II

Oglethorpe had no sooner reached England than word came that the

governor of Florida had ordered every English merchant to leave his

territory and was planning for warfare. The king of England at once

appointed Oglethorpe commander-in-chief of all his troops in Carolina

and Georgia, and ordered a regiment to be raised and equipped for

service there. Troops were sent from Gibraltar, and meantime the

governor busied himself in urging men and women to go out with him to

America as colonists. The terms he offered them were so promising that

finally he sailed from Portsmouth with five transports, carrying six

hundred men, women, and children, besides arms and provisions.

In a little more than two months this new party reached St. Simons

Island. The settlers there, who had been fearing an attack by the

Spaniards, were delighted to welcome the general and his company.

Oglethorpe went to work at once to strengthen the forts, to build roads

between the forts and the towns, and to station scout ships to give

notice of any hostile fleet. Then he went to Savannah, where cannon

roared at his approach and the settlers crowded about to welcome their

trusted governor and general. Tomochichi and the chiefs of the Creek

nations came to assure him of their loyalty and offered to serve him at

any time against their common enemies the Spaniards.

General Oglethorpe well knew how important the help of the Indians might

be to him, and so decided to journey through the wilderness to visit the

various tribes. This meant a long and perilous trip. It is partly

described for us. "Through tangled thickets," runs an account of the

journey, "along rough ravines, over dreary swamps in which the horses

reared and plunged, the travelers patiently followed their native

guides. More than once they had to construct rafts on which to cross the

rivers, and many smaller streams were crossed by wading or swimming....

Wrapped in his cloak, with his portmanteau for a pillow, their hardy

leader lay down to sleep upon the ground, or if the night were wet he

sheltered himself in a covert of cypress boughs spread upon poles. For

two hundred miles they neither saw a human habitation, nor met a soul;

but as they neared their journey's end they found here and there

provisions, which the primitive people they were about to visit had

deposited for them in the woods.... When within fifty miles of his

destination, the general was met by a deputation of chiefs who escorted

him to Coweta; and although the American aborigines are rarely

demonstrative, nothing could exceed the joy manifested by them on

Oglethorpe's arrival.... By having undertaken so long and difficult a

journey for the purpose of visiting them, by coming 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 had won the hearts of his red

brothers, whom he was never known to deceive."

A great council was held, a cup of the sacred black-medicine was drunk

by the white man and the chiefs, the calumet or pipe of peace was

smoked, and a treaty was drawn up, by which the Creeks renewed their

allegiance to the king of England while Oglethorpe promised that the

English would not encroach upon the Creeks' country and that the traders

would deal honestly with them.

On his way home the governor fell ill of fever and had to stay at Fort

Augusta for several weeks. Here chiefs of the Cherokees and Chickasaws

came to him, complaining that some of their people had been poisoned by

rum they had bought from English traders. Inquiry showed that traders

had not only brought bad rum, but smallpox also, to the Indians, and the

governor promised the chiefs that hereafter he would only permit certain

licensed traders to come among them.

Troubles over runaway slaves, who left South Carolina and Georgia for

Florida and were protected by the Spanish there, soon brought fresh

controversies between the settlers on the two sides of the border.

England, moreover, was preparing for war with Spain. On October 2, 1739,

the men of Savannah met at the court-house and General Oglethorpe

announced to them that England had declared war on Spain. The governor's

militia was now well armed and trained, ships guarded the coast, he had

a string of forts protecting his borders. Yet he, like the government in

England, would very much have preferred to keep the peace with the

Spaniards, and was only driven to hostilities because the latter were

constantly making trouble for his colonists and seizing English merchant

ships and imprisoning their crews.

The southernmost outpost of Georgia was now Amelia Island, where there

was a settlement of about forty persons. They were protected by

palisades and several cannon. In November some Spaniards landed at night

and hid in the woods. Shots were heard in the fort, and the English

soldiers, searching the woods, found the bodies of two of the

Highlanders. The Spaniards had shot them, and escaped in their boats.

