dents, and in January, 1736, sailed into Tybee Road, and at
once the officer in charge set about sending the emigrants to their
destination. All who so desired, at their own expense, were permitted to
go up to Savannah and Joseph's Town. On account of a deficiency in
boats, all could not be removed at once. Seven days after their arrival
sixty-one were sent away, and on February 4th forty-six more proceeded
to their settlement on the Alatamaha,--all of whom being under the
charge of Hugh MacKay. Thus the advanced station, the post of danger,
was guarded by a bold and hardy race; brave and robust by nature,
virtuous by inclination, inured to fatigue and willing to labor:

"To distant climes, a dreary scene, they go,
Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe,
Far different these from all that charmed before,
The various terrors of that distant shore;
Those matted woods where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling;
Those poisonous fields with rank luxuriance crown'd,
Where the dark scorpion gathers death around,
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake,
Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey,
And savage men, more murderous still than they.
Far different these from every former scene."
--Goldsmith.

On their first landing at Savannah, some of the people from South
Carolina endeavored to discourage them by saying that the Spaniards
would shoot them as they stood upon the ground where they contemplated
erecting their homes. "Why then," said the Highlanders in reply, "we
will beat them out of their fort and shall have houses ready built to
live in." The spot designated for their town is located twenty miles
northwest from St. Simons and ten above Frederica, and situated on the
mainland, close to a branch of the Alatamaha river, on a bluff twenty
feet high, then surrounded on all sides with woods. The soil is a
brackish sand. Formerly Fort King George, garrisoned by an independent
company, stood within a mile and a half of the new town, but had been
abandoned and destroyed on account of a want of supplies and
communication with Carolina. The village was called New Inverness, in
honor of the city they had left in Scotland; while the surrounding
district was named Darien, on account of the settlement attempted on the
Isthmus of Darien, in 1698-1701. Under the direction of