Indian tribes which were friendly to the English lived at no great distance, and the trail to Savannah and Ebenezer led directly by Old Fort, while the opening of two roads would bring both those towns within a four hour’s ride of the settlement. Well content, therefore, with their new acquisition, the Moravians returned to Fort Argyle, whence Johnson rode back to Savannah, leaving them to follow with the boat. At the mouth of the Ogeechee they encountered a severe storm, against which they could make little headway, try as they would. Their anchor was too light to hold against the current, and there was a marsh on one bank and rocks on the other, but at last, after night-fall, in the face of a terrific thunder storm, they forced their way to a place where they could land, and where they passed the rest of the night, enduring as best they could the heavy rain, and the attack of insects, against neither of which they were able to protect themselves. “This place takes its name,--‘Rotten-possum’,--from an animal frequently found here, which they call a Possum. I am told that it has a double belly, and that if pursued it puts its young into one belly, runs up a tree until it reaches a limb, springs out on that until it is among the leaves, and then lays itself across the branch with one belly on each side, and so hides itself, and saves its life!” The rest of the journey was uneventful, and on Friday morning, September 2nd, they reached Savannah, having been absent ten days. It seems a great pity that the Moravians were unable to establish themselves on this tract, where their industry would soon have made an oasis in the wilderness, but one thing after the other interfered, and the “second company” which arrived early in the following year, found them still at Savannah. In Savannah matters moved toward a fair degree of prosperity for the Moravians. About four acres of Spangenberg’s garden were cleared in time for the first summer’s crop of corn, which yielded them sixty bushels. They also raised some beans, which came to maturity at a time when provisions and funds were very low, so helping them greatly. The two farm lots were laid out during the summer, Spangenberg assisting with the survey. By the close of the year twenty-six acres had been cleared,--on the uplands this meant the felling of trees, and gradual removal of stumps as time permitted, but on the rice lands it meant far more. The great reeds, ten to twelve feet high, grew so thick that a man could scarcely set foot between them, and in cutting them down it was necessary to go “knee-deep” below the surface of the ground, and then the roots were so intertwined that it was difficult to pull them out.