From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. PART III: THE SPANISH OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK ON THE COLONY OF GEORGIA IN AMERICA, AND OF ITS DEFEAT ON ST. SIMONS ISLAND BY GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE Published by The Georgia Historical Society Savannah Morning News 1913 Table of Contents Preface 3 Affidavit of Juan Castelnau, a prisoner in Georgia 7 Letter of Montiano to the King 16 The King orders the dispatch of an expedition against Georgia 20 Montiano acknowledges the receipt of orders for the expedition 25 The Governor General of Cuba gives the Governor of Florida information with respect to the expedition 27 The Governor General of Cuba appoints Montiano to the command of the expedition and gives orders 32 Orders to the Commanding Officer of the Fleet 39 The Governor General of Cuba reports the failure of the expedition and sends journals of events 48 Arredondo's Journal 52 Casinas's Journal 65 Montiano's own report 88 Orders for an expedition against the English 97 List of signals, etc., for the expedition against Georgia 101 Return of the troops, crews and stores, ship by ship, facing 108 Note on the Battle Ground of Bloody Marsh 110 Return of ships, troops and stores of the expedition facing 112 LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Oglethorpe Frontispiece Map of the Atlantic Coast from St. Augustine to Charleston 7 De Brahm's Plans, Sections and Elevations of Works projected for the Colony of Georgia 11 Illustrations of Spanish Guns 36-38 Map of Jekyll Sound 66 Arredondo's Map of the Entrance to Gualquini 71 Plan of Fort Saint Andrew 94 Map of St Simon and Frederica 110 1912-10-19 PREFACE The translation that follows was made from manuscripts in the library of Mr. W. J. DeRenne, copied from the original documents preserved in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. Each of these manuscripts bears a heading giving the provenance of its original, and each is further certified as being a true copy. Heading and certificate are reproduced with the first document of the translation, but it has not been thought worthwhile to repeat them with the remainder. The papers of this collection fall more or less naturally into groups: Letters and orders, diaries, reports and returns. The list of sea- and shore-signals, and one set of naval instructions, have with the returns been placed last as being somewhat detached, logically, from the substance of the other papers. They have their significance and interest, however, in that they reveal the extreme care bestowed on the expedition. It will be noticed that the list of signals and the set of naval instructions relate to an earlier expedition, planned but not carried out. The sketches of guns and mortars are due to Lieutenant J. W. Lang, 9th Regiment of Infantry, United States Army. They are reproduced from illustrations in the catalogue of the Artillery Museum at Madrid. The Treaty of Vienna, November 18, 1738, gave Spain but a short respite from war. Claims and counterclaims arising chiefly out of colonial questions, led to much diplomatic parleying with England, and in January, 1739, she saw herself obliged to pay that country an indemnity of £95,000. On the presentation of a demand for a counterindemnity, England threatened war; on August 20th authorized reprisals, and finally on October 30, 1739, declared war. It is of this war, terminated by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, October 18, 1748, that the events of the following pages form a part. War or no war, the Spanish had long been contemplating an expedition against the English Colony of Georgia. They kept such an expedition on the stocks, as it were, to be launched when opportune; and finally did launch it in June of 1742 to overwhelm the English King's new Colony "in the place called Georgia." To the King of Spain, and to his subjects in Cuba and Florida, the chief object was punitive: the insolent and perfidious English were to be chastised and the chastisement was to be extermination. There was no notion of conquest; once the object attained and the English swept off the face of the earth, troops and ships were to return to their respective garrisons in St. Augustine and Havana. So much stress, indeed, was laid on this withdrawal as to justify the belief that its accomplishment was almost as much a matter of concern as the advance itself. This concern undeniably affected the morale of the commanding general, if not of the entire expedition. In forming an estimate of the events dealt with in the following pages, it is needful to place one's self in a proper point of view. If we place ourselves abroad, the events are inconspicuous; if we recross the Atlantic, they loom large. In reality, we must not regard the attempt of Spain on New Georgia as an affair between small numbers in a distant and unimportant land; it was Spain and England striving for mastery in a vast continent, and although Spain, as already said, had no notion of conquest, to England, that is to Oglethorpe, the notion of permanency was ever present and fundamentally real. To him the question was whether his beloved Georgia should be a Spanish waste, or a living, free, English colony, a potential State. How he answered this question we