Some
Carolinians endeavoured to dissuade them from going to the South by
telling them that the Spaniards would attack them from their houses in
the fort near where they were to settle, to which they replied, "Why,
then, we will beat them out of their fort, and shall have houses ready
built to live in." "This valiant spirit," says Jones, "found
subsequent expression in the efficient military service rendered by
these Highlanders during the wars between the Colonists and the
Spaniards, and by their descendants in the American Revolution. To
John 'More' McIntosh, Captain Hugh Mackay, Ensign Charles Mackay, Col.
John McIntosh, General Lachlan McIntosh, and their gallant comrades
and followers, Georgia, both as a Colony and a State, owes a large
debt of gratitude. This settlement was subsequently augmented from
time to time by fresh arrivals from Scotland.... Its men were prompt
and efficient in arms, and when the war cloud descended upon the
southern confines of the province no defenders were more alert or
capable than those found in the ranks of these Highlanders." "No
people," says Walter Glasco Charlton, "ever came to Georgia who took
so quickly to the conditions under which they were to live or remained
more loyal to her interests" than the Highlanders. "These men," says
Jones, "were not reckless adventurers or reduced emigrants
volunteering through necessity, or exiled through insolvency or want.
They were men of good character, and were carefully selected for their
military qualities.
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