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"' - Like Death you reign O'er silent subjeets and a desert Plain.'"
Craving rum, negro slaves, and fee-simple titles to lands, such disaffected colonists hesitated not to malign the authorities, dis- quiet the settlers, and belie the true condition of affairs. Georgia
1 Charles-Town, South Carolina, p. 118. Printed by P. Timothy for the authors. MDCCXLI.
.....
310
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
was certainly in an embarrassed and an impoverished situation Her population was increasing but slowly. Labor was scarcely remunerative, and the Spanish war-cloud was looming up along her southern borders ; but the impression which Dr. Tailfer and others sought to convey of the status of the colony was exagger- ated, spiteful, and without warrant.
Having duly considered the petition of the magistrates and freeholders of Savannah, and taken counsel of General Ogle- thorpe and other influential inhabitants of the province, the trus- tees returned the following answer : -
" To the Magistrates of the Town of Savannah in the Province of Georgia.
" The Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America have received by the Hands of Mr Benjamin Ball of London, Merchant, an attested Copy of a Representation signed by you the Magistrates, and many of the Inhabitants of Savan- nah on the 9th of December last, for altering the Tenure of the Lands, and introducing Negroes into the Province, transmitted from thence by Mr Robert Williams.
" The Trustees are not surprized to find unwary People drawn in by crafty Men to join in a Design of extorting by Clamour from the Trustees an Alteration in the fundamental Laws framed for the Preservation of the People from those very Designs.
" But the Trustees cannot but express their Astonishment that you, the Magistrates, appointed by them to be the Guardians of the People, by putting those Laws in Execution, should so far forget your Duty as to put yourselves at the Head of this At- tempt.
" However, they direct you to give the Complainants this Answer from the Trustees ; That they should deem themselves very unfit for the Trust reposed in them by his Majesty on their Behalf, if they could be prevailed upon by such an irrational at- tempt to give up a Constitution, framed with the greatest cau- tion, for the Preservation of Liberty and Property, and of which the Laws against the Use of Slaves, and for the Entail of Lands are the surest Foundations.
" And the Trustees are the more confirmed in their Opinion of the Unreasonableness of this Demand that they have received Petitions from the Darien and other Parts of the Province, rep- resenting the Inconvenience and Danger which must arise to the good People of the Province from the Introduction of Negroes : and as the Trustees themselves are fully convinced that besides
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REPLY OF THE TRUSTEES.
the Hazard attending of that Introduction, it would destroy all Industry among the White Inhabitants ; and that, by giving them a Power to alien their Lands, the Colony would soon be too like its neighbours, void of White Inhabitants, filled with Blacks, and reduced to be the precarions Property of a Few, equally exposed to domestick Treachery and foreign Invasion : And therefore the Trustees cannot be supposed to be in any Dis- position of granting this Request; and if they have not, before this, signified their Dislike of it, their Delay is to be imputed to no other Motives but the Hopes they had conceived that Time and Experience would bring the Complainants to a better Mind. And the Trustees readily join Issue with them in their Appeal to Posterity, who shall judge between them, who were their best Friends, those who endeavoured to preserve for them a Property in their Lands by tying up the Hands of their unthrifty Pro- genitors : or they who wanted a Power to mortgage or alien them ; who were the best Friends to the Colony, those who with great Labour and Cost had endeavoured to form a Colony of his Maj- esty's Subjects, and persecuted Protestants from other Parts of Europe ; had placed them on a fruitful soil, and strove to secure them in their Possessions by those Arts which naturally tend to keep the Colony full of useful and industrious People capable both to cultivate and defend it, or those who, to gratify the greedy and ambitious views of a few Negro Merchants, would put it into their Power to become sole owners of the Province by introducing their baneful Commodity which, it is well known, by sad Experience, has brought our Neighbour Colonies to the Brink of Ruin by driving ont their White Inhabitants, who were their Glory and Strength, to make room for Blacks who are now become the Terror of their unadvised Masters.
" Signed by order of the Trustees this Twentieth day of June 1739.
