424

EFFECT OF POPULAR COMMOTIONS.

police, and constitution of government; and that, in a country so poorly inhabited, where very few people are to be found capable of executing even the most inferior public offices." Such an appeal as this was right, and should have great weight in the judgment which we form of the official character of Governor Reynolds.

On the part of the people, no sooner did they learn the intention of the King to erect it into a separate province, than, intoxicated with the idea of royal government, they imagined it to betoken every blessing, and looked with excited expectations to the benefits which would follow its establishment. They did not reflect, that the changes which they desired could only be gradually introduced; and that he who attempted them, and failed, would only be the victim of their disappointment, and plunge them deeper than ever in public and private distress.

All violent popular commotions, like a too-excited condition of mind, generally have disastrous reactions. The Georgians expected too much of Governor Reynolds; and because the anticipated benefits did not immediately appear, their hasty spirits magnified every minor evil, distorted each official act, and the blame which belonged to their own impatience and want of self-control, was laid upon the Governor. Disappointment gave bitterness to their anger, and revenge pointed every shaft of malice.

When the news of Governor Reynolds' appointment reached Georgia, it was hailed with joy. Lands were taken up, settlers flocked in, trade increased, and prosperity began to manifest itself in the once desolate places of Georgia. But the indications for good soon vanished. The Governor did not come up to their

RESUMES HIS NAVAL RANK.

425

high-wrought expectations; and that was crime enough in the eyes of most of the colonists to demand his impeachment.

On the part of the Governor, it should be considered, that his position was one peculiarly trying. Unused to legislative bodies, unconversant with courts of law, unversed in the functions of his office, he was transferred from the quarter-deck of a man-of-war to the helm of a royal province; and was required to begin, arrange, digest, and carry out the many necessary steps and changes in the first establishing of a new and, to the people, untried form of government. This required a patience, energy, knowledge, and firmness, which Governor Reynolds did not possess. He was not adequate to the duties which his station required; and yielding to the machinations of his private secretary, he made himself obnoxious, by devolving upon a parasite, powers which himself should have used with knowledge and discretion.

Governor Reynolds now resumed his rank in the navy, in which, prior to going to Georgia, he had distinguished himself, in an engagement with a French ship-of-war, which he captured, and carried into England.

In 1759, he commanded the Firme, of sixty guns, in the fleet of Sir Edward Hawke, off Brest; and as the French, in their design of invading His Majesty's dominions of Great Britain, purposed, in consequence of being so closely watched at Brest, to make their principal embarkation of troops35 at Vannes, in Lower Brittany, where they had assembled a large number of transports, Sir Edward Hawke detached Capt. Rey

35 Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs, London, 1804, ii. 322.

36

nolds, in the Firme, with three ships of fifty guns, seven frigates, and a fire-ship, of which squadron Capt. Reynolds was made commodore, to watch their motions and prevent their sailing. Commodore Reynolds continued the blockade of Quiberon Bay all summer, and only resigned his place to Capt. Duff when the state of his vessel caused him to return to England to refit. In November, however, when the news ran through England that the French fleet, long locked up by Sir Edward in Brest, had sailed, Reynolds was again sent out in the Firme, to join the admiral; but arrived too late to share in the great victory which the English had already obtained, on the 20th of November. In 1775, he was made Rear Admiral of the Blue; and from this lowest grade of admirals, he was subsequently appointed Admiral of the Blue, and died in January, the year following.38

36 Beatson's Naval and Military Me- 37 Gent. Magazine, Feb., 1788. moirs, iii. 240.

CHAPTER III.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR ELLIS.

On the recall of Governor Reynolds, Henry Ellis was appointed (August 15th, 1756) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia.

This gentleman, born about the year 1720, early distinguished himself as a student of the natural sciences, and by his enthusiasm for geographical discoveries. In 1746 he was selected by the committee of Parliament “for prosecuting discoveries, to find a new passage to the Pacific," as their agent to take charge of the expedition, and direct and control its movements. As a stimulus to this daring enterprise, government had offered a reward of £20,000 sterling to the successful discoverer of this long sought for, but yet unfound, passage. Two vessels, the Dobbs, Captain Moore, and the California, Captain Smith, were fitted out for this expedition, and to Ellis was entrusted the duty of making draughts of all the newly discovered countries; the bearings and distances of headlands; to mark the soundings, rocks, and shoals upon the coast; to examine the water, the variations of the compass, the different nature of the soils; and to collect birds, animals, minerals, plants, and every other kind of natural curiosity-directing the entire movements of the vessels, being the one with whom rested the responsibility of the whole undertaking.

428

ELLIS SAILS FOR NORTH-WEST COAST.

On the 24th of May, 1746, he sailed from England, and in July following, after escaping many imminent dangers, entered the straits of Hudson.

For more than a year he made the most vigorous and untiring efforts to find out the wished-for passage, braving the rigours of an arctic winter, and the varied terrors of navigation in such high latitudes; but he was compelled to relinquish the search and return to England, (October 14th, 1747.)

The next year he published a relation of his voyage and discoveries, which was so well received that it was translated into the French, Dutch, and German languages. The merit of this performance and the value of the services which he had rendered the cause of science being so great, he was, in 1749, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, thus evincing the estimation in which he was held by the most learned and scientific body in Great Britain. The government also rewarded his services in its behalf, by appointing him (6 deputy commissary-general," a post at once lucrative, responsible, and honourable.

Through the influence of his godfather,' the Earl of Halifax, he received the nomination for the vacant government of Georgia, and was confirmed in it by the King. The gazette of the day, noticing his appointment to Georgia, adds, "where such an active, sensible, and honest man, is much wanted."

Being detained some time in England waiting for a convoy, he did not reach Charleston until January 27th, 1757, where he was received with much courtesy and

1 MS. Letter of Genl. Jos. Reed, dated London, 11th June, 1764. Mr. R. (subsequently President of Penn.,) was then a student in the Temple,

London. I am indebted for this extract to the Hon. Wm. B. Reed of Philadelphia.

2 Lond. Gaz., Aug. 15th, 1756.