Something from Landers

Spanish slave codes were derived from the Justinian Code, and had been incorporated into Castilian law in the 13th century by King Alfonso X. As African slaves reached Spain in the 15th century, they were ruled by this legislation know as the Siete Partidas del Ray Don Alfonso El Sabio. The Siete Partidas also governed slavery in the New World. In 1680, the Recopilacion de Leyes de las Reynos de las Indias codified all laws pertaining specfically to the Indies, but slave codes from the Siete Partidas were retained. (Landers) [continues with a fascinating, wholesome characterization of slavery and Spanish slavery. Try to find on the internet.]

Declaration of Juan Clar In the city of St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-third of the month of September, sixteen eighty-six, the senor Captain and Sergeant Major Don Juan Marquez Cabrera, governor and captain general of this stated city and its provinces for His Majesty, commanded to appear before him Juan Clar, who said he was named thus, of the Flemish nation, native of Ostende,(18) NOTE 18. Oostende is on the coast of modern-day Belgium. who, being Catholic, was sworn in before God and a sign of the cross before me, the notary, in legal form, and having done so, aware of it, he promised to tell the truth, and being questioned according to the tenor of the auto on the folio before this one, and with the rest of the necessary questions, he said and declared the following: that two years ago, a little more or less, having embarked in London in order to come as a sailor on a ship [nabio] to the port of Jamaica, and the owner having sold the said ship, he embarked in a ketch [queche](19) NOTE 19. A queche, or ketch, was a one-masted ship which might easily have been used interchangeably with the term balandra, or sloop (employed almost universally for the vessel that entered Guadalquini harbor). in order to come to the port of San Jorje, and from there to go to New Holland in order to pass to Flanders, and coming in prosecution of his voyage with another ten persons, and one woman, they lacked [f.6, vto.] provisions by having been met by Monsieur de Agramon, a French corsair, and arriving in the said catch at the coasts of these provinces in one of the ports of Guale,(20) NOTE 20. They arrived at the port of Guadalquini, where they ultimately became involved in the pirate raid that destroyed both the missions on St. Simons Island (Asao and Guadalquini), forcing the removal of Guale province south of the modern Georgia border and resulting in the criminal prosecution of the provincial lieutenant (see Document 10). they debarked on land, and some Indians came forth to receive them with their weapons, and seeing that they did not fight, they took them to the houses of the King(21) NOTE 21. Based on the testimony in Document 10, the phrase las casas del Rey undoubtedly refers to the aboriginal council house of the Guadalquini Mission. The use of the term "king" may signify the aboriginal cacique, but may also refer to the use of the council house as a public structure where visiting Spanish soldiers stayed (thus signifying the house of the King of Spain). and gave them something to eat, and the said Indians said that they could not leave there until the lieutenant came, and having come and been there three days,(22) NOTE 22. All other accounts of this incident (including that of the lieutenant himself) indicate that the lieutenant arrived only after the prisoners had been in Guadalquini three days, and was with them less than a day before the pirate ship arrived. the said lieutenant told this witness that he should go to the vessel in order to take it to the other side, and this witness and two companions being in the process of doing so, having weighed one anchor, one of them advised that a frigate was entering through the port, and the three of them threw themselves into the boat [bote] in order to come to land, as they did although they shot some shotguns at them from the said frigate.(23) NOTE 23. This testimony conflicts with that of Lieutenant Saturnino de Abaurrea in Document 10, who indicated that he had ordered the three prisoners to assist in sailing the sloop to the mainland on Saturday, and who mentions nothing about the prisoners being at or on the sloop when the pirate ship entered Guadalquini harbor the following Sunday morning, October 22. There is indeed testimony which suggests that shots were fired when the ship arrived, and it is possible that portions of the earlier testimony in Saturnino de Abaurrea's trial were uniformly falsified by witnesses in order to cover up facets of the lieutenant's negligence. Arriving at the royal house, they only found the eight English persons, their companions, and asking about the said lieutenant and the Spaniards and Indians, they responded that they had fled to the woods, and in this time the said frigate placed people on land in a [f.7] canoe, and those who debarked on land told them that they would not do them harm, asking them about the people of the town. They responded that they had fled, with which the rest of the people aboard came and loaded the corn that they found there, which was up to one hundred and fifty quintales in his opinion.