Their hearts quailed not at every lion in the way; dangers nerved them with courage, and trials but increased their energy. " Oh ! the hunger," says Captain Clap, himself an eye-witness of what he describes, " that many suffered, and saw no hope, in the eye of reason, to be .supplied only by clams, and muscles, and fish. We did quietly build boats, and some went fishing; but bread was with many a scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds as scarce. And in those days when our straits, though I cannot say God sent a raven to feed us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians which came with baskets of corn on their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sent ships from Holland and from Ireland with provisions, and Indian corn from Vir ginia, to supply the wants of his dear servants in this wilderness, both for food and raiment.

1 Capt. Roger Clap, in Winthrop's New England, i. 28

374

SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF CAROLINA.

" Thus God was pleased to care for his people in time of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless His holy name, and love one another with pure hearts fer vently."
We could follow with much pleasure the gradual rise of this little settlement, tracing step by step its increasing influence and usefulness; but we must pass over half a century of its existence in order to come more directly to the topic under consideration.
By the charter of Charles II. and the constitutions of Locke, the Anglican Church was the only one recog nized in South Carolina, though there were provisions in both, favourable to other creeds. During its infancy, Carolina presented the strange spectacle of a colony founded by bigoted churchmen, and governed by dis senters. Blake was a Presbyterian, and Archdale a Quaker. But though described by the latter as "an American Canaan, a land that flows with milk and honey,"8 it was a spiritual desert; for several years elapsed before there was a priest to bear the ark or minister at the altar. There were, however, " sundry godly Christians there, both prepared for and longing after all the edifying ordinances of God." 9 Their Mace donian cry was heard, and answered. Joseph Lord, of Charlestown, who, four years before, had graduated at Harvard College, and who was then teaching school in Dorchester, and studying theology with its pastor,'of fered to go thither; and on the 22d of October, 1695, those designing to emigrate with him were embodied in a church, over which he was solemnly consecrated

A CHURCH FORMED FOR CAROLINA.

375

pastor.10 The churches of Boston, Milton, Newton, Charlestown, and Roxbury, by their delegates or pas tors, assisted in the services. The gathering of this little flock, " to encourage the settlement of churches and the promotion of religion in the southern planta tions," is a bright epoch in the moral history of New England. Sixty years before, the village of Dorches ter had planted the first church in Connecticut; and now she had gathered another, to send to the fardistant borders of the South. In little more than a month they were ready to embark; and their faith and ardour kept pace with the advancing hour of sep aration. The parting scene was made solemn by the holy services of religion. They gathered together for the last time in New England, in the house of God, and their former pastor, Mr. Danforth, preached a most af fectionate and moving valedictory. The passage se lected was from Acts xxi. 4, 5, 6, in which is detailed the parting scene between the disciples at Tyre and Paul and his companions ; and the peculiar applicability to their own circumstances, rendered it singularly inter esting and appropriate. We can but faintly imagine the effect of such a discourse, from him who for thirteen years had broken to them the bread of life, and whose ministrations they now enjoyed for the last time. Around them were the cherished scenes of childhood ; the hearths of their kindred blazed here and there, with their thrilling associations. The thought of their homes, their parents, and their own companions, their sacred tabernacle, and their beloved village, now about to be relinquished forever, rushed to their minds with overwhelming potency. But, at the sacramental table,

1 Harris's Dorchester.

376

EMBARKS FOR THE SOUTH.

they had dedicated themselves to the service, and they drew not back from the eucharistic covenant. On the 5th of December they sailed; and when the sun sank beneath the western hills, the first missionaries which ever left the shores of New England were offering up their evening sacrifice on the bosom of the Atlantic, There was something morally sublime in the spectacle which they presented. It was not the departure of one minister, or of one family, but of a whole church. There were women there in their feebleness, and children in their helplessness; there were the young in their buoy ancy, and the aged in their gravity; all relations of life were there, and all had been consecrated to God. The distance which they emigrated was geographically short; but at that period, a century and a half ago, the undertaking fully equalled in its dangers the most hazardous voyages of the present day; and a moment's meditation will convince us, that there was even more heroism in leaving Dorchester for Carolina in 1695 than in sailing from Boston to India in 1847. The first part of their voyage was boisterous and unpleasant; and on the eighth day they kept a fast, on account of the perils to which they were exposed, and He who holds the winds and the waves in the hollow of his hand heard their cries; so that on the 20th they landed in Carolina." Following the course of the Ashley river, they found on its north-easterly bank, about twenty miles from Charleston, a rich piece of land, whose virgin soil and stately woodlands, with their interlacing vines and ever-

1 ' Many of the facts mentioned here are from an excellent little paraphlet, " A Short Account of the Congregational Church at Midway, Geo.," by John B. Mallard. A.M. In this

narrative Mr. Mallard has felicitously brought together from the records of the church and from public and private sources all the principal facts pertaining to this interesting settlement.

FOUND DO11CHESTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

377

green misletoe, and drapery of moss, were well adapted to their purposes. This they immediately selected for their iuture home, and, in memory of their native place, gave to it the name of Dorchester. Here, upon the ' 2d of February, 1695, they raised their grateful Ebene/ zer, by celebrating, for the first time in Carolina, the I holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The colony of Carolina derived many important advantages from New England, but nothing which at all equalled the bene fits conferred through the emigration of this Christian church, and the planting of it, with all its precious ordinances and influences, in the vicinity of its capital. It was a work honourable to the character, and worthy of the religion, of the Puritans. Rev. Mr. Danforth, in his valedictory sermon, above referred to, said, speak ing of the southern plantations, that " there was not in all that country neither ordained minister nor any church in full Gospel order." The impression which this passage conveys is at variance with actual facts, as there were both churches and clergymen in South Carolina prior to the arrival of the pious Dorchesterians.
Rev. Mr. Lord remained over twenty years with his people, when he returned to Massachusetts, and on the 15th of June, 1720, was installed pastor over the church in Chatham. Rev. Hugh Fisher was his suc cessor at Dorchester, who, dying on the 6th of October, 1734, was in turn succeeded by Mr. John Osgood, a recent graduate of Cambridge, and a native of Dor chester, South Carolina, at which place he was ordained March 24th, 1734-5. Under his ministry the church greatly prospered, though the period was one in which their temporal affairs were much deranged by the Spanish war. " About two years ago," he writes in 1746, " the number of communicants in our church

378

PROPOSE REMOVAL.

were but little over thirty; now there are above seventy." The unhealthiness of their location, the narrowness of their lands, the increase of their popu lation, and the tendency of the younger members of their community to remove, in order to make profita ble settlements, caused them to look about for a place to which all might emigrate, and thus, while they pre served the compactness and unity of their congrega tion, secure sufficient tracts of land for their extended plantations. Having heard of the good character of the lands in Georgia, they resolved, with cautious policy, to spy out the land before they left their present abode. Accordingly, on Monday, the llth of May, 1752, three persons set off from Beech Hill for Georgia, to view and report upon the lands lying between the Ogeechee and Altamaha. In five days they reached a place which, being half-way from the one river to the other, was called Midway, which they selected as a most desirable place, and of which they obtained from the President and assistants a grant of 31,950 acres. The proposition to remove was not altogether unanimous: " Several used their endeavours to frustrate the scheme, notwithstanding which, an inclination to remove seemed considerably to get the ascendant." The superstitious, who looked to good omens at the beginning, as favourable to future success, had some fearful data from which to prognos ticate grievous evils to the new settlement. These arc partially detailed in the church records of Midtvay, which say: " In the beginning of August six persons set'off by land, and seven more by water, to survey the lands and make settlements. Those by land being disappointed in the coming of the schooner, on board of which were their provisions and negroes, were

SETTLEMENT BEGUN AT MIDWAY.

379

obliged to return without accomplishing all they intended. Such as were on board the schooner, meeting with contrary winds, were so long in their passage, that they spent most of their provisions before their arrival, and were, therefore, obliged to return. On the 15th, while the schooner lay in the harbour, (near St. Catharine's Island,) there arose a hurricane, which was, in Carolina, the most violent that ever was known since the settlement of the English there, and which, in many places, left not one tree in twenty standing. On the 16th they attempted to put out to sea, and could not. and therefore went within land to Tybee, where meeting with head-winds., they sailed up to Savannah, where several leaving the vessel, went home by land. The rest, who remained in her, had a tedious long passage, and were met by a second hurricane before they got home, but were then also in a safe harbour. In their passage to Georgia, one negro fell overboard and was drowned, and those who went up by land had two of their horses drowned in their return. These adverse providences were very dis couraging to most, and brought the affair of our remov ing to a very considerable stand." The settlement was begun on the 6th of December, by two families; but death met them early in their new home, and the day after their arrival took one of their little group to his silent dwelling. The house appointed for all the living, was the first made in the Midway settlement. In small detachments the remainder of the people left Carolina, and by March, 1754, the pastor and whole church had settled in Georgia. Their first care was to provide for the services of religion, and a temporary log-house on Midway Neck was used as a church, and the first sermon preached there on the

380

PEOPLE ENTER INTO MUTUAL COMPACT.

7th of June, 1754. Aiming to keep the original prin ciples which they had all along retained, and actuated by motives of prudence, piety, and security, the congre gation convened at the log meeting-house, in August, 1754, for the purpose of entering into a mutual compact, and framing certain articles for the civil and religious government of their territory.
According to the articles of this incorporation, they agreed to build a meeting-house, to support, to the extent of their means, a ministry and its ordinances; to settle all disputes by arbitration; to commit the public business to three men chosen each year; to have an annual meeting, or parish assembly, to consult for the good of the society; to be governed in secular matters by the majority, and in ecclesiastical affairs to allow church members a double vote ; and, in order to secure one of the ends for which they removed from South Carolina, the purpose of having their " children after them compactly settled together," they covenanted that no member of the corporation should " sell his settlement or tract of land, or any part thereof, to any stranger or person out of the society, without first giving the refusal of its pur chase to the society." In this annual assembly of all the settlers, this annual election of selectmen, and this being governed by the will of the majority, we find the germs of that republicanism for which that people were subsequently so noted. Their policy was, in deed, exclusive, but that very feature was' designed, and proved to be, a safe-guard to their children, to their church, and to the integrity and purity of the whole corporation. They were founding a home for their posterity, and they strove, therefore, to guard it from those mercenary and alienating influences which

PLAN1 OF GOVERNMENT REPORTED.

381

would so easily divide its unity, destroy its morals, and disperse its members.
The accession of such a people was an honour to Georgia, and has ever proved one of its richest bless ings. The sons of that colony have shown themselves worthy of its sires; their sires were the moral and in tellectual nobility of the province.
On the 19th of April, 1753, the Lords of the Com mittee of Council for Plantation Affairs, to whom had been referred by the Privy Council, on the 18th of January, the subject and " the necessity that appeared to them for the immediate establishing a form of civil government in His Majesty's colony of Georgia," 1 ' ordered that the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations do prepare and lay before them, such a plan as they shall conceive proper and best adapted to the colony. This Board reported to His Majesty's council at Whitehall, on the 5th of March, 1724, and recommended, 11' " That of the different constitutions now subsisting in his Majesty's dominions in America, that form of government established by the Crown in such of the colonies as are more immediately subject to its direction and government, appears to us the most proper form of government for the province of Geor gia." " We should therefore propose that a govern ment should be appointed by commissioners under the great seal, in like manner as the governors of His Majesty's other colonies and plantations are appointed, with powers and directions to call an assembly, to pass laws, to erect courts of judicature, to grant lands, and to do all other necessary and proper things, in such manner, and under such regulations, as shall, upon due
consideration, appear to be the best adapted to the

12 Board of Trade, v. 34.

is Ib. v. 52.

383

WHAT OFFICERS REQUIRED.

present circumstances of the colony; all which mattcrs, as well as every other regulation necessary to be made for the better ordering and governing the col ony, conformable to the plan proposed, will come under consideration when we shall receive His Majesty's directions to prepare instructions for the Governor, and therefore we shall not trouble your Lordships with a detail of them at present.
"We would likewise propose, that twelve persons should be appointed by His Majesty, to be his Council of the said colony, with the same powers, authorities, and privileges, as are given to, or enjoyed by, the Council of His Majesty's other colonies.
" That the Governor be appointed Vice-Admiral of the said colony, with the same powers and authorities as are usually given to the Governors of other His Maj esty's colonies; and that he, together with such other officers as shall be thought proper to be appointed, do constitute a court of admiralty for the regulation of matters subject to the admiralty jurisdiction.
" That proper officers be appointed for the better col lecting and regulating His Majesty's customs and du ties, and for other matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and the Commissioners of the Customs.
" That for matters relative to His Majesty's revenue of quit-rents, and grants of land, there be appointed a register and receiver of quit-rents, and surveyor of lands.
" That a secretary be appointed for the transaction of all affairs usually belonging to the office of secretary in the other colonies, such as registering of deeds, and keeping the public records, and who may likewise act as Clerk of the Council.

I'LAX APPROVED SEAL ORDERED.

383

"It will also be necessary that a provost marshal should be appointed to execute the office of sheriff until the province is divided into counties; and we would further propose that an attorney general should be appointed to assist the Governor and Council in matters of law which may come before them in their judicial capacity.
" These are all the establishments which appear to unnecessary to be immediately made. The charge there of including an allowance heretofore usually given by the Trustees to a minister and two schoolmasters, the contingent charges of government, and the bounty upon the culture and produce of silk, will, at a moder ate computation, amount to about three thousand pounds per annum during the infancy of the colony, and until it shall be in a condition to bear the expense of its own establishment, which we submit to your Lordships' consideration."
This plan was approved, and the Lords Commis sioners were directed to propose a governor, councilmen, and such other officers as they thought necessary, having first "informed themselves of the manners and character of the same." On the 21st of June, 1754, the king in council directed a silver seal to be made for the colony, bearing on one side a figure represent ing the genius of the colony offering a skein of silk to the king, with the motto: " Mine laudcm sperate Coloai," and around the circumference, " Sigillum Provincial nostra? Georgian in America;" and on the obverse, His Majesty's arms, crown, garter, supporters, and motto, with the inscription, " Georgius H. Dei Gratia Magn% Britannia; Fr. et Hib. Rex, Fidei Defeusor, Bmnswici et Luuenbergi Dux, Sacri Romani Imperii Archi Thesaurarius et Elector.""

'^ Boardof Trade, 61,65.

384

NAMES OP CIVIL OFFICERS.

Thus the colony passed through its transition state, increasing in wealth, population, commerce, and im portance. The civil officers in Georgia, consisting of Patrick Graham, as President, and James Habersham, Noble Jones, Pickering Robinson, and Francis Harris, as Assistants, were intelligent, faithful, and zealous men, and ably conducted its affairs, especially the intricate and delicate relations with the Indians, who had for some time been kept in a feverish state by the unwarranted proceedings of some officers in South Carolina, by the tampering of the French, and more than all, by the discords originated by artful colonists for private purposes and malignant ends. Having executed the trust reposed in them, with universal applause, they were now prepared to give the thriving colony into the hands of the king, and, at his bidding, take their respective parts in that new and royal gov ernment which he had established.
Two governmental eras of Georgia having passed, we now stand at the opening of the third and more exciting period, in the far-off vista of which we see the turbulence of revolutions, and the dark and bloody scenes of war.

CHAPTER II

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR REYNOLDS.

ON the nomination of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, Captain John Reynolds, of the Royal Navy, was, on the 6th of August, 1754, ap pointed by the King, Governor of Georgia. Shortly after he sailed from England in the Port Mahon, manof-war, and almost landed from his barge at Savannah (October 29th, 1754,) before any inhabitant of the town knew of his arrival.
But no sooner was this known than joy discovered itself in every countenance, and was manifested by the most public demonstrations. As he ascended the bluff, the people who crowded to behold the new Governor, received him with loud acclamations, and at night bon-fires and illuminations added to the general exhi bition of delight.' The next day he was introduced to the President and assistants in council, before whom his commission was read; and at its conclusion he was conducted to the President's chair, on taking which he announced the dissolution of that Board, and the for mation of a new and royal Council, under letters patent from the Crown. The names of the new councillors were then read, and the body adjourned.9

1 South Carolina Gazette, Nov., 2 Minutes of Proceedings of Gov-

1754.

ernor's Council,

25

386

POWER AND TITLES OF THE GOVERNOR.

On the following morning, according to their summoos, the Council again met, when the Governor took the several oaths required/ and administered the proper forms to the councillors and officers under him ; and being thus formally invested with the pow ers of government, it was ordered that his commission as Captain General and Vice Admiral of the province " be forthwith read and published at the head of the militia now under arms before the council chamber." It was listened to with profound attention, and saluted with several rounds of musketry and the shouts of loy alty. The day was closed by a public dinner, at which the new Governor was entertained by the Council and principal inhabitants. The political institutions of the Trustees, which, by royal proclamation, had been con tinued under the superintendence of the Lords of Trade and Plantations, now became extinct, and a different system of government was established.
The official title of Reynolds was, " Captain Gene ral and Governor in chief of His Majesty's province of Georgia, and Vice Admiral of the same." The title by courtesy was, " His Excellency."
The power vested in a colonial governor was very great. Acting for and in behalf of the King, he en joyed prerogatives which in their sphere were little less than those of royalty itself; and his title showed the blending of civil, military, and naval power, in and over the field of his jurisdiction. As Captain General, he had entire command of the militia, and the appoint ment of ofncers, and until the establishment of the staff of
s See those oaths in MS. Minutes of thia work was for several yearn of the Proceedings of the Governor's " Chief Justice of Georgia." Hia work Council, niitl in Stokes's View of the is exceedingly valuable, as giving u Constitution of the British Colonies, constitutional view of aflkirg in Ame.&c., Svo, Lond. 1784, 178. Thp author rica prior to the Revolution.

CROWN OFFICERS.

387

the array in North America in 1760, command over the regulars stationed within the limits of his government. As Vice Admiral, he could, in time of war, issue his warrant to the judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty, to grant commissions to privateers. As Governor, he was one of the constituent parts of the colonial legis lature, and had the sole power of convening, adjourn ing, proroguing, and dissolving the General Assembly. He could veto any bill passed by that body; had the appointment of all officers not appointed directly by the Crown, and could even supply vacancies in these until the pleasure of the King should be known. He had the custody of the great seal, and as Chancellor within his province, had the same powers as the Lord High Chancellor of England. He presided at the Court of Errors ; granted probate of wills, and letters of ad ministration on intestate effects; and, as Ordinary of his province, could collate to all vacant benefices where the Church of England was established by law ;4 in fine, could " do all other necessary and proper things in such manner, and under such regulations, as should, upon due consideration, appear to be best adapted to the circumstances of the colony."
The Crown officers designated by the new commis sions were
JAMES HABERSHAM, Secretary of the Province. WILLIAM CLIFTON, Attorney General, ALEXANDER KELLET, Provost Marshal. WILLIAM RUSSEL, Naval Officer, THOMAS YOUNG, ) WILLIAM BRAHM, \ Surveyor*.
SIR PATRICK HOUSTOUW, Bart., Register of Grants.

' Slokes, 184.

38s

POWERS OF THE COUNCIL AND ASSEMBLY.

And PATRICK GRAHAM,

^j

SIR PATRICK HOUSTOUN, Bart.,

JAMES HABERSHAM, ALEXANDER KELLET, WILLIAM CLIFTON, ANTOBLE JTONES, PICKERING ROBINSON, FRANCIS HARRIS,

[r Councillors. I

JONATHAN BRYAN,

WILLIAM RUSSEL,

J

The second branch of the Legislature was the Gov ernor's Council. This body usually consisted of twelve members, appointed and commissioned by the

Crown to be associated with the Governor as an advi sory body, and as a check upon the lower house, Vacancies were filled, not by the Governor or them selves, but by mandamus from the Crown. Each councillor was required to subscribe the test, and to take the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, abjuration, and office. They stood in the same relation to the Governor, that the Privy Council did to the King, When sitting in their legislative capacity they were styled the " Upper House of Assembly," constituting in some respects a provincial House of Lords.
They had also a judicial character, and in this aspect sat with the Governor as Judges of the Court of Er rors or of Appeal, and in the Courts of Chancery, Their term of office was regulated by the pleasure of the King, though the Governor, with the consent of the Council, could suspend a member, subject however to the reversion or approval of the Crown. Of this

body Patrick Graham, the last President under the Trustees and Board of Trade, was the first presiding

officer.

REYNOLDS' FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF SAVANNAH. 389

The Commons House of Assembly, or third legisla tive branch, was to be composed of nineteen members, returned from the several settlements agreeably to the writs of election issued by the Governor and Council. This was to represent the people and their interests, and the qualifications of the persons eligible to a seat were stated in the writs of election. The delibera tions were mostly conformed to the precedents estab lished by the House of Commons in Parliament. David Douglass was chosen the first Speaker of the Commons House of Assembly in Georgia.
Such, in general, was the apparatus, executive and legislative, of the royal government of Georgia. It was similar to what obtained in the other colonies, depend ing immediately on the Crown, and secured to the Anglo-Americans the rights and immunities of British subjects.
If Governor Reynolds had formed very high expecta tions of the country which he was sent over to govern, he was soon undeceived ; for, misruled by the Trustees, and fettered by the ill-devised regulations which the Lords of Trade and Plantations " had moulded into its original constitution," 6 Georgia presented a sad and deso late appearance, and the eye of the Governor soon saw the nakedness and wretchedness of the land. His first letter to the Board of Trade6 gives a very sad picture of colonial affairs. " The town of Savannah," he writes, "is well sit uated, and contains about one hundred and fifty houses, all wooden ones, very small, and mostly old. The biggest was vised for the meeting of the President and assist ants, and wherein I sat in council for a few days; but one end fell down whilst we were all there, and ob-

5 Burke's Speech on Economical

MS. Document.-- from Hoard of

Reform, Works, ii. 198, Boston. 1826. Trade, v. 129,

390

ESTABLISHING Of COURTS.

liged us to remove to a kind of shed, behind the court house; which being quite unfit, I have given orders, with the advice of the Council, to fit up the shell of a house which was lately built for laying up the silk, but was never made use of, being very ill calculated for that purpose. * * * But it will make a tolerably good house for the Assembly to meet in, and for a few offices besides.
" The prison, being only a small wooden house, with out security, I have also ordered to be mended, and some locks and bolts to be put on for the present."
He had not yet visited the other portions of the province, or he would have been even more sickened by the desolation that now brooded over places once thriving and prosperous.
The first legislative efforts of the Council were directed to securing the friendship of the Indians; for which purpose the Governor sent two letters to the head men of the upper and lower Creeks, announcing his appointment, expressing his affection, and promis ing some further and substantial tokens of His Majesty's regard.
A subject of vast importance to the interests of the colony, and one which early engaged the attention of the Council, was the establishing of proper courts of judicature. The Governor brought it before that body on the 8th of November, by reading to the Board the royal instructions upon that point; but as the newlyappoiiited Attorney General had not arrived, its con sideration was postponed until he could be consulted. He entered upon his office a few days after; and on the 12th of December delivered in the Council the report which he had been ordered to make, relative to the appointing of courts of judicature.

