Augusta, Georgia - History (part 1 of 17)

Preface

THIS is the first time that the history of that old and soHd city - Augusta, Ga. - has ever been written. It has been said that Americans have been too busy making history to write it, and the observation is true. The formative period always precedes the preservative period ; first comes the pioneer, and long afterward the annalist. Romulus lived many centuries before Livy. Accordingly it is that American history has been late in writing. The annals of the States and of the general government have, it is true, been fairly well recorded - though this is largely due to the fact that the historian had the archives of older nations, connected by discovery and conquest with the New World to resort to, but the story of American cities has been, until of recent years, almost a blank. Even the great metropolis of the country, New York, is better known, as to its early days, by the sweetly-flowing Knickerbocker history of Washington Irving than by any actual and prosaic account. New Amsterdam and its old Dutch burghers in bulbous hose and long stemmed pipe ; the choleric Governor Stuyvesant and his placid excellency Wouter Von Twiller, all rise before us at the very mention of the early history of the great American city, and yet all this is mere fancy, not fact.

Municipal history was, until of late years, an untrodden field. The harvest was plenteous, but the laborers few, if any. Into this field the publishing house of D. Mason & Co. entered not so many years since, and of the many local histories since then published by them, it may well be doubted if any have excelled, or, perhaps equalled in scope, completeness and interest the work it is the office of this preface to introduce.

Various causes have conspired somewhat to delay the production of this history, and yet there has been less a delay than a growth. In the additional time afforded them, the publishers have been enabled to amplify and enrich their theme. Opportunity has been afforded to explore new treasure-houses and thence extract fresh riches. The work has been amplified, adorned, and polished until it is confidently presented as a model municipal history. The whole career of an American city one hundred and fifty years old - older than the old French War, older than the rising of the Jacobites under Bonnie Prince

In early days Georgia was but a strip of population on the west bank of the Savannah River, with one city, Savannah, at the southern, and another, Augusta, at its northern extremity. The growth of the commonwealth being for several generations in a northerly and northwesterly direction, made the upper metropolis a great center; and hence it is that for years the history of Augusta epitomizes that of the State. Here were held the great councils with the chieftains of the forest in the days of Indian supremacy ; here was the State capital during the next great Epoch, that of the Revolution ; and here the Constitution of the United States was ratified when American government. State and Federal, assumed permanent form.

He who reads this history will, therefore, read more than the annals of a mere municipality. He can see, traced from its first foundation, the legal, educational, financial, and industrial history of the State itself Rising from the perusal of the work, the reader will have acquired information for which he will in vain consult all the histories of Georgia that have heretofore been written. True, the magnificent work of Colonel C. C. Jones on the colonial period of the State, leaves little, if anything, to be desired as to that special epoch, but from that time forward the history of Georgia may be best seen in all matters nonpolitical, in these pages. The history of the judicial establishment of the State has never been written as it is here written. To instance its completeness, it may be remarked that even so well informed a jurist as Mr. Justice Story in his great work on Equity Jurisprudence says: "In America Equity Jurisprudence had its origin at a far later period than the jurisdiction properly pertaining to the Courts of Common Law. In many of the colonies, during their connection with Great Britain, it had cither no existence at all, or a very imperfect and irregular administration." The reader interested in this particular subject, may therefore be surprised to find in this work a complete account of the Colonial Court of Chancery in Georgia, showing that Equity Jurisprudence existed here in full vigor years before the Revolution. The very details of the then practice are set out and even the forms of precedents and items of the chancery fee bills are preserved and reproduced.

In the all-important field of railroading will be found the history of two of the oldest railroads in the United States, the South Carolina and Georgia, centering in Augusta. The progress of the latter, in particular, is given year by year from the time the first meeting to organize a company was held, and in all the varying phases of railroad development, from the first passenger car, then called "coach," looking much like an old-fashioned stage coach, and propelled by sails, down to the steel track, parlor car, and ponderous "Mogul" engine of the present day.

erated his first cotton-gin on a mill pond near the city to the present huge factories which line a canal inferior only in length to the great Erie Canal. In connection with the rise of the cotton industry is told the story of the old indigo field and tobacco plantations.

In the educational world the reader begins with an ancient institution of learning, only excelled in its antiquity by Yale and Harvard; and is thence brought up to the systems of the present day. Statistics never before gathered and grouped together on this subject in Georgia are to be found in this work.

The physician, the divine, the banker, will find the history of medicine, religion, and finance in this city exhaustively treated. Particularly in the latter field will the work be found of more than local interest, since the theme has broadened into a sketch of banking in Georgia from the earliest days.

The history proper of the city as a municipal organization, has, of course, received special attention. The original limits of the city are for the first time definitely located and described, and from that day up the extension of the corporate limits is carefully and accurately traced. Biographical sketches of the chief magistrates of the city from the earliest days are given, as also a complete list of their names and terms of office. Beside these sketches there are also numerous biographies of eminent judges, lawyers, physicians, divines, bankers, and citizens generally of the past. Still furtlier there are sketches of many of the living leaders of the city, this part of the work being embellished with steel engravings of the highest order of artistic elegance.

In one word, this work is, as we have stated, a model municipal history. It has been prepared with care, diligence, research and skill, and while valuable now, will, as the years go on, become a priceless repository of information on the topics of which it treats. All the first portion of the work, up to the beginning of the municipal history proper, is from the pen of Colonel C. C. Jones, jr., a distinguished citizen of Augusta, author of many elaborate and valuable works on Georgia history, and beyond all question, the leading antiquarian and archaeologist of the State, if not indeed of the entire South, or of this country. The residue of the work is from the pen of Salem Dutcher, esq., a member of the Augusta bar. The biographical sketches are by various hands.

The mechanical execution of the volume speaks for itself The skill of the typographer and binder has been successfully laid under tribute, and with a just pride in their work in all its parts, this History of Augusta is confidently submitted to the popular judgment by

Contents Chapter

General Oglethorpe's Visit to Augusta - His Conference with the Creeks at Coweta Town - Colonel Stephens's Account of the Progress of the Plantation - Oglethorpe's Fairness in Dealing with the Indians - Introduction of Slave Labor - Rev. Jonathan Copp - Distribution of Presents for the Indians - Fort at Augusta - Early Legislation - Governor Reynolds's "Representation" - Parishes Established - Representation and Petition from Augusta 31

Chapter Iv

Condition of the Colony of Georgia in 1760 - Congress at Augusta in November, 1763 - Treaty with the Indians then Solemnized - Instructions to Indian Traders - Strength of Adjacent Indian Nations in 1768 - Augusta's Representation in the Provincial Congress - Congress at Augusta in June, 1773 - The Ceded Lands - Adjustment of the Claims of the Indian Traders - Trouble with the Indians - Silver Bluff 43

Chapter

Bartram's Description of Augusta in 1773 - Convention of 1774 - Protest from the Parish of Saint Paul - Division of Sentiment - Conduct of Governor Wright - Dr. Lyman Hall - Action of St. John's Parish - Progress of the Revolution 56

Chapter Vi

Revolutionary Movements in Savannah - Thomas Brown Tarred and Feathered in Augusta - Provincial Congress of July 4, 1775 - Articles of Association - Organization of the Militia and of the Courts - Independence of Georgia Proclaimed - Military Operations 65

Chapter Vhi

Military Operations - Affair near Fulsom's Fort - Augusta Designated as the Seat of Government - An Oligarchical Form of Government Inagurated - Political History of the Period Communication to General Lincoln - Governor Wright's Report on the Situation 81

Chapter Ix

- Proclamation of Governor Wereat, Governor Walton, General Mcintosh and Mr. Glascock - Political Affairs - Movements of the Executive Council - Unseemly Dissentions^ - Reorganization of the State Government at Augusta. . . 90

Augusta Evacuated by Williamson, and Occupied by Brown and Grierson - Barbarous Cruelties Perpetrated by Them - Colonel Clarke's Attempt to Retake Augusta - Narrative of the Incidents Connected with the Affair - Governor Wright's Dispatches

Chapter Xi

Colonel Williamson Invests Augusta - Arrival of Colonel Clarke - Pickens and Lee Ordered to Assist in the Reduction of Augusta - Capture of Fort Galpin - The Siege and Capitulation of Augusta - Lieutenant-Colonel James Jackson Assigned to the Command - Burnet's Rascality - Governor Wright Calls Lustily for Aid iii

Chapter Xii

Military Operations Culminating in the Surrender of Savannah - Plot to Murder Colonel Jackson - Celebration in Augusta upon the Acknowledgment of the Independence of the United States - Charge of Chief Justice Walton - Early Legislation Aftecting Augusta - The City of Augusta Incorporated in 1798 - Trustees, Intendants, and Mayors of Augusta 1 27

Chapter Xiii

Legislative Proceedings - Newspapers - Ratification in Augusta by the State of Georgia, of the Federal Constitution - Constitutional Convention of 1789 - Georgia Divided into Congressional Districts - President Washington's Visit to Augusta - Military Conven'ion of Augusta, 1793 137

Chapter Xiv

Cultivation of the Tobacco Plant in Georgia - Rapid Improvement in the Trade and Prosperity of Augusta - Introduction of Cotton - Letter of Mr. Joseph Eve - William Longstreet and His Steamboat - Population of Richmond County upon the Close of the Last Century - Sibbald's Description of Augusta in 1799 - Concluding Remarks '44

Chapter Xv

Original Plan of the City - The Old Town - Limits Enlarged in 1780 - Government by Commissioners - Augusta's Loyal Element - The Captured Cannon - Augusta the State Capital - Trustees of Augusta - Limits Enlarged in 1786 - Charter of 1789

Chapter Xvi

Augusta Incorporated - Charter of 1798 - Thomas Gumming, First Intendant - City Limits - Rise of the Cotton Interest - Whitney and His Gin - Price Current of 1 802

