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equally so abroad; and as they generally, had nothing to loose, they determined obstinately to persist in their demands until their wishes were gratified, or the colony ruined. Idleness and dissipation prevailed to such a formidable degree, that the people were on the verge of starvation. The object of the trustees was to compel them to labor, and their object was to live without labor. There were many reasons however, on account of which, the complaints of the settlers were entitled to some notice by their patrons. The land about Savannah was granted indiscriminately, without any regard to its quality, or the ability of the owner to cultivate it some of the lots were rich and valuable, others poor. The farmer who was obliged to cultivate pine land, was absolutely compelled to plant where he could not reap a valuable consideration for his labor. The river or swamp land was clothed with an immense quantity of heavy timber, and with all the advantages of experience, it requires twenty hands one year, to put forty acres of it in a condition for advantageous cultivation. The air from the swamps was pregnant with nauseous qualities, generating disease and ending in debility : the sea-breezes could not penetrate the thick forest sufficiently to agitate the air, which at some seasons, is thick, heavy and foggy, at others, clear, close and suffocating; either of which was considered pernicious to health. The poor settlers considered that the wild beasts had been robbed

of their birth-right, when this howling wilderness was fixed on for a human habitation. The progress of the colony was also retarded by wild speculative schemes, of its most favorable productions: silk and wine appear to have been the delusive phantoms that misled the trustees. The first objects of cultivation should have been directed to necessary food and clothing for the people: no other colony lay so convenient for supplying the West-Indies with pease, beans, potatoes, &c. for which the demand was great, and the furnishing these articles would have been profitable; though the West-India islands produced those articles, the planters would rather have purchased than raised them, because they could have turned their attention to other species of cultivation which were more profitable. Abundance of stock, particularly hogs and cattle, might have been raised in Georgia for the same market: lumber was also in demand, and might have been rendered profitable to the province, had it not been prevented by the restrictions of the trustees. European grain, such as wheat, rye, barley and oats, would have thriven almost as well upon an oyster bank, as on the sandy land of Georgia, though the interior is well adapted to their culture. Silk and wine were not found to answer their expectations, because the process was too tedious for a new colony.

The complaints of the people of the province, however ignorant they might be, ought not to

have been entirely disregarded by the trustees: experience suggested those inconveniences and troubles, from which they implored relief: the hints they gave, certainly ought to have been improved towards correcting errors in the plan of settlement, and forming another, which promis ed prospects more favorable and advantageous to them. The scattered thoughts of simple individuals, sometimes afford to wiser men, materials for forming correct opinions, and become the ground work of the most beneficial regulations. The opinion of the people individu. ally, ought not to be excluded from the attention and regard of their rulers. The honor of the trustees, and the gratification they hoped to experience from their laudable undertaking, depen. ded upon the success and happiness of the settlers; and it was impossible for the people to succeed and be happy, deprived of those encouragements, liberties and privileges, necessary to the first state of colonization. A title for land which would have secured it to themselves and their offspring, both male and female, ought to have been given; liberty to choose it of such quality as would promise to reward them for their labour, and then to manage it in such man. ner as appeared to themselves most conducive to their interest: these would have been incen tives to industry, and opened to the view of the industrious planter, the prospect of opulence and wealth, for himself and his descendants. Such

encouragements might have been given without opening to the speculator a field for the monoply of land, by the introduction of restrictions in their grants, such as the prohibition of mortga ges and sales.

While the people of Georgia were laboring under these difficulties and petitioning unsuccessfully for relief, the king was giving every encouragement for the rapid settlement of the adjoining colony. Fee-simple titles were offered for the choice of land, unshackled by restrictions, either as to trade or slavery.

CHAPTER III.

SEVERAL years had passed without an open rupture between England and Spain, yet there was not a good understanding between the two courts; either as regarded the privileges of navigation, or the southern limits of Georgia. To the first, the Spaniards pretended they had an exclusive right to the territories and waters lying within certain latitudes in the bay of Mexico. The British merchants claimed by treaty, the privilege of cutting log-wood on the bay of Campeachy-this liberty had been tolerated by Spain for several years, and the British merchants from

avaricious motives, extended their claim of privileges to a trafic with the Spaniards, and supplied them with English manufactures. To prevent this illicit trade, the Spaniards doubled their maritime force on that station, with orders to board and search every English vessel found in those seas, and directed seisures to be made on all vessels carrying contraband commodities, and the sailors to be confined. At length not only smugglers but fair traders were searched and detained, so that the commerce was entirely obstructed.— The British became clamorous, against such depredations to their ministry, which produced one remonstrance after another to the Spanish court; all of which were answered by evasive promises and vexatious delays.

The British minister, notorious for his pacific disposition, had long been flattered with promises of enquiry and redress of grievances, and suffered the complaints to remain unredressed, to the injury of the trade, and great loss of the nation.Considerable reinforcements were sent to the garrison at Augustine, and a surplus of arms, ammunition and provisions, supposed to be intended for the Indians. These circumstances and preparations, with the demands which had been made of Oglethorpe, were sufficient to show to Georgia and Carolina, the necessity of holding themselves in readiness to oppose the hostilities which were evidently preparing for them. Lieut. governor Bull of South-Carolina, despatched ad

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