USA > Georgia > A true and historical narrative of the colony of Georgia, in America, from the first settlement thereof until this present period > Part 8
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words, the very name of the place is become hateful to him, as are all those who he thought were ring-leaders in that affair, some of whom he endeavored to threaten and bribe to a recan- tation, but to little purpose, two or three being the most, to the best of our knowledge, that he could gain, and even those, we believe, never gave anything under their hands. One flagrant instance of the indirect practices he used to draw people into his measures was as follows : * In summer, 1739, when it was thought the representation would have succeeded, Messrs. Grant, Douglass, Stirling, and Bailie, who had been old settlers in the colony, and who had in a manner ruined themselves, as others had done, either by planting or building, wrote to the trustees for an island, and at the same time applied to Mr. Oglethorpe for it; he appeared mighty glad at their resolution, and told them, that if they would agree to what he had to propose, the granting of an island should be nothing in respect to what he would do for them. They told him they would do anything that was consistent with their knowledge and con- science. Then they were dismissed, and the next day they were to know his mind ; that being come two of his emissaries were sent separately with proposals, which they afterwards wrote in order to be signed, but refused a copy thereof. These proposals were to the following effect, viz .: To acknowledge they were in the wrong for having any hand in the making or signing the representation, to ask the General's pardon for so doing, and to assert that they believed the colony might flourish according to the then present constitution. These things com- plied with, they should have what money they were pleased to ask for, with horses, cattle, and everything else they wanted, together with the General's perpetual friendship and assistance. If not complied with, they might expect nothing but his highest resentment. They answered, that they never expected, nor did they think they ever asked for any favors from the Gen- eral, and as for his resentment, they believed they had already felt the utmost of it. In whatever shape the General wrote home of this affair is not known, but, however, from what he wrote the trustees thought fit, at first, positively to deny their request, in a letter which came to their hands in July, 1740, of which this is an exact copy :
*There are particular affidavits to prove this whole affair.
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" To Messrs. Grant, Douglass, and Bailie, at Savannah, in ' Georgia.
' Georgia Office, March 25, 1740. ' Gentlemen :
HE trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia have 'received and read your letter of May 26, 1739, by which ' they find you have abandoned your settlements upon the ' Ogeeche river, for the following reasons : Because you are ' not allowed to have black servants to cultivate your lands, 'and because you disliked the tenure of your grants.
' As to the first, you must have seen by the trustees' answer ' to the representation of some of the people, that they cannot, 'and will not break into the constitution of the province by ' such an introduction of slavery in blacks, and that upon the ' most mature deliberation, and for the strongest reasons, which ' indeed are obvious to every considering man, and which they 'are confirmed in by the danger which has lately threatened 'South Carolina by the insurrection of negroes, and would be ' more imminent in Georgia, it being a frontier.
' As to the last, relating to the tenure of lands, the trustees ' suppose you may have seen the alteration which they have ' made since the writing of your letter, and they have no doubt ' but you are satisfied therewith, as the rest of the colony are.
' The trustees have likewise received and considered your 'petition to General Oglethorpe for a settlement on Wilming- 'ton island, and his answers thereto, which they think are of 'great force, and therefore they cannot make you a grant there, ' but hope you will go on improving your settlements on the ' Ogeeche river, which they perceive by your letter May 26th, ' that you had made a great progress in.
' I am, gentlemen, your very humble servant,
' BENJ. MARTYN, 'Secretary."
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To this they returned the following answer :
" To the honorable the trustees for establishing the colony of
'Georgia in America, at their office near Old Palace Yard, Westminster ..
' Honorable gentlemen :
W E have received a letter signed by your secretary, of the ' 25th March last, owning the receipt of ours to the trus- ' tees for establishing the Colony of Georgia, dated. the 26th ' May, 1739, in which we set forth the expense we had been at ' in prosecuting our settlement on the Ogeeche river, together ' with the impossibility of carrying on any settlement with ' success in this colony, according to the present constitution, ' as an additional confirmation of which we then presented your ' honors with an account current, carried on from the com- ' mencement of our settlement on the Ogeeche, and continued ' till we were drove thence by the strongest appearances of ' destruction, arising from the having expended our all in the ' strenuous prosecution of an impracticable scherne ; and here ' we must beg leave to observe that it appears to us you have ' neither considered our letter or account, otherwise you never ' would have advised us to return to a place on which we have ' already in vain consumed so much time and money.
