In December, 1739, Mr. Stephens visited the town in company with Mr. Jones, to inspect a large ferry-boat which, in obedience to General Oglethorpe’s orders, had been there constructed by one Bunyon,—a boat-builder by trade, and an inhabitant of the town. This boat was capable of transporting nine or ten horses at a time, and was intended to ply between Abercorn and Palachocolas. In perpetuating his impressions of the place Mr. Stephens says: “As there was no Place in the whole Province, of the like Allotment of fifty acres each, which in my eye seemed so desirable, being a most pleasant Situation on the Banks of such a River, with as good Land belonging to each Lot, as is readily to be found in most Parts of the Province; I never saw it but with Regret, that there never yet had been a number of Settlers there deserving it; but generally they happened to be loose, idle People, who after some short Abode, wandered elsewhere and left it: ... and there are at present five Families only remaining there, nor has there often been more at one Time. As the Trust-Lands seem to be now in some better way of cultivating by their own Servants, than hitherto; I proposed it to Mr. _Jones_ to send down a few _German_ families to work on the Trust-Lots there; which, by helping to fill the Place, very probably might induce others the sooner to occupy Lands there also: He agreed with me in Opinion, and said he would write of it to the General.”[165] It is very questionable whether this opinion of Mr. Stephens,—formed during the winter,—of the desirableness of this locality, would have been confirmed by a residence there amid the heats and miasmatic influences of the summer and fall. Some Germans did settle in the neighborhood and cultivate the soil, but all efforts to promote the prosperity of the village and elevate it into the dignity of a town utterly failed. Like Joseph’s Town and Westbrook, Abercorn is little more than a name in the history of the Colony. In the end it passed into the hands of two English gentlemen who converted the village into a plantation cultivated with slave labor. So it continued under various owners until, by the result of the civil war, the negro has been liberated, and the fortunes of this region have become more unpromising than ever before. After the capture of Savannah in December, 1778, Colonel Campbell advanced a strong force to this place as a convenient base for future operations against the interior of the State; and hence, in 1779, did a British detachment move, crossing over to Purysburg and attempting to surprise General Moultrie at Black-swamp.