CHANCERY OYER AND TERMINER.

391

Agreeably to the recommendation of this report, the Council established a general court,7 having jurisdiction and cognizance of all actions, real, personal, and mixed, exceeding the value of 40s.; and also to have cogni zance of all criminal matters, with the like powers and authority as used and exercised by the respective courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, in Eng land. This court was to consist of two judges, commis sioned by the Governor, the Attorney General, and other lower officers; and was to be held quarterly, on the second Tuesday, respectively, of January, April, July and October. Appeals from the decisions of this court, provided the sum exceeded 300 in value, could be made to the Governor and Council; and if the amount involved in the case was more than 500, it could be carried to the King in council, provided the appellant gave proper security to prosecute the same, and answer the condemnation. Notice of the appeal was to be given within fourteen days after the sentence of the Governor and Council. It was also ordered, that there be a Court of Chancery, for hearing and determining all matters of equity, to be held before his Excellency the Governor, as chancellor; the officers of which were to be a Master, Register, and Examiner; the court to sit after each General Court, if business required. A Court of Oyer and Terminer was also appointed, for the trial of all criminal matters, to sit twice a year. For breaches of the Act of Trade, and for determining con troversies concerning salvage, mariners' wages, and other maritime affairs, a Court of Admiralty was established, before the Governor, as Vice Admiral the other officers being an Advocate, a Register, and a Marshal with liberty to appeal to the High Court of Admiralty of England.
T Stokes, 259. MS. Min. of Coun., where the report is spread out in full, 34.

392

JUDGES OF THE VARIOUS COURTS.

For punishing slaves committing capital crimes, a commission of Oyer and Terminer, when necessary, " was to be issued to the justice of the district in which the offence was committed, to try the offender, on proof of the fact by witnesses, without jury; the justice to award execution, and set a value upon the slave, which is afterwards to be paid to the owner by the General Assembly, as an encouragement to the people to dis cover the villainies of their slaves."8
Sums under 40s. were to be under the cognizance of inferior, or justices' courts.
Of the Court of Record, known by the name and style of the General Court, Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan were appointed judges.
The officers appointed in the Court of Admiralty were, James Edward Powell, judge advocate; Will iam Clifton, advocate-general; Alexander Kellet, mar shal ; William Spencer, register.
Thus was the province invested with full judicial privileges, with courts of ample powers, and such legal advantages as its circumstances required.
This important matter being settled, another, and deeply interesting, subject was brought before the Council. By the King's instructions, the Governor was directed to convene a General Assembly, of which no person could be a member who did not possess in his own right a freehold estate of five hundred acres, within the district or division for which he was chosen. But this restriction excluded several of the most popu lous villages in the province Frederica, Vernonburg, Acton, Aberdeen, Ebenezer, and Goshen; and to re medy this, the Council divided the province into three

5 MS. Minutes of Council, 38.

FIRST LEGISLATURE OP GEORGIA MEETS.

393

divisions, appointing to each its quota of representa tives.
The writ of summons called for a General Assembly to meet in Savannah on the 7th of January, 1755. On this day the first legislature of Georgia, consisting of three branches, the Governor, Council and Commons House, met in the capital, and, after being organized, the Governor made to them his primary speech :

" Gentlemen of the Council and of the Assembly : " I congratulate you upon the regard His Maj
esty has been graciously pleased to show this province, in fixing here a regular form of government immedi ately under his royal authority, the great advantages of which are too obvious to require mention; and as His Majesty has done me the honour to appoint me your Governor, I take this first opportunity to assure you that it shall be my study, during the course of my administration, to promote the prosperity of the colony, that you and your posterity may reap the benefit that will attend its flourishing state. The only advantage I propose to myself is my share of the honour that will arise from the success of our mutual endeavours in this undertaking. I expect, therefore, that you will all cheerfully and loyally contribute your assistance to this laudable end; and as the most effectual means to attain it are unanimity, method, and close application, let me recommend it to you, and advise that the more weighty and important affairs of the colony be taken into your immediate consideration at your first meet ing, and afterwards things of lesser moment. I think it proper for the public service that you, first of all, frame some provincial laws for the well regulating the militia, for the making public roads, and establishing

394 GOVERNOR'S SPEECH AND REPLY OF COUNCIL.
a provision for defraying the expenses of holding the two courts of Oyer and Terminer, which His Maj esty has directed to be held on the second Tuesday in December, and the second Tuesday in June; and I likewise recommend to your consideration the making a provision for the ordinary contingencies of govern ment, as far as the circumstances of the people will conveniently admit of the same.
" Gentlemen, as you are called together for no other purpose but to consult about the best methods of pro moting your own welfare, I doubt not but you will take care to suffer nothing to disunite you, or draw off your attention from the public good. I, on my part, shall be ready to concur with you in everything that can be conducive to your true and lasting interest."

To this modest and judicious speech, the Council

replied:

{

i

"May it please your Excellency, we, His Majesty's [

most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Council of this prov- j

ince, met in General Assembly, beg leave to return I

your Excellency our hearty thanks for your speech de- \

livered to us.

(

" We are very sensible of the great and obvious ad

vantages that will necessarily result from the regard His Majesty has been graciously pleased to show this

province, in fixing here a regular form of government immediately under his royal authority; and from your Excellency's general character, and the knowledge that, from our nearer approach to your Excellency's per

son, we have of your abilities and inclinations, we are well assured that it will be your Excellency's study,

during the course of your administration, to promote

REPLY OF COUNCIL.

395

the prosperity of this colony, that we and our poster ity may reap the benefit that will attend its flourishing state, and that the only advantage your Excellency proposes to yourself is your share of the honour that will arise from the success of our mutual endeavours in this undertaking. We are determined to contribute our assistance to this laudable end, and as we are con vinced that the most effectual means to attain it are unanimity, method, and close application, we shall take into immediate consideration, at our first meeting, the more weighty and important affairs of this colony, and afterwards, things of lesser moment.
" We will very cheerfully co-operate in framing those provincial laws that your Excellency has been pleased to recommend, and being perfectly satisfied that we are called together for no other purpose but to consult about the best methods of promoting our own welfare, we shall take care to suffer nothing to disunite us, or draw off our attention from the public good; and we make no doubt but your Excellency will be ready to concur with us in everything that can be conducive to our true and lasting interest."

The Representatives also made the following ad dress :

" May it please your Excellency : " We, His Majesty's most dutiful and loyal sub
jects, the representatives for the province of Georgia, in assembly met, beg leave to return your Excellency our sincere and hearty thanks for your affectionate speech.
" We have a most grateful sense of the tender re gard His Majesty has been graciously pleased to show

396

ADDRESS OP REPRESENTATIVES.

to this province, under the benign influence of his royal authority; arid doubt not but we shall reap the same advantages from it and enjoy the same privi leges under it, as the other His Majesty's provinces in America do.
" We beg leave to offer His Majesty our most duti ful acknowledgments for this instance of his pastoral care, and also for the wise choice he has been pleased to make of your Excellency, whom we have great reason to believe possessed of every qualification, necessary toward discharging your duty to your royal master, and making the people over whom you preside happy.
" We thank you, sir, in particular, for the kind assurance you have been pleased to give us of your hearty inclination to promote the good of the colony, and to join with us in everything we propose for that end.
" We, on our parts, assure your Excellency, that it shall be our constant aim and study, to propose nothing but what we judge consistent with the honour and dignity of our sovereign, and the good of our constitu ents, being well convinced that the true interests of His Majesty and his loyal subjects are so closely con nected, that whatever tends to promote the honour of the one, is likewise for the advantage of the other: having all of us this in view, we doubt not we shall be unanimous in all our proceedings; and we shall in the first place take under our consideration such affairs as shall appear to be of the greatest impor tance, and that require our immediate attention.
" We will likewise consider of methods for raising money towards defraying the contingent expenses of government; but our present situation and circum-

REl'LY OF THE GOVERNOR.

397

stances are such, that we shall be able to contribute very little for that purpose; but we hope from what we have already experienced of His Majesty's royal favour, that he will be pleased to grant us such assist ance as will make good our deiiciencies, and at the same time assure your Excellency, that our inclination shall not be wanting as far as our ability will permit.
"We hope that the whole tenor of our actions will tend to convince your Excellency that we have nothing more at heart than to consult the honour and dignity of our most gracious sovereign, and truly to promote the interest of this colony; in the doing of which, we flatter ourselves we shall in some measure lessen to you the weight of government, and procure you the lasting satisfaction of having contributed so largely towards rendering us a flourishing people, which we believe to be your siricerest wish."
His Excellency replied as follows:
" Gentlemen of the Assembly : " It gives me great satisfaction to find you so
truly sensible of His Majesty's paternal care of this colony. I am obliged to you for the kind marks of your esteem in this address, and for the assurances you give me of proceeding in the public business with unanimity. I shall be glad of any opportunity of con vincing you of the sincerity of my good wishes for your prosperity, and I promise myself from your appli cation, that they will be crowned with success." 11
This was a fair and promising beginning of his administration. The people, through the Council and

" Tiicso addresses and replies have trutivt. of the general tencr ;;f such boon given in full, as they were the official courtesies, first made in Georgia, and as ill us-

393

FACTION OF EDMUND GRAY.

Commons, met him with courteous words and sincere promises ; and came together with honest purpose to labour with him in raising up the depressed colony, and giving to it new life, through the new agencies brought to bear upon its interests.
But this unanimity was soon disturbed by the machinations of one of the representatives, Edmund Gray/' a pretended Quaker and a fugitive from justice in Virginia. This artful and insinuating man, having no property himself, was enabled, " by getting a quali fication made over to him for that purpose," to obtain a seat in the town-house, as representative from Augusta. Having framed a scheme for monopolizing the Indian trade, he pretended that there was con nected with him in this matter a nobleman in Eng land, through whose influence, combined with such representations as he could obtain from Georgia, he designed to overturn the present government, and establish one more suitable to his nefarious purposes. By promising places of trust and emolument to various persons, he actually influenced five representatives to withdraw with him from the assembly, in order to break it up by destroying a quorum, and thus defeat ing one of the objects of government. Their plan, however, was immediately found out, and four of them were expelled (February 6th) from the assem bly, not only for withdrawing themselves, but for signing a letter which was voted to be seditious by both Houses."

'" Hoard of Trade, v. 158. '' The following ia the letter:--
"iSamwd/!, 1M.AZM., 1756. " GEXTLEMEX:--If you regard (he liberties of yonr country, as we cannot doubt but they are dear to you, it

is highly neccc^ry that you come immediately to Savannah, there by your pewcnce to animate and support your friends, in their endeavours to procure those bleaHinga that can alone render thip colony nourishing and happy.

THE ASSEMBLY PRORO3UED,

399

The disaffection must have been deep and serious, as the Governor sent to Charleston for a sloop-of-war, and an association was formed by the two Houses, and other well-disposed persons, " to defend with their lives and fortunes the person and government of His Excellency."
This serious interruption to its progress removed the assembly went on with its appropriate business a month longer, when, having accomplished their legis lative duties, the Governor met both Houses in the council chamber, (March 7th,) and gave his assent to twelve acts which had passed the assembly, and then in a few forcible and affectionate words, urging them in their several districts " to frustrate the wicked intentions" of those men whose conduct had been censured by expulsion, and " who disliked govern ment only because it is government," and ' who have gone about to poison the minds of the people with groundless and false insinuations," he prorogued the assembly to i'. e 7th of January, 1756. The acts passed by this assembly were
First. For regulating the militia of the province, and for the better security and defence of the same.
Secondly. For stamping, imprinting, emitting, and making current, the sum of 3,000 sterling in paper bills of credit, to be let out at interest on good secu rity, at six per cent, per annum, and for applying the said interest.

" In this we hope you will not fail, and subscribe ourselves hearty utid sincere

friends to you and Georgia.

CHARLES WATSON,

EDMUND GHAY,

MARK CARS,

JOHN MACKIMTOSH,

JOHN FAKMTJR,

EDWARD BAKNARB.

JOHN HARN,

WILLIAM GRAY.

" To the Freeholders of the Province of Georgia."

400

ACTS PASSKD BY THE ASSEMBLY.

Thirdly. An act inflicting and imposing penalties upon any person or persons that shall publish and de clare that the acts of the General Assembly of the province of Georgia are not of force.
Fourthly. An act to regulate fences in the province of Georgia.
Fifthly. An act for raising and granting to His Majesty a sum of money to defray the expense of the courts of oyer and terminer, and other contingencies of government.
Sixthly. An act declaring it high treason to coun terfeit His Majesty's seal of this province.
Seventhly. An act to prevent fraudulent deeds and conveyances.
Eighthly. An act for ascertaining the interest of money in the province of Georgia.
Ninthly. An act for the better ordering and gov erning negroes and other slaves, in this province.
Tenthly. An act to empower surveyors to lay out public roads.
Eleventhly. An act for establishing a market in the town of Savannah, and to prevent forestalling, engrossing, and unjust transactions in the said town and market.
Tweliihly. An act for raising a fund for keeping the light-house on Tybee island in repair, and for building a house there for the use of the pilot.
Three of these acts, the third, sixth and seventh, were directed against the late disorganizing attempts of Gray, and others which might yet spring up, to the sorrow and confusion of the colony.
The iirst and ninth acts wrere to meet the necessity which existed to guard against Indian enemies with out, and to overawe, and keep down, the increasing black population within.

PEOPLE DESIRE NEW TRIBUNALS.

401

The fiftli related to one of the most important, jet long-neglected, interests of the colony.
Prior to 1741, the bailiff court had sole civil and criminal jurisdiction. It was then superseded by the appointment of two boards of President and assistants, for the northern and southern parts of the province: which, in its turn, was superseded by one board for the whole colony.
This was the only tribunal until the arrival of Gov ernor Reynolds.
The inhabitants solicited the Trustees to constitute this board a court of appeal; and the subject was before them during two meetings, but it was unani mously voted down; and the old tribunal remained, burdening the colony with its inefficient and irre sponsible power.
The new form of civil government required judicial powers more consonant to the tribunals instituted in the other provinces; and the erection of this Court of Oyer and Terminer, to hear and determine all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanours, was the first step towards investing the province with full judiciary instruments and powers.
The second and eighth acts, relating to pecuniary matters, were specially demanded by the, exigencies of the province. The early settlers brought but little money with them, and being supported by the weekly issues from the Trustees' store, did not need much. What little trade existed was mostly by barter; and a small supply of the bills emitted by South Carolina constituted almost the only currency. The increase of the colony, and the demands of trade, made a circu latory medium necessary ; and the Trustees, at times, sent over English coin, which being paid to the sala-
26

402

CURRENCY OF GEORGIA.

ried officers of the Trust, was at once thrown into cir culation. At one time they ordered 1,000, in silver, to be sent over; and on another occasion, two tons of halfpence were to be shipped to Georgia.
To meet the still further demand, the Trustees issued their sola bills; and though they could not be made a legal tender, they were freely circulated, and nearly supplanted every other currency in the colony.
The promptness with which the Trustees met these as they fell due, kept up their credit, and to the very last, funds to the full amount of the unredeemed bills were placed in the hands of an agent, to cancel them as they were presented. At the surrender of the charter, only 1,149 of sola bills remained unredeem ed ; and but very little of this sum was circulating at this time in Georgia. Their foreign trade absorbed most of the specie; and their currency was principally of the Carolina bills, which were seldom at par out of the province, and often greatly depreciated, notes of hand, or orders on merchants, which were discharged either in Carolina bills or goods in either case to the great loss of the holder. 1 " Under these circumstances, without a currency adequate to the demands of trade, depending on her sister colony for the unsound medium which did circulate, and anxious to remedy the financial evils growing out of this condition, the Assembly ventured to pass, and the Governor to approve, the act for emit ting 3,000. It was a step dictated by self-preservation, and to which they were enticed by the frequent in stances wherein Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and es pecially their neighbour, South Carolina, had stamped and made current bills of hundreds and thousands of pounds.
' 2 Board of Trade, vi. 8.

ACT OF PARLIAMENT.

403

The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations disapproved of it; but they in vain strove to stop it. They could not make uncurrent what was in circula tion, because it was too much braided in with all the mercantile and social relations of the colonies; and they could not send over sufficient sterling money to supply its place. South Carolina alone, between the years 1702 and 1746, emitted 535,000; and so much had its bills depreciated, that a dollar was equivalent to 1 12s. 6d. currency; and after fluctuating for some time in depreciation, the rate of 7 of currency for 1 sterling was finally fixed upon.13
Maryland and Massachusetts had gone further than any of the other colonies, inasmuch as they had erected mints and coined money. This infringement upon a royal right, tolerated for a little while, was soon arrested, and the operations of the mint suspended.54
The alarming increase of colonial paper currency was taken notice of in Parliament in 1748 ; and an act was passed in 1751, " for regulating and restraining bills of credit in the colonies." By this act, colonial bills were not to be a legal tender, and could only be emitted for the current expenses of the year, and in case of invasion.15 But the necessities of this long-suf fering colony were not to be squared by the precise terms of a parliamentary statute; and when, therefore, the Lords of Trade referred this act to Sir Matthew Lambe, the King's Solicitor, for his legal opinion, he cautiously replied : " How far in this province, and in the very particular manner it is intended to be done by this act, it is to be admitted, must, from circum-

13 Ramsay, ii. JG4-5.

Chalmers's Polit. Ann., b. i. ch. x. 'MS.

14 Felt's Historical Account of Mas- 15 Minot's Hist, of Massachusetts,

saehusetts Currency, Boston, 1839,31. Boston, 1798, i. 146.

404 REYNOLDS ASKS DEFENCES AND INDIAN PRESENTS.
stances, and the information given relating thereto, be submitted the confirmation of this act.'" 6
Such was the first legislation under the first royal Governor of Georgia. It shows the spirit of the people, the necessities of the colony, the friendly relations which then subsisted between the ruler and the ruled, and the mutual aim of both to advance the leading interests of the province.
In a colony which had suffered so much from mal administration, there was much to be done by its first Governor, and there was still more expected. His duties were arduous, his salary small, his responsibili ties great.
Governor Reynolds began well, and entered upon his duties with industry and zeal. One of the earliest subjects which engaged his attention, was the neces sity of having troops for the defence of the province. This he represented to the Board of Trade in his first letter to that body, and in his next renewed his appli cation us a matter absolutely necessary for so exposed and defenceless a colony.
With equal earnestness he craved Indian presents for the pacification of the surrounding tiibes, whose amity it was necessary to secure, especially now when so many efforts were making to disengage them from the interests of the English King. The Indian pres ents came, but the troops did not; and the inhabitants were disappointed in the increased trade and money which the three companies asked for by the Governor would, as they fully supposed, have brought to the colony.
Soon after the adjournment of the Assembly, the Governor set out on a tour through the southern parts
16 Board ofTrade, vi, 63.

PLANS THE CITY OF HARUWICKE.

405

of the province as far as St. Simons. Here he beheld the spectacle of the once bustling Frederica in ruins; "the fortifications entirely decayed, and the houses falling down;" twenty pieces of cannon lying about, but spoiled for want of care. Three years only had sufficed to bring on this desolate condition; for two years before the visit of Governor Reynolds, an anon ymous journalist describes it as " presenting the melancholy prospect of houses without inhabitants, barracks without soldiers, guns without carriages, and streets grown over with weeds. All appeared to Hie with a very horrible aspect, and so different from what I once knew it, that I could scarce refrain from tears."
While at, the south, he explored a number of the inlets and rivers; and thinking that he found in the Ogeechee a stream superior in its channel and in its bar to the Savannah, he laid out a town upon the bluff, twelve or fourteen miles from the sea, which he called Hardwicke, in honour of his relative, the Earl of Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of England. In his letter to the Board of Trade, he writes:17 "Hardwicke has a charming situation, the winding of the river making it a peninsula; and it is the only fit place for the capital. There are many objections to this town of Savannah being so, besides its being situated at the extremity of the province, the shoalness of the river, and the great height of the land, which is very inconvenient in the loading and unloading of ships. Many lots have al ready been granted in Hardwicke, but only one house is yet built there; and as the province is unable to be at the expense of erecting the necessary public build ings, and the annual sum of 500 allowed for erecting
11 Board of Trade, v. 167.

406'

[NDEFIMTENESS OF SOUTHERN1 BOUNDARY.

and repairing public works, entertaining Indians, and other incidental expenses, being insufficient for all those purposes, I am in hopes your lordships will think proper to get a sufficient, sum allowed for erecting a court-house, an assembly house, a church, and a prison, at Hardwicke; which will be such an encouragement to private people to build there, as will soon make it fit for the seat of government, to the universal benefit of the province."
Upon the agitation of this project, twenty-seven lots were taken up in the town of Hardwicke, and more than 21,000 acres were granted to different persons in its vicinity.
This visit of the Governor impressed upon him, also, the necessity of having the southern boundaries of the province clearly and positively defined. The limits of his jurisdiction in this quarter were now vaguely marked, his commission denning it from the head of the Altamaha along the northern bank of the most southern branch or stream of it. "But nobody," says Reynolds, to the Board of Trade, 18 " in this country knows where the head of the Altamaha river rises; and they are all as ignorant of what may be called its most southern stream, since the southern branches do not bear its name." Thus the settlements and the great body of land lying between the Altamaha and the St. John's, were without government or justice. Settlers by "boats full" were daily passing along the inlets to locate there, most of them of what was called " Edmund Gray's Gang," originally from the back part of Virginia, but last from the neighbourhood of Augusta. Lest this ungoverned territory should become a rendezvous of fugi tives and outlaws, the Governor proposed to the Lords
18 Board of Trade, V. 163.

HARD CONDITIONS REQUIRED OF GRANTEES. 407

Justices of Council to extend his authority to 30 deg. 20 min. north latitude, and thence in a straight line west ward to the Pacific, or at least to the most southern British settlement beyond the Altamaha. The subject was given in charge by His Majesty's Council to a committee of that body, who reported that they had referred it to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations; but no definite action was then taken. By the sixty-seventh article of his instructions, 10 the Governor was directed to require, " that all grantees of land should be obliged to clear and cultivate five acres per year for every hundred contained in their grants; in failure of which, the grant shall be void." This the Governor represented as burdensome to the colony, by reason of the fact, that much of the land was untillable, above half being generally pine-barren, or swamp; or, even if every acre of it was good, by requiring five acres in a tract of one hundred to be cul tivated each year, in twenty years " the grantee must either forfeit all his land or have neither firewood nor wood for making or repairing his fences, buildings, and making other things wanting in a plantation." A pro clamation, however, conformable to his " instructions," was issued on the 1st of January, 1755, requiring the people to take out fresh grants,20 to pay 2s. sterling for every hundred acres, to commence within two years from date of grant, and to cultivate five acres per year for every hundred acres. The subject came up before the Assembly, and both houses presented an address91 to the Governor, repre senting that such a measure would " not only hurt the present inhabitants, but also deter others from becoming

19 Board of Trade, v. 156.

3 Ib. vi. 31.

31 Tb. v. 127.

408

REMONSTRANCE OF ASSEMBLY.

settlers amongst us." They proposed instead, that the lands should be granted " without any other restriction or condition, than that the grantee shall be obliged to reside with his family in the colony for at least three years after obtaining the grant."
By a concurrence of both houses, a remonstrance was made to His Majesty, by the Assembly, in which they illustrated the impracticability of complying with the Governor's proclamation, and the fatal results that would follow the strict enforcement of his instructions. The remonstrance, referred by the King to his Council, and by them to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, was by the latter referred back to the Council as necessary to be listened to; and they there fore removed2" the obnoxious conditions, and substitu ted clauses consonant with the desires of the people.
In these efforts for redress, the Governor, though obliged by his instructions to issue the proclamation, yet cordially united with the Assembly, and urged the justness of their representation.
In endeavouring to secure and protect the colony by proper military defences, the Governor also showed much diligence and zeal.
In obedience to the commands of the Board of Trade, he drew up an elaborate representation, setting forth the points necessary to be fortified, the nature of the defences required, and the men and munitions neces sary for their equipment. In this he was greatly assisted by the advice of William De Brahm, a cap tain of engineers in the service of His Imperial Majesty Charles VI., one of the surveyors of the province, but then engaged by the South Caroliniarxs in planning fortifications for Charleston, and whom Governor
22 Board of Tricle, v. 170.