- Assize of Bread - The Steamboat of 1808 - Intendant Hutchinson - Intendants Walker and Jones - Governor Matthews - Beards President Adams - Intendant Leigh - Panic of 18 14 - Intendant Called Mayor - Mayor Freeman Walker Becomes United States Senator - Mayor Ware Becomes United States Senator - Mayors Reid and' Holt - La Fayette's Visit - Mayor Hale - Rise of the Railway System - Mayors Phinizy, Hook and Dye - The Algerine Law - Augusta Canal - Mexican War - Mayor Ford '6'

Chapter Xvii

Mayors Garvin, Miller and Dearing - Central Railroad Comes in - Mayor Conley - Mayor Blodgett - Augusta Water-works - The War Opens - Capture of Augusta Arsenal - Georgia's Wonderful Prosperity in i860 - First Regiment - Augusta's Volunteers - Her Dead - Confederate Monuments - Ladies' Memorial Association

- The Salt Famine - Speculation - Gun-powder Works - Fury and Suffering of the War - Confederate Money - Lee's Surrender - Riot of 1865 - Mayor May - Military Rule - Mayor Gardiner - Military Mayor - Reconstruction - Mayor Russell - Mayor Allen - Mayor Estes - Enlargement of the Canal - Mayor Meyer - Mayor May - Vast Extension of Corporate Limits - Freshet of 1888 - Exposition

Chapter Xviii

Bench and Bar - Judicial Establishment of Georgia under the Trustees - Judicature Court - The Rum Law - Law Against Fine Clothes - Free Labor Law - Tenure by Tail Mail - Surrender of the Charter - Judicial Establishment under the King's Colonial Government -The Royal Governor, the Chancellor -Court of Chancery Fee Bill - " Thirteen Chancellors " '92

Chapter Xix

Bench and Bar Continued - Common Law Courts - The Chief Justice of Georgia - Grover, Simpson and Stokes, Chief Justices - Commission - Fees - The General Court - Origin of Superior Court - Judges - Attorney-General - Provost-Marshal - Clerk of the Crown - Court of Ordinary - Court of Conscience - Justices of the Peace - Early J. P.'s in Augusta - Oyer and Terminer - Court of Admiralty - Appeals - Court of Errors - Writ of Error - Appeal lo the King - The Colonial Bar

Chapter Xx

- The Superior Court - Judiciary Act of 1778 - Reopening of the Courts in 1782 - Judiciary Act of 1789 - Two Circuits - Chief Justice Glen - Judge Few - Chief Justices Glen, Stephens and Wereat - Chief Justice George Walton - Chief Justice Osborne - Richmond Superior Court in 1787 - Benefit of Clergy - Branding and

Chapter Xxi

Bench and Bar Continued - Augusta's Early Bar - Abraham Baldwin - Governor John Milledge - Governor Telfair - William H. Crawford - Robert Watkins - T. P. and P. J. Carnes - Silken Robes - Robert Raymond Reid - Pathos and Humor - His Bar Dinner - Freeman Walker^ John P. King - Nicholas Ware - John Forsyth. . 224

Chapter Xxii

Bench and Bar Concluded - Eminent Lawyers of Augusta Continued - Richard Henry Wilde - " My Life is Like the Summer Rose" - George W. Crawford - Charles J. Jenkins - Ebenezer Starnes - Andrew J. Miller - William T. Gould - Henry H. Gumming - Governor William Schley - Judge John Shly - Judge Holt - Herschel V. Johnson - Court Roll of Judges from 1776 - Solicitors-General from 1796 - City Court of Augusta - Origin and History - Court Roll 237

Chapter Xxiii

The Medical Profession - Augusta Physicians of 1760-1785 - First Sanitation Act - Medical Association of 1808 - Medical Society of Augusta Incorporated in 1822 - Medical Academy of Georgia - Bachelor of Medicine Degree - State Board of Physicians - Medical Institute of Georgia - Doctor of Medicine Degree - The Medical College Organized - Roll of Graduates - Yellow Fever of 1839 - Celebrated Report Thereon - Non-contagiousness Demonstrated 251

Chapter Xxiv

The Medical Profession Concluded - The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1854 - Portability of Fever Germ - Dr. Campbell's Theory of Quarantine - Board of Health - The Sewer System - Decrease in Death Rate - Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Eminent Physicians - Milton Antony - Fendall - Cunningham - Watkins - Carter - Garvin - Newton - Dugas - Ford - Eve - Augusta's Present Faculty 262

Chapter Xxv

- A Tn-Weekly - Hobby (1824) - Pemberton (1825) - Jones (1837) - A Daily - Colonel James M. Smythe (1846) - Dr. Jones (1847J - Morse (1861) - General A. R. Wright and Hon. Patrick Walsh (i866j - H. Gregg Wright (1877) - James R. Randall (1883) - Pleasant A. Stovall (1887) - The Chronicle of 1790 - Its Appearance, News, Advertisements, Etc. - Chronicles Centennial - Honorable Record - The Augusta Herald - The Cotisiitiitionalist - Colonel Gardner - Southern Field and Fireside - State's Rights Sentinal - The Mirror - The Republic - The Evening News - The Progress - The Free Press - The Baiiner of the South - The Pacificator - The Souther 7i Medical and Surgical Joicrnal - Veteran Newspaper Attaches 278

Chapter Xxvl

Social, Secret, Literary and Benevolent Societies - The Drama - Commercial Club - St. Valentine Club - Scheutzen - Gun Club - Irish Organizations - Jockey Club - Tournaments - Bicycle Club - Athletic Association - Poultry and Pet Stock Associations - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - Origin and Good Work

Chapter Xxvii

- The Poor School - Early Appropriations - School Population - Academies and Schools of 1828 - Course of Instruction - The Educational Commission of 1836 - Common School System of 1837 - School Fund from 1823 to 1838 - Common School System Abolished in 1840 - Poor School Fund of 1843 --Large Increase of Fund in 1852 and 1858 - The Perfected Poor School System - Outbreak of War Prevents Fair Trial - The Academies - Their Number and Curious Names - "The Turn Out" - Codification of the Laws in i860 - Educational Benefactions in Augusta - Old Schools - The Houghton Institute - Augusta Free School - Richmond Academy - Educational Clauses in State Constitutions of 1861 and 1865 - Education During the War - Constitutional Provisions of 1868 - System of 1870 - The Richmond County System 301

Chapter Xxviii

Banks and Banking - Two Eras, 18 10 to 1865, and 1865 to Date - The Old Bank of Augusta - Its Incorporators - Voting on a Sliding Scale - Old Bank Rules - Death to Counterfeit its Notes - Germs of Bank Examinations - The Old Bank's Good Showings - A Surplus Fund a Novelty - Balance Sheet of 1835 - List of Stockholders - Other Old Banks - First Savings Bank in 1827 - Its Expenses $4.55 per

Annum - The Old Augusta Savings Institution - Augusta Insurance and Banking Company - Almost Ruined by the Fire of 1829 - President Bennoch's Tart Report to the Governor - Report of 1833 - List of Stockholders - Merchants' and Planters' Bank - Its Failure in 1833 - Legislative Report Thereon - The Mechanics' Bank

- Report of 1833 - List of Stockholders - The Union Bank - The City Bank - The Georgia Railroad Given Banking Franchise - Its Capital Stock and Dividends from 1836 to 1847 - Its Banking Business from 1847 ta 1864 - Discounts, Deposits and Circulation for. Same Period - Early Banking - Banking at Will - Prohibition of Change Bills - Suppression of Private Banks - Severe Penalties - No Notes under Five Dollars - Forfeiture of Charter on Suspension of Specie Payments - Free Banking Law of 1838 - Analagous to National Bank Act - Land and Negroes a Basis of Issue - Panic of (837 - Panic of 1857 - "The War of the Banks" - Banking Capital in 1835, in 1838, in i860 - Dividends, 1829 to 1838 - Great Prosperity Just Before the War - Increase of $133,000,000 in Two Years - Wealth of Richmond County in i860 - Outside of Slaves $20,000,000 - War Bonds, Specie Suspension - The Banks Exhaust Themselves Helping the Confederacy - Banking During the War - Demise of the Old Banks - Banks Since the War - National Bank - National Exchange Bank - The State Banks - Renewal of Banking Franchise to the Georgia Railroad - Dividends from 1836 to 1861, under First Franchise

- Dividends, 1861 to 1881 - The Commercial Bank - The Augusta Savings Institution - Planters' Loan and Savings Bank - Banks Chartered Since the War, but not Organized - City Loan Association and Savings Bank - Mechanics' Savings Bank - City Loan and Savings Bank - Manufacturers' Bank - Citizens' Bank - City Bank - Savings Bank of Augusta - Name Changed to Bank of Augusta -

Chapter Xxix

Churches - -Early Religious Discrimination in Georgia - Establishment of Religious Freedom - The Colony Divided into Parishes - Church of England Established - Parish of St. Paul - Augusta's First Clergyman - Rectors of St. Paul's Church - Worshipers Required to Carry Fire-arms to Church - St. Paul's Burned in the Revolution - A New Church Built - The Protestant Episcopal Society Incorporated - St. Paul's Rebuilt - St. Paul's Ancient Tombs - Church of the Atonement - The Presbyterian Churches - History of the First Presbyterian Church - Originally Called Christ Church - Incorporated in 1808 - List of Pastors - The Telfair Building - A Model Sunday School- - Changes in Charter - The Pew Law - Who is a Worshiper - Baptist Churches - The Old Kioka Church - Daniel Marshall's Grave

- First Baptist Church Incorporated in 1809 - Reincorporated in 1817 - Building Completed in 1819 - List of Pastors - Second Baptist Church Incorporated in i860

- The Baptist Convention - Methodist Church - Early Difficulties - "The Weeping Prophet " - St. John's Established in iSoi - Rev. John Garvin, its First Pastor - His Distinguished Successors - St. James' Built in 1855 - Other Methodist Churches

- Early Catholics - Catholic Society Incorporated in 1811 - The First Church - Diocese of Georgia Created in 1850 - List of Bishops - St. Mary's Convent Established in 1833 - Consecration of St. Patrick's Chnrch in 1862 - Father Duggan and Other Pastors - Sacred Heart Church Built in 1874 - Sacred Heart Academy in 1876

