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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 123
discomforts of the place nearly drove him wild. Nor was he pleased
with the manner in which Oglethorpe treated him. The good man, who
had to attend to everybody's claims all over the Colony, and, in addition,
was providing against, threatened attacks from without, grew impatient
with the incessant complaints made against Charles Wesley, who seemed
to be always-in hot water. Moreover, in the ecclesiastical attempts of
the latter to set everything on a basis of thorough propriety, there was
present a distinct element of insubordination to civil authority, which
was beginning to show disintegrating effects in the attitude of the com
munity at large. Being a thorough disciplinarian Oglethorpe keenly
resented the injudicious meddling; and he visited his wrath upon his
secretary in some acts of petty tyranny for which he afterwards expressed
regret.
"In the beginning of April, John Wesley came to Frederica and
preached in the new store-house. He had hoped to set matters right by
his presence but was unsuccessful. We can picture the two brothers,
sitting together under the broad oak, which is still pointed out on the
island as having afforded them shelter and can be seen by tourists on
board the vessels which pass through the channel. Under it they no
doubt discussed the worries and trials of colonial life. John Wesley
decided to change places for a time with his brother; and Charles seems
to have been much happier in Savannah. But he found that Georgia was
no place for him; and, on July 26, 1736, at noon, he took his final leave
of Savannah, surprised that he 'felt no more joy in leaving such a scene
of sorrow.' In the friendly parting with Oglethorpe, the latter advised
him to take a wife, as it would be likely to increase his usefulness.''
Savannah may not inaptly be called the cradle of Methodism. Both
of the Wesleys, when in Georgia, labored within the bounds of the Church
of England; but the seeds of the great Wesleyan movement were never
theless here planted. To quote John Wesley himself -. '' The first rise to
Methodism was in 1729, when four of us met together at Oxford. The
second was at Savannah in 1736, when twenty or thirty persons met at
my house. The' last was at London, on this day, May first, 1738, when
forty or fifty of us agreed to meet together ev-ery Wednesday evening.''
Of the four young men who met together at Oxford, all visited Savannah,
John and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ingham and George Whitefield,
three of them having the charge of churches in the colony. Verily, Savan
nah has every right to be a stronghold of Methodism.
To quote a local historian, well-versed in the antiquities of Savannah:
"Another event which lends luster to the small settlement on the
banks of the Savannah River was the establishment of a Sunday-school
in the parish of Christ Church by Reverend John AVesley, nearly fifty
years before Robert Raikes began his system of Sunday instruction in
Gloucester, England, and eighty years before the first Sunday-school in
America, modeled after his plan, was established in New York. . .
This Sunday-school begun by Wesley, was perpetuated by Whitefield at
Bethesda, and has continued until the present—constituting the oldest
Sunday-school in the world. Nor does this end the claim of Savannah
upon John Wesley. Here in Savannah was his first book of hymns writ
ten, though it was published in Charleston, in 1737. But one copy is
known to be in existence, discovered in England in 1878. Rare as any