Brought to help defend the colony against the Spanish ?

Although the Georgia Trustees originally envisioned the new Georgia colony as a second chance for debtors in British jails, the geographic location was also ideal to defend the British colonies from Spain, which occupied Florida to the south. When Oglethorpe left the colonists in Port Royal to scout for the location of the new colony, he selected a spot that was very close to friendly South Carolina and as far as possible from unfriendly Spanish-occupied Florida.