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offered a buffalo skin, painted on the inside with the
head and feathers of an eagle.
‘The feathers of the eagle are soft, and signify love; the buffalo skin is
warm, and is the emblem of protection.
Therefore love and protect our little families.’
On the first day of February, or, according to the new style of computation, on the twelfth, the colonists, on board of a small sloop and periaguas, arrived at the place intended for the town, and before evening encamped on shore near the edge of the river.
Four beautiful pines protected the tent of
Oglethorpe, who, for near a twelve-
month, sought no other shelter.
In the midst of the pleasant region, the streets of
Savannah were laid out with greatest regularity; in each quarter a public square was reserved; the houses were planned and constructed on one model—each a frame of sawed timber, twenty-four feet by sixteen, floored with rough deals, the sides with feather-edged boards unplaned, and the roof shingled.
Such a house
Oglethorpe afterwards hired as his residence, when in
Savannah.
Erelong a walk, cut through the native woods, led to the large garden on the river side, destined as a nursery of
European fruit and of the wonderful products of
America.
Thus began the commonwealth of
Georgia.
The humane reformer of prison discipline was already the father of a state, ‘the place of refuge for the distressed people of Britain and the persecuted Protestants of
Europe.’
The fame of the hero penetrated the wilderness;
and, in May, the chief men of the eight towns of the
Lower Muskhogees, accepting his invitation, came down to make an alliance.
Long
King, the tall and aged civil chief of the Oconas, spoke for them all:— ‘The Great Spirit, who dwells every where around, ’