- The Franciscan Sisters - The Christian Church - The Lutheran Church - The Synagogue - The Unitarian Society - Colored Churches - Quaint Observances - Young Men's Christian Association - Ministerial Association - Liberal Religious Sentiment 367

Chapter Xxx

Manufactures - Eli Whitney and His Cotton Gin - Cotton Forthwith Becomes a Staple The Inventor's Troubles - Law Suits. Infringements and Hostile Legislation - Protest Against Extension of the Patent - Whitney's Later Invention - His Death in 1825 - Rapid Increase in Cotton Exports - Price Current in 1802 - The Embargo Blunder - British Cotton - Heavy Customs Duties - Georgia Long Staple - Total Cotton Export in 1810 - A Cotton Factory Chartered in 1798 - Europe and the North Manufacture, while the South only Produces - Deterrent Causes - Another Factory Chartered in 1810 - The Pioneer Southern Mill - Judge Shly's Factory - "The Live Spindle " - Bagging and Yarn the First Products - " The Dead Spindle"

- Osnaburgs - The Mill Removed to Richmond County and Named Bellville - "Georgia Plains " - Checks and Denims Made-- Bellville Factory Twice Burned - Impetus's Given Southern Manufactures - Richmond Factory - Profuse and Omnipresent Water Power of Richmond County --Early Factories, Mills and Gms - McBean Factory - The Georgia Silk Manufacturing Company - The Augusta Sugar Manufacturing Company -The Savannah River Utilized- Augusta Canal Projected

- Early History of this Great Work - The Original Ordinance - The Origmal Route Named -Ratifying Act of the Legislature - How the Money was Raised - The Engineer's Report- Anti-Canal Litigation - The Canal Wins - The Enlargement in 1872-5- Dimensions and Cost - Relative Cotton Manufacturing Advantages of North and South - Expert Testimony -The Augusta Manufacturmg Company-The McBean Factory Charter -The Augusta Factory -Its Phenomenal Success- The Enterprise Factory - The Sibley Manufacturing Company - The John P King Manufacturing Company -The Riverside Mills -The Warwick Mills The Algernon Mills -The Globe Mills - Work of the Augusta Factory from 1873 to 1878 - The Adjacent South Carolina Mills at Graniteville and Vancluse - The Southern and Western Manufacturers Association - The Lock Out of 1886- Other Manufacturing Interests- Georgia Chemical Works -The Guano Interests -The Augusta Ice Company of 1832-The Jackson Street Ice Company of 1837-The Ice Factory of 1864-The Augusta Ice Company-The Polar Ice Company -The Augusta Machine Works -Pendleton Machine Works- Augusta Flounng Mills - Excelsior Flouring Mills -The Lumber Interest -Brick Yards - Augusta as a Cotton Town -The Best Inland Center in the United States -Cotton Futures.. . . 3«7

Chapter Xxxi

Transportation -Early Epoch -Pack Animals- Peltry Trade- Indigo -Tobacco- Inspection System -Tobacco Gives Way to Cotton -Wagon Trade-" The Georgie Cracker "-Chief Justice Stokes's Account- Wagon Yards -The River Trade- Hammond's Sketch of the Savannah -Neglect of this Great Waterway - Disputes as to Boundary -South Carolina vs. Georgia in the Continental Congress- A Federal Court Ordered -Convention of Beaufort -First Improvement Act m 1786- The Savannah Navigation Company Incorporated in 1799 -Concert with South Carolina Solicited -Navigation Act of 1802, 1809 and 1812 - Another Appeal for South Carolina Co-operation -River Commissioners- Appropriation oi $30,000 m 1818 -The River Improved -South Carolina Co-operation - The Convention of 182V2; -Congressional Assent not Obtained - Co-operation Fails -Operations from 1815 to ,826.-South Carolina Prefers to Relv on Railroad Transportation-

Collapse of the Inter-State Convention - Fisheries Acts - Sketch of South Carolina Legislation on Savannah River - Federal Appropriation from 1826 to 1838 - The Anti-Internal Improvement School of Politics - The Savannah Valley Convention - Its History, Personnel and Action - The Augusta Chronicle Suggests such a Convention - Memorial to Congress - Hammond's Topographical Sketch - A Trip Down the River - Picturesque Scenes - Danger Points on the River - Regulations of the Pole Boat Trade - The Steamboat - William Longstreet, its Inventor - The First Crude Model - Steamboat Act of 1814 - The Steamboat Company of Georgia Chartered in 181 7 - History of the Company - Complaint of its Monopoly - South Carolina Competition - Legislative Investigation and Report - Hamburg vs. Augusta - The Steamboat Company Given Canal and Railroad Franchises in 1833 - Charter Extended in 1834 - The Iron Steamboat Company - The Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company - Union Steamboat Company - Augusta, Petersburg and Savannah Steam and Pole Boat Navigation Company - Augusta Steamboat Company of 1887 - Phases of Steamboat Navigation Development - Roll Call of Steamboats for Seventy Years - List of Casualities - Burnt, Blown Up and Sunk. . 436

BEFORE entering upon our contemplated sketch of the .settlement and early history of Augusta, a brief account of the physical and social characteristics, the customs, manufactures, monuments and occupations of the Indians resident in this region at the time of the advent of the European, may be deemed neither inappropriate nor uninteresting.

When Oglethorpe planted the colony of Georgia at Yamacraw Bluff, he was welcomed by a small tribe of Indians, who had there fixed their homes, led by a venerable and noted chief, Tomo-chi-chi by name. The ceded lands lying between the Savannah and the Alatamaha Rivers and extending from their head waters indefinitely toward the west, were then occupied by an Aboriginal population the principal settlements of which were established in the vicinity of rivers, in rich valleys, and upon the sea islands. The middle and lower portions of this and the adjacent territory were claimed and occupied by the Muskhogees or Creeks, consisting of many tribes, and associated together in a strong confederacy. The lands possessed by the Muskhogees comprehended the seats of the Seminoles in Florida, and were bounded on the west by Mobile River and by the ridge which separates the waters of the Tombigbee from those of the Alabama, on the north by the Cherokee country, on the north and east by the Savannah River, and otherwise by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The Hitchittees, residing on the Flint and Cliattahoochee Rivers, althouL^h originally a distinct people, spoke the Muskhogee dialect and formed a component tribe of the Creek confederation. The Seminoles or Isty Seminoles (wild men) were pure Muskhogees, and received that name because they subsisted chiefly by hunting and were little giv^en to agricultural pursuits. They inhabited the peninsula of Florida. Both the. Muskhogees and the Hitchittees claimed to be autochthonous; the former asserting that their nation, in the beginning, issued out of a cave near the Alabama River, and the latter boasting that their ancestors had fallen from the sky. The Uchees and the Natchez yielded obedience to the Muskhogee confederacy. Of the former, the original seats are supposed to have been east of the Coosa. They declared themselves to be the most ancient inhabitants of the territory ; and it has been suggested that they were the people called Appalaches by the historians of De Soto's expedition. Early in the eighteenth century they dwelt upon the western bank of the Savannah River; and, as late as 1736, possessed the country above and below the town of Augusta. The name of a creek in Columbia county perpetuates their memory to the present day, and reminds us of their former occupancy of this region. Forsaking their old habitat on the left bank of the Mississippi, and journeying eastward, the Natchez associated themselves with the Creeks not many years prior to the advent of Oglethorpe. The division into Upper, Middle, and Lower Creeks was wholly artificial, and was adopted by the English for geographical purposes. Cussetah, Cowetah, Tukawbatchie and Oscoochee may be mentioned among the principal towns of the Creeks. The Muskhogee, the Hitchittee, the Uchee, the Natchez, and the Alibamon or Coosada, were the languages generally spoken by the various tribes composing the Creek confederacy. Besides the nations we have enumerated as yielding obedience to. and forming part of the Muskhogee confederation, remnants of the Cawittas, Talepoosas, Coosas, Apalachias, Conshacs or Coosades, Oakmulgis, Oconis, Okchoys, Kiokees, Alibamons, Weetumkas, Pakanas, Taensas, Chachsihoomas and Abekas should not be forgotten.

North of Muskhogees dwelt the Cherokees, a brave and comely race. They inhabited thp hilly and mountainous parts of the country, and exercised dominion even beyond the Tennessee River where they were confronted by the Shawnees. The entire region permeated by the sources of the Coosa, the Chattahooche, the Savannah, the Santee and the Yadkin, was held by them. Between the Cherokees and the Muskhogees the division line followed Broad River, and, generally, the thirt}'- fourth parallel of north latitude.

Of the number of red men dwelling, at the date of English colonization, within the geographical limits accorded to the modern State of Georgia, we may not speak with certainty. No census was 'taken, and all estimates then formed were mere approximations. We question whether the total population e.xceeded fifty thousand. These Southern tribes, at the period of our first acquaintance with them, were well organized, occupied permanent homes, and were large y engaged in the cultivation of maize, beans, pumpkins, melons, and fruits of several sorts. Of native nuts they were fond. From them was extracted an oil, "clear as butter, and of a good taste," says the gentleman of Elvas. V^'ith the bow and arrow, the blowgun. the spear, and the club, were wild animals and birds killed for food. Fishes were captured with nets 'and harpoons, in wears, and by other ingenuous mechanical contrivances.

Their plantations were located in rich valleys where a generous soil yielded, with least labor, the most remunerative harvest - upon islands and headlands, and in the vicinity of streams where the products of the fields were readily supplemented by the fishes of neighboring waters and the game of adjacent forests. The grooved stone ax was employed in girdling trees. The circulation being thus interrupted, the trees perished, and were then either consumed by fire, or suffered to fall down and rot piecemeal.

