OCR Text |
Show QUEER QUIRKS IN HUMAN f DESTINY Z V., JKARRY R. CALKINS WN'L' Survke The Stratagem of Oglethorpe "pIIIC flight of ii deserter, Nvitich at I tirs! threatened the ru.'u of the coiol y of (leoigia, turned out to lie I he means of (lccviv.'iij; a large attacking attack-ing force of Spaniards and saving the colony from falling into the huiulx ol' ';:tin. Tlio Spaniards were by ir.it.urp poor co!oni..-rs. Although their claim to Horida embraced nil of Heorgia I hoy had taken no steps to colonize v ti e lor-rilory lor-rilory v. lira in 17" General Oi;lo-j tl.orpu fslnblislied an Ei.glisb colony Jr. that region. Ten years later, on July 3, 1712, a fleet of fifty -six armed war vessel;:, with more than fi.lH)') Spanish soldiers aboard, railed lut SI. Simon's liurhor on '-he ",eorgi. coast lo drive out the English. General Oglethorpe was sorely pressed by the invaders. His tolal force consisted of two ships and about six hundred men. Kealiziug the futility futil-ity of withstanding a siege in his stronghold of Fredericn, General Oglethorpe Ogle-thorpe boldly attacked the Spaniards In the forest, his troops following Indian In-dian tactics and firing from behind trees. Oglethorpe had an advantage in the ignorance of the Spaniards as to the strength of his force. After several skirmishes, iu which the English came off victorious, a large party of Spaniards was ambushed and routed by a small company of English. Oglethorpe Ogle-thorpe now felt encouraged to make a surprise attack in force. His plans were upset by a Frenchman who deserted de-serted from the English after firing a shot to warn the Spanish- camp. Destruction now faced the colonists . as the deserter would certainly reveal re-veal their weakness to the Spaniards. Oglethorpe employed a clever stratagem strat-agem to escape this danger, lie wrote a letter to the deserter, addressing him as though he was an English spy and instructing him how to deceive the Spaniards by belittling the English Eng-lish strength and drawing them into a trap. This letter was Intrusted to a Spanish prisoner to be delivered to the Frenchman in the Spanish camp. Of course it fell into the hands of Don Manuel de Mantiano, the Spanish general. gen-eral. He was deceived as Oglethorpe Intended. When the Frenchmen attempted at-tempted to disclose the true weakness of their foes, the Spaniards disbelieved him. So shaken were they by tear ot bertig greatly outnumbered that, when Oglethorpe sent his two ships against their fleet, the entire force was embarked em-barked and fled, leaving Georgia in peace. Christianity Ln Asia A QUARREL between two leaders in the first Crusade led to the establishment es-tablishment of the first Christian nation na-tion in Asia. After the capture of Nice, capital of the Turkish kingdom of llouiii, June 20, 1097, by a Christian army, Tan-cred Tan-cred and Baldwin were sent ad of the main host with a body of cavalry. Tancred took the city of Tarsus, which Laldwiu immediately proposed pillaging. pil-laging. Tancred had given a pledge tliat the city wor.ld be protected from the soldiery and lie opposed Baldwin's design. Thereupon Baldwin split th.t cavalry force, taking his own disgusted disgust-ed followers into other parts. Emperor Alexis of the Greek empire em-pire had beer, astonished and frightened fright-ened at the numbers of armed men that his appeal for aid against the infidel in-fidel had called into his realm and had adroitly contrived to divide the Christian forces in such a way as to prevent too many being encamped abont Constantinople at one time. This policy left Baldwin In the field free to pursue his ambitious course without the restraint of his brother, Godfrey of Bouillon, chief general of the Crusaders. The Greek tyrant of Edessa, who reigned as tributary of the Turks, let it be known that he would welcome the aid of Baldwin in strengthening his throne. He even adopted' Baldwin as his son and invited him into the city. The Christian leader displayed a strange conception of filial duty by marching Into Edessa and putting his adopted father to death, seizing ihe throne for himself. While other bands of Crusaders were pressing on toward Jerusalem, lighting the Turks :;t every step, Baldwin settled down to the more congenial task of ostab-V. ostab-V. bing his Christian monarchy and e- rending his domain. What the Emperor Alexis most feared from the great influx of Euro-P'-an warriors into Ihe Near East apparently ap-parently was about to come lo pass they were settling down lo stay. The downfall of the Eastern Empire, however, how-ever, was not to take place until nearly near-ly three centuries luter, and then it was to be brought about by foes from the east, not Ihe west. The Turks eventually triumphed over the decaying decay-ing civilization of Constantinople in the Fifteenth century, and became a perpetual nuisance to Christian Europe. |