(24) NOTE 24. This figure, if accurate, would equal some 15,000 pounds of corn that was robbed from the storehouses at Mission Guadalquini. They were there three days, and at the end of them they burned the church and the houses and embarked again, and upon leaving from the port, the said frigate ran aground, and as they were carrying few people, they helped themselves with the said sloop [balandra], and with some effort they left. On the voyage, the captain of the said frigate, who was named Chacopal,(25) NOTE 25. The name of the frigate's captain was spelled differently each time it was written, but based on these renditions-Chacopal, Chachopal, Cahopal- and the fact that these were based on the oral testimony of a Flemish man speaking in English to a Spanish notary, along with other clues from English documents relating to Charles Town and the Carolina colony, this pirate has tentatively been identified as the notorious Dutch corsair Captain Jacob (Jacob Everson), who has been linked with another pirate, Captain Yankey, who may have also taken part in this raid (see below). told them how he came from the said sea to St. Augustine with another six vessels, and that things had gone poorly, and that the year before in the sack of Vera Cruz it had gone well for them, since they had left much wealth in San Jorje, and with his share, the said Captain Chachopal had built in the said town of San Jorje a white house on the bank of the great river, with its port, and having arrived at San Jorije, this witness saw it. In the time ofthree weeks that they were there, they prepared the said captain with people and provisions, placing twenty more men, and in the said time of the three [f.7, vto.] weeks, one vessel of the seven which had come to seize this presidio entered, because they found the other five in the said port of San Jorje, where they had entered before them and were equipping in order to leave again. This witness embarked in a sloop in order to return to Jamaica, and the said sloop left him in Siguate,(26) NOTE 26. Siguate was another name for the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, which was assaulted twice during 1684 by Spaniards attempting to destroy the notorious pirate haven (see note 34, this section). Since Juan Clar was apparently left there late in 1684 or early in 1685, and worked some eight months on the island, it seems apparent that New Providence was not destroyed in 1684, and in fact had been reoccupied by the English by 1685. Captain Leon's raid late that year seems to have prompted yet another abandonment of the island, which is when Clar turned himself over to the Spaniards and began working as a crewman on the Havana galliot. where he remained working about eight months for the food of the passage, and in this time Captain Alejandro Thomas de Leon went with two piraguas, and the people of the said Siguate having fled, this witness came forth to turn himself over to the Spaniards, and since then he has served with the said Captain Alejandro, until he came as aid from Havana to this presidio and they went privateering toward the north, where the said Captain Alejandro lost his galliot and his life. He was questioned if in the time that he was in San Jorje he saw and communicated with some Spanish prisoners or slaves from Vera Cruz or Campeche, and he said that on the occasion that he says he went to San Jorje, he saw that the corsairs who he has said sold there a Spaniard for thirty quintales(27) NOTE 27. Thirty quintales equals roughly 3000 pounds of corn. of corn due to all the time that the said Spaniard did not pay his value, and he heard it [f.8] said that there were many slaves from the sack of Vera Cruz in the interior,(28) NOTE 28. Although this has yet to be confirmed, evidently a number of Spanish slaves captured during the pirate raid on Vera Cruz had been sold in Charles Town, and were working on plantations in the interior. and this witness was in the town of San Jorje very little time and did not see more. He was questioned ifhe knows or has heard it said that when the said seven vessels came to take this presidio, they left from San Jorje or were helped and incited by its governor, and he said that he only knows that the said corsair Captains Cahopal and Thomas Jingle(29) NOTE 29. Captain Thomas Jingle (the name was spelled in several ways) was the pirate cited by Andrew Ranson and his cohorts, captured early during the 1684 raid, as the leader of the six vessels who planned the invasion ofSt. Augustine (Wright, 1960), of which one was the frigate of Captain Jacob. Inasmuch as this name had been translated from English into Spanish, Herbert Bolton (1925) rendered its pronunciation as "Hinckley." Other documentary evidence suggests that this might possibly have been another infamous pirate named Captain Yankey, an alias for Captain John Williams, who seems to have sailed with Jacob Everson during this period (Haring, 1910: 254). The two pirates (Yankey and Jacob) were later reported to have entered Charles Town harbor illegally with "a Spanish prize" with the consent of Governor Moreton (Lords Proprietors, 