In regard to the five hundred acre tract
already granted, the General said that it had been located near the Indians,
at the Moravians' request, but that settlers there would be in no danger,
for the Indians were at peace with the English, there was a fort near by,
and besides he intended to place a colony of Salzburgers
fifty miles further south, when the Moravians would be,
not on the border but in the center of Georgia.
Gen. Oglethorpe assured Nitschmann that there would be no trouble
regarding the transfer of title to the Georgia lands, for while,
for weighty reasons, the grants had been made in tail male,
there was no intention, on the part of the Trustees, to use this
as a pretext for regaining the land, and if there was no male heir,
a brother, or failing this, a friend, might take the title.
(In 1739 the law entailing property in Georgia was modified to meet this view,
and after 1750, all grants were made in fee simple.) He also explained
that the obligation to plant a certain number of mulberry trees per acre,
or forfeit the land, was intended to spur lazy colonists,
and would not be enforced in the case of the Moravians.
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