At once Oglethorpe, with some of his Scotchmen and Indians, marched into

Florida. He captured Spanish boats at the mouth of the St. Johns River,

and went on toward St. Augustine. A troop of the enemy came out to

attack him, but fled before the rush of his Indians.

He knew that he needed more troops, however, if he were to make good his

war on Florida, so he sent to South Carolina, urging the governor of

that colony to contribute as many soldiers as Georgia had supplied. This

caused some delay, but at length arrangements were completed, and

Oglethorpe was prepared to take the field.

In May the general assembled four hundred of his soldiers, Creek Indians

under their chief Malachee, Cherokees under their chief Raven, at St.

George Island, at the mouth of the St. Johns River. Oglethorpe's object

was to cut off supplies from St. Augustine. His men crossed the river,

and a body of Indians and a few white soldiers made an attack on the

Spanish fort at San Diego. This place was defended by a number of large

guns, and the first attack on it failed. Then Oglethorpe came up with

the rest of his men and decided to try a little strategy. He ordered

some of his soldiers to beat drums in different parts of the woods and

other soldiers to march out at these places and march back again, the

same soldiers appearing again and again. The Spanish garrison, seeing so

many men at so many different points in the woods, soon concluded that

the English had an overwhelming force in the field against them. Then

Oglethorpe sent a Spanish prisoner he had captured to tell the garrison

how well he had been treated. Thereupon the garrison surrendered to the

English general.

The troops from Carolina had not yet arrived, and Oglethorpe learned

that, while they delayed, two sloops filled with provisions and

ammunition and six Spanish galleys had reached St. Augustine. On the

eighteenth of May, however, two English ships anchored in the harbor and

two others blocked the southern entrance to the Spanish port, and soon

afterward a part of the troops from Carolina joined the general. He then

gave the order to advance on the Spanish town.

St. Augustine was defended by 2,000 soldiers, quite as many as the

troops Oglethorpe had marshaled against it. The Spanish artillery was

vastly superior to that of the English. If the town was to be taken the

sea forces must attack at the same time as the land forces, and signals

were arranged for such a joint attack.

The general came to Fort Moosa, three miles from St. Augustine, and

found the garrison had abandoned it. He gave orders to burn the gate

there and make holes in the walls, "lest," as he said, "it might one day

or other be a mouse-trap for some of our own people." Marching on, he

gave the signal to attack the Spanish capital, but was surprised that

the fleet gave him no answering signal. Later he learned that the

Spaniards had deployed their ships in such a way that a sea attack would

have been very difficult, and that the English commanders had decided

that if they made the attack as agreed upon they would probably be

defeated. Therefore the general determined that instead of an assault he

would attempt a blockade.

He returned to Fort Diego, and ordered Colonel Palmer, with over two

hundred Scotchmen and Indians to march to Fort Moosa and scout through

the woods to prevent any communication between St. Augustine and the

interior of Florida. Colonel Palmer was told to camp each night in a new

place, to avoid battle, and to return at once if a larger force than his

own appeared. Another officer was sent with the Carolina soldiers to

take Point Quartell, which was about a mile distant from the castle of

St. Augustine, and build a battery there to command the northern

entrance to the harbor.

The general himself set out to capture the Spaniards' battery at

Anastasia, and by clever maneuvers there succeeded in driving the enemy

to their boats. Oglethorpe set up cannon and sent an envoy to the

Spanish governor, calling on him to surrender. The Spaniard replied that

he should be glad to shake hands with General Oglethorpe if the latter

would come to him in his castle. In answer Oglethorpe opened fire from

his new battery, but the distance to the town was too great for his guns

and little harm was done the enemy.

Colonel Palmer, meantime, disregarding the general's orders to camp in a

new place each night, had kept his men in the partly demolished Fort

Moosa. The Spaniards sent six hundred men to attack his small force.

Palmer's soldiers resisted desperately, but the Highlanders and the

Indians were too much outnumbered by the Spaniards; half of them,

including Colonel Palmer, were killed, a few escaped, and the rest were

made prisoners.

