[Footnote 1:  In the Impartial Inquiry, &c. p.84, is a deposition which thus begins—­“CHARLES DEMPSEY, of the Parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, aged fifty-four years and upwards, maketh that in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five, this deponent went with the Honorable James Oglethorpe, Esq. to Georgia, in America, and was sent from thence by the said Oglethorpe to St. Augustine with letters to the Governor there; that this deponent continued going to and from thence until November, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-six,” &c.]

On his return to Savannah he sent forward Captain Hugh Mackay, Jr. with a company of rangers, to travel by land to Darien, in order to make observations on the intervening country, to compute the distance, and to judge of the practicability of a passable road; and Tomo Chichi furnished them with Indian guides.

The next day he attended a military review; after which, he addressed the assembled people in an animated speech, in which his congratulations, counsels, and good wishes were most affectionately expressed.  And he reminded them that, though it was yet “a day of small things,” experience must have strengthened the inducements to industry and economy, by shewing them that, where they had been regarded, the result had been not only competence, but thrift.

He then took leave of them, and went down to the ships at Tybee.

CHAPTER IX.

Special destination of the last Emigrants—­Oglethorpe makes arrangements for their transportation to the Island of St. Simons—­Follows with Charles Wesley—­Arrives and lays out a Town to be called Frederica—­Visits the Highlanders at Darien—­Returns and superintends the building of a Fort—­All the people arrive—­Barracks for the Soldiers put up, and a Battery erected—­Visited by Tomo Chichi, and Indians, who make a cession of the Islands—­Reconnoitres the Islands and gives names to them—­Commissioners from St. Augustine—­Apparently amicable overtures—­Oglethorpe goes to Savannah to hold a conference with a Committee from South Carolina respecting trade with the Indians—­Insolent demand of the Spaniards—­Oglethorpe embarks for England.

As the destination of the large number of intended settlers, which had now arrived was “for the purpose of laying out a county and building a new town near the southern frontier of Georgia,” and the people were waiting to be conducted by the General to “the place of habitation,” he was very active in making arrangements for their transportation, and, on the evening of the 16th of February, 1739, set out in the scout-boat,[1] through the inward channels, to meet, at Jekyl sound, a sloop that he had chartered to take on some of the more efficient men as pioneers, and to make some preparation for the reception of the emigrants.[2] He took with him Charles Wesley, who was to be his Secretary as well as Chaplain; Mr. Ingham having gone by a previous opportunity; and left John Wesley and Delamotte at Savannah.[3]