We now return to the South. When Colonel Campbell was despatched to Georgia, orders were sent to General Prevost in East Florida, to march his troops to his aid and to assume command. In this march along the uninhabited coast, which at that time lay between Florida and Georgia, his soldiers suffered greatly, having frequently no other provisions than oysters. Sunbury, a fort garrisoned by 200 provincials, Savannah being at that time in the hands of the British, surrendered with but little show of resistance. Arrived at Savannah, General Prevost assumed command, and then despatched Colonel Campbell against Augusta, which also surrendered, the garrison and the more patriotic inhabitants escaping across the river Savannah into South Carolina. The whole of Georgia was thus in the hands of the British. When the news of this easy conquest reached Charleston, the South Carolina militia were called out, but the call was reluctantly obeyed. The American forces under General Lincoln, principally consisting of North Carolina militia, amounted to about 1,400, and these were stationed to guard the passages of the Savannah river, which formed the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina. Although the troops of Prevost amounted to a much larger number, he hesitated to attack Charleston, but sent an expedition against Port Royal, which was so bravely defended by General Moultrie, that they were defeated with considerable loss. The population of the three southern provinces, Georgia and the two Carolinas, was of a mixed character, without any bond of religion or interest, very different indeed to that of the north. The wealthy planters along the sea-coast were mostly Whigs, but the excess of slave population left the country without soldiers. The interior of the country was occupied by scattered settlements of Dutch, Germans, Quakers, Irish Presbyterians and Scotch Highlanders, who held little intercourse with each other. The Quakers, Dutch and Germans, meddling little with politics, inclined to submit to the British army for the sake of peace and quietness. The Irish Presbyterians were Whigs, the Scotch Highlanders Tories, as were the so-called Regulators of North Carolina, and the Scotch and British traders of the interior.[24]