While to tribes, nations, and confederacies were accorded recognized territorial limits, and while in such public domain, with its rivers, lakes and woods, each member exercised equal rights for the purposes of travel, hunting and fishing, a special or temporary ownership was admitted in lands cleared and cultivated by individual labor. If at first denuded of its forest by the united efforts of the villagers, the town plantation was subsequently parceled out among the adult inhabitants, who were thereafter entitled to reap the fruits of their personal industry. Each year, at an appointed season, under the superintendence of overseers, the inhabitants of the village prepared the ground and sowed the seed. Upon the ingathering of the harvest, each Indian deposited in his crib the yield of his particular lot; contributing, however, a certain portion to the public granary, or King's storehouse. These public granaries served also as depositories for dried fishes, alligators, dogs, deer, bear and other jerked meats. From them were the chiefs supplied, and their contents were utilized in entertainment of strangers, for the relief of members of the community who might be overtaken by want, and in furnishing rations to warriors when setting out upon an expedition.

Besides his lot in the general plantation, each villager cultivated a garden spot near his habitation, where maize, melons, beans and other vegetables were produced. Various were the ceremonies and festivals observed by these primitive peoples when planting and harvesting the maize, and very general was its adoption as an article of food. Perhaps nothing tended more surely to develop and consolidate the Southern tribes, and to render permanent their habitations, than the extensive cultivation of this important American plant.

Their towns were usually small, and circular in outline. Not infrequently they were defended by stockades, enclosing spaces varying from two to fifty acres. The central position in the village was occupied by the dwelling of the mico, chief, or king. Around it. in the order of rank, were congregated the houses of the head men. The cabins of the common people were ciicuh^r or parallelogrammic in plan. Their walls were made of upright poles, and their roofs were covered with swamp-cane, palmetto leaves, moss, or earth. Each village had its council-house where public deliberations were held. Some times, as at Talomcco, there was a mausoleum wherein were preserved the skeletons of distinguished kings and priests. Occasionally, too, was erected an armory for the conservation of weapons and treasures. If located at a remove from river, lake, or natural spring, an artificial pond was excavated to furnish the town with the requisite supply of fresh water.

Ephemeral in their character, these primitive structures were liable to early decay, and had to be constantly renewed. At certain seasons these villages were almost deserted of their inhabitants, who repaired in large numbers to favorite streams and to the coast to fish and hunt.

At the period of our earliest acquaintance w'ith' them, these people were dix'idcd into fomilics, tribes, and confederacies. Over the confederacy or nation ruled a king, counseled and supported by chiefs of component tribes. The office was elective, and the advancement to the highest gratle was usually accorded to him most worthy of the responsible position. As chief magistrate, he presided over the grand council, commanded the entire labor and obedience of his subjects, directed public afitairs both civil and military, and, with powers well nigh despotic, exercised the functions of king, judge, adviser, master, and leader. To subordinate chiefs was conceded rank according to their age, wisdom, valor, and the strength of their following. Head warriors, high priests, and conjurers were important personages in this primitive society. The latter often united the callings of priest, physician, and fortune teller. Presumed to be in constant coniniunication with spirits both good and evil, addicted to numerous and extraxagant incantations, possessing charms mysterious, and to the common mind inexplicable, indulging in prolonged and violent contortions while practicing tlieir deceptions, exhibiting no inconsiderable knowledge of simples, philters antl medicinal herbs, administering fumigations, inhalations, baths, blood-lettings, scarifications, local applications and emetics, these medicine men imposed largeh' upon the credulitx- of the community, and exacted liberal rewards from tlieir patients, who, in pain and superstition, regarded the ravings of these quacks as the utterances of a divine tongue, beheld the behavior of these cunning impostors with awe, and submitted without hesitation to the remedies they prescribed. Beyond doubt, however, these medicine men excelled in the treatment of many distempers, and remarkable were the cures which they effected.

Both the Muskhogees and the Cherokees were, at the time of our first acquaintance with them, and had been for a long time, engaged in the erection of tumuli of earth, stone, and shells. Some of no mean dimensions were constructed within the historic period, while most of them have withstood the dis- integrating influences of many centuries. Animal, bird-shaped, and emblematic structures are rarely seen. Space does not permit us to attempt a classification or description of these prominent indications of early occupancy and primitive labor, and yet we cannot refrain from alluding to the existence of truncated pyramids, constructed of earth, rising from ten to seventy- five feet above the level of the valleys and plains upon which they are located, constituting elevations for temples for sun worship, and at other times foundations for the residences of kings, chiefs, and priests ; of conical mounds truncated, and placed upon commanding bluffs and hilltops, which served as signal stations in this densely wooded region; fires kindled upon their summits with their glare by night and their smoke by day giving tokens which, repeated from kindred mounds along the reaches of rivers or on answering eminences, within a period much shorter than that allotted to the swiftest runner, warned tribe and nation of impending danger ; of artificial elevations, springing from the depths of extensive swamps liable to inundation, which served either as retreats during seasons of sudden overflow, or as foundations for the dwellings of those who there hunted and fished ; of grave-mounds, sometimes containing a single skeleton and denoting the last resting place of king or priest, and at other times covering the many dead of family or tribe ; and of stone-piles designating the spots where warriors of note had fallen in battle.

Cremation and urn- burial in some localities were in vogue. Were we not precluded by the general character of this sketch, it would be interesting to note the funeral customs observed by these Georgia tribes, and to describe the -various modes of sepulture adopted by them. Nor are we now permitted, in enumerating the proofs of early possession and combined labor, to do more than refer to the presence of circumvallations of earth and stone by which hilltops and eminences were fortified ; to the existence of embankments of earth and ditches isolating considerable areas and protecting villages, temple-mounds and playgrounds; to the traces of fish-preserves, of chunky-yards, of pottery kilns, of pits whence clay was dug for the manufacture of fictile ware, of excavations where pot-stone was quarried, and of open air workshops. Among these indicia of primitive occupancy may also be mentioned extensive refuse piles and shell-heaps composed of marine, fluviatile, and lacustrine shells, upon the animals of which the natives fed, and from which they extracted pearls in large quantities.

Aside from the profuse and fanciful ornamentation of their bodies with pigments of red, white, blue, yellow, and black, these Indians displaj^ed no inconsiderable taste in depicting signs, marks, images, and symbols on prepared skins, and on wood, bone and stone. The smooth bark of a growing tree, or the face of a rock was incised in commemoration of some feat of arms, in explanation of the strength or direction of a military expedition, or in solemnization of a treaty of peace. Upon precipitous slopes, and at points al- most inaccessible have been noted carved and colored representations of the sun, accompanied by rude characters the significance of which is in the main unintelligible to the modern observer. Roughly cut intaglios in imitation of the human form, of the hands and feet of men, of the tracks of buffalo, deer, and other animals, of bows and arrows, canoes, circles, and other devices are still e.Ktant. Ignorant of alphabet, phonetic sign, or digit, these people by means of this primitive system of picture writing and intaglios sought to perpetuate the recollection of prominent events, and, by such visible shapes, to communicate intelligence. This effort was supplemented by the use of wampum. Their boldest attempts at sculpture are represented by stone images which encourage the impression that while they acknowledged the existence of a Great Spirit, venerated the sun as the source of life and heat and light, and entertained some notions of a future state, ihese Indians were -iven to something nearly akin to idol or hero worship.

Ignorant of the use of iron and bronze, and treating it as a malleable stone the Southern Indians hammered copper into various forms of utility and ornament. Among these may be enumerated ceremonial axes, gouges, chisels, knives, spearheads, ;irrovv- points, wristbands, armlets, anklets, gorgets, spangles, beads, pendants, rods, and spindles for perforating pearls.

Famous were the arrowmakers of this region. Party-colored jaspers, smoky, milky, and sweet water quartz, crystal, chalcedony, and varieties of flint and chert were the favorite materials from which spearpoints and arrowheads were chipped. Every known variety here finds expression, and specimens of unusual beauty and symmetry abound. Their bows were as thick as a man's arm, eleven or twelve spans in length, of a single curve, and were capable of projecting arrows a long distance and with remarkable power. Bowstrings were made of stag's gut. or of deer-skin thongs, well twisted. A supply of arrows was carried in a fawn-skin quiver whi(ili depended from the right hip. The light, tough river cane formed the customary arrow shaft, and to it the stone, bone, or wooden tip was fastened by means of moistened sinews, a glue made of the velvet horns of the deer, and a resinous preparation. With such artillery did these people wage wars and provide themselves with buffalo, deer, wild turkeys, game of various sorts, and large fishes.

Of grooved axes, celts, perforated hatchets, and ceremonial axes, the varieties were abundant and the manufacture was most admirable. Stone hoes, adzes, picks, scrapers, gouges, awls, knives, cutting implements, saws, leaf-shaped implements, smoothing and crushing stones, hammer stones, spades, mortars, pestles, nut stones, and various objects of bone, shell and stone declare the occupation, industries and mechanical labors of these nations. Discoidal stones still remind us of the famous Chungke game, and many forms of pipes revive the memories of the native tobacco plant, and of the esteem in which it was held by the natives.

To the pottery of this region the knight of Elvas paid high compliment when he described it as " Httle dififering from that of Estremoz or Montemor." Although unacquainted with the use of the potter's wheel, these savages excelled in the ceramic art, bestowing special care upon the selection of their clays and their admixture with powdered shells, gravel, and pulverized mica, and upon the forms and the ornamentation of their vessels. Surviving the changes of more than a century and a half, and affording glimpses of ancient tastes and customs, these fictile articles are among the most interesting remains which have come down to us.

Pearls and shell ornaments were extensively worn by the members of the Georgia tribes, both male and female. The oysters of the Gulf of Mexico and the pearl-bearing unios of the Southern rivers and lakes supplied, in great abundance, these coveted ornaments. Through the intervention of primitive merchants, and by means of extensive trade relations, they were carried far into the interior. He who traded in them was welcomed everywhere. From marine, fluviatile, and lacustrine shells were manufactured beads, gorgets, pen^ dants. arm-guards, masks, pins, drinking cups, spoons and money. Margaritiferous shells were diligently collected. They were opened by fire. The animals they contained were eaten, and the pearls found within them were perforated and worn as beads about the neck, wrists, waist, and ankles.

