** They met on the fourth of July. On the fifteenth, they elected Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, John Joachim Zubley, Noble Wimberly Jones, and Lyman Hall, to represent that province in the Continental Congress. These were the first delegates elected by the representatives of the whole people, for Hall represented only the parish of St. John's. Fifty-three members signed their credentials. Zubley afterward became a traitor. While the subject of independence was being debated in 1776, Samuel Chase, of Maryland, accused Zubley of communicating with Governor Wright. Zubley denied the charge, but while Chase was collecting proof, the recusant fled.

*** One of the men engaged in this adventure was Ebenezer Smith Platt. He was afterward made a prisoner, and being recognized as one of this daring party, was sent to England, where he lay in jail many months, under a charge of high treason. He was eventually considered a prisoner of war, and was exchanged.

**** Joseph Habersham was the son of a merchant of Savannah, who died at New Brunswick, in New Jersey, in August, 1775. Joseph Habersham held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental army. In 1785, he was a member of Congress from Savannah; and in 1795, Washington appointed him postmaster general of the United States. He held that office until 1800, when he resigned. He was made president of the Branch Bank of the United States, at Savannah, in 1802, which position he held until his death, in November, 1815, at the age of sixty-five years. The name of his brother James, late President of the Council, appears upon the first bill of credit issued by the Provincial Congress of Georgia in 1776.

* ( v) Governor Wright's house was on the lot in Heathcote Ward, where the Telfair House now stands. The Council House was on the lot where George Schley. Esq., resided in 1849.

Congressional Delegates.—Savannah Menaced.—British Repulsed.—Party Lines.—Lee's Expedition.

in Georgia, and the Assembly assumed governmental powers. They elected new delegates to the Continental Congress;1776 passed a resolution to raise a battalion of Continental troops;Feb. 4 and issued bills of credit in the form of certificates, and ordered them to be received at par in payment of debts and for merchandise.

Governor Wright wrote a letter to the AssemblyFeb. 13 very conciliatory in its tone, but receiving no answer, he resolved to allow the armed vessels at the mouth of the river to force their way to the town, and procure such supplies as they needed. Eleven merchant vessels, laden with rice, were then at Savannah ready to sail. These were seized by the war ships, and Majors Maitland and Grant landed, with a considerable force, upon Hutchinson's Island, opposite Savannah, preparatory to an attack upon the townMarch 6, 1776 The patriots were on the alert, and sent a flag to Maitland, warning him to desist.

This flag was detained, and another was fired upon. Further parley was deemed unnecessary, and the next day two merchant vessels, lying in the stream, were set on fire by the patriots. Floating down to the one containing Maitland and Grant, with their men, great consternation was produced. Some of the soldiers jumped overboard and swam ashore; some stuck in the mud, and many lost their fire-arms; while the officers escaped in boats to Hutchinson's Island. At this critical moment, four hundred Carolinians, under Colonel Bull, arrived, and aided the Georgians in repulsing the assailants. Three of the merchant vessels were burned, six were dismantled, and two escaped to sea.

The breach between the Whigs and Tories was now too wide to be closed, and the line was very distinctly drawn by stringent measures on the part of the former. *** These tended to winnow the chaff from the wheat, and many Tories, possessed of no property, left Georgia and took refuge in East Florida, where Governor Tonyn was actively engaged in fitting out privateers to prey upon the infant commerce of the Southern colonists, and to ravage their coasts. The Tories there organized under the title of the Florida Rangers, and were led by Thomas Brown, the Augusta Loyalist, who afterward commanded the garrison at that place. A fort built by Governor Wright's brother, on the St. Mary's, was their place of rendezvous, whence they went out and levied terrible contributions, in the way of plunder, upon the people of Southern Georgia, who were thinly scattered over the country.

The war had now fairly commenced, and the flame of patriotism which burned so brightly at the North was not less intense in Georgia. The Declaration of Independence was received in Savannah with great joy. **** August 10, 1776 Pursuant to the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the people turned their attention to the organization of civil government, upon the basis of independence, and in strengthening their military power. To weaken the British and Tories in the South, an expedition against St. Augustine (then in possession of the English) was planned, and General Charles Lee, then at Charleston, was invited to take the command of troops that might be sent. Lee perceived the advantages to be derived from such a measure, and acquiescing, he immediately ordered Brigadier Robert Howe to proceed to Savannah with troops. Howe had marched as far as Sunbury, at the mouth of the Midway River,August, 1776 when sickness, want of artillery and