some fourteen yards below, flowed the quiet waters of the Savannah,
visible for some distance above and traceable through its green
landscape till it emptied itself into the ocean. Before them lay a
beautiful island of richest pasturage, beyond which was seen the north
branch of the Savannah bordered by the slopes of Carolina, with a dark
girdle of trees resting against the horizon. Behind them was the
unbroken forest of tall green pines, with an occasional oak draperied
with festoons of gray moss or the druidical mistletoe. A wide expanse of
varied beauty was before them; an ample and lofty plain around them;
and, though spring had not yet garnished the scene with her vernal
glories, sprinkling the woods with gay wild-flowers and charming
creepers, and making the atmosphere balmy with the bay, the jessamine,
and the magnolia, yet, even in winter, were there sufficient charms in
the spot to fix on it the heart of Oglethorpe, and cause him to select
it as the home of his waiting colony. "The landscape," he writes, "is
very agreeable, the stream being wide and bordered with high woods on
both sides," On the northern end of this bluff they found a
trading-house and an Indian village called Yamacraw. The chief of this
little tribe was Tomochichi; and the trader's name was Musgrove, married
to a half-breed, named Mary. By an ancient treaty of the Creeks with the
Governor of South Carolina, no white settlement was allowed to be made
south of the Savannah River without their consent.
Satisfied with the eligibility of this situation, Oglethorpe applied to
Mary Musgrove, who could speak both Indian and English, to obtain from
the tribe their agreement to his settlement. They at first appeared
uneasy and threatened to take up arms, but were pacified by her
representations of the benefits which would accrue to them; and she
gained from them a provisional treaty, until the consent of the whole
nation could be obtained. The Indians, once made sensible of the
advantages they would derive from the erection of a town within their
limits, hailed their coming with joy and busied themselves in many
offices of service and regard. The land selected, the consent of the
tribe obtained, and the services of Mary secured as an interpreter in
their subsequent intercourse with the red men, Oglethorpe returned to
Beaufort on January 24th; and the Sunday after was made a day of praise
and thanksgiving for their safe arrival in America, and the happy
auspices which clustered round the opening prospects of Georgia. During
the stay of the colonists in South Carolina they were treated with
genuine hospitality, and when they departed they were laden with most
substantial and valuable tokens of interest and benevolence.
Leaving the ship at Port Royal, Oglethorpe engaged a sloop of seventy
tons, and five plantation-boats, and embarked the colonists on Tuesday,
the 30th, but, detained by a storm, they did not reach their destination
until the afternoon of Thursday, February 12 (new style), 1733. The
people immediately pitched four large tents, being one for each tithing,
into which municipal divisions they had already been divided; and,
landing their bedding and other necessaries, spent their first night in
Georgia.
As soon as the tents had been pitched, the Indians came forward with
their formal salutations. In front advanced, with antic dancings, the
"medicine man," bearing in each hand a spread fan of white feathers
fastened to a rod hung from top to bottom with little bells; marching
behind this jingling symbol of peace and friendship, came the King and
Queen, followed by about twenty others, making the air ring with their
uncouth shouts. Approaching Oglethorpe, who walked out a few steps from
his tent to meet them, the medicine man came forward with his fans,
declaiming the while the deeds of their ancestors, and stroked him on
every side with the emblems of amity. This over, the King and Queen bade
him welcome and, after an interchange of compliments, they were
conducted to Oglethorpe's tent and partook of a pleasant entertainment
hastily prepared for the occasion.
And now all was bustle upon the bluff. The unlading of goods, the
felling of trees, the hewing of timber, the clearing of land, the
erection of palisades--all supervised by the watchful eye and directed
by the energetic mind of their leader--gave a brisk and industrious air
to the novel scene.
On the 9th Oglethorpe and Colonel Bull marked out the square, the
streets, and forty lots for houses; and the first clapboard-house of the
colony of Georgia was begun that day. On March 12th Oglethorpe writes:
"Our people still lie in tents; there being only two clapboard houses
built, and three sawed houses framed. Our crane, our battery of cannon,
and magazine are finished. This is all we have been able to do by reason
of the smallness of our numbers, of which many have been sick, and
others unused to labor, though I thank God they are now pretty well, and
we have not lost one since our arrival."
