Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/377

Rh Oglethorpe received with kindness these friendly demonstrations.

It was on the first day of February when the little band of colonists pitched their tents on the banks of the river. Oglethorpe's tent stood beneath four tall pine trees, and for twelve months he had no other shelter. Here in this beautiful region was the town of Savannah laid out, according as it stands at the present day, with its regular streets and large square in each quarter of the town, whilst through the primeval woods a road was formed to the great garden by the river-side, which was soon to become a nursery-ground for European fruits and the wonderful natural products of America.

Such was the commencement of the commonwealth of Georgia. The province became already in its infancy an asylum for the oppressed and suffering, not only among the people of Great Britain, but of Europe itself. The fame of this asylum in the wilderness rang through Europe. The Moravian brethren, persecuted in their native land, received an invitation from England, of a free passage to Georgia for them and for their children, provisions for a whole season, a grant of land to be held free for ten years, with all the privileges and rights of native English citizens, and the freedom to worship God in their own way; this invitation they joyfully accepted.

On the last day of October, in the year 1733, with their Bibles and hymn books, with their covered wagons, in which were conveyed their aged and their little children, and one wagon containing their few worldly goods, the little Evangelical band set forth in the name of God, after prayers and benedictions, on their long pilgrimage. They sailed up the stately Rhine between its vineyards and ruined castles, and thence, forth upon the great sea in the depth of winter. When they lost sight of land, and the majesty of ocean was revealed to them, they burst forth into a hymn of praise. When the sea was calm and &emsp;