In 1728, Oglethorpe besought the interference of parliament on behalf of the sufferings of those whose only crimes were misfortune and poverty; nor did he rest until “from extreme misery he had restored to light and freedom multitudes who, by long confinement for debt, were strangers and helpless in the land of their birth.” His benevolence, however, did not confine itself alone to these; he designed to provide an asylum also for persecuted Protestants of all nations, who might, in the New World, freely worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. A scheme of this kind could not lack advocates in England. The king, George II., favoured the design; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts lent it aid; and parliament advanced its objects by a grant of £10,000. On the 9th of June, therefore, a charter was granted to Oglethorpe and others, which constituted the country lying between the Savannah and Altamaha and westward to the Pacific Ocean, the province of Georgia. This country was to be held for twenty years, under the guardianship of a corporation, “in trust for the poor.” The seal of the corporation bore on one side a group of silk-worms at their labour with the motto, Non sibi, sed aliis—not for themselves, but for others—thereby expressive of the disinterested intention of the originators, who refused to receive for their labours any temporal advantage or emolument whatever. The reverse side represented the genius of Georgia, with a cap of liberty on her head, a spear in one hand and a horn of plenty in the other. The reported wealth and beauty of this land of promise awoke the most brilliant hopes for the future.[[33]]
Oglethorpe sailed from England in November, 1732, with his little band of liberated captives and oppressed Protestants, amounting in number to about 120 persons, and after a voyage of fifty-seven days, reached Charleston. Immediately after his arrival in the New World, he proceeded up the Savannah river, and landed on a high bluff, called Yamacraw, which he at once selected as the site of his capital, the Indians being induced to give it up to the strangers through the agency of Mary Musgrove, an Indian woman, who had married an English trader; and there Savannah now stands. At the distance of half a mile dwelt the Yamacraws, a tribe of Creek Indians, who, with their chief, Tomo-chichi, at their head, sought alliance with the strangers. “Here is a little present,” said the red man, stretching out before him a buffalo-hide, painted on the inside with an eagle’s head and feathers; “the eagle’s feathers are soft, and betoken love; the buffalo’s hide is warm, and betokens protection. Therefore, love and protect our little families.”
Oglethorpe received with kindness these friendly demonstrations.
It was on the first day of February, when the little band of colonists pitched their tents on the banks of the river. Oglethorpe’s tent stood beneath four tall pine-trees, and for twelve months he had no other shelter. In this beautiful region was the town of Savannah laid out, according as it stands at the present day, with its regular streets and large squares in each quarter of the town, whilst through the primeval woods a road was formed to the ground which was to become a great garden, intended as a nursery-ground for European fruits and the wonderful natural products of America.
Such was the commencement of the commonwealth of Georgia. The province became already, in its infancy, an asylum for the oppressed and suffering, not only among the people of Great Britain, but in Europe itself. The fame of this asylum in the wilderness rang through Europe. The Moravian brethren, persecuted in their native land, received an invitation from England of a free passage to Georgia for them and for their children, provisions for a whole season, a grant of land to be held free for ten years, with all the privileges and rites of native English citizens, and the freedom to worship God in their own way. This invitation they joyfully accepted.
On the last day of October, 1733, with their Bibles and hymnbooks, with two covered wagons, in which were conveyed their aged and their little children, and another wagon containing their worldly goods, the little evangelical band set forth in the name of God, after prayers and benedictions, on their long pilgrimage. They sailed up the stately Rhine, between its vineyards and ruined castles, and thence forth upon the great sea in the depth of winter. When they lost sight of land, and the majesty of ocean was revealed to them, they burst forth into a hymn of praise. When the sea was calm and the sun rose in his splendour, they sang, “How beautiful is creation! how glorious the Creator!” “When the wind was adverse, they put up prayers; when it changed, thanksgivings. When they sailed smoothly with a favouring gale, they made holy covenants, like Jacob of old; when the storm raged violently, they lifted up their voices and sang amid the storm, for to love the Lord Jesus gave great consolation.”
Thus they arrived at the shore of the New World. Oglethorpe met them at Charleston and bade them welcome; and five days afterwards they pitched their tents near Savannah. Their place of residence was to be yet further up the country. Oglethorpe provided them with horses, and accompanied them through the wilderness. By the aid of Indian guides and blazed trees, they proceeded onward, till they found a suitable spot for their settlement. It was on the banks of a little stream, and both were called by them Ebenezer. Here they resolved to build their dwellings, and to erect a column in token of the providence of God, which had brought them safely to the ends of the earth.
The same year was the town of Augusta founded, which soon became a favourite resort of the Indian trader. The fame of Oglethorpe extended through the wilderness, and in May came the chiefs of the eight tribes of the Musgogees, to make an alliance with him. Long-king, the tall old civil chief of the Ocanos, was their spokesman.
“The Great Spirit, which dwells everywhere around us,” said he, “and which gave breath to all men, has sent the Englishmen to instruct us!” He then bade them welcome to the country south of the Savannah, as well as to the cultivation of such lands as his people had not used; and, in token of the sincerity of his words, he laid eight bundles of buckskins at the feet of Oglethorpe. The chief of the Coweta tribe arose and said: “We are come five-and-twenty days’ journey to see you. I have never desired to go down to Charleston, but when I heard that you were come, and that you were good men, I came down to you that I might hear good things.”
A Cherokee appeared among the English. “Fear nothing,” said Oglethorpe, “but speak freely.” “I always speak freely,” replied the mountain-chief; “wherefore should I be afraid? I feared not when I was among enemies; I am now among friends.” And the settlers and the Cherokees became friends.