STATE OP DEFENCES IN GEORGIA.

409

Reynolds recommended to the Board of Trade as engineer in chief for Georgia. The actual state of the fortifications showed that the colony was almost defenceless. The outline of the territory to be defended was a circuit of nearly six hun dred miles; yet the population scattered over this territory, black and white, men, women and child ren, did not amount to six thousand five hundred. Of those few, seven hundred and fifty-six only could bear arms, and were enrolled in eight companies of militia, badly armed, inefficiently trained, and widely separated from each other. To defend themselves there was not a single good fortification in the prov ince. At Savannah there were eleven old three and four pounders, without carriages, twenty-seven small swivel guns, and sixty-one mostly unusable muskets. At Augusta, the wooden fort erected by the Trustees, of one hundred and twenty feet square, was propped up by heavy timbers to keep the walls from falling; and in its feeble embrasures, mounted on rotten car riages, were placed eight small iron guns, honey combed with rust, and more dangerous to friends than foes. At St. Simons, the fortification of Frederica was entirely dismantled, and not a gun mounted, nor a charge of powder or a ball to load one, in the place. The little log forts which, in the Trustees' time, were placed here and there on the outskirts of the settlements, were fallen down, and the province was left without forts or ordnance, or munitions of any kind. In answer to the enquiry put to him by the Lords of Trade, as to what points he judged neces sary to be fortified, and in what manner, he suggested four forts near the sea, and five on the western and

410

REYNOLDS SUGGESTS NEW DEFENCES.

southern frontier. To command the river, a triangular fort was planned for Coxspur, on which were to be mounted fifteen guns, ranging from eight to twentyfour pounders, and garrisoned by thirty men.
The fortress at Savannah was to be of four polygons, each four hundred and forty-eight feet, with four bas tions, three upon the bluff and one below, besides an open battery on the bluff, requiring twenty-six pieces of artillery, and a force of one hundred and fifty men.
At Frederica the work was to be made in the form of half a hexagon, nine hundred and sixty feet each, with two whole and two demi-bastions towards the land, and two demi-bastions and a citadel towards the sea, on which were to be placed fifty cannon, manned by three hundred regulars.
Hardwicke, the newly projected capital, was to be fortified by three polygons, six hundred feet each, and three detached bastions, requiring twenty-five pieces, and a garrison of one hundred and fifty troops.
These were deemed sufficient defences for the sea-board. Along the Spanish and Indian frontier, fortresses, varying in size, from works mounting twenty-four guns, to mere redoubts carrying only eight guns, of small calibre, and garrisoned by troops ranging from a captain's command to a mere ser geant's guard, were to be located at Augusta; at the forks of the Altamaha; between the forks and Augusta northward ; the forks and Frederica south ward ; at the Indian pass on the Ogeechee; and be tween the pass and Hardwicke. Thus by a regular force of less than one thousand men, and one hundred and seventy-two cannons, haubices, and mortars, dis tributed among eleven forts, Georgia could be well protected from frontier incursions, and sea-board in-

REGULATING FEES AND ELECTORS.

411

rasions, at an expense, building the forts of earth and facing them with fascines, by negro labour, of only about 29,000.
Had this plan been carried out, it would have put new life and vigour into the colony, increased its pop ulation, its security, its trade, its importance, the value of its lands, and drawn many inhabitants thither, who were now deterred from settling there by its defence less and exposed condition. But it was never acted upon, and the colony toiled on, harassed, alarmed, and unprotected.
In addition to the grievances already mentioned, the Assembly presented to the King representations upon two others, having respect to the regulating of fees, and the qualifications of electors. As the law now stood, the fixing and settling all the fees of the public officers, was " solely in the power of the Gov ernor and Council, without the concurrence and con sent, of the Assembly." The Council, therefore, in January, 1755, made out a schedule'23 of fees, taking as their guide that established in South Carolina, only reducing each charge 10 per cent. Accordingly, a most elaborate tariff, embracing fees for four hundred and fifty-four items, distributed among forty-four different officers, was set forth by the Council, who ordered each officer to post up in his department the list of fees ex igible at his office.
This procedure, based on the 38th article of the King's instructions, the Assembly deemed "a great hardship," and " attended with consequences hurtful to their constituents;" and therefore prayed " that the fees of the public officers might be settled by act of General Assembly, and no otherwise, as is the custom
23 Doc. from British Museum, 56. Minutes of Council.

*12

GOVERNOR VISITS AUGUSTA.

of all your Majesty's other provinces in America." According to the instructions of the King to Governor Reynolds, the qualification of electors for representa tives in Assembly, was confined to a freehold of fifty acres of land, and the qualification of representatives, a freehold of five hundred acres, which no colonial law could alter. In remonstrating against this, the Assembly declared that according to this rule residents in towns, having buildings and improvements greater in value than five hundred acres, were not permitted to sit in the As sembly ; and freeholders of town lots liable to pay taxes for the support of government, were not permitted to vote for representatives, though the value of their one or two town acres greatly exceeded the fifty acres by which many others became qualified to vote.
The remonstrance concerning fees was unheeded; the property qualification of voters was agreeably modified.
Desirous of maintaining pacific relations with the Indians, numbers of wT hom had come down to Savan nah to welcome the Governor, shortly after his arrival, and knowing the salutary influence which a visit to them would produce, he resolved, on the arrival of the Indian presents, to go himself to Augusta and meet the tribes there in friendly council. The meeting was appointed for the first week in December, and a com mittee of three of the Council was appointed to attend him thither. The Governor tarried at Augusta ten days, but the Indians failing to meet him, he returned upon pressing business to Savannah, leaving it to Wil liam Little, whom he had appointed agent and com missioner for Indian affairs, to deliver his intended speeches, and make the presents.
The Indians to the number of three hundred ar rived at Augusta a week after the departure of Gov-

ACADIANS SENT TO GEORGIA.

413

ernor Reynolds; and by conciliating addresses, and ample presents, peace and frienship were renewed between the tribes and the province.
The urgent business which recalled Governor Rey nolds from Augusta to Savannah, was the arrival of two transports from Nova Scotia, containing about four hundred French Papists. These brought letters to Rey nolds from Lieut. Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia, acquainting him, " that, for the better security of that province, and in consequence of a resolution of his council, he had sent these people to Georgia, and he did not doubt of his concurrence."*1
The history of this people constitutes one of the most thrilling passages in the fortunes of the French Americans. Nova Scotia, called by the French Acadie, and first settled by them, was, after various wars and changes, yielded by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, to the crown of England. The inhabitants, of French descent, speaking that language, and professing the Romish faith, were required at its cession to Great Britain to take the oath of allegiance to their English monarch, or leave the country. This the Acadians con sented to do, provided they were not required to take up arms against France or their old Indian allies. The Governor acquiescing in this proviso, they took the oath ; but it was disallowed by the court at home, who required an unconditional oath or an immediate depart ure. Refusing to comply with these peremptory deinaads, the matter remained unsettled until 1755; the Acadians taking, and as a body maintaining, a neutral position. They were an agricultural and pastoral peo ple tilled their lands with great art and. industry reared large flocks and herds dwelt in neat and con-
'^ Board of Trade, vi. 39.

414

HABITS ANT) MANNERS.

venient houses subsisted upon the varied stores gath ered from sea and land, and, with few wants, and no money, lived in peace and harmony under the mild ju risdiction of their elders and pastors.35 The Abbe Ilaynal38 has described them in terms almost too eulo gistic for human nature, representing a state of social happiness more consonant with the license of poetry than the fidelity of history. It cannot be denied, how ever, that they presented a rural and social picture, full of charming scenes and lovely portraits, showing simple manners, guileless lives, peaceable habits, scrupulous integrity, and calm devotion. But the eye of English envy was upon them, and English rapacity planned their removal.
The pretexts for this gross violation of human rights were as frivolous as they were unjust; as Edmund Burke truly said, "Pretences that, in the eye of an honest man, are not worth a farthing." But after the reduction of Forts Beau-Sejour and Gaspareau, by Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, it was resolved, at a meeting of Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence, his Coun cil, and Admirals Boscavven and Moysten, to remove the entire population, and disperse them " among the British colonies, where they could not unite in any of fensive measures, and where they might be natural ized to the government and country."
The uprooting of this whole people was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, commanding the Massa chusetts forces, a gentleman of great moral and mili tary worth, and much commended for his humanity and firmness. Nothing but his strict ideas of military

35 Haliburtou's Hist, -and Statist, count of this people. Alinot's MassaAccount of Nova Scotia, i. 166-198, chusetts, i. 220-227. who gives a full and interesting ac- 3 " Bast and West Indies, v. 3S2.

PROCLAMATION FOR REMOVAL.

415

obedience brought Colonel Winslow to consent to take so conspicuous a part in this, as he himself termed it, "disagreeable and ungrateful kind of duty, which re quired an ungenerous cunning, and a subtle kind of severity."
By a proclamation, so artfully framed that its design could not be discovered, and yet requiring compliance by penalties so severe as prevented any absence, the attendance of the male Acadians was required at a specified time, and in a specified place. At Grand Pre, where Colonel Winslow commanded, over four hundred men met on the appointed day, September 5th, 1755, at 3 P.M., in the village church; when, going into their midst, (they not even suspecting the cause of their convention,) he revealed to their astonished ears the startling resolutions of the Governor and Council, " that your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, with all other your effects, saving your money and household goods, and you yourselves to be re moved from this province."
The late happy but now wretched inhabitants, eighteen thousand in number, were appalled by the magnitude of the calamity which thus suddenly burst upon them. No language can describe their woes: turned out of their dwellings, bereft of their stock, stripped of all their possessions, their bright hopes of the future blasted in a single hour, their labours of years wrested from them by a single effort, and torn from each and every association which binds the heart to its native fields they were declared prisoners, for no crimes, and destined to expatriation only because English blood flowed not in their veins, and English words did not dwell upon their lips.

416

FORCED TO EMBARK,

That it might be impossible for them to remain, their houses were burnt down, their fields laid waste, their improvements destroyed churches, mills, barns, dwellings, and school-houses mingling together in one general conflagration. " For several successive evenings, the cattle assembled around the smoulder ing ruins, as if in anxious expectation of the return of their masters, while all night long, the faithful watch dogs of the neutrals howled over the scene of desola tion, and mourned alike the hand that had fed, and the house that had sheltered them,"
Forced to embark at the point of the bayonet, crowd ed into small vessels at the rate of two persons per ton, provided with neither comforts nor even necessaries, broken up as a community into many fragments wives separated from husbands children from pa rents--brothers from sisters they were stowed on board like a cargo of slaves, and guarded like the felons of a convict-ship. Tims were they hurried away from their native land, their fertile lields, their once social hearths, and scattered like leaves by the ruthless winds of autumn, from. Massachusetts to Georgia, among those who hated their religion, detested their country, derided their manners, and mocked at their language. Landed on these distant shores, those who had once known wealth and plenty, who had enjoyed peace and prosperity, were scouted at as vagrants, reduced to beggary, bearing within them broken hearts and lacerated affections, where but few Samaritans were found to bind up their wounded spirits and pour in the oil and wine of con solation into their aching bosoms. This was English policy outraging English humanity. It was an inhu man act, blending fraud, robbery, arson, slavery and

MANNER OF SUPPORTING THEM IN GEORGIA.

417

death, such as history can scarcely equal. " It was the hardest case," said one of the sufferers, " which had hap pened since our Saviour was on earth."37 English philan thropy planted Georgia; English inhumanity uprooted the Acadians. How shall we reconcile the two ? The one was prompted by the mild spirit of peace ; the other, by stern counsels of war. It was a detachment of this persecuted people whose arrival in Savannah recalled Governor Reynolds to the seat of government.
But what, could the Governor do with such a body of strangers ? It was one of the express conditions on which Georgia was settled, that no Papist should be permitted in it; yet here were four hundred in one body, set down in its midst. It was also of the last importance to break up French influence on the fron tiers, but now nearly half a thousand French were consigned to the weakest and most exposed of all the thirteen colonies. The season of the year not admit ting of their going north, their provisions being all expended, and themselves " ready to perish," they were distributed in small parties about the province, and maintained at the public expense until spring, when, by leave of the Governor, they built themselves a number of rude boats, and in March most of them left for South Carolina; two hundred, in ten boats, going off at one time, indulging the hope that they might thus work their way along to their native and beloved Acadie. South Carolina, to which fifteen hundred had been sent, apportioned them out by an act of the Governor. Council, and Assembly, among the different parishes,2" offered them vessels at the public charge to transport themselves elsewhere, and many went to France;

21 Grahame, iii. 385.

" s Cooper'6 Statutes South Carolina, iv. 31, 97

118

ASSEMBLY MEETS AND IS DISSOLVED.

others remained in the colonies; some reached Can ada ; but they became dispersed as a people, and extinct as a community. Reynolds acted towards the poor Acadians as humanely as the indigent cir cumstances of the colony permitted; he supplied their wants to the extent of his ability, and suffered them to go without molestation on their earnest, but hope less pilgrimage.
In his public acts thus far, the Governor and the colonists had moved together with apparent harmony; but this pleasing aspect was now changed, and angry dissensions and mutual criminations marked the legis lation of the province.
The Assembly, which, in consequence of the Gov ernor's visit to Augusta, had been prorogued from the 7th of January to the 2d of February, 1756, met on that day, and was opened with the usual formalities. The Commons House, refusing to admit to their seats three new members elected to supply vacancies, was adjourned from the 5th to the 12th, by the Governor, '' to give them time to act in obedience to his instruc tions," which they peremptorily refused to do; and at last, "they ordered a message of adjournment sent by the Governor, to lie on the table, confined the speaker to his chair, forced him to sign a paper, while some private members seized upon the minutes, made such alterations as they pleased, and refused to deliver them to his written order."
Finding his efforts to rule them ineffectual, he dis solved the Assembly on the 19th of February, and declared to the Board of Trade that in his opinion " no assembly can be had that will raise any money for the support of government, or even for holding the

SKETCH OP WILLIAM LITTLE.

419

courts of Oyer and Terrainer, unless the Governor was to admit of their exorbitant claims."251
He proposed to the Council to call another assembly, but they voted against it.
Indeed, it was not with the House alone that his troubles existed. He found, as he states, " that a great majority of the Council have all along appeared to be extremely greedy of power, and would fain have all things determined by vote, desiring even his official correspondence with the Board of Trade to pass under their approval." Their motives he set down as base and fraudulent, aiming thereby to avoid enquiring as to their expenditure of the public money.
On the other hand it was represented;'8 that when he came over he was received with the greatest satis faction, and had " every prospect of being a happy governor, and of making this a happy colony, as people were then crowding in every day, filled with expecta tions of being settled in a country which has all the advantages of air and soil, and founded upon liberty." But a sad change soon took place, and the Governor and his secretary were marked out as the causes of this sad decline. This secretary, whose name was William Little, had formerly been a surgeon in the navy, and had served with Captain Reynolds; but at the solicitation of the Governor, accompanied him to Georgia. By degrees, he gained such an ascendency over the mind of Reynolds, that in a few months the Governor virtually conferred upon him the whole ad ministration of the colony. He combined the servility of the sycophant with the duplicity of the flatterer; and like those parasitical plants whose exuberant

-" ' Board of Trade, vi. 48. 30 Jonathan Bryan's Letter to Lord Halifax. Board of Trade, vi. 50.

420

ARROGATES GREAT POWERS.

growth destroys the tree which sustains and nour ishes them, he transferred to his own person the power of the chief magistrate, and dictated alike to Governor and people. Though acting under no commis sion from the king, Little was advanced by Reynolds to some of the most important and influential posts in the province. He was appointed clerk of the Assem bly, clerk of the general court, clerk of the crown and peace, agent and commissioner for the Indians, justice of the peace, and aid-de-camp to the captain-general and commander-in-chief. These offices gave him almost entire control of Georgia, and he aimed to mould everything according to his own views and interests. As early as September, 1755, all the Gov ernor's Council except one, presented to Reynolds a memorial31 and remonstrance, complaining of his evil and improper conduct, as having been guilty of extor tion as clerk of the general court, and " of falsification of a minute of the House of Representatives, whose clerk he was, in order to cover his sinking a bill that had passed both houses; and of forging a minute rela tive to another bill which had also gone through the two houses." He was also charged with interfering in the departments of the king's officers, making, as justice of the peace, illegal commitments, and several other matters evidencing his hatred to the Council, and his arbitrary and tyrannical designs.
To this remonstrance, Little sent a long and very im pertinent reply ; which, notwithstanding the many in decorous reflections which it made on individual mem bers of the Assembly, was, by order of the Governor, spread in full on the pages of the journal.
The Council very properly remonstrated33 against

31 Minutes of Council, 224.

2 ?Ib. 235.

LITTLE'S ASSEMBLY.

421

such unwarrantable proceedings, and closed their pro test by requesting him to remove Little " from his pub lic employments and your Excellency's council."
The Governor in reply made a speech to the Coun cil, characterized by haughtiness and disdain ; to which the Council answered by a dignified and spirited ad dress, maintaining their former position, and represent ing the evil which the course of the Governor was bringing upon the colony. There was a tone of firm ness and independence about the remonstrances of the Council that evidenced how deeply they felt aggrieved, and how earnestly they laboured for the interests of Georgia. Though not at first successful, they event ually realized their hopes.
Notwithstanding these serious charges of the Coun cil, Little contrived, by a variety of adroit manoeuvres and artful machinations, to obtain in November, 1756, an Assembly of his creatures; eleven of the seven teen members enjoying some office or perquisite direct ly depending on the will of the Governor. Of this Assembly, Little managed to be chosen Speaker, and, on the 12th of January, 1757, a committee was appoint ed by the House of Representatives, "to enquire into the state of the province." The object ol all this was to draw up a paper, sanctioned by legislative authority, which should contradict the various representations that had been sent to England against Reynolds and Little, and set forth the flourishing state of the colony under his administration ; and they went so far that, at the close of their three months' session, they pre sented an address of thanks to His Majesty for his gracious appointment of Governor Reynolds, copies of which they transmitted to the Secretary of State, and to the Lords of Trade and Plantations.

422

OBJECTIONS TO GOVERNOR REYNOLDS.

But all these fictitious efforts were of no avail, for while such legislative falsehoods were concocted to up hold the Governor, the order for his recall had already gone forth and was then on the Atlantic.
It was objected to Governor Reynolds, that he de volved his power and authority almost entirely upon his fawning secretary; that he endeavoured in every way to humble and depreciate the Council, his legisla tive advisers; that he appointed judicial and ministe rial officers of justice without the advice and consent of Council; that he caused to be entered, or left out, in the journals, whatsoever he pleased; that he dissolved the best Assembly which Georgia could produce, and thereby left the taxes of the colony, and the support of government unprovided for, merely to frustrate an enquiry into Mr. Little's conduct. In these and vari ous other ways he conducted himself in such an inde corous, unjustifiable, and unofficer-like manner, as to provoke dissensions, harass the colony, drive off its settlers, and interrupt the course of justice and legis lation, as guaranteed to the province by the King, and as signified to the colony by the royal instructions of the Governor. These complaints were too earnest and too truthful to be passed over by the Lords of Trade. They referred them to the King, and he ordered the Board, August 3d, 1756, "thatthey should immediately direct Governor Reynolds to come to England to an swer for his conduct in his government."33 Accordingly, on the 5th of August, the Lords of Trade sent him the order of His Majesty that he should return to Eng land, "to the end that an account of the present situa tion and circumstances of the province, and his con duct in the administration of government there, might
S: Board of Trade, vi. 60.

ARTICLES EXHIBITED AGAINST HIM.

423

1 !)e laid before His Majesty for his further directions ; thereupon."34 I The Governor received this letter on the 16th of : February, 1757, and, resigning the government into the ; hands of Henry Ellis, the Lieutenant Governor, he em( barked in a merchant ship, " the Charming Martha," j which, on the 9th of May, was captured by a French | privateer and carried into Bayonne in France. In this
capture he lost everything he had with him, and did not reach London until the 7th of July.
Here he found fourteen articles drawn up against him for mal-administration of his office in Georgia : evidently based on the letter of Mr. Bryan, one of the Council, to the Earl of Halifax, and the memorial of Mr. Kellet, provost marshal to the Board of Trade, which representations that body laid before the Lords Justices of Council.
To these charges Governor Reynolds drew up an elaborate reply, and on several of them vindicated himself triumphantly. But his defence, as a whole, was lame and ineffectual; and not being satisfactory to the Board of Trade, he was allowed to resign his gubernatorial commission, having held it a few months short of four years.
In the conclusion of his defence, Governor Reynolds remarks, that he " may have been guilty of mistakes, but not of anything criminal or of wilful disobedience of orders;" and, with great propriety, he entreats the Lords of Trade to remember the condition of the colony when he was appointed to it the fact that he was the first King's Governor they had ever received, and the difficult task which such au officer " has to per form who is to frame the first laws which regulate the

34 Board of Trade, viii. 19,

424

EFFECT OP POPULAR COMMOTIONS.

police, and constitution of government; and that, in a country so poorly inhabited, where very few people are to be found capable of executing even the most inferior public offices." Such an appeal as this was right, and should have great weight in the judgment which we form of the official character of Governor Reynolds.
On the part of the people, no sooner did they learn the intention of the King to erect it into a separate province, than, intoxicated with the idea of royal gov ernment, they imagined it to betoken every blessing, and looked with excited expectations to the benefits which would follow its establishment. They did not reflect, that the changes which they desired could only be gradually introduced; and that he who attempted them, and failed, would only be the victim of their dis appointment, and plunge them deeper than ever in pub lic and private distress.
All violent popular commotions, like a too-excited condition of mind, generally have disastrous reactions. The Georgians expected too much of Governor Rey nolds; and because the anticipated benefits did not immediately appear, their hasty spirits magnified every minor evil, distorted each official act, and the blame which belonged to their own impatience and want of self-control, was laid upon the Governor. Disappoint ment gave bitterness to their anger, and revenge pointed every shaft of malice.
When the news of Governor Reynolds'appointment reached Georgia, it was hailed with joy. Lands were taken up, settlers nocked in, trade increased, and pros perity began to manifest itself in the once desolate places of Georgia. But the indications for good soon vanished. The Governor did not come up to their

RESUMES HIS NAVAL RANK.

