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92 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
in addition to which, at either end of the village, there was a trust lot.
Between Joseph-Town and Savannah was Sir Francis Bathhurst's plan
tation, Walter Augustine's settlement, Captain Williams' plantation,
Mrs. Matthews' plantation, Horseshoe Quarter, and a tract of land
reserved by the Indians as a place of encampment. Later the Moravians
built an Indian schoolhouse which they called Irene, at a point on the
river, not far from the Matthews place, reference to which will be made
later. But none of these rural communities prospered. The story of
one is the story o£ all. It was not until African slaves were brought
into the colony that the river bottom and sea-island plantations could
be worked with' profit. Take Abercorn, for example. Out of the ten
families resident here in 1733 not one remained in 1737. John Brodie,
with twelve servants, then occupied the settlement but his stock of
patience was exhausted in three years. It was, in each case, a losing bat
tle with malarial conditions. Only negroes accustomed to a sub-tropical
sun could till these swampy lands. The work was ill suited to colonists
reared in the mild air of England.
Thus from the beginning the end was foreshadowed. In 1733 the
first lighthouse to throw its beams upon the ocean from Georgia head
lands was commenced on Tybee Island, at the extreme northern end.
When completed, the lighthouse was to measure ninety feet. Here was
stationed a guard to command the mouth of the Savannah River. With
the influx of emigrants a number of plantations were settled to the south
and west of the Savannah, on Augustine Greek, on Wilmington Island,
at Beaulieu, on the Little Ogeechee and even on the Great Ogeechee,
but none of these colonists found a planter's life on the Georgia coast,
under prevailing conditions, a bed of roses.
BETHANY.—Five miles northwest of Bbenezer a settlement was planted by Wil
liam DeBrahm, in 1751. He established here 160 Germans. Most of the new
comers were either friends or relatives of the settlers at Ebenezer; and between
the towns a road was opened across Ebenezer Creek. The settlers probably supplied
the filatures at Bbenezer with cocoons. There is no evidence that they were them
selves engaged in the manufacture of silk. The town was little more than an agri
cultural community and was fated to perish amid the clash of hostilities with
England.
GOSHEN.—Goshen was located about ten miles below Ebenezer, near the road
leading to Savannah. It was another rural town of the pious Germans destined to
become extinct soon after the Revolution. According to DeBrahm, there were 1,500
Salzburgers in Georgia, when the wave of emigration from Germany reached flood-
tide.
THUNDERBOLT: How THE NAME OEIGINATED.—Five miles to the southeast of
Savannah lies Thunderbolt. Guarding one of the rear approaches to the city, it was
the site of early fortifications. Here also an important garrison was stationed during
the Civil war. As for the origin of the name, there is still in existence an old lette'r
written by Oglethorpe, in which he traces the derivation to a rock which was here
shattered by a thunderbolt, causing a spring to gush from the ground, which con
tinued ever afterwards to emit the odor of brimstone. At present, Thunderbolt is
one of the many playgrounds to which the population of Savannah resorts in
summer. It was also until 1916 a place where refreshments were served to patrons who
were not strict prohibitionists.