THE MAKING OF GEORGIA
OGLETHORPE
Ladies of the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames of
America: Ladies and Gentlemen "There is hardly any
century in history," wrote Bolingbroke, "which began by
opening so great a scene as the century in which we live."
Had he lived to its close he might have added, nor any
ended with such tremendous consequences to mankind.
The vast empire which Louis XIV had toiled so long to
construct was shattered by Marlborough at Blenheim in
1704, and the Revolution of the French, consummated in
1799, when Napoleon became the first consul, fixed for-
ever in the popular mind the power and individuality of
the people. It was the age of Frederick the Great, of
Charles of Sweden, of Peter of Russia. It heard the death
knell of the republic of Venice, and it presided over the
partition of Poland; and on every hill-top in America it
saw the beacon fires of freedom and democracy blaze in
triumph through the throbbing night. It was the age of
Dryden and of Pope; of Johnson and Goldsmith; of Addi-
son and Steele; of Fielding and Defoe; of Burke and Pitt
and Sheridan, and Fox and Wilkes. Until it neared its end,
it was the Englishman's century, and wherever civiliza-
tion had set its mark his speech was heard and his arms
respected. It was pre-eminently a century of action. There
was never a time when politics were more bitter and scur-
rilous, and there was never a time when literature was
more polished and urbane. Gay found it acceptable to his
(1)
The MaMmj of Geonjia
audiences to caricature, in the "Beggar's Opera," the lead-
ers of his day as highwaymen, whilst Pope tickled the deli-
cate sensibilities of his readers with a rhapsody on a lock
of Belinda's raven tresses. This was the century in which
Georgia was born. In that day colonization was a familiar
expedient to the great powers of Europe. There had been
colonies military and colonies mercantile; colonies preda-
tory and colonies penal; colonies for gain, for power, for
fame but it was reserved for the reign of George the Sec-
ond to formulate the grandest theory of a colony which
had ever stirred the human heart or enthused the human
soul a colony for charity. Whence did the idea come?
It may be from the tortured conscience of some Grub
street pamphleteer, who himself had known the grinding
agony of English poverty. It may be that it sprang from
the active brain of some polished wit sitting at the cozy
fireside of a London club and speculating on the ways and
foibles and distresses of man. Or still again, it may be
that across the sunny life which had come to the English
people with the glory of their arms, fell the dark shadow
of that German emigration, toiling its slow way through
Europe, its ranks full of the homeless and the poor, sanc-
tified by piety and character and courage. It may be this
that caused the people of England, moved to a profound
pity for those wandering Salzburgers, to turn toward the
sufferers in their own midst whose misfortunes the law
had made crimes and who in noisome prisons and still
fouler companionship were wasting their manhood and
womanhood and childhood in the agony of a perpetual
horror. We know it was James Edward Oglethorpe who,
in 1729, moved in the parliament a resolution of inquiry
into the condition of prisons with a view to the relief of
those who were imprisoned for debt. By whomsoever the
note was struck it sent a thrill throughout the length and
breadth of England. Politician and poet; merchant and
peer; king and peasant it sounded in all ears and quick-
The Making of Georgia. 3
ened all hearts. Whilst the political reason assigned was
the protection of the province of Carolina, the fact re-
mains that the immediate and noble object of the coloniza-
tion of Georgia is to be found in the words of the charter,
where it recites that "His majesty, having taken into con-
sideration the miserable circumstances of many of his own
poor subjects, ready to perish for want, as likewise the
distress of many poor foreigners who would take refuge
here from the persecution * * * hath, out of his fath-
erly compassion towards his subjects, been graciously
pleased to grant a charter for incorporating a number of
gentlemen by the name of 'The Trustees for establishing
a colony of Georgia in America.' " Surely, much will be
forgiven the Georges because of the noble language of that
charter. Nor was the nobility of the sentiment which
moved the trustees to accept the trust less apparent. At
their instance it was declared that no trustee should ever
receive fee or perquisite or reward, however arduous his
labors might be. They were to hold the lands "in trust
for the poor"; and it was commanded that throughout the
extent of Georgia there should always be "liberty of con-
