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GEORGIA AND GEOEGIANS 277
participate in the haul. The Georgia schooner took a position beyond the bars and
some distance in advance of the two barges, where it quietly lay in wait. On the
fifth day, a vessel was sighted above the horizon. It proved to be Captain Maitland's
ship, with the powder on. board, for which the patriots were looking, but the captain,
observing the Georgia schooner, suspected at once some evil design, and, without
trying to enter the river, he turned around and put back to sea. Instantly Captain
Bowen started in pursuit. He was an experienced sailor, the schooner was com
paratively light, and, under his skillful manipulation, it cut the waters like an arrow.
The fugitive vessel was soon overtaken; and, with the help of the South Carolinians,
the military stores on board were seized.
Georgia's share of the prize was 9,000 pounds of powder, a quantity which was
none too largo for her needs, in view of her exposed water front; but, importuned
by the Continental Congress, she sent over half of the amount to Philadelphia to
meet the needs of the northern colonies and to be distributed among the embryo
armies which were then being organized to protect them. It has often been said to
the disparagmeut of Georgia that she was the last of the original thirteen colonies
to lower the English flag. But she was the youngest member of the sisterhood; she
was in need of the mother country's protection against threatened troubles with
the Indians; she possessed an excellent chief-magistrate in Governor Wright, and she
bore.tho favorite name of the House of Brunswick. There was much to justify her
in holding back until the last moment. But, having espoused the cause of freedom,
it was in no sulky mood that she entered the struggle; and Georgia must be credited
with the first capture -made by the first vessel commissioned for naval warfare in
the Revolution.
However, this was not the powder which Governor Wright was expecting from the
British depot of supplies, in consequence of a letter addressed by him to General
Gage some weeks earlier. The helpless condition of the province had induced the
governor to send dispatches to General Gage and also to Admiral Graves, asking for
immediate re-enforcements. But the letters were intercepted by good whigs who
suspected the character of the contents and who, using the same envelopes, substi
tuted fictitious enclosures, stating that the situation in Georgia was perfectly tranquil.
Though the letters in due time reached the proper destination, there was naturally no
response; and Governor Wright was puzzled for an explanation until years after
wards, when he chanced to meet General Gage in London.—Ibid. Vol. II.
TYBEE: FIRST CAPTURE OP REVOLUTION HEKE MADE.—On Tybee Island, at the
mouth of the Savannah River, the first lighthouse on the Georgia coast was built
under the supervision of Oglethorpe, in 1733. The present handsome structure is
the tallest lighthouse between Charleston and St. Augustine. This was the scene
of the famous capture made by the first vessel commissioned for naval warfare during
the American Revolution. The boat was a converted schooner, officered by Com
modore Oliver Bowen and Capt. Joseph Habersham. To meet the exigencies of the
time, it was hastily put in commission, in 1775, and within a few days thereafter,
off the coast of Tybee, 16,000 pounds of powder was captured, some of which was
sent to Boston, where it was used in the battle of Bunker Hill. At Fort Screven,
on Tybeo Island, the United States Government maintains a strong battery, the
numerical strength of which at present is H officers and 460 men. One of the
quaint sights of the island is Martelle Tower, a structure built by the Federal
Government for defensive purposes, at the ^outbreak of the second war with England,
in 1812. This fort is still the property of the "United States, but is no longer used
except as a residence for officials. Tybee is today a great resort for lovers of the
surf. It is the only island on the Georgia coast reached by direct railway connection,
or to quote a Savannah rhapsodist '' the only spot in Georgia where the headlight
of a locomotive engine casts its silvery beams on the rolling waves of the deep and
dark blue ocean.''—Ibid. Vol. I.
TONDEE 's TAVERN : THE CRADLE or LIBERTY IN GEORGIA.—On the northwest corner
of Whitaker and Broughton streets, memorialized by a tablet of bronze, is one of the
most faered spots in the City of Savannah. Bich in historic associations, it was
here that the earliest protest of the colony \yas made against the oppressive measures
of the English Parliament. Here the citizens of Savannah assembled in response
to the first bugle call of patriotism. Here the Council of Safety held weekly meet-