The most generous assistance was given them by South Carolina. The
Assembly, which met in Charleston three days after the arrival of the
emigrants, immediately resolved to furnish the colony with large
supplies of cattle and rice; to provide boats for the transportation of
the people from Port Royal to Savannah; and placed under Oglethorpe's
command the scout-boats and a troop of fifteen rangers for his
protection. They further appointed Colonel William Bull one of the
Governor's council, and a gentleman esteemed "most capable of assisting
Oglethorpe in settling the colony by reason of his experience in
colonial affairs, the nature of lands and the intercourse with Indians,"
to attend him and offer him his advice and assistance. Such was the
readiness of all to assist him that the Governor wrote, "Had not our
Assembly been sitting I would have gone myself."
Nor was private benevolence in any way behind public munificence. It is
pleasant, in looking over the list of individual benefactions, to read
such records as these:
_February._--"Colonel Bull came to Savannah with four laborers, and
assisted the colony for a month; he himself measuring the scantling, and
setting out the work for the sawyers, and giving the proportion of the
houses. Mr. Whitaker and his friends sent the colony one hundred head of
cattle. Mr. St. Julian came to Savannah and stayed a month, directing
the people in building their houses and other work. Mr. Hume gave a
silver boat and spoon for the first child born in Georgia, which being
born of Mrs. Close, were given accordingly. Mr. Joseph Bryan himself,
with four of his sawyers, gave two months' work in the colony. The
inhabitants of Edisto sent sixteen sheep. Mr. Hammerton gave a drum.
Mrs. Ann Drayton sent two pair of sawyers to work in the colony. Colonel
Bull and Mr. Bryan came to Savannah with twenty servants, whose labor
they gave to the colony. His excellency Robert Johnson gave seven
horses, valued at twenty-five pounds, Carolina currency."
These, with many other like records, evince their spirit in promoting
the settlement of Georgia. And well they might; for the planting of this
colony to the south of the Savannah increased their security from
invasion by the Spaniards, and from the incursions and massacres of the
Indian tribes, and still further operated as a preventive to the
enticing lures held out to the negroes, by which desertion was rendered
common and insurrection always dreaded. They were prepared, therefore,
to hail the new colony as a bulwark against their Floridian and savage
enemies, as opening further opportunities of trade, and as enhancing the
value of their frontier possessions, which, according to the best
authorities, were raised to five times their former value about Port
Royal and the Savannah River.
The fostering care of South Carolina was to be repaid by the protecting
service of Georgia. The labors of the colonists were great, but they had
much to cheer them; and the assiduity and attention of Oglethorpe won
upon their hearts so that they styled him "Father," and he exercised his
paternal care by unremitting efforts to advance their welfare. He spared
not himself in any personal efforts, but took his turn regularly in
doing night-guard duty, as an example to the rest, and at times worked
at the hardest labor to encourage their industry.
Having put Savannah in a posture of defence, supplied it with
provisions, and taken hostages of the Indians, Oglethorpe set out for
Charleston, attended by Tomochichi and his two nephews, being desirous
of cultivating the acquaintance and securing the good offices of the
Governor, council, and Assembly of South Carolina. At Charleston he was
met at the water-side by his excellency the Governor and council, who
conducted him to Governor Johnson's house, where the speaker and House
of Assembly came to present their official congratulations on his
arrival. His solicitations for assistance were promptly answered. The
Assembly voted two thousand pounds currency for the assistance of
Georgia the first year, and soon after the committee of supply brought
in a bill for granting eight thousand pounds currency for the use of the
new colony the ensuing year. The citizens also subscribed one thousand
pounds currency, five hundred pounds of which were immediately paid
down.