science to all who shall settle there." On what would now
be August 2, 1732, the Lord Viscount Percival (afterward
Earl Egmont), qualified as president of the board of trus-
tees each trustee as he qualified making a handsome do-
nation to the cause and on November 28 of that year, the
good ship Anne, 200 tons burthen, whereof John Thomas
was master, being 130 persons, sailed from the port of
Gravesend, a modern Argo, bearing in her fragile sides,
across the tempestuous seas, the Golden Fleece of Geor-
gia's hopes and Georgia's future. Arriving off the bar of
Charleston, on the 24th of January, 1733, the commis-
sioner and his followers were received with the charac-
teristic hospitality of that historic town, and the King's
pilot having subsequently carried the Anne into Port
Royal, Oglethorpe departed for what is now Georgia to
The Mal-'utf/ of (lco)-(/ia
select a site for his first settlement, and to treat with the
Indians in possession leaving the colonists to refresh
themselves in the neighborhood. Arriving in Georgia, and
securing the services of Mary Musgrove as interpreter,
Oglethorpe visited the town of the Yaraacraws, where,
overcoming the objections of the Indians, he obtained their
consent to the settling of Savannah. It was at this inter-
view that he first met Tomochichi, the Mico of the tribe,
and there began a friendship founded upon mutual respect
and esteem which was to continue with increasing tender-
ness until the old warrior, full of years, was laid to rest
in Georgia soil. As Tomochichi was to be the help and
stay of the colony, so in the time to come Mary Musgrove
was destined, under the title of "Queen of Georgia," to
bring woes innumerable upon the people of Savannah. The
Sunday after Oglethorpe's return was made a day of
thanksgiving, and many of the gentlemen of the neighbor-
hood, with their families, resorted to the encampment. The
sermon was preached by Rev. Lewis Jones, of Beaufort
the Rev. Mr. Herbert, chaplain to the colonists, filling his
pulpit. After being thus edified, the colonists "were re-
galed with four fat hogs, eight turkeys, besides fowls,
English beef, and other provisions, a hogshead of punch,
a hogshead of beer, and a large quantity of wine." It is
gratifying to learn from the old chronicle that "all was
disposed in so regular a manner that no person was drunk
nor any disorder happened."
Embarking on the 10th of February in a schooner of
seventy tons and five periaugers, and encountering on the
way storm and venison, they landed in the afternoon of the
12th at what is now Savannah, and as the red rays of the
setting sun shone upon their eager faces and God's peace
fell upon their tried and weary souls, to the music of her
rustling pines and the murmuring of her noble streams.
Georgia was started upon her glorious career.
TJw Making of Georgia
Here was a scene lacking none of the elements of his-
toric dignity, and the imagination declines to forego the
opportunity to dwell upon it for a moment. The first sug-
gestions of spring were in the air that light, caressing
air we know so well, which tempts nature to look abroad
in expectancy of the time, so near at hand, when tree and
flower will fill all the world with the glory of their res-
urrection. The centuries had looked down upon the stately
pines which filled the view at every hand, and here at last
was one whose mission was to carve through their ancient
ranks a path for man's development. How great must have
been his thoughts! A soldier of recognized distinction; a
courtier skilled in all the graces of polite society; at ease
in tent and ball room ; the companion of the witty and the
learned; taking hardships as a gentleman might, not from
necessity, but from choice and duty as he stood on the
banks of the Savannah and sent his keen glance into the
west, did he see the light-hearted warrior standing at Eu-
gene's side and holding at bay with his Christian following
the ancient enemy of the Christian world, until the Danube
ran red with Turkish blood? Did he see the palaces he
had left, and hear the merry laugh of comfort and the keen
words of wit? Or from the midst of these children of want
and children of nature which surrounded him, did his
fancy soar over forest and stream and mountain until at
length it caught the sparkle of the far Pacific the limit
of the State he had come to build? Or did it farther go in
time and from prophetic heights see oak and pine pass like
a thought and in their stead the stately structures of a
busy mart, along whose ways in constant stream poured
the rich treasures of the field and mine and forest, and on
whose placid waters moved the craft of all the powers of
earth? When he lay down to rest that night beneath the
shelter of the solemn pines, he must have known that men
would hold that day in everlasting memory.
