riors, upon the edge of whose country, the French fort of Albamahs lies: they are esteemed to be sincerely attached to his majesty's interest.

Beyond the Creeks lie the brave Chickasaws, who inhabit near the Mississippi 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 now can 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.

At Old Ebenezer there is a cow-pen, where the trustees have a great number of cattle, and it is hoped with care they will amount to six or seven hundred head in another year. But they were much neglected, there not being horses or men sufficient to drive up the young and out-lying cattle.

This is the situation of the settlements upon the river, at the mouth of which lies the island of Tybee, with the lighthouse, which has been of the greatest use to all ships falling in with this part of America. But from Savannah southward, there are several plantations, (besides the villages of Hampstead and Highgate,) several of which are settled by such of the inhabitants of the town, as being able to purchase cattle, have petitioned for leases of lands, and are settled upon those lands by the General's permission, until the trustees' pleasure be known concerning the leases. The terms they propose, is the lease to be for twenty-one years,

VOL. II.

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renewable every seven years, upon paying one year's purchase of the improved value; the first seven years to be free, and no fine paid for the first renewal. Besides these settlements, there are some others of five hundred acres per grant from the trust, which extend as far as the Ogechee river; upon which river lies Fort Argyle, in such a situation as is intended thereby to command all the passes in that part of the province.

The next is Darien, where the Scots Highlanders are settled; the buildings are mostly huts, but tight and warm ; and they have a little fort. They have been industrious in planting, and have got into driving of cattle, for the supply of the regiment, &c.; but this last year most of them going voluntarily into the war, little was done at home, where there families remained.

Below the town of Darien, is the town of Frederica, where there is a strong fort, and store-houses, many good buildings in the town, some of which are brick. There is a meadow near adjoining that is ditched in, of about three hundred and twenty acres, of which there is good hay made. The people have not planted much there this year, occasioned by the war so near their doors, and being chiefly tradesmen, who make more by working, or selling to the camp, than they can by planting. There are some little villages upon the island of St. Simons, and some very handsome houses built by the officers of the regiment; and there has been pot-herbs, pulse, and fruits produced upon the island, of great use towards supplying the town and garrison. But corn, beer and meat they have from elsewhere.

Between this island and Jekyll island, is an inlet of the sea, called Jekyll sound, which is a very fine harbor, and is one of the best entries the English have to the southward of Virginia. This is an excellent station for ships to cruise on the Spaniards, it commanding the homeward-bound trade, which must come through the gulf of Florida, and near St. Simons; the entry lies in 31 degrees 10 minutes. The place is barred, but upon the bar there is water sufficient every tide to carry in twenty-gun ships; and taking the best opportunity, forty-gun ships may be carried in to refit-a great conveniency to a squadron in this place. Upon Jekyll island there is but very little good land, not above three or four hundred acres, the rest being sandy sea-beach. Mr.

Horton has his lot upon this island, and has made great improvements there. To the southward of Jekyll lies the island of Cumberland, and the fort of St. Andrews, situated upon a fine commanding ground; and on the south-east of the same island, is another strong fort called fort William, which commands Amelia sound, and the inland passage from Augustine. The next island is Amelia; beyond that is St. Johns, one of the Spanish outguards; and between forty and fifty miles from that is Augustine.

We are now fully acquainted with the colony, and what it will produce; the inland part is hilly, till it rises into mountains, where all kinds of timber grow. Near the sea the ground is more level and flat, where laurels, cedars, cypress, bays, and live oak, are of the size of timber trees. Among the shrubs, some of the principal are pomegranates, which will grow well in hedges, myrtle, prickly pears, shumach, sassafras, China root, several sorts of snake-root, &c. There is commonly black mould in the low lands; the rising ground is frequently clay, where oak and hickory mostly grow; as it also does in a great part of the flat land that is dry, where walnut, ash, gum-tree, oak of several kinds, hickory, beech, wild cherries, &c., are in great plenty to be found. The higher lands are of a sandy surface, where pines usually grow, all parts producing trees of some kind or other, except the savannahs and marshes, which bear grass; and many of the low land swamps covered with canes, which are excellent feed for cattle in the winter. Where the oak and hickory grow, the soil is in general of a strong nature, and very well esteemed for planting, being found by experience to produce the best crops of Indian corn, and most sorts of grain, except rice, which thrives best in swampy ground. This is only spoken of the lower parts of Georgia, which reaches from the sea-shore to the foot of the hills, being a flat country of sixty or seventy miles, or more, in breadth. The hill country is very different, there being marble, chalk, gravel, rocks, and all the same variety of soil that is in Europe. With respect to the proportion of the different kinds of soil, it cannot be given, unless the whole were surveyed; but the American dialect distinguishes land into pine, oak and hickory, swamp, savannah, and marsh. Near the town of Savannah we have found stone, which is dug for building; as there is also good clay, whereof bricks are made; and a pottery work is carried

