descends with the
utmost constraint. What various misfortunes may reduce the rich,
the industrious, to danger of a prison,--to a moral certainty of
starving!--These are the persons that may relieve themselves, and
strengthen Georgia by resorting thither, and Great Britain by their
departure.

"With a view to the relief of people in the condition I have
described, his Majesty has, this present year, incorporated a
considerable number of persons of quality and distinction, and
invested a large tract of South Carolina in them, by the name of
Georgia, in trust, to be distributed among the necessitous. Those
Trustees not only give land to the unhappy, who go thither, but are
also empowered to receive the voluntary contributions of charitable
persons to enable them to furnish the poor adventurers with all
necessaries for the expense of the voyage, occupying the land, and
supporting them, until they find themselves settled. So that now the
unfortunate will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long service
to pay for their passage, for they may be carried _gratis_ into a land
of liberty and plenty, where they will immediately find themselves in
possession of a competent estate, in a happier climate than they knew
before,--and they are unfortunate indeed if they cannot forget their
sorrows."[1]

[Footnote 1: _New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South
Carolina and Georgia_. London. 1733. p. 30--33.]

When the Trustees had got a list of a sufficient number of persons
disposed to emigrate, they resolved to send them over.

A vessel was hired to convey the emigrants, fitted up for their
accommodation, and supplied with stores, not only for the voyage, but
for their support after their arrival. The Trustees also furnished
tools for building, implements for husbandry, domestic utensils,
and various other articles; and JAMES OGLETHORPE, Esq., one of the
Trustees, and the most zealous and active promoter of the enterprise,
having signified his readiness to go with the emigrants, and in the
same ship, in order to see that they were well treated, and to take
care of them after their landing, was clothed with power to exercise
the functions of Governor of the Colony.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Account, shewing the progress of the Colony of Georgia
from its first settlement; published by order of the Honorable
Trustees, by Benjamin Martin, Secretary_. London. 1741.]

He was prompted to engage in this undertaking by the spirit of