“All the time the men kept so healthy that often no man in the camp ailed in the least, and none died except one man who came sick on board and never worked at all; nor did I hear that any of the men ever made the heat a pretence for not working.”[51] Beyond question Frederica was the healthiest of all the early settlements in Georgia, and St. Simon’s island has always enjoyed an enviable reputation for salubrity. Until marred by the desolations of the late war, this island was a favorite summer resort, and the homes of the planters were the abodes of beauty, comfort, and refinement. A mean temperature of about fifty degrees in winter, and not above eighty-two degrees in summer, gardens adorned with choice flowers, and orchards enriched with plums, peaches, nectarines, figs, melons, pomegranates, dates, oranges and limes,—forests rendered majestic by the live-oak, the pine, and the magnolia grandiflora, and redolent with the perfumes of the bay, the cedar and the myrtle,—the air fresh and buoyant with the South-East breezes, and vocal with the notes of song-birds,—the adjacent sea, sound, and inlets, replete with fishes,—the shell roads and broad beach affording every facility for driving and riding,—the woods and fields abounding with game in their season, and the culture and generous hospitality of the inhabitants, impressed all visitors with the delights of this favored spot. Sir Charles Lyell, among others, alludes with marked satisfaction to the pleasures he there experienced. Among the reptiles which not only attracted the notice of, but, to a considerable degree, upon first acquaintance, disquieted the early Colonists, the alligators were the most noted. Listen to this description furnished by an eyewitness[52] in 1736: “They are terrible to look at, stretching open an horrible large Mouth, big enough to swallow a Man, with Rows of dreadful large sharp Teeth, and Feet like Draggons, armed with great Claws, and a long Tail which they throw about with great Strength, and which seems their best Weapon, for their Claws are feebly set on, and the Stiffness of their Necks hinders them from turning nimbly to bite.” In order that the public mind might be disabused of the terror which pervaded it with respect to these reptiles, Mr. Oglethorpe, having wounded and caught one, had it brought to Savannah and made the boys bait it with sticks and finally pelt and beat it to death. The rattle snakes, too, were objects of special dread.