Charter for Georgia Granted

Oglethorpe proposed to plant the colony of unfortunates in the unoccupied country below the Savannah. His colleagues readily assented, and in his report to the House of Commons, he laid a scheme for the colony before that body. It promised the advantages of securing that domain to the British Crown, relieving the South Carolinians from danger, and doing good to a large class of worthy British subjects. The king and Parliament approved the project. An appropriation of money for the object was made, and on the 9th of June, 1732, the king granted a charter for founding a colony with the title of Georgia. That name was given in compliment to King George the Second, then the ruling monarch of England.

The management of the new settlement was entrusted to twenty-one "noblemen and gentlemen," who were constituted" Trustees for Settling and Establishing the Colony of Georgia." Colonel Oglethorpe was one of them. They were vested with legislative powers for the government of the colony for the space of twenty-one years, at the expiration of which time a permanent government was to be established by the king or his successors in accordance with British law and usage.

Oglethorpe generously offered to accompany the emigrants and assist them in making their first settlement. Every feature of the project commended itself to the hearts of the British people. Donations from all ranks and classes were freely given to assist the emigrants in planting comfortable homes in the wilderness. The Bank of England made a generous gift; and the House of Commons, from time to time, voted money, amounting in the aggregate, in the course of two years, to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Lord Viscount Percival was chosen president of the trustees, and a code of regulations for the colony, with agreements and stipulations, was speedily prepared.

All things being in readiness, thirty-five families-one hundred and twenty emigrants, men, women, and children-sailed from Gravesend for Georgia in the ship Anne, of two hundred tons burden, on the 6th of November, 1732. They were accompanied by Colonel Oglethorpe as governor, the Rev. Mr. Shubert, of the Church of England, as a spiritual guide, and a few Piedmontese silk-workers; for one of the projects of the trustees was the growing of silk in Georgia.

The Anne arrived at Charleston harbor at the middle of January, 1733, where the emigrants were received with joy by the inhabitants. The Assembly of South Carolina voted them a large supply of cattle and other provisions, for they were regarded as valuable auxiliaries. Their mutual aid was foreshadowed by the following lines which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine:

The Anne was piloted from Charleston into Port Royal Sound, near Beaufort Island, whence the emigrants were to be conveyed to the Savannah River in small boats. From that point, Oglethorpe, accompanied by a guide furnished by the council of South Carolina, went forward to select a suitable place for a settlement. He chose Yamacraw Bluff, on the Savannah River, about ten miles from the sea, where Governor Moore, of South Carolina, had planted a small tribe of Creek Indians thirty years before, as owners of the soil. It was a high plain, its river front forty feet above the stream, and gently sloping to the swamps in the rear. There he laid out a town and returned to Beaufort, where the emigrants had landed, to conduct them to their final destination. They all arrived there on the first of February, and slept in tents that night.

The South Carolinians had sent boats with the additional provisions, and a body of rangers for the protection of the colonists while the latter should build cabins and a fort for their defence. The town projected by the governor was named Savannah, and there the emigrants soon had comfortable dwellings and a formidable military work armed with cannons. Concerning this spot, Oglethorpe wrote to the trustees:

"Upon the river side, at the centre of this plain, I have laid out a town, opposite to which is an island [Hutchinson's Island] of very rich pasturage, which I think should be kept for the trustees' cattle. The river is pretty wide, the water fresh, and from the key of the town you see its whole course to the sea, with the island of Tybee, which forms the mouth of the river. For about six miles up into the country the landscape is very agreeable, the stream being wide and bordered with high woods on both sides."