y there, and could take
as many debtors out of prison as he chose. He thought it would be a good
thing to take them somewhere where they could work and earn their
living. The king who was then on the throne was named King George, so
Oglethorpe called his new colony Georgia.

It was now the year 1733, a hundred years after Lord Baltimore had come
to Maryland. General Oglethorpe took many of the debtors out of prison,
and very glad they were to get out, you may be sure. He landed with them
on the banks of a fine river away down South, where he laid out a town
which he named Savannah.

The happy debtors now found themselves in a broad and beautiful land,
where they could prove whether they were ready to work or not. They were
not long in doing this. Right away they began to cut down trees, and
build houses, and plant fields, and very soon a pretty town was to be
seen and food plants were growing in the fields. And very happy men and
women these poor people were.

General Oglethorpe knew as well as William Penn that the land did not
belong to the king. He sent for the Indian chiefs and told them the land
was theirs, and offered to pay them for it. They were quite willing to
sell, and soon he had all the land he wanted, and what is more, he had
the Indians for friends.

But if he had no trouble with the Indians, he had a good deal with the
Spaniards of Florida. They said that Georgia was a part of Florida and
that the English had no right there. And they sent an army and tried to
drive them out.

I fancy they did not know that Oglethorpe was an old soldier, but he
soon showed them that he knew how to fight. He drove back their armies
and took their ships; and they quickly made up their minds that they had
better let the English alone. There was plenty of land for both, for the
Spaniards had only one town in Florida. This was St. Augustine.

Before long some Germans came from Europe and settled in the new
colony. People came also from other parts of Europe. Corn was planted
for food, and some of the colonists raised silkworms and made silk. But
in the end, cotton came to be the chief crop of the colony.

General Oglethorpe lived to be a very old man. He did not die till long
after the American Revolution. Georgia was then a flourishing state, and
the little town he had started on the banks of the Savannah River was a
fine city, with broad streets, fine mansions, and beautiful shade trees.
I think the old general must