WHITFIELD PREACHING.
Whilst this excitement was going on in the New England colonies, New York was the scene of a cruel and terrible delusion, which almost vied in its horrors with the witch trials of Salem. New York at this time, 1741, contained between 7,000 and 8,000 inhabitants, 1,200 or 1,400 of whom were blacks. The robbery of a house, and the occurrence of nine fires in rapid succession, occasioned a kind of insane terror. The magistrates having offered a reward, pardon and freedom to any slave who would reveal the supposed incendiaries, two women of indifferent character gave information of a plot among the negroes to burn the city, murder the whites, and make one of their own party governor. Incredible as the story was, it gained belief, and great numbers of slaves and free-blacks were arrested. “The eight lawyers of the place assisted by turns on behalf of the prosecutors; the prisoners, who had no counsel, were tried and convicted on insufficient evidence; the lawyers vied with each other in heaping abuse upon the unfortunate prisoners, and the chief justice in passing sentence vied with the lawyers.”[[34]] Many confessed to save their lives, and then appeared as witnesses against others. Thirteen were burnt at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy-one transported.
When the general terror had a little subsided, and the public mind, looking more coolly at the whole thing, considered the base character of the informers and witnesses, the reality of the plot was doubted, and the shame of blood-guiltiness rested upon the city.
The same year that Oglethorpe returned from England, he fortified the colony in anticipation of war between England and Spain. For this purpose forts were erected at Augusta, Darien, Frederica, Cumberland Island, near the mouth of the St. Mary’s, and even as far south as St. John’s river, all the territory north of that river being claimed for England. This latter erection led to complaints from the Spanish authorities at St. Augustine; hostilities were threatened; the fort at the mouth of the St. John’s was therefore abandoned, and the St. Mary’s river became from that time the established southern boundary of Georgia.
Again, in 1737, Oglethorpe hastened to England to make there more effectual preparations for the struggle, and returned with a commission as brigadier-general, with a command extending over South Carolina, and bringing with him a regiment of 600 men. He was received with salutes and bonfires at Savannah and every demonstration of joy.
In 1739, war being formally declared, Oglethorpe planned an expedition against St. Augustine. In November of the same year Admiral Vernon took Porto Bello; and the following May, Oglethorpe entered Florida “with a select force of 400 men from his own regiment, some troops from Carolina, and a large body of friendly Indians.” A Spanish fort, twenty-five miles from St. Augustine, surrendered after a short resistance; another within two miles was abandoned; but St. Augustine, when required to surrender, sent a bold defiance. Ships were stationed at the entrance of the harbour to prevent supplies, and every measure was taken to reduce the place. Oglethorpe, enduring all the fatigues and hardships of the common soldiers, in spite of ill health consequent on exposure to perpetual damps, was always at the head of every important action. Great as was his courage and endurance, his conduct as a soldier in an enemy’s country was still nobler; the few prisoners whom he took, we are told, were treated with kindness; the cruelties of the savages were reproved and restrained; not a field nor a house nor a garden near St. Augustine was injured, unless by the Indians.
But St. Augustine resisted; Spanish galleys contrived to enter with provisions; the unsuccess of the English fleet in the West Indies prevented any assistance from that quarter; and sickness at length breaking out among Oglethorpe’s forces, he was compelled in July to return to Georgia.
Two years afterwards, in 1742, the Spaniards invaded Georgia. A fleet of thirty-six sail from Havanna and St. Augustine, bearing upwards of 3,000 troops, entered the harbour of St. Simon’s, an island in the mouth of the Altamaha, landed a number of troops, and erected a battery of twenty guns. Oglethorpe, who was at that time on the island with less than 800 men, exclusive of Indians, spiked his guns and retreated to Frederica, there to await the promised reinforcements from Carolina. From this place he wrote to Savannah—“We will not suffer defeat; we will rather die like Leonidas and his Spartans, if we can but protect Carolina and the rest of the Americans from desolation.” The Spanish general, Monteano, however, unacquainted with the coast and the proper points of attack, wasted his efforts and was defeated in repeated skirmishes. Oglethorpe, still disappointed of aid from Carolina, resolved, however, to make a night attack on one of the enemy’s camps; but his intentions were revealed by a French soldier who deserted. Apprehensive, says Willson, that the enemy would now discover his weakness, he devised a plan to destroy the credit of any information he might give. He wrote a letter to the deserter, desiring him to urge the Spaniards to an immediate attack, or to induce them to remain in St. Simon’s island yet three days, as by that time several British ships would have arrived. The letter, as Oglethorpe intended, was carried to the Spanish commander. The deserter was arrested as a spy, and the utmost perplexity prevailed in the Spanish camp. At that moment, fortunately for Oglethorpe, three small vessels were perceived in the offing, which being supposed to be a part of the expected British fleet, an attack on Oglethorpe at Frederica was determined upon.
All turned out as Oglethorpe wished; one party of the advancing troops were defeated by himself and his Highlanders who marched out of the town to meet them, and another fell into an ambuscade. The scene of destruction was terrible; the ground was covered with dead, and the place to this day bears the name of the Bloody Marsh. The enemy fled with precipitation to their ships, leaving their guns and ammunition behind, and in a few days were sailing to the south, making, however, on their way, an attack on Fort William, where again they were repulsed with loss. The Spanish commander gained so little credit by this expedition, that on his return to Havanna he was tried by court-martial and dismissed the service. Oglethorpe, a week after his deliverance, ordered a general thanksgiving.
Thus was Georgia established and defended; yet were there many discontented and many disaffected within her borders; and scarcely was the war at an end and peace once more within the colony, than Oglethorpe sailed for England to meet and rebut various slanderous charges brought against him, every one of which was disproved. But though he lived till upwards of ninety, he never returned to the colony; joining soon after the army against the Pretender. After Oglethorpe left Georgia, changes were introduced into its laws and administration; the prohibition of rum was removed from the statute-book; and the former somewhat military rule of government was changed, the administration being entrusted to a president and council, who were required to govern according to the instruction of the trustees.