“The family now consists of twenty-six persons. Two of the orphan boys are blind; one is little better than an idiot. But, notwithstanding, they are useful in the family; the one in the field, and the other in the kitchen. I have two women to take care of the household work, and three men and two boys employed about the plantation and cattle. A set of Dutch servants has lately been sent to Georgia; the magistrates were pleased to give me two of them. I took in a poor old widow, aged nearly seventy, whom nobody else cared to have. A valuable young man, from New England, is my schoolmaster; and, in my absence, performs duty in the family. On Sabbaths, the grown people attend on public worship at Savannah, or at Whitebluff, a village near Bethesda, where a Dutch minister officiates. My dear friends, who have hitherto been my assistants, being married and having each one or two children, thought it best to remove, and are now comfortably settled――some at Savannah, and some elsewhere. “Many have applied to me to erect a public school, and to take their children as boarders; but I have not yet determined. If there should be peace, it is certain that such a school would be exceedingly useful, not only for these northern parts of the colony, but also for the more southern parts of Carolina, and for Parisburgh and Frederica, where are many fine youths. I have been prevailed on to take one from Frederica, and another from Purisburg, and it may be shall admit more. For the present, considering the situation of affairs,[135] I think it most prudent to go on in making what improvements I can on the plantation, and to bring a tutor with me, from the north, in the fall, to teach a few youths the languages, and enlarge the family when affairs are more settled. The house is a noble, commodious building, and everything is sweetly adapted for bringing up youth. Here is land to employ them and exercise their bodies, and keep them from idleness out of school hours. Here are none of the temptations, to debauch their tender minds, which are common to more populous countries, or in places where children must necessarily be brought up with negroes. “What God intends to do with the colony is not for me to enquire; but it has hitherto been wonderfully preserved; and the Orphan House, like the burning bush, has flourished unconsumed. No doubt the government has its welfare much at heart; and I intend to carry on my design till I see the colony sink or swim. The money that has been expended on the Orphan House, and Orphan House family, has been of vast service to this part of the country.