The commander of the fleet also disregarded the arrangement he had made

with Oglethorpe and ordered off the war-ship stationed outside the

harbor, with the result that several sloops from Havana with new troops

and provisions stole into the channel and reached the Spanish

stronghold. The garrison at St. Augustine had begun to feel the pinch of

hunger and might soon have surrendered, but these fresh supplies tided

them over and enabled them to keep up their defense.

General Oglethorpe, discouraged in his plan of a blockade, decided to

make one more attempt at carrying the town by assault. The British

commodore, Pearse, was to attack with his fleet while Oglethorpe led his

soldiers by land. The colonial troops and Indians were ready to open

fire, and only waited the signal from the ships. They waited in vain,

however. Instead of keeping his agreement, Commodore Pearse quietly

sailed away with all his ships, sending word to General Oglethorpe that

it was now the season when hurricanes might be expected off the Florida

coast and that he didn't intend to risk His Majesty's fleet there any

longer.

Oglethorpe, who alone seemed really in earnest in his desire to fight

the Spaniards, deserted by the English fleet, getting very little

support from the officers and men of the Carolina regiments, found it

impossible to carry on the campaign. Even his own men from Georgia were

worn out by fatigue and the heat of Florida. Reluctantly therefore he

gave over his expedition, and returned to Savannah. The campaign,

however, had shown the Spaniards that the governor of Georgia was a man

whose power was to be respected, and they did not renew their raids into

his province for some years.

Oglethorpe was a great builder as well as a very skilful military

leader, and he used this time of peace to improve the prosperity and

beauty of the towns he had settled in his colony. Savannah was already a

thriving place, with fine squares, parks, and wide shaded streets. Now

he turned his attention to Frederica, a town of a thousand settlers. He

meant this to be a strong frontier fort, and designed an esplanade,

barracks, parade-ground, fortifications, everything that could be of use

to protect Frederica from an enemy.

Not far from Frederica, on the same island of St. Simons, was a small

settlement called Little St. Simons. A road connected the two places,

running over a beautiful prairie and through a forest, and at the edge

of this forest Oglethorpe built himself a small cottage and planted a

garden and an orchard of oranges, grapes and figs. Here he made his

home, where he could watch the water and keep an eye on Frederica and

its forts. A number of his officers built country-seats for themselves

near the general's cottage, almost all of them larger and more

pretentious than that of the general. Strange as it may seem, the

founder of Georgia never claimed or owned any other land in his province

but this one small place, and he lived almost as simply as the poorest

colonist, a great contrast to the elaborate state kept by the governors

of such colonies as Virginia and Maryland or the luxury of William

Penn's home at Pennsbury.

Meantime other forts were built in the southern part of Georgia, one on

Jekyll Island, another on Cumberland Island, a third at Fort William;

and fortunately the governor saw to all this, for his province was to be

for some time the buffer between the English and the Spaniards, two

peoples who were constantly either on the verge of warfare or actually

fighting. The mother-countries of England and Spain were always at

swords' points, and those troubles on the other side of the Atlantic

were sure to bring the American colonists into the same strife. Each

country hectored the other. In the spring of 1740 the British government

decided to attack Spain through its American possessions. France also

decided to take a hand in the business, and this time joined with Spain.

Ships of these two countries set sail for the West Indies and threatened

the British colony of Jamaica. The English admiral, Vernon, was

despatched with a large squadron to attack the enemy, but instead of

sailing to Havana he turned in the direction of Hispaniola to watch the

French fleet, and so lost a splendid chance to capture the Spanish

stronghold of Havana. General Oglethorpe learned of this, and in May,

1641, he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle in England, explaining how

matters stood in that part of America and stating what the colonists

would need if they were to carry on a successful war with the Spanish

Dons of Florida and the West Indies.

His letter was laid before the proper officers in England, but, as so

often happened in such cases, those officers, far though they were from

the scene of action, thought they knew more about conditions in Georgia

and Florida than Oglethorpe did. The government delayed and delayed,

while the general waited for an answer to his requests. Then he had to

write again to England. Either the northern colonies or the

mother-country was accustomed to supply his province with flour, but now

Spanish privateers were capturing the merchant vessels that brought it.

