The silk was showed at the trustees' office to Mr. John Zachary, an eminent raw silk merchant, and Mr. Booth, one of the greatest silk weavers in England, who declared it was as fine as any Italian silk, and that it was worth at least twenty shillings a pound.

This Mr. Samuel Augspourguer, who joined the colony in the year 1736, left it in July, 1739, with two men servants and their children on his plantation, and came over to obtain a grant of five hundred acres of land, and to get some of his own countrymen from the canton of Bearn in Switzerland to go with him as servants on his return to Georgia, in order to proceed more effectually in the cultivation of his lands.

were

The persons whose
passages
paid for on the
charity were

The persons sent on

the charity in the 1383 whereof 911 and 472 and in 638

former years were

The number of per

sons sent in the

eight years to the 1521 whereof 915 and 606 and in 687 9th June, 1740,

The lands granted this year to be cultivated at the expense of the Incorporated Society in Scotland for promoting christian knowledge in order to raise a maintenance for the Scots minister at New Inverness in Georgia, were three hundred acres.

The lands granted this year to be cultivated by a person at his own expense were five hundred acres.

The lands granted in trust in the said eight years in order to be granted out in smaller portions in Georgia, were fortyone thousand six hundred acres; to be cultivated for religious uses were nine hundred acres, and to be cultivated for the maintenance of an orphan house were five hundred

acres.

The lands granted in the said eight years to persons who were to cultivate them at their own expense were twentyseven thousand one hundred and eighty-five acres.

The money received this year pursuant to act of Parlia

VOL. II.

39

ment was £20,000, and in benefactions 1817. 4s. 3d. 2q. whereof in South Carolina the amount in sterling money 861. 6s. 11d. 2q. and in England 94l. 17s. 4d. whereof the trustees applied 16,6147. 2s. 5d. 2q. of which they exhibited an account to the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Chief Justice of the court of the King's Bench, pursuant to their charter, and the remainder of all the money they ever received being 59171. 7s. 7d. will be carried into their succeeding account.

From the 9th June, 1740, to the present time.

The trustees this year took further methods for the satisfaction of the people in the province; they extended the tenures by which a daughter of a grantee, or any other person, was made capable of enjoying by devise or inheritance, any quantity of lands which did not increase her or his possession to more than two thousand acres.

A license was likewise granted to all the present possessors of land in Georgia, to make leases of any parts of their lots for any term not exceeding three years to any person residing in Georgia and who should reside there during the term of such lease.

A general release was likewise passed, by which no advantage was to be taken against any of the present possessors of land in Georgia for any forfeitures incurred at any time before Christmas, 1740, in relation either to the tenure or cultivation of lands, and the possessors of fifty acres of land were not obliged to cultivate more than five acres thereof in ten years from their grants, and those under fifty acres in proportion. And the possessors of five hundred acres of land were not obliged to cultivate more than one hundred and twenty acres thereof in twenty years from their grants, and those of under five hundred acres. and above fifty acres in proportion, in order to prevent any forfeitures for want of cultivating the quantities required.

Under these circumstances it is presumed that no complaint can now with reason be made against the tenure by which the inhabitants at this time hold their lands, since they have more power than is generally given by marriage settle

ments in which the grantees are only tenants for life, incapable of mortgaging or aliening or making any disposition by their last will, whereas the freeholders in Georgia are now become tenants in tail general, and may, with the license of the common council of the said trustees upon application. made to them for that purpose, mortgage or alien, and further without that license have it absolutely in their power on failure of issue in tail to dispose thereof by their last will.

By an account received from the Secretary in the province it appears, that on the 1st August, 1740, about seventy freeholders of the northern part of the province, delivered in the town court of Savannah their claims of lots under the tenures which were advertised the last year in the South Carolina and London Gazettes.

That on the 15th of the same month, as many or more appeared in the said town court of the said occasion, and that on the 27th of the same month divers more delivered in their claims likewise.