on with success, where common ware for most uses is made in good plenty, and exported to the neighboring provinces'; and the master, who is of an enterprising genius, has undertaken, as soon as he has made proper furnaces, to make a superfine sort, of such as shall not be inferior to porcelain itself; but a little time will discover his further performances.

The coast is low, with a hard, sandy beach. When we approach it, at twenty-five leagues distance, we find ground in twenty-five fathom water, and it shoals gradually to the shore; the sounding being so regular, makes it a safe coast to fall in with, having good anchoring all along, and no rocks. The mouths of the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha make a great number of islands, and the entries between them form good harbors. To the southward of Tybee are the following entries, viz.: Wassaw, Ossebah, St. Catherines, Sapello, Doboy, St. Simons, which is the north entry to Frederica; Jekyll sound, which is the south entry to Frederica, to which place the channel is navigable, from the ordinary place of anchoring in the sound, for ships of a good burden up to the

town.

The staple of the country of Georgia being presumed, and intended to be principally silk and wine, every year confirms more our hopes of succeeding in those two, from the great increase (as has been before observed) of the vines and mulberry-trees, wherein perseverance only can bring it to perfection. Several other things might be produced, and perhaps more immediately profitable to the planters; but it is apprehended, that it is not any business of this colony, nor any benefit to the trade of England, to interfere with what other English plantations have produced, such as rice, &c.

As the boundaries of the colony are now known, together with the climate and manner of agriculture, more might be done henceforward in one year than could in several years before we attained to that knowledge; but our people are weak, being decreased by great numbers, having been decoyed away to other colonies. Many having taken to idleness, upon shutting up the store went away; but those who stayed, and now remain, are still a body of the most valuable people, that find means to live comfortably, some by their trades, some by planting, and raising live stock, and some by their labor, either by land or water; and one of those remaining are worth three that left us, for such work. And if

an embarkation was to come in with the next year, it would be of great service to the colony, the Saltzburgers wishing for more of their countrymen, and having been very industrious.

The persons sent from England on the Charity were of the unfortunate, many of whom have, by their industry, proved that they deserved better, and have thriven; many also showed they were brought into those misfortunes by their own faults; and when those who quitted their own country to avoid labor, saw labor stand before their eyes in Georgia, they were easily persuaded to live in Carolina by cunning rather than work. This has been a great misfortune also upon many persons who brought over servants indented to serve them, for a certain number of years, who being picked up in the streets of London, or some such manner, their masters found them unfit for labor, and many of them took such opportunities as they could get, to desert and fly into Carolina, where they could be protected. Indeed, good and bad which came from England, were mostly inhabitants of towns there; but such seldom turn out good husbandmen with their own hands; yet some of them proved very useful in a new colony, since they most readily compose towns, which is the first thing necessary to be a receptacle for new comers; and from thence, when all demands of labor, for building and trade are supplied, the laborious people may enlarge into the country, and raise provisions for the use of the towns. Whereas, if the first were all laboring countrymen, they would naturally disperse to the most fertile land, and perhaps succeed for a while; but for want of neighborhood and markets, would force most of them to remove, and the country remain little or nothing the better improved, as it happened in Virgina, till the government, with great difficulty at last, raised towns in that province.

It ought not here to be passed over, 'how ready the country is to receive a number of German families, accustomed to husbandry, such as usually come once a year down the Rhine to Holland, and embark thence for America or the East Indies; some of these we have already had experience of, insomuch that the people here would take off a good number of them. And it would be of great service (as we apprehend) to this colony, at present, to send a ship over, laden with Germans, on the same terms Mr. Hope does to