Copy of a Letter from Mr Jollie
Sir

I am just arrived from Savannah and fully intended waiting upon your Excellency with the utmost Dispatch, but Matters of the last consequence to my little Settlement lays me under an absolute necessity of being here a few Days.

The Governor and Council of Georgia have been under Arrest (by orders of the present Rulers of the Province) these five Weeks past and I had it in charge from the Governor to acquaint you of his Situation; he bid me present his Respects to your Excellency and he would have wrote to you by me, but he saw no likelihood of a Letter's getting safe to your hands through any Channel whatever: This violent Step of these deluded people has made every prudent thinking Man withdraw from the Party. They expect the Kings Troops now every Day and which is a cruel Circumstance and makes the Governors Situation as well as the Gentlemen of the Council much to be lamented is that these petty Tyrants have already declared that they mean to carry these Gentlemen into the back Country the Moment the King's Troops have got footing in the Province. A Division of His Majesty's Forces from hence, would therefore be attended with the worst consequence to these Gentlemen; the Business as far as I may be allowed to Judge should be done at once and effectually, and if it was possible to get up some Troops as far as Augusta the safety of Governor and Council might be easily effected.

I had an Opportunity of being in company with some of the heads of the Party. Their Colonel Lieut Colonel &c &c and as I was formerly pretty well acquainted with most of them, I spoke my Mind to some of them very freely: I find they are bent on making an Excursion into this Province; they heard they said, that Your Excellency intended making them a Visit in Georgia but they would save you that trouble by giving you the Meeting on your own Ground, and one with whom I had been particularly intimate for some Years past bid me in confidence look to myself, for it had been absolutely determined in their Councils that East Florida should be attacked ー Indeed a Mr [John] Rutledge one of the Charlestown Delegates on his arrival from Philadelphia expressed great Surprise that Augustine was not taken and truly could not conceive what their Southern Army had been doing. ー I mention these Matters to Your Excellency in confidence it is indeed my Duty to do so: But I must intreat they may not go farther for the present at least, for Reasons which I shall acquaint your Excellency with when I have the honour to wait upon you in Town.

Tho' I do not believe the Georgia Rulers will find Men to compose their Battalion of which the Officers have been just appointed; Yet I have do [no] doubt but some Villians from the Altamaha will come this way soon and give us on this River a great deal of uneasiness perhaps much Mischief: I should hope therefore that your Excellency will be of the Opinion that some protection should be afforded us without delay. ー If Captain [John] Graves or any other Officer of the Navy was round here in any of the King's Sloops they could with great ease and without running the Risk of losing a Man range up and down the River for 20 to 25 Miles, this would make the lower Settlements perfectly secure and a common rough Stockade Blockhouse which might be run up at a mere Trifle of Expense and in a few Days to be built near the Ferry or thereabouts would with a prudent, sensible Officer and twenty five or thirty Men make the upper Settlers easy and quiet and at same time serve for a tollerable Barrier for the whole Province. If something of this kind is not immediately gone upon, I would not be answerable for one Settler remaining here a few Weeks hence. I have not been able to secure a single Barrel of Rice or Bushel of Corn tho' I made every attempt that I thought any way practicable. Savannah is the only Mercat for Corn in this Province, but the Avenues to and from the River are all so well guarded and looked after that no Provisions of any kind are allowed to come this way ー Some may find its way here by stealth, but at the utmost Risk of the Exporter and Master of the Vessel. ー

The Bearer Captain Mowbray from Grenada was with me part of the way to Savannah ー I beg leave to introduce him to your Excellency, he has been bred in the Navy and can inform you what we saw doing at Frederica and other places, and with what facility a very small Tender, or even a Man of War's pinnace may at this very time scour the whole inland Navigation from this to Savannah River ー If this was attempted we might have Rice at least in abundance with which we might make a Shift untill we are relieved by the arrival of the King's Forces. I have the honour to be &ca

[Endorsed] In Govr Tonyn's of 16 Febry 1776 (No 39)