USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 8
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The most generous assistance was given them by South Carolina. The assembly, which met in Charles- ton three days after the arrival of the emigrants, immediately resolved to furnish the colony with large supplies of cattle and rice-to provide boats for the transportation of the people from Port Royal to Sa- vannah ; and placed under Oglethorpe's command the scout-boats and a troop of fifteen rangers for his protection. They further appointed Colonel William Bull one of the governor's council, and a gentleman esteemed " most capable of assisting Oglethorpe in settling the colony by reason of his experience in colo- nial affairs, the nature of lands, and the intercourse with Indians," to attend him, and offer him his advice and assistance. Such was the readiness of all to assist him, that the governor wrote, " Had not our assembly been sitting, I would have gone myself."8
Nor was private benevolence in any way behind
Lediard's Naval Hist. of England,
pp. 921-2, London, 1735, fol.
8 Georgia Historical Collections, i. 235-237.
92
PRIVATE MUNIFICENCE TO THE COLONY.
public munificence. It is pleasant, in looking over the list of individual benefactions, to read such records as these : February .- Colonel Bull came to Savannah with four labourers, and assisted the colony for a month ; he himself measuring the scantling, and set- ting out the work for the sawyers, and giving the pro- portion of the houses. Mr. Whitaker and his friends sent the colony one hundred head of cattle. Mr. St. Julian came to Savannah and staid a month, directing the people in building their houses and other work. Mr. Hume gave a silver boat and spoon for the first child born in Georgia, which being born of Mrs. Close, were given accordingly. Mr. Joseph Bryan himself, with four of his sawyers, gave two months' work in the colony. The inhabitants of Edisto sent sixteen sheep. Mr. Hammerton gave a drum. Mrs. Ann Drayton sent two pair of sawyers to work in the col- ony. Colonel Bull and Mr. Bryan came to Savannah with twenty servants, whose labour they gave to the colony. His Excellency, Robert Johnson, gave seven horses, valued at £25, Carolina currency.9
These, with many other like records, evince their spirit in promoting the settlement of Georgia. And well they might; for the planting of this colony to the south of the Savannah, increased their security from invasion by the Spaniards, and from the incursions and massacres of the Indian tribes ; and still further ope- rated as a preventive to the enticing lures held out to the negroes, by which desertion was rendered com- mon, and insurrection always dreaded. They were prepared, therefore, to hail the new colony as a bul- wark against their Floridian and savage enemies ; as
9 MS. Account of Benefactions made by South Carolina to the Province of Georgia.
93
INTERESTING COINCIDENCE.
opening further opportunities of trade ; and as en- hancing the value of their frontier possessions, which, according to the best authorities, were raised to five times their former value, about Port Royal and the Savannah river. The fostering care of South Carolina was to be repaid by the protecting service of Georgia. The labours of the colonists were great, but they had much to cheer them ; and the assiduity and attention of Oglethorpe won .upon their hearts, so that they styled him " Father ;" and he exercised his paternal care by unremitting efforts to advance their welfare. He spared not himself in any personal efforts, but took his turn regularly in doing night-guard duty, as an example to the rest; and at times worked at the hardest labour, to encourage their industry.10
An interesting and striking coincidence exists be- tween the settlement of Georgia, and that of Mary- land. It was in June, 1632, that the charter of Maryland passed the great seal ; and it was in June, 1732, that the charter of Georgia received a like con- firmation. The first ship-load of each left England on a Friday in November, and both reached their new home in February of the respective years following their departure. One was named in honour of a queen of England, and the other in honour of a king of England. This coincidence is the more interesting the further we pursue it; for in the character of the projectors of each colony, in their family connexions, in their political predilections, in their personal char- acteristics, in their treatment of the Indians, and in the equity and benevolence of their several govern- ments, there was a marked and delightful similarity. If to Oglethorpe we give the honour of planting the
10 Wyse's Letter, London, 27th June, 1733.
94
OGLETHORPE PROCEEDS TO CHARLESTON.
first colony ever founded by philanthropy, to Calvert is due the praise of being the first in the history of the Christian world, who united liberty of conscience with popular institutions; and who, in a remote corner of the world, on the banks of the Potomac, himself a Roman Catholic, and in the midst of an asylum of Roman Catholics, first adopted religious freedom as the fundamental law of States. Calvert and Oglethorpe were not merely the founders of now large and flourish- ing States ; but they were the first in the history of mankind, who gave political embodiment to the great principles of Christian charity, and Christian liberty.