BENJ. MARTYN, Secretary. [L. S. ] " 1
On the 20th of October General Oglethorpe informed the trustees that their reply had been received and published, and that the effect produced by it upon the colonists was good. Ac- companying this response came orders dismissing from office the magistrates in Savannah who had signed the petition, and ap- pointing others in their stead. Perceiving that their agitation of the question of the introduction of negro slavery into the prov- ince had only confirmed the trustees in their opinions and or-
1 An Account shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia, etc., pp. 70, 71. London. MDCCXLI.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
ders, the leading malcontents, headed by Dr. Tailfer, who by their clubs, horse-racing, idleness, and lawless conduct had done much to debauch the community at Savannah, deserted the col- ony.
This was the second time that the trustees had been impor- tuned to sanction the employment of slave labor within the limits of Georgia. Twice did they positively refuse the desired permis- sion. Although such was their determination, and although the effect of their resolution was pronounced salutary by General Oglethorpe, it may well be questioned whether the adoption of a different policy, permitting the introduction of negro slaves un- der wholesome restrictions, would not have materially advanced the prosperity of the plantation. Such labor was demanded by the nature of the soil and climate. The prohibition upon Geor- gia placed her at a disadvantage when her situation in this re- gard was contrasted with that of her sister colonies. Indented white servants had been tried, and the experiment was unsatis- factory. The clearing and cultivation of malarial lands origi- nated fevers and various disorders far more prejudicial to the European than to the African constitution. The potent rays of the summer's sun enfeebled the white servant, while they shone harmlessly above the head of the negro laborer. During the heated term it was the general experience that many of the whites were incapable of performing half their allotted tasks. The expenses incident to the employment of white servants were considerably greater than those connected with the maintenance of negro operatives. The exclusion of slave labor and the re- fusal to grant estates in fee did turn aside many planters from the attractive swamp lands of Southern Georgia and retard the development of the colony.
Although in their reply of the 20th of June, 1739, the trus- tees refused to enlarge the tenures of land, in a few months they concluded to modify their views upon this important subject. Ac- cordingly, in August of that year they passed a set of ponder- ous resolutions which they caused to be published in the " London Gazette " on the Sth of September, and ordered to be inserted also in the columns of the " Charlestown, South Carolina, Gazette." Without reproducing them, we give their purport as condensed by Benjamin Martyn, secretary of the trustees.1 With a view
1 Account shewing the Progress of the History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 132 et seq. Colony of Georgia in America, etc., p. 30. Savannah. 1811.
London. MDCCXLI. Compare McCall's
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MODIFICATION OF LAND TENURES.
to enlarging the tenure on failure of issue male, and in order to provide for the widows of grantees, it was ordained that lands already granted, and such as might thereafter be granted, should, on failure of issue male, descend to the daughters of the gran- tees. In case there should be no issue male or female, then the grantees might devise such lands. In the absence of any devise, the lands were to descend to the heirs at law of the original gran- tees. The possession of the devisee could not exceed five hun- dred acres. Widows of grantees were declared entitled " for and during the term of their natural lives," to hold and enjoy the dwelling-house, garden, and one moiety of the lands of which their respective husbands died seized.
All persons desiring to avail themselves of the benefit of this enlargement were notified to present their claims in order that proper grants might be forthwith, and without charge, prepared and executed.
While this modification enured to the benefit of the grantee and confirmed the ownership of the land in his heirs, it permit- ted only a qualified alienation by way of devise. It did not fully comply with the request preferred in the petition which we have just considered.
These resolutions were published by paragraphs in the Charles- town " Gazette; " but, as they were not well understood, Colonel William Stephens was requested on a certain day to read them at the court-house in Savannah and to explain them. " After he had finished his task," says Captain McCall,1 "and exerted his utmost abilities in giving an explanation, one of the settlers ludicrously remarked that the whole paper consisted of males and tails ; that all the lawyers in London would not be able to bring the meaning down to his comprehension ; and that he under- stood as little of its meaning then as he had when Stephens be- gan. Others wished to know how often those two words had occurred in the resolutions, that the number ought to be pre- served as a curiosity, and that the author ought to be lodged in bedlam for lunacy."
1 History of Georgia, vol. i. p. 140. Savannah. 1811.
CHAPTER XX.