The MakiiKj of (U'orijia
The whole story of the colonization of Georgia reads
like a special providence of God. To the most friendless
of all people the forgotten debtors of England had sud-
denly come a veritable sunburst of benevolence. They had
reached America in safety, and now in their new home the
Indian against whose depredations upon the colony of
Carolina they were expected to be the guard received
them with a friendship and generosity unparalleled in the
history of the two races. We cannot too strongly insist
upon the gratitude we owe to Tomochichi for the part he
played in this and every other crisis of the colony. After
that of Oglethorpe, his is easily the noblest figure in our
early history. He was a broad, liberal-minded gentleman;
true to every promise, brave in every emergency, and with
a dignity of speech and bearing and look which made him
fit to be the historic companion of the founder. His sense
of right and duty had made him an exile from his people,
and yet, even as Mico of the Yamacraws, who had cast their
fortunes with him, he commanded the respect of the tribe
which had banished him. At the conference held between
Oglethorpe and the chiefs of the Lower Creek Indians for
the purpose of settling by treaty the boundaries of the
colony, the king of the Oconas, which had been Tomochi-
chi's tribe, said of him that he was a good man and had
been a great warrior, and that it was for his wisdom and
courage that the banished men had chosen him to be their
king. It was his influence which brought about the treaty,
and his constant, cheerful courage never wavered in the
most perilous moments. There is but scant material for
romance in the early days of the colony. The outlook was
eminently practical and embraced such prosaic occupation
as the building of houses, the tilling of the soil and the
construction of the machinery of government. The town
was divided into wards, in each ward four tythings, and
in each tything ten houses. A freeholder of a tything had
his town lot 60x90 feet, a garden lot of five acres, and a
The MuJciiiff of Georgia
farm lot of forty-four acres and a fraction. The land de-
scended in what was known to the common law as tail-
male, that is, in default of male issue it reverted to the
trustees. Beyond the town four villages made a ward,
which depended upon a ward in the town. The squares,
which we are accustomed to regard as pleasure grounds,
were designed as places of refuge in time of war for the
families and cattle of the inhabitants of these villages, in
which they were at liberty to encamp the villagers resort-
ing to the square upon which their ward depended. They
were further designed for public structures the market
is now in Ellis square; and within the memory of many
of us the engine houses of the fire companies negro as
well as white were located in the squares. It is interest-
ing to note that it was upon the historic fact of their orig-
inal use that the Supreme Court based its decision permit-
ting the street car line to be built through them.
The political system was simplicity itself. Over all
were the trustees, with Oglethorpe as their commissioner.
There were three bailiffs, having judicial powers, a re
corder and a registrar. A term court, with civil and crim-
inal jurisdiction, and grand and petit juries, presided over
by the bailiffs, sat every six weeks. Each ward had its
constable under whom were four tything men, and there
was a public storekeeper. As the wards and tythings bore,
and still bear, the names of the trustees, so the streets
were for the most part named for the generous Carolin-
ians who gave freely of provisions and manual assistance
in the infancy of the colony. I find in a semi-official docu-
ment the town referred to in a rather undignified manner
as "New Windsor, alias Savannah." This latter designa-
tion, in all probability, was taken from the English name
of the river, which in turn was, conjecturally, from Savan-
nah Town, a trading post established in 1716, on the Caro-
lina shore, about four miles north of Hamburg, and which
8 The Malcing of Georgia
took its name directly from the tribe of Sewannos Indians.
There was nothing in the thicl^ forest of oalvs and pines
which covered the site of Savannah to suggest the natural
appearance with which the name is usually associated.
From the brow of the bluff to Bay street, an open space
was reserved, known as the Strand, which still exists.
Through this it was designed to cut ways leading to the
foot of the bluff, up to which the river washed, in order
to avoid the labor of hoisting goods by the crane which
did service about the foot of Bull street. To the south-
east of what we know as Irish Green was the trus-
tee's garden, in which all manner of experiments were
made in the cultivation of fruits and valuable plants,
including coffee and tea. The idea seems to have pre-
vailed that anything might grow in Georgia. But the
chief hope was in the silk culture. For the nourish-
ment of the silk worms numbers of mulberry trees were
grown. It is pathetic to note with what persistency the
trustees and colonists clung to the idea that Georgia would
finally rival Italy and China in this commodity. Thousands
of pounds, and years of labor were expended upon this ex-
periment, and it was finally abandoned only when the Revo-
lution took away all hope of a market. In Johnson square,
on the spot now occupied by the Greene monument, stood
the first town clock a sun dial; and somewhere in the
same square was a wooden hut twenty by forty feet,
wherein were held both the sessions of court and divine
service. Later the church edifice was erected on the Christ
Church lot. The habitation of Oglethorpe was a tent,
which was spread beneath four pine trees a little to the
east of Bull street on Bay.