1686). At least one of the two (Yankey) did participate in the earlier sack ofVera Cruz (Haring, 1910; Oexmelin, 1953; Juarez Moreno, 1972). have their houses and haciendas there, and careen their vessels and go there to take on provisions. He was questioned if in the said time that he was in the said town of San Jorje he had heard it said that vessels were to leave in order to return to this presidio, or to sack other ports of the Indies, and he said that as he was going as a passenger, they tried to sell him for the passage from this province to San Jorje, and for having freed him from among the Spaniards,(30) NOTE 30. The 11 passengers on the sloop that had been captured by the Indians of Guadalquini seem to have been held prisoner on Captain Jacob's frigate until someone in Charles Town paid for their freedom, the excuse being that the pirates had freed them from their Indian and Spanish captors, and had provided passage up to Charles Town. This was undoubtedly one way to reap at least some profit from their largely unsuccessful raid on St. Augustine and the Mocama and Guale missions. and thus they had to sell him, as they did for the price of forty pesos, which were given for [f.8, vto.] this witness by a Frenchman who is a resident and married in New Holland, in the province of Niviorca [New York], and is known by this witness, and that in Flanders this witness had aided the said Frenchman with seven pesos, and owing to him he did not remain sold in the said town of San Jorje, and for this occasion he did not travel or have time to leave from the port, on account of which he had no communication with, nor wished to have any, the said town of San Jorje, through having seen likewise that on the said occasion of the said vessels, they had sold for four years(31) NOTE 31. The prisoner was presumably to work four years in return for having his freedom from the pirates paid for. another Spanish prisoner who is named Blas, and they likewise wanted to sell another Spaniard named Christobal whom [this witness] found in the city of Havana, where he has seen that he is a barber, and that not having found anyone who would buy him, the Captain of one of the corsair ships, whose name he does not remember, embarked again, and returning to Jamaica to make a voyage, he mistrusted its governor, and he dropped him off on the coast of Havana,(32) NOTE 32. This individual might have been one of a pair of Spanish prisoners captured during a June 1682 raid on the cattle ranch of La Chua in the Timucua province, who were subsequently deposited on the coast of Cuba (see Bushnell, 1978, 1994). and what he has said and declared is the truth and what he knows, aware of the oath which he has made, in which he affirms and ratifies, and he is of the age of twenty-seven years, and signed it together with His Grace the said senor governor. [unreadable] Juan Marquez Cabrera Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary [f9] Notification, Acceptance, and Oath In St. Augustine, Florida, on the twenty-third of September, sixteen eighty-six, I, the notary, notified and made known the commission made in the persons of Carlos Robson and Ricardo de la Cruz for the purpose contained in the auto on the folio before this one, who, having read and understood it, said that they were accepting and accepted the charge of such interpreters, and swore before God and a sign of the cross, in legal form, to do so faithfully and legally, to their faithful knowledge and understanding, and the said Carlos Robson signed it, to which I, the notary, swear. Carlos Robson Before me, Alonso Solana Public and Governmental Notary

[Morton’s stolen male slaves included Peter, Scipio, Doctor (whose name suggests a specialized function or skill), Cushi, Arro, Emo, Caesar and Sambo. The women included Frank, Bess, and Mammy. Sambo was the Hausa name for a second son, while in Mende or Vai it meant “disgrace.” Cushi may have been “Quashee,” the Twi day-name for Sunday, which also came to signify “foolish” or “stupid.” For a discussion of slave naming, see Wood, Black Majority. The man who stole the canoe were named Conano, Jesse, Jacque, Gran Domingo (Big Sunday), Cambo, Mingo, Dicque, and Robi. Wood suggests that forms of the name Jack derived from the African day named for Wednesday, Cueto. Names of two women and a little girl were not given. The owners of the fugitives who escaped in the canoe were: Samuel de Bordieu, Mingo, his wife and daughter; John Bird, two men; Joab Howe, one man; John Berresford, one woman; Christopher Smith, one man; Robert Cuthbert, three men. William Dunlop’s Mission. (Landers)]

