To lessen the demands upon the Trustees, Oglethorpe made retrenchments in the public expenditures. He disbanded the troop of Rangers, who guarded the country on the land side, though they offered to serve without pay; but he deemed it improper that they should be on service without remuneration. The garrisons were relieved by the regiments; so that that expense ceased. He aimed to reconcile the disaffected, by his good offices; and to gain their affections by unexpected and unmerited liberalities. With very timely largesses he assisted the orphans, the widows, and the sick; and contributed towards the relief of the most destitute; but, adds the writer of the letter above quoted, "we are apprehensive such contributions cannot last long, unless assisted from England, for the expenses are too great for any single man to bear." The General pursued, with anxious scrutiny, his investigation into the management of business, and found the charges and accounts to be very perplexed, and the result evincing mismanagement and unfaithfulness. "He settled the officers, civil and military, among whom changes had taken place; filled vacancies; and took the most judicious measures that the whole municipal establishment should be properly organized. Then, calling them all to his lodgings, he gave it in charge that they should do their duties with care and vigilance. He exhorted them to use their best endeavors to preserve peace; especially at this time, when ill-disposed persons, taking advantage of people's uneasiness at those inevitable pressures under which they labored, and must necessarily for some time be subjected to, might craftily incite them to insurrection. Withal, he recommended earnestly to them to preserve unanimity among themselves, which would strengthen and support a due authority, and restrain the licentious into due obedience."[1] [Footnote 1: STEPHENS'S _Journal_, I. 309.] On Wednesday morning, October 25th, Oglethorpe set out for the south, leaving, as Col. Stephens remarks, "a gloomy prospect of what might ensue; and many sorrowful countenances were visible under the apprehensions of future want; which deplorable state the Colony has fallen into, through such means as few or none of the settlers had any imagination of, till the Trustees, in their late letters, awakened them out of their dream; and the General, when he came, laid the whole open, and apprized them that they were but little removed from a downright bankruptcy. Now was a time when it would be fully apparent, who were the most valuable among them, by showing a hearty endeavor to contribute, what in them lay, to appease the rising discontents, and wait with patience to see better things, which were not yet to be despaired of."[1] [Footnote 1: STEPHENS'S _Journal_, I. 312.]