It would appear, however, that the prosperity of these villages was of short duration. We are informed that in 1740 but two families remained at High-gate, while Hampstead was entirely abandoned.[272] * * * * * For the protection of the few families to whom a home at THUNDERBOLT had been assigned, a small fort was erected; but as early as 1737 it had fallen into decay. * * * * * On the north-east point of SKIDOWAY ISLAND, ten families were placed and a fort built in 1734. This attempt at colonization proved so unsuccessful that four years afterwards the village had disappeared and the fortification was in a deserted and ruinous condition. A similar fatality attended the effort to plant a colony of ten families near the light-house on TYBEE ISLAND the year after Savannah was settled. * * * * * So long as FORT ARGYLE was garrisoned, the ten freeholders who established their plantations in its vicinity strove to render their cultivation profitable: but, upon the withdrawal of the Rangers, eight of them removed, and within a short time all signs of industry disappeared. * * * * * The labors of the Scottish colonists at JOSEPH’S TOWN were prosecuted but a few years, and that settlement was quickly numbered among the failures which occurred on every hand. * * * * * Near fort St. Andrew on the north-east extremity of Cumberland island grew up the village of BARRIMACKÉ, which, about 1740, embraced some twenty-four families. When General Oglethorpe’s regiment was withdrawn from the southern frontier, this town speedily died, and for more than a century all traces of its former existence have been entirely wanting. Similar is the history of the German village of gardeners and fishermen which stood near the southern end of the military road connecting Frederica with St. Simons. Of the meagre and uneventful lives of Acton and Vernonburgh on Vernon river, of Goshen and Bethany near the Savannah, of Williamsburgh, and Fort Barrington on the Alatamaha, and of Queensbury on the Great Ogeechee, we feel scarce called upon to speak. Were we not dealing exclusively with the _dead_ towns of Georgia, we might enumerate others which, in their moribund condition and present dilapidation, perpetuate little more than the names and sites which they at first received.