Chapter VI: The English Colonization of Georgia (2)

The finances of the Trust were now in a depressed condition, and the General was compelled to draw largely upon his private fortune and to pledge his individual credit in conducting the operations necessary for the security of the southern frontier, and in provisioning the settlers. Matters were further complicated by the defalcation of Thomas Causton, the first Magistrate of Savannah and Keeper of the public stores. Silk culture, from which so much was anticipated, proved a positive expense. There was no profit in the vine. Enfeebled by the hot suns of summer, and afflicted with fevers and fluxes engendered by malarial exhalations from the marish grounds, many of the inhabitants lost heart and cried aloud for the introduction of African slavery. Disappointed in their plans for the religious instruction of the colonists and the conversion of the natives, the brothers John and Charles Wesley had quitted the province. In the consummation of his benevolent and educational scheme, the Rev. George Whitefield was compelled to rely upon foreign aid. With the exception of the Highlanders at Darien, the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, and the Indian traders at Augusta, Georgia could not boast that her inhabitants were either contented or prosperous. There was general clamor for fee-simple title to lands, and permission to buy slaves was constantly urged. The disaffected hesitated not to malign the authorities, to disquiet the settlers, and to exaggerate the unpleasantness of the situation. Fortunately the Indian nations remained peaceful; and in general convention held at Coweta-town in August, 1739, in the presence of Oglethorpe, they renewed their fealty to the King of Great Britain, and in terms most explicit confirmed their previous grants of territory.

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And now the Spanish war-cloud which had so long threatened the southern confines of the province, seemed about to descend in wrath and power. Acting under the discretionary powers confided to him, General Oglethorpe resolved to anticipate the event by an invasion of Florida and the reduction of St. Augustine,—the stronghold of Spanish dominion in that province.

Fac-simile of the plan in _An Impartial Account of the late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe_. London, 1742.]

[Fac-simile of part of the map in _An Impartial Account of the late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, occasioned by the suppression of the Report of the General Assembly of South Carolina, with an exact plan of St. Augustine and the adjacent coast of Florida, showing the disposition of our Forces_. London, 1742.—ED.]]

Collecting his regiment, summoning to his assistance forces from South Carolina, and calling in his Indian allies, in May, 1740, with a mixed army of rather more than two thousand men, he moved upon the capital of Florida. In this expedition Sir Yelverton Peyton, with the British vessels of war,—the “Flamborough,” the “Phœnix,” the “Squirrel,” the “Tartar,” the “Spence,” and the “Wolf,”—was to participate. The castle of St. Augustine consisted of a fort built of soft stone. Its curtain was sixty yards in length, its parapet nine feet thick, and its rampart twenty feet high, “casemated underneath for lodgings, and arched over and newly made bombproof.” Its armament consisted of fifty cannon, sixteen of brass, and among them some twenty-four pounders. For some time had the garrison been working upon a covered way, but this was still in an unfinished condition. The town was protected by a line of intrenchments, with ten salient angles, in each of which field-pieces were mounted. In January, 1740, the Spanish forces in Florida, exclusive of Indians and one company of militia, were estimated at nine hundred and sixty-five men of all arms. As foreshadowed in his dispatch of the 27th of March, 1740, it was the intention of General Oglethorpe to advance directly upon St. Augustine, and attack by sea and land the town and the island in its front. Both, he believed, could be taken “sword in hand.” Conceiving that the castle would be too small to afford convenient shelter for the two thousand one hundred men, women, and children of the town, he regarded the capitulation of the fortress as not improbable. Should it refuse to surrender, he proposed to shower upon it “Granado-shells from the Coehorns and Mortars,” and other projectiles. If it should not yield under the bombardment, he was resolved to open trenches and reduce it by a regular siege. The result was a disastrous failure. This miscarriage may be fairly attributed,—first, to the delay in inaugurating the movement, caused mainly, if not entirely, by the tardiness on the part of the South Carolina authorities in contributing the troops, munitions, and provisions for which requisition had been made; in the second place, to the reinforcement of men and supplies from Havana introduced into St. Augustine just before the English expedition set out, thereby repairing the inequality previously existing between the opposing forces; again, to the injudicious movements against Forts Francis de Papa and Diego, which put the Spaniards upon the alert, encouraged concentration on their part, and foreshadowed an immediate demonstration in force against their stronghold; and to the inability on the part of the fleet to participate in the assault previously planned, and which was to have been vigorously undertaken so soon as General Oglethorpe with his land forces came into position before the walls of St. Augustine. Finally, the subsequent surprise and destruction of Colonel Palmer’s command, thereby enabling the enemy to communicate with and draw supplies from the interior; the lack of heavy ordnance with which to reduce the castle from the batteries planted on Anastasia island; the impossibility of bringing up the larger war vessels that they might participate in the bombardment; the inefficiency of Colonel Vanderdussen’s command; the impatience and disappointment of the Indian allies, who anticipated early capture and liberal spoils; as well as hot suns, heavy dews, a debilitating climate, sickness among the troops, and the arrival of men, munitions of war, and provisions from Havana through the Matanzas River,—all conspired to render futile whatever hopes at the outset had been entertained for a successful prosecution of the siege.