Having put Savannah in a posture of defence, sup- plied it with provisions, and taken hostages of the Indians, Oglethorpe set out for Charleston, attended by Tomochichi and his two nephews, being desirous of cultivating the acquaintance and securing the good offices of the Governor, Council, and Assembly of South Carolina. At Charleston he was met at the waterside by his Excellency the Governor and Council, who con- ducted him to Governor Johnson's house ; where the speaker and house of assembly came to present their official congratulations on his arrival. His solicitations for assistance were promptly answered. The assem- bly voted £2000, currency, for the assistance of Geor- gia, the first year ; and soon after the committee of supply brought in a bill for granting £8000, currency, for the use of the new colony, the ensuing year.11 The citizens also subscribed £1000, currency, £500 of which were immediately paid down. Grateful for this munificence, Oglethorpe returned to Georgia, to meet the great council of the towns of the Lower Creeks, whom he had desired to meet him in Savannah, to
11 Statutes at Large of South Carolina, iii. 362.
95
TREATY WITH THE INDIANS CONCLUDED.
strengthen the provisional treaty already made with Tomochichi, and secure their abiding amity for the future. In answer to this desire, eighteen chief men and their attendants, making in all about fifty, came together from the nine tribes of the nation, and met him in solemn council on the afternoon of the 18th of May. Speeches not lacking in interest, but full of Indian hyperbole and the inflations of interpreters, were made by the chiefs, and answered by Ogle- thorpe, through the medium of Messrs. Wiggin and Musgrove ; and on the 21st of May the treaty was concluded. / The principal stipulations of it were, that the Trustees' people should trade in the Indian towns ; their goods being sold according to fixed rates mutu- ally agreed upon : thus a white blanket was set down at five buckskins; a gun, at ten ; a hatchet, at three doeskins ; a knife, at one ; and so on. Restitution and reparation were to be made for injuries committed and losses sustained by either party ; the criminals to be tried by English law. Trade to be stopped with any town violating any article of the treaty. All lands not used by the Indians were to be possessed by the Eng- lish ; but, upon the settling of any new town, certain lands agreed on between the chiefs and the magis- trates, were to be reserved for the former. All run- away negroes were to be restored to Carolina; the Indians receiving for each one thus recovered, four blankets and two guns, or the value thereof in other goods. And lastly, they agreed, with " straight hearts " and " true love," to allow no other whit people to settle on their lands, but ever to protect the English. The Indians, having received suitable pres- ents, were dismissed in amity and peace ;12 while Ogle-
12 Force's Tracts, i., Tract 2, pp. 10, 11.
96
PRE-EMINENCE OF OGLETHORPE.
thorpe left, the same day, for Charleston, satisfied at having obtained, by such honourable means, the ces- sion of such a fine country to the crown of England. This treaty was ratified by the Trustees, the following October.
The judicious and honourable conduct of Oglethorpe towards the Indians, was of more security to the col- ony than its military defences.
For a long time he had regarded the Indians with kindly feelings. At his suggestion, Bishop Wilson, one of the bright and shining lights of the English Church, wrote " An Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians," which he dedicated to Oglethorpe ; and now that he met them on their native soil, he evinced the same care for their interests, and through life manifested, in all his acts, his regard for their welfare. He was the red man's friend; showing, in his inter- course with them, the honourableness of William Penn, without his private interests to subserve ; the gen- erosity of Lord Baltimore, without a patent of immense tracts to secure to his descendants; the compassion of Roger Williams, without his mercantile views, to incite him to foster among the Indians kindness and regard.
Oglethorpe stands superior to all, because he had no private end to gratify; no lands to secure ; no prop- erty to invest ; no wealth to accumulate from or among the tribes, whose amity he cultivated.
The art of the painter has commemorated the treaty of Penn with the Leni Lenapes, under the elm tree of Shakamaxon ; but neither this scene on the north edge of Philadelphia, nor the treaty of Roger Williams with " the old Prince Canonicas " at Seconke, nor the alli- ance of Leonard Calvert with the Susquehannahs at
97
FESTIVITIES IN CHARLESTON.