Grateful for this munificence Oglethorpe returned to Georgia to meet the
great council of the towns of the Lower Creeks, whom he had desired to
meet him in Savannah to strengthen the provisional treaty already made
with Tomochichi, and secure their abiding amity for the future. In
answer to this desire, eighteen chief men and their attendants, making
in all about fifty, came together from the nine tribes of the nation,
and met him in solemn council on the afternoon of May 18th. Speeches,
not lacking in interest, but full of Indian hyperbole and the inflations
of interpreters, were made by the chiefs, and answered by Oglethorpe
through the medium of Messrs. Wiggin and Musgrove; and on May 21st the
treaty was concluded.
The principal stipulations of it were that the trustees' people should
trade in the Indian towns; their goods being sold according to fixed
rates mutually agreed upon: thus, a white blanket was set down at five
buckskins, a gun at ten; a hatchet at three doeskins, a knife at one,
and so on. Restitution and reparation were to be made for injuries
committed and losses sustained by either party; the criminals to be
tried by English law. Trade to be stopped with any town violating any
article of the treaty. All lands not used by the Indians were to be
possessed by the English, but, upon the settling of any new town,
certain lands agreed on between the chiefs and the magistrates were to
be reserved for the former. All runaway negroes were to be restored to
Carolina, the Indians receiving for each one thus recovered four
blankets and two guns, or the value thereof in other goods. And lastly,
they agreed, with "straight hearts" and "true love," to allow no other
white people to settle on their lands, but ever to protect the English.
The Indians, having received suitable presents, were dismissed in amity
and peace; while Oglethorpe left the same day for Charleston, satisfied
at having obtained, by such honorable means, the cession of such a fine
country to the crown of England. This treaty was ratified by the
trustees the following October.
The judicious and honorable conduct of Oglethorpe toward the Indians was
of more security to the colony than its military defences. For a long
time he had regarded the Indians with kindly feelings. At his
suggestion Bishop Wilson, one of the bright and shining lights of the
English Church, wrote _An Essay Toward an Instruction for the Indians_,
which he dedicated to Oglethorpe; and, now that he met them on their
native soil, he evinced the same care for their interests, and through
life manifested in all his acts his regard for their welfare. He was the
red man's friend; showing in his intercourse with him the honorableness
of William Penn, without his private interests to subserve; the
generosity of Lord Baltimore, without a patent of immense tracts to
secure to his descendants; the compassion of Roger Williams, without his
mercantile views, to incite him to foster among the Indians kindness and
regard.
Oglethorpe stands superior to all, because he had no private end to
gratify, no lands to secure, no property to invest, no wealth to
accumulate from or among the tribes whose amity he cultivated.
The art of the painter has commemorated the treaty of Penn with the Leni
Lenapes, under the elm-tree of Shakamaxon; but neither this scene on the
north edge of Philadelphia, nor the treaty of Roger Williams with "the
old Prince Caconicas" at Seconke, nor the alliance of Leonard Calvert
with the Susquehannas at Yoacomoco, excels, in any element of
philanthropy or in any trait of nobleness, the treaty of Oglethorpe with
the tribes of the Muscogees, under the "four pine-trees" on the bluff of
Yamacraw.
RISE OF METHODISM
PREACHING OF THE WESLEYS AND OF WHITEFIELD
A.D. 1738
WILLIAM E.H. LECKY
Next to the founders of the world's great religions, the principal
figures in religious history are the leaders of its new movements,
the founders of sects or denominations. In this subordinate class
few names outrank that of John Wesley, while those of his brother,
Charles, and George Whitefield, their eloquent colleague, are
inseparably associated with that of the great founder of Methodism,
one of the most striking of the epochal religious movements of
modern times.
Although not intending to break with the Anglican Church, Wesley and
his followers were carried out upon independent lines which led to
the upbuilding of a distinct type of religious faith and
organization, whose power has been especially marked in Great
Britain and America, and has been increasingly spread throughout the
world.