' We have seen and seriously considered every paragraph ' of a printed paper, entitled : 'The answer of the Trustees for ' establishing the Colony of Georgia, in America, to the repre- ' sentation from the inhabitants of Savannah,' which in our ' humble opinion is no answer at all, but rather an absolute ' refusal of demands to which we are legally entitled, under the ' specious pretenses of guardianship and fatherly care, without ' having answered one sentence, or confuted by strength of ' argument any part of our assertions.
' Because our neighboring province (of which you are pleased ' to take notice) has by an introduction of too great numbers ' abused the use of negroes, or because an undoubted property ' in our land possessions might prove detrimental or hurtful to. ' idle, profligate, or abandoned people, it does not at all follow ' that we should be debarred the use of negroes for the field, ' or the more laborious parts of culture, under prudent limita-
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' tions, or that sober and virtuous men should be deprived of · just titles to their properties.
' We are surprised that your honors mention the representa- ' tions of the people of the Darien as a confirmation of the ' unreasonableness of our demands, for did your honors know ' the motives by which these people were induced to present ' you with one or more petitions contradictory to our represen- ' tation, the welfare of the colony, and their own consciences, ' we are persuaded you never would have offered them as ' reasons for rejecting the representation from Savannah. They · were bought with a number of cattle, and extensive promises ' of future rewards ; a little present interest made them forget ' or neglect their posterity, whereas the people of this place, ' duly sensible of the miseries and calamities they have suffered, ' and do still labor under, freely and voluntarily put their hands ' to the representation of this part of the province ; no artful ' means were used to induce them to it ; no artful man or men, ' negro merchants or others, persuaded them to it; dismal ' poverty and the most absolute oppression were the true foun- ' tains from whence our complaints proceeded. But how ' miserably were these inconsiderate, deluded wretches ' rewarded ? They were soon after carried against St. Augus- ' tine, placed on a dangerous post, where they were all or most ' of them cut off or taken prisoners by the enemy, which has ' put a period to the settlement of Darien, of which so many ' great things have been falsely reported.
' With regard to our representation, we shall only beg leave ' to make one supposition, which it is almost impossible can ' have happened, viz .: that this and all the other representa- ' tions, letters, suits, or petitions, made to the trustees by ' private or a joint number of persons, have been entirely false ' and groundless. What can have reduced the colony to the ' situation in which it now is? What can have reduced its ' inhabitants to one-sixth part of the number which we have ' known to reside here ? Or, lastly, to what is the starving ' and despicable condition of the few who are now left owing ? ' Is it not, as well as every other matter which we have before ' urged, owing to and occasioned by the unanswerable reasons . ' at different times given and laid before your honors by honest ' men (independent of you) who were and are the chief
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' sufferers in this colony, and who could not be bribed to con- ' ceal or terrified from declaring their sentiments ?
' Your honors may readily and safely join issue with us in "our appeal to posterity, who were their best * friends, etc., ' for it is certain and obvious that if the trustees are resolved ' to adhere to their present constitution, they or their succes- ' sors are in no great danger of being called to any account by ' our posterity in Georgia.
' We have likewise seen and read the alterations Mr. Martyn ' mentions to have been made by your honors, with regard to ' the tenure of lands, together with a fictitious abridgement of ' the same affixed to the most public places at Savannah.
