An Unwise Code for Georgia

With a population of more than five hundred souls; with a military force, and with means for religious instruction, the foundations of the colony of Georgia were now firmly laid. And had the wisdom of the trustees been equal to their benevolence, immediate and great prosperity would have been visible. But they bound the colonists by such unwise rules and regulations that their energies were cramped, and it seemed, at one time, as if the grand object of the trustees, and the hopes of Englishmen, would be frustrated.

We have now considered the more prominent events in the history of the planting of settlements in America, and the development of many of them into permanent colonies. The ingredients of the story are highly picturesque. The simple outline picture, when drawn from nature with fidelity, possesses marvellous interest to the student of human nature. The imagination may not conceive incidents more romantic than those which sober truth reveals in the career of men and women who came from Europe to explore and make homes in the wilds of America. Nearly all of them were impelled to the undertaking by those powerful motives of human action,-avarice, ambition or the love of liberty. In all of the earlier adventurers and settlers, we see these passions dominating all others. The discoverers stand out on the page of history as grand heroes, worthy of a representation on the shield of Achilles. In the delineation of their deeds and of those of their followers who occupied what they discovered, faith, hope, courage, hardihood, fortitude, indomitable perseverance and untiring energy, are prominent features in the picture. These were the necessary elements of success in the wide and wild fields of adventure, and were ever present in great abundance when required in laying the foundations of our Republic.

We will now consider the processes by which small settlements grew into great commonwealths in the form of British-American colonies.

End of Book II