Between Whitefield and John Wesley, in 1741, a separation occurred
on points of doctrine, Whitefield adhering to a rigid Calvinism,
while Wesley inclined to Arminianism, and thenceforth they followed
their several paths. Although Whitefield founded no sect, he exerted
a widespread influence by his presence and voice. Before their
separation both preachers had been in America, and the personality
and eloquence of Whitefield not only wrought a spell upon the
multitude, but even exercised a degree of fascination over such a
philosophical spirit as Franklin. Wesley's work in America was
deeper and more enduring, and is still a growing feature of the
country's religious development.
Nothing could be happier for the present purpose than the treatment
of this great religious movement, in its beginnings, as it is here
dealt with by the dispassionate historian of England during the
century in which the movement arose.
The Methodist movement was a purely religious one. All explanations
which ascribe it to the ambition of its leaders, or to merely
intellectual causes, are at variance with the facts of the case. The
term Methodist was a college nickname bestowed upon a small society of
students at Oxford who met together, between 1729 and 1735, for the
purpose of mutual improvement. They were accustomed to communicate every
week, to fast regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays and on most days
during Lent; to read and discuss the Bible in common, to abstain from
most forms of amusement and luxury, and to visit sick persons, and
prisoners in the jail.
John Wesley, the master spirit of this society, and the future leader of
the religious revival of the eighteenth century, was born in 1703, and
was the second surviving son of Samuel Wesley, the rector of Epworth, in
Lincolnshire. His father, who had early abandoned Nonconformity, and
acquired some reputation by many works both in prose and verse, had
obtained his living from the government of William, and had led for many
years a useful and studious life, maintaining a far higher standard of
clerical duty than was common in his time. His mother was the daughter
of an eminent Nonconformist minister, who had been ejected in 1662, and
was a woman of rare mental endowments, of intense piety, and of a
strong, original, and somewhat stern character.
Their home was not a happy one. Discordant dispositions and many
troubles darkened it. The family was very large. Many children died
early. The father sank slowly into debt. His parishioners were fierce,
profligate, and recalcitrant. When John Wesley was only six years old
the rectory was burned to the ground, and the child was forgotten among
the flames, and only saved at the last moment by what he afterward
deemed an extraordinary providence.
All these circumstances doubtless deepened the natural and inherited
piety for which he was so remarkable; and some strange and unexplained
noises which during a long period were heard in the rectory, and which
its inmates concluded to be supernatural, contributed to that vein of
credulity which ran through his character. He was sent to the
Charterhouse, and from thence to Oxford, where at the age of
twenty-three he was elected fellow of Lincoln. He had some years before
acquired from his brother a certain knowledge of Hebrew, and he was
speedily distinguished by his extraordinary logical powers, by the
untiring industry with which he threw himself into the studies of the
place, and above all by the force and energy of his character.
His religious impressions, which had been for a time somewhat obscured,
revived in their full intensity while he was preparing for ordination in
1725. He was troubled with difficulties, which his father and mother
gradually removed, about the damnatory clauses in the Athanasian Creed,
and about the compatibility of the articles with his decidedly Arminian
views concerning election; and he was deeply influenced by the
_Imitation_ of St. Thomas à Kempis, by the _Holy Living and Dying_ of
Jeremy Taylor, and by Law's _Serious Call_. His life at Oxford became
very strict. He rose every morning at four, a practice which he
continued till extreme old age. He made pilgrimages on foot to William
Law to ask for spiritual advice. He abstained from the usual fashion of
having his hair dressed, in order that he might give the money so saved
to the poor. He refused to return the visits of those who called on him,
that he might avoid all idle conversation. His fasts were so severe that
they seriously impaired his health, and extreme abstinence and gloomy
views about religion are said to have contributed largely to hurry one
of the closest of his college companions to an early and a clouded
death.
The society hardly numbered more than fifteen members, and was the
object of much ridicule at the university; but it included some men who
afterward played considerable parts in the world. Among them was
Charles, the younger brother of John Wesley, whose hymns became the
favorite poetry of the sect, and whose gentler, more submissive, and
more amiable character, though less fitted than that of his brother for
the great conflicts of public life, was very useful in moderating the
movement and in drawing converts to it by personal influence. Charles
Wesley appears to have been the first to originate the society at
Oxford; he brought Whitefield into its pale, and, besides being the most
popular poet, he was one of the most persuasive preachers of the
movement.
