ven opportunity would rise
out of old slough and briar. He was personally open to the appeal of
still another class of unfortunate men. He had seen upon the Continent
the distress of the poor and humble Protestants in Catholic countries.
Folk of this kind--from France, from Germany--had been going in a thin
stream for years to the New World. But by his plan more might be enabled
to escape petty tyranny or persecution. He had influence, and his
scheme appealed to the humane thought of his day--appealed, too, to the
political thought. In America there was that debatable and unoccupied
land south of Charles Town in South Carolina. It would be very good to
settle it, and none had taken up the idea with seriousness since Azilia
had failed. Such a colony as was now contemplated would dispose of
Spanish claims, serve as a buffer colony between Florida and South
Carolina, and establish another place of trade. The upshot was that the
Crown granted to Oglethorpe and twenty associates the unsettled land
between the Savannah and the Altamaha, with a westward depth that
was left quite indefinite. This territory, which was now severed from
Carolina, was named Georgia after his Majesty King George II, and
Oglethorpe and a number of prominent men became the trustees of the new
colony. They were to act as such for twenty-one years, at the end of
which time Georgia should pass under the direct government of the Crown.
Parliament gave to the starting of things ten thousand pounds, and
wealthy philanthropic individuals followed suit with considerable
donations. The trustees assembled, organized, set to work. A
philanthropic body, they drew from the like minded far and near. Various
agencies worked toward getting together and sifting the colonists for
Georgia. Men visited the prisons for debtors and others. They did
not choose at random, but when they found the truly unfortunate and
undepraved in prison they drew them forth, compounded with their
creditors, set the prisoners free, and enrolled them among the
emigrants. Likewise they drew together those who, from sheer poverty,
welcomed this opportunity. And they began a correspondence with
distressed Protestants on the Continent. They also devised and used all
manner of safeguards against imposition and the inclusion of any who
would be wholly burdens, moral or physical. So it happened that, though
misfortune had laid on almost all a heavy hand, the early colonists to
Georgia were by no mean