Although this attempt—so formidable in its character when we consider the limited resources at command, and so full of daring when we contemplate the circumstances under which it was prosecuted—resulted in disappointment, its effects were not without decided advantage to Georgia and her sister colonies. For two years the Spaniards remained on the defensive. During that time General Oglethorpe enjoyed an opportunity for strengthening his fortifications and increasing his army; so that when the counter blow was delivered by his adversary, he was the better prepared not only to parry it, but also to punish the uplifted arm.

During the preceding seven years, which constituted the entire life of the colony, Oglethorpe had enjoyed no respite from his labors. Personally directing all movements; supervising the location and providing for the comfort, safety, and good order of the colonists as they arrived from time to time; reconciling their differences, encouraging and directing their labors; propitiating the aborigines, influencing necessary supplies, inaugurating suitable defences, and enforcing the regulations of the Trustees,—he had passed constantly from point to point, finding no rest. Upon his shoulders, as the Trustees’ representative and as a _de facto_ colonial governor, did the administration of the affairs of the province rest. Now in tent at Savannah; now in open boat reconnoitring the coast, now upon the southern islands, his only shelter the wide-spreading live-oak, designating sites for forts and lookouts, and with his own hands planning military works and laying out villages; again journeying frequently along the Savannah, the Great Ogeechee, the Alatamaha, the St. John, and far off into the heart of the Indian country; often inspecting his advanced posts; undertaking voyages to Charlestown and to England in behalf of the Trust, and engaged in severe contests with the Spaniards,—his life had been one of incessant activity and solicitude. But for his energy, intelligence, watchfulness, valor, and self-sacrifice, the important enterprise must have languished. As we look back upon this period of trial, uncertainty, and poverty, our admiration for his achievements increases the more closely we scan his limited resources and opportunities, the more thoroughly we appreciate the difficulties he was called upon to surmount.

There was a lull in the storm; but the skies were still overcast. In the distance were heard ominous mutterings portending the advent of another and a darker tempest. Anxious but calm, Oglethorpe scanned the adverse skies and prepared to breast their fury. In alluding to the expected invasion from St. Augustine, he thus writes to the Duke of Newcastle: “If our men-of-war will not keep them from coming in by sea, and we have no succor, but decrease daily by different accidents, all we can do will be to die bravely in His Majesty’s service.... I have often desired assistance of the men-of-war, and continue to do so. I go on in fortifying this town [Frederica], making magazines, and doing everything I can to defend the province vigorously; and I hope my endeavors will be approved of by His Majesty, since the whole end of my life is to do the duty of a faithful subject and grateful servant.”

Late in June, 1742, a Spanish fleet of fifty-one sail, with nearly five thousand troops on board, under the command of Don Manuel de Monteano, governor of St. Augustine, bore down upon the Georgia coast with a view to the capture of the island of St. Simon and the destruction of the English plantation south of the Savannah. To resist this formidable descent, General Oglethorpe could oppose only a few small forts, about six hundred and fifty men, a guard schooner, and some armed sloops. With a bravery and dash almost beyond comprehension, by strategy most admirable, Oglethorpe by a masterly disposition of the troops at command, coupled with the timidity of the invaders and the dissensions which arose in their ranks, before the middle of July put the entire Spanish army and navy to flight. This “deliverance of Georgia,” said Whitefield, “is such as cannot be paralleled but by some instances out of the Old Testament.” The defeat of so formidable an expedition by such a handful of men was a matter of astonishment to all. The memory of this defence of St. Simon’s Island and the southern frontier is one of the proudest in the annals of Georgia. Never again did the Spaniards attempt to put in execution their oft-repeated threat to extirpate all the English plantations south of Port-Royal Sound. Sullenly and with jealous eye did they watch the development of Georgia, until twenty-one years afterwards all disputes were ended by the cession of Florida to the Crown of Great Britain. Upon the confirmation of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle most of the English troops were withdrawn from the island of St. Simon, and its fortifications soon began to fall into decay.

Georgia at this time consisted of only two counties, Savannah and Frederica. In April, 1741, Colonel William Stephens, who for several years had been acting in the colony as secretary to the Trustees, was by them appointed president of the county of Savannah. In the administration of public affairs he was aided by four assistants. As General Oglethorpe, who was charged with the direction and management of the entire province, spent most of his time at Frederica, the designation of a presiding officer for that division of Georgia was regarded as superfluous. Bailiffs were constituted, whose duty it was, under the immediate supervision of the General, to attend to the concerns of that county. At Augusta, Captain Richard Kent acted as “conservator to keep the peace in that town and in the precincts thereof.” Upon the return of General Oglethorpe to England, in order to provide for the government of the entire colony the Trustees decided that the president and assistants who had been appointed for the county of Savannah should be proclaimed president and assistants for the whole province, and that the bailiffs at Frederica should be considered simply as local magistrates. They further advised that the salary of the recorder at Frederica be raised, and that he correspond regularly with the president and assistants in Savannah, transmitting to them from time to time the proceedings of the town court, and rendering an account of such transactions and occurrences in the southern part of the province as it might be necessary for them to know. Thus, upon the departure of General Oglethorpe, the honest-minded and venerable Colonel William Stephens succeeded to the office of colonial governor. It was during his administration that the Trustees, influenced by repeated petitions and anxious to promote the prosperity of the province, removed the restrictions hitherto existing with regard to the introduction, use, and ownership of negro slaves, and the importation of rum and other distilled liquors. They also permitted existing tenures of land “to be enlarged and extended to an absolute inheritance.”

