In South Carolina. 53 



of November 7, 1734, in answer to a letter from Gov- 

 ernor Oglethorpe, "that if it had been ten years ago 

 I would gladly have devoted the remainder of my life 

 and labors to that place, and think I might before this 

 time have conquered the language, without which lit- 

 tle can be done among the natives, if the Bishop of 

 London would have done me the honor to have sent 

 me thither, as perhaps he then might; but that is 

 now over. However, I can still reach them with my 

 prayers, which I am sure will never be wanting." 

 This response of the Rev. Samuel Wesley was all that 

 Governor Oglethorpe could have desired. His plans 

 did not embrace the old and infirm, but the young, 

 the active, the vigorous; and the spirit of the father, 

 he made no doubt, pervaded and animated the bosoms 

 of the sons. Already was his mind made up to induce, 

 if possible, some of the Oxford Methodists, and in 

 particular the two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, 

 whose sterling worth was well known to him, to settle 

 as missionaries in the infant colony of Georgia. At 

 the expiration of fifteen months he returned to England 

 to make arrangements for conducting out a fresh 

 company of emigrants to Georgia, and found the 

 Rev. John Burton, one of the trustees of the colony, 

 who had stood as a friend of the Wesleys, at Oxford, 

 full of their praises and enthusiastic for their appoint- 

 ment as missionaries to Savannah. 



John Wesley visited London, August 28, 1735, in 

 order to make due preparation for fulfilling the re- 

 quest of his father made just before his death, on the 

 25th of April preceding; for as Samuel Wesley had 

 dedicated his " Life of Christ "to Queen Mary, and 

 his "History of the Old and New Testaments" to 

 Queen Anne, so he particularly enjoined upon his son 