425

high-wrought expectations; and that was crime enough in the eyes of most of the colonists to demand his impeachment.
Oil the part of the Governor, it should be considered, that his position was one peculiarly trying. Unused to legislative bodies, unconversant with courts of law, unversed in the functions of his office, he was trans ferred from the quartei'-deck of a man-of-war to the helm of a royal province; and was required to begin, arrange, digest, and carry out the many necessary steps and changes in the first establishing of a new and, to the people, untried form of government. This required a patience, energy, knowledge, and firmness, which Governor Reynolds did not possess. He was not ade quate to the duties which his station required; and yielding to the machinations of his private secretary, he made himself obnoxious, by devolving upon a para site, powers which himself should have used with knowledge and discretion.
Governor Reynolds now resumed his rank in the navy, in which, prior to going to Georgia, he had dis tinguished himself, in an engagement with a French ship-of-war, which he captured, and carried into Eng land.
In 1759, he commanded the Firme, of sixty guns, in the fleet of Sir Edward Hawke, off Brest; and as the French, in their design of invading His Majesty's dominions of Great Britain, purposed, in consequence of being so closely watched at Brest, to make their principal embarkation of troops35 at Vannes, in Lower Brittany, where they had assembled a large number of transports, Sir Edward Hawke detached Capt. Rey-

35 Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs, London, 1804, ii. 322,

426

HIS DEATH.

nolds, in the Firme, with three ships of fifty guns, seven frigates, and a fire-ship,36 of which squadron Capt. Rey nolds was made commodore, to watch their motions and prevent their sailing. Commodore Reynolds con tinued the blockade of Quiberon Bay all summer, and only resigned his place to Capt. Duff when the state of his vessel caused him to return to England to refit. In November, however, when the news ran through Eng land that the French fleet, long locked up by Sir Ed ward in Brest, had sailed, Reynolds was again sent out in the Firme, to join the admiral; but arrived too late to share in the great victory which the English had already obtained, on the 20th of November. In 1775, he was made Rear Admiral of the Blue ; and from this lowest grade of admirals, he was subsequently appoint ed Admiral of the Blue, and died in January, the year following.37

30 Beatson's Naval and Military Me- 3 " Gent. Magazine, Feb., 1788. moire, in. 240.

CHAPTER III.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR ELLIS.
ON the recall of Governor Reynolds, Henry Ellis was appointed (August 15th, 1756) Lieutenant Gov ernor of Georgia.
This gentleman, born about the year 1720, early distinguished himself as a student of the natural sciences, and by his enthusiasm for geographical dis coveries. In 1746 he was selected by the committee of Parliament " for prosecuting discoveries, to find a new passage to the Pacific," as their agent to take charge of the expedition, and direct and control its movements. As a stimulus to this daring enterprise, government had offered a reward of 20,000 sterling to the successful discoverer of this long sought for, but yet unfound, passage. Two vessels, the Dobbs, Cap tain Moore, and the California, Captain Smith, were fitted out for this expedition, and to Ellis was en trusted the duty of making draughts of all the newly discovered countries; the bearings and distances of headlands; to mark the soundings, rocks, and shoals upon the coast; to examine the water, the variations of the compass, the different nature of the soils ; and to collect birds, animals, minerals, plants, and every other kind of natural curiosity directing the entire movements of the vessels, being the one with whom rested the responsibility of the whole undertaking.

428

ELLIS SAILS FOR NORTH-WEST COAST.

On the 24th of May, 1746, he sailed from England, and in July following, after escaping many imminent dangers, entered the straits of Hudson.
For more than a year he made the most vigorous and untiring efforts to find out the wished-for passage. braving the rigours of an'arctic winter, and the varied terrors of navigation in such high latitudes; but he was compelled to relinquish the search and return to Eng land, (October 14th, 1747.)
The next year he published a relation of his voyage and discoveries, which was so well received that it was translated into the French, Dutch, and German languages. The merit of this performance and the value of the services which he had rendered the cause of science being so great, he was, in 1749, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, thus evincing the estima tion in which lie was held by the most learned and scientific body in Great Britain. The government also rewarded his services in its behalf, by appointing him " deputy commissary-general," a post at once lucrative, responsible, and honourable.
Through the influence of his godfather,1 the Earl of Halifax, he received the nomination for the vacant government of Georgia, and was confirmed in it by the King. The gazette of the day,2 noticing his ap pointment to Georgia, adds, " where such an active, sensible, and honest man, is much wanted."
Being detained some time in England waiting for a convoy, he did not reach Charleston until January 27th, 1757, where he was received with much courtesy and

1 MS. Letter of Genl. Jos. Reed, London. I am indebted for this exdated London, llth June, 1764. Mr. tract to the Hon. Wm. B. Reed of R. (subsequently President of Perm.,) Philadelphia. was then a student in the Temple, 3 Lond. Gaz., Aug. 15th, 1756.

RECEPTION OF ELLIS IN SAVANNAH.

42i

attention. Here he tarried only long enough to refresh himself after his weary voyage, and departing for Geor gia, landed at Savannah on the 16th of February, being welcomed to his province with all possible marks of respect and gladness. Nearly all the people had assem bled on the quay to witness his arrival, and sent up long and thrilling shouts as he stepped on shore. But he declined receiving their proffered honours until he should have waited on the Governor, to whom he immediately paid his respects, and was then saluted by the cannon from the battery, and from all the ships in port. lie then accompanied Reynolds to the coun cil-chamber, where his commission as Lieutenant Gov ernor was read in the presence of the members; and when he had taken the required oaths, his Excellency delivered to him the great seal of the province, and he became invested with the full powers of govern ment. In the evening the town was illuminated, and the discharge of guns, the glaring of bonfires, the oftrepeated huzzas, testified the universal joy which his presence diffused. At the same time, Little was burnt in effigy, as " a tyrant in himself, and a pro moter of it in his master." The freeholders of Savannah, of Ogeechee, of Mid way, the Georgia Society, the Masonic fraternity, the Genera] Assembly, each offered him addresses, con gratulating him on his arrival, and themselves on the appointment of a Governor, famed for his high char acter, public spirit, and benevolent disposition. There was allusion in each of these addresses, to the low state of the colony, and to the distressed condition of its most important interests; and all evidenced the high expectations which they had of his willingness

430

JUVENILE SOLDIERS ADDRESS ELLIS.

to redress evils, and of his ability to reform whatever had hitherto retarded the growth and prosperity of the colony. When Governor Reynolds first arrived they hailed his entrance upon the government with fullest enthusiasm; but those hopes, so ardent and elevated, had been crushed by his tyranny: shall they allow themselves to be again as buoyant in their expectations, and revive again their long-buried hopes^ Yes ! they hoped out of very despair. It is to be doubt ed, however, whether any of these addresses gave Gov ernor Ellis more sensible pleasure than that offered to him by a band of juvenile soldiers, who, to the number of thirty-two, had enrolled themselves into a company under the direction of their schoolmaster. This youth ful corps, having first paraded and exercised before the Governor, with great applause, presented to him, by their captain, the following address :
" SIR : The youngest militia of this province pre sume, by their captain, to salute your Honour on your arrival. Although we are of too tender years to com prehend the blessing a good Governor is to a province, our parents will doubtless experience it in its utmost extent, and their grateful tale shall fix your name dear in our memories."

This address was received by Governor Ellis with assurances of his countenance and encouragement in their military performances.
The enthusiastic reception given to Lieut. Governor Ellis, spoke loudly to the ear of Governor Reynolds how unwelcome had been his administration. It was the spontaneous outburst of a whole people, suddenly released from the quarter-deck tyranny and insolence of a duped and ill-guided Governor, and now happily

CONDITION OF THE COLONY.

431

transferred to the mild rule and equitable sway of one, who, while he had the ability to govern, and the firm ness to control, had also the virtues which give lustre to power, and nobility to office. He found the colony in the most distracted state; small in numbers, weak in defences, feeble in resources, split up into factions, and disordered in all its arrangements. Of this he was aware before he entered upon his duties, and resolving to do to the utmost of his abilities, he addressed a me morial to the Earl of Halifax, and to the rest of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, prior to his departure for Georgia,3 setting forth the defence less state of the colony, its importance to Great Brit ain, as well as its being a barrier against the Indians, French and Spaniards; and on these grounds besought their Lordships to procure five hundred stand of arms for the inhabitants, 'a ship of war to protect the coast, and suitable presents to secure the interests of the In dian tribes.
His representation was successful; and the supplies and stores he asked for were sent to Georgia. This was a pleasing earnest of his zeal, and warranted the people in expecting great things from his administra tion. Indeed, his first official act in Georgia was the reformation of abuses perpetrated by his predecessor.
Reynolds had removed two members of the Council on unjust pretexts, and appointed others in their place. So soon as Ellis came into power, he reinstated the former members, and though this reversal took place under the eye of Reynolds, he did it " with such ap parent justice and impartiality that no umbrage was taken even by these gentlemen."4
" I found the people here," says Ellis, " exceedingly

3 Board of Trade, vi. 60.

4 Ib. vii. 107.

432

WISE SUGGESTIONS OF THE GOVERNOR.

dissatisfied with each other, and an almost universal discontent arising from the late proceedings and per sons in power. Few approached me that were not in flamed with resentment, and liberal in invectives; urgent that I should take some immediate and very violent steps, such as a total change in public officers, and the dissolution of the Assembly."
It required firmness of nerve and decision of char acter, to act rightly at such a time, to avoid leaning to one side or the other, when to be neutral was to be esteemed an enemy of both. Happily for the colony she had such a Governor ; and in his first letter to the Board of Trade he evinced a circumspection and judg ment which his modesty and diffidence only served to heighten. " Sensible of my own inexperience, and of the violence of such counsels, fearful of being misled, and aiming rather at healing the wounds, and extin guishing the flame of party, than stirring it anew, I forebore making any material alteration until I should be qualified to act from observation and experience, in order that the changes I shall then make may rather be attributed to iny own judgment than to the advice of designing and interested people. This suspense will give time for men's passions to subside, and for truth to appear through the cloud of party prejudice that at present obscures it."5 Such was the wise and judicious manner in which Ellis began his adminis tration.
The state of the judiciary early arrested his atten tion, and he urged upon the Board of Trade the ne cessity of having a chief justice for the province; for the irregular and unprecedented proceedings of the

* Board of Trade, 108,

VISITS SOUTHERN PART OF GEORGIA.

433

; several courts, owing to the ignorance and partiality of those who presided in them, made the legal interests of the colony exceedingly precarious and unequitable. Oil the one side, to show the power of the people, the grand jury undertook to present the Speaker of the Assembly as a public nuisance ; and on the other, a man was hung two days before the time appointed by the judges, by order of Governor Reynolds, to evince the superiority of the commander-in-chief to all legal tribunals. The importance of sustaining amicable relations to the Indians of erecting several forts on the frontier of having a few troops of rangers to garrison and defend them of encouraging the silk culture were strenu ously set forth in his representations to the Lords Com missioners. In April, he visited the southern portion of his prov ince, and was quite gratified with much that he beheld. He also, as well as Reynolds, adhered to the design of transferring the capital of the colony to Hardwicke.. which he conceived possessed many decided advan tages over the town of Savannah. The depth of water in the river, its more central position, its greater dis tance from Charleston the proximity to which, he argued, restricted the commerce of Savannah the convenience of its harbour as a naval station, and the fertility of its adjacent lands, were the principal motives which operated with him to enforce the plan suggested by his predecessor. As a consequence of clinging to this scheme of removal, Governor Reynolds had neglect ed repairing the public buildings of Savannah, and its inhabitants had ceased enlarging and beautifying a town so soon to be deserted. The Filature was out of repair,, the church was so decayed that it was only kept from 28

434

CONVENES THE ASSEMBLY.

falling down by surrounding it with props, and the prison " was shocking to humanity."
Unwilling to dissolve the Assembly which had been elected under the writs issued by Governor Reynolds, and wishing for a subsidence of popular feeling, conse quent on a change of rulers, before they met, he ad journed it from time to time, that he might be better prepared to guide them aright in that important train of legislation which the necessities of the colony re quired. When prepared for this difficult task, he called this body together, on the 16th of June, when they accordingly met in Savannah. His opening speech was something more than a mere formal address; it was an earnest and heartfelt appeal, coming from one who aimed at the public weal, to the exclusion of all minor and private views. " I can," he says,6 " with unfeigned sincerity, declare, that I enter upon this station with the most disinterested views, without prejudice to any man or body of men, or retrospect to past transactions or disputes, but animated with the warmest zeal for whatever concerns your happiness or the public utility, sincerely inclined to concur with you in every just and necessary measure, and fully resolved, that if, unfor tunately, my wishes and endeavours prove fruitless, to be the first to solicit my recall."
Not only did he express these proper views respect ing his own feelings and purposes, but in tones of like earnestness, he told the two houses " However inter esting the objects that used to engage your thoughts may seem, they certainly bear no proportion to those that now demand your attention. Your religion, your liberty, your all, is at stake. I do, therefore, earnestly exhort you to ..study your true interests, only not to
6 Min. of Council in Assembly, 164.

PEELINGS OP GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL.

435

spend your time, so valuable to yourselves and the pub lic, in the pursuit of things trivial or unseasonable, that may defeat the great ends of your meeting. Lay aside your jealousies of each other and of government, and do not forget that you are a people who have great and daily obligations to your mother country, for support and protection in this your exposed and helpless state."
The Council replied to this address in a strain of com pliment, prompted at once by a personal regard to the Governor, and by the fact of their deliverance from the many troubles they had formerly experienced. " With hearts overflowing with gratitude to the best of kings, for his paternal goodness in taking the distressed cir cumstances of this province into his royal consideration, and appointing your Honour to preside over us, we take this opportunity," they replied, " of congratulating your Honour upon your safe arrival in this province; and promise to ourselves from your Honour's distinguished abilities, acknowledged probity, and unwearied appli cation, that the day of your arrival will prove the era of the prosperity of this colony."
Such were the promises and hopes under which this Assembly met; but a scheme was soon discoArered to disturb the government, laid by the late administration, and fostered by some of the creatures of Reynolds' party who lingered in Georgia. Little, the late speaker, addressed a letter to the Assembly,7 wherein he warns them " not to censure their own conduct" by reversing the representation of the state of the province, and the address of the last session to the Governor; to beware of the insinuations of the new Governor; to distrust the professions of attach-

13 Board of Trade, vii. 21.

436

MACHINATIONS OF GOV. ELLIS'S ENEMIES.

ment made by the officers; together with other advice, delivered in language which carried much more in its meaning than appeared upon its face, and which, while it studiously avoided names or persons, sufficiently in dicated who were meant, and made them appear as the authors of all the colonial evils.
It was designed that this insulting letter should he read by a former councillor, one of Little's friends, whom Ellis had suspended from his seat as councillor and judge, who aimed to be elected a member of the Assembly, and then Speaker of the House. Its intro duction, it was supposed, would cause divisions these, provoke the Governor to dissolve the Assem bly ; and then the disorders arising therefrom were to be made the basis of a representation setting forth the feebleness of Ellis's administration, and the necessity of reinstating Reynolds.
The failure of the ex-councillor and ex-judge to secure his election to the Assembly, defeated the daring scheme, and the mild measures of the Gov ernor soon won over the party of the late chief magis trate : " That hydra faction," says Ellis, " which had long preyed upon the happiness of the people, seems at present expiring."
Of the bills passed by this legislature, but few have much historical interest. Among the acts, was one entitled a bill for the better settling the province of Georgia, the effect of which was, to afford protection to insolvent debtors for seven years, excepting such only as were indebted to Great Britain, Ireland, and the province of South Carolina. It was certainly holding out a very questionable inducement to settle in Georgia, and was giving invitation to men who in jured, rather than benefited, the colony. It needed

ACTS OP THE ASSEMBLY.

437

capital, industry, probity : insolvent debtors have none of the first, and not often either of the others. In dustry might soon create the former the latter could only spring from the teachings of the Gospel. Ellis, however, thought it necessary, and gave his reasons to the Board of Trade under five heads: 1st. The speedy peopling of the colony ; 2d. The application of creditors who have taken shelter in the neutral islands; 3d. The encouragement given to this class by the Governor of St. Augustine ; 4th. Because such a settlement, styled New Hanover, did in fact exist to the south of the Altamaha, without the restraint of government; and 5th. The saving to the country of the personal strength, private property, and needed industry, of many who else would expend all in a neutral or enemy's country.
Another act directed the erecting of log forts in five different districts, viz., Savannah, Augusta, Darien, Ogeechee, and Midway. Another was for the better discipline of the militia, by establishing more frequent musters. Another obliged the inhabitants to carry arms to places of public worship, to prevent surprise from Indians, &c,; and one to discharge the public debt and restore the credit of the province, then at the lowest ebb.
The Assembly was prorogued on the 28th of July, having harmoniously completed the business for which they were convened.
Freed now from the toils of legislative duty, the Governor directed his efforts towards the accomplish ment of two objects the preservation of amity with the Spanish Governor in St. Augustine, and securing the friendship of the Indians. In his first letter to the

438 CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOV. OF ST. AUGUSTINE.

Governor of St. Augustine,8 Ellis pays him some well-

deserved compliments, expresses his regret at the

prospect of soon losing him, and then informs him of

reports,|that the savages meditate a descent on Florida,

and assures him of his strenuous efforts to prevent such

barbarities, and to preserve peace and friendship. The

reply of Fernez de Herridir is equally courteous, but

implies that the disturbances given to the Spaniards

were designed and perpetrated by the English, or

Indians in the British interest. This accusation Gov

ernor Ellis repelled with much spirit, as also the

insinuation of Herridir, that English subjects had

illegally taken up and settled lands in the territory

of His Catholic Majesty.

He next addressed himself to the more difficult task

of quieting the apprehensions, and gaining the confi

dence of the neighbouring Indians. War now existed

between France and England. The disasters which

befel Braddock on the Monongahela, Mercer at Oswe-

go, and Monroe at Fort William Henry, as well as

the total military and moral incapacity of the then

commander-in-ehief, Lord Loudon, roused the spirit

of the colonists; and a change of ministry throwing the

conduct of the war on William Pitt, that able minister,

with a promptness and energy which marked all his

movements, immediately addressed letters to all the

provincial Governors, informing them of the King's

determination to prosecute the war in the most vig

orous manner, and urging them to raise, officer, and

clothe regiments for the defence of their several prov

inces.

The letter sent to Governor Ellis was laid before

the Assembly, then in session. Both Houses took it

into consideration; and in an address9 to the Gov-

8 Board of Trade, viii. 5.

" Ib. vii. 34.

PLANS FOR CONCILIATING THE INDIANS.

439

ernor, exhibited in forcible language the impossibility of furnishing any aid, in consequence of the poverty of the inhabitants, the sparseness of the population, and : the necessities of their own defence. With a larger frontier exposed to the enemy than any other colony, fewer in number, weaker in resources, and yet pro tected by only one troop of twenty rangers, raised in the hurry of an alarm, unpaid and undisciplined, and without any ship of war to guard the coast, it was not within the power of the Assembly to give any of the supplies desired; but on the contrary, they became petitioners, though in vain, for the help they so much needed. The intrigues of the French with the In dians, made it all-important that their amity should be secured ; therefore a conference was proposed be tween Governor Ellis, Governor Lyttleton, of South Carolina, and Colonel Bouquet, the commander of the forces in the southern provinces, to settle upon some plan of operations with the Indians, and such other matters as the occasion demanded. It was agreed that the Creek Indians should visit Charleston, and then Savannah, and by the kind treatment and evidences of strength there seen, impress them with the power and resources of the English. The interview at Beaufort had the further effect of obtaining from Colonel Bouquet an additional force of one hundred provincial troops of Virginia to be quar tered in Savannah, and also the placing of the rangers levied by Governor Reynolds upon the King's estab lishment; which, with the forts erected at Augusta, Ogeechee, Darien, and Midway, and the entrench ments thrown up around Savannah, gave to the col ony a greater strength than it had possessed since the disbanding of the regiment of Oglethorpe.

440 CONFERENCE OF ELL1S WITH CREEK INDIANS.
The Upper and Lower Creek nations, at this time, could bring into the field over two thousand gunmen, quadrupling the military force of the colony ; yet the kind, though firm measures of the Governor, and his unwearied industry, effectually repressed the influence of the French, and held them firm in their alliance to the British crown. A long conference was held by the Governor and Council, with a large body of the chiefs and head men of the Upper and Lower Creeks, beginning on the 25th of October, 1757. 10 Aware of the importance of impressing them with ideas of strength, the Governor directed that they should be received by the first regiment of militia under Colonel Jones; that sixteen cannon should be mounted in different batteries, with flags flying over each, and that a battery of seven guns should be raised before his house, to salute them as they entered the town. Accordingly, as they approached, escorted by the rangers, under Captain Miliedge, they were met by Captain Bryan and a cavalcade of the principal in habitants, who welcomed them to Savannah in the Governor's name, and regaled them in a tent pitched for the purpose. This refreshment over, the proces sion, with the citizens on horseback at the head, and the rangers in the rear, advanced to the town gate, where they were saluted with three cannon from the King's, three from the Prince's, five from Halifax, and five from Loudon's bastions. The citizens paused at the gate, and opening to the right and left, the Indians marched through into the town, where they were received by Colonel Jones, at the head of the regi ment of foot militia, by whom they were conducted, with drums beating and colours flying, to the council-
10 Board of Trade, vii. 89.

CEREMONIES OF RECEPTION.