In bringing about the abrogation of the regulation which forbade the ownership or employment of negro slaves in Georgia, no two gentlemen were more influential than the Rev. George Whitefield and the Hon. James Habersham. The former boldly asserted that the transportation of the African from his home of barbarism to a Christian land, where he would be humanely treated and required to perform his share of toil common to the lot of humanity, was advantageous; while the latter affirmed that the colony could not prosper without the intervention of slave-labor. Georgia now enjoyed like privileges with those accorded to the sister American provinces. Lands could now be held in fee-simple, and the power of alienation was unrestricted. The ownership and employment of negro slaves were free to all, and the New England manufacturer could here find an open market for his rum.

The Trustees had up to this point seriously misinterpreted the capabilities of the climate and soil of Georgia. Although substantial encouragement had been afforded to Mr. Amatis, to Jacques Camuse, to the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, and to others; although copper basins and reeling-machines had been supplied and a filature erected; although silk-worm eggs were procured and mulberry trees multiplied,—silk-culture in Georgia yielded only a harvest of disappointment. The vine also languished. Olive trees from Venice, barilla seeds from Spain, the kali from Egypt, and other exotics obtained at much expense, after a short season withered and died in the public garden. Hemp and flax, from the cultivation of which such rich yields were anticipated, never warranted the charter of a single vessel for their transportation, and indigo did not then commend itself to public favor. Exportations of lumber were infrequent. Cotton was then little more than a garden plant, and white laborers could not compete successfully with Carolina negroes in the production of rice. Up to this point the battle had been with Nature for life and subsistence. Upon the stores of the Trust did many long rely for food and clothing. Of trade there was little, and that was confined to the procurement of necessaries. With the exception of occasional shipments of copper money for circulation among the inhabitants, sola bills constituted the chief currency of the province. Now, however, all restrictions removed, Georgia entered upon a career of comparative prosperity.

This cut (see also the _Memorial History of Boston_, ii. 238) follows a painting in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, Mass. The portraits of Whitefield are numerous. J. C. Smith (_British Mezzotint Portraits_, i. 442, 443; iii. 601, 692, 939; iv. 1545) enumerates various ones in that style, giving a photo-reproduction of one. The Lives of him usually give likenesses.]

On the 8th of April, 1751, Mr. Henry Parker was appointed president of the colony in the room of Colonel Stephens, who retired upon a pension of £80. During his administration the first Provincial Assembly of Georgia convened at Savannah. It was composed of sixteen delegates, and was presided over by Francis Harris. As the privilege of enacting laws was by the terms of the charter vested exclusively in the Trustees, this assembly could not legislate. Its powers were limited to discussing and suggesting such measures as its members might deem conducive to the welfare of particular communities and important for the general good of the province.

The “Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America” resolved to surrender their charter and relieve themselves from the further execution of a trust which had grown quite beyond their management. For twenty years they had supported its provisions with an earnest solicitude, a philanthropic zeal, a disinterested purpose, and a loyal devotion worthy of every commendation. They had seen a feeble plantation upon Yamacraw Bluff expand year by year, until it now assumed the proportions of a permanent colony and disclosed the potentialities of a future nation. The English drum-beat on the banks of the Savannah is answered by the Highland bagpipe on the Alatamaha, and the protecting guns of Frederica are supplemented by the sentinel field-pieces at Augusta. At every stage of progress and in every act, whether trivial or important, these Trustees, capable and worthy, evinced a clear conception of duty, a patience of labor, a singleness of purpose, an unselfish dedication of time and energy, and a rigid adherence to all that was pure, elevated, and humanizing, which become quite conspicuous when their proceedings are minutely and intelligently scanned. That they erred in their judgment in regard to the best method of utilizing many of these marish lands, smitten by sun and storms and pregnant with fevers and fluxes, may not now be doubted; that the theory upon which they administered the trust was in some respects narrow and retarding in its influences, is equally certain; that they were unfortunate in the selection of some of their agents excites no surprise,—but that they were upright, conscientious, observant, and most anxious to promote the best interests of the colony, as they comprehended them, will be freely admitted.

The surrender of the charter was formally concluded on the 23d of June, 1752; and Georgia, no longer the ward of the Trustees, passed into the hands of the Crown. Until clothed with the attributes of State sovereignty by the successful issue of the American Revolution, she was recognized as one of the daughters of England under the special charge of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. By the terms of the surrender, her integrity as an independent province, separate from South Carolina, was fully assured, and all grants of land, hitherto made to the inhabitants, were recognized and respected.

Upon the death of Mr. Parker, Patrick Graham succeeded to the presidency of Georgia. Until a plan for establishing a civil government could be perfected, all officers, both civil and military, holding appointments from the Trustees, were continued in their respective places of trust, with such emoluments, salaries, and fees as were incident thereto. The population of the colony now consisted of two thousand three hundred and eighty-one whites, and one thousand and sixty-six negro slaves. This estimate did not include His Majesty’s troops and boatmen, or a congregation of two hundred and eighty whites, with negro slaves aggregating five hundred and thirty-six, coming from South Carolina and partially settled in the Midway District, or Butler’s Colony with sixty slaves.

