In August 1753, four colonists and their boat crew set out on a potentially dangerous passage of "discovery and observations" along Georgia's barrier islands from Savannah southward as far as the St. Johns River in Spanish-held Florida. Journal of a Visit to the Georgia Islands is a record of that trip, and although unsigned, internal evidence points directly to prominent Georgia entrepreneur Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788) as the author. His companions were the famous cartographer William G.

De Brahm and South Carolina planters William Simmons and John Williamson.

Traveling by day, hunting for food and camping on shore at night, the brave little band endured a battering by stormy seas and undoubtedly vicious attacks by nocturnal insects. However, the author was not deterred from appreciating the wilderness and its beauty. His comments on the waterways, the deplorable condition of coastal fortifications, and his assessment of the splendid timber resources and the fertile land for agriculture and for raising livestock make the document tantamount to a field report.

As our only known legacy of the trip, this previously unpublished journal is unique in the annals of Georgia's colonial history.