441

chamber. As the line passed the Governor's house, they were saluted by the battery planted in front, which was followed up by the cannon of the water battery, and the ships in the river. At the councilhouse the regiment filed off to the right and left, and the Indians, marching through the lines which, with greet bearing and presented muskets, made a soldier like appearance, were again received by the company of Virginia Blues, drawn up in front of the steps, who, after giving the salute of a volley, also deployed into parallel columns ; and passing these, they were met by the Governor. There, with extended hand, he thus addressed them : " My friends and brothers, behold my hands and my arms ! Our common enemies, the French, have told you they are red to the elbows. View them ; do they speak the truth ? Let your own eyes witness. You see they are white, and could you see my heart you would find it as pure, but very warm and true to you, my friends. The French tell you, whoever shakes my hands will immediately be struck with disease and die. If you believe this lying, foolish talk, don't touch me. If you do not, I am ready to embrace you." This singular, but to the Indians striking and appro priate speech, had a good effect. They all approached the Governor, and shaking his hand, declared that the French had often deceived them in this manner. Other friendly speeches followed, and the ceremonies of the day concluded by the Governor inviting the head men of the twenty-one towns represented to dinner, where they were entertained in the kindest and most pleas
ing manner. This minute detail of their reception is given as a
specimen of the formalities consequent on these inter-

442

REPETITION OF PARADE.

views, and as illustrative of the resources of the colony, and its ability to make a good showing when circum stances required.
Upon the issue of this council much depended. It was, therefore, attended with more form and circum spection than usual, and its proceedings were watched with intense interest. On the following Thursday, they were again received with the same military parade; and after being seated in the council-chamber, which was thronged with spectators, were thus addressed by the Governor:
" Observe, my friends, how serene and cloudless this day appears ! I cannot but consider it as a good omen of the success of this interview; and I hope that you are all come with hearts resembling it, unclouded by jealousies, and with dispositions suitable to the good work of tightening the chain, and making the path straight forever between us."
This happy allusion to the day, and the use of these figures of Indian rhetoric, had a pleasing effect, and pre disposed them to friendly counsels.
Assuring the Governor that they were the mouth of the nation, he opened before them, with great solemnity, a letter which he had prepared, entitled, " A Letter from the great King to his beloved children of the Creek Nation." This letter, breathing much kindness, was received by them with great pleasure. Its words were still more enforced by the earnest language of the Gov ernor, and were replied to by the Indians, in terms of peace and amity.
The result of this council, which was conducted throughout with great harmony, was the forming of a new treaty of peace and friendship between the Lieu tenant Governor and the council of the Upper and Lower

THIRD SESSION OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

443

Greek Indians, on the 3d of November, 1757," by which the Indian relations with Georgia were placed upon a better footing than they had been for many years.
At the opening of the year 1758, the Governor was enabled to acquaint the Lords of Trade that the peo ple of the colony were, in general, contented, and en joying a great share of happiness and tranquillity, not withstanding the calamities of the times; that a visible spirit of industry and improvement was manifested, and that numbers, driven by fear from the frontiers of the northern colonies, were flocking in to Georgia.
The times were, indeed, calamitous and threatening; but the prudent and judicious course of Ellis preserved Georgia, though the most exposed of all the provinces, from the ruthless attacks of our savage foes.
Thus blessed with peace in the midst of war, the third session of the second General Assembly began in Savannah, on the llth of January, 1758. The prin cipal design of convening the Assembly was to enforce a law passed in the time of the Trustees, to prevent an unlicensed intercourse with the Indians in the neigh bourhood of the province. That law had become obso lete and impracticable, by reason of the vesting of cer tain powers in offices that, since the change of govern ment, ceased to exist. This the out-settlers discovered, and setting up little stores, drew many Indians into the back settlements, got from them their lands, and pro duced evils which threatened serious consequences to the whole colony.
Other laws were also passed, for regulating Indian affairs; for prohibiting slaves from being taught handi crafts ; to limit the time for absentees to make good their claims to lands, and take out the King's grant; to amend
1 ' Board of Trade, 103

444

PROVINCE DIVIDED INTO PARISHES.

the militia act; to amend the market act; to enforce the fortification bill; and to divide the province into parishes, and establish the Church of England worship. The title of this last bill was, " An Act for constituting the seve ral Divisions and Districts of this Province into Parishes, and for establishing Religious Worship therein, accord' ing to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Eng land ; and also for empowering the Church Wardens and Vestrymen of the respective Parishes to assess Rates for the repair of Churches, the relief of the Poor, and other Parochial Service."
The number of parishes into which the province was divided was eight, viz.: Christ Church, including Savannah, Acton, Vernonburg, Sea Islands, and Little Ogeechee; St. Matthew's, comprising Abercorn and Ebenezer; St. George's, embracing Halifax; St. Paul's, Augusta; St. Philip's, Great Ogeechee ; St. John's, Mid way and Sunbury; St. Andrew's, Darien ; St. James's, Frederica. This division was necessary for the pur poses of election and regulation, and was but follow ing up the plan pursued in most of the British colo nies. The establishment of the worship of the Church of England by law, was only the nominal transference to His Majesty's province of the statutes of the Brit ish realm, and was designed, not to interfere with or break down other classes of worshippers, but to pro vide by law for supplying the settlements with the ministrations of religion. By this law a salary of 25 per annum was given by government to every clergy man of the Church of England. To have pressed this law upon the consciences of the people, or to have given it a stringent application, would have provoked a just resistance; for, at Ebenezer, Darien, Savannah, and at Abercorn, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the

PETITION OF DISSENTERS.

446

Moravians, had their places of worship and their nrinislering pastors.
Three years before, a petition signed by forty-three freeholders and inhabitants had been presented12 to the Governor and Council, setting forth that "they were dissenters from the Church of England, and professors rf the doctrines of the Church of Scotland, agreeable to the Westminster Confession of Faith," but having no place of worship, were desirous of obtaining a grant of land whereon to build a house, to be vested in cer tain trustees therein named. The petition was grant ed, and a lot assigned, though no immediate steps were taken for the erection of the building. With so many, and such influential dissenters in the colony, it could not have been designed, by the act of the Assembly, to give other than a nominal recognition of the Church of England as the established religion of the realm, and to create certain offices for the better sustaining the interests of the Church, and carrying out the pro visions of the Gospel. Conformity to the Church of England was made no matter of political privilege, and set up as no test of religious opinion. The proceedings of this Assembly, which adjourned on the 15th of March, were marked by the same har mony and good feelings which had characterized the latter part of their former session. As soon as the Assembly rose, Governor Ellis again set out on a tour to the southern parts of the province. At Ogeechee he found the fort erected in a very satisfactory man ner a quadrangle, measuring on each side one hun dred yards, with four bastions pierced for large and small guns. At Midway he was pleased to find that the inhabitants had enclosed their church within a
13 Minutes of Council, 161.

446

GOVERNOR FITS OUT A PRIVATEER.

defence, and erected a battery of eight guns at Stmbury in a position to command the river. Proceeding on to Frederica, its desolate condition, rendered still more sad by a destructive fire which had wasted nearly all of the town which time had spared, gave him much concern. He also went as far as the south end of Cumberland Island, where Fort William stood; and he remarks of this place and Frederica, that General Oglethorpe displayed a great deal of skill in his choice of such situations; and he urges the Board of Trade to make such appropriations as will enable him to re build and defend these important points, for without them, he adds, " this province, and I believe I may add the next, will be very insecure."
In truth, the maritime defence of the colony was of no value. The men-of-war stationed in Charleston suffered the coast of Georgia to be ravaged with im punity, and the Spanish privateers even threatened to dismantle Frederica and Fort William. Ellis com plained of the inefficiency of the King's ships, going only occasionally out, and standing off and on for a few days, and then running back into port and lying idle in the harbour, when the coast was infested with the privateers of the enemy.
Irritated by this inaction, he fitted out a vessel him self for a six weeks' cruise, carrying fourteen carriage and fourteen swivel guns, and ninety men, under com mand of tried and determined officers; showing his promptness in action, and his sense of the danger to which the colony was exposed.
At the next session of the Assembly, which convened on the 13th of November, 1758, the attention of the members was called to the duration of the legislative sessions. As the thing now stood, there was no defi-

LIMITATION OP MEMBERSHIP IN ASSEMBLY. 447
aite limit to the period of membership. This they desired to remedy by fixing a time of service, esteem ing it to be a great hardship " to be obliged to serve the public at a great expense, and without the least prospect of being at any time relieved."13
The House prepared a bill suitable to their views, limiting the duration of the Assembly to three years, and threatened to do no business unless the Governor would pass it. But, by reasoning with the leaders, he was enabled to pass it over for the present, until he could be instructed thereon by the Lords of Trade. To this body he represented the importance of fixing the time of service at five or seven years, assuring them that if something of this sort was not done, the discon tents of the people would increase, and be productive of disagreeable consequences. The Assembly was ap peased in this manner for a little time ; but it was soon revived, and the Governor suffered it to pass both Houses, but then laid it aside, by the parliamentary form, " that he would consider it."
The disappointment in being thus thwarted, drew from them an address to the Governor, in which they entreated him to lay before the Lords of Trade the great inconvenience to which many of the members from the frontier districts were put, in leaving their affairs for such a length of time, and such a series of years; as also the importance of distributing the offices of government more equally among the people. The Governor did urge it upon the Board of Trade, second ing with much force the representation of the Assembly.
The faithful services of Ellis, and his unremitted devotion to the interests of the province, were duly appreciated by the Lords of Trade; and at their repre-
13 Board of Trade, viii. 92.

448

ELLlis Ari'OIIsTED FUI.L GOVERNOR,

sentation he was, on the 17th of May, 1758, appointed Governor-in-chief of the colony an honour fairly woe by arduous and meritorious service.
One of his first acts as Governor, was to carry out an order of Mr. Pitt, to remove the people who had settled on the lands intervening between the Altamaha and the St. John's. Over three hundred persons had con gregated thither, and giving to their settlement the name of New Hanover, lived under no law and were amenable to no authority. 14 The reasons assigned for their removal were, the illegality of their claims, the dangerous consequences to South Carolina and Georgia from the influence which they had with the Indians, and which they would use as freak or favour directed, and the disturbance they might create between the Spanish authorities in Florida and the government of Georgia.
The Governor of South Carolina was to join Ellis in breaking up this marauding settlement; but in order to do it in the mosi quiet and effectual manner, it-was resolved to appoint a deputy from each provincial legis lature, who should go to the settlement, armed with appropriate powers, to make their observations, and devise such plans as the emergency required. Accord ing to their instructions, the two commissioners, so soon as they arrived at New Hanover, were to cause their commissions to be read, and after their ptiblication were to give orders in His Majesty's name that they should remove forthwith, appointing a certain day with in which the removal was to be effected.
The commissioners arrived at New Hanover on the 1st of February, 1759, and found the settlement eligi bly situated on the banks of the Satilla river, thirty
14 Board of Trade, 49.

BREAKING UP OP NEW HANOVER.

449

miles from its mouth. Here they were kindly received, and found that, though some of the settlers had made valuable improvements, in what the commissioners stated to be " one of the finest parts of North America," "they very submissively agreed to abandon them, con formable to His Majesty's commands, as signified to them in a notification given to them by the commis sioners, requiring them to vacate the territory by the first day of March." Proceeding immediately to Cum berland Island, they repeated the same summons there, but did not meet with the same kindly disposition, " as many of the most profligate and refractory stayed away, and were suspected of having received encouragement from the Governor of Florida to settle there, in con junction with a number of Spanish families recently sent thither from their islands, purposely to establish a colony in those regions. The unpleasant business was, however, effected; and by the 6th of March, the cornttianding officer at Frederica could report that all had ?acated New Hanover, and all but one left Cumberland Island, who had remained to take care of the effects. Yet the breaking up of this settlement was only tem porary in its effects, as many found their way back, and sat down again on the fields which they had been com pelled to forsake. Nor was it enough for the Board of Trade to break up this heterogeneous population on the outskirts of the colony; they felt unwilling to intro duce any settlers of even questionable character, and therefore refused to assent to the act passed the first year of Eliis's administration, making Georgia an asylum for insolvent debtors of the provinces north of South Carolina ; and Ellis, after it had been kept in abeyance for three years, was compelled to admit that it had been of little use; and it was consequently repealed.
29

450

BOSOMWORTH'S AFFAIR.

He was more successful in. settling the long-litigated claim of the Bosomworths, which had been prolonged to this period. Through the medium of Little, over whom they easily acquired an ascendency, they were enabled to obtain the favour of Governor Reynolds, by whom they were encouraged to press their claims, assured of his countenance and support.
These restless people, though quieted for a time by the firmness and zeal of the late President and assist ants, were only waiting a favourable opportunity to agitate anew the subject, and extort a large sum by the sale or surrender of their claims. Involved in debt contracted upon this expectation, and supported in their pretensions by a party among the Indians, and some individuals in Carolina, they resolved to attempt enlisting the royal Governor, hoping by the weight and prerogative of his authority to accomplish their designs.
The memorial which, at the suggestion of Lieutenant Colonel Heron, had been sent in behalf of Mary to the Duke of Bedford, then one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, in 1747, was by command of the King, 15 left to the consideration of the two agents that should be appointed for the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia for the distribution of Indian presents, to give the Bosomworths such parts as they should ad vise. The agent selected by South Carolina was the brother of Thomas Bosonvvvorth, and of course devoted to their interest. Artfully laying before the Governor and Assembly a statement of affairs, he induced that body, through their committee of conference, to advise, and the Governor accordingly to instruct the agent, to take the affair of Mrs. Bosomworth first into consid-
15 Board of Trade, v. 143.

THEY MEMORIALIZE THE EARL OF HALIFAX. -151
eration, and give her such a moiety of presents as the joint agents should think fit. The agent appointed from Georgia refused most properly to co-operate with the too partial agent of South Carolina, in thus sanc tioning claims, and distributing gifts, merely to aggran dize his own family; and no arrangements could of course be made.
The machination of his brother, the Indian agent of South Carolina, was too glaring not to be seen and thwarted, and though every influence was brought to bear in Georgia to his advantage which could possibly be excited, yet the minds of the President and assist ants were too well informed to be blinded by pathetic appeals or supposititious services; and they were too firm to be intimidated by threats, or overawed by de nunciation. After the failure of this scheme, Bosomworth and his wife went to England, and in 1754 again memorialized the Earl of Halifax and the other Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. This claim was prosecuted before the Lords Justices in council, by the attorney of the Bosoinworths, who referred it to the Board of Trade, and by them it was sent over for the consideration of the Governor in Council. To this body, or rather to Governor Rey nolds, Bosomworth, on his return to Georgia, addressed a long narrative embracing a history of the whole case, and commenting with great severity and crimination upon the journals and proceedings of the President and assistants.
The time chosen by Bosomworth for thus gaining the support of the Governor, evinced his cunning; as the Council and Executive were then at variance con cerning the conduct of Little, against whom they had freely remonstrated. Most of the Council had been

452 GOV. REYNOLDS SIDES WITH BOSOMWORTH.
members of the old board of President and assistants, and being now in an antagonist position to the Gov ernor, Bosom worth felt assured of the patronage of the Executive, and the success of his party. The narra tive of Bosomworth was laid before the Council, on the very day that this body remonstrated with the Governor for his unwarrantable conduct; and as four of the five remonstrants were assistants under the Trustees, the Governor eagerly listened to anything that might humble them, and oppose their views, Bosomworth also attended in person, and his case, with accompanying papers, was referred to the con sideration of Mr. Clifton, the attorney general. The subsequent Friday this law officer reported, that having examined the documents, he found the question to be a matter of right that could only be tried by a jury in a court of law, and was not cognizable by the Gov ernor and Council. The one-sided course of the Governor in this matter, was especially evidenced in the conference held at Augusta in December, by his minion, and the Bosomworths' staunch friend, William Little. At this conference the Bosomworths were present, and allowed, by means of questions to which answers were previously framed, and by a scheme well planned, to give their own complexion to the council, and make it subservient to their sin ister designs. Nothing can more demonstrate the self-aggrandizing schemes of the Governor and his secretary, than the course of their proceedings in this matter. Instead of remaining unbiased judges, aiming only to serve the best interests of the colony, they became absorbed partizans and interested clients, and bent down the powers of the government, and the

PROPOSALS OP BOSOMWORTH.

453

prerogative of the crown, to advance their selfish aims and monied interests.
The arrival of Governor Ellis checked for a time any further advances. lie pursued a course at once wise and beneficial, and was enabled to bring the long troubled matters to an amicable conclusion. Sounding | the Bosomworths, by means of mutual friends, he as certained that they seemed tractable, and soon after sent them proposals for a compromise, engaging to ob tain an absolute cession of those lands to the crown, provided his terms were accepted.
The proposals submitted by the Bosomworths recited their just claims to the territory in dispute ; yet as they had already been put to great expense in voyaging to and from England, in employing counsel, and in other ways prosecuting their claims, and as its further pur suance involved still further expenditures, they agreed, by good and effectual conveyances in law, to releaseall their right, title, and interest whatsoever in and to the said islands Ossabau, Sapelo, and the tract of main land lying between Savannah and Pipemaker's Creek, for the sum of 3,000 sterling ; the island of St. Cath erine's, whereon he lived, being reserved and con firmed by a King's grant to himself. These terms Ellis thought too high, but told the Board of Trade that he believed at least two-thirds of the sum might be raised by the sale of the islands alone.
In the summer of 1759, the Governor received in structions from His Majesty, dated 9th of February, to settle this long-depending dispute. In order that there might be no after-question as to the perfect right of the English to these lands, the Indian council, by their treaty of the 22d of April, 1758, ceded them all to His Majesty; but of this cession the government could not

454

CLAIMS SETTLED.

take advantage because of the caveat of Mr. Bosomworth. To satisfy the Bosom worths was the next step, and this was done by admitting a claim of Mrs. Bosomworth for 450, for and on account of that value in goods expended by her in His Majesty's service in the years 1747 and 1748 ; and by allowing her a back salary, at the rate of one hundred per annum, for six teen years and a half, during which time she had acted as government agent and interpreter, confirming to them the right and title to St. Catherine's Island, in consideration of their having built and planted there. These dues to Mrs. Bosomworth were to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the islands Ossabau and Sapelo; which being put up at auction on the 14th of April, the former brought 1350, and the latter 700. The lauds lying about Pipemaker's Creek sold for over 638, the proceeds of which were to be applied to gov ernmental purposes.
Thus after long years of litigation, after the most threatening disturbances, after scenes of turmoil and chicanery that embroiled the colony almost in civil war, and put in serious jeopardy its best interests, was this troublous claim adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties, and upon terms honourable and beneficial to each.
The sincerity of Bosomworth's professions was evinced by the employment of his influence among the Creeks, when Ellis, in order to divert the threatened invasion of the Cherokees, sought to provoke a war between these nations, and thus prevent the lookedfor incursions. Ellis, in conjunction with Governor Lyttleton, laboured strenuously to bring the Chero kees into a treaty, and indeed succeeded; but they proved recreant to the conditions stipulated, and both

ELLIS REQUESTS A RECALL.

455

colonies were menaced with the torch and the toma hawk of these mountain warriors. The blow, how ever, fell upon Carolina, and Georgia escaped with the loss of only three or four lives. I The health of Ellis was seriously injured by the clif mate of Georgia; indeed it was his opinion that the I inhabitants of Savannah breathe a hotter air than any \ other people on the face of the earth; and to confirm 1 this statement, he adds, "I have traversed a great part of this globe, not without giving some attention to the peculiarities of each climate, and I fairly pronounce that I never felt such heat anywhere as in Georgia." 16 Nor was it the heat alone that undermined his con stitution. The changes of winter he speaks of as equally deleterious, wherein he describes the ther mometer as being at 86 on or.e day, and only 38 on another. His health soon gave way; and in Novem ber, 1759,n he solicited a recall, and the appointment of a successor, feeling unable to continue another sum mer in. Georgia. His request was granted; and on the 13th of May, 1760, James Wright was appointed Lieutenant Governor; but he did. not arrive until the following October, arid Ellis was consequently com pelled, amidst much debility, to pass another season of heat and sickness. Having delivered over the affairs of government to Mr. Wright, the Governor took his departure from Georgia the 2d of November, 1760. The people were much distressed at his removal; for his kind and paternal administration had deeply and favourably impressed all with a sense of his integrity and worth. The Council, the Commons House of As sembly, the Georgia Society, the merchants, the citi-

16 Philosophical Transactions, vol. 50, part 2d. 7/U. 17 Board of Trade, ix. 1.

456

DIFFICULTIES OF HIS ADMINISTRATION.

zeus of Augusta, and other public and corporate bodies, presented him most affectionate addresses, regretting his departure, extolling his administration, commend ing his character, and praying for his welfare. The Union Society, besides their address, presented him with a handsome piece of plate, as a token of the pub lic gratitude of the inhabitants of Savannah. How different was his departure from that of Reynolds! The latter, was followed by the maledictions of the people, beloved by none, condemned by all the good and honourable : the former, was laden with affection ate addresses, and kindly feelings, and the unquestion able evidences of love and devotedness. The one was a tyrant, and received a tyrant's execrations; the other, like Ulysses, "swayed his people with a father's love."
The administration of Ellis was highly beneficial to Georgia. He found it in the most distracted state. Discord had glutted itself with the broken peace and blasted hopes of the settlers; representatives had been forcibly expelled from the Assembly; members ejected from the Council; judges displaced from the bench; officers turned out in merest caprice ; menial bodyservants of the Governor and secretary were appointed to posts of honour; and confusion and misrule per vaded the whole province. It was no easy task to bring order out of this chaotic mass. But Ellis began with temperate measures and gentle means; engaging by his mildness and urbanity the affections of the peo ple, and yet firm and decided in putting down, one after another, the evils to which the province was subjected.
The flourishing state of the colony was evidenced by the increase of settlers, and the extension of trade. The population now numbered about ten thousand ; 18
1 " Board cf Trade, viii, 93.

ELLIS'S MANAGEMENT OP INDIAN AFFAIRS.

457

the enrolled militia had nearly doubled; and the com merce of the province had augmented in a still greater proportion. During the year 1758 there were export ed 25,000 weight of indigo, 5,500 hogsheads of rice, besides a very large quantity of corn and lumber to the West Indies.
By nothing, however, was the ability of Ellis more tested than by his management of Indian affairs. These, during his administration, were very compli cated and precarious. The French and Indian wars, the Spanish depredations on the southern borders, the ill management of the British Indian agents, and the singular and irritating course pursued by the Governor of South Carolina, made it a matter of much difficulty to arrange, harmonize, and pacify the frontier tribes, and-preserve the outskirts of the province from those savage incursions which had desolated the back set tlements of the other provinces.
Indian warfare, in a thinly populated district, is but a succession of massacres and cruelties; and the de fenceless inhabitants of the upper parts of Georgia were stricken with the fears which such hostilities engender. It is unnecessary to pause over the history of this war, which mostly expended itself in other colo nies ; suffice it to say, that by the prudence, decision, and admirable measures of Governor Ellis, the frontiers of Georgia were preserved from much of the distressing ravages which had else fallen upon them with scath ing vengeance. He gathered the Indians to him in council spoke to them friendly talks conciliated their feelings redressed their wrongs, and made them feel that he was their father and protector. The hu man heart is the same, whether in the wigwam of the savage, or in the tapestried halls of power; it ever,

458

APPOINTED GOVERNOR, OP NOVA SCOTIA.

like Memnon's statue, murmurs responsive music to the warm rays of affection, and answers back kindly in fluences by reciprocal friendship. Gain the heart and you have gained the man ; and the savage, equally with the pale man, is led by the cords of sincerity and love, Through these judicious measures the belligerent spirit of the bordering tribes was repressed, friendly alli ances were formed; and Georgia experienced no other consequence of this long and disastrous war, than har assing alarms and threatened invasions, though the frontiers of Carolina were bathed in blood and black ened by the smouldering ruins of the midnight incen diary.
The administration of Ellis was quiet and equable, marked by no towering event save the Indian Avar, but characterized rather by a gradual improvement of affairs, the adjustment of long-litigated points, an in flux of population, the advancement of trade, and the tranquillity and happiness of the more populous dis tricts. The period of his connection with Georgia will ever be in her history, like the calm hour of sun shine after a tempest has blackened the sky.
After leaving Georgia, he visited the northern prov inces on his return to England, and was everywhere received with marks of courtesy and attention. Again, through the influence of the Earl of Halifax, through whose agency NoATa Scotia became a royal government, as well as for his own merit, he was in April, 1760, appointed Governor of Nova Scotia.
He held the station two years and a half, but with out leaving England/9 when he resigned his commis sion. He is represented as having much influence with government, and as enjoying, through the favour of
19 Haliburton's Nova Scotia, i. 317.

