Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

246 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
province at exposed points. Special attention was given to Savannah.
The town was enclosed with palisades, its fortifications repaired, and
its garrison re-enforced. This was done not only to protect the seat of
government, but to afford an asylum to the people of the neighborhood
in the event of a savage outbreak. Ports Argyle, Frederica and
Augusta were likewise put in readiness to withstand an attack.
During the spring of 1761, Lieut.-Col. James Grant, to aid South
Carolina in subduing the Cherokees, arrived in Charleston with a body
of Highlanders. Re-enforced by local companies, he inarched at the
head of a column, 2,600 strong, to Fort Prince George, where in May
he met Atta-kulla-kulla, who urged him to delay his hostile expedition
until he could use his offices to secure peace. Friendly alike both to
the whites and to the Indians, he wished to avert bloodshed if possible,
and to protect his nation against an armed foe whose superior numbers
and munitions of war he was powerless to resist. But to the old chief's
entreaties, Colonel Grant turned a deaf ear, and pointing his sword
toward the heart of the Cherokee Nation, he issued his stern command:
'' Forward march!'' Four days later, at the foot of the mountains,
where Colonel Montgomery had been drawn into ambuscade, a bloody
fight ensued, in which the Indians, though offering a desperate resist
ance, were finally routed. Pressing on to the Indian Town of Etchoe,
he reduced it to ashes, after which, penetrating into a region beyond
the mountains, he sacked fourteen other towns; nor did he return to
Fort Prince George until his avenging sword had brought the Cherokee
nation to its knees. The campaign was most successful. The power
of the Cherokees was crushed, and there followed a peace which
remained unbroken until the time of the Revolution. Two years had
been consumed in these various expeditions against the Cherokees, but
not a cabin on the frontier of Georgia had been harmed. Oglethorpe's
humane spirit still enveloped the province in a mantle of protection.
His memory was a tower of defense. It guided a Reynolds. It coun
seled an Ellis. It inspired a Wright.
"Wlhen the danger of an Indian uprising was no longer imminent, a
crusade was launched by speculators for a removal of the seat of gov
ernment to Hardwicke, but Governor Wright did not look with favor
upon this proposal, and he soon put an end to the agitation by announc
ing his attitude upon the subject. To property owners in Savannah,
many of whom had erected substantial structures of brick, this decision
on the part of Governor Wright gave no little satisfaction. At the
same time it delivered a death-blow to Hardwicke, a town which sur
vives today only in the traditions of a remote past. For more than
150 years it has been numbered among the silent towns of Georgia.
Meanwhile important changes were taking place in the wider realm
of British affairs. As the result of the French and Indian wars, an
imperial territory north of the Great Lakes had been conquered. At
the same time, Acadie had been christened Nova Scotia. Gains in India
and on the Dark Continent had likewise augmented the dominions of
Great Britain.
Moreover, having learned that between Spain and France, each of
which was governed by a Bourbon, there existed a secret alliance grow
ing out of what is known in history as the "Family Compact," to which