all know: he brought to naught as grave a danger as ever threatened the Colonies, and he did it alone. The point of view must needs then be local, but with a national outlook; it follows that the papers in this collection acquire a double interest. And this interest grows with the conviction, begot of an examination of the records, that Oglethorpe- by all the rules of the game, should have been beaten. He was out-manned, out-shipped, and out-gunned. But he was a soldier, and knew his business; although men, and ships, and guns are necessary, alone they are not sufficient. They must first be welded into a homogeneous instrument and then intelligently used, before positive results can be expected. This homogeneity was lacking to his adversaries, a fact that he must have been acquainted with; moreover, they had not had time to know their commander, Montiano, nor he his troops. And lastly, it is in the highest degree probable that Oglethorpe had measured his antagonist. That Montiano had failed to take his own measure, is proved by his pitiable report to his King. Without in the least intending it, in complete unconsciousness, he strips his own inefficiency bare for our inspection and examination. Psychologically, conditions were against the Spaniards from the outset, but this must not in the least be taken to detract from Oglethorpe: he had to reckon on the one hand with a force much greater than any he could muster, and on the other hand, with certain possibilities in his favor; but in respect of these he might very easily have been in error. The Spaniards sailed into St. Simons gallantly enough, and landed their men between the forts and the town of Frederica. No resistance was offered. Bearing in mind that a landing under fire is, for the landing party, a delicate operation, we may well ask why Oglethorpe should have neglected this opportunity to do his adversary a serious harm. But a little reflection will show that this case really offered no opportunity. As soon as it became evident that the run-past of the ships was, or would be, successful, the evacuation of the forts was imposed. To leave troops in the forts, even if they could have held out, was folly so clear that we need waste no time over the matter. But once withdrawn, where should they go? Should they proceed to resist this disembarkation, either alone, or in junction with other forces brought down for the purpose? But Oglethorpe could not tell where the Spaniards would land: it was not inconceivable that they would deliver their first attack on the town itself. If, however, they should choose to land between the town and the forts, then it was the part of wisdom to leave them to follow this course; for once ashore, they would have miles of swamp to cross before reaching him, and his inferiority in numbers would be more than compensated by the advantage of positions selected in advance. If he had attempted to oppose this landing, he would have had the morasses at his back, and so in case of check, have converted an admirable natural defense into a most serious obstacle to successful withdrawal. Moreover, so few were his men that he could not afford to divide them; and lastly, and quite apart from any other consideration, he had no guns to oppose to the Spanish naval artillery, against which any musketry fire that he could bring to bear, ineffective in those days beyond two hundred yards, would have been powerless. The issue proved the wisdom of his dispositions. The first attempt of the Spaniards to push their way through the morasses was also their last, nor did they later make any effort of any other sort. This failure to undertake anything more must be regarded as discreditable to the "glory and reputation of the arms of the King," particularly if the Spanish account of losses be correct. That it is not, we know from other sources. Indeed, so great were Montiano's losses, and among his best troops, so sudden and unexpected his check, so uncompromising his defeat, that the matter was really then and there settled. In plain English, he had no stomach for further business. After that disastrous beating when his grenadiers fell only to incarnadine the waters of the swamp in which they were entrapped, he sent out only Indians to see "if they could find some other road to Frederica". Meanwhile his rations were being reduced, he had not got his guns ashore, and rumors unnerved him. In these straits he fell to calling councils of war and so was lost. That he had made only one genuine effort to reach his objective, that in spite of the failure of this effort, he still outnumbered Oglethorpe, that in any case his fleet was substantially intact, these things made no impression on him. His one concern was to withdraw. And yet so blind was he to his own shortcomings that he attributes his failure to the Almighty and actually asks his King to approve his conduct of affairs and to bestow honors upon him. To be sure, he had razed a few earthworks evacuated by their garrisons, carried off a few guns spiked by the enemy, burned a few houses abandoned by the inhabitants. And here we may now well leave him, recounting his victories over inanimate things, and glossing his failure, for this failure made the State of Georgia possible. C. DeW. W. West Point, New York, October 19, 1912.