which might have been submitted to by them with as good a grace as they were by the Saltzburgers at Ebenezer and the Scots at Darien, “who murmured not, neither were unthankful.”  In fact, it was very apparent, that by their indolence and improvidence these dissatisfied ones had brought upon themselves the chief of the evils which they suffered.  Their allegations, therefore, were unreasonable, and the disposition which dictated them criminally ungrateful.  But Oglethorpe, instead of reproaching the discontented for their ingratitude, and the murmurers for their unkind imputations, stifled his own justifiable feelings of displeasure, in the hope that such forbearance would refute the injustice of theirs.  Well might the poet exclaim: 

  “What magnanimity!—­May ne’er again
     Unkind returns thy generous ardor chill,
   Nor causeless censure give thy bosom pain,
     Nor thankless hearts reward thy good with ill!

   “But honoring gratitude its column raise,
     To bear inscriptions of deserved praise;
   And when through age the record is obscure,
    A nobler let posterity procure.”

CHAPTER XIII.

Oglethorpe goes to Charlestown, South Carolina, to open his Commission—­Comes back to Savannah—­Gives encouragement to the Planters—­Returns to Frederica—­Excursion to Coweta—­Forms a Treaty with the Upper Creeks—­Receives at Augusta a delegation of the Chickasaws and Cherokees, who complain of having been poisoned by the Traders—­On his return to Savannah is informed of Spanish aggressions, and is authorized to make reprisals.

As Oglethorpe was appointed General and Commander in Chief of the military forces in South Carolina, as well as Georgia, he deemed it proper to pay a visit to Charlestown, in order to have this assigned rank duly notified to the Governor and people of the Province.  He, therefore, set out for that metropolis on the 10th of March, 1739; arrived on the 15th, and, on the 3d of April, had his commission opened and read in the Assembly.  In reference to the exercise of the authority which it conferred, some regulations in the military establishment were adopted.  On the 11th he returned to Savannah.  To encourage the industry of the planters, he proposed to those who would persevere in doing what they could in the culture of their lands, “a bounty of two shillings per bushel for all Indian corn, and one shilling per bushel for all potatoes, which they should raise over and above what the produce could be sold for after the next harvest[1].”

[Footnote 1:  STEPHENS, I. 460.]

On the 18th he went to Frederica; but was obliged, in the summer, to renew his visit to Savannah; and, on the evening of the 10th of July, was received, under a discharge of cannon, by about forty of the freeholders under arms, which, he was pleased to say, was more than he expected.  “His stay, being very likely to be short, many successively sought audience of him, whose affairs he despatched with his usual promptness.”