' Mr. Martyn, in his letter, is pleased to tell us that your ' honors imagine we are satisfied therewith, as the rest of the ' colony are. Some few perhaps may have expressed themselves ' satisfied, but we will say no worse of such few than that your ' honors will soon be sensible that even they are deceivers. ' It's true, such alterations, and the paper entitled 'An Answer' ' to our representation, above mentioned, are artfully penned ' and will doubtless for a time amuse even men of the best ' sense in Europe or elsewhere, who are strangers to the colony ' of Georgia, but any man of common understanding, or the ' least penetration, who by an unfortunate experience has ' been well acquainted with that colony, can easily demonstrate ' that those very papers are further snares to increase our ' miseries, as it's impossible we can be enabled by these ' alterations to subsist ourselves and families any more than ' before, far less to put us in a capacity of recovering our ' already sunk fortunes and loss of time. Some time in the ' summer of 1739 (whilst we still expected agreeable altera- ' tions to have succeeded our representation) we applied more ' than once to General Oglethorpe, as one of the trustees, for ' the same tract of land which we have since been refused by ' your honors. But our petitions and applications were ' rejected ; and for what reason ? Because indeed we refused ' to contradict what we had before set forth in our representa- ' tion, so and become villians, as (we have too much reason to ' believe) some others on the same occasion were. We would ' not accept of settlements, sums of money, horses, cattle, and
* Vide answer to the representation.
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' other valuable considerations, at the expense of betraying our . · ' country and contradicting our consciences by signing a paper ' which was prepared and offered to us, purporting a repent- ' ance of the measures we had taken for our own and the ' relief of other distressed British subjects, and consequently an ' approbation of a scheme which by all appearance seems to ' have been calculated and prepared to form a colony of vassals ' whose properties and liberties were at all times to have been ' disposed of at the discretion or option of their superiors.
' Such and many other methods of corruption have been too ' often practiced in this colony, but we refused and scorned ' such actions from principles of which any honest man ought ' to be possessed.
' We are not surprised to find that we have in vain applied ' to your honors in several affairs, when we see you have been ' hitherto prepossessed by a gentleman of superior interest, ' with informations and assertions full of resentment, and which ' we well know cannot stand the test of an impartial examina- ' tion, but we are amazed and sorry to find that he has had for ' so many years together, the interest of nominating those who ' have been appointed from time to time for the administration ' of justice and making an impartial inquiry into the informing ' your honors of the real situation of the Colony of Georgia. ' We say, such who have been implicitly obedient in carrying ' on his arbitrary schemes of government, and oppressing the 'inhabitants, as well as conniving at the deceiving your ' honors and the nation.
' Gentlemen, as we have no favors to ask, or resentments ' to fear, we may with the greater freedom observe that we are ' in full hopes that all we can justly ask will be granted us by ' a British Parliament, who we doubt not will soon make an ' inquiry into the grievances of oppressed subjects, which have ' formerly inhabitated, or do now inhabit the Colony of Georgia ' -that colony which has cost such a great expense to the. ' nation, and from which so great benefits were promised and ' expected.
' We are sensible of the freedoms which have been used ' with our respective characters in the misrepresentation sent 'your honors by partial men, nor are we less sensible that the ' majority of the trustees have been kept in the dark .with
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' regard to our just complaints and representations, or that such ' complaints have been communicated to them in lights distant ' from truth, insomuch that we have reason to believe two- ' thirds of the honorable board are either misinformed of, or are ' entire strangers to the barbarous and destructive schemes ' carried on in this miserable colony.
' We hope it will ere long appear to your honors and the ' world (whatever has been advanced to the contrary), that ' we are honest men, free from any base design, free from any ' mutinous spirit, who have only stood firm for the recovery of ' our lost privileges, which have been secretly and under the ' most specious pretences withdrawn from us· by some design- ' ing and self-interested men.
' We should be sorry to write disrespectfully of any one of ' the trustees, but when distressed and oppressed people arrive ' at the last extremities, it must be supposed they will neither ' be ashamed to publish their misfortunes, or afraid of imputing ' their calamities to the fountain from whence they spring.