“Advisors of King Charles II of Spain took almost six years to reach a decision. When they did, it was momentous. In 1693, still angry that the English had settled Carolina, the King told Florida’s governor to pay for the slaves and set them free. Then he issued a proclamation that any future slaves who escaped from an English colony and reached Florida could win their freedom by converting to Catholicism. They would not be sent back to their masters and Spain would not pay any compensation.” (Source lost) “This proclamation immediately caused trouble with the English settlers in Carolina. But is also started an “underground railroad” as more slaves tried to escape to Florida.” (Same source) On November 7, 1693, King Charles II issued runaway slave liberty decree (Source lost) “Slaves of Spanish masters in Florida became free through a variety of mechanism, including manumission by their owners, coartacion, or gradual self-purchase, and judicial process. Other enslaved people adeptly exploite Anglo-Spanish rivalry in the Southeast to achieve freedom. In 1670, English planters challenged Spanish territorial claims to the entire Atlantic seaboard and established a settlement at Charles Town. Shortly thereafter, their slaves began escaping to St. Augustine, claiming they desired baptism in the “True Faith.” Rather than return the runaways as English owners demanded, the Spaniards offered them religious sanctuary. A royal decree of 1693 granted “liberty to all… the men as well as the women… so that by their example and my liberality… others will do the same.” (22). [...as fugitives continued to filter into the province, the Governors and treasury officials repeatedly solicited the king’s guidance. Eventually, the council of the Indies reviewed the matter and recommended approving the sanctuary policy shaped by the Governors. On November 7, 1693, Charles II issue the first official position on the runaways, “giving liberty to all… the men as well as the women… so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same.” The provocation inherent in this order increasingly threatened the white Carolinians. At least four other groups of runaways reached St. Augustine in the following decade, and despite an early ambiguity about their legal status, the refugees were returned to their British masters only in one known example. (Landers)]

Carolina’s changing racial balance further intensified the planters concerns. By 1708, blacks outnumbered whites in the colony, and slave revolts erupted in 1711 and 1714. (Landers)

Carolina’s changing racial balance further intensified the planters concerns. By 1708, blacks outnumbered whites in the colony, and slave revolts erupted in 1711 and 1714. (Landers)

Conclusion There should have been no Spanish colony in Florida. Philip II’s reluctant attempts to colonize on the continent were his response to the hateful French principle of effective occupation. The king enforced his costly claim because interlopers were not to be tolerated, and although Florida was a land without riches, cities, or decent harbors, his advisors were sure it guarded the passage to the East. Once the French were driven out, Spanish presence could be maintained by settlements or, if necessary, a caretaker garrison and a handful of friars. Florida, however, proved difficult to conquer and settle and even more difficult to govern. For the first 15 years treasury affairs were in a state of chaos. Accounts of the garrison were mingled with the personal accounts of Pedro Menendez and his extended family or with the ship accounts of the Indies Fleet. Officials were appointed and did not serve, or served and were not confirmed, or were confirmed and then killed by Indians. Some came on loan from the Fleet without the formality of titles. The beginnings of rational, nonfamilial accounting were seen in 1580, but the benefits of it were lost in accidents of war. The year of Drake’s raid 1586, saw the coffer stolen, the treasury headquarters destroyed, the books burned, and the branch office of Santa Elena abandoned. The French continued to be a problem. Undeterred by the capture of Fort Caroline or the massacre of Matanzas, they resumed their seasonal trading, and the Indians’ desire for allies against the Spanish made them all the more welcome. During the hectic 16th century, Florida enjoyed a moratorium on royal regulations as well as taxes. Had the crown enforced its laws on barter and trade, production, native labor, campaigns in the field, unauthorized expenditures, or conflicts of interest, the tiny colony could not have survived. The years from 1595 to 1605 saw a gradual change. For the first time governors were appointed from outside the Menendez clan. Problems with the French and Indians came to a head. After campaigns against the Guale, Surruque, and a tribe at the Savannah River, the nearer natives submitted to trade, tribute, and conversion. St. Augustine was redesigned and rebuilt, and laborers were summoned in shifts to grow maize. The visit of a royal auditor signaled a new century and a new era. The treasury was instructed to break with casual Fleet practices and infant colony exemptions. There would be tighter supervision of officials, precise procedures, and new taxes. The history of the Florida treasury in the 17th century, as we have seen, is the story of the sabotaging of this plan. The question is, why? Was it due to defects of the Spanish imperial system? Those defects are well known. Historians seem to have often chosen the Spanish empire, like the Roman, for homilies on decline and fall. Some of the characteristics predisposing to collapse, such as venality of office, or monarchs whose interests clashed with those of the country, were common to all the courts