HIS DEATH.

459

the Earl of Halifax, sinecures to the amount of 800 per annum.
In consequence of continued ill-health he went to France, and located himself at Marseilles. In 1805 he resided in Naples, and even then was occupied in his favourite maritime researches. But he died the next year, over eighty-five years old. He was, at his death, the father of the " Royal Society," having been longer connected with it than any other member enjoying the honour of a Fellow nearly fifty-seven years having been admitted to membership about nine months be fore the election of General Oglethorpe.
The colony planted by Oglethorpe, nurtured by the Trustees, fostered by Parliament, tyrannized over by Reynolds, and cherished by the kind government of Ellis, had passed its infancy and youth an infancy of weakness, a youth of sorrow and now began to rejoice in the first freedom of its early manhood. It gave prom ise of a noble maturity; the results of that pomise constitute the theme of our remaining history.
Let there then go up a tribute of gratitude to Him, through whose protecting care alone, this " little one has become a thousand," and this " small one a great nation," because " the Lord hath spoken it."

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

APPENDIX.
LIST OF THE TRUSTEES. WITH NOTICES OF THE SAME.
TRUSTEES APPOINTED BY THE CHARTER.
JOHN, LORD PERCEVAL. Tins nobleman lineally descended from Ascelin Goucl de Perceval, who accompanied William the Conqueror to Eng land was the son of Sir John Perceval, Knight and Baronet of Ireland. After becoming a Privy Councillor of Ireland, and a member of its Parliament for many years, he was elevated to the Peerage of that kingdom, in 1715, as Baron Perceval; in 1722, was created Viscount Perceval; and in 1733, was advanced to an Earldom in Ireland, as Earl of Egmont. (Burke, in his " Peerage and Baronetage," makes the patent for this last title to be given in conse quence of Lord Perceval's being nominated first President of the Trustees for settling Georgia. But this is not so ; for he was nominated President only for the first meeting; and after their organization, the office was held in rotation, a different member presiding at each meeting : and further, the Trustees had existed as a body nearly a year and a half before the patent of Earldom was granted to Lord Per ceval.) He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a writer of several works of much merit; among them was a small volume styled, " Remarks upon a Scandalous Piece entitled, ' A Brief Account of the Causes which have re tarded the Colony of Georgia;' being a reply to a pam phlet written by Thomas Stephens, son of William Stephens,

464

APPENDIX.

President of Georgia, tmd Sir Richard Everhard, son of Sir Richard Everhard, formerly Governor of North Carolina." He was a firm friend, a faithful Trustee, and a generous benefactor to Georgia. He died the 1st of May, 1748. His second daughter, Helen, was married to Lord Rawdon, a British officer during the Revolutionary War, and so celebrated throughout the Southern States for his unrelent ing severity, and especially for his inhuman conduct in the
murder of Colonel Isaac Hayne.

2. EDWAKD DIGBY. This gentleman was the grandson of Baron Digby; and on the death of his grandfather his father having pre deceased he succeeded him, in 1752, in the Peerage of Ireland, as sixth Baron Digby, having been previously a member of Parliament, and one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales. His brother Robert, an Admiral in the Royal Navy, married the daughter of Andrew Elliott, Esq., Governor of New York. Lord Digby never married ; and dying in 1757, the honours of that ancient house devolved on his brother Henry, who
was subsequently advanced to the dignities of Viscount
Coleshill and Earl Digby.

3. GEORGE, LORD CARPENTER, The second Baron of that name, was the only son of Lieutenant-General the Right Honourable George Lord Car penter, commander-in-chief of all the forces in Scotland. Lord Carpenter was Lieutenant-Colonel in the First Regi ment of Horse Guards. He died in 1749, leaving an only son, who was subsequently created Viscount Carlingford
and Earl of Tyrconnel.

4. JAMES OSLETHORPE, M. P.
5. GEORGE HEATHCOTE, M. P., Alderman of London; and in 1740 elected Lord Mayor, but declined.

6. THOMAS TOWER, M. P.

7. ROBART MOORE, M. P.

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

465

8. ROBERT HTOKS, M. P. A wealthy brewer; died 21st of November, 1745.
9. ROGER HOLLAND, M. P.
10. WILLIAM SLOPEK, M. P. Died January 14th, 1743.
11. SIR FRANCIS EYLES, Bart., M. P. One of the Commissioners of the Navy.
12. JOHN LAROCHE, M. P. Died 20th of April, 1752.

13. JAMES VERNON, Esq. Son of James Vernon, Secretary of State to William III. He was appointed Envoy to the King of Denmark; and was spoken of when not twenty-five years old as "a young gentleman who hath had a fine education, is master of abundance of learning, is very modest and sober." He was one of the Commissioners of Excise, and died in 1756.

14. WILLIAM BELITHA. Soon resigned, on account of confinement in the country.

15. REV. JOHN BURTON, D.D. He was the son of a clergyman, and made such proficiency in learning, that when seventeen years old he was admitted to a scholarship in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At the age of twenty-one he took the degree of B.A. and was ap pointed soon after to read the Greek Lecture. In 1733 he was elected to a fellowship in Eton College, and presented to a vicarage of Maple-Derham, in Oxfordshire. Here he married the wife of his predecessor, Rev. Dr. Littleton, but at her death, in 1748, he removed to Eton College, and devoted the greater part of his time to literary pur suits. In 1752 he was made D.D., and in 1766 was pre ferred to the rectory of Warplesdon in Surry. The day before his death, on Sunday eve, he sent, as had been his custom, for five or six promising youths, and after supper discoursed to them with much force and elegance on some important subject of divinity. At their departure he re tired to rest, and died the next morning, February
30

466

APPENDIX.

1771, aged seventy-six. Dr. Burton was a voluminous writer in various departments of literature a man of acknowledged talents, and most amiable and winning vir tues. " A man like this," says his Latin biographer, Dr. Bentham. " though invested by no ecclesiastical dignities, though adorned with no cathedral titles, must certainly be deemed praiseworthy, and his many virtues must long be remembered and honoured."
16. REV. RICHAED BUNDY, D.D. Prebend of Westminster, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the King. He died prior to 1740.
17. REV. ARTHUR BEDFORD, A.M. Chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He was a pious and very learned clergyman, and the author of many interest ing and valuable works. Among them were, " Animad versions upon Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended," and " Scripture Chronology demon strated by Astronomical Calculations, and also by the Year of Jubilee and the Sabbatical Year among the Jews :" London, 1730, fol. Dr. Waterland characterized this as " a very learned and elaborate work." He was also a good Oriental scholar, and edited the Arabic New Testa ment and Psalter. He died 13th of September, 1745.
REV. SAMUEL SMITH, LL.B., Of Magdalen College, Oxford, and rector of All Hallows on the Wall. He preached the second sermon to recom mend the charity of the Trustees, for which he received the thanks of that body.
19. ADAM ANDERSON, A native of Scotland, and forty years clerk in the South Sea House, and afterwards chief clerk of the " Stock and new Annuities," which place he held till his death in 1763. He was the author of that most valuable work, (afterwards enlarged by David McPherson,) " Historical and Chrono logical Deduction of Trade and Commerce from the earliest accounts to the present time, containing a History of the great Commercial Interests of the British Empire. 2 vols. fol. 1762."

LIST OP TRUSTEES.

467

W, THOMAS CORAM, Called also Captain. By his sole application he obtained the charter for the Foundling Hospital, and the bounty on naval stores imported from British plantations. He was also eminently concerned in the colony of Nova Scotia as well as Georgia, and had made considerable progress in a scheme for uniting the Indians in North America more closely to the British interest, by an establishment for the education of Indian girls. All his thoughts, indeed, were turned towards schemes of public utility. He died 29th February, 1751, and was interred with great solemnity, in the vault under the chapel of the Foundling Hospital. The charter of the hospital was earned before the corpse, on a velvet cushion, the children walking before it. The pall was supported by eight persons of distinction. A great number of governors followed the body in deep mourning, and were met by the choirs of Westminster and St. Paul's, who performed a solemn service composed by Dr. Boyce.
'21. REV. STEPHEN HALES, D.D. This eminent naturalist and divine was born in Kent, in 1677, and was the grandson of Sir Robert Hales, Bart. He was educated at Bennet College, Cambridge, of which he was elected Fellow in 1702. Having graduated M.A., he entered into holy orders, and became rector of Farringdon, in Hampshire. In 1717 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1739 received its annual gold medal for a. valuable scientific paper. In 1733 the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.D., a distinction the more honourable as it was not usual for either of the two Univer sities, Oxford or Cambridge, to confer honours on those educated without its walls. On the death of Sir Hans Sloane in 1753, he was elected in his place a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. Intimate in his friend ship and intercourse with His Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, who frequently visited him at Zeddington from his neighbouring palace at Kew,,he was, at his de cease, in 1750, appointed without his solicitation or even knowledge, clerk of the closet, or almoner to Her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager. The King also manifest-

468

APPENDIX.

ed his esteem by nominating him to a canonry of Windsor; but though a most honourable and lucrative preferment, he declined it, and died after a life devoted to the public good, on the 4th of January, 1761. He was among the most eminent naturalists of his day ; and Haller has eulo gized him by saying that he was " pious, modest, indefati gable, and born for the discovery of truth."
He was remarkable for social virtue and sweetness of temper. His life was not only blameless, but exemplary in a high degree. " Perhaps," says Dr. Aiken, " the rec ords of biography cannot produce a character more marked by the union of blamelessness with active benevolence." He published a number of sermons, and contributed many valuable papers to the transactions of the Royal Society. Pope had a high esteem for " plain parson Hales," whom he looked upon as a model of sincere piety. He was one of the three witnesses of Pope's last will.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1733.
22. JAMES STANLEY, EARL OF DERBY. As Colonel Stanley, he was Groom of the Bedchamber to King William ; but on the death of his brother, William George Richard, in 1702, without male issue, he succeeded to his title and estates, as the tenth Earl of Derby. He is represented as being more of a soldier than a statesman, (Mackay's Memoirs, 63.) He died in the beginning of 1736.
23. ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. He was the great-grandson of the first Earl of Shaftesbury, who was Lord High Chancellor of England, and one of the Lords Proprietors of South Carolina. The father of the Trustee was the third Earl, the author of " Characteristics," (not the Trustee, as Grahame, iii., and Bancroft, iii., declare,) and designated by Voltaire as the " boldest English philo sopher of the time." It was his son who was the Trustee for Georgia, and one of the most indefatigable members of the corporation. He died in May, 1771.

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

469

24. JOHN, LORD TYRCONNEL, Was Sir John Brownlow, fifth Bart, of Humby, and M. P. for Lincolnshire. He was elevated to the Peerage of Ire land, as Baron Charleville and Viscount Tyrconnel, in 1718. He died in 1754.
25. JAMES, LORD LIMERICK. Advanced, in 1756, to the dignity of an Earl in the Irish Peerage, by the title of Earl of Clanbrasil, in the county of Armagh.
26. JAMES, LORD D'ARCY. This nobleman was the grandson of Baron D'Arcy, in the Irish Peerage, and succeeded his grandfather at his decease, in 1731, as second Lord D'Arcy, assuming to his own name, Jessop, the surname and arms of D'Arcy. He died in 1733, and with him the barony became extinct.
27. RICHARD CHANDLER, Esq.
28. THOMAS FREDERICK, M. P. The son of Sir John Frederick, Bart.; and upon the death of his elder brother, in 1757, succeeded to the Baronetcy as Sir Thomas Frederick, Bart. Sir Thomas was also a mem ber of Parliament. He died in 1770.
29. HENRY L'APOSTRE, Esq.
30. SIR WILLIAM HEATHCOTE, Bart., M. P. He married the only daughter of the Earl of Macclesfield, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Sir William was a member of Parliament, and died in 1751.
31. JOHN WHITE, Esq.
32. ROBERT KENDALL, Esq. Alderman of London.
33. JOHN PAGE, Esq., M. P.
34. WILLIAM HANBURY, Esq. Successor to the estates of John, Lord Bateman, and grand father of Baron Bateman.
35. CHRISTOPHER TOWER, Esq., M. P.

470

APPENDIX.

36. SIR EKASMUS PHILIPPS, Bart., M. P. A descendant of a very ancient family of that name in South Wales. He was the son of Sir John Philipps, and suc ceeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his father, in 1736,,
37. SIR JOHN GONSON, Knight.
38. GEORGE TYRER, Esq. Alderman of Liverpool.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1734.
39. REV. THOMAS RUN.DLE, D.D. At the time of his election, Dr. Rundle was Prebendary of Durham, and master of the hospital of that city. In Feb ruary, 1735, he was raised to the Bishopric of Deny, in Ireland ; and resigning all his English preferments, removed to his diocese, and took upon him the duties of his episco pate. These were performed with such zeal and fidelity, that in Oct., 1742, he was translated to the Archbishopric of Dub lin. But he did not live to enter upon his new preferment, as he died in 1743, at the age of fifty-seven, leaving a col lection of letters, and memoirs of himself, which were sub sequently published by James Dallaway, M.A.
40. WILLIAM, LORD TALBOT, Was the son of Charles Talbot, Lord High Chancellor of England, and elevated to the peerage, as Baron Talbot. William, Lord Talbot, was the second Baron, and was ap pointed Lord Steward of the King's Household, sworn of the Privy Council, and in 1761, advanced to the earldom, as Earl Talbot. In 1780, his lordship was created Baron Dynevor.
41. RICHARD COOPE, Esq.
42. WILLIAM WOLLASTON, Esq., M. P., Son of the author of " The Religion of Nature." He died in 1764.
43. ROBERT EYRE, Esq. Son of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Eyre, Knight,

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

471

Chancellor to the Prince of Wales, and eventually Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Eyre succeeded his father, in 1735; and was one of the Commis sioners of Excise.
44. THOMAS ARCHER, Esq., M. P. Was elevated to the Peerage, in 1747, as Baron Archer, of Umberslade. His lordship died in 1768.
45. HON. HENRY ARCHER, M. P. A younger brother of the preceding, married to Lady Mon tagu, sister to the Earl of Halifax. He died also in 1768.
46. ROBEKT TEACY, Esq., M. P.
47. FRANCIS WOLLASTON, Esq. Brother of William Wollaston. Died in 1774.
48. SIR ROBERT CATER, Knight, Alderman and Sheriff of London.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1737.
49. SIR JACOB DE BOUVERIE, Bart. Son of Sir William de Bouverie, and brother of Sir Ed ward de Bouverie. Sir William, at his death, in 1717, left 500 sterling for redeeming or subsisting captives taken by pirates in Barbary. Not finding occasion to use it for that purpose, his son, Sir Edward, in consideration that he had enjoyed the money so long, left at his death, in 1736, an additional 500 sterling, to be employed by his brother for the same purpose. But the British Consul in the Kingdom of Fez and Morocco having informed Sir Jacob that there were no English slaves in the Barbary States, he gave the two legacies, amounting to 1,000 sterling, to the Trustees, " to be expended in providing foreign and other servants for the benefit of the colony." Jour. Trust., ii. 7. In 1747, Sir Jacob was elevated to the Peerage, as Lord Longford, Baron of Longford, and Viscount of Falkestone. His eldest son was created Earl of Radnor. Sir Jacob, or Lord Long ford, by his second marriage, with the eldest daughter of

472

APPENDIX.

Lord Romney, had an only son, who, marrying the eldest daughter of the Earl of Harborough, became the father of the celebrated Rev. Edward B. Pusey, D.D., Regius Pro fessor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1738.
50. SIE HARRY GOUGH, Bart., M. P. Was the son of Sir Henry Gough, Knight of Perry, Bart. Sir Harry, when only eleven years old, accompanied his uncle, Sir Richard Gough, to China, where he obtained the name of Jlmy Whang, or the White-Haired Boy. It is re lated, as evidence of the early development of mercantile abilities, that during this voyage he kept all his uncle's ac counts. In 1707, he commanded an East-Indiaman ; and making a large fortune in the China trade, was elected a Director of the Honourable East India Company. He died in 1751, leaving an only son, Richard Gough, the celebrated antiquary.
51. SIR ROGEE BUBGOYNE, Bart., M. P. One of the Commissioners of the Navy. This gentleman was the son of Sir Roger Burgoyne, (the Sir Roger de Coverley of Addison's Spectator,) and married the eldest daughter.of the Earl of Halifax. Sir Roger, who died in 1780, was the cousin of General Burgoyne, who surrendered his army to General Gates, at Saratoga, in 1777.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1739. 52. LOED SIDNEY BEAUCLEEK, M. P.
One of His Majesty's Privy Council, and third brother of the Duke of St. Albans. He died in 1744.
TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1741. 53. HENEY, EARL BATHUEST.
Eminent as a lawyer, he was in 1746 appointed Attorney

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

473

General to Frederick, Prince of Wales; in 1754 one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and elevated to the Peerage as Baron Apsley on being made Lord Chan cellor of England in 1771. In 1775 he succeeded his father as second Earl Bathurst, and died in 1794.
54. HON. PHILIP PERCEVAL.
55. SIR JOHN FREDERICK, BART., M. P. Died in 1755.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1742.
56. HON. ALEXANDER HUME CAMPBELL, M. P. This gentleman, a brother to the Earl of Marchmont, was Solicitor General to the Prince of Wales, and Lord Regis trar of Scotland.
57. SIR JOHN BARRINGTON, Bart, M. P. 58. SAMUEL TUFNELL, ESQ., M. P.
A Commissioner for settling commerce ; died in 1758.
59. SIR HENRY CALTHORPE, K.B.,M. P. At his death in April, 1788, Sir Henry was the senior Knight of the Order of Bath, having been installed in 1744.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1743.
60. SIR JOHN PHILIPPS, Bart., M. P. One of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations; died in 1764. Sir John was a brother of Sir Erasmus Philipps.
61. VELTERS CORNEWALL, Esa., M. P. In recording the death of this gentleman, in 1768, the Gen tleman's Magazine remarks of him, " He was one of those steady patriots whom no promises, rewards, titles, or expec tations, could seduce from the true interests of his country."
62. JOHN WEIGHT, Esq. Of Bolton on Swale ; died in 1748.

474

APPENDIX.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1745.

63. REV. THOMAS W:LSON, D.D, Only son of Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man, senior Prebendary of Westminster, died in April, 1784, aged 80,

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1747.
64. FRANCIS COKAYNE, Esq. Lord Mayor of London.
65. SAMUEL LLOYD, Esq. An eminent Silk Merchant.

TRUSTEES ELECTED IN 1749.
66. EARL or EGMONT, Son of Lord Perceval, first Earl. The Earl was one of the Post Masters General, First Lord of the Admiralty, and, being sworn of the King's Privy Council, was enrolled in the English Peerage as Lord Lovel and Holland. Walpole, in his letter to Sir Horace Man, (Strawberry Hill, March 4th, 1749,) thus speaks of him: " He has always earnestly studied our history, and constitution, and antiquities, with very ambitious views ; and practised speaking early in the Irish Parliament. Indeed, this turn is his whole fund, for though he is between thirty and forty, he knows nothing of the world, and is always unpleasantly dragging the con versation to political dissertations. When very young, as he has told me himself, he dabbled in writing craftsmen and party papers ; but the first event that made him known was his carrying the Westminster election, at the end of my father's ministry, which he amply described in the his tory of his own family, a genealogical work called " The History of the House of Yvery." " Egmont has taken the lead in the opposition, and has made as great a figure as perhaps was ever made in so short a time. He is very bold and resolved, master of vast knowl-

LIST OF TRUSTEES.

475

edge, and speaks at once with fire and method. His words are not picked and chosen like Pitt's ; but his language is useful, clear, and strong. He has already, by his parts and resolution, mastered his great unpopularity, so far as to be heard with the utmost attention ; though I believe nobody had ever more various difficulties to combat." He died in 1772.
T. ANTHONY EWER, Esq.
3. EDWARD HOOPEE, Esq., M. P.
A Commissioner of Customs. He married Dorothy, fourth daughter of the second Earl of Shaftesbury, and grand daughter of the Earl of Rutland.
9. RIGHT HON. SIB JOHN COST, Bart., M. P. This Baronet was the nephew of John, Lord Viscount Tyrconnel, and inherited the estates of that nobleman. After holding several high offices in the household of the Prince of Wales, he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, in 1761, and sworn of His Majesty's Privy Council in 1768. His death, in 1770, was hastened, it is said, by the fatigues of his office. In consideration of the public and honourable ser vices of Sir John, his son, Sir Brownlow Gust, was elevated to the Peerage, as Baron Brownlow.
'0. RIGHT HON. SLINGSBY BETHEL, M. P.
Alderman and Lord Mayor of London ; died in 1758.
1. RIGHT HON. STEPHEN THEODORE JANSEN, M. P. Lord Mayor of London.
'2. RICHAED CAVENDISH, M. P.
One of His Majesty's Commissioners of Customs,

CHARTER
THE COLONY OF GEORGIA
GEORGE THE SECOND, By the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ire
land, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas we are credibly in formed, that many of our poor subjects are, through misfortunes and want of employment, reduced to great necessity, insomuch as by their labour they are not able to provide a maintenance for themselves and families; and if they had means to defray their charges of passage, and other expenses incident to new settlements, they would be glad to settle in any of our provinces in America; where, by cultivating the lands at present waste and desolate, they might not only gain a comfortable subsist ence for themselves and families, but also strengthen our colo nies, and increase the trade, navigation, and wealth of these our realms. And whereas our provinces in North America have been frequently ravaged by Indian enemies ; more especially that of South Carolina, which in the late war, by the neighbour ing savages, "wjas laid waste by fire and sword, and great num bers of the English inhabitants miserably massacred ; and our living subjects who now inhabit there, by reason of the smallness of their numbers, will, in case of a new war, be exposed to the like calamities ; inasmuch as their whole southern frontier continueth unsettled, and lieth open to the said savages; and whereas we think it highly becoming our crown and royal

!

CHARTER.

