clamorous for privileges to which they had no right, and created discontent and factions where it was hoped they would live together in brotherly peace and charity-thus the benevolence of the Trustees became perverted-their good intentions thwarted, and the very existence of the colony jeopardized in the extreme. Indeed a total failure of their scheme was almost at their doors.

Their too sanguine hopes relative to the great commercial productiveness of the colony, were also destined to disappointment. To secure the cultivation of silk, wine, and' other useful articles, they sent over Mr. Amatis, a silk-raiser and weaver of Piedmont, with the first embarkation, and Mr. De Lyon, a Portuguese, was, in 1736, encouraged to plant many of his native vines, which, for a time, flourished well. In the original plan of Savannah, there was also reserved ten acres, to the east of the town, for a Trustees' garden, designed as an experimental nursery for rare native and exotic plants: to store which, they had, at the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane, and in conjunction with the Apothecaries Company, the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Derby, &c. sent Dr. Houston to the Spanish West Indies, to collect the plants and trees indigenous to that climate, for the colony of Georgia. Francis Moore, Esq. in his voyage to Georgia, 1735, gives an interesting account of this garden, and remarks:

"Besides the mulberry trees, there are in some of the quarters in the coldest part of the garden, all kinds of fruit trees usual in England, such as apples, pears, &c. In another quarter, oil olives, figs, vines, pomegranates, and such fruits as are natural to the warmest parts of Europe. At the bottom of the hill, well sheltered from the north wind, and in the warmest part of the garden, there was a collection of West India plants and trees-some coffee-some cocoa-nutscotton-palma christi—and several West India physical plants."*

On the part of the Trustees, therefore, every thing was done to carry out their views, but they had counted too much on the climate, the soil and the people, and were, therefore, doomed to disappointment. The wine, which was to supply all the plantations, so that they should not have to go to Madeira for it, resulted in but a few gallons, and was then abandoned. The drugs and exotics, which, at great expense, they had procured and placed in the Trus*Collections, vol. I. p. 99

tees' garden, were mostly destroyed, by the snow and frost, the second winter after they were planted.

The hemp and flax, which was to sustain the linen manufactures of Great Britain, and throw the balance of trade with Russia, in England's favor, never came to a single ship load and of the indigo, there were one or two good plantations of it near St. Simon's and the Alatamaha, but it was never generally introduced, and its culture was soon abandoned.

Their most prized article, silk, maintained a longer struggle, with the many disadvantages by which its culture was surrounded. Filatures were built-instructors sent overbounties were lavished on cocoons-trees and eggs freely distributed-acts of Parliament passed in its favor-and after thousands of pounds sterling had been spent, to bring it to perfection, and establish it as a colonial staple, it only lingered till 1773, when the filiature at Savannah was turned into a ball-room, and the whole affair was dropped. Instead of the £500,000, which Georgia was to save to England, by her raising of silk, the entire quantity produced in that Province, from its founding to 1773, a period of forty years, did not exceed ten thousand pounds, the product of which, hardly covered the expense of its cultivation. "They looked for much, and lo! it came to little."

Nor were they more fortunate in relieving their mother country of an indigent population. From the tract in the second volume of "Collections," entitled the "Act shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia from its establishment," we find to the year 1740, at which time the account closes, but 1521 persons had been sent over on the bounty of the Trustees, and of these 606 were foreign Protestants, leaving only 915 British subjects transplanted to Georgia in eight years. The receipts of the Trustees during those eight years in money, was over £112,000, viz. £94,000 from Parliamentary grants, and £18,000 from private benefactions. They did not, it is true, entertain the extravagant speculations of the Earl of Eglinton, who subsequently proposed to the King, to introduce a hundred thousand settlers into Georgia and the two Floridas; but they expected soon to settle twenty thousand persons in their territory, and build it up at once into a great commercial colony. It was estimated at the time that, at a very small calculation, four thousand persons were annually imprisoned for debt in

England, and though their scheme looked directly to the melioration and relief of these unfortunates, yet, what paltry results! they extended their charity to only about one hundred a year, and then its application was often injudicious and faulty. All the grand hopes of the Trustees, therefore, came to nought-every expectation was frustrated, and they were soon taught that however easy it was to plan a colony, it was quite another thing to carry it into execution.

The first embarcation for Georgia, left England in November, 1732, and arrived at Savannah, via Charleston and Beaufort, on the 12th February, 1733. Oglethorpe came with them, to superintend their operations, and assist in their establishment in the new country.