DISSENSIONS AMONG THE OFFICERS OF OGLETHORPE'S REGIMENT. - OGLE- THORPE VISITS CHARLESTOWN AND EXHIBITS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CAROLINA ILIS COMMISSION AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. - REPORT OF THE CONDITION OF THE COLONY IN 1739. - OGLETHORPE VISITS COWETA TOWN. - CONFERENCE AND TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. - OGLETHORPE AT SAVANNAII. - LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF TOMO-CHI-CHI. - IM- PENDING WAR WITH SPAIN. - THE SOUTHERN FRONTIER STRENGTHENED. - SPANISHI OUTRAGE ON AMELIA ISLAND. - OGLETHORPE RETALIATES, BURNS FORT PICOLATA, AND CAPTURES AND GARRISONS FORT FRANCIS DE PAPA. - HE APPLIES FOR ADDITIONAL BOATS, ARTILLERY, AND MU- NITIONS.
IN the midst of his multitudinous and perplexing cares Gen- eral Oglethorpe was annoyed by unseemly dissensions among the officers of his regiment. Upon charges preferred by Lieutenant- Colonel Cochrane, Captain Hugh Mackay was tried by court- martial and honorably acquitted. Captain Norbury, convicted by another court-martial of using disrespectful language to his commanding officer, was ordered to beg his pardon. Not long afterwards Captain Mackay accused Colonel Cochrane of " fol- lowing merchandize to the neglect of his duty, selling to the sol- diers at exorbitant profit, occasioning a spirit of mutiny, and breaking treaty with the Spaniards." Upon Captain Mackay's return from St. Andrew where he had been sent to superintend the execution of a mutineer by the name of Hurley, he was assaulted by Colonel Cochrane and beaten with a great stick. This affray occurred in the presence of General Oglethorpe, who at once placed both those officers under arrest. As there were not officers of sufficient rank in the colony to constitute a court- martial for the trial of Colonel Cochrane, he and Captain Mac- kay were ordered to report to the War Department in England that the differences between them might be examined into and adjusted. The subsequent investigation resulted in the with- drawal of Lieutenant-Colonel Cochrane from the Georgia forces. Lieutenant-Colonel Cook succeeded to the vacancy thus created in Oglethorpe's regiment.
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CONDITION OF THE COLONY.
On the 3d of April the general presented himself before the Assembly of South Carolina. His commission as commander- in-chief of his majesty's forces in that province, as well as in Georgia, was opened and read. Having, in pursuance of this authority, regulated the military establishment of that colony, he returned to Savannah. One company of his regiment was now garrisoning Fort Frederick, near Beaufort. To stimulate the industry of the freeholders at and near Savannah, he offered a bounty, above the current market price, of two shillings per bushel for all corn, and of one shilling per bushel for such pota- toes as should be harvested from the crop of the present year.
In a long and interesting letter,1 dated Frederica, July 4th, 1739, Oglethorpe acquaints the trustees with the general condi- tion of the province and with his efforts to make it a self-sustain- ing plantation. He was still embarrassed by sundry violations in Savannah of the " Rum Law," but the efficient conduct of the magistrates at Frederica had there effectually suppressed the traffic in that article. His regiment was comfortably housed in cleft-board buildings. The frontier islands were protected by regular troops, but additional boats, to facilitate intercommuni- cation, were needed. There was a lack of watchmen for pre- serving the peace of the country, and of horsemen. to scour the woods for the protection of cattle, the apprehension of outlaws, and the arrest of runaway slaves from Carolina. The plantation on Amelia Island, under the charge of Mr. Hugh Mackay, was reported as being in a flourishing condition. Twelve days after- wards he dispatched Mr. Auspourger to England with twenty pounds weight of silk. A more generous yield had been pre- vented by the death of many of the worms. They were being bred in a house which had formerly been used as a hospital ; and it was Mr. Camuse's impression that the infection occasioned sick- ness and destroyed many of them.
Perceiving that the French and Spaniards were endeavoring to cause disturbances among the Indians who were amicably inclined toward the colonies of Carolina and Georgia, and to se- duce them from the allegiance which they acknowledged to the British Crown, Oglethorpe recognized the necessity of holding a personal conference with the nations about to assemble at Coweta Town. The pacification of seven thousand red warriors depended upon his successful intervention. The salvation of Georgia was
1 Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. iii. pp. 72-79. Savannah. 1873.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
involved. The journey was long, fatiguing, and dangerous, but perils daunted him not.