Yoacomoco, excels, in any element of philanthropy, or in any trait of nobleness, the treaty of Oglethorpe with the tribes of the Muscogees, under the " four pine trees " on the bluff of Yamacraw.
His Indian relations satisfactorily adjusted, his heart was rejoiced, and his hands strengthened by the arri- val of a few more colonists in the ship James, Captain Yoakly, which reached Savannah while he was in Charleston ; and to the captain of which was awarded the prize offered by the Trustees " to the first ship that should sail up the Savannah river, and unload at the town."
Returning to Charleston, he was again received with every demonstration of regard. A public dinner was given to him by the legislative bodies, which he returned by a ball and a supper to the ladies in the council-chamber ; at which, says the chronicle of the day, " there was the greatest appearance of people of fashion that has been known upon such an occasion."13
But amidst this interchange of festivities, Georgia was not forgotten. Increased interest and increased benefaction followed his appeals; which encourage- ment he acknowledged in a speech made before the provincial legislature. " I have long wished," said he, " for an opportunity of expressing my sense of the uni- versal zeal which the inhabitants of this province have shown for assisting the colony ; and could not think of any better opportunity than now the whole province is virtually present in its general assembly. I am therefore, gentlemen, to thank you for the handsome assistance given by private people, as well as by the public. I am to thank you, not only in the name of the trustees and the little colony now in Georgia ; but
13 South Carolina Gazette, June, 1733.
7
and
98
ACCESSION OF SETTLERS.
in behalf of all the distressed people of Britain, and persecuted Protestants of Europe, to whom a place of refuge will be secured by this first attempt."
To illustrate the value of the colony to Carolina, he appealed to their knowledge " of the dangerous blows it had escaped from French, Spanish, and Indian arms ;" of the formidable barrier it would present on the southern frontier ; of the lessening of their taxes by the taking up of else vacant lands; and of the positive increase of wealth, by the multiplying of plan- tations, and their great rise in value since the colony was settled. And he ended by saying : " As I shall soon return to Europe, I must recommend the infant colony to your further protection, being assured, both from your generosity and wisdom, that you will, in case of any danger and necessity, give them the utmost support and assistance."14
He returned immediately to Georgia, where his presence was required, to settle " some small divisions and differences." These he quieted; and then, with Captain McPherson and the rangers, proceeded to the Ogeechee river, in order to choose a proper site for a post, to command the passages by which the Indians used to invade Carolina; " which, in honour of his friend, John, Duke of Argyle, he called Fort Argyle."
It was deemed important to fortify this place, as an outpost of the Savannah settlement; and it was accord- ingly garrisoned with a detachment of rangers; and ten families were sent from Savannah to cultivate lands in the neighbourhood.
Having received one hundred and fifty-two settlers, sent over by the Trustees, and there being a number of houses erected, and much land cleared, Oglethorpe re-
14 Force's Tracts, i. Tract 2, pp. 13-15.
99
SAVANNAH DIVIDED INTO WARDS.
solved to have a public and formal designating of the town and wards; and to blend the assigning of the several lots to the settlers with religious exercises, appropriate to the occasion of laying what proved to be the corner-stone of a great commonwealth. Accordingly, on the 7th July, the emigrants met in a body upon the bluff, before his tent ; and having joined in offices of prayer and thanksgiving, imploring upon themselves and the colony they were to found the blessing of God, they proceeded to name the wards and assign the lots. One square was laid out, which, in honour of the Governor of South Carolina, they named Johnson Square. Four wards were marked off, to which were severally given the names of Heath- cote, Percival, Derby, and Decker; to commemorate the valuable services of Lord Percival, the first Presi- dent of the Trustees, the Earl of Derby, Sir William Heathcote, and Sir Matthew Decker, large benefactors to the design.
These four wards were divided into sixteen tith- ings,15 of which fourteen bore the names of the follow-
15 The division of the town into tithings, and the appointment of tith- ing-men, was an old Saxon custom, styled by some the peculiar invention of King Alfred. But in the oldest of all histories (Exodus xviii.) we learn that Moses, in his administration of the government of Israel, " chose able men out of all Israel, * * * and made them rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." Garcillasso de la Vega also informs us that this was the ancient system practised under the Incas in Peru. ties, for the surer conservation of the peace, and the more easy administra- tion of justice ; for the head man of these ten, who was called teothing-man, or tithing-man, was charged with the governance of those under him. But this division of towns and boroughs in- to tithings was quite obsolete, so that it did not exist in a single corporation in England. The name of tithing- men was still preserved, but it de- nominated a kind of petty constable, elected by parishes and sworn in their offices in the Court-Leet ; and some- times the office and authority of a This arrangement was introduced into the Saxon code for the better tithing are equal to those of a consta- ble, where there is no constable. (Toul- holding together of families in socie- min's Law Dictionary, iii. 623.) The
100
THE NAMING OF THE TITHINGS.