Only two English men-of-war were stationed off the coast, and they were

insufficient to protect it from privateers. A Spanish rover had just

seized a ship off Charleston Harbor with a great quantity of supplies on

board. When Oglethorpe heard of this he sent out his guard-sloop and a

schooner he had hired, met three Spanish ships, forced them to fly,

attacked one of their privateers and drove it ashore. Then he bought a

good-sized vessel and prepared it for service on the coast until the

English should send him a proper fleet.

A large Spanish ship was sighted off the bar of Jekyll Sound on August

16th. The intrepid governor manned his sloop and two other vessels, the

_Falcon_ and the _Norfork_, and started in pursuit. He ran into a storm,

and when the weather had cleared the Spaniard had disappeared. The

storm had disabled the _Falcon_, and she had to put back, but

Oglethorpe sailed on with the other two, laying his course for Florida,

and a few days later sighted the Spanish ship at anchor.

The Spaniard was a man-of-war, and with her was another ship, by name

the _Black Sloop_, with a record as a daring privateer. But Oglethorpe

was equal in daring to any Spanish captain. He ordered his small boats

put out to tow his two ships, the weather being now a calm, and as they

approached the enemy, gave the command to board. The two Spanish vessels

opened fire, but Oglethorpe's guns answered so vigorously that the

Spaniards quickly weighed anchor, and, a light breeze coming to their

aid, were able to run across the bar of the harbor.

The English followed, and, though they could not board the enemy, fought

them for an hour, at the end of which the Spaniards were so disabled

that they ran for the town, while half a dozen of their small galleys

came out to safeguard their retreat.

Other Spanish vessels were lying in the harbor, but none dared to attack

the two ships of Oglethorpe, and the governor spent that night at anchor

within sight of the castle of St. Augustine. Next day he sailed for the

open sea again, and there cruised up and down outside the bar, as if

daring the Spaniards to come out to meet him. When they refused to come

he sailed back to Frederica, having spread a proper fear of his small

fleet of two ships all along the Florida coast.

Perhaps the greatest service that Oglethorpe rendered to his colony was

his retaining the friendship of all the neighboring Indian tribes. This

he did by always treating them fairly and impressing them with his

sincere interest in their own welfare. Another man might have let the

Indians see that he was merely using them to protect his own white

settlers, but Oglethorpe convinced them that he was equally concerned in

protecting both red men and white from ill-usage by the French and

Spanish. Georgia moreover needed the friendship of the native tribes

much more than the other English colonies did. It was nearest to the

strong Spanish settlements in Florida, and its neighbor to the north,

South Carolina, was able to furnish it very little assistance in times

of need, and was often barely able to protect itself. Had the Creeks,

the Chickasaws and Cherokees been allies of the Spaniards or the French

instead of allies of Georgia the English settlers would have found

themselves in hot water most of the time.

The general had difficulty in corresponding with England and letting the

people there know what he needed. "Seven out of eight letters miscarry,"

he said. Fortunately no more English merchantmen were captured by

Spanish privateers; the Dons had apparently been taught a lesson by the

vigorous attack Oglethorpe had made on their own ships.

To keep this lesson in their mind the governor sailed again for St.

Augustine, but ran into a storm that almost destroyed his fleet. At

nearly the same time a privateer reached the bar outside St. Augustine

with large supplies for the garrison. The Spanish governor, as usual in

need of fresh supplies, joyfully hailed the privateer, sent out a pilot

with two galleys to bring her into the harbor, fired the guns from his

castle, and ordered some of his Indians to cut wood and build a

welcoming bonfire.

Oglethorpe and his Indian allies were on the alert, however. A party of

his Creek friends attacked the Spanish Indians and captured five of

them. At the same time one of his ships reached the privateer before the

tide was high enough to float her over the bar, seized her, and took her

to Frederica. Now the settlers of Georgia, and even of South Carolina,

praised the general for his vigilance and dashing courage. A merchant of

Charleston wrote, "Our wrongheads now begin to own that the security of

our southern settlements and trade is owing to the vigilance and

unwearied endeavors of His Excellency in annoying the enemy."