of Europe, Others were more peculiarly Spanish, such as an increasingly enclave mentality in the face of assaults upon the Catholic faith and territory and, related to that, a growing inability to compromise with ideals, resulting in a wider than usual disparity between the lawful and the worldly and practical. Yet one could argue that these “Spanish” traits containing the seeds of eventual decline were the vary qualities that had once made the empire possible and had given it vitality. AN325 John Leddy Phelan, in his thoughtful administrative analysis, “Authority and Flexibility in the Spanish Imperial Bureaucracy,” hypothesizes that the strength of the Spanish bureaucracy lay in this divergence between law and practice. Local officials with conflicting jurisdictions were forced to choose which of several standards to apply, knowing they could be held responsible for any of them. The system allowed flexibility and a degree of decentralization without weakening central authority. It was the reason why the bureaucracy, like the church, could maintain political and society stability in the Indies for three centuries. In Florida the tangled hierarchies of the government provided as many causes for conflict as the Floridians’ common dependence upon Indian labor or their mutual absorption in the situado. From time to time a royal cedula would clarify some point of contention, but the crown was inattentive and erratic and left other points vague, as though to test the maneuvering skill and power base of the contenders. At any time the political clout of a royal appointee could have been measured by the disputed areas he had under his control. If the imperial bureaucracy made any contributions to political and societal stability, it was by supporting propertied officeholders. The system was decentralized and the system was flexible, but effective central authority did not exist. The royal officials were at fault for their embezzling, graft, and gross neglect of duty. The crown, acting through the Council of the Indies, was also at fault for its spasmodic supervision, disconnected ad hoc decisions, inadequate support, and general lack of interest. But running deeper than the actions of any person or tribunal were the problems of the imperial bureaucracy itself: the cumbersome safeguards, the conflicting jurisdictions, the practice of filling offices by patronage or purchase, the ambiance of conspicuous display, the commercial monopolies and their corollaries of lawbreaking and economic decay. And if all these had been magically corrected, there would still have been the problems proper to St. Augustine, a hardship post in a land known for bad climate, decreasing population, and active war. Efficient and upright treasury administration was a chimera. Given the contemporary milieu and mores, that goal was probably as unattainable as justice for the Indias, which also concerned the crown, or fairness to soldiers, just beginning to enter the royal consciousness. Yet if one substituted for these goals the larger one of maintaining a foothold on the continent, the crown’s attitude of capricious neglect might prove to have been the best one available. The officials of the treasury were not so much Spaniards as Floridians. Their appointments had been royally confirmed and their privileges and obligations juridically outlined, but as everyone knew, these were technicalities. The king’s Florida coffer was his in name only; they treated it as their own. Their profiteering, slipshod bookkeeping, and nonchalance toward regulations were a model of maladministration, deplored by their bureaucratic superiors but never seriously chastised. There should have been no Spanish colony in Florida but there was one, and these sturdy individuals, wholly occupied in their struggle to keep up appearances, to take advantage of their privileges, to escape their obligations, to exercise control over their city and its provinces, and to perpetuate their hold on the king’s coffer, were the colony’s underlying government. They were making it survive. The End Amy Turner Bushnell

The second edict, on October 29, 1733, commended the blacks for their bravery against the British in 1728; however, it also stipulated that they would be required to complete four years of royal service prior to being freed. But the runaways had sought liberty, not indenture. Led by Captain Menendez of the slave militia, the blacks persisted in attempts to secure complete freedom. (Landers)

