Update this timeline entry

Arredondo negotiated with Oglethorpe

Source: Historical proof of the right of the Catholic King to the territory held to-day by the British King under the name of New Georgia #558

Project ID

Chapter

Timeline title

Start date

End date

Filename received

Filename assigned

Content

19. Official communication from the Governor of Havana to Mr. James Oglethorpe: 
Complaint was made to Oglethorpe on the part of the captain-general of the island of Cuba, Don Juan Francisco Guemez y Horcasitas, through an official 74. [Bolton note: That official was Arredondo himself. See Introduction, p. 73.] whom he sent to New Georgia from Havana in 1736, of the wrongful possession of the thirty-eight leagues of territory from north to south which he had occupied (for the settlements which he was undertaking in the domain of his Catholic Majesty comprised that much); and demand was made in his royal name that he should retire from, evacuate, and quit all that he had wrongfully settled, with such notorious breach of good faith, from the island of Santa Elena, inclusive, as far as the San Juan River. Several conferences and debates were held with that official, in which Oglethorpe exaggerated supposed rights, alleging that*[Arredondo note * Reply given in writing by Oglethorpe to the official sent, which remains in his possession and in the archives of Havana.] the country had been discovered and conquered by Sebastian Cabot in the year 1497 under patents from Henry VII of England, and that title had been subsequently sustained by Francis Drake, who, by order of Queen Elizabeth, had taken and destroyed the fort of San Agustin, and that all the lands as far as 29° had been granted to the Lords Proprietors by Kings James I, Charles I, and Charles II. Oglethorpe having been convinced by the well-founded replies made to him by the official mentioned, and by the demand for his complete withdrawal, agreed to quit and entirely demolish the fort and settlement of San Juan, which he did immediately.