[Footnote 1:  Appendix, No.  XXIV.]

On the departure of the fleet, the place was no longer blockaded on the sea side; of course the army began to despair of forcing the place to surrender.  The provincials, under Colonel Vanderdussen, enfeebled by the heat of the climate, dispirited by fruitless efforts, and visited by sickness, marched away in large bodies.[1] The General himself, laboring under a fever, and finding his men as well as himself worn out by fatigue, and rendered unfit for action, reluctantly abandoned the enterprise.  On the fourth of July everything which he had on the island was reembarked, the troops transported to the continent, and the whole army began their march for Georgia; the Carolina regiment first, and the General with his troops in the rear.  On this occasion a very notable answer of the Indian Chief is reported; for, being asked by some of the garrison to march off with them, “No!” said he, “I will not stir a foot till I see every man belonging to me marched off before me; for I have always been the first in advancing towards an enemy, and the last in retreating."[2]

[Footnote 1:  Dr. RAMSAY, the historian of South Carolina, with his usual frankness and impartiality, closes his narrative of this siege with the following remark.  “On the 13th of August the Carolina regiment had reached Charlestown.  Though not one of them had been killed by the enemy, their number was reduced, fourteen, by disease and accidents.”]

[Footnote 2:  London Magazine, Vol.  XXVII. p. 23.]

“Thus ended the expedition against St. Augustine, to the great disappointment of both Georgia and Carolina.  Many reflections were afterwards thrown out against General Oglethorpe for his conduct during the whole enterprise.  He, on the other hand, declared that he had no confidence in the Provincials, for that they refused to obey his orders, and abandoned the camp, and returned home in large numbers, and that the assistance from the fleet failed him in the utmost emergency.  To which we may add, the place was so strongly fortified both by nature and art, that probably the attempt must have failed though it had been conducted by the ablest officer, and executed by the best disciplined troops."[1]

[Footnote 1:  HARRIS’s Voyage, II. 340.]

The difficulties which opposed his success, showed the courage that could meet, and the zeal that strove to surmount them; and, while we lament the failure, we perceive that it was owing to untoward circumstances which he could not have foreseen; and disappointments from a quarter whence he most confidently expected and depended upon continued cooperation and ultimate accomplishment.  Referring to this, in a speech in the British house of Peers, the Duke of Argyle made these remarks:  “One man there is, my Lords, whose natural generosity, contempt of danger, and regard for the public, prompted him to obviate the designs of the Spaniards, and to attack them in their own territories; a man, whom by long acquaintance I can confidently affirm to have been equal to his undertaking, and to have learned the art of war by a regular education, who yet miscarried in the design only for want of supplies necessary to a possibility of success."[1]