t; the alligators.--General
Oglethorpe took over thirty-five families to America in 1733. They
settled on a high bank of the Savannah[5] River, about twenty miles
from the sea. The general laid out a town with broad, straight,
handsome streets, and with many small squares or parks. He called
the settlement Savannah from the Indian name of the river on which
it stands.

[Illustration: SAVANNAH, AS GENERAL OGLETHORPE LAID IT OUT IN 1733.]

The people of Charleston, South Carolina, were glad to have some
English neighbors south of them that would help them fight the
Spaniards of Florida, who hated the English, and wanted to drive them
out. They gave the newcomers a hundred head of cattle, a drove of
hogs, and twenty barrels of rice.

The emigrants set to work with a will, cutting down the forest trees,
building houses, and planting gardens. There were no idlers to be
seen at Savannah: even the children found something to do that was
helpful.

Nothing disturbed the people but the alligators. They climbed up the
bank from the river to see what was going on. But the boys soon taught
them not to be too curious. When one monster was found impudently
prowling round the town, they thumped him with sticks till they
fairly beat the life out of him. After that, the alligators paid no
more visits to the settlers.

[Footnote 5: Savannah (Sa-van'ah).]

105. Arrival of some German emigrants; "Ebenezer";[6] "blazing"
trees.--After a time, some German Protestants, who had been cruelly
driven out of their native land on account of their religion, came
to Georgia. General Oglethorpe gave them a hearty welcome. He had
bought land of the Indians, and so there was plenty of room for all.
The Germans went up the river, and then went back a number of miles
into the woods; there they picked out a place for a town. They called
their settlement by the Bible name of Ebenezer,[7] which means "The
Lord hath helped us."

There were no roads through the forests, so the new settlers "blazed"
the trees; that is, they chopped a piece of bark off, so that they
could find their way through the thick woods when they wanted to go
to Savannah. Every tree so marked stood like a guide-post; it showed
the traveller which way to go until he came in sight of the next one.

[Illustration: THE "BLAZED" TREES.]

[Footnote 6: Ebenezer (Eb-e-ne'zer).]

[Footnote 7: See I Sam. vii. 12.]

106. Trying to make silk; the queen's American dress.--The settler