Tall, erect, copper- colored, with long, straight, black hair, with prominent noses and cheek bones, with regular features, arched brows, and eyes rather small but active and full of fire ; usually grave in deportment, reserved in conversation, tenacious of natural rights, hospitable to strangers, kind to members of their own tribe, honest, haughty and cruel to an enemy, crafty, valiant, capable of great endurance, indifferent to pain, and often engaged in war, expert in hunting and fishing, fond of music and dancing, observant of festivals, nimble of foot, skilled in the use of the bow and arrow, the club, the stone ax, the cane harpoon and the blowgun ; patient of fatigue and hunger, yet given to idleness and frequent meals; addicted to smoking; acknowledging the existence of a Supreme Being ; adoring the sun as the symbol of life and heat ; entertaining some notions of an existence beyond the grave, plagued with visions, dreams, trances, and the influences of malign and lesser divinities - worshiping the devil and offering human sacrifices in propitiation of the spirit of evil - indulging to some extent in image worship, and perpetuating the memory of their distinguished dead by mounds and figures of wood and stone - excelling in the manufacture of fictile ware, boats of single trees, shawls, coverings, mantles beautifully woven and adorned with feathers, articles of dress made of the skins of buft'alo, bear and deer, carefully prepared, dyed and colored - fishing lines and nets of the inner bark of trees, mats and baskets of split cane, reeds and rushes, and laboriously constructed wears for the capture of fishes - extensively engaged in the fabrication, use and interchange of various articles and implements of wood, bone, shell, copper and stone ; frequently monogamous - the contubernal relationship being dissoluble at the will of the male - the chiefs and principal men claiming and appropriating as many wives as fancy and station dictated; ornament-loving, jealous of their possessions; given to agriculture; obedient to kings ; thus runs a general description of these primitive inhabitants prior to the advent of the Europeans. Certain it is that the inroads of these foreigners violently shocked this aboriginal population, imparting new ideas, introducing contagions formerly unknown, interrupting customs long established, overturning acknowledged forms of government, impoverishing whole districts, engendering a sense of insecurity until that time nnfelt, instigating intertribal wars, causing marked changes, and entailing losses and demoralizations far more potent than we are inclined, at first thought, to imagine. The operation of that inexorable law which subordinates the feebler to the will of the stronger has compassed the utter expatriation of the red race from the limits of Georgia. Nevertheless, Indian memories linger among our hills, cling to our mountains, and are intimately associated with our noblest rivers. Tumuli still dot our valleys, and the plowshare upturns physical tokens of a former and an almost forgotten occupancy.

AS early as 17 16 Savannah Town, subsequently better known as Fort Moore, was located on the left bank of the Savannah River, only a few miles below the site at present occupied by the village of Hamburg. Its establishment and maintenance were favored by the Carolina authorities in order that a profitable trade with the Creeks and Cherokees might be facilitated.' To this point goods were transported from Charles Town, both by land and water. The first agent in charge of the storehouse erected at this place was Captain Theophilus Hastings. He was assisted by John Sharp and Samuel Muckleroy. This settlement derived its name from the Sawannos, or Savannahs, a native tribe dwelling upon its banks and giving name to the river which flowed by.

So rapidly did the traffic with the Aborigines increase, that before the close of the year'^Hastings applied for three additional assistants to aid him in its conduct. At Savannah Town a laced hat then readily commanded eight buckskins; a calico petticoat could not be purchased for less than twelve ; and so great was the demand for salt, gunpowder, lead, kettles, rum, lookingglasses, ornaments, and other articles of European manufacture, that the traders were allowed by the commissioners to exact as much as the natives could be persuaded to give in exchange for them.

Upon the settlement of Augusta and the opening of storehouses at that place, Savannah Town lost ground as a trading post and eventually fell into decay. Fort Moore, however, built of six-inch plank nailed to posts of light- Avood, with four towers at the angles on which small field- pieces were mounted, with curtains loopholed for small arms, and with wooden barracks capable of accommodating a garrison of one hundred men, was, for many years afterwards, preserved as a military establishment.

Having confirmed the settlements at Savannah, Darien, and Frederica, Avith a view to extending the limits of the colonization to the northward, and with the intention of influencing in behalf of the Province of Georgia the extensive Indian trade which had been monopolized by South Carolina, Mr. Oglethorpe, toward the close of 1735, ordered that a town should be marked out on the right bank of the Savannah River at the head of navigation and just below the falls. In honor of a royal princess he called it Augusta; and, during the following year, gave instructions for its population and defense. Warehouses were constructed, and these were supplied with such goods as the natives coveted. Regulations were promulgated and enforced looking to fair -dealing between seller and purchaser. It was the purpose of the founder of the colony of Georgia, in all his dealings with the savages, to do equity, and to permit no commercial intercourse save by licensed traders who were held to strict accountability. The Indians soon perceived the advantages accorded to them by the Georgia agents, and quickly transferred to Augusta the traffic which hitherto had been conducted at Savannah Town.

At the outset the only communication with the town was by means of the Savannah River, which was utilized alike by traders ascending in boats from Charles Tow^n and Savannah, and by Indians traversing the upper portions of the stream in canoes. Soon, however, a road was opened between Augusta and Savannah, by way of Ebenezer, which materially contributed to the convenience of the dwellers in those, at that time, distant localities.

The earliest account we have of Augusta is contained in " A State of the Province of Georgia, attested upon oath in the court of Savannah, November 10, 1740." 1 It runs as follows : "Seven miles above New Windsor, on the Georgia side, lies the town of Augusta, just below the Falls ; this was laid out by the Trustees' Orders, in the Year 1735. which has thriven prodigiously; there are several Warehouses thoroughly well furnished with Goods for the Indiaji Trade, and five large Boats belonging to the different Inhabitants of the Town, which can carry about nine or ten thousand Weight of Deer- Skins each, making four or five Voyages at least in a Year to CJiatles-Toivn for exporting to England ; and the Value of each Cargo is computed to be from \2 to 1, 500 i," Sterling. Hither all the English Traders, with their Servants, resort in the Spring; and 'tis computed above two thousand Horses come hither at that Season; and the Traders, Pack- horsemen. Servants, Townsmen, and others depending upon that Business, are moderately computed to be six hundred white Men who live b\- their Trade, carrying upon Pack-horses all kinds of proper EnglisJi Goods; for which the Indians pay in Deer-Skins, Bever, and other Furs ; each Indian Hunter is reckoned to get three hundred Weight of Deer-Skins in a Year. This is a very advantageous Trade to England, since it is mostly paid for in Woollen and Iron.

" Above this Town to the North West and on the Georgia Side of the River, the C/ierokecs live in the Valley of the Applachin Mountains; they were about five thousand Warriors ; but last year it is computed they lost a thousand, partly by the Small-Pox, and partly (as they themselves say) by too much Rum brought from Carolina. The French are striving to get this Nation from us ; which, if they do, Carolina must be supported by a vast Number of Troops, or lost : But as long as we keep the Town of Angnsta, our Party in the Cherokees can be so easily furnished with Arms, Ammunition and Necessaries, that the Fteneh will not be able to gain any Ground there.

"The Creek Indians hve to the Westward of the Town. Their chief Town is the Coivetas, two hundred Miles from Augusla, and one hundred and twenty Miles from the nearest French Fort. The Loiver Creeks consist of about a thousand, and the Upper Creeks of about seven hundred Warriors, upon the Edge of whose Country the French Fort oi Albamahs lies : They are esteemed to be sincerely attached to his Majesty's interest.

" Beyond the Creeks lie the brave Chickesas, who inhabit near the Jlissisipi River, and possess the Banks of it ; these have resisted both the Bribes and Arms of the French, and Traders sent by us live amongst them.

"At Augusta there is a handsome Fort, where there is a small garrison of about twelve or fifteen Men, besides Officers ; and one Reason that drew the Traders to settle the Town of Augusta was the Safety they received from this Fort which stands upon high Ground^ on the side of the River Savannah, which is there one hundred and forty Yards wide, and very deep ; another Reason was the Richness and Fertility of the Land. The great Value of this Town of Augusta occasioned the General to have a Path marked out, through the Woods, from thence to Old Ebenezer ; and the Cherokee Indians have marked out one from thence to their Nation, so that Horsemen can now ride from the Town of Savannah to the Nation of Cherokees and any other of the Indian Nations all on the Georgia Side of the River ; but there are some bad places which ought to be causewayed and made good, and which the General says he has not yet Capacity to do. This Road begins to be frequented, and will every day be more and more so, and by it the Cherokee Indians can at any time come down to our Assistance."

From another contemporaneous account we learn that in 1739 above six thousand bushels of Indian corn, and a considerable quantity of wheat, were harvested by the citizens of Augusta for home consumption ; and that during the same year " about one hundred thousand Weight of Skins was brought thence. "1

The two tracts from which we have quoted, pubHshed under the sanction of the trustees and designed to convey a most favorable impression of the progress of the colony of Georgia, evoked counter statements from the disaffected. In one'-^ of these we find the following statements and affidavits relating to the then condition of Augusta.

^ A Brief Account of the Causes that have retarded the Progress of the Colony of Georgia an America, <S^»t^, Q^c, pp. 37 to 41. London, MDCCXLlll.

" The Day above written Jo Jin Gardner of Augusta, Indian Trader, personally came and appeared before me, John Fallowfield, one of the Bailiffs of the Town of Savannah, and made oath that the said several Accounts of Traders^ Horses, and Men employed in the Creek and Chickasaiv Nations : and alsothe List of the white Persons, Men, Women, and Children now living in the Township oi Aiignsta are, to the best of the said Deponent's Knowledge, /«.?/' and true ; and that the Persons residing in, and belonging to, the Fort of Augusta are not contained in the said Lists above, and on the other Side of this- Paper Written. John Gardner,

" The Deposition of Kennedy O'Brien, of Atigusta, in the Colony of Georgia, Merchant, one of the first Inhabitants of the said Township and a constant Resident therein ever since the first Settlement thereof, who, being dulysworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, saith : That, whereas, he hath been informed that a Representation hath lately been made and transmitted to the Honourable the Trustees for establishing the said Colony oi Georgia, setting forth the flourishing State and Condition of the said Colony iageneral, and of the said Township oi Augusta in particular, and the said deponent being willing to undeceive any or all who may be thereby induced to give credit to the said Representation, doth voluntarily, and of his own accord,, declare and maintain the following Truths to be strictly just.