On the 17th of July, 1739, he set out upon this important ex- pedition.1 Accompanied by Lieutenant Dunbar, Ensign Leman, and Cadet Eyre, and attended by servants, he proceeded in his cutter up the Savannah. Landing at the Uchee town, five and twenty miles above Ebenezer, where he had engaged Indian trad- ers to meet him with saddle and sumpter horses, the general entered upon his journey of three hundred miles through a track- less wilderness. Along rough ravines, through tangled thickets, and over dreary swamps in which the horses mired and plunged, the travelers patiently followed their native guides. More than once were they compelled to construct rafts on which to pass great rivers. Many smaller streams were crossed by wading or swimming. Wrapped in his cloak, and with his portmanteau for a pillow, this hardy leader slept upon the ground; or, if the night happened to be wet, he sheltered himself in a covert of cypress boughs spread upon poles. For a distance of two hun- dred miles these adventurers neither saw a human habitation nor met a living soul. As they neared their journey's end they here and there found provisions which the primitive peoples they were abont to visit had deposited for them in the woods.
When the general had approached within forty miles of his destination, he was received by a deputation of chiefs who es- corted him the remainder of his way to Coweta, the principal town of the Muskhoghee or Creek Indians. Although the Amer- ican aborigines are rarely demonstrative, nothing could have ex- ceeded the joy manifested by these red men on Oglethorpe's arrival.2
In having undertaken so long and difficult a journey for the purpose of visiting them, by coming amongst them with only a few attendants in fearless reliance on their good faith, by the readiness with which he accommodated himself to their habits, and by the natural dignity of his deportment, Oglethorpe won the hearts of his red brothers whom he was never known to deceive. On the 11th of August the chiefs of the several tribes assembled, and the great council was opened with all the solemn rites prescribed for such occasions. After many " talks," terms of intercourse and stipulations for trade were satisfactorily ar- ranged. Oglethorpe, as one of their beloved men, partook of the
1 Wright's Memoir of Oglethorpe, pp. 213, 214.
3 Letter to the Trustees, dated Fort Au- gusta, September 5th, 1739.
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OGLETHORPE VISITS COWETA TOWN.
Foskey,1 or black-medicine drink, and smoked the calumet, or pipe of peace.
On the 21st of the same month was concluded a formal treaty by which the Creeks renewed their fealty to the king of Great Britain, and, in terms full and explicit, confirmed their previous grants of territory. The general, on the part of the trustees, engaged that the English should not encroach upon their reserves, and promised that the traders should deal fairly and honestly with them. The bad conduct of some traders had inflamed the tempers of the Indians, and Oglethorpe found it very difficult to assuage their wrath. "If I had not gone up," he writes, "the misunderstanding between them and the Carolina traders, fo- mented by our neighbouring nations, would probably have oeca- sioned a war which, I believe, might have been the result of this general meeting ; but as their complaints were just and reason- able, I gave them satisfaction in all of them, and everything is settled in peace." The Choctaws were persuaded not to make war upon the French, and the general was assured by the chiefs of all the tribes that they would march to his assistance when- ever he should summon them.
At this conference were present General James Oglethorpe, commissioner and representative of his majesty King George II. ; Chiekeley Nenia, chief king of Coweta Town, Malatche, mico, son of Brim, late emperor of the Creek nation, the chiefs and war- riors of Coweta Town; the king of the Cusetas, Schisheligo, second mico of the Cusetas, Iskegio, third chief of the Cusetas, and other chief men and warriors of that nation; Ochaohapko, one of the chief men of the town of Palachuckolas, Killatee, chief war captain, and other chief men and warriors, "deputies with full powers to conclude all things for the said town;" Towmawme, mico of the Ufawles, with several other chief men and warriors commissioned to represent all the towns of that nation ; Mataleheko, captain of the Echeetees, with other chief men and warriors of that people; Neathaklo, chief man of the Owichees, with several other chief men and warriors ; Occulla- viche, chief man of the Chehaws, with other chief men and war-
1 Foskey, a decoction of the leaves and young shoots of the cassena or yaupon (Prinos gluber) producing an exhilarating effect. It is prepared with much formal- ity, and, being considered a sacred bever- age, none but the chiefs, war captains, and priests or beloved men partake of it ;
and these only upon special occasions. Accounts of its preparation and use may be found in Lawson's Voyage to Carolina, p. 90, London, 1709 ; The Natural His- tory of Florida, by Bernard Romans, p. 94; and Adair's History of the American Indians, p. 108.
