Among other great ends which they also avowed was “the civilization of the savages.” In one of Oglethorpe's first reports to the trustees he says: “A little Indian nation—the only one within fifty miles—is not only in amity, but desirous to be subjects to his Majesty King George; to have lands given to them among us, and to breed their children at our schools. Their chief and his beloved man, who is the second man in the nation, desire to be instructed in the Christian religion.”
The next year he returned to England, carrying with him eight Indian chiefs, to show them “so much of Great Britain and her institutions as might enable them to judge of her power and dignity. * * * Nothing was neglected,” we are told, “that was likely to awaken their curiosity or impress them with a sense of the power and grandeur of the nation.” They were received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Fellows of Eton, and for a space of four months were hospitably entertained, and shown all the great sights of London and its vicinity.
The tribes at home were much gratified by these attentions paid to their representatives, and sent out to the trustees a very curious missive, expressing their thanks and their attachment to General Oglethorpe. This letter was the production of a young Cherokee chief. It was written in black and red hieroglyphs on a dressed buffalo-skin. Before it was sent to England it was exhibited in Savannah, and the meaning of the hieroglyphs translated by an interpreter in a grand gathering of fifty Indian chiefs and all the principal people of Savannah. Afterward the curious document was framed and hung up in the Georgia Office in Westminster.
When the Wesleyan missionaries arrived in Georgia, two years later, some of the chiefs who had made this visit to England went to meet them, carrying large jars of honey and of milk as gifts, to “represent their inclinations;” and one of the chiefs said to Mr. Wesley, “I am glad you are come. When I
