Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/95

 1742-a] Spanish wars. 63 enormous advantages on the side of those who acted on the defensive. Over and above the physical difficulties of the country, the Indians, who were little but an encumbrance to an organised invading force, were invaluable in harassing an enemy advancing through their own country. It was clear too that the previous failure had done nothing to dishearten the settlers or to shake their confidence in their general. The Spaniards were worsted in two engagements near Frederica, and their attempts to attack from the sea were equally unsuccessful. The colony might now reckon itself safe against foreign invasion. It had not escaped other dangers almost of necessity inherent in its origin and composition. Care was taken so far as possible that the colonists, albeit debtors and paupers, should not be the refuse of society. But men who had failed in England were not likely as a rule to make thrifty and industrious colonists, save under exceptionally favourable conditions ; and in Georgia the conditions were distinctly unfavourable. The climate was one in which only men of unusual resolution and physical energy, such as were the Salzburgers, could work hard. In the hope of enforcing industry and sobriety, the Trustees forbade the importation of negroes and of ardent spirits. An influential party sprang up among the settlers, which insisted that both the prohibited articles were necessaries of life. Oglethorpe's virtues were great and many; but there was along with them a good deal of the benevolent despot. It is clear that he did not make unpleasant restrictions smoother by his administration. He also came into conflict with John Wesley, who, accompanied by his brother Charles, had come out as a minister. Two such men as Oglethorpe and Wesley, strenuous, self-willed, and sustained by a firm conviction of the integrity of their own motives, could hardly fail to quarrel. Wesley, after more than one act of indiscretion and display of ill-temper, left the colony with a sense of martyrdom. In 1743 Oglethorpe also departed, never to return. If Georgia had not become all that its founders hoped, one may at least say that Oglethorpe had attained a far larger measure of success than most men could have won with such material. Broken and shiftless men could not be made at once into prosperous and hard-working citizens. But the colony held together: it fulfilled its function as an outpost against the Spanish invasion: it had given the settlers a life far better than that which they left behind. Oglethorpe's associates had loyally and dis- interestedly discharged their self-imposed duties, and had administered the colony as a trust for public ends, uninfluenced by any prospect of personal gain. But they might fairly think that, having launched the colony, they were absolved from the duty of supporting and controlling it. In 1752, just twenty years after the foundation of the colony, the Trustees resigned their charter; and Georgia passed under the direct government of the Crown. The restrictions on slavery and the use of CH. II.