The plan suggested by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations for the establishment of a civil government in Georgia contemplated the appointment of a governor, by commission under the Great Seal, with the title of _Captain-General and Governor-in-chief of His Majesty’s Province of Georgia, and Vice-Admiral of the same_. He was to be addressed as _Your Excellency_, and was, within the colony, to be respected as the immediate and highest representative of His Majesty. His functions, as well as those of the two Houses of the Assembly, were well defined.[843]

The plan thus submitted for the government of the Province of Georgia received royal sanction; and His Majesty, upon the nomination of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, was pleased, on the 6th of August, 1754, to appoint Captain John Reynolds governor of the Province of Georgia; William Clifton, Esq., attorney-general; James Habersham, Esq., secretary and register; Alexander Kellet, Esq., provost-marshal; William Russel, Esq., naval officer; Henry Yonge and William De Brahm joint surveyors; Sir Patrick Houstoun, Bart., register of grants and receiver of quit rents; and Patrick Graham, Sir Patrick Houstoun, James Habersham, Alexander Kellet, William Clifton, Noble Jones, Pickering Robinson, Francis Harris, Jonathan Bryan, William Russell, and Clement Martin members of Council.

When during the same year (1754) the other English colonies sent delegates to represent them at the Congress of Albany, in order to draft a plan of union against the French, Georgia filled so narrow a space in the regard of the other colonies that her failure to join in the proposed league was hardly remarked.

Only three Royal Governors did Georgia have. The terms of service of Captain Reynolds and of Henry Ellis were short. Assuming the reins of government in 1760, the third and last Royal Governor, Sir James Wright, encountered the storms of the Revolution, and in a brave adherence to the cause of his royal master suffered arrest, mortification, and loss. It was his lot to preside at an epoch full of doubt and trouble. During his administration the political ties which united Georgia to the mother country were violently sundered, and a union of American colonies was formed, which in after years developed into the great Republic. The rapid development of Georgia under the conduct of these royal governors will be admitted when it is remembered that in 1754 her exports did not amount to £30,000 a year; while, at the opening of the Revolutionary War, they did not fall short of £200,000 sterling.

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

GEORGIA was named in honor of the reigning king of England, George II., who graciously sanctioned a charter, liberal in its provisions, and who granted to the Trustees a territory, extensive and valuable, for the plantation.

In a report submitted to Congress by the Hon. Charles Lee, attorney-general of the United States (Philadelphia, 1796), will be found a valuable collection of charters, treaties, and documents explanatory of the original cession to the “Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America,” and of the modifications and enlargements to which the same was later subjected. The territory which, in 1733, became the Province of Georgia at an earlier day formed a part of ancient Florida, which stretched in the Spanish conception from the Gulf of Mexico to the far north and westward to the Mississippi and indefinitely beyond.

It has fallen to the lot of another writer in the present work to mention the authorities on the primitive peoples of this region; and by still another an enumeration is made of the archæological traces of their life.[844]

* * * * *

The project of Sir Robert Mountgomery for planting a colony in the territory subsequently ceded to the Georgia Trustees is fully unfolded in his _Discourse concerning the design’d Establishment of a New Colony to the South of Carolina in the most delightful Country of the Universe_, London, 1717.[845] Accompanying this _Discourse_ is an engraved “plan representing the Form of Settling the Districts or County Divisions in the Margravate of Azilia.”[846] Although extensively advertised, this scheme failed to attract the favor of the public, and ended in disappointment.

The true story of the mission of Sir Alexander Cuming, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to establish a trade with the Cherokees, and confirm them in their friendship with and allegiance to the British crown, has been well told by Samuel G. Drake in his _Early History of Georgia, embracing the Embassy of Sir Alexander Cuming to the Country of the Cherokees in the year 1730_, Boston, 1872. A reproduction of the rare print giving the portraits of the Indians who accompanied Sir Alexander on his return to London might have been advantageously employed in lending additional attraction to this publication.[847]

Of the memoirs of Oglethorpe,—whose life Dr. Johnson desired to write, and whom Edmund Burke regarded as the most extraordinary person of whom he had read, because he founded a province and lived to see it severed from the empire which created it and erected into an independent State,—those best known are _A Sketch of the Life of General James Oglethorpe, presented to the Georgia Historical Society by Thomas Spalding, Esq., resident member of the same_, printed in 1840; _Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe, Founder of the Colony of Georgia in North America, by Thaddeus Mason Harris, D. D._, Boston, 1841;[848] _Life of James Oglethorpe, the Founder of Georgia, by William B. O. Peabody_, constituting a part of volume ii. of the second series of _The Library of American Biography, conducted by Jared Sparks_, Boston, 1847, and based mainly upon Dr. Harris’ work; and _A Memoir of General James Oglethorpe, one of the earliest Reformers of Prison Discipline in England and the Founder of Georgia in America, by Robert Wright_, London, 1867. The advantages enjoyed by Mr. Wright were exceptionally good, and until the appearance of his memoir that by Dr. Harris was justly regarded as the best.[849]

That the public might be advised of the benevolent character and scope of the undertaking, and might be made acquainted with the designs of the Trustees with regard to the proposed colonization of Georgia, two tracts were published with their sanction: one of them, prepared by Oglethorpe, entitled _A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South Carolina and Georgia, with many curious and useful Observations on the Trade, Navigation, and Plantations of Great Britain compared with her most powerful Maritime Neighbors in ancient and modern Times_, printed in London in 1732;[850] and the other, written by Benjamin Martyn, Secretary of the Board, entitled _Reasons for establishing the Colony of Georgia with regard to the Trade of Great Britain, the Increase of our People, and the Employment and Support it will afford to great numbers of our own Poor as well as Foreign persecuted Protestants, with some account of the Country and the Designs of the Trustees_, London, 1733.[851] Well considered and widely circulated, these tracts were productive of results most beneficial to the Trust.[852]