The trustees are informed by their Secretary in the province, that in pursuance of their orders he had just finished an authentical account of the state of the colony with respect to the number of inhabitants in the several towns and villages, the number of houses and the settlements made, the progress which the several people had made in the cultivation of their lands, and their ability or inability to support themselves, and in case were the last appeared the reason of it; the proportion of the different sorts of soil as near as could be computed, and an account of the several produces which by experience or appearance could or might be raised for trade. And the trustees are daily in expectation of receiving from him the said account. But by the several accounts before received, they are enabled to give, though an imperfect one, the following state of the settlements, viz.:

The town of Savannah is about ten miles up the river Savannah, where are (besides warehouses and huts) at least one hundred and thirty houses in the town; as these for the sake of air, and to prevent the spreading of any fire, are built at some distance from each other, they make several spacious squares and wide streets. There is a regular magistracy settled in the town, which the trustees are obliged to be at the expense of supporting till the colony arrives at.

sufficient strength to do it. There are in the town a court house, a store house, a gaol, a house for the trust servants, a wharf, a guard-house, and some other public buildings; a church is at present building, and a clergyman is settled there. The town is excellently situated for trade, the navigation of the river being very secure, and ships of three hundred tons can lie within six yards of the town, and the worm does not eat them.

About four miles from Savannah, inland from the river, are the two villages Highgate and Hampstead, which lie at about a mile distant from each other. The people settled there apply themselves chiefly to gardening, and supply the town of Savannah with quantities of greens and garden stuff.

By the account of Mr. Thomas Stephens, who at his father's request was sent over to assist him in his business of Secretary in the province, and continued with him there. some short time, he states that there are twenty plantations within twenty miles round Savannah, which have each of them from five to thirty acres of land cleared.

About fifteen miles from Savannah is a village called Abercorn; about twenty miles further up the river is the town of Ebenezer, where the Saltzburgers are settled, with two ministers, one of whom computed that the number of his congregation in June 1738 consisted of one hundred and fortysix. Therefore, as the infants could not be reckoned in the computation, and as seven more have since been sent and settled with them, it is believed the number has been increased; especially since the town is so healthy, that by a letter sent to the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge by the Reverend Mr. Boltzius, one of the ministers at Ebenezer, dated the 26th June, 1740, he declared, that in a year's time one person only had died, which was a child of four years old. The people are industrious and sober; they raise not only a sufficient quantity of corn and other produces for their own subsistence, but they sell great quantities to those at Savannah who have not been so careful of their own plantations; they have great herds of cattle, and are in so thriving a condition, that not one person has abandoned his settlement, or sent over the least complaint about the tenures or the want of negroes. On the contrary, they in a body petitioned against the use of negroes, and their minis

ters have declared, that their signing that petition was a voluntary act. And at their desire another embarkation of their countrymen, who are willing to go from Germany and join them, is designed to be sent with all convenient speed.

About ten miles from hence, and upon a river running into Savannah, is a place called Old Ebenezer, where is a cowpen, and a great number of cattle for the use of the public and for breeding.

At a considerable distance from hence is the town of Augusta, before described, which, with the great resort of traders and Indians, is in a thriving condition, and is and will be a great protection to both the provinces of Carolina and Georgia against any designs of the French.

In the southern part of the province is the town of New Inverness, upon the river Alatamaha, where the Highlanders are settled.

And about twenty miles from hence, on the island of St. Simons, near the sea, is the town of Frederica, with a regular magistracy, as at Savannah, supported at the expense of the trust; strong fortifications round the town are almost finished, and at the south-east point of the island are barracks for three hundred and thirty men.

There are settlements on the islands of Jekyll and Cumberland, which lie at a small distance from each other to the southward of Frederica, and on the last, two forts are built, one of which was described before, and the other was finished in April, 1740, upon the south end of the island. It commands the inlet of Amelia sound, is strongly palisaded with flankers, and is defended by eight pieces of cannon.

Barracks are built upon this island for two hundred and twenty men, with store-houses, which were finished in October, 1738.

There are six forts in the province, and a battery of cannon erected to secure the harbor of St. Simons, under which ships may safely lie.

The Indians, from the presents which they have annually received from the trustees, and from the justice and humanity with which they have been treated, are secured in the British interest, notwithstanding the arts both of the French and the Spaniards to seduce them. By this South Carolina has been free from those wars, in which (as the preamble of his Majesty's charter sets forth,) they had frequently suffered, and