granted and sold to certain individuals, associated in companies, by the title of the "Georgia Company," "Georgia Mississippi Company," and the "Tennessee Company," a vast tract of land lying within the limits of Georgia, for the consideration of a sum of money to be paid into the treasury of that State. Many individuals purchased lands from the different companies, at a great price, and settlements were rapidly taking place, when the whole scheme was at once blown to atoms. The purchase-money had scarcely been paid into the treasury by the respective companies, when Governor Matthews quitted his office, and was succeeded by a man of the name of Jackson, remarkable for his violent antipathy to the federal party and all their measures. No sooner was he established in his government, than he caused a bill to pass the legislature, declaring the sale of the Yazoo lands illegal and void. He next seized the records, and burnt them before the court. house in the presence of a majority of the assembly, who applauded the action. In vain did the purchasers and every honest man remonstrate against such an infamous proceeding, but neither money nor land could they obtain. The State of Georgia afterwards made over the lands to the United States, leaving it to the general government to satisfy the claims of the creditors. But though it is now eighteen years since this nefari

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SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.

ous transaction took place, their claims yet remain unliquidated, and even opposed by a majority of the house of representatives.

The Georgians are said to be great œconomists; that is to say, they hate to part with their money even for the most useful purposes. In the house of assembly, a member who aims at popularity has only to oppose all public works and improvements that are likely to take the money out of the pockets of the people, and he is sure to gain his end. The planters are poor and miserable when living on their plantations, though perhaps possessed of immense landed property. They have less of the free and generous extravagance of the Carolinian planters, though, like them, they are always in debt, and every one complains of the difficulty of getting money from them. Horsejockeying and racing are favourite amusements with the people, and they do not scruple to bet high on those occasions. Upon the whole, they possess all the bad but very few of the good quali ties of their Carolinian neighbours. Gouging, and other unfair fighting, is, however, equally practised in both places, and individuals of each will frequently pluck out an eye, or bite off a nose, for the honour of their respective States:

The raising of silk and the planting of vines were the principal objects of the first settlers in Georgia; and though it appears that the soil

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and climate are congenial, to both these articles, yet the colony remained poor till the introduction of rice and cotton, which are now its staple commodities.

The country was settled in 1733 by General Oglethorpe, who conducted the first colonists in person. They fixed upon a large plain on the banks of the Savannah river, about ten miles from the sea, for the building of a town. This settlement, now the town of Savannab, at first consisted of no more than 100 persons, but before the end of the year the number had increased to upwards of 600. In 1735 the population of Georgia was increased by the arrival of some Scotch Highlanders. Their natural courage induced them to accept of some lands that were offered them on the southern frontier, near the river Altamaha, in order to form an establishment that might prove a defence to the colony, when necessary, against the attacks of the Spaniards in Florida. There they built the towns of New Inverness and Frederica, and several of their countrymen went over and settled among them. A number of German protestants, driven out of Saltzburg by the intemperate zeal of a fanatical priest, also embarked for Georgia about the same time, in order to enjoy peace and liberty of conscience. At first they settled in the neighbourhood of the capital; but

afterwards judging it proper to be at a greater distance, they built the town of Ebenezer.

In these four settlements, some people were found more inclined to trade than agriculture; they therefore separated from the rest, in order to build the city of Augusta, on the banks of the Savannah, about 236 miles distant from the sea. The neighbouring territory is fertile in an extraordinary degree; but though that circumstance adds to the convenience of the settlers, it was not the motive which induced them to fix upon this situation; the convenience of trading with the Indians led them to fix here, and their project was so successful, that as early as 1739 six hundred people were employed in that trade only. Augusta is now a populous city, and the seat of government in Georgia; and though the traffic in furs is now no longer of any importance, yet Augusta is the medium of a very extensive trade between the upper and lower parts of the State. Scows, carrying each 500 bags of cotton, besides numerous barges and sloops, are continually passing between Augusta and Savannah; at which latter place the productions of the interior are shipped for every quarter of the globe. Augusta contains about 4000 inhabitants, several handsome houses, churches, and stores. The town is regularly laid out, and is in many respects superior to Savannah. Three

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newspapers are published there in the course of the week.

St. Mary's is the frontier town of Georgia, on the confines of Florida, about 95 miles from Savannah. It is a small town, of no great importance, otherwise than as a receptacle for imposition and worthless characters. Smuggling and shuffling tricks are carried on here with success; and it was the medium for evading the embargo laws. It is separated from Florida only by the St. Mary's river. Vessels arrive here from the northern states, and run their cargoes in small boats across to the Spanish coast, from whence they are shipped to the West Indies. I met with several persons at Colonel Shelman's, who were going to St. Mary's on these mercantile speculations. The road from Savannah to St. Mary's is very indifferent, and the stage goes no further than Darien; from thence the mail and passengers proceed in a canoe, for upwards of forty miles coastwise, between the numerous islands and the sea. In the spring of 1808 the mail boat was lost. in its passage; and two monks, who happened to be passengers in it, were drowned.

The town of Savannah is built upon an open sandy plain, which forms a cliff, or, as the Americans term it, a bluff, by the shore, about 50 feet above the level of the river. It is well laid out for a warm climate, in the form of a parallelogram,