Yet, in spite of this, Carolina continued to fail in providing the men

or ships or supplies that Oglethorpe, Commander-in-Chief of His

Majesty's forces in Georgia and Carolina, requested of it.

Presently the Spaniards, following the policy of England in trying to

annoy enemy colonies in America, took the offensive. A Spanish fleet of

more than fifty ships, with more than 5,000 soldiers on board, was

despatched to attack the English settlements. Fourteen of the ships

tried to reach Fort William, but were driven back by the battery there.

They then made for Cumberland Sound. Oglethorpe sent out Captain Horton

with white soldiers and Indians and followed with more troops in three

boats. The Spanish ships attacked him, but he fought his way through

their fleet with two of his boats. The third boat made for a creek, hid

there until the next day, and then returned to St. Simons with the

report that General Oglethorpe had been overpowered and killed. A day

later, however, the people of St. Simons were delighted to see their

general return safe and sound. He had escaped damage from the Spaniards,

but had hit them so hard with his guns that four of their ships

foundered on the way back to St. Augustine for repairs.

At once he prepared ships and men for another conflict. His daring had

so inspired his crews that as some of them said, "We were ready for

twice our number of Spaniards." They soon had their chance. Thirty-six

Spanish ships in line of battle ran into St. Simons harbor. The forts

and the vessels there opened fire at once. Three times the enemy tried

to board the _Success_, a ship of twenty guns and one hundred men, but

each time the crew proved that they really were ready for twice their

number of Spaniards. After fighting for four hours the Spaniards gave up

the battle and sailed up the river in the direction of Frederica.

Oglethorpe called a council of war. In view of the great number of

Spanish ships it was decided to destroy the batteries at St. Simons and

withdraw all the forces to Frederica. This was quickly done, and that

evening some of the enemy landed and took possession of the deserted and

dismantled fortifications.

Meantime the general learned from some prisoners captured by the Indians

that the Spaniards had land forces of 5,000 men and had issued commands

to give no quarter to the English. As Mr. Rutledge of Charleston later

wrote, "The Spaniards were resolved to put all to the sword, not to

spare a life, so as to terrify the English from any future thought of

re-settling." Oglethorpe was now in a most dangerous situation. The

enemy had numerous ships, a great many soldiers, and were evidently

determined to settle matters once for all with their neighbors. The fate

of the English colonies of Georgia and South Carolina might depend on

the outcome of the next few days.

Spanish outposts tried to reach the fort at Frederica, but were driven

back by Indian scouts. The only road to the town was by the narrow

highway, where only three men could walk abreast, with a forest on one

side and a marsh on the other. Artillery could not be carried over it,

and it was guarded by Highlanders and Indians in ambush. Yet, after many

attempts, the Spaniards managed to get within two miles of the town.

Oglethorpe now led a charge of his rangers, Highlanders and Indians, so

fiercely that all but a few of the enemy's advance-guard were killed or

made prisoners. The Spanish commander was captured. The English pursued

the retreating Spaniards for a mile, then posted guards, while the

general returned to the town for reinforcements.

The Spaniards again marched up the road and camped near where the

English lay hid in ambush. A noise startled them and they seized their

arms. The men in ambush fired, many Spaniards fell, and the rest fled in

confusion. As a Spanish sergeant said, "The woods were so full of

Indians that the devil himself could not get through them." For a long

time the place was known as the "Bloody Marsh." Oglethorpe marched his

troops over the road to within two miles of the main Spanish encampment,

and there halted for the night.

The enemy withdrew to the ruined fort at St. Simons, where they were

sheltered by the guns of their fleet. Oglethorpe went back to Frederica,

leaving outposts to watch the Spaniards. There he found that his

provisions were running low, and he knew that no more could be brought

in since the enemy blocked the sound. He told the people, however, that

if they had to abandon their settlement they could escape through

Alligators Creek and the canal that had been cut through Generals

Island, and he assured his little army of 800 men that they were more

than a match for the whole Spanish expedition.

