beauty was before them; an ample and lofty plain around them;
and, though spring had not yet garnished the scene with her vernal
glories, sprinkling the woods with gay wild-flowers and charming
creepers, and making the atmosphere balmy with the bay, the jessamine,
and the magnolia, yet, even in winter, were there sufficient charms in
the spot to fix on it the heart of Oglethorpe, and cause him to select
it as the home of his waiting colony. "The landscape," he writes, "is
very agreeable, the stream being wide and bordered with high woods on
both sides," On the northern end of this bluff they found a
trading-house and an Indian village called Yamacraw. The chief of this
little tribe was Tomochichi; and the trader's name was Musgrove, married
to a half-breed, named Mary. By an ancient treaty of the Creeks with the
Governor of South Carolina, no white settlement was allowed to be made
south of the Savannah River without their consent.

Satisfied with the eligibility of this situation, Oglethorpe applied to
Mary Musgrove, who could speak both Indian and English, to obtain from
the tribe their agreement to his settlement. They at first appeared
uneasy and threatened to take up arms, but were pacified by her
representations of the benefits which would accrue to them; and she
gained from them a provisional treaty, until the consent of the whole
nation could be obtained. The Indians, once made sensible of the
advantages they would derive from the erection of a town within their
limits, hailed their coming with joy and busied themselves in many
offices of service and regard. The land selected, the consent of the
tribe obtained, and the services of Mary secured as an interpreter in
their subsequent intercourse with the red men, Oglethorpe returned to
Beaufort on January 24th; and the Sunday after was made a day of praise
and thanksgiving for their safe arrival in America, and the happy
auspices which clustered round the opening prospects of Georgia. During
the stay of the colonists in South Carolina they were treated with
genuine hospitality, and when they departed they were laden with most
substantial and valuable tokens of interest and benevolence.

Leaving the ship at Port Royal, Oglethorpe engaged a sloop of seventy
tons, and five plantation-boats, and embarked the colonists on Tuesday,
the 30th, but, detained by a storm, they did not reach their destination
until the afternoon of Thursday, February 12 (new style), 1733. The