' Far be it from us in any shape to reflect in general on the ' honorable board, who we still believe are gentlemen of honor ' and reputation, who would not be accessory to any sinister ' or base designs, but we can't help thinking that they are ' deluded and brought to pursue measures inconsistent with the ' welfare and prosperity of the colony by some who, of the ' whole corporation, are only acquainted with the particular ' situation of it, and who must therefore wilfully and from design, ' form and prepare destructive schemes for the perishing inhabi- ' tants of Georgia, and by unfair representations of persons and ' things, draw the approbation of the greater part of the hon- 'orable board to such measures for the oppression of his ' majesty's subjects, which they would, if they were impartially ' informed, scorn to think of, far less agree to.
' General Oglethorpe, with all his forces, has been obliged ' to raise the siege of St. Augustine, and we have reason to ' believe the impending ruin of this colony will be thereby 'determined ; for the Spaniards are reinforced, the General's 'army harassed and weakened, and the Indians provoked and ' discontented, so that everything looks with the most dismal 'aspect. But as his conduct in, and the consequences of ' these affairs will be soon published to the world, and as we
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' doubt not we have already incurred your honors' displeasure
· ' by reciting thus freely the many hardships which we have 'here and formerly asserted to have been the causes of our . ' ruin, we shall now forbear, and conclude by adding that the ' extremity of our misfortunes has at last rendered us utterly ' incapable of staying here any longer ; and though all the ' money we have expended on improvements in the colony is ' now of no advantage to us here, nor can be elsewhere, yet, ' poor as we are, we shall think ourselves happy when we are ' gone from a place where nothing but poverty and oppression · subsist. Therefore we hope, if ever this or any other paper 'or letter of ours shall appear in public, your honors will ' impute such publication to have proceeded from no other ' motives besides a thorough knowledge of our duty to our- ' selves, our fellow-subjects and sufferers, and to prevent others ' for the future from being deluded in the same manner as we ' have been, who are, with the greatest respect,
' Honorable Gentlemen,
' Your most humble servants,
' Signed,
' DA. DOUGLASS, ' WM. STIRLING, ' THO. BAILLIE,
' Georgia, Savannah, 10 August, 1740."
About the latter end of May, 1740, Mr. Oglethorpe set out with his regiment for Florida, and soon after the Carolina forces, consisting of about six hundred men, joined him, with about three hundred Indians and sixty Highlanders, volunteers from Darien, who were buoyed up by the General with the mighty hopes of reward, besides several stragglers and boat- men from other parts of the province and elsewhere ; so that, exclusive of six men of war, there might be about fifteen hundred effective men assisting at the siege, as it was called, of the castle of St. Augustine. But we shall take no further notice of this affair than as it has affected or may still affect the colony of Georgia. The place being alarmed, the High- landers, with some others, making in all one hundred and forty-one men, were posted at Musa (this was a small fort about a mile distant from the castle, which had been aban- .
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doned by the Spaniards at the General's first approach), where they were soon after attacked by a superior force of the enemy, and a miserable slaughter ensued, scarcely one-third of the number escaping, the others being either killed or taken prisoners. Thus these poor people, who, at the expense of their consciences, signed a representation contrary to their own interest and experience, and gave themselves entirely up to the General's service, by their deaths at once freed his excellency from his debts and promises and put an end to the settlement of Darien ; for there are now in that place not one-quarter part of the number who settled there at first, and that is made up chiefly of women and child- dren, and a scout-boat is stationed before the town to prevent any of them from going off.
This siege was raised about the latter end of July. The General, with the remainder of his regiment, returned to Fred- erica ; the Carolina forces were shipped off for that province ; the few Georgians that were left repaired, as soon as they were allowed, to their several homes in a miserable condition ; and the Indians marched toward their respective countries, very much weakened and discontented. The Cherokees re- turned, as they came, by Savannah, and of one hundred and ten healthy men, only about twenty got to their nation ; the rest either perished by sickness or were slain. And thus ended the campaign in Florida.
During these transactions, Savannah decayed apace, and in August and September, the same year, people went away by twenties in a vessel, insomuch that one would have thought the place must have been entirely forsaken, for in these two months about one hundred souls out of the county of Savannah left the colony. Many others have since left it, and, we believe, more will leave it very soon.
