I have long wished for an opportunity of expressing my sense of the universal zeal which the inhabitants of this province have shewn for assisting that colony; and could not think of any better opportunity than now, when the whole province is virtually present in its General Assembly.

I am, therefore, gentlemen, to thank you for the handsome assistance given by private persons, as well as by the public.

I am to thank you, not only in the name of the Trustees, and the little colony now in Georgia, but in behalf of all the distressed people of Britain and persecuted Protestants of Europe, to whom a place of refuge will be secured by this first attempt.
"Your charitable and generous proceeding, besides the self-satisfaction which always attends such actions, will be of the greatest advantage to this province.

You, gentlemen, are the best judges of this; since most of you have been personal witnesses of the dangerous blows which this country has escaped from French, Spanish, and Indian arms.

Many of you know this by experience, having signalized yourselves personally, either when this province by its own strength, and unassisted by any thing but the courage of its inhabitants and the providence of God, repulsed the formidable invasions of the French; or when it defeated the whole body of the southern Indians, who were armed against it, and was invaded by the Spaniards, who assisted them.