General James Edward Oglethorpe did much more than just help establish the colony of Georgia. After he was elected to represent Haslemere in the County of Surrey as a member of Parliament. He soon chaired a committee that investigated the living conditions of Britain's prison inmates.
      He was so troubled at what he saw that he came up with a novel idea: he would establish a debtors colony in the New World in which the select debtors would be given a chance at a fresh start in life and the Crown would be freed of having to support, or incarcerate, them.
      He proposed to Parliament that in exchange for an absolution from all persecution for their remaining outstanding debts back in England, those so chosen to settle this new colony would agree to travel across the Atlantic.
      Oglethorpe was a realist. He wrote “The many Thousands of poor Debtors who fill our Prisons,” had either fallen “In Debt to the Ruin of the Industrious” or had committed the acts of “Force and Felony, as Theft and Robbery.”
      Therefore, he insisted that this offer would only be made to “those who are but Novices in Iniquity.” Oglethorpe hoped that this new colony would lay a “Foundation for the Conversion of the Heathen” and snatch “A great Number of poor Christians out of the Danger of Apostasy.”
      Once the colony of Georgia was established, Oglethorpe became aware of the troubled relations between the Carolina traders and the Native American tribes. In fact, Brim, the so-called Emperor of the Creeks, demanded that Oglethorpe himself come and speak to the chiefs of the Creek Nation.
      Oglethorpe informed the colony's Trustees in London on June 15, 1739 that he had decided to accede to Brim's request. Oglethorpe wrote that “The Spaniards are striving to bribe the Indians, and particularly the Creek nation, to differ with us.”
      He warned the Trustees “This journey, though a very fatiguing and dangerous one, is quite necessary...(they)...will bribe the corrupt part...and force the whole nation into a war with England.” Oglethorpe's company set off across the Ogeechee and Alatamaha River basins, finally reaching the Indian town.
      One of his Rangers later wrote that after they shook hands “The King very gracefully taking him (Oglethorpe) by the Arm led him towards the Town...The head Warriors of the Indians...kept Hooping and Hallowing as a Token of gladness in seeing us.”
      Oglethorpe finally returned to Augusta, from where he wrote the Trustees in a letter dated September 5, 1739 that “I am just arrived at this Place from the Assembled Estates of the Creek Nation. I gave them satisfaction in all of them, and every thing is entirely settled in peace.”
     Oglethorpe's bravery in making this arduous journey and the respect he showed to the Indian chiefs by agreeing to meet with them in their head town prevented open warfare from breaking out. Without this prolonged period of peace, the colonists of Georgia would have found it very hard just to stay alive.