The place selected by Oglethorpe, and Col. Bull, who accompanied him from Carolina, was the high bluff of Yamacraw, on which he found a few Indians, and with whom, through a half-breed woman, Mary Musgrove, the wife of an Indian trader, he made amicable arrangements for land for his colony.

No sooner had the emigrants arrived at this place, and begun to build, than Oglethorpe hastened to have an interview with the adjacent tribes of Indians, in order to secure their quietude and friendship. He accordingly sent messengers to the head men and warriors of the Creek Indians, of which the small Yamacraw tribe was a portion, to meet him in Savannah, and there form an alliance for mutual protection and support. About fifty chiefs and warriors responded to his invitation, and came down to Savannah with Wiggin their interpreter; and the meeting with Oglethorpe took place on the afternoon of the 18th May.* The deliberations of this council were continued till the 21st, when a treaty was signed by the chiefs and head men on the one part, and Oglethorpe and the interpreters on the other. The principal stipulations of this treaty were, that the Trustees' people would trade in the Indian towns, their goods being sold according to fixed rates, mutually agreed upon; thus a white blanket was set down at five buck-skins-a gun at ten, a hatchet at three doe-skins, a knife at one, and so on. Restitution and reparation was to be made for injuries and losses committed by either party-the criminals to be tried by English law. Trade to be stopped with any town violating any article

*Dr. Harris, in his memorial of Oglethorpe, page 67, has placed this interview in June, which is incorrect.

of the treaty-all lands, not used by the Indians, were to be possessed by the English; but upon the settling of any new town, certain lands agreed on between the chiefs and the magistrates, were to be reserved for the former. All runaway negroes were to be restored to Carolina; the Indians receiving for each one thus recovered, four blankets, two guns, or the value thereof in other goods; and latterly, they agreed with straight hearts and true love, to allow no other white people to settle on their lands, but even to protect the English. The Indians having received suitable presents, were dismissed in amnity and in peace. Oglethorpe left the same day for Charleston, satisfied at having obtained by such honorable means, the cession of such a fine country to the crown of England. This treaty was ratified by the Trustees the following October.

The Carolinians, foreseeing the great advantage of having an English, and especially a non-slaveholding colony settled between them and the French and Spanish dominions on the south and south-west, encouraged Oglethorpe and the emigrants by liberal donations and generous assistance. Private individuals vied with each other in acts of munificence, and the Assembly voted liberal supplies, and protection during the infancy of the colony. For these demonstrations of kindness, Oglethorpe publicly thanked them "not only in the name of the Trustees and the little colony of Georgia, but 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." Having laid out Savannah, and completed a tour of observation on the lands and islands to the southward, he was about to embark for England with Tomochichi, the Yamacraw King, and his train, when the arrival of the first body of Saltzburghers, caused him to relinquish, for a time, his design, in order to settle them before his departure. These German emigrants, driven out from their homes in the Archbishopric of Saltzburgh, in Bavaria, in consequence of their profession of the Protestant religion, sought an asylum in England, and thence eagerly embraced the opportunity held out to them by the Trustees, of settling in Georgia, where they could find peace and plenty. The first transport of them came under the care of Baron Von Reck and the Rev. Messrs. Boltziers and Gronau, and reached Charleston in March, after a passage of about two months from Dover in England. Governor Johnson, and Oglethorpe,

who was then in Carolina, received them with great kindness and cordiality; and Oglethorpe immediately sent on board their ships a large quantity of fresh beef, fresh spring-water, two butts of wine, together with a variety of vegetables, fruit, &c., as a present from the Trustees. After surveying a plan of Georgia, which Oglethorpe had spread out before Baron Von Reck, with liberty to choose what location he pleased, he selected a spot on the Savannah River twenty-one miles from Savannah Town, in what appeared to be a pleasant and inviting retreat. They arrived at Savannah the 10th of March, and were received with open arms and friendly hearts, and a large tent was pitched for their accommodation in the principal square of the town. Oglethorpe returned from Charleston in a few days, and with Baron Von Reck, and others, went up to view the place selected for their settlement. Of this place the Baron gives the following description:

"The lands are enclosed between two rivers which fall into the Savannah. The Saltzburgh Town is to be built near the largest, which is called Ebenezer, (or the Stone of Help,) in remembrance that God had brought them thither. It is navigable, being twelve foot 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 the vine. 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.

"The earth is so fertile, that it will bring forth anything 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."

By the 7th of April, all the Saltzburghers had reached Ebenezer, and they immediately began to labor with a diligence which was a happy earnest of future success. On the 1st May, lots were drawn for the houses to be built, and a plan was laid for building a chapel.

Large presents of cattle, provisions, seeds, farming utensils, &c., were made to them, and they were soon comfortably