ON THE EDGE OF PARADISE - A decade and a half before Gen. James Oglethorpe ever sat foot on Yammacraw Bluff, men were dreaming of a colony below South Carolina. Thomas Nairne proposed to establish the colony of Georgia to be settled by Swiss immigrants. Sir Robert Montgomery petitioned the proprietors of South Carolina to establish the Margravate of Azilia in the area southwest of South Carolina. Montgomery published a pamphlet on his colony, which was bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, south and west by the Altamaha/Oconee Rivers, north by the mountains, and northeast by the Savannah River. Laurens County was located on the edge of the colony which lay on the same latitude of Palestine, "God's land" and which abounded with woods and meadows. The air was healthy, the soil fruitful. Vines were abundant in the hills. Montgomery proclaimed that the seasons were regular with no excess of heat or cold. Evidently, the gentleman never came to Georgia in July. Georgia Voices, Spencer B. King, Jr., pp. 5-6.
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