Presently Spanish galleys came up the river; but Indians, hid in the

long grasses, prevented the soldiers from landing. When they approached

the town the batteries opened such a hot fire that the galleys fled

down-stream much faster than they had come up.

English prisoners, escaping from the Spaniards, began to bring word that

the enemy were much discouraged. Many Spaniards had fallen sick, and the

soldiers from Cuba were wrangling with the men from Florida. Oglethorpe

therefore planned a surprise for the enemy and marched to within a mile

of their camp. He was about to attack when one of his soldiers, a

Frenchman who had volunteered but was in reality a spy, fired his gun

and ran from the general's ranks.

The Frenchman was not caught, and the general knew that he would tell

the Spaniards how few English soldiers there were. So Oglethorpe tried a

trick of his own, hoping to make the Frenchman appear to be a double

spy. He hired a Spanish prisoner to carry a letter to the spy. "The

letter was in French," Oglethorpe later said, "as if from a friend,

telling him that he had received the money, and would strive to make the

Spaniards believe the English were very weak; that he should undertake

to pilot their boats and galleys, and then bring them into the woods

where the hidden batteries were. That if he could bring about all this,

he should have double the reward, and that the French deserters should

have all that had been promised them.

"The Spanish prisoner got into their camp," Oglethorpe said, "and was

immediately carried before the general. He was asked how he escaped and

whether he had any letters; but denying this, was searched and the

letter found. And he, upon being pardoned, confessed that he had

received money to carry it to the Frenchman, for the letter was not

directed. The Frenchman, of course, denied knowing anything of the

contents of the letter, or having received any money or had any

correspondence with me. Notwithstanding which, a council of war was held

and they decided the Frenchman a double spy, but the general would not

suffer him to be executed, having been employed by himself."

While the Spaniards were still in doubt as to the strength of

Oglethorpe's forces some English ships arrived off the coast. This

decided the Spaniards to leave, and they burned the barracks at St.

Simons and took to their ships in such haste that they left behind some

of their cannon and provisions.

Hearing that ships had been sighted Oglethorpe sent an officer in a boat

with a letter to their commander. But when the officer embarked he found

no ships were to be seen. Later the general learned that one of the

vessels sighted came from South Carolina, and that the officer in

command had orders to see if the Spanish fleet had taken possession of

the fort at St. Simons, and if it had to sail back to Charleston at

once. Here was further proof that the plucky governor of Georgia could

expect little assistance from the sister colony on the north.

By now some of the Spanish ships were out at sea, and others had landed

their soldiers at St. Andrews in a temporary camp. A couple of days

later twenty-eight of their ships sailed up to Fort William and called

upon the garrison to surrender. The English officer there answered that

he would not surrender the fort and defied the Spaniards to take it. The

latter tried; they landed men, who were driven off by the guns of

soldiers hidden in the sand-dunes, their ships fired on the fort, but

were disabled by the return-fire of the Georgia batteries. After a

battle of three hours the Spaniards withdrew from the scene and returned

to their base at St. Augustine.

With a few ships and eight hundred men Oglethorpe had defeated a Spanish

fleet of fifty-six vessels and an army of more than 5,000 soldiers.

Small wonder that the people of his province couldn't find praise enough

for their leader! George Whitefield, a famous clergyman of Savannah,

wrote of this war against the Spanish Dons, "The deliverance of Georgia

from the Spaniards is such as cannot be paralleled but by some instances

out of the Old Testament. The Spaniards had intended to attack Carolina,

but wanting water, they put into Georgia, and so would take that colony

on their way. They were wonderfully repelled, and sent away before our

ships were seen."

The governors of the colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,

Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina sent letters to Oglethorpe

thanking him for his valiant defense of the southern seaboard and

expressing their gratitude to God that Georgia had a commander so well

fitted to protect her borders. The governor of South Carolina and most

of his officers had done little or nothing to help their neighbor, but

the people of that colony thoroughly disapproved of this failure to be

of assistance and a number of them sent a message to Oglethorpe in which

they said, "If the Spaniards had succeeded in their attempts they would

have destroyed us, laid our province waste and desolate, and filled our

habitations with blood and slaughter.... We are very sensible of the

great protection and safety we have so long enjoyed by having your

Excellency to the southward of us; had you been cut off, we must, of

course, have fallen."