The development of the province down to 1741 is described and the regulations promulgated by the Trustees for the conduct of the plantation and for the observance of its inhabitants are preserved in _An Account shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America from its First Establishment_, London, 1741. This publication was by authority, and must be accepted as of the highest importance.[853]

Of like interest and value are _An Impartial Enquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia_, London, 1741,—appearing anonymously,[854] but with the sanction of the Trustees, and intended to correct certain mischievous reports circulated with regard to the health of the plantation, the fertility of the soil, the value of the products, and the disabilities under which Georgia labored because of restricted land tenures, and by reason of the regulations prohibiting the introduction and use of spirituous liquors and negro slaves; and _A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740_, London, 1742,—in which the superior advantages of Georgia, her resources and capabilities, are favorably considered and proclaimed.

The history of the Salzburgers in Georgia may be learned from _An Extract of the Journals of Mr. Commissary Von Reck, who conducted the First Transport of Salzburgers to Georgia; and of the Reverend Mr. Bolzius, one of their Ministers, giving an Account of their Voyage to and happy Settlement in the Province, published by the Directors of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge_, London, 1734;[855] from _Neuste und richtigste Nachricht von der Landschaft Georgia in dem Engelländischen America, etc., von J. M. R._, Göttingen, 1746;[856] from _De Præstantia Coloniæ Georgico-Anglicanæ præ Coloniis aliis_,[857] et seq., by Joannes Augustus Urlspergerus; from the _Urlsperger Tracts_, which present with wonderful fidelity and minuteness of details all events connected with the Salzburger settlements in America;[858] and from the _Salzburgers and their Descendants, being the history of a Colony of German Lutheran Protestants who emigrated to Georgia in 1734, and settled at Ebenezer, twenty-five miles above the City of Savannah, by P. A. Strobel_, Baltimore, 1855.[859]

To the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ and to the _London Magazine_ must recourse be had for valuable letters and contemporaneous documents descriptive of the colonization of Georgia and the development of the plantation.

There is in Section xxi. of Chapter iii. of the second volume of _Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or a Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels_, etc., by John Harris (London, 1748), a “History of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Colony of Georgia.” It is prefaced by an excellent map of the province, and is fortified by illustrative documents. In its twenty-five quarto pages are embraced all the noted incidents connected with the early life of the colony and the successful efforts of General Oglethorpe in defending the southern frontier of Georgia against the assaults of the Spaniards. The value of this contribution cannot well be overestimated.

Another work of genuine merit, acquainting us specially with the condition of Savannah and the adjacent region, with the settlement of Frederica, and with those preliminary negotiations which resulted in a postponement of impending hostilities between Georgia and Florida, is _A Voyage to Georgia begun in the year 1735_, etc., by Francis Moore, London, 1744.[860]

A most detailed statement of the affairs and events of the province will be found in the three octavo volumes constituting the diary of Colonel William Stephens, for some time resident Secretary in Georgia of the Trustees, and, upon the departure of General Oglethorpe, advanced to the responsible position of President of the colony,—entitled _A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia beginning October 20th, 1737_, which was printed in London in 1742.[861] Of this work but a limited edition was published by the Trustees, and a complete copy is very difficult to find. While its pages are cumbered with many trivial matters, this rare _Journal_ is remarkable for accuracy of statement and minuteness of details. Its author was at the time far advanced in years, and his narrative is not infrequently colored by his peculiar religious and political notions. He was a firm friend of the colony, an honest servant of the Trust, and in all things most obedient and loyal to his king. Retired upon a pension of £80, he spent his last years on his plantation, near the mouth of Vernon River, which he called Bewlie [Beaulieu] because of a fancied resemblance to the manor of the Duke of Montague in the New Forest. There, about the middle of August, 1753, he died.

In the Executive Department of the State of Georgia may be seen the original MS. folio volume containing _A general account of all monies and effects received and expended by the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America_ (June 9, 1732-June 9, 1752), the names of the benefactors, and the sums contributed and the articles given by them in aid of the Trust. This carefully written and unique volume, the entries, charges, and discharges of which are certified by Harman Verelst,—accountant to the Trustees,—exhibits a complete statement of the finances of the Trust from its inception to the time of the surrender of the charter.[862]

