In his report on the condition of the Province of Georgia, dated the 20th of September, 1773, Sir James Wright mentions Savannah and Sunbury as being the only ports in the Province. The inlet to the latter he describes as “very good; and, although the river is not more than twenty two miles in length, fifteen feet of water may be carried up to the town distant twelve miles from the sea.” From the same source we learn that during the year 1772 fifty-six vessels of various sorts were entered and cleared at the custom house in the port of Sunbury.[184] The collector of the port at this time was James Kitchen, with a salary of £65 stg, and fees of office amounting to £90. The comptroller and searcher was Isaac Antrobus: salary £60: fees of office amounting to a like sum. Sunbury soon commanded the rice crop from the adjacent swamp regions. Indigo was planted on the island just below, then called Bermuda, and now known as the Colonel’s Island. The principal trade was with the West Indies and with the Northern Colonies. From the former, supplies of rum and sugar were obtained, and from the latter rum, flour, biscuits, and provisions. To the West Indies were shipped rice, corn, peas, indigo, lumber, shingles, live stock, and barreled beef and pork. Governor Wright regarded the trade with the Northern Colonies as injurious to the Province of Georgia, because, says he, “they take of but little of our produce, and drain us of every trifle of Gold and Silver that is brought here, by giving a price for Guineas, Moidores, Johannes’s Pistols and Dollars far above their real and intrinsic value, so that we can never keep any amongst us.” So anxious was Sunbury to concentrate all the trade of the interior, that at one time it was proposed to connect Midway and North Newport rivers by a canal running between Bermuda island and the main. This project, however, was never consummated. Occasionally vessels arrived from English ports bringing manufactured goods, but such generally sought Savannah as the port of entry and discharge. The purchases of the Sunbury merchants were largely made in or through Savannah, and were thence conveyed in coasting sloops and schooners through the inland passages. Below the town, and on the road to the Colonel’s island, is a locality to this day known as the _stave landing_, whence, in these early days, constant shipments of staves and shingles were made. On the eastern side of that island, the site of the old shipyard is still pointed out where vessels were repaired and new ones built. It was here that the British landed during the Revolutionary war, when, under Lieut. Col. Fuser, they attempted the reduction of Sunbury. The health of Sunbury from the time of its settlement until, and even after the Revolutionary war, was good. It became a pleasant residence for the families of many planters whose plantations were located in the swamp regions.