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 ( 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. 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 ,A The Entflifh..toittit Tn-nrh'. 3 III 2 umall Maiors B ,/i Mttrxh f/'tnri wheiw- wephiyett tfiltt 2f> Cnlwrnx f Eustatia Wand, which d>r*.s luiH'iinff Cftrtnim in /y<:A <'f thr. CnxtleE ANerth Trench ,! /I? df- /i Mtfftar uf 24 } lit w! (Jenf Osptrthorp's .Ki/rftftv fnduuit' & .ttiMtu',1 'It-Ma (} A .Lookout taken, th/a 12* ofJune II iftMieiv <>nd fyiittr,? lanttmg June ffivll'!'' I A. 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