The fullest reports of the demonstration of General Oglethorpe against St. Augustine are contained in _An Impartial Account of the Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, occasioned by the suppression of the Report made by a Committee of the General Assembly in South Carolina, transmitted under the great seal of that Province to their Agent in England in order to be printed: with an exact Plan of the Town, Castle, and Harbour of St. Augustine and the adjacent Coast of Florida; shewing the Disposition of our Forces on that Enterprize_, London, 1741;[863] in _The Report of the Committee of both Houses of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina appointed to enquire into the causes of the Disappointment of success in the late Expedition against St. Augustine under command of General Oglethorpe, published by the order of both Houses_, Charlestown, S. C., and London, 1743;[864] and in _The Spanish Hireling detected, being a Refutation of the Several Calumnies and Falsehoods in a late Pamphlet entitul’d An Impartial Account of the Late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, by George Cadogan, Lieutenant in General Oglethorpe’s Regiment_, etc., London, 1743.[865] Grievous was the disappointment at the failure of the expedition; unjust and harsh were the criticisms upon its leader. “One man there is, my Lords,” said the Duke of Argyle in the British House of Peers, “whose natural generosity, contempt of danger, and regard for the public prompted him to obviate the designs of the Spaniards and to attack them in their own territories: a man whom by long acquaintance I can confidently affirm to have been equal to his undertaking, and to have learned the art of war by a regular education, who yet miscarried in the design only for want of supplies necessary to success.”[866]

Of his successful repulse of the Spanish attack upon the island of St. Simon, the most spirited narratives are furnished in General Oglethorpe’s official report of the 30th of July, 1742, printed in the 3d volume of the _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_; in the letter of John Smith (who, on board the war vessel “Success,” participated in the naval engagement), written from Charlestown, South Carolina, on the 14th of July, 1742, and printed in the _Daily Advertiser_; and in a communication on file in the Public Record Office in London among the Shaftesbury Papers.[867]

That harmony did not always obtain among the Georgia colonists, and that disagreements between the governing and the governed were sometimes most pronounced, must be admitted. While the Trustees endeavored to promote the development of the plantation and to assure the public of the progress of the province, malcontents there were, who thwarted their plans, questioned the expediency of their regulations, and openly declared that their misrule and the partiality of the Trust’s servants were the prolific causes of disquietude and disaster. That General Oglethorpe may, at times, have been dictatorial in his administration of affairs is quite probable; and yet it must be admitted that, amid the dangers which environed and the disturbing influences which beset the development of the province, an iron will and a strong arm were indispensable for its guidance and protection.

The publication, in the interest of the Trust, of the two pamphlets to which we have alluded, one entitled _An Impartial Inquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia_, London, 1741,[868] and the other, _A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740_, London, 1742,[869]—both exhibiting favorable views of the condition of the colony and circulated in furtherance of the scheme of colonization,—so irritated these malcontents that they indulged in several rejoinders, among which will be remembered _A Brief Account of the Causes that have retarded the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America, attested upon oath: being a proper Contrast to A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon oath and some other misrepresentations on the same subject_, London, 1743.[870] The magistrates, both at Savannah and Frederica, were therein declared to be oppressors of the inhabitants. General Oglethorpe was accused of tyranny and partiality. It will be observed that most of the supporting affidavits were verified outside the limits of Georgia. A desire to sell forbidden articles, and to ply trades for which special licenses had been issued to others; opposition to the regulation which prohibited the owners of cattle and hogs from allowing them to run at large on the common and in the streets of Frederica; alleged misfeasance in the conduct of bailiffs and magistrates in the discharge of their duties; the unprofitableness of labor, overbearing acts committed by those in authority, and similar matters, formed the burthen of these sworn complaints. While they tended to distract the public mind and to annoy those upon whose shoulders rested the provincial government, they fortunately failed in producing any serious impression either within the colony or in the mother country.

Another Jacobinical tract was that prepared and published at the instigation of Dr. Patrick Tailfer,—a thorn in the side of General Oglethorpe, to whom, under the signature of “The Plain Dealer,” he addressed a communication upon colonial affairs full of complaint, condemnation, and sarcasm. He was the chief of a club of malcontents in Savannah, whose conduct became so notorious that they were forced, in September, 1740, to quit the province and seek refuge in South Carolina. When thus beyond the jurisdiction of Georgia, in association with Hugh Anderson, David Douglass, and others, he caused to be printed a scurrilous tract entitled _A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America from the first Settlement thereof until the present period_, etc., Charles-Town, South Carolina, 1741.[871] The epistle dedicatory is addressed to General Oglethorpe, and is full of venom. Craving rum, negro slaves, and fee-simple titles to land, such disaffected colonists hesitated not to malign the authorities, disquiet the settlers, and belie the true condition of affairs. Georgia was then in an embarrassed and impoverished situation. Her population was increasing but slowly. Labor was scarcely remunerative. Onerous were some of the regulations of the Trustees, and the Spanish war cloud was darkening the southern confines of the province. The impression, however, which Dr. Tailfer and his associates sought to convey of the status of the colony was exaggerated, spiteful, and without warrant.[872]

The visit of Tomo-chi-chi and his retinue to England is described in contemporaneous numbers of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ and of the _London Magazine_. It was also commemorated in what is now rarely seen, _Georgia a Poem_; _Tomo-cha-chi, an Ode_; _A copy of verses on Mr. Oglethorpe’s second voyage to Georgia_, “_Facies non omnibus una, nec diversa tamen_,” London, 1736. Twenty-two years afterwards appeared _Tombo-chi-qui or The American Savage, a Dramatic Entertainment in Three Acts_, London, 1758. Although printed anonymously, it is generally attributed to Cleland. The poet Freneau, at a later date, composed an ode to _The Dying Indian Tomo-chequi_. In the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, vol. x. p. 129, is an interesting letter describing the last moments and sepulture of this noted Mico. In his _Historical Sketch of Tomo-chi-chi, Mico of the Yamacraws_, Albany, 1868, the author of these notes endeavored to present all that is known of this distinguished chief, to whose friendship and aid the Colony of Georgia was indebted in a remarkable degree.

