and that I will attach myself to render them, and their laudable undertaking, all the service in my power.

Mr. Oglethorpe arrived here with his people in good health, the 13th of January; I ordered him a pilot, and in ten hours he proceeded to Port Royal, where he arrived safe the 19th; and I understand from thence, that after refreshing his people a little in our barracks, he with all expedition proceeded to Yamacra upon Savannah river, about twelve miles from the sea, where he designs to fix those he has brought with him.

I do assure you, that upon the first news I had of this embarkation, I was not wanting in giving the necessary orders for their reception, and being assisted at Port Royal; although they were here, almost as soon as we heard of their design of coming. I am informed Mr. Oglethorpe is mighty well satisfied with Georgia, and that he says, things succeed beyond his expectation.

Our General Assembly meeting three days after Mr. Oglethorpe's departure from hence, I moved to them, their assisting this generous undertaking: both houses immediately came to the following resolution, That Mr. Oglethorpe should be furnished at the public expense, with one hundred and four heads of breeding cattle, twenty-five hogs, and twenty barrels of good rice; that boats should be provided also at the public charge to transport the people, provisions, and goods from Port Royal to the place where he designed to settle; that the scout boats, and fifteen of our rangers, who are horsemen, and always kept in pay, to discover the motions, should attend Mr. Oglethorpe, and obey his command, in order to protect the new settlers from any insults, which I think there is no danger of; and I have given the necessary advice and instructions to our garrisons, and the Indians in friendship with us, that they may befriend and assist them.

I have desired Col. Bull, a member of the council, and a gentleman of great probity, and experience in the affairs of this province, the nature of land, and the method of settling, and who is well acquainted with the manner of the Indians, to attend Mr. Oglethorpe at Georgia with our compliments, and to offer him his advice and assistance. Had not our Assembly been sitting I would have gone myself.

I have received the Trustees' commission, for the honor

of which, I beg you will thank them; I heartily wish all imaginable success to this good work, and am,

Sir, your most humble servant,

ROBERT JOHNSON.

P. S. Since the above, I have had the pleasure of hearing from Mr. Oglethorpe, who gives me an account, that his undertaking goes on very successfully.

A

SKETCH OF THE LIFE

OF

GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE,

PRESENTED TO THE

GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

BY THOMAS SPALDING, ESQ.,

RESIDENT MEMBER OF THE SAME.

LIFE OF OGLETHORPE.

JAMES OGLETHORPE was born in London in December, 1698. His family had been an old and respectable one, established for centuries in the county of Surrey. He was the youngest son of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, who was an officer in the Duke of York's own regiment, before the Duke ascended the throne as James II., and whose family had been during the civil war, and at all times, devoted to the House of Stuart.

William III. was too politic a Prince, and too much afraid of the army, to persecute Sir Theophilus or his family for such opinions. But he could do worse - he could neglect them. By a high-minded man persecution can be borne. He steels himself to resistance he stands erect to receive it and he may break before the storm, but he will not bend to it. Neglect, whether it comes from the one or the many in power, descends upon a generous mind like the cold autumnal dew, withering all hope and blighting every energy of intellect. Such was the position of General Oglethorpe's family with the government at his birth-such was his own condition to his grave. But he availed himself to every opportunity, however transient, to strive after fame, and to labor for a name of renown among men.

In 1711, when Oxford and St. John were the ministers of Queen Anne, although but thirteen years of age, he entered the army, as an Ensign, and was afterwards promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Guards of Queen Anne, who, as is well known, was laboring at the close of her life to collect around her person and her throne the friends of her unhappy brother.

The Queen died in August, 1714, hurried to her grave by the idle disputes between her ministers Oxford and Bolingbroke; and George I. ascended the throne of England, against the wishes of the British Empire, at the call of a faction, that controlled the army and navy at that eventful period.

From this faction young Oglethorpe had nothing to hope, and he therefore soon afterwards withdrew from the British army, passed over to the continent, when he was between seventeen and eighteen years of age, and took service with Prince Eugene, in his war against the Turks, and elsewhere. He was with Prince Eugene when he crossed the Danube, and defeated the Grand Vizier Ali, at Peterwaradin in the year 1716, and also, the year following, (1717,) when Eugene besieged and took Belgrade, again defeating the Turks with great slaughter, storming their camp, and completely routing their army.

In this gigantic war, where two great empires were struggling for life, for law, and for religion, every power, and passion, of the human mind, was called forth, and the young soldier, by his gallantry, enterprise, and capacity, won the favor of Prince Eugene, who received him into his family, attached him to his staff, and in this school and under this great captain he learned the art of war.

The spring of 1719 brought peace to all Europe. Weak kings or corrupt ministers so entangled affairs at home that it required the whole attention of the ruling powers to keep the rickety machine of government in motion. Law, with his Mississippi scheme in France, and Sir John Blount, with his South Sea scheme in England, made the year 1720 one of the most memorably miserable that either country had ever known.

Young Oglethorpe, however, then twenty-one years of age, had returned to England; and in the calm of Oxford was schooling himself for other duties. His early education had been interrupted by his military pursuits, and it was necessary that some portion of his manhood should be given to the acquirement of that knowledge, which, if acquired at all, is generally mastered at an earlier period.

In 1727 died George I., who was succeeded by George II. Let us hear what a distinguished whig historian (Russell) says on this occasion. "The administration was wisely continued in the hands of the whigs, the only true friends of the Protestant succession, on the principle of the revolution. If the heads of opposition cannot be taught silence or induced to change sides, the king must either resign his minister, or that minister must secure a majority by some other means. No minister ever understood those means better than Sir Robert Walpole.