ing Trustees, viz. : Digby, Carpenter, Frederick, Tyr- connel, More, Hucks, Tower, Heathcote, Eyles, Laroche, Vernon, Belitha, Holland, and Sloper; the other two were named respectively after the Earl of Wilmington, and Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, who, with his lady, had contributed £600 towards the Trustees' design.
These wards and tithings were intersected at right angles by six streets, which, in honour of Colonel William Bull, who first accompanied Oglethorpe to Georgia; of Mr. Whitaker, of Mr. Joseph Bryan, of Mrs. Ann Drayton, and of Mr. St. Julian, each of South Carolina, all of whom gave liberally to the infant col- ony ; and of James, the Earl of Abercorn, who also made a generous donation to its funds, were respect- ively named Bull, Whitaker, Bryan, Drayton, St. Julian, and Abercorn streets. Thus were the names of the benefactors of Georgia made to become the municipal and household words of the colony. The streets, and wards, and tithings of Savannah will bear their names to far-distant generations ; and so long as Savannah stands, shall these names be spoken, ever bearing with them the commemoration of the zeal and benevolence of those whom they recall.
Having apportioned out to the inhabitants their seve- ral lots, and settled, in an amicable way, all differences
system of tithing-men was only par- ally laid out as Savannah was, into tially introduced into America. The wards and tithings, with officers appro- priate to these divisions. It is true that the plan of government designed by Gorges for the " Province of Maine," about 1640, was based upon these old Saxon forms ; but the system was not carried into effect. Folsom's Discourse, delivered before the " Maine Historical Society," Sept. 6th, 1846, p. 60. Plymouth Colony divided the Indians under their jurisdiction into tithings, over which were set tithing-men to " take the inspection, care and over- sight of his nine men, and present their faults and misdemeanors to the over- seer." (Plymouth Colony Laws, 194.) But in no instance was a town origin-
101
ARRIVAL OF FORTY ISRAELITES.
as to choice and locality, the people, at noon, sat down to a plentiful dinner, provided by Oglethorpe; and made the day festal, with the thanksgiving of the lips, and the gladness of the heart.
Dinner over, the Town Court of Record, instituted by the Trustees, was established; the bailiffs were inducted into office ; the first session of the magis- trates held ; and the first jury in Georgia empanelled.16
Scarcely were these festivities over, when a company of forty Israelites, direct from London, landed on the bluff. Acting under the broad principle of the charter, which gave freedom to all religions, save that of the Romish church, the Trustees early sealed a commission to Mr. Anthony da Costa, Mr. Francis Salvador, jun., and Mr. Alvarez Lopez Suasso, " to take subscriptions for purposes specified in the charter." These gentle- men, having collected funds, instead of paying them into the Bank of England, which had been made the treasury of the board, appropriated it to sending over this body of Israelites. This procedure gave offence to the Trustees, who immediately declared their com- missions to collect money vacated ; and as they had been told that the sending over of these people to Georgia had prejudiced the scheme of the Trustees, and turned away from their treasury many intended benefactions, a committee was appointed to draw up a statement of the matter, to disabuse the public of the idea that they designed to "make a Jews' colony of Georgia." And they further required of the gentlemen
16 The following persons composed the first jury in Georgia : Samuel Par- ker, Thos. Young, Joseph Cole, John Wright, John West, Timothy Bowling,
John Milledge, Henry Close, Walter Fox, John Grady, James Carwell, and Richard Cannon.
1
102
THE TRUSTEES OPPOSE THEIR RECEPTION.
who had thus abused their commissions, " to use their endeavours that the said Jews be removed from the colony of Georgia, as the best and only satisfaction they can give to the Trustees for such an indignity, offered to gentlemen acting under His Majesty's char- ter." They also wrote to Oglethorpe, that they had heard with concern of the arrival of forty Jews in Savannah; and expressed the hope, that they would meet with no sort of encouragement ; and desired him " to use his endeavours to prevent their settling with any of the grantees;" alleging for these instructions the apprehension that they would be prejudicial to the trade and welfare of the colony. But while the secre- tary was writing thus to Oglethorpe, the letters of Oglethorpe contained encomiums on their good con- duct, and especially commended Doctor Nunis for his humane attentions to the sick, and other valuable services.