" I : That there are not more t}i\zxv forty White Men, Inhabitants and Residents of the said Township of Augusta, save only the Soldiers in Garrison' there, which are about fifteen or twenty more.

" 2 : That all, or most of the Corti that hath been 7nade and raised there,, hath been wrought and matiufactured by Negroes belonging to the said Inhabitants, and those opposite to them on the North Side of the River in South Carolina.

" 4: That there are not more thdin five hundred Horses employed in the Indian Trade, that resort to Augusta, altho' it is esteemed the Key to the Creek,.

the Chickasaw, and the Cherokee Nations, and that the most of those Horses^ and Persons employed about them and interested and concerned in them, do as often go to New Windsor, in South Carolina to trade, as to Angiista.

" 5 : That there are now in Augusta but three trading Houses, and those ia a State of Decay and languishing Condition ; and that through the ill Regulation of the Indian Trade

" And this Deponent further saith that no Ojl, Wine, nor Olives, hath ever been produced at Augusta, or hath ever been attempted to be raised or cultivated there to the best of this Deponent's Knowledge. And further this Deponent saith not. KENNEDY O'Brien.

Deeming it very important to obtain the consent of the natives to the settlement of Europeans within the territory claimed by them, and regarding the good will of the Indians as essential to the secure and peaceable residence of the colonists, Mr. Oglethorpe directed his earliest attention to making treaties of alliance with the red men. That these treaties should include agreements for mutual intercourse and trade seemed not only prudent, but indispensable, particularly as Tomo-chi-chi, and the micos of the Creeks who accompanied him to England, had requested that stipulations should be entered mto regardingthe quantity, quality, and prices of goods, and the accuracy of the weights and measures used in determining the value of the articles offered in exchange for buffalo hides, deer-skins, peltry, etc. The trustees therefore established certain regulations designed to prevent in future the impositions of which the Indians complained. To carry these into effect it was thought proper that none should be permitted to trade with the Indians except such as should apply for and receive special, license, and agree to conduct the traffic according to prescribed rules, and upon fair and equitable principles. It was, doubtless, of these regulations, intended to protect the natives, that the affiant, O'Brien, complained, when he alluded to the " ill regulation of the Indian trade." The introduction of rum and the employment of slave labor within the confines of Georgia were then strictly forbidden.

While the accounts furnished by the trustees, and those submitted by certain of the colonists who were not in accord with their purposes in the administration of the important trust, touching the early prosperity of Augusta, are not harmonious, it may not be questioned that this town, as a trading post, rapidly assumed an importance far beyond that which could be fairly claimed by any other settlement within the confines of the province. Multitudes of Indians flocked hither at certain seasons of the year. Hence the traders de-

' Compare " A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America," etc. by Tailfer, Anderson. Douglas and Others, pp. 113, 114. Charles-Town, South Carolina, MDCCXLI.

parted to exchange their goods for the peltry of the natives dweUing far in the interior, and here were deposited both the merchandise intended for barter and the skins obtained in traffic. Boats were constantly ascending and descending the Savannah River. It was a busy scene in the midst of wild woods, this constant arrival and departure of a picturesque trading population, this recurring receipt and shipment of goods, this ceaseless exchange of commodities. So advantageous was its situation that Augusta was, for many years, reckoned the most important mart for Indian traffic within the limits both of Georgia and of South Carolina.

O'Brien began the settlement of the town largely at his individual charge, and by him was the first commodious storehouse there erected. As a reward for his energy and enterprise, General Oglethorpe, on the 8th of March, 1739, recommended the trustees to grant " him and the heirs male of his body " five hundred acres of land. Roger de Lacey, a noted Indian trader, was another prominent pioneer who materially assisted in the development of the little town. At an early period of its existence, a detachment of ten men, under the of Captain Kent, was sent up and supported by the trust for the pro- ^ tection of the inhabitants of Augusta. A small fort, with wooden walls, musket proof, and arm'ed with a few small iron field pieces, was erected upon the river bank where St. Paul's Church now stands. Within were quarters for the garrison, and the structure was mainly intended as a place of retreat in seasons of danger. The dwellings of the early inhabitants were limited in their capacity, and builded of wood. They were distributed along the river front. The land stretching away to the south was marish, covered by a dense growth of forest trees, and permeated here and there by sluggish lagoons. The Savannah River was then limpid, and abounded in animal life. The woods were filled with deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, ducks, woodcock and rabbits ; while, at certain seasons and at no great remove, herds of buffalo roamed through the interior. The soil was fertile to the last degree, and agri- -culture was not long neglected. Contrary to the wish and the injunction of the trustees, negro slaves were hired from their Carolina owners and employed in lands and in cultivating the cereals, among which Indian corn pre- Trade, however, engrossed the general attention, and complaint was made of the sharp practice of some of the settlers who, in their anxiety to drive the earliest bargains with both incoming natives and returning packhorsemen, removed from the village, and, recking neither the isolation nor the of their exposed situations, located their dwellings and little storehouses along the paths leading into the Indian country. Of schools and schoolmasters, of churches and parsons, of doctors and lawyers, there were none. The wants of these early inhabitants were few, and of intellectual life, for more than a decade, there seems to have been little. The business of the inhabitants was the procurement and exchange of duffel, salt, gunpowder, lead, ket- ties, beads, rum, looking-glasses, trinkets, and other articles of European manufacture, for peltry, venison, and ponies, offered by the Indians. As Savannah long continued to be the capital and commercial metropolis of the colony, and as Frederica, before the middle of the century, became the Thermopylae of the Southern Anglo-American provinces, so did Augusta, for many years, maintain her supremacy as the chief trading post within the confines of Georgia - the point through which flowed the main current of commerce between the English and the native population.

Chapter Iii

General Oglethorpe's Visit to Augusta - His Conference with the Creeks at Coweta Town - Colonel Stephens's Account of the Progress of the Plantation - Oglethorpe's Fairness in Dealing with the Indians - Introduction of Slave Labor - Rev. Jonathan Copp - Distribution of Presents for the Indians - Fort at Augusta - Early Legislation - Governor Reynolds's " Representation " - Parishes Established - Representation and Petition from Augusta.

ONLY once did General Oglethorpe visit Augusta. This was in' September, 1739. He was then returning to Savannah from his perilous and important journey to Coweta Town, where he had met in convention seven thousand red warriors and brought about a pacification of the Indian nations. The exposure and anxieties encountered on the expedition and while in attendance upon that coftference, so wrought upon his iron constitution that he was pros^ trated by a slow fever. In this enfeebled condition he sought repose for a few days at Augusta. From this place he wrote the following letter :

" Fort Augusta in Georgia. " 5th September, 1739 "Sr: I am just arrived at this Place from the Assembled Estates of the Creek Nation. They have very fully declared their rights to and possession of all the Land as far as the River Saint Johns, and their Concession of the Sea Coast, Islands, and other Lands to the Trustees, of which they have made a regular Act. If I had not gone up, the misunderstandings between them and the Carolina Traders, fomented by our two neighboring Nations, would probably have occasioned their beginning a war which I believe might have been the result of this general meeting; but as their complaints were reasonable, I gave them satisfaction in all of them, and everything is entirely settled m peace. It is impossible to describe the joy they expressed at my arrival ; they met me forty miles in the woods, and layd Provisions on the roads in the woods. The Express being just going to Charles-Town, I can say no more, but I have

Commenting upon this remarkable mission of General Oglethorpe, Mr. Spalding, with equal truth and fervor, remarks : " When we call into remembrance the then force of these tribes - for they could have brought into the field twenty thousand fighting men - when we call to remembrance the influence the French had everywhere else obtained over the Indians - when we call to remembrance the distance he had to travel through solitary pathways, . . . exposed to summer suns, night dews, and to the treachery of any single Indian who knew - and every Indian knew - the rich reward that would have awaited him for the act from the Spaniards in St. Augustine, or the French in Mobile, surely we may proudly ask what soldier ever gave higher proof of courage? What gentleman ever gave greater evidence of magnanimity ? What English governor of an American province ever gave such assurance of deep devotion to public duty ? "^

But for this manly conference with the red men in the heart of their own and the admiration with which his presence, courage and bearing inspired the assembled chiefs, Oglethorpe could not have compassed this pacification and secured this treaty of amity so essential to the welfare of the now on the eve of most serious complications with the Spaniards in Florida.

The garrison detailed and supported by the Trust for the protection of the inhabitants of Augusta, and consisting of a commissioned officer and from ten to twenty men, was regularly maintained until 1767, when, in the language of Sir James Wright, Georgia's third and last royal governor, " the Rangers in this province were broke."

Under date of Tuesday, September 19, 1738, Colonel William Stephens, writing at Savanah, enters this memorandum in his journal, kept for the information of the trustees:^ "Mr. Samuel Browti, one of our principal Traders in the Indian Nations, came to Town by way of Attgnsta, in a weak state of health ; and as he was a Settler also at that Place, where he had built a House upon a Lot granted him, he had some Stay in his Way. I was sorry to hear by him that they were grown extream sickly thereabouts ; that it came through Carolina by Degrees to their Settlement at New Windsor, and thence soon crossed to Augusta ; that a great many were down in Fevers at his coming away ; and that Lieutenant Kent was so ill that it was feared he could not live. At the same Time I received a Letter from one John Miller, who keeps Stores at Augusta to serve the Indian Traders, acquainting me that the Inhabitants were settling in a very irregular Manner by building Stores on five hundred Acre Lots some Miles distant from each other up the Path towards the Creeks: The Reason for which is that the Out- Parts have the Advantage and chance of intercepting the Customers of those who live in or near the Town o^ Augusta ; but consequently He under greater Danger of being cut off by Enemies of any Sort : Whereas a collected Body of People would be better able to defend themselves, or retire and take the Benefit of the Fort: Moreover it will be in the Power of such Indian Traders as run in Debt with the settled Storekeepers to go to one of those out-lying Stores and be supplied, and then return to the Indian Nation, thereby defrauding their former Creditors who cannot bring them to regular Justice. Mr. Brown confirming this, I thought it worth Notice, and conceive it mav be worth the Consideration of such as have Power to regulate it better."