There, too, was James Hervey, who became one of the earliest links
connecting Methodism with general literature. During most of his short
life he was a confirmed invalid. His affected language, his feeble,
tremulous, and lymphatic nature formed a curious contrast to the robust
energy of Wesley and Whitefield; but he was a great master of a kind of
tumid and over-ornamented rhetoric which has an extraordinary
attraction to half-educated minds. His _Meditations_ was one of the most
popular books of the eighteenth century. His _Theron and Aspasio_, which
was hardly less successful, was an elaborate defence of evangelical
opinions; and though at this time the pupil and one of the warmest
admirers of Wesley, he afterward became conspicuous in the Calvinistic
section of the party, and wrote with much acerbity against his old
master.
There, too, above all, was George Whitefield, in after-years the
greatest pulpit orator of England. He was born in 1714, in Gloucester,
in the Bell Inn, of which his mother was proprietor, and where upon the
decline of her fortunes he was for some time employed in servile
functions. He had been a wild, impulsive boy, alternately remarkable for
many mischievous pranks and for strange outbursts of religious zeal. He
stole money from his mother, and he gave part of it to the poor. He
early declared his intention one day to preach the Gospel, but he was
the terror of the Dissenting minister of his neighborhood, whose
religious services he was accustomed to ridicule and interrupt. He
bought devotional books, read the Bible assiduously, and on one
occasion, when exasperated by some teasing, he relieved his feelings, as
he tells us, by pouring out in his solitude the menaces of Psalm cxviii;
but he was also passionately fond of card-playing, novel-reading, and
the theatre; he was two or three times intoxicated, and he confesses
with much penitence to "a sensual passion" for fruits and cakes. His
strongest natural bias was toward the stage. He indulged it on every
possible occasion, and at school he wrote plays and acted in a female
part.
Owing to the great poverty of his mother, he could only go to Oxford as
a servitor, and his career there was a very painful one. St. Thomas à
Kempis, Drelincourt's _Defence against Death_, and Law's devotional
works had all their part in kindling his piety into a flame. He was
haunted with gloomy and superstitious fancies, and his religion assumed
the darkest and most ascetic character. He always chose the worst food,
fasted twice a week, wore woollen gloves, a patched gown, and dirty
shoes, and was subject to paroxysms of a morbid devotion. He remained
for hours prostrate on the ground in Christ Church Walk in the midst of
the night, and continued his devotions till his hands grew black with
cold. One Lent he carried his fasting to such a point that when Passion
Week arrived he had hardly sufficient strength to creep upstairs, and
his memory was seriously impaired. In 1733 he came in contact with
Charles Wesley, who brought him into the society. To a work called _The
Life of God in the Soul of Man_, which Charles Wesley put into his
hands, he ascribed his first conviction of that doctrine of free
salvation which he afterward made it the great object of his life to
teach.
With the exception of a short period in which he was assisting his
father at Epworth, John Wesley continued at Oxford till the death of his
father, in 1735, when the society was dispersed, and the two Wesleys
soon after accepted the invitation of General Oglethorpe to accompany
him to the new colony of Georgia. It was on his voyage to that colony
that the founder of Methodism first came in contact with the Moravians,
who so deeply influenced his future life. He was surprised and somewhat
humiliated at finding that they treated him as a mere novice in
religion; their perfect composure during a dangerous storm made a
profound impression on his mind, and he employed himself while on board
ship in learning German, in order that he might converse with them. On
his arrival in the colony he abandoned, after a very slight attempt, his
first project of converting the Indians, and devoted himself wholly to
the colonists at Savannah. They were of many different nationalities,
and it is a remarkable proof of the energy and accomplishments of Wesley
that, in addition to his English services, he officiated regularly in
German, French, and Italian, and was at the same time engaged in
learning Spanish, in order to converse with some Jewish parishioners.