General Oglethorpe could not bear to see strong men killed off in this manner.  He thought that if the best of them—­those who were honest and willing to work—­could have the chance given them of earning their living, that they would soon do as well as any men.  It was to help them that he persuaded the king to give the land of Georgia.

104.  Building the city of Savannah; what the people of Charleston, South Carolina, did; a busy settlement; the alligators.—­General Oglethorpe took over thirty-five families to America in 1733.  They settled on a high bank of the Savannah[5] River, about twenty miles from the sea.  The general laid out a town with broad, straight, handsome streets, and with many small squares or parks.  He called the settlement Savannah from the Indian name of the river on which it stands.

[Illustration:  SAVANNAH, AS GENERAL OGLETHORPE LAID IT OUT IN 1733.]

The people of Charleston, South Carolina, were glad to have some English neighbors south of them that would help them fight the Spaniards of Florida, who hated the English, and wanted to drive them out.  They gave the newcomers a hundred head of cattle, a drove of hogs, and twenty barrels of rice.

The emigrants set to work with a will, cutting down the forest trees, building houses, and planting gardens.  There were no idlers to be seen at Savannah:  even the children found something to do that was helpful.

Nothing disturbed the people but the alligators.  They climbed up the bank from the river to see what was going on.  But the boys soon taught them not to be too curious.  When one monster was found impudently prowling round the town, they thumped him with sticks till they fairly beat the life out of him.  After that, the alligators paid no more visits to the settlers.

[Footnote 5:  Savannah (Sa-van’ah).]

105.  Arrival of some German emigrants; “Ebenezer";[6] “blazing” trees.—­After a time, some German Protestants, who had been cruelly driven out of their native land on account of their religion, came to Georgia.  General Oglethorpe gave them a hearty welcome.  He had bought land of the Indians, and so there was plenty of room for all.  The Germans went up the river, and then went back a number of miles into the woods; there they picked out a place for a town.  They called their settlement by the Bible name of Ebenezer,[7] which means “The Lord hath helped us.”

There were no roads through the forests, so the new settlers “blazed” the trees; that is, they chopped a piece of bark off, so that they could find their way through the thick woods when they wanted to go to Savannah.  Every tree so marked stood like a guide-post; it showed the traveller which way to go until he came in sight of the next one.

[Illustration:  THE “BLAZED” TREES.]

[Footnote 6:  Ebenezer (Eb-e-ne’zer).]

[Footnote 7:  See I Sam. vii. 12.]