That in the autumn this malarial region, badly drained, the atmosphere impregnated with noxious exhalations from a soil recently denuded of forest trees and subjected by the plow to the direct rays of a semi-tropical sun, should have been visited by fevers of a severe type excites no wonder. Exposure, indifference to hygenic precautions, and sometimes insufficient food, tended still further to render constitutions, not yet fairly acclimated, liable to their pernicious influences.

At a remove from the cdurts established in Savanah, and with no one save a magistrate, holding a verbal commission, to decide in claim cases or to punish where breaches of the peace occurred, the citizens of Augusta were, for a number of years, largely a law unto themselves, managing their affairs and settling their disputes in their own way.

We marvel too that this feeble plantation did not, at the outset, encounter violent shocks at the hands of the natives, who, in the neighborhood, far outnumbered the Europeans. The truth is the Uchees, the Kiokees, the Savannahs and the Creeks and Cherokees generally, were kind and forbearing in their intercourse with the English. Whenever difficulties occurred between the races, the provocation, in most instances, could be fairly laid at the door of the white man. With the natives Oglethorpe's influence was overshadowing, and his reputation for fair dealing and generosity unquestioned.

In nothing were the prudence, wisdom, skill and ability of the founder of the colony of Georgia more" conspicuous than in his conduct toward and treatment of the Indians. The ascendency he acquired over them, the respect they entertained for him, and the manly, generous and just policy he ever maintained in his intercourse with the native tribes of the region are remarkable. Their favor, at the outset, was essential to the repose of the settlement ; their friendship necessary to its existence. In the beginning, few in numbers and isolated in position, a hostile breath would have blown it. into nothingness. As claimants of the soil by virtue of prior occupancy, it was important that the title they asserted to these their hunting-grounds should, at-an early moment, be peaceably and formally extinguished. A resort to the sword in assertion of England's dominion over this territory would haveled at once to ambush, alarm, and bloodshed. Tlie adoption of a violent and coercive course toward tlie aborigines would h.ive aroused their hostility and imperiled the success of the plantation. Far better the plan of conciliation. This Oglethorpe fully recognized, and shaped his policy accordingly.

In the spring of 1739 the German Jesuit, Christian Priber, endeavored, in the interest of the French, to prejudice the minds of the Cherokees against the English. A conference, however, held at Augusta in April of that year, resulted in an interchange of good will and a confirmation of the amicable relations subsisting between the colonists and the dwellers among the mountains of Appalatcy.i

While General Oglethorpe was in Augusta, in September of this year, he was visited by chiefs from the Chickesas and Cherokees. Those from the latter nation complained that some of their people had been poisoned by rum sold to them by the traders. They were much incensed and threatened revenge. Upon inquiring into the matter the general ascertained that some unlicensed traders from Carolina had communicated the smallpox to the Indians, who, ignorant of the method of treating the disease, had fallen victims to that loathsome distemper. He found it difficult to convince the chiefs of the true cause of the calamity. They were at length appeased, and departed with the assurance that they might apprehend no trouble in dealing with the licensed traders from Georgia, as permits were never granted to those unworthy of confidence. ^

In March, 1740, a complaint was lodged with the authorities in Savannah that in consequence of the introduction of negro slaves from Carolina, who performed all the manual labor, an ordinary workman could find but little employment at Augusta. In exercising the garrison of Fort Augusta, one of the iron guns burst and b^-^\' off the head of a soldier. On the 30th of the following June, Lieutenant Kent, newly arrived from Augusta, informed Colonel Stephens that he experienced considerable difficulty in conducting the civil affairs of the settlement. There was so much "jangling among the traders," and so prone were they " to decide their controversies by force," that the local magistrate was greatly embarrassed in the administration of justice. >\^ In April, 1 741, the garrison of Fort Augusta was "augmented from twelve to twenty men."

ment, and ownership of slaves in Georgia, and until the enlargement of the tenure by which lands were holden of the crown, but slow progress was made in develoii ig the agricultural interests of the district of St. Paul. So soon however, <is the trustees saw fit to modify their restrictions in these respects, the colon) " had a better appearance of thriving" than at any former period of its existence. No two individuals were so instrumental in prevailing upon the Trustees to permit Georgia the right, long enjoyed by her sister English colonies in America, of owning and using negro slaves, as the Rev. George Whitefield and the Hon. James Habersham. The former boldly asserted that the transportation of the African from his home of barbarism to a Christian land, where he would be humanly tre.ited and required to perform his share of toil common to the lot of humanity, was advantageous ; while the latter affirmed that the colony could not prosper without the intervention of slave labor.

In the Provincial Assembly which convened in Savannah on the 15th of January, 175 i, to concert measures and submit recommendations for the general welfare of the province, Augusta was represented by George Cadogan and David Douglass.

As early as 1750 the gentlemen of Augusta built "a handsome and convenient church," opposite one of the curtains of the fort, and so near that its guns afforded ample protection. This little wooden temple indicated the furthest advance the Church of England had thus far made into the Indian territory.

In order to attract a minister the inhabitants of this town promised to erect a parsonage, cultivate the glebe lands, and contribute ;^20 a year toward his maintenance. The Rev. Jonathan Copp, a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College, having in December, 1750, been ordained in England as a deacon and priest by Dr. Sherlock, bishop of London, came to Augusta the following year and there entered upon'his ministry. His congregation numbered nearly one hundred. Among them were eight communicants. The parsonage, however, had not been erected, the glebe lands were uncultivated, and the hope of receiving prompt payment of the stipend of ^20 appeared uncertain. "Separated from any brother clergyman by one hundred and thirty miles of wilderness," on the frontier of civilization, in pro.ximity to the Indian territory, and daily liable to the merciless attacks of savages, "with but little to cheer and much to discourage, with small emolument and arduous labor," he here continued as a missionary until 1 756, .wto, jlfi f),e£-e^ted a call to the rectorship of St. John's parish in South CaroHna.^

' He was succeeded in 1764 by the Rev. Samuel Trink. who, for three years, discharged the duties of rector of the parish. Removing- in 1767 to Savannah, his station for the ensuing three years was filled by the Rev. Edward Ellington. When he resigned the pastorate there were forty communicants in St. Paul's Church, and during his ministry he baptized four hun-

The Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America having surrendered their charter and relieved themselves from the further execution of a trust which had grown quite beyond their management, his Majesty, King George, II, was pleased, on the 6th of August, 1754, to appoint Captain John Reynolds governor of the Province of Georgia. One of his earliest official acts, after his arrival in Savannah on the 29th of October, was to cause a liberal supply of presents to be distributed at Augusta to the Chickasaws, Creeks, Uchees and Cherokees whom, as he was advised by Indian traders of repute, the French were endeavoring to excite to hostilities against the upper settlements of Georgia and Carolina. A justice was commissioned for the district of Saint Paul. He was authorized to hear and determine causes where the amount involved did not exceed forty shillings. For punishing slaves committing capital crimes, a commission of oyer and terminer might, upon an emergency, be issued to the justice of the district in which the offence was committed to try the accused without a jury. If found guilty and sentenced to death, the justice might award execution, and set upon the slave a value which was afterwards to be paid to the owner by the general assembly "as an encouragement to the people to discover the villainies of their slaves." Causes of special moment in law and equity, in admiralty, and of a criminal nature, were to be tried by the courts which were established in Savannah.

Upon the arrival of the Indian presents in December, 1755, Governor Reynolds proceeded to Augusta that he might superintend their distribution and utilize the occasion in confirming the amicable relations existing between the colonists and their red neighbors. While there awaiting the assembling of the chiefs, he was summoned to Savannah by a matter claiming his immediate and personal attention. He was therefore constrained to leave the presents, and the addresses he had prepared, with Mr. William Little, commissioner and agent for Indian affairs, who, a week after the departure of the governor, read those speeches and distributed the presents to some three himdred chiefs and head warriors. The convocation was peaceful and amicable. Well pleased with the royal gifts, the aborigines renewed their pledges of friendship.

dred and twenty-eight persons, and married sixty-two couples. During the war St. Paul's Church, which was a small wooden structure, perished, there being no clergymen in charge, and no worshippers within its frail walls. In 1786 a second sacred edifice was erected on the site of the first, and it, in turn, gave away to the present structure, the foundations of which were laid in 181 8. In 1789 the Rev. Mr. Palmer was in charge of the church, and he was followed by the Rev. Adam Boyd, whose pastorate endured until 1798. Between this date and the year 1818, there appear to have been no divine ministrations under the exclusive auspices of the Protestant Episcopal denomination within the porciies of St. Paul's Church. The glebe lands, consisting of fifteen acres, to which the parish church was originally entitled, have been lost, or absorbed within the control and possession of the trustees ot the Richmond county Academy. During the last two years of the past century, and the first eighteen years of the present, St. Paul's Church, under the supervision of the trustees ot the Richmond Academy, appears to have been used as a place of worshij) by all denominations of Christians.

While in Augusta, Governor Reynolds, who, true to his mihtary profession and instincts, was devoting, perhaps, more attention to the defenses of the province than to any other matter connected with its administration and development, made a personal inspection of the fort located at that place. Built wood, and one hundred and twenty feet square, he found it so rotten that a large portion of it was propped up to prevent its walls from faUing. Its eight small iron guns were honeycombed, and their carriages in an unserviceable condition. Of ordnance stores there was but a very scant supply.

The population of Georgia, sadly dispersed, did not then aggregate more than sixty-four hundred souls. Of these, seven hundred and fifty-six, capable of bearing arms, were enrolled .in the militia and officered. Poorly equipped, and organized into eight companies, they were drilled six times each year. Widely separated, their concentration on an emergency was very difficult. There was, in truth, not a fortification within the limits of the province in even tolerable condition.