From time to time slight accessions were made to the
colony among them certain Italians skilled in the silk
culture. They came in the ship James, which was the
first vessel from England to ascend the Savannah river.
The Makhi'j of Georgia
In the meanwhile the work of construction was pressed
forward. A battery of cannon and a magazine were built;
Fort Argyle, on the Great Ogeechee, and defensive struc-
tures on Skidaway, at Thunderbolt, and at Wormsloe,
erected; High-Gate, Hampstead, Abercorn and Joseph's
Town laid out, and a lighthouse to be ninety feet high on
Tybee Island projected.
Returning from Charleston, whither he had gone to
express his acknowledgments for the kindnesses shown
the colony, on May 18, 1733, Oglethorpe met with the chiefs
of the Lower Creek Indians, brought together by Tomo-
chichi, and with them, on the 21st, entered into a treaty
by which the trustees were granted all lands between the
Savannah and the Alatamaha, from the ocean to the head
of tidewater, with the islands from Tybee to St. Simons,
inclusive, save Ossabaw, Sapelo and St. Catherine's. In
one way and another, by treaties and by charter, Georgia
became a vast empire in extent her possessions extend-
ing along the Savannah and Alatamaha to their headwaters,
thence due west to the South Sea a claim which was so
far good as to cover after the Revolution the territory of
Alabama and Mississippi. By this time the colony had
begun to attract the attention of the outside world. To-
ward the end of 1733 came about forty Hebrews, over the
protest of the trustees but proving to be orderly and use-
ful citizens, Oglethorpe permitted them to remain. In the
spring of 1734 occurred an incident of historic moment.
From 1729 to 1732 had been going on in Europe a move-
ment which deeply interested the people of England. A
frenzy of religious persecution directed against the Luther-
ans had taken possession of the ecclesiastical powers of
Salzburg. It raged with especial fury in the beautiful
valley of Salsa, until at length overborne by the helpless-
ness of their situation the inhabitants of that unhappy spot
determined to forsake the homes of their fathers and seek
10 The MakitKj of Geonjla
peace and freedom in other lands. To the number of
twenty-five or thirty thousand they marched through Eu-
rope on their way to Holland and England. These were no
imprisoned debtors freed by the impulsive benevolence of
a remorseful people. They were martyrs who preferred
death or exile to apostacy. With a gentleness and piety
which affected those to whom they came the convictions
upon which they acted were as unbending as the oak.
Misfortune and oppression had not crushed their spirits,
and they heard through the night of their sorrow the voice
of God leading them onward as He had in the olden time
led the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt into the
Land of Promise. Late in 1733, seventy-eight of these peo-
ple, under invitation from the trustees, set out from Berch-
tolsgaden for Rotterdam, and being there joined by the
Rev. John Martin Bolzius and Rev. Israel Christian Gronau
sailed for Dover, where the oath of allegiance to the British
crown was administered to them by the trustees. On
December 28 they sailed in the ship Purisburg, stopping
at Charleston, where they were met by Oglethorpe. Re-
suming their journey, on the 10th of March, 1734, after a
stormy passage, they entered the Savannah river, and on
the 17th pitched their tents at the chosen site which they
gratefully called Ebenezer. With characteristic industry
they at once set to work to build their homes. In those
days the great consideration was, of necessity, access to
navigable streams. Otherwise it would be difficult to con-
jecture why in a belt of country which had then, as now,
some of the healthiest localities in Georgia, the site of
Ebenezer should have been selected as a habitation for
foreigners. The soil was barren, the surrounding country
full of swamps and, despite the earnest efforts of the
Salzburgers, Ebenezer was doomed from the first. The
town was far advanced when it was determined to change
the site. Over the remonstrances of Oglethorpe, the entire
settlement forsook their new home and began anew the
The Making of Georgia 11
work of colonization at Red Bluff, on the Savannah, which
they renamed New Ebenezer. From time to time they
received accessions from Europe and Pennsylvania and
established a reputation for industry and honesty which
clings to their descendants to this day. Savannah had
boasted that it had no lawyers, but Ebenezer could claim
that it had neither lawyers, courts or rum. All of their
differences were referred to their pastors and by them,
aided by the elders, reconciled. It was amongst these
people that the silk culture received its highest develop-
ment. They succeeded in producing an article which was
recognized by experts in England as equal to the best
Piedmontese silk. The output increased year by year, until
it was stopped for all time by the Revolution. There, too,
the first cotton was raised.
In the summer of 1733, Oglethorpe sailed for England
with Tomochichi and other Indians, and we find but scant
record of the colony until his return. However, whilst
he was abroad an event of the first import to the colony
took place in Great Britain. There gathered at Inverness,
in Scotland, a baud of Highlanders, numbering about one
hundred and eighty, whose destination was Georgia. Em-
barking on October 20, 1735, in the Prince of Wales, and
encountering favoring winds, they reached Georgia early
in January, and at once proceeded to the spot on which
Darien stands. This was the settlement of New Inverness.
They came with their plaids and shields and claymores.
Among them, says the Chronicle, were some who were un-
accustomed to work, and these were attended by their
servants. It would seem that the extremes of the world
had met the Highlander and the Indian. But no people
ever came to Georgia who took so quickly to the conditions
under which they were to live or remained more loyal to
her interests. By this time our friends across the river
had begun to interest themselves in Georgia affairs. Their
12 The Making of Georgia
traders were giving trouble by undertaking to deal with
the Indians without a Georgia license, and they were con-
stantly smuggling rum into the colony a commodity which
with slavery had been inhibited. They also began to assert
that the river belonged to Carolina. The colonists resent-
ing this invasion of their territory actual and by claim
the pleasant relations formerly existing became strained.
So, upon the arrival of the Highlanders, it was suggested
to them by citizens of Carolina that they courted death in
the attempt to settle New Inverness; that the Spaniards,
who were near at hand, would shoot them down from the
houses in their fort. "Why, then," said the Highlanders,
"we will beat them out of their fort and so have houses
ready built to live in." They were a sturdy, brave and
self-reliant race holding one of the outposts of the colony
with unflinching courage. None of the race elements which
went to make up Georgia have in name and characteristics
preserved so thoroughly their identity and are yet so
thoroughly Georgian as the Scot and the Salzburger.
After many efforts and much buffeting by contrary
winds, the Symond and the London Merchant sailed from
England for Georgia, on December 21, 1735, having on
board English and foreigners, two hundred and twenty-
seven persons. These were the colonists for Frederica.
With them sailed Oglethorpe and his secretary of Indian
affairs, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, and a number of
gentlemen, friends of Oglethorpe, with their servants. For
Charles Wesley, fresh from the academic shades of Ox-
ford, the rough life of Georgia was scarcely fitted. Of a
sweet and gentle nature, trusting and unsuspicious, it was
almost inevitable that he should come to be misunderstood.
Serious differences arose between him and his chief at
Frederica, so thoroughly healed at length, it is pleasant
to note, that they parted at last with affection. His brother
was made of sterner stuff. He was one of the great men
The Making of Georgia 13
of his day, strong of will and tenacious of purpose. A cen-
tury after his death the historian Green said of him that
he had "'an indefatigable industry; a cool judgment, a com-
mand over others; a faculty of organization, a singular
union of patience and moderation, with an imperious ambi-
tion which marked him as a ruler of men."
The struggle between him and the people of Savannah
was of long duration. Upon his part it was not unmarked
by indiscretion never by lack of courage or principle;
upon their part, it at last took the form of persecution and
judging that his usefulness was gone, he shook the dust of
Georgia from his feet and went upon his way, to become
in time the head of one of the greatest religious move-
ments of the ages.
The trip of the Symond and London Merchant was un-
eventful. They had prayers twice a day, "and the Dissent-
ers, particularly the Germans, sung psalms, and served
God in their own way." The ships were kept wondrously
clean, and constables were appointed to prevent disorder.
The men were exercised with small arms and the women
were furnished with knitting needles, thread and worsted,
and employed their leisure time in making stockings and
caps for their families or in mending their clothes and
linen. These, I believe are lost arts. On February 16, 1736,
they made Tybee. The design had been to transport the
colonists to Frederica by the ships, but the captains not
having that sublime confidence in the Jekyl bar now en-
joyed, and sometimes expressed by our neighbors in
Brunswick, declined to make the venture. They were
thereupon carried to St. Simons in periaugers, the precau-
tion being taken to put the liquor in the fastest boat that
the others might have an incentive to keep in company
with it. Passing through the beautiful inland route with
its dreamy isles and overhanging oaks and infinite stretch
14 The Mal'uuj of (Scorgia
of golden marsh, they reached St. Simon's and at once be-
gan to construct and fortify Frederica. The failure of the
ships to cross the Jekyl bar confronted the colonists with
a grave peril. They were on the picket line. Only a short
distance to the south flowed the St. John's, the boundary
of the Spanish domain, and near to that was the fortified
town of St. Augustine. Oglethorpe frankly explained to
them the peril of their situation one hundred and thirty
miles from Savannah, which was accessible only by open
boats. With great determination they elected to stay and
build their town. Whilst the work of construction pro-
gressed, Oglethorpe, with Tomochichi and other Indians,
made frequent reconnoisances to the south, extending as
far as the St. John's. In the midst of preparations for de-
fense came the information that Spain had renewed her
claim to all territory south of the Savannah river. Uncer-
tain of the friendship of Carolina and persuaded by the
inadequacy of his own forces to meet and overcome the
resources of Spain, Oglethorpe, toward the close of 1736,
sailed for England to lay before the King the gravity of
the situation and the necessity for disciplined soldiers if
the colony was to be held.
In the meanwhile. Savannah was in trouble, and the
situation may be described without reference to chronology.
There had been much sacrifice and nobility in the history of
the colony. If the first settlers came from the debtors' pris-
ons, the Purisburg, the Prince of Wales, the Symond and
the London Merchant had brought as strong and independ-
ent contingents as ever landed in any colony, and the
emergencies which had arisen had been met, under the
wise direction of Oglethorpe, with firmness and success.
But to many hearts had come disappointment, and the
discontent which sprang from the ruins of false and un-
reasoning hopes began to find voice. One of those very
The Mal-'uifj of Geonjia 15
sanguine spirits, who, with the best intentions, go through
life making trouble for other people, had written of Geor-
gia: "I think it is the pleasantest climate in the world;
for it is neither too w^arm in summer, nor too cold in the
winter. They have certainly the finest water in the world,
and the land is extraordinarily good; this may certainly
be called the land of Canaan." I have no particular knowl-
edge of the land of Canaan, and I am not disposed to take
issue with the statement if applied to Savannah at the
present time, but I am not without sympathy with the col-
onists who, setting out to find this paradise, found heat
and cold and storms and malaria, and mosquitoes and pro-
hibition. Doubtless they considered that the world owed
them some reparation for the injustices it had heaped upon
them, but they never seemed to have realized that then
as now the kindly soil of Georgia gives of its treasures
to the industrious and takes but scant account of the
philosopher who sits in the sun with his back against a
rugged pine, speculating on the curse of labor. Oglethorpe
had inhibited negro slavery as repugnant to all economic
theories connected with a pioneer colony, and being a bold
man, he had likewise prohibited rum. They clamored for
slaves and they clamored for rum. They seemed somehow
to have evolved the conclusion that it was the duty of the
government to furnish them with both. These discontents
among the colonists were the most grasping pensioners
Georgia has ever known. All around them were men in
reasonable prosperity, the result of devoted toil but these
examples had no effect upon their leisurely methods.
