ly,
was received, under a discharge of cannon, by about forty of the
freeholders under arms, which, he was pleased to say, was more than he
expected. "His stay, being very likely to be short, many successively
sought audience of him, whose affairs he despatched with his usual
promptness."

"On the 17th he set off on his Indian expedition to Coweta: he
proceeded up the river, in his cutter, with Lieutenant Dunbar, Ensign
Leman, and Mr. Eyre, a cadet, besides attendants and servants. At
the Uchee town, twenty-five miles above Ebenezer, he quitted
water-conveyance, having appointed several of the Indian traders to
wait his coming there, with a number of horses, as well for sumpter as
riding, and also some rangers to assist."

On this journey, computed to be over three hundred miles, both he and
his attendants met with many and great hardships and fatigue. They
were obliged to traverse a continuous wilderness, where there was no
road, and seldom any visible track; and their Indian guides led them
often, unavoidably, through tangled thickets, and deep and broken
ravines, and across swamps, or bogs, where the horses mired and
plunged to the great danger of the riders. They had to pass large
rivers on rafts, and cause the horses to wade and swim; and to ford
others. During most of the way their resolute leader was under the
necessity of sleeping in the open air, wrapped in his cloak or
a blanket, and with his portmanteau for a pillow; or, if the
night-weather was uncomfortable, or rainy, a covert was constructed of
cypress boughs, spread over poles. For two hundred miles there was not
a hut to be met with; nor a human face to be seen, unless by accident
that of some Indian hunter traversing the woods. At length they
arrived at Coweta, one of the principal towns of the Muscoghe, or
Creek Indians, where the Chiefs of all the tribes were assembled,
on the 11th of August. "Thus did this worthy man, to protect the
settlement, which with so much pecuniary expense and devotedness of
time, he had planted, now expose himself to the hazards and toils of a
comfortless expedition, that would have proved unsurmountable to one
of a less enterprising spirit and steady resolutions." Oglethorpe,
and his suite, were received with great cordiality; and, after the
necessary introduction to individuals, and a little refreshment and
rest, a grand convention was formed. The assembly was arranged in due
order, with the solemn introductory ceremoni