In the elaborate "representation of the forts and garrisons necessary for the defense of Georgia," which, with the assistance of John Gerar, William, De- Brahm, one of the royal surveyors and a captain of engineers of high repute, the governor matured, and, on the 5th of January, 1756, submitted for the approval of the home government, he urged that a fort should be constructed for the protection of Augusta, square in outline, "/. e. four Poligons each 448 feet, with four Bastions altogether on one Horizon." For its armament he

The garrison was to consist of one hundred and fifty regulars, with a reinforcement of three hundred men, viz., one hundred and fifty militia, and one hundred and fifty Indians. In addition, a captain, a sergeant, and twentynine men were to be kept on duty at this point to serve in the capacity of "Rangers." It is scarcely necessary to add that this extravagant scheme did not commend itself to the approval of the board of trade; and, peace then reigning within the borders of the province, but little expenditure was made in behalf of its fortifications.

It was during Governor Ellis's administration that the act was passed by the Colonial Legislature dividing the several districts of the province into parishes, providing for the establishment of religious worship according to the rites and ceremonies of*the Church of England, and empowering the churchwardens and vestrymen of the respective parishes to assess rates for the repair of churches, the relief of the poor, and for other parochial services. This act was approved the 17th of March, 1758.

For the purpose of keeping church edifices in repair, for the care of the respective cemeteries, sacred utensils, and ornaments, to provide bread and wine for tlie Holy Eucharist, to pay the salaries of clerk and sexton, and to make provision for the poor and impotent of the several parishes, the rector, churchwardens, and vestrymen were authorized to levy a tax on the estate, real and personal, of all the inhabitants within the respective parishes, sufficient to yield in the parishes of Christ Church and of St. Paul ;^30each, and in the parishes where no churches had as yet been erected ^ lo each. The method of assessing and collecting this ta.x was pointed out.

With the rector, churchwardens, and vestr\'men rested the power of appointing se.xtons, and of fixing their salaries and fees. The rector was to be one of the vestry, and the churchwardens in each parish were directed to procure, at the charge of the parish, a well bound paper or paxhment book wherein the vestry-clerk of the parish was to register the "births, christenings^ marriages, and burials of all and every person and persons that shall from time to time be born, christened, married, or buried within the said parish, under the penalty of five pounds sterling on failure thereof" For each entry the vestry clerk was entitled to receive, as a fee, one shilling sterling. These registers were to be adjudged and accepted in all courts of record in the province as furnishing sufficient proof of the births, marriages, christenings, and burials therein mentioned; and if any party was convicted of willfully making or causing to be made any false entry therein, or of maliciously erasing, altering, or defacing an entry, ^jr of embezzling any entry or book of record, he was to be adjudged guilty of- a felony, and to be punished with death without benefit of clergy. Each vestry was instructed to nominate a proper person to keep a record of its proceedings, and to act as the custodian of its books and pai)ers. No authority was conferred upon rectors to exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or to administer ecclesiastical law.

Such are the leading provisions of the act dividing Georgia into parishes, and erecting churches in sympathy with the tenets of the Established Church of England. While the patronage of the Crown and of the Colonial Assembly was extended in this special manner in aid of churches professing the Episcopal faith, it was not designed to favor them by an exclusive recognition. The idea appeared to be to accord to that denomination within the limits of Georgia a prestige akin to that which the Church of England enjoyed within the realm, to create certain offices for the encouragment of that religious persuasion and the extension of the gospel in accordance with its forms of worship and mode of government, and to provide a method by which faithful registers of births, marriages, christenings, and deaths might be kept and perpetuated. Numerous were the Dissenters then in the province. They were represented by Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Methodists, a few Baptists, and some Hebrews. To all sects, save Papists, was free toleration accorded, and whenever a Dissenting congregation organized and applied for a grant of land whereon to build a church the petition did not pass unheeded. There can be no doubt, however, but that it was the intention of the government, both royal and colonial, to engraft the Church of England upon the province, and, within certain limits, to advance its prosperity and insure its permanency. At the same time an adherence to its rubrics was in no wise made a condition precedent to political preferment.

As a salutary precaution against domestic insurrections and other sudden dangers, each white male inhabitant of the province "from the ages of sixteen years aud upwards" was, by an act assented to on the 28th of July, 1757, required to carry with him "on Sabbath days, fasts and festivals," to the place of public worship within the town or district where he resided, "one good gun, or pair of pistols, with at least six charges of gunpowder and ball."

The French observed, with jealous eye, the expansion of the English settlements along the line of the Savannah River, and the increasing influence which the colonists were gaining over the affections and the trade of the Indian nations. They hesitated at nothing which might tend to interrupt this advancing prosperity and alienate the good will of the natives. Emissaries, equipped with presents and malignant tongues, were sent among them to poison their minds against the English, to disturb existing friendly relations, and, if possible, to incite the savages to acts of open hostility. The effect of these efforts became perceptible in the changed temper and morose conduct of the Indians. At no point was this modification of amicable word and act so apparent as at Augusta. Sharing in the apprehension of impending danger, and alarmed at the defenseless state of the town, the inhabitants of Augusta addressed the following communication to Governor Reynolds :

" Augusta, 30th of August, 1756. To his excellency, John Reynolds, esq., captain-general and commander-in-chief in and over his majesty's Province of Georgia, and vice-admiral of the same.

" That your petitioners by their vicinity to, and connection with Indians and Indian affairs, have had the opportunity to behold with concern the great progress the French have made for some time past in seducing the Creek Indians and drawing them over to their interest. These people are indefatigable in persuading and spurring on the Indians to a rupture with us, and had, within these few months, according to the best intelligence we could get, and from the behavior of the Indians in general, very nearly succeeded, and even with the concurrence of a part of the Cherokees.

"That although we believe they have miscarried just at this present juncture, yet we have good reason to think, if some effectual methods are not taken to prevent it, they will very soon bring their designs to bear. That Augusta and the places adjacent being not only frontiers, but places where the stores and trading goods for all the Chickasaws, Creeks, and a part of the Cherokees are kept, are of the greatest consequence, for in all probability tliey would, for the sake of the stores, be the first that would be attacked, as they, the Indians, would thereby be enabled, with a little assistance from the French, to carry on a war with the English for a considerable time.

" That in our present helpless, defenseless condition, these places and stores, we are morally certain, would fall too easy a prey to them. That it is well known that Fort Augusta was erected here for the sake of the Indian trade, and the protection of those who should carry it on, and might also be a protection to the inhabitants that might afterwards come and settle in the northwest division of the province, by being an asylum for the women and children, and a place of security for their effects in case of danger. That that fort, at present, cannot answer any of those wise and salutary ends, being in every part of it in a ruinous condition, for the truth ©f which we can appeal to your excellency, who had occular demonstration thereof when your excellency was up here ; but ever since that time it is much decayed, and would have fallen to the ground had it not been supported by the care of the commanding officer. That was the fort in proper repair, it would not answer the ends proposed ; the few soldiers that had been for a long time at that station, which, by repeated detachments to South Carolina and elsewhere are now rendered fewer, being insufficient for its defense in case of an attack.

" That if this place was destroyed, the destruction of the whole province would, in all probability, soon follow ; for, as we hinted before, the Indians would get arms and ammunition and other necessaries here, enough to enable them to carry on the war when and how long they pleased.

"That although we have been informed that )-our excellency hath before now laid before his majesty the defenceless state of this province, and the ruinous condition of the fortifications in it, and we are sensible no person could take more pains to know it than your excellency, yet we hope this representation of our particular situation, especially in time of war with France, and, as we have good reason to think, of immediate danger, will not be taken amiss.

" That we also, with submission, beg leave to observe to your excellency that we sincerely wish there had been no settlement made on Ogeechee as yet, for if ever the Creeks should break out in war with us, whatever reasons they in their own minds might have for it, we are assured they will make that settlement one pretense, for they are continually exclaiming against it, and more so this summer than ever. We wish there could be a method taken of withdrawing the settlement by degrees, so it might not look like a public concession of these lands. The Indians would then, at least, want that pretense of quarrelling.

petition into your serious consideration, and we cannot doubt your excellency will do everything in your power to remedy these evils, and to render our safety and protection more effectual ; but if nothing can be done here for the public security of these parts, we humbly beseech your excellency to represent our situation to his majesty, from whose fatherly care we may yet, before it is too late, receive the assistance necessarily required.

This petition was signed by Patrick Clarke, John Rae, Isaac Barksdale, William Bonar, Daniel Clark, Edward Barnard, William Clement, Richard Johnson, Da Douglass, Martin Campbell, Lachlan McGillivray, John Williams, John Spencer, William Little, James McHenry, George Galphin, Robert Dixon, and Moses Nunes.

David Douglass, who was charged with the transmission of the foregoing representation and petition, in forwarding the documeat deemed it proper to supplement its statements and requests with this communication :

" We have sent you the inclosed representation that your excellency may see the sentiments of the people of this place before this unlucky affair happened.

" I have, as in duty bound, sent you the enclosed information, by which, in all appearances, an Indian war is inevitable. There is nothing, in all human probability, can prevent it but having those people who did the injury to make a retaliation for the murdered Indians, and we have accordingly issued htie .and cry, and sent out parties to apprehend them, and we have alarmed all the country, both on the Carolina and Georgia side. The head men of the Chickasaws are now with me. They declare they will live and die with the white people, provided we will give them a place for their wives and children. The fort is too small, neither is it in a condition to hold the people of this place, so I think it will be better to have one or two fortifications or intrenchments as near the fort as possible, where the women and children may be secured, while we scout out and fight the enemy.

" I am afraid we cannot keep this place without assistance, and the loss of this will be an immense destruction to both provinces, as there is no people in this province to spare to send to our assistance. I hope your excellency will immediately apply to the government of South Carolina, who are equally concerned, to send an immediate supply of men, or otherwise as you think most proper, as I only hint my hasty thoughts, which, if not right, I beg your excellency would excuse. I hope your excellency will, by this express, give me what power and instructions you think needful. If possible, we will immediately send to the Creek nation to assure the Indians that those people who did the injury will be taken and secured for their satisfaction. We are afraid the blow will be struck in the nation."

tbe fugitive whites who, by their violence, had offended and outraged the Indians, having thus far proved fruitless, Governor Reynolds laid before his council the following communication which had just been received: