[Footnote 8: Silkworm: a kind of caterpillar which spins a fine, soft
thread of which silk is made.]
107. Keeping out the Spaniards; Georgia powder at Bunker Hill;
General Oglethorpe in his old age.--The people of Georgia did a good
work in keeping out the Spaniards, who were trying to get possession
of the part of the country north of Florida. Later, like the settlers
in North Carolina and South Carolina, they did their part in helping
to make America independent of the rule of the king of England. When
the war of the Revolution began, the king had a lot of powder stored
in Savannah. The people broke into the building, rolled out the kegs,
and carried them off. Part of the powder they kept for themselves,
and part they seem to have sent to Massachusetts; so that it is quite
likely that the men who fought at Bunker Hill may have loaded their
guns with some of the powder given them by their friends in Savannah.
In that case the king got it back, but in a somewhat different way
from what he expected.
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