It was the custom of the Trustees to assemble annually and listen to a sermon delivered in commendation of the benevolent scheme in which they were engaged. Some of these discourses possess historical value, although most of them are simply moral essays.[873]

In December, 1837, the General Assembly of Georgia empowered the governor of the State to select a competent person to procure from the government offices in London copies of all records and documents respecting the settlement and illustrating the colonial life of Georgia. The Rev. Charles Wallace Howard was entrusted with the execution of this mission. He returned with copies of documents filling twenty-two folio volumes. Fifteen of these were made from the originals on file in the office of the Board of Trade, six from those in the State Paper Office, and the remaining volume consisted of copies of important documents included in the king’s library.[874] These MS. volumes are preserved in the state library at Atlanta. While they embrace many of the communications, regulations, reports, treaties, and documents illustrative of the colonial life of Georgia, they do not exhaust the treasures of the Public Record Office and the British Museum.

In private hands in England are several original MS. volumes, connected with the colonization of Georgia and detailing the acts and resolutions of the Trustees. Prominent among them are two quarto volumes, closely written in the neat, small, round hand of John Percival, the first Earl of Egmont and the first president of the Board of Trustees, containing the original manuscript records of the meetings of the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America from June 14th, 1738, to the 24th of May, 1744.[875] They contain also an index of proceedings, June, 1737, to June, 1738, together with some memoranda relating to the proceedings of 1745-46. It is probable that there were antecedent volumes, but they are not now known.

In the Department of State, and in the Executive Department of Georgia, are some documents of great historical interest connected with the English colonization of Georgia. The _Historical Collections_ of the Georgia Historical Society,[876] in four volumes, contain reprints of many of the early tracts already referred to, and other papers illustrative of Georgia history.[877]

In the library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is a folio MS. in excellent preservation, entitled _History of the three Provinces, South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida_, by John Gerard William de Brahm, surveyor-general of the southern provinces of North America, then under the dominion of Great Britain, and illustrated by over twenty maps and plans. The portion relating to Georgia was, in 1849, edited and printed with extreme accuracy and typographical elegance by Mr. George Wymberley-Jones, of Savannah. The edition was limited to forty-nine copies. Six of the eight maps appertaining to Georgia were engraved.[878] This publication constitutes the second of Mr. Jones’ “Wormsloe quartos,”[879] and is justly esteemed not only for its typography and rarity, but also for its historical value. To the engineering skill of Captain de Brahm was Georgia indebted for many important surveys and military defenses. Through his instrumentality were large accessions made to the German population between Savannah and New Ebenezer.

Of the legislative acts passed by the general assemblies of Georgia during the continuance of the royal government, many are retained in the digests of Robert and George Watkins (Philadelphia, 1800), and of Marbury and Crawford. Aware of the fact that numerous omissions existed, Mr. George Wymberley-Jones De Renne caused diligent search to be made in the Public Record Office in London for all acts originating in Georgia which, having received royal sanction, were there filed. Exact copies of them were then obtained; but Mr. De Renne’s death occurred before he had compassed his purpose of printing the transcripts. His widow, Mrs. Mary De Renne, carried out his design and committed the editing of them to Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL. D. The result was a superb quarto, entitled _Acts passed by the General Assembly of the Colony of Georgia, 1755 to 1774, now first printed_. _Wormsloe._ 1881. The edition was limited to forty-nine copies. In this volume appears no act which had hitherto found its way into type. During the period covered by this legislation, James Johnston was the public printer in Savannah. By him were many of the acts, passed by the various assemblies, first printed,—sometimes simply as broadsides, and again in thin quarto pamphlets. William Ewen, who, at a later date, was president of the Council of Safety, carefully preserved these printed acts, and caused them to be bound in a volume which lies before us. The MS. index is in his handwriting. It is the only complete copy of these colonial laws, printed contemporaneously with their passage, of which we have any knowledge. James Johnston was also the editor and printer of the _Georgia Gazette_, the only newspaper published in Georgia prior to and during the Revolution. In the office of the Secretary of State in Atlanta are preserved the engrossed original acts passed by the colonial General Assemblies of Georgia. The sanction of the home government was requisite to impart vitality to such acts. As soon, therefore, as they had received the approval of the Governor in Council, the seal of the colony was attached to duplicate originals. One was lodged with the proper officer in Savannah, and the other was forwarded for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. When by them approved, this duplicate original, properly indorsed, was filed in London. Detaching the colonial seal seems to have been the final attestation of royal sanction. Of the action of the home government the colonial authorities were notified in due course.

