The development of the province down to 1741 is described and the regulations promulgated by the Trustees for the conduct of the plantation and for the observance of its inhabitants are preserved in An Account shewing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America from its First Establishment, London, 1741. This publication was by authority, and must be accepted as of the highest importance.[853]
Of like interest and value are An Impartial Enquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia, London, 1741,—appearing anonymously,[854] but with the sanction of the Trustees, and intended to correct certain mischievous reports circulated with regard to the health of the plantation, the fertility of the soil, the value of the products, and the disabilities under which Georgia labored because of restricted land tenures, and by reason of the regulations prohibiting the introduction and use of spirituous liquors and negro slaves; and A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740, London, 1742,—in which the superior advantages of Georgia, her resources and capabilities, are favorably considered and proclaimed.
The history of the Salzburgers in Georgia may be learned from An Extract of the Journals of Mr. Commissary Von Reck, who conducted the First Transport of Salzburgers to Georgia; and of the Reverend Mr. Bolzius, one of their Ministers, giving an Account of their Voyage to and happy Settlement in the Province, published by the Directors of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1734;[855] from Neuste und richtigste Nachricht von der Landschaft Georgia in dem Engelländischen America, etc., von J. M. R., Göttingen, 1746;[856] from De Præstantia Coloniæ Georgico-Anglicanæ præ Coloniis aliis,[857] et seq., by Joannes Augustus Urlspergerus; from the Urlsperger Tracts, which present with wonderful fidelity and minuteness of details all events connected with the Salzburger settlements in America;[858] and from the Salzburgers and their Descendants, being the history of a Colony of German Lutheran Protestants who emigrated to Georgia in 1734, and settled at Ebenezer, twenty-five miles above the City of Savannah, by P. A. Strobel, Baltimore, 1855.[859]
To the Gentleman’s Magazine and to the London Magazine must recourse be had for valuable letters and contemporaneous documents descriptive of the colonization of Georgia and the development of the plantation.
There is in Section xxi. of Chapter iii. of the second volume of Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or a Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels, etc., by John Harris (London, 1748), a “History of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Colony of Georgia.” It is prefaced by an excellent map of the province, and is fortified by illustrative documents. In its twenty-five quarto pages are embraced all the noted incidents connected with the early life of the colony and the successful efforts of General Oglethorpe in defending the southern frontier of Georgia against the assaults of the Spaniards. The value of this contribution cannot well be overestimated.
Another work of genuine merit, acquainting us specially with the condition of Savannah and the adjacent region, with the settlement of Frederica, and with those preliminary negotiations which resulted in a postponement of impending hostilities between Georgia and Florida, is A Voyage to Georgia begun in the year 1735, etc., by Francis Moore, London, 1744.[860]
A most detailed statement of the affairs and events of the province will be found in the three octavo volumes constituting the diary of Colonel William Stephens, for some time resident Secretary in Georgia of the Trustees, and, upon the departure of General Oglethorpe, advanced to the responsible position of President of the colony,—entitled A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia beginning October 20th, 1737, which was printed in London in 1742.[861] Of this work but a limited edition was published by the Trustees, and a complete copy is very difficult to find. While its pages are cumbered with many trivial matters, this rare Journal is remarkable for accuracy of statement and minuteness of details. Its author was at the time far advanced in years, and his narrative is not infrequently colored by his peculiar religious and political notions. He was a firm friend of the colony, an honest servant of the Trust, and in all things most obedient and loyal to his king. Retired upon a pension of £80, he spent his last years on his plantation, near the mouth of Vernon River, which he called Bewlie [Beaulieu] because of a fancied resemblance to the manor of the Duke of Montague in the New Forest. There, about the middle of August, 1753, he died.
In the Executive Department of the State of Georgia may be seen the original MS. folio volume containing A general account of all monies and effects received and expended by the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America (June 9, 1732-June 9, 1752), the names of the benefactors, and the sums contributed and the articles given by them in aid of the Trust. This carefully written and unique volume, the entries, charges, and discharges of which are certified by Harman Verelst,—accountant to the Trustees,—exhibits a complete statement of the finances of the Trust from its inception to the time of the surrender of the charter.[862]
The fullest reports of the demonstration of General Oglethorpe against St. Augustine are contained in An Impartial Account of the Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, occasioned by the suppression of the Report made by a Committee of the General Assembly in South Carolina, transmitted under the great seal of that Province to their Agent in England in order to be printed: with an exact Plan of the Town, Castle, and Harbour of St. Augustine and the adjacent Coast of Florida; shewing the Disposition of our Forces on that Enterprize, London, 1741;[863] in The Report of the Committee of both Houses of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina appointed to enquire into the causes of the Disappointment of success in the late Expedition against St. Augustine under command of General Oglethorpe, published by the order of both Houses, Charlestown, S. C., and London, 1743;[864] and in The Spanish Hireling detected, being a Refutation of the Several Calumnies and Falsehoods in a late Pamphlet entitul’d An Impartial Account of the Late Expedition against St. Augustine under General Oglethorpe, by George Cadogan, Lieutenant in General Oglethorpe’s Regiment, etc., London, 1743.[865] Grievous was the disappointment at the failure of the expedition; unjust and harsh were the criticisms upon its leader. “One man there is, my Lords,” said the Duke of Argyle in the British House of Peers, “whose natural generosity, contempt of danger, and regard for the public prompted him to obviate the designs of the Spaniards and to attack them in their own territories: a man whom by long acquaintance I can confidently affirm to have been equal to his undertaking, and to have learned the art of war by a regular education, who yet miscarried in the design only for want of supplies necessary to success.”[866]