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
riors ; Hewanawge Thaleekeo, chief man of the Oakmulgees, with several of the chief men and warriors of that nation ; the king of the Oconees, with several chief men and warriors; and Neachackelo, second chief of the Swagles, with several chief men and warriors, all empowered to represent their several nations and to bind them in the convention. The general assembly was opened by a speech from Oglethorpe, and was conducted accord- ing to the religious forms and customs observed by the Indians. After due deliberation it was unanimously resolved that they would adhere to their ancient love for the king of Great Britain, and maintain their agreement made in 1733 with the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia.
It was further declared that all the territory from the Sa- vannah to the St. John, including the islands on the coast, and from the river St. John to Appalache Bay, embracing the Ap- palache Old-fields, and from that bay to the mountains, did by ancient right belong to the Creek nation : that they had main tained that right by force of arms against all opposers, and that they could show heaps of bones of their enemies who had per- ished in the attempt to wrest these lands from them. The Indian commissioners admitted that the Creek nation had long enjoyed the protection of England, that the Spaniards had no claim upon the lands indicated, and that they would permit no one except the Georgia trustees and their colonists to settle upon them. The grant already made to the trustees, embracing lands upon the Savannah River, the sea-coast as far as the St. John and as high as the tide flowed, and all the islands except St. Catharine, Os- sabaw, and Sapelo, was reaffirmed and pronounced valid. They claimed a reservation extending from Pipe-Maker's Bluff to Sa- vannah.
On the part of the English it was stipulated that they would appropriate no lands save those mentioned as having been ceded by the Creek confederacy to the trustees. They also covenanted to punish any person intruding upon the territory reserved by the Creeks.1
Well might the trustees, in conveying their thanks for the successful execution of this perilous and important mission, admit that no one except Oglethorpe had ever engaged so strongly the affections of the Indians.
Commenting upon this remarkable journey of General Ogle-
1 McCall's History of Georgia, vol. i. appendix No. 3, pp. 363-367. Savannah. 1811.
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OGLETHORPE AT AUGUSTA.
thorpe, Mr. Spalding,1 with no less truth than fervor, remarks : " When we call into remembrance the then force of these tribes, - for they could have brought into the field twenty thousand fighting men, - when we call to remembrance the influence the French had everywhere else obtained over the Indians, - when we call to remembrance the distance he had to travel through solitary pathways . .. exposed to summer suns, night dews, and to the treachery of any single Indian who knew - and every Indian knew - the rich reward that would have awaited him for the act from the Spaniards in St. Augustine, or the French in Mobile, surely we may proudly ask, what soldier ever gave higher proof of courage ? What gentleman ever gave greater evidence of magnanimity ? What English governor of an American province ever gave such assurance of deep devotion to public duty ? "
But for this manly conference with the red men in the heart of their own country, and the admiration with which his presence, courage, and bearing inspired the assembled chiefs, Oglethorpe could not have compassed this pacification and secured this treaty of amity so essential to the welfare of the colony now on the eve of most serious difficulties with the Spaniards in Florida.
The exposures and anxieties sustained during this visit to Coweta Town so wrought upon the iron constitution of the gen- eral that, upon arriving at Fort Augusta on his return toward Savannah, he was there prostrated by a severe fever. While thus suffering, he was visited by chiefs from the Chickesas and the Cherokees. The latter complained that some of their nation had been poisoned by rum sold to them by the traders. They were much incensed, and threatened revenge. Upon inquiring into the matter the general ascertained that some unlicensed traders had communicated the small-pox to the Indians, who, ignorant of the method of treating the disease, had fallen vic- tims to that loathsome distemper. He found it difficult to con- vince the chiefs of the true cause of the calamity. They were at length appeased, and departed with the assurance that they might apprehend no trouble in dealing with the licensed traders from Georgia, as permits were never granted to those unworthy of confidence.2
Augusta was now a thriving post, frequented by Indians and traders. While still here he received information that the gov- ernor of Rhode Island had issued commissions for fitting out pri-
1 Collections of the Georgia Historical
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