* * * * *

With regard to the sojourn of Rev. John Wesley in Georgia, of his designs and anticipations in visiting the colony, and of the disappointments there experienced, we have perhaps the fullest memoranda in a little undated volume entitled _An extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal from his embarking for Georgia to his return to London_, Bristol; printed by S. and F. Farley. It gives his own interpretation of the events, trials, and disappointments which induced him so speedily to abandon a field of labor in which he had anticipated much pleasure and success.[880] In a tract published in London in 1741, called _An Account of money received and disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia_, the Rev. George Whitefield submits a full exhibit of all expenditures made up to that time in the erection and support of that institution. To it is prefixed a plan of the building.[881] His efforts to convert it into a college are unfolded in _A Letter to his Excellency Governor Wright_, printed in London, 1768. Appended to this is the correspondence which passed between him and the Archbishop of Canterbury. This tract is illustrated by plans and elevations of the present and intended structures, and by a plat of the Orphan House lands. There are sermons of this eloquent divine in aid of this charity, and journals of journeys and voyages undertaken while employed in soliciting subscriptions. His friend and companion, the Hon. James Habersham, has left valuable letters explanatory of the scope and administration of this eleemosynary project. William Bartram, who visited Bethesda in 1765, wrote a pleasant description of it.[882]

Among the histories of Georgia we may mention:—

_An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia_, London, 1779,[883] in two volumes, octavo. Although published anonymously, these volumes are known to have been written by the Rev. Alexander Hewitt,[884] a Presbyterian clergyman and a resident of Charlestown, South Carolina, who returned to England when he perceived that an open rupture between the Crown and the thirteen American Colonies was imminent. While in this work the colonial history of Georgia is given at some length, the attention of the author was mainly occupied with the establishment and growth of the Province of Carolina. His labors ended with the dawn of the Revolution.

To _A View of the Constitution of the British Colonies in North America and the West Indies at the time the Civil War broke out on the Continent of America_, by Anthony Stokes, his Majesty’s Chief Justice in Georgia, London, 1783, we must refer for the most intelligent history of the civil and judicial conduct of affairs in Georgia during the continuance of the royal government.

Soon after the formation of the general government Mr. Edward Langworthy—at first a pupil and then a teacher at Whitefield’s Orphan House, afterwards an enthusiastic “Liberty Boy,” Secretary of the Provincial Congress of Georgia, and one of the early representatives from that State in the Confederated Congress—conceived the design of writing a history of Georgia. Of fair attainments, and personally acquainted with the leading men and transactions of the period, he was well qualified for the task, and addressed himself with energy to the collection of materials requisite for the undertaking. From a published prospectus of the work, printed in the _Georgia Gazette_, we are led to believe that this history was actually written. Suitable encouragement not having been extended, the contemplated publication was never made. Mr. Langworthy died at Elkton, in Maryland, early in the present century, and all efforts to recover both his manuscripts and the supporting documents which he had amassed have thus far failed.

From the press of Seymour and Williams, of Savannah, was issued, in 1811, the first volume of Major Hugh McCall’s _History of Georgia_,[885] and this was followed, in 1816, by the second volume published by William Thorne Williams. Oppressed by physical infirmities, and a martyr to the effects of exposures and dangers experienced while an officer in the army of the Revolution; now confined to his couch, again a helpless cripple moving only in an easy-chair upon wheels; dependent for a livelihood upon the slender salary paid to him as city jailer of Savannah; often interrupted in his labors, and then, during intervals of pain, writing with his portfolio resting upon his knees; without the preliminary education requisite for the scholarly accomplishment of such a serious undertaking, and yet fired with patriotic zeal, and anxious to wrest from impending oblivion the fading traditions of the State he loved so well, and whose independence he had imperilled everything to secure,—Major McCall, in the end, compassed a narrative which is highly prized, and which, in its recital of events connected with the Revolutionary period and the part borne by Georgians in that memorable struggle, is invaluable. He borrowed largely from Mr. Hewitt in depicting the colonial life of Georgia.[886]

As early as March, 1841, the Georgia Historical Society invited Dr. William Bacon Stevens to undertake, under its auspices, the preparation of a new and complete _History of Georgia_. Liberal aid was extended to him in his labor, and of its two octavo volumes, one was published in 1847 and the other in 1859.[887] This author brings his history down to the adoption of the constitution of 1798.

In 1849 the Rev. George White published in Savannah his _Statistics of the State of Georgia_, and this was followed, six years afterwards, by his more comprehensive and valuable work entitled the _Historical Collections of Georgia_, illustrated with nearly one hundred engravings, and published by Pudney and Russell, of New York. In this volume a vast mass of statistical, documentary, and traditional information is presented; and for his industry the author is entitled to much commendation.

_The History of Georgia_, by T. S. Arthur and W. H. Carpenter, published in Philadelphia in 1854, and constituting one of Lippincott’s cabinet histories, is a meagre compendium of some of the leading events in the life of the Colony and State, and does not claim special attention.

In his _History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi_ (Charleston, S. C., 1851) Colonel Albert James Pickett furnishes abundant and interesting material illustrative of the aboriginal epoch; and, in a manner both intelligent and attractive, traces the colonization of the territory indicated down to the year 1820.[888]

The present writer has already printed [1883] the first two volumes of _History of Georgia_; and his preface unfolds his purpose to tell the story from the earliest times down to a period within the memory of the living. The two volumes thus far issued embrace the aboriginal epoch, a narrative of discovery and early exploration, schemes of colonization, the settlement under Oglethorpe, and the life of the province under the guidance of the Trustees, under the control of the President and Assistants, under the supervision of royal governors, and during the Revolutionary War. They conclude with the erection of Georgia into an independent State. All available sources of information have been utilized. The two concluding volumes, which will deal with Georgia as a Commonwealth, are in course of preparation.

We refrain from an enumeration of gazetteers, historical essays, and publications, partial in their character, which relate to events subsequent to what may be properly termed the period of colonization.