at Gravesend, under the conduct of Mr. James
Oglethorpe, one of the trustees, who, after landing at Charleston,
proceeded to the tract of country allotted for the new colony, and
laid the foundation of the town of Savanna, on the river which bears
that name. A small fort was erected on its bank, in which some guns
were mounted; and a treaty was held with the Creek Indians, from whom
the cession of a considerable tract was obtained.

The trustees continued to make great efforts for the accomplishment of
their object, and settled several companies of emigrants in Georgia.
Unfortunately, the wisdom of their regulations did not equal the
humanity of their motives. Totally unacquainted with the country they
were to govern, they devised a system for it, rather calculated to
impede than to promote its population.

{1733}

[Sidenote: Impolicy of the first regulation.]

Considering each male inhabitant both as a soldier and a planter, to
be provided with arms and ammunition for defence as well as with
utensils for cultivation, they adopted the pernicious resolution of
introducing such tenures for holding lands as were most favourable to
a military establishment. Each tract granted, was considered as a
military fief, for which the possessor was to appear in arms, and take
the field, when required for the public defence. The grants were in
_tail male_; and, on the termination of the estate, the lands were to
revert to the trust, to be re-granted to such persons as would most
benefit the colony. Any lands which should not be enclosed, cleared,
and cultivated, within eighteen years, reverted to the trust. The
importation of negroes, and of rum, was prohibited; and those only
were allowed to trade with the Indians, to whom a license should be
given.

However specious the arguments in support of these regulations might
appear to the trustees, human ingenuity could scarcely have devised a
system better calculated to defeat their hopes.

The tenure of lands drove the settlers into Carolina where that
property might be acquired in fee simple. The prohibition of slavery
rendered the task of opening the country, too heavy to be successfully
undertaken in that burning climate; and the restriction on their trade
to the West Indies, deprived them of the only market for lumber, an
article in which they abounded.

{1734}

Mr. Oglethorpe's first employment was the construction of
fortifications for defence. He erected one fort on the