The Trustees, in reply, acknowledge the kindness of this good physician, and request Oglethorpe to give him a proper gratuity for his medical offices ; but reiter- ate the command to withhold from them any grants of land in the province.
The course of the Trustees ill comported with the liberality of their charter, and the general benevolence of their design; but it must be remembered, in extenuation of their apparent illiberality, that at this time they had not received the pecuniary aid of Parlia- ment, and were dependent for funds to carry out the provisions of their charter upon voluntary subscriptions ; and it was important, therefore, to remove all causes of prejudice, and every obstacle that might obstruct the flow of any private benefactions into their slender treas-
103
THEIR SERVICES TO THE COLONY.
ury. Besides, they took umbrage, and that justly, at the irregular proceedings of the three commissioners, who, with money collected under powers conferred by them, and without consulting the corporation, or any of its members, undertook so greatly to interfere with their plans, by taking away from the Trustees the right to select, and bind to certain agreements, all who settled in their colony.
Oglethorpe did not remove them from Georgia ; for to have done so would have been to strip the colony of some of its most moral, worthy, and industrious citi- zens. One of their number was the principal physi- cian of Savannah ; as benevolent and kind as he was skilful and deserving. Another of them was the vigneron of the colony, who laboured assiduously to improve its horticulture, and extend its usefulness, by introducing and cultivating valuable foreign plants and drugs ;17 and the principal importer and merchant was
17 Stephens's Journal of the Proceed- ment in pruning, &c., they all bore this ings in Georgia, i. 48. This Journal, year very plentifully, a most beautiful in 3 vols., kept by Col. Wm. Stephens, then Secretary for the affairs of the Trustees in Georgia, is one of the rarest of works relating to America. The Trustees ordered only seventy co- pies to be printed, and then to have the press broken. (Journal of Trustees, ii. 349.)
In his Journal, Col. Stephens thus speaks of a visit to Mr. Abraham De Lyon, referred to in the text : " No- thing has given me so much pleasure, since my arrival, as what I found here ; though it was yet (if I may say it prop- erly) only in miniature ; for he had cultivated only for two or three years past about half a score of them, which he received from Portugal for an ex- periment ; and by his skill and manage- and form of a vineyard : they have
large grape, as big as a man's thumb, almost pellucid, and bunches exceed- ing big; all which was attested by persons of unquestionable credit, (whom I had it from ;) but the season now would allow me only to see the vines they were gathered from, which were so flourishing and strong, that I saw one shoot, of this last year only, which he allowed to grow from the root of a bearing vine, as big as my walking- cane, and run over a few poles laid to receive it, at least twelve or fourteen foot, as near as I could judge. From these he had raised more than a hun- dred, which he has planted all in his little garden, behind his house, at about four foot distance each, in the manner
104
THE TRUSTEES SEEK AID FROM PARLIAMENT.
an Israelite, with whom Oglethorpe and the Trustees had dealings to a large amount. The low state of the colony, the civil disabilities under which they laboured, and the superior prospect held out to them at Charles- ton, drew away many ; so that only three of the orig- inal families remained in Georgia-the Sheftalls, the Minises, and the De Lyons.18 The descendants of these have occupied many distinguished offices under the federal, state, and municipal governments ; and though in the narrow views which then influenced the Trustees, they deplored their arrival into their infant colony, yet we, looking back through the vista of a hundred years, can aver that their settlement in Sa- vannah was a benefit to Georgia; and while the Trus- tees were expending large sums in subsisting many slothful and discontented emigrants, whose idleness weakened, and whose factions almost ruined, their scheme of benevolence, these descendants of the " father of the faithful"-asking for no charity, clam- ourous for no peculiar privileges, demanding from the Trustees nothing but the freeholds which their money purchased-proved their worth by services of real value and by offices of tried devotion. The success of Oglethorpe in " establishing the people," gave great satisfaction to the Board, and every letter from his pen "raised the credit of the undertaking."
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