In Their Own Words
March 15, 1734
Search for Salzburger Settlement Location
Baron von Reck accompanied the first shipload of Salzburgers sent to Georgia by the Trustees. Five days after their arrival at Savannah, he helped search for an appropriate place to settle, as noted in his journal:
“I received the List of the Provisions and Tools for the Saltzburgers. Mr. Oglethorpe, and Mr. Jenys, Speaker of the Assembly of Carolina, arrived at Savannah, from Charles-town; the first having out of Love to our Saltzburgers put off his Journey to England, being resolved to see them settled before he went. Having informed him, that the Floods had made it impossible for me to pass the Woods by Land; he said he would go himself, to shew me the Country, and see what Place I would choose. The Speaker desired to accompany him, and I did myself the Honour to make one of the Company. He sent to the Indian King, to desire two Indians to hunt for him in the Journey; who not only granted them, but his chief War Captain, Tuskeneoi, out of Civility to Mr. Oglethorpe, came along with them to accompany us. We went on Board a ten-oar’d Boat, to the Place where a House was building by Mr. Musgrove, six Miles up the Savannah River.”
Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1974), p. 48.