103. What it was that led General Oglethorpe to make this new
settlement.--General Oglethorpe had a friend in England who was cast
into prison for debt. There the unfortunate man was so cruelly
treated that he fell sick and died, leaving his family in great
distress.
The General felt the death of his friend so much that he set to work
to find out how other poor debtors lived in the London prisons. He
soon saw that great numbers of them suffered terribly. The prisons
were crowded and filthy. The men shut up in them were ragged and
dirty; some of them were fastened with heavy chains, and a good many
actually died of starvation.
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