477

dignity, to protect all our loving subjects, be they never so distant from us ; to extend our fatherly compassion even to the meanest and most infatuate of our people, and to relieve the wants of our above mentioned poor subjects; and that it will be highly conducive for accomplishing those ends, that a regu
lar colony of the said poor people be settled and established in the southern territories of Carolina ; and whereas we have been
well assured, that if we would be graciously pleased to erect and settle a corporation, for the receiving, managing and dis
posing of the contributions of our loving subjects ; divers per sons would be induced to contribute to the purposes aforesaid.
Know ye therefore, that we have,,for the consideration aforesaid, and for the better and more orderly carrying on the said good
purposes, of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, willed, ordained, constituted and appointed, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do will, ordain, constitute, declare and grant, that our right trusty and well beloved John Lord Viscount Purcival, of our Kingdom of Ire land, our trusty and well beloved Edward Digby, George Car
penter, James Oglethorpe, George Heathcote, Thomas Tower, Robert Moor, Robert Hucks, Roger Holland, William Sloper, Francis Eyles, John Laroche, James Vernon, William Beletha, Esqrs., A.M., John Burton, B.D., Richard Bundy, A.M., Ar
thur Beaford, A.M., Samuel Smith, A.M., Adam Anderson, and Thomas Coram, gentlemen, and such other persons as shall be elected in the manner herein after mentioned, and their suc cessors to be elected in the manner herein after directed, be,
and shall be one body politic and corporate, in deed and in
name, by the name of The Trustees for establishing the Colony of
Georgia in America ; and them and their successors by the same name, we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, really and fully make, ordain, constitute and declare, to be one body politic in deed and in name forever; and that by the same name, they and their successors, shall and may have perpetual succession; and that they and their successors, by
that name, shall and may forever hereafter, be persons able and
capable in the law, to purchase, have, take, receive and enjoy,
to them and their successors, any manors, messuages, lands,
tenements, rents, advowsons, liberties, privileges, jurisdictions,

478

APPENDIX.

franchises, and other hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being in Great Britain, or any part thereof, of whatsoever nature, kind or quality, or value they be, in fee and in perpetuity ; not exceeding the yearly value of one thousand pounds, beyond reprises ; also estates for lives and for years ; and all other manner of goods, chattels and things whatsoever they be ; for the better settling and supporting, and maintaining the said colony, and other uses aforesaid ; and to give, grant, let and demise the said manors, messuages, lands, tenements, heredita ments, goods, chattels and things whatsoever aforesaid, by lease or leases, for term of years, in possession at the time of grant ing thereof, and not in reversion, not exceeding the term of thirty-one years, from the time of granting thereof; on which in case no fine be taken, shall be reserved the full ; and in case a fine be taken, shall be reserved at least a moiety of the value that the same shall reasonably and bona fide be worth at the time of such demise ; and that they and their successors, by the name aforesaid, shall and may forever hereafter, be persons able, capable in the law, to purchase, have, take, receive and enjoy, to them and their successors, any lands, territories, pos sessions, tenements, jurisdictions, franchises and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being in America, of what quantity, quality or value whatsoever they be, for the better settling and supporting, and maintaining the said colony ; and that by the name aforesaid they shall and may be able to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended in all courts and places whatsoever, and before whatsoever judges, justices and other officers, of us, our heirs and successors, in all and singular actions, plaints, pleas, mat ters, suits and demands, of what kind, nature or quality soever they be; and to act and do all other matters and things in as ample manner and form as any other our liege subjects of this realm of Great Britain, and that they and their successors for ever hereafter, shall and may have a common seal to serve, for the causes and businesses of them and their successors; and that it shall and may be lawful for them and their successors, to change, break, alter and make new the said seal, from time to time and at their pleasure, as they shall think best. And we do further, grant, for us, our heirs and successors, that the said

CHARTER.

479

corporation and the common council of the said corporation hereinafter by us appointed, may from time to time, and at all times, meet about their affairs when and where they please, and transact and carry on the business of the said corporation. And for the better execution of the purposes aforesaid, we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, give and grant to the said corporation, and their successors, that they and their successors forever, may upon the third Thursday in the month of March yearly, meet at some convenient place to be appointed by the said corporation, or major part of them who .shall be present at any meeting of the said corporation, to be had for the appointing of the said place ; and that they or twothirds of such of them that shall be present at such yearly meeting, and at no other meeting of the said corporation, be tween the hours often in the morning and four in the afternoon of the same day, choose and elect such person or persons to be members of the said corporation, as they shall think beneficial to the good designs of the said corporation. And our further will and pleasure is, that if it shall happen that any person hereinafter by us appointed, as the common council of the said corporation, or any persons to be elected or admitted members of the said common council in the manner hei'eafter directed, shall die, or shall by writing under his and their hands respec tively resign his or their office or offices of common council man or common council men ; the said corporation, or the major part of such of them as shall be present, shall and may at such meeting, on the said third Thursday in March yearly, in manner as aforesaid, next after such death or resignation, and at no other meeting of the said corporation, into the room or place of such person or persons so dead or so resigning, elect and choose one or more such person or persons, being members of the said corporation, as to them shall seem meet: and our will is, that all and every the person or persons which shall from time to time hereafter be elected common council men of the said corporation as aforesaid, do and shall, before he or they act as common council men of the said corporation, take an oath for the faithful and due execution of their office ; which oath the president of the said corporation for the time being, is hereby authorized and required to administer to such person or

480

APPENDIX.

persons elected as aforesaid. And our will and pleasure is, that the first president of the said corporation is and shall be our trusty and well-beloved, the said John Lord Viscount Purcival; and that the said president shall, within thirty days after the passing this charter, cause a summons to be issued to the several mem bers of the said corporation herein particularly named, to meet at such time and place as he shall appoint, to consult about and transact the businesses of the said ' corporation. And our will and pleasure is, and we, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, grant, ordain and direct, that the common council of this corporation shall consist of fifteen in number ; and we do, by these presents, nominate, constitute and appoint our right trusty and well-beloved John Lord Viscount Purcival, our trusty and beloved Edward Digby, George Carpenter, James Oglethorpe, George Heathcote, Thomas Laroche, James Vernon, William Beletha, Esqrs., and Stephen Hales^ Master of Arts, to be the common council of the said corporation, to continue in the said office during their good behaviour. And whereas it is our royal intention, that the members of the said corporation should be increased by election, as soon as conveniently may be, to a greater number than is hereby nominated ; Our further will and pleasure is, and we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and direct, that from the time of such in crease of the members of the said corporation, the number of the common council shall be increased to twenty-four; and that the same assembly at which such additional members of the said corporation shall be chosen, there shall likewise be elected, in the manner herein before directed for the election of common council men, nine persons to be the said common council men, and to make up the number twenty-four. And our further will and pleasure is, that our trusty and well-beloved Edward Digby, Esq., shall be the first chairman of the common council of the said corporation ; and that the said Lord Viscount Purcival shall be and continue president of the said corporation ; and that the said Edward Digby shall be and continue chairman of the common council of the said corporation, respectively, until the meeting which shall be had next and immediately after the first meeting of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation respectively, and no longer: at which said

CHARTER.

481

second meeting, and every other subsequent and future meeting of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation respectively, in order to preserve an indifferent rotation of the several officers of president of the corporation, and of chairman of the common council of the said corporation; we do direct and ordain, that all and every the person and per sons members of the said common council for the time being, and no other, being present at such meetings, shall severally and respectively in their turns, preside at the meetings which shall from time to time be held of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation respectively. And in case any doubt or question shall at any time arise touching or concerning the right of any member of the said common council to preside, at any meeting of the said corporation, or at the common council of the said corporation, the same shall respec tively be determined by the major part of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation respectively, who shall be present at such meeting. Provided always, that no member of the said common council having served in the offices of president of the said corporation, or of chairman of the common council of the said corporation, shall be capable of being or of serving as president or chairman at any meeting of the said corporation or common council of the said corporation, next and immediately ensuing that in which he so served as president of the said corporation, or chairman of the said com mon council of the said corporation respectively; unless it shall so happen, that at any such meeting of the said corporation there shall not be any other member of the said common council present. And our will and pleasure is, that at all and every of the meetings of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation, the president or chairman for the time being, shall have a voice, and shall vote and shail act as a member of the said corporation, or of the common council of the said corporation, at such meeting; and in case of any equality of votes, the said president or chairman for the time being, shall have a casting vote. And our further will and pleasure is, that no president of the said corporation, or chair man of the common council of the said corporation, or member
of the said common council or corporation, by us by these
31

482

APPENDIX.

presents appointed, or hereafter from time to time to be elected and appointed in manner aforesaid, shall have, take or receive, directly or indirectly, any salary, fee, perquisite, benefit or profit whatsoever, for or by reason of his or their serving the said corporation, or common council of the said corporation, or president, chairman, or common council man, or as being a member of the said corporation. And our will and pleasure is, that the said herein before appointed president, chairman or common council men, before he and they act respectively as such, shall severally take an oath for the faithful and due execu tion of their trust, to be administered to the president by the Chief Baron of our Court of Exchequer, for the time being, and by the president of the said corporation to the rest of the com mon council, who are hereby authorized severally and respec tively to administer the same. And our will and pleasure is, that all and every person and persons shall have, in his or their own name or names, or in the name or names of any person or persons in trust for him or them, or for his or their benefit, any office, place or employment of profit, under the said corpora tion, shall be incapable of being elected a member of the said corporation ; and if any member of the said corporation, during such time as he shall continue a member thereof, shall in his own name, or in the name of any person or persons in trust for him, or for his benefit, have, hold, exercise, accept, possess or enjoy any office, place or employment of profit under the said corporation, or under the common council of the said corpora tion ; such member shall from the time of his having, holding exercising, accepting, possessing and enjoying such office, place and employment of profit, cease to be a member of the said corporation. And we do, for us, our heirs and successors, grant unto the said corporation and their successors, that they and their successors, or the major part of such of them as shall be present at any meeting of the said corporation, convened and assembled for that purpose by a convenient notice thereof, shall have power from time to time and at all times hereafter, to authorize and appoint such persons as they shall think fit, to take subscriptions, and to gather and collect such moneys as shall be by any person or persons contributed for the purposes aforesaid, and shall and may revoke and make void such

CHARTER.

483

authorities and appointments as often as they shall see cause so to do. And we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and direct, that the said corporation every year ]ay an .account in writing before the chancellor or speaker, or com missioners for the custody of the great seal of Great Britain, of us, our heirs and successors, the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, the Master of Rolls, the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, of us, our heirs and successors, for the time being, or any two of them, of all moneys and effects by them received or expend ed for carrying on the good purposes aforesaid. And we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, give and grant unto the said corporation and their successors, full power and au thority to constitute, ordain and make such and so many by laws, constitutions, orders and ordinances, as to them or the greater part of them, at their general meeting for that purpose, shall seem necessary and convenient for the well ordering and governing of the said corporation, and the said by-laws, consti tutions, orders and ordinances, or any of them, to alter and annul as they or the major part of them then present shall see requisite ; and in and by such by-laws, rules, orders and ordi nances, to set, impose and inflict reasonable pains and penalties upon any offender or offenders who shall transgress, break or violate the said by-laws, constitutions, orders and ordinances, so made as aforesaid, and to mitigate the same as they or the major part of them then present shall think convenient; which said pains and penalties shall and may be levied, sued for, taken, retained and recovered by the said corporation and their suc cessors, by their officers and servants from time to time to be appointed for that purpose, by action of debt or by any other lawful ways or means, to the use and behoof of the said corpo ration and their successors ; all and singular which by-laws, constitutions, orders and ordinances, so as aforesaid to be made, we will, shall be duly observed and kept, under the pains and penalties therein to be contained, so always, as the said by-laws constitutions, orders and ordinances, pains and penalties, from time to time to be made and imposed, be reasonable, and not contrary or repugnant to the laws or statutes of this our realm; and that such by-laws, constitutions and ordinances, pains and

484

APPENDIX.

penalties, from time to time to be made and imposed ; and any repeal or alteration thereof, or any of them, be likewise agreed to, be established and confirmed by the said general meeting of the said corporation, to be held and kept next after the same,, shall be respectively made. And whereas the said corporation intend to settle a colony, and to make an habitation and planta tion in that part of our province of South Carolina, in America, herein after described ; know ye, that we, greatly desiring the happy success of the said corporation, for their further encour agement in accomplishing so excellent a work, have, of our 'foresaid grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, given and granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant to the said corporation and their successors, under the reservation, limitation and declaration hereafter ex pressed, seven undivided parts, the whole in eight equal parts to be divided, of all those lands, countries and territories situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, in America, which lies from the most northern part of a stream or river there, commonly called the Savannah, all along the sea coast to the southward, unto the most southern stream of a certain other great water or river called the Alatamaha, and westerly from the heads of the said rivers respectively, in direct lines to the South Seas; and all that share, circuit and precinct of land within the said boundaries, with the islands on the sea lying opposite to the eastern coast of the said lands, within twenty leagues of the same, which are not inhabited already, or settled by any authority derived from the crown of Great Britain, to gether with all the soils, grounds, havens, ports, gulfs and bays, mines, as well royal mines of gold and silver as other minerals, precious stones, quarries, woods, rivers, waters, fishings, as well royal fishings of whale and sturgeon as other fishings, pearls, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, franchises, privileges and pre-eminences within the said frontiers and precincts thereof, and thereunto in any sort belonging or appertaining, and which we by our letter patents may or can grant; and in as ample manner and sort as we may, or any our royal progenitors have hitherto granted to any company, body, politic or corporate, or to any adventurer or adventurers, undertaker or undertakers of any discoveries, plantations or traffic of, in, or unto, any foreign

CHARTER.

485

parts whatsoever, and in as legal and ample manner as if the same were herein particularly mentioned and expressed: To have, hold, possess and enjoy the said seven undivided parts, the whole into eight equal parts to be divided as aforesaid, of all and singular the lands, countries and territories, with all and singular other the premises herein before by these presents granted or mentioned, or intended to be granted to them the said corporation and their successors, for ever, for the better support of the said colony; to be holden of us, our heirs and successors, as of our honour of Hampton Court, in our county of Middlesex, in free and common soccage, and not in capite ; yielding and paying therefor to us, our heirs and successors, yearly for ever, the sum of four shillings for every hundred acres of the said lands which the said corporation shall grant, demise, plant or settle ; the said payment not to commence or to be made until ten years after such grant, demise, planting or settling, and to be answered and paid to us, our heirs and suc cessors, in such manner, and in such species of money or notes as shall be current in payment by proclamation from time to time in our said province of South Carolina; all which lands, countries, territories and premises hereby granted, or mentioned and intended to be granted, we do, by these presents, make, erect and create, one independent and separate province, by the name of Georgia, by which name, we will, the same hence forth be called ; and that all and every person or persons who shall at any time hereafter inhabit or reside within our said province, shall be and hereby are declared to be free, and shall not be subject to or be bound to obey any laws, orders, statutes, or con stitutions which have been heretofore made, ordered and enacted, or which hereafter shall be made, ordered or enacted by, for or as the laws, orders, statutes or constitutions of our said province of South Carolina (save and except only the command in chief of the militia of our said province of Georgia, to our governor for the time being, of South Carolina, in manner hereafter declared) but shall be subject to and bound to obey such laws, orders, statutes and constitutions as shall from time to time be made, ordered and enacted, for the better government of the said province of Georgia, in the manner herein after declared. And we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain, will and

486

APPENDIX.

establish, that for and during the term of twenty-one years, to commence from the date of these our letters patent, the said corporation assembled for that purpose, shall and may form and prepare laws, statutes and ordinances, fit and necessary for and concerning the government of the said colony, and not repugnant to the laws and statutes of England, and the same shall and may present, under their common seal, to us, our heirs and successors, in our or their privy council, for our or their approbation or disallowance ; and the said laws, statutes and ordinances being approved of by us, our heirs and suc cessors, in our or their privy council, shall from thenceforth be in full force and virtue within our said province of Georgia. And forasmuch as the good and prosperous success of the said colony, cannot but chiefly depend, next under the blessing of God and the support of our royal authority, upon the provident and good direction of the whole enterprise ; and that it will be too great a burthen upon all the members of the said corpora tion, to be convened so often as may be requisite to hold meet ings for the settling, supporting, ordering and maintaining the said colony : therefore we do will, ordain and establish, that the said common council for the time being, of the said corporation, being assembled for that purpose, or the major part of them, shall from time to time and at all times hereafter, have full power and authority to dispose of, extend and apply all the moneys and effects belonging to the said corporation, in such manner and ways, and by such expenses as they shall think best to conduce to the carrying on and effecting the good pur poses herein mentioned and intended: and also, shall have full power, in the name and on the account of the said corporation, and with and under their common seal, to enter under any covenants or contracts for carrying on and effecting the pur poses aforesaid. And our further will and pleasure is, that the said common council for the time being, or the major part of such common council which shall be present and assembled for that purpose, from time to time and at all times hereafter, shall and may nominate, constitute and appoint a treasurer or treas urers, secretary or secretaries, and such other officers, ministers and servants of the said Corporation, as to them or the major part of them as shall be present shall seem proper or requisite

CHARTER.

487

for the good management of their affairs ; and at their will and pleasure to displace, remove and put out such treasurer or treasurers, secretary or secretaries, and all such other officers, ministers and servants, as often as they shall think fit so to do, and others in the room, office, place or station of him or them so displaced, removed or put out, to nominate, constitute and appoint; and shall and may determine and appoint such rea sonable salaries, perquisites and other rewards for their labour, or service of such officers, servants and persons, as to the said common council shall seem meet; and all such officers, servants and persons shall, before the acting their respective offices, take an oath, to be to them administered by the chairman for the time being of the said common council of the said corporation, who is hereby authorized to administer the same, for the faith ful and due execution of their respective offices and places. And our will and pleasure is, that all such person and persons who shall from time to time be chosen or appointed treasurer or treasurers, secretary or secretaries of the said corporation, in manner herein after directed, shall, during such times as they shall serve in the said offices respectively, be incapable of being a member of the said corporation. And we do further, of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, for us, our heirs and successors, grant, by these presents, to the said cor poration and their successors, that it shall be lawful for them and their officers or agents, at all times hereafter, to transport and convey out of our realm of Great Britain, or any other our dominions, into the said province of Georgia, to be there set tled, so many of our loving subjects, or any foreigners that, are willing to become our subjects and live under our allegi ance in the said colony, as shall be willing to go to inhabit or reside there, with sufficient shipping, armor, weapons, powder, shot, ordnance, munition, victuals, merchandise and wares, as are esteemed by the wild people, clothing, implements, furniture, cattle, horses, mares, and all other things necessary for the said colony, and for the use and defence, and trade with the people there, and in passing and returning to and from the same. Also we do, for ourselves and successors, declare, by these presents, that all and every the persons which shall happen to be born within the said province, and every of their children

488

APPENDIX.

and posterity, shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities of free denizens and natural born subjects, within any of our dominions, to all intents and purposes, as if abiding and born within this our kingdom of Great Britain, or any other dominion. And for the greater ease and encouragement of our loving subjects, and such others as shall come to inhabit in our said colony, we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, grant, establish and ordain, that for ever, hereafter, there shall be a liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God, to all persons inhabiting or which shall inhabit or be resi dent within our said province, and that all such persons, except papists, shall have a free exercise of religion ; so they be con tented with the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, not giving offence or scandal to the government. And our further will and pleasure is, and we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, declare and grant, that it shall and may be lawful for the said common council, or the major part of them, assem bled for that purpose, in the name of the corporation, and under the common seal, to distribute, convey, assign and set over such particular portions of lands, tenements and hereditaments by these presents granted to the said corporation, unto such of our loving subjects naturally born or denizens, or others, that shall be willing to become our subjects, and live under our allegiance in the said colony, upon such terms, and for such estates, and upon such rents, reservations and conditions as the same may be lawfully granted, and as to the said common council, or the major part of them so present, shall seem fit and proper. Pro vided always, that no grants shall be made of any part of the said lands unto any person being a member of the said corpo ration, or to any other person in trust for the benefit of any member of the said corporation; and that no person having any estate or interest in law or equity in any part of the said lands, shall be capable of being a member of the said corpora tion, during the continuance of such estate or interest. Pro vided also, that no greater quantity of lands be granted, either entirely or in parcels, to or for the use or in trust for any one person than five hundred acres ; and that all grants made con trary to the true intent and meaning hereof, shall be absolutely null and void. And we do hereby grant and ordain, that such

CHARTER

489

person or persons for the time being, as shall be thereunto appointed by the said corporation, shall and may at all times, and from time to time hereafter, have full power and authority to administer and give the oaths appointed by an act of parlia ment made in the first year of the reign of our late royal father, to be taken instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ; and also the oath of abjuration, to all and every person and persons which shall at any time be inhabiting or residing with in our said colony ; and in like cases to administer the solemn affirmation to any of the persons commonly called quakers, in such manner as by the laws of our realm of Great Britain the same may be administered. And we do, of our further grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, grant, establish and ordain, for us, our heirs and successors, that the said corporation and their successors, shall have full power and authority for and during the term of twenty-one years, to commence from the date of these our letters patent, to erect and constitute judicaturies and courts of record, or other courts, to be held in the name of us, our heirs and successors, for the hearing and de termining of all manner of crimes, offences, pleas, processes, plaints, actions, matters, causes and things whatsoever, arising or happening within the said province of Georgia or between persons of Georgia; whether the same be criminal or civil, and whether the said crimes be capital or not capital, and whether the said pleas be real, personal or mixed ; and for awarding and making out executions thereupon ; to which courts and judicaturies, we do hereby, for us, our heirs .and successors, give and grant full power and authority, from time to time, to administer oaths for the discovery of truth, in any matter in controversy or depending before them, or the solemn affirma tion to any of the persons commonly called quakers, in such manner as by the laws of our realm of Great Britain the same may be administered. And our further will and pleasure is, that the said corporation and their successors, do from time to time and at all times hereafter, register or cause to be regis tered all such leases, grants, plantings, conveyances, settle ments and improvements whatsoever, as shall at any time
hereafter be made by or in the name of the said corporation, of any lands, tenements or hereditaments within the said

490

APPENDIX.

province ; and shall yearly send and transmit, or cause to be sent or transmitted, authentic accounts of such leases, grants, conveyances, settlements and improvements respectively, unto the auditor of the plantations for the time being, or his deputy, and also to our surveyor for the time being of our said prov ince of South Carolina, to whom we do hereby grant full power and authority from time to time, as often as need shall require, to inspect and survey such of the said lands and premises as shall be demised, granted and settled as aforesaid, which said survey and inspection, we do hereby declare to be intended to ascertain the quit-rents, which shall from time to time become due to us, our heirs and successors, according to the reserva tions herein before mentioned, and for no other purposes what soever ; hereby, for us, our heirs and successors; strictly enjoining and commanding, that neither our or their surveyor, or any person whatsoever, under the pretext and colour of making the said survey or inspection, shall take, demand or receive any gratuity, fee or reward of or from any person or persons inhabiting in the said colony, or from the said corpora tion or common council of the same, on the pain of forfeiture of the said office or offices, and incurring our highest displeasure. Provided always, and our further will and pleasure is, that all leases, grants and conveyances to be made by or in the name of the said corporation, of any lands within the said province, or a memorial containing the substance and effect thereof, shall be registered with the auditor of the said plantations, of us, our heirs and successors, within the space of one year, to be com puted from the date thereof, otherwise the same shall be void. And our further will and pleasure is, that the rents, issues, and all other profits which shall at any time hereafter come to the said corporation, or the major part of them which shall be present at any meeting for that purpose assembled, shall think will most improve and enlarge the said colony, and best answer the good purposes herein before mentioned, and for defraying all other charges about the same. And our will and pleasure is, that the said corporation and their successors, shall from time to time give in to one of the principal secretaries of state and to the commissioners of trade and plantations, accounts of the progresses of the said colony. And our will and pleasure

CHARTER.

