TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER.

83

and education of exposed and deserted young children. He defended seamen against impressment, in a spirited pamphlet entitled "The Sailor's Advocate." He supported in Parliament the act for naturalizing foreigners, Protestants, in America. He ably advocated the petition of the Moravians in the House of Commons, and sustained Sir John Barnard's motion for relieving the poor of some of their onerous taxes. His private charities to his tenants, dependants, and others, were numerous; and though they sometimes. came to light, yet were mostly of that scriptural character which lets not the left hand know what the right hand doeth.

29

Such was the character of the man, who, at the prime of life, had devoted himself, without fee or reward, to the cause of colonizing the poor and the persecuted; and was now about to sail with the emigrants, and establish them in their new and distant home. Well might a contemporaneous writer say" that he doubts whether the histories of Greece or Rome can produce a greater instance of public spirit than this. "To see a gentleman of his rank and fortune visiting a distant and uncultivated land, with no other society but the miserable whom he goes to assist, exposing himself freely to the same hardships to which they are subjected, in the prime of life, instead of pursuing his pleasures or ambition, on an improved and well concerted plan from which his country must reap the profits; at his own expense, and without a view or even a possibility of receiving any private advantage from it; this, too, after having done and expended for it what many generous men would think sufficient to have done-to see this, I say, must give

29 Political State of Great Britain, Feb., 1733, xlv. 181.

84

TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER.

every one who has approved and contributed to the undertaking, the highest satisfaction; must convince the world of the disinterested zeal with which the settlement is to be made, and entitle him to the truest honour he can gain-the perpetual love and applause of mankind."

CHAPTER II.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.

WE are brought now to the dockyard at Deptford, to behold the first embarkation of the Georgia pilgrims. But little over a hundred years ago, and the seedbud of that State, which to-day numbers its eight hundred thousand, lay rocking in a small and uneasy galley, on the waters of the Thames. Truly, "a little one has become a thousand, and a small one, a strong nation." Isaiah ix. 22.

The Trustees, having selected from the throng of emigrants thirty-five families, numbering in all about one hundred and twenty-five "sober, industrious, and moral persons, "1 chartered the Ann, a galley of two hundred tons, Captain John Thomas, and stationed her at Deptford, four miles below London, to receive her cargo and passengers. In the meantime, the men were drilled to arms by sergeants of the guards; and all needed stores were gathered, to make them comfortable on the voyage, and to establish them on land.

It was not until the early part of November that the embarkation was ready for sailing.

The last Sunday of the emigrants in England was spent at Milton, on the banks of the Thames, whither they went in a body, to attend divine service at the

1 Transcripts of Colonial Documents, p. 18.

86

THE COLONISTS PREPARE TO DEPART.

parish church. It was to them a time of peculiar solemnity. Never again did they expect, on the soil of their native land, to unite in the prayers and praises of their mother church. They were pilgrims to a far country, seeking out an unknown inheritance; and when the chimes of old England should again ring out the call to prayer, they would be tossed upon the great waters, exiles of penury, voyaging to the southern "Canaan of America." But they were not left without religious instructions in their long voyage; for, in the spirit of his Divine Master, the Reverend Henry Herbert, D.D., having offered to go without any fee or reward, to assist them in settling, was with them, ready and willing to afford any of the offices of the church, or any of the consolations of religion.

The government, also, extended its protecting care over the adventurers. Horatio, Lord Walpole, wrote letters to his deputies. The Duke of Newcastle, then at the head of colonial affairs, addressed circulars to the governors of the North American provinces; and the Lords of the Admiralty issued directions to all the naval commanders on the Virginia and Carolina stations, to render all needed assistance to Oglethorpe and the colony under his command.

On the 16th, they were visited by the Trustees, “to see nothing was wanting, and to take leave" of Oglethorpe; and having called the families separately before them in the great cabin, they inquired if they liked their usage and voyage; or if they had rather return, giving them even then the alternative of remaining in England, if they preferred it; and having found but one man who (on account of his wife, left sick in Southwark) declined, they bid Oglethorpe and the emigrants

2 MS. Journal of the Trustees, vol. i. p. 35.

THEY LAND IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

87

an affectionate farewell. The ship sailed the next day, November 17th, 1732, from Gravesend, skirted slowly along the southern coast of England, and, taking its departure from Scilly light, spread out its white sails to the breezes of the Atlantic.

Day after day, and week after week, the voyagers seem the centre of the same watery circle, canopied by the same bending sky. No milestones tell of their progress. The waymarks of the mariner are the sun by day, and the moon and stars by night; no kindred ship answers back its red-cross signal; but there they float, the germ of a future nation, upon the desert waters. Sailing a circuitous route, they did not reach the coast of America until the 13th of January, 1733, when they cast anchor in Rebellion Roads, and furled their sails at last in the harbour of Charleston.

Oglethorpe immediately landed, and was received by the Governor and Council of South Carolina with every mark of civility and attention. The king's pilot was directed by them to carry the ship into Port Royal; and small vessels were furnished to take the emigrants to the river Savannah. Thus assisted, in about ten hours they resumed their voyage, and shortly dropped anchor within Port Royal bar.

The colony landed at Beaufort, on the 20th January, and had quarters given them in the new barracks. Here they received every attention from the officers of His Majesty's Independent Company, and the gentlemen of the neighbourhood; and refreshed themselves after the fatigues and discomforts of their long voyage and cramped accommodations.3

Leaving his people here, Oglethorpe, accompanied

3 “A Brief Account of the Estab- Force's Tracts, vol. i. Tract 2d, p. 8. lishment of the Colony of Georgia."