Even after this defeat, however, the Spaniards of Florida continued from

time to time to molest the Georgia borders. A party of rangers was

killed by Spanish soldiers, the settlement at Mount Venture was burned

by Yamasee Spanish Indians. Oglethorpe had to be on the watch constantly

lest the French or the Spanish should raid his territory. And the

English government, though he wrote them time and again, neglected to

send him proper reinforcements.

In the spring of 1743 the general was again camped on the St. Johns

River. He heard that a Spanish army was marching against him, and he

resolved to attack them before they should attack him. His Indian

allies stole up on the enemy, and surprising them, drove them back in

confusion. The Spaniards took shelter behind one of their forts, and

Oglethorpe could not manage to draw them out to battle. He marched his

men back to Frederica, and there by Indian scouts, by sentry-boats, kept

an eye on the Spaniards, ready to spring out to meet them should they

renew their raids at any time.

His soldiers never faltered in their obedience to the general's orders;

his Indian allies, though they were often tempted, never forsook their

allegiance to him. The Spaniards tried many times to buy the red men

over to their side. Similli, a chief of the Creeks, went to St.

Augustine to see what was being done there. The Spaniards offered to pay

him a large sum of money for every English prisoner he would bring them,

and showed him a sword and scarlet clothes they had given a chief of the

Yamasees. They said of Oglethorpe, "He is poor, he can give you nothing;

it is foolish for you to go back to him." The Creek chief answered, "We

love him. It is true he does not give us silver, but he gives us

everything we want that he has. He has given me the coat off his back

and the blanket from under him." In return for his loyalty to his

English friend the Spaniards drove the Indian from St. Augustine at the

point of the sword.

The general had spent all his own money in protecting his people in

Georgia, and the English government would not send him the sums he said

were urgently needed for the province. Therefore he decided that he must

go to England and see what could be done there. He put his forts on the

border in the best possible shape for defense, appointed a deputy

governor in Savannah, and sailed for England in July, 1743.

Was the colonial hero received with the praise his great services

deserved from England? Instead of praise he was harshly criticized for

this or that trivial matter; though a few of the wiser men came forward

to do him honor. Parliament would not vote him the money his colony

needed; he had difficulty in finding enough money to pay his personal

debts. Yet he kept on appealing for aid for Georgia, while the

government took the same attitude it had taken toward so many of the

other American colonies, and appeared of the opinion that the province

across the Atlantic must look after itself. Fortunately for Georgia,

Oglethorpe had so trained its soldiers, had so befriended its Indian

neighbors, had so protected it by forts that the colony was now able to

go its own way without English help.

In 1744 Oglethorpe married Elizabeth Wright, the heiress of Cranham

Hall, a manor in Essex. He was also in that same year chosen as one of

the officers to defend England from a threatened invasion by France. His

services were not needed for that purpose; but in the next year he was

given the rank of major-general and took part in the suppression of the

rebellion of the "Young Pretender." This kept him in England, and he

left the government of Georgia to the care of the men he had trained

there. From time to time, however, he bestirred himself to send new

colonists across the sea to Savannah.

When the rebellion was ended General Oglethorpe and his wife settled at

Cranham Hall. Here he lived the life of a country gentleman, delighting

in the peace and quiet after his many turbulent years in Georgia. He

lived to see the American Revolution, though he took no part in it; he

said "that he knew the people of America well; that they could never be

subdued by arms, but their obedience could ever be secured by treating

them justly;" he learned that his colony of Georgia, with twelve of her

sisters, had succeeded in winning her independence from that

mother-country he had served so long and on whose lists he was now the

senior ranking general; and he seems to have harbored no ill-feeling

against the colonists for forming a new nation.

Georgia and America owe a great debt of gratitude to General James

Edward Oglethorpe. None of the colonies had a more unselfish founder and

governor, none were more bravely defended from enemies, and in none was

more devotion shown to making a few scattered settlements in the

wilderness blossom into the safe homes of a contented people.

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