491

is, that no act done at any meeting of the said common council of the said corporation, shall be effectual and valid, unless eight members at least of the said common council, including the member who shall serve as chairman at the said meeting, be present, and the major part of them consenting thereunto. And our will and pleasure is, that the common council of the said corporation for the time being, or the major part of them who shall be present, being assembled for that purpose, shall from time to time, for and during and unto the full end and expira tion of twenty-one years, to commence from the date of these our letters patent, have full power and authority to nominate, make, constitute, commission, ordain and appoint, by such name or names, style or styles, as to them shall seem meet and fitting, all and singular such governors, judges, magistrates, ministers and officers, civil and'military, both by sea and land, within the said districts, as shall by them be thought fit and needful to be made or used for the said government of the said colony; save always and except such officers only as shall by us, our heirs and successors, be from time to time constituted and appointed, for the managing, collecting and receiving such revenues as shall from time to time arise within the said province of Geor gia, and become due to us, our heirs and successors. Provided always, and it is our will and pleasure, that every governor of the said province of Georgia, to be appointed by the common council of the said corporation, before he shall enter upon or execute the said office of governor, shall be approved by us, our heirs, or successors, and shall take such oaths and shall qualify himself in such manner in all respects, as any governor or commander in chief of any of our colonies or plantations in America, are by law required to do ; and shall give good and sufficient security for observing the several acts of Parliament relating to trade and navigation, and to observe and obey all instructions that shall be sent to him by us, our heirs and suc cessors, or any acting under our or their authority, pursuant to the said acts, or any of them. And we do, by these presents,
for us, our heirs and successors, will, grant and ordain, that the said corporation and their successors, shall have full power for and during and until the full end and term of twenty-one years, to commence from the date of these our letters patent, by any

492

APPENDIX.

commander or other officer or officers by them for that purpose from time to time appointed, to train, instruct, exercise and govern a militia for the special defence and safety of our said colony, to assemble in martial array the inhabitants of the said colony, and to lead and conduct them, and with them to en counter, expulse, repel, resist and pursue, by force of arms, as well by sea as by land, within or without the limits of our said colony ; and also to kill, slay and destroy, and conquer, by all fitting ways, enterprises and means whatsoever, all and every such person or persons as shall at any time hereafter in any hostile manner attempt or enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment or annoyance, of our said colony ; and to use and exercise the martial law in time of actual war and invasion or rebellion, in such cases where by law the same may be used or exercised ; and also from time to time to erect forts and fortify any place or places within our said colony, and the same to furnish with all necessary ammunition, provisions and stores of war, for offence and defence, and to commit from time to time the custody or government of the same to such person or per sons as to them shail seem meet; and the said forts and fortifi cations to demolish at their pleasure ; and to take and surprise, by all ways and means, all and every such person or persons, with their ships, arms, ammunition and other goods, as shall in an hostile manner invade or attempt the invading, conquering or annoying of our said colony. And our will and pleasure is> and we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, declare and grant, that the governor and commander in chief of the prov ince of South Carolina, of us. our heirs and successors, for the
time being, shall at all times hereafter have the chief command of the militia of our said province, hereby erected and estab lished ; and that such militia shall observe and obey all orders and directions that shall from time to time be given or sent them by the said governor or commander in chief, anything in these presents before contained to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding. And, of our more special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant unto the said corporation and their successors, full power and authority to import and export their goods at and from any

CHARTER.

493

port or ports that shall be appointed by us, our heirs and suc cessors, within the said province of Georgia for that purpose, without being obliged to touch at any other port in South Caro lina. And we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and suc cessors, will and declare, that from and after the determination of the said term of one and twenty years such form of gov ernment and method of making laws, statutes and ordinances, for the better governing and ordering the said province of Georgia, and the inhabitants thereof,.shall be established and observed within the same, as we, our heirs and successors, shall hereafter ordain and appoint, and shall be agreeable to law ; and that from and after the determination of the said term of one and twenty years, the governor of our said prov ince of Georgia, and all officers, civil and military, within the same, shall from time to time be nominated and constituted and appointed by us, our heirs and successors. And lastly, we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, grant unto the said corporation and their successors, that these our letters patent, or the enrollments or exemplification thereof, shall be in and by all things, good, firm, valid, sufficient and effectual in the Law, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, and shall be taken, construed and adjudged in all courts and elsewhere, in the most favourable and beneficial sense, and for the best advan tage of the said corporation and their successors, any omission, imperfection, defect, matter or cause or thing whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. In witness we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness ourself at Westminster, the ninth day of June, in the fifth year of our reign.
By writ of privy seal.
COOKS.

INDEX.

A.

of, 174; causes of failure, 179; second

Aborigines in Georgia, 45. Acadians sent to Georgia, 413 ; leave,
417. Acts passed by the Assembly, under
Gov. Reynolds, 399.

advance towards, 197. Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, 6 ; fits out
ships for slaves, 7 ; fate of the expe dition, 7; appointed Gov. of Chichora, 8.

Acts passed by the Assembly, under

B.

Gov. Ellis, 437.

Bailiffs, French, English, Georgian,

Adams, John, second President of 218.

United States, visits Oglethorpe, 209. Barrington, Sir John, 473.

Alarioand De Soto compared, 25.

Bathurst, Sir Francis, 122; Earl Ba-

Albert, Capt., remains in Carolina, 34. thurst, 472.

Allowance to colonists, 129.

Beauclerk, Lord Sidney, one of Trus

Amelia Island visited and named, 135. tees, ib.

Anderson, Adam, one of Trustees. 466. Bedford, Rev. Arthur, notice of, 466.

Andrews, St., Fort, 135.

Belgrade, siege of, 80.

Ante-Columbian voyagers, 1.

Belitha, William, one of Trustees, 465.

Archer, Thomas, one of the Trustees, Bellegarde, Marquis de, 78.

471.

Berkeley, Bishop, companion of Ogle

Archer, lion. Henry, one of the Trus thorpe, 78.

tees, 16.

Bethel, Slingsby, 475.

Arredondo, Engineer, Commissioner to Bethesda, 351.

Oglethorpe, 149.

Bevan. Joseph V., viii.

Argyle.Fort, 98.

Bibles, Testaments, and Prayer Books

Assembly, plan of representative, pro sent to Georgia, 320.

posed by Trustees, 245 ; meets, 247 ; Bills of credit issued by Carolina, 144.

representation of, 248 ; constitution Bloody Marsh, battle of, 188.

of Commons House of, 389 ; time of Boehler, Rev. Peter, 365-7.

service of members denned and limit Bolzius, Rev. Martin, 110, 362.

ed, 446.

Bosomworth, Abraham, 234,236; Rev.

Augusta laid out and named, 137 ; con Thomas, 226, 231, 238-40, 358,450-

dition of, 214, 361 ; visited by Gov. 4 ; Mary, 297, 450-4.

Reynolds, 412.

Bouverie, Sir Jacob de, one of Trus

Augustine, St., founding of, 39 ; siege tees, 471.

498

INDEX.

Brandy prohibited, '283.

Clifton, William, Attorney-General,

Bray, Rev. Dr., associates of, 354.

387, 392.

Bryan, Jonathan, 388, 392.

Cochran, Lieutenant-Colonel, 152,201.

Bundy, Rev. Richard, D.D., one of Cokayne, Francis, 474.

Trustees, 105, 466.

Coligni, Admiral, 30.

Burton,Rev. John, D.D., sketch of,465. Combahee river discovered, 7.

Burgoyne, Sir Roger, one of Trus Commerce of Savannah, 313.

tees, 4,7-2.

Commercial house, the first established

in Georgia, 313.

C.

Constitution, new, for Georgia, granted

Cabeza de Vaca, applies for govern 1754,383.

ment of Florida, 14.

Convention of landholders, 300.

Cabot, John and Sebastian, discover Cook, Lieutenant-Colonel, 201.

main land before Columbus, 3.

Coosa river, visited by De Soto, 23,

Caltliorpe, Sir Henry, 473.

Coope. Richard, 470.

Campbell, Alexander Hume, ib.

Copp, Rev. Jonathan, 361.

Cannibals, declared by the King of Coram, Thomas, one of Trustees, 467.

Spain subject to slavery,?.

Cornewall Velters, 473.

Cardross, Lord, leads a colony to South Carolina, and driven away by the Spaniards, 58, 142.
Caroline, Queen, wears a robe of Georgia silk, 270.

Counties, Georgia divided into two, 224 ; united, 226.
Couper, James Hamilton, xiii. Court-Martial on Oglethorpe, 202, 206. Courts of law and equity established,

Carolina renders assistance to Georgia, 91 ; troubles with, 138; aid of to wards invasion of Florida, 170.
Carpenter, George, Lord, 464. Causton, Thomas, Storekeeper of Trus

391. Coweta, treaty, 157. Creeks hold a council with Oglethorpe>
95 ; with Ellis, 440 ; visit Savannah, ceremonies and speeches on recep

tees, 220.

tion of by Gov. Ellis, 441.

Cater, Sir Robert, 471.

Crow. Rev. Dr., gives a library for

Cavendish, Richard, 475.

Savannah, 354.

Charles, Fort, first built in America, 34. Cumberland Island, why so named,

Charles II., coronation robes made of Georgia silk, 266.
Charter, provisions of, 63 ; surrender of, 251; of the colony of Georgia 476.
Cherokees, 48.

135. Gumming, Sir Alexander, Commis
sioner to Indians, 49. Currency in Georgia, 314, 401. Gust, Sir John, 475.

Chicora, where situated; natives stolen Cutifachiqua, interview of De Soto with

from, 7.

princess of, 22.

Churches, their condition in the prov

ince, 354.

D.

Church of England established by law Daniel, Dr. Wm. C., xiii.

in Georgia, 444.

Danforth, Rev. Mr,, 375.

Church, Rev. Alonzo, D.D.,xiii.

D'Arcy, James, Lord, one of Trus

Clergy, influence of in advancing Trus tees, 469.

tees' plan, 319.

Darien, 127, 214.

INDEX.

De Brahm, William, Surveyor of Geor Eyles. Sir Francis. 466.

gia, 387, 408.

Eyre, Robert, 470.

;

Defenceless state of Georgia, 409.

Delamotte, Mr., teacher in Savannah,

F.

341.

Fallowfield, John, 225.

De Lyon, Abraham, vignerori of the Fees, schedule of, to be put up in pub

colony, 103.

lic offices, 411.

Derapsey, Charles, appointed Commis Filatures built at Savannah and Frede

sioner, 146.

rica, 274.

Derby, James Stanley, Earl of, one of Firmian, Count, Archbishop of Salz

Trustees, 468.

burg, persecutes the Lutherans, 108.

De Soto, Ferdinand, life and expedition Fisher, Rev. Mr., 377.

of, 14-26.

Florida discovered and named, 5.

Dig-by, Edward, one of Trustees, 464, Fortifications, plan of, projected at va

Dorchester, England, 372 ; Massachu rious points, 410,

setts, 373 ; South Carolina, 377.

Fountain of youth sought for, 6.

Douglass, David, first Speaker of As France engages in maritime discovery.

sembly, 389.

9.

Driesler, Rev. Mr,, at Frederica dies, Frederica, 133, 213,405.

364.

Frederick, Thomas, 469 ; Sir John.

Drugs and dye-stuffs proposed to be 473.

exported from Georgia, 265.

French Papists arrive in Savannah.

417-

E

G.

Ebenezer, why so named, 112 ; settle Gaols, committee to inquire into, 60.

ment of, 113 ; progress of, 214.

Georgia, why so named, 63 ; early po

Eglintoun, Earl of, plan for peopling litical institutions, 216.

Georgia, 275.

Geraldino. Sir Thomas, 148.

Egmont, Earl of, 474.

Gomez, Stephen, voyage of and results.

Elliott, Bishop, xiii.

12.

Ellis, Henry, early history of, 421; ap Gonson, Sir John, 470.

pointed Lieut. Governor of Georgia, Gough, Sir Harry, 472.

428 ; reaches Savannah, 429 ; speech Gourgues, Dominique de, 40.

to Assembly; tours through the prov Governor, colonial, power vested m.

ince ; appointed Governor; returns 386.

to England, 455 ; review of his ad ministration, 456 ; appointed Govern or of Nova Scotia, 458.

Government of Georgia, plan of pro posed, 381.
Governor's Council, constitution of,

Electors, qualifications of, 412.

388.

Embarkation, first, for Georgia, 87. Graham. Patrick, President of Georgia.

Emigrants sent over by Trustees, 276- 384, 388.

81.

Grants in tail-male, 276 ; in fee-simple.

Ewer, Anthony, 4*75.

280.

Exports of the colony of Georgia, 316. Gray. Edmund, 406.

32

500

INDEX.

(i-roaaii, Rev. Israel Christian, minis Indigo, exports of, 457. ter at Ebenezer, 110, 362 ; dies, 363. Ingham, Roy. Benjamin. 338, 341. Insurrection in South Carolina, 155.

H.

Inverness confers freedom of city on

Hahersham, James. 346, 38], 387; Robert, Esq., xiii.
Hales, Rev. Stephen, D.D., sketch of,
467. Halifax, Earl of, 371. Hanlmry, William, 469. Hanover, New, settlement of, broken

Oglethorpe, 127. Ireland, Great, or White Man's Land,
1. Irene, near Savannah, 365. Israelites arrive in Savannah, 101. Italy gives birth to discoverers of Ame
rica, 11.

up. 448.

Hardwicke laid out. 405. Harris, Francis, 384, 388 h'efitlicote, George, 464 ; Sir William,
469. Hebrew congregation in Savannah,
368. Helena, St., Sound, first visited, 7.

Jansen, Hon. Stephen Theodore, 475. Jews arrive at Savannah, 101. Johnston, Governor Robert, 87, 92, 99. Jones, George Wymberley, xiii. Jones, Noble, 239, 241, 250, 384, 388,
392.

Herbert, Rev. Dr. Henry, first minister Jones, Thomas, 224.

in Georgia, 86, 320.

Justis, Gov. of St. Augustine, 149.

Hermsdorf, Capt, 364.

Jury, first erapannelled in Georgia,

Heron, Lieutenant-Colonel, 233.

names of, 101.

Hewitt, Rev. Dr., history of South

Carolina and Georgia, vii.

K

Highlanders, 126. Historian, duties of, 262. Historical Society, Georgia, procures
documents from England ; appoints

Kellet, Alexander, 387, 392. Kendall, Robert, 469. King, Hon. Mitchell. xiii.

a historian, ix.

Hodgson, William B., xiii.

L,

Holland, Roger, 465. Hooper, Edward, 475.

Langworthy, Hon. Edward, projects a History of Georgia, vii.

Hopkins, Miss Sophia, 332.

L'Apostre, Henry, 469.

Houstoun, Sir Patrick, 387. Howard, Rev. Charles Wallace, ap
pointed agent of State to get docu ments in England, ix,

Laroche, John, 465. Laudonnier, Rene de, voyages, &c., 36, Laws, Sumptuary, 284. Lempke, Rev. H. H., Minister at Ebe

Hucks, Robert, 465.

nezer. 363.

Hull, George, xiii.

Limerick, James, Lord, 469

Hunter. Dr., 351.

Little, William, 419, 422.

Lloyd, Samuel, 474.

Lord, Rev. Joseph, 374, 377.

Indian tribes, manners, customs, trea Lumpkin. Hon. Joseph Henry, xiii.

ties, 44 : visit to England, 117.

INDEX,

M

More, Mrs. Hannah, description of

Mack, Bishop, Moravian, 367. Mackenzie, Prof. William, xiii. Madeira wine, attempt to make it in
Georgia, 103. Magistrates, charges against, 223;
character of, ib.; robes given to. ib.

Oglethorpe, 210. Mounds and relics in Georgia, '27. Muscogees, 61. Musgrove, Mary. 89, 227, 33:1 Muster, first held, 250. Mutiny in Oglethorpe's regime;!!,
153.

Martyn, Benjamin, 260.

Maryland, coincidence between Geor Narvaez, Panfilo de, expedition of, 14.

gia and, 93.

Naval force in the siege of St. Augus

Massachusetts invites Oglethorpe to tine, 171.

visit that province, 114.

Negroes, introduction of into Geo-trm

Mathews, Mary Musgrove married to, 310.

228.

Nitschman, Moravian Bishop, 131, 332.

Maverick, Rev. John, 372.

367.

M'Call's, Hugh, History of Georgia, Norris, Rev. William. 350, 355.

viii. McLeod, Rev. John, Minister at Dari-

O

en, 128, 342.

Oglethorpe, family of, 76 ; early histo

Medal struck in honour of Oglethorpe, ry of, 77-82; returns to England

118,

137; appointed General and Com

Melendez, Pedro, expedition of, 38.

mander-in-chief of South Carolina

Mercer, Samuel, 225.

and Georgia, 152; appointed Briga

Metcalf, Rev. Mr., 358.

dier-General, 204 ; married, ib. .

Methodism, rise of, 340.

Major-General, 205 ; Lieutenant-

Mezieres, Marquis de, 77.

General, 206; General-in-c'niet,

Midway, settlement of, 378.

ib.; declines serving against Amer

Military force of Oglethorpe, 170. Militia organized and commissioned,
250. Monmouth, prisoners taken at, sent
to America, 394. Montgomery, Sir Robert, proposal for
settling Georgia, 38. Montiano, Gov. of St. Augustine,
168.

ica, 207 ; why no honours of nobili ty conferred on him, ib.; political character of his family, 208 ; owned plantation and negroes in South Caiolina, 288. Oglethorpe, Fanny, 78, 208 Oglethorpe, Lewis, 77. Oglethorpe, William, 76. Oglethorpe, Sir Theophilus,(father.)76. Oglethorpe, Sir Theophilus. (son,) 77.

Moravians, character of in Savannah, Oglethorpe, Elenora. 77.

131, 368 ; leave Georgia and settle Olive trees introduced from Venice

in Pennsylvania. 366.

'266.

Moore, Robert, 464.

Ortiz, Juan, captivity and recovery

Moore, Gov., marches to St. Augus from. 20.

tine. 143.

Orphan House, 347, 350, 352

Moosa. Fort, captured. 173.

Orton, Rev. Christopher. S

Osgood. Rev. Mr., 377.

INDEX.

1*
Page, John. -169. Palmer. Col., marches n@ra.inst St. Au
gustine, 145 ; killed at fort Moosa. 173. Parishes, Georgia divided into, 444. Parker, Henry, '224, 245. Parliament grants aid to Trustees. 125. Perceval. John, Lord, sketch of, 463. Perceval. Hon. Philip, 473. Peyton, Sir Yelverton, 170. Philipps, Sir Erasmus, 470. i-Miilipps, Sir John, 344, 346, 473. Pocahontas, A Georgian, 20.
Ponce de Leon, 5.
Port Royal, Eibault builds a. foil lit, 34; distress and famine in, 36.
Powel], James Edward, 393. Priber, Chrisiian, sketch of, 164. Privateer, Governor Ellis fits out a.
446.
Q
Qnincy, Rev. Samuel, 32).
R
Regiment of runaway slaves at St. Augustine, 155.
Regiment, Oglothorpe's. difficulties in, 301.
Religious History of the Colony. 319. Reynolds, John, Governor of Georgia,
385 ; recalled. 422 ; arraigned for maladministration, 423 ; after life, 425. rlibault, Jean, Voyages of, 32. Richard?; Major, gout to St. Augustine, 146. Robes given to magistrates, 223. Robinson. Pickering, 273:,384. 388. Royalists taken by Cromwell, sold in New England. 294. Rum prohibited in Georgia. 283, Rum act repealed, 284 Rnssel. William, naval officer. 387.

Rundle, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 470.
S
Salzburghers, 106, 122. Sanchez, Governor of St. Augustine,
146. Savannah, founded, character of iri
1743, 212. Savy, John, character of, 150. Seaboard explored, 114. Seal of Colony, 73. Seal of Georgia, 383. Servants, Welch, English, and Ger-
aian, sold for a term of years, 290. Shaftcsbury, Earl of, one of the Trus
tees, 468. Ships, the first chartered in Georgia,
316. Ship, first sailed up Savannah, 97. Silk, efforts to introduce in Virginia.
South Carolina and Georgia; pro gress in ; amount raised ; commis sioners to superintend appointed, 69, ' 266, 275. Slave trade, origin ; patrons of; forced upon the Colonists; Legislation of Colonies against; admitted in Geor gia ; Trustees' views of, 285-312. Sloper, William, 465. Smetts, A. A., xiii. Smith. Rev. Mr., proposes to write His tory of Georgia, viii. Smith, Rev. Samuel, one of the Trus tees, 466. Sola Bills issued by Trustees, 402. Spain, treaties with, 141 ; war with, 159, Spangenberg, Bishop, 124. 366.
Spaniards commence hostilities with Ogiethorpe, 161.
Spaniards march against St. Helena, 142.
Sparks, Prof. Jared,
Spencer, William, 392.
Stephens, William, 224; sketch of, 242.

INDEX.

503

Stephens, Thomas, 300, 305. St. Simons, military works, 169. St. Simons, Fort, abandoned, 185. Stratagem with French deserter."! 90. Sumptuary law of Trustees, 384. Sunday School in Georgia. 3-11.

Vaca, Cabeza de, 14. 17. Vander Deusen, Col., 178 Vernqn, James, 106, 465 Verrazzano, 9. Von Reck, 112. 130

T'

W

Talboi, William, Lord, one of ihe Trn*- Wards in Savannah named, 99,

tees 470

VVesley, Rev. Samuel, 339.

Tefft I. K.,xii

Wesley, 'Rev. John, 131, 322, 330

Thanksgiving appointed by Oo-le- Wesley, Rev. Charles, 131, 334

thorpc, 196.

' " Whitefield, Rev. George. 309, .111-!.

Tithings, division of wards into. 99. Totnochichi, 89, 117,358.

White, John, 469. Williamson, William. 3?.-.i

Tower, Thomas, one of rhc Trusses. Wilson, Rev. Thomas, D.I).,474

46-].

Wine, efforts to make, '264

Tower, Christopher, one <>i the THIS- Winslow, Lient.-Coi.. remove Ac,,i-

tees, 469.

dians, 414.

Town Court of Record, jlS.

Wollaston. Francis.471

Tracy, Robert, one of" the TI-MWV. Wollaston, William. 47(1.

^71.

Women Bold in Virpnin, 29>;

Trustees incorporated, G:i ; names of. Wright. John, 473.

463; objects, 66; petition Parliament, Wright, Sir James, appointed Liontrr-

105 ; review of operations-1 , 7J. jQj. ant-Governor. 455.

Treaty with Creeks, 95.

Tyrconnel, John l.ord. one of the TT-T--

'

tees, 469.

Y'amacraw, 89.

Tyrur, George, one of the TrustyHs. Vamassees, 46.

470.

Vonng, Thomas, 387.

Tufnel, Satiiuei; um-; oi' tliu Ti-iijte >.-;.

473. U
i'chce-:. 50. *
V i'"ni!(i<)':-'. 13)

^ /eno, Nicolo, and Antonio, i:
Zinzendorf, 123, 364. Zouberbuhler, Rev. Bartholomew, 'J48,
359. Zubli. John Joachim, 3M!