Think of a man complaining of the want of luxuries with
Thunderbolt and the Wilmington river within four miles
of him, and the Savannah, abounding in succulent cat, flow-
ing at his very feet. Added to his own innate cussedness,
the discontented colonists had some real grievances. The
chief bailiff and store keeper was a man of arbitrary meth-
ods and gave of justice and provisions by rules which grat-
16 The Making of Geonjia
ified his whims rather than met the moral requirements of
the situation. The trouble at last, however, came from
those whose absence, as the Journal suggested, the colony
would be the better for. But if they would not work, they
talked with a breadth and picturesqueness which excite
the admiration. They discoursed of their neighbors and
of their town. They laughed at the Brunswick bar, and
cast aspersions upon the fortifications at Frederica. Dear
old Dr. Bolzius had somewhere written that the Salzburgers
were content and the country fertile, in illustration of
which he grew eloquent over a plateful of fox-grapes and
bullaces which was before him at the moment. This drew
down the wrath of the pine-stump politician on Ebenezer,
and he bitterly denied that anybody was or could be con-
tented, and he gloated with inexpressible glee over the
swamps which surrounded that devoted spot. The Salz-
burger contented himself with observing that Savannah
was suffering with a complicated complaint, into which
largely entered the disturbing element of rum. Augusta,
having, with the boastfulness of extreme youth, remarked
that it was destined to become a great trade center, since
a given number of horses passed that post each year the
citizen on the coast hastened to suggest that the total was
reached by counting the same animals going and return-
ing, and that if she would make her garrison of twelve men
revolve in a circle all day and count each man every time
he passed a given point, she would likewise have a large
population. They embraced in the scope of their vitupera-
tion the river, the filature, the court house and Hutchinson
Island. They characterized Tomochichi as a vagrant, and
because John Wesley asked them concerning their sins,
they maintained that a separate nightly session was found
at his house, "which made a communion of saints, and
were distinguished by the name of Faithful; but which
were indeed such members as neither contributed to the
credit of religion nor society," and "that they observed
The Maldng of Oeorgia 17
particular forms of worship and duties, such as publick
confession, penance, absolution, etc.," and that "many be-
lieved that an avenue was herein opening to Popery." They
fairly danced around Bailiff Causton like Indians about a
prisoner at the stake and enjoyed the pastime all the
more because of the vulnerability of the victim. If there
was any offense they did not ascribe to him, it was because
it was then unknown to the English tongue. Life is too
short to recite all of the iniquities they connected with the
administration of this official, from the issuance of sola
bills to the abstraction of public stores. One of his doings,
however, stands out in bold relief. Mr. Watson having,
as it was alleged, so filled one Skee with rum that he died,
was put on trial. The jury, being glared at by the bailiff,
with delightful inconsequence returned a verdict of "using
unguarded expressions." This remarkable return the
bailiff construed to mean lunacy, but failing to make the
proper discrimination between the jury and the defendant,
put the latter in jail, and, later, bailed him out which last
act brought about his ears both trustees and people. A
most temperate and conservative statement having been
prepared, chiefly geographical and philosophical, designed
to give the trustees a clear view of the colony, the opposi-
tion at once attacked it with vehemence, analyzing with
great freedom the character and future of the signers, and
finally, disposing of them as a crowd of time-serving office-
holders. The freshet of abuse rose rapidly and soon
reached the highest mark. A young preacher, who had
started for Georgia with the munificent endowment of
twenty pounds, found himself in a short while at the end
of his fortune and applied to Oglethorpe for aid. That
great man was charged with replying that unless the eccle-
siast "would depend solely on Him who feeds the ravens,
etc., he (Oglethorpe) neither could or might with security
give him credit there." Mr. Watson, happening to ask Mr.
Oglethorpe what laws he intended for the colony, the latter,
18 The Making of Georgia
being for the moment indisposed to deliver a lecture on
jurisprudence, replied: "Such q,s the trustees thought
proper, what business had poor people to do with laws."
Mr. Perkins concluded that because he had accumulated
eighteen tame hogs, a general order had been issued for
the slaying of swine. Mr. Coram was quite certain that
unless Oglethorpe was promptly taken in hand the colony
would speedily become a Jewish settlement; and Mr.
Roberson was convinced that such had been the conduct of
affairs his property had become valueless, and he sadly
remarked that it made no difference anyhow, for even if
the general or the trustees did not sieze it, it had already
become worthless by the course of events; and he implored
the King, speaking from this disinterested standpoint, to be
graciously pleased "to save his subjects from the severities
of the said Oglethorpe." In the pamphlet entitled "A Brief
Account of the Causes Which Have Retarded the Progress
of the Colony," it is observed that since his (Oglethorpe's)
appointm_ent there is scarcely any species of oppression,
short of life and limb, which may not be unanswerably
proved to have been arbitrarily exerted by this gentleman
who has publicly appeared an invader of the natural rights
of mankind, and the particular privileges of his fellow-sub-
jects." But the climax was reached when the subject of
drink was touched. Each of the disaffected felt at liberty
to fire in any direction he pleased on ordinary occasion,
but around this topic all rallied and fired by volley. Avail-
ing themselves of the Englishman's right of petition, they
sent up a prayer loud and earnest. This man, they said,
has ruined the colony. He has forbidden slavery and
white men may not toil here. But worse than this, he has
prohibited rum. As your majesty knows, the trade of the
colony consists in indigo and lumber which we sell to New
England in exchange for rum to be sold at large profit to
the Indians. This he has taken from us. In addition to
this loss, as your majesty well knows, the waters of all the
The MciMny of Geor
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