But just when Spain's friendship was most important it was threatened by a violation of the Neutral Ground. Unruly frontiersmen crossed the Altamaha without permission. Malcontents from Augusta and the Ogeechee settlements, "runagates" from Carolina and Virginia, these men were called. Headed by Edmund Gray they had opposed Governor Reynolds in politics. He had the whip hand, and they were expelled from the Georgia Assembly on the charge of sedition. Some of them sought liberty in the Neutral Ground. There, on Satilla River, thirty miles from its mouth, "Gray's Gang" formed a settlement called New Hanover, and engaged in Indian trade. Ephraim Alexander opened a store and trading post.