The boats, with their hands, which the General employed at that unfortunate expedition, he neither will pay, subsist, or let depart from that place ; however, they are stealing away by de- October, 1740. grees ; * and at this time, of about five thousand souls that had, at various imbarkations, arrived in the colony of Georgia, exclusive of the regiment, scarce as many hundreds remain, and those consist of the
*We are now informed, they are all got away, some of them being paid and some not.
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Saltzburghers at Ebenezer, who are yearly supported from Germany and England, the people of Frederica, who are sup- ported by means of the regiment, the poor remainder of the Darien, a few orphans, and others under that denomination, supported by Mr. Whitefield, together with some Dutch servants maintained for doing nothing by the trustees, with thirty or forty necessary tools to keep the others in subjection, and those make up the poor remains of the miserable Colony of Georgia .*
Having now brought down this work to the month of Octo- ber, 1740, being about the time most of the authors of this narrative were obliged to leave that fatal colony, we shall con- clude the whole with a geographical and historical account of its present state.
G EORGIA lies in the 30 and 31 degrees of north latitude.
The air generally clear, the rains being much shorter as well as heavier than in England; the dews are very great. Thunder and lightning are expected almost every day in May, June, July, and August. They are very terrible, especially to a stranger. During these months, from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon, the sun is extremely scorching, but the sea-breeze sometimes blows from ten till three or four. The winter is nearly the same length as in England, but the mid- day sun is always warm, even when the mornings and evenings are very sharp, and the nights piercing cold.
The land is of four sorts : pine barren, oak land, swamp. land, marsh. The pine land is of far the greatest extent, especially near the seacoast. The soil of this is a dry, whitish sand, producing shrubs of several sorts, and between them a harsh coarse kind of grass, which cattle do not love to feed upon, but here and there is a little of a better kind, especially in the savannas, so they call the low watery meadows which are usually intermixed with pine lands. It bears naturally two sorts of fruit ; hurtleberries, much like those in England, and chincapin nuts, a dry nut about the size of a small acorn. A laborious man may in one year clear and plant four or five acres of this land. It will produce the first year from two to four bushels of Indian corn, and from four to eight of Indian peas
*It is here to be observed that we have excluded the settlement of Augusta, it being upon a quite different footing.
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per acre ; the second year it usually bears much' about the same ; the third year less ; the fourth little or nothing. Peaches it bears well, likewise the white mulberry, which serves to feed the silk-worms. The black is about the size of a black cherry and has much the same flavor.
The oak land commonly lies in narrow streaks between pine land and swamps, creeks or rivers. The soil is a blackish sand producing several kinds of oak, bay, laurel, ash, walnut, sumach, and gum trees, a sort of sycamore, dog trees, and hickory. In the choicest part of this land grow persimmon trees, and a few black mulberry and American cherry trees. The common wild grapes are of two sorts, both red. The fox grape grows two or three only on a stalk, is thick skinned, large stoned, of a harsh taste, and of the size of a small cherry ; the cluster grape is of a harsh taste too, and about the size of a white currant. This land requires much labor to clear, but when it is cleared it will bear any grain, for three, four or five years sometimes without laying any manure upon it. An acre of it generally produces ten bushels of Indian corn, besides five of peas, in a year, so that this is justly esteemed the most valuable land in the province, white people being incapable to clear and cultivate the swamps.
A swamp is any low watery place, which is covered with trees or canes. They are here of three sorts, cypress, river, and cane swamps. Cypress swamps are mostly large ponds in and around which cypress grows. Most river swamps are overflown on every side by the river which runs through or near them. If they were drained they would produce good rice, as would the cane swamps also, which in the meantime are the best feeding for all sorts of cattle.
The marshes are of two sorts. Soft, wet marsh which is all a quagmire and absolutely good for nothing, and hard marsh which is a firm sand ; but, however, at some seasons is good for feeding cattle. Marshes of both sorts abound on the sea islands, which are very numerous, and contain all sorts of land, and upon these chiefly, near creeks and runs of water, cedar trees grow.
We shall only add to the above, that considering no land can be sowed, or at least what is sowed preserved, till the same is enclosed, that five acres is the utmost a very able and labor-
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