THE UNVEILING. At the conclusion of Judge Charlton's address Mr. J. Randolph Anderson, the Chairman of the Commission, and Mr. Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, escorted to the base of the monument His Excellency, Joseph M. Brown, Governor of Georgia, and Mrs. J. J. Wilder, president of the Society of Colonial Dames of America, and placing into their hands the cords that held the two flags together, gave the signal for the unveiling, and in a moment the heroic figure of Oglethorpe stood revealed in the midst of the applauding multitude. DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. The statue itself is of bronze nine feet in height facing south, and represents Oglethorpe in the full dress of a British general of the period of 1730. It rests upon a pedestal of pink-gray marble in Italian renaissance design. This die rests upon a wide platform ornamented with garlands and tabled on the sides, with a lion rampant on each corner, carrying a shield. Upon the shields are carved the seals of the colony of Georgia, the state of Georgia, the city of Savannah, and the coat-of-arms of Oglethorpe. On the east and west sides of the monument is a marble seat, and on the north and south ends of the quadrangle is an exhedra in limestone inclosing a grass plot. On the south face of the pedestal is carved in colonial style the following inscription: Erected by The State of Georgia The City of Savannah, And the Patriotic Societies of the State To the Memory of The Great Soldier Eminent Statesman, and Famous Philanthropist, General James Edward Oglethorpe who in This City on the 12th Day of February A. D 1733 Founded and Established the Colony of Georgia. At the conclusion of the unveiling and dedicatory exercises at the monument the several military companies which had been grouped in the square moved off in order to the strains of martial music to the Park Extension, where a parade and grand review of the troops were made in the presence of the distinguished guests and in view of thousands of citizens who surrounded the Park on all sides. The program as planned was fully carried out, and the occasion was made one worthy of the memory of Georgia's heroic founder. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH Daniel Chester French, the sculptor whose genius and artistic skill created the bronze statue of Oglethorpe, was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, April 20, 1850. His parents were substantial New Englanders, and were connected with the families of Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. He received his education at Exeter, N. H., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dartmouth College. He studied sculpture in Boston and in Florence, Italy, and in 1876-78 he had a studio in Washington. From 1878 to 1887 he was located in Boston and Concord, Mass. and since that time he has had his studio in New York. Mr. French is recognized as one of the foremost sculptors of America. Among his best known works are "The Minute Man of Concord," a statue of General Cass in the Capitol at Washington, a statue of Rufus Choate in Boston, John Harvard at Cambridge, Mass., Thomas Starr King in San Francisco, the colossal "Statue of the Republic" at the World's Columbian Exposition, "Dr. Gallaudet and his Deaf Mute Pupil," at Washington, the Milmore Memorial (3d class medal at Paris Salon, 1892), bronze doors to Boston Public Library, Statue of Alma Mater at Columbia College, groups Europe, Asia, Africa, and America in front of the New York Custom House, Statue of Samuel Spencer in Atlanta, etc. In 1900 he was awarded a medal of honor at the Paris Exposition, and in 1902 he became a member of the National Academy. He is one of the trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a member of the National Sculpture Society, the Architectural League, and Academia di S. Luca, Rome, Italy. In 1888 Mr. French married Miss Mary Adams French of Washington, and at present lives at 125 West 11th Street, New York City. The statue to Oglethorpe is his last work, and in its spirited conception and artistic execution it is worthy alike of the distinguished sculptor and of Georgia's heroic founder. FINANCIAL STATEMENT of the Oglethorpe Monument Commission.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/trustee-georgia-1732-1752 The first twenty years of Georgia history are referred to as Trustee Georgia because during that time a Board of Trustees governed the colony. England's King George signed a charter establishing the colony and creating its governing board on April 21, 1732. AN343 Origins James Edward Oglethorpe, famous for conducting a parliamentary investigation into the conditions of London prisons, exercised a leading role in the movement to found the new colony. James Oglethorpe, a leader in the British movement to found a new colony in America, set sail for the new world on November 17, 1732, accompanied by Georgia's first settlers. James Oglethorpe He confided to his friend John Lord Viscount Percival (known as the first earl of Egmont after that title was conferred on him in 1733) that he intended to help released debtors begin a new life in America. In fact, Oglethorpe had received a grant of £5,000 to carry out his plan. In 1729 Dr. Thomas Bray chose trustees to administer his estate. In addition to Oglethorpe, the trustees, called the Associates of Dr. Bray, included several future members of the Georgia Trust, notably Percival, James Vernon, and Thomas Coram. Coram is better known as the founder of the Foundling Hospital in London. Oglethorpe and his friends decided to add the Bray legacy to the funds in hand for the purpose of establishing a new colony between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, in territory claimed by both the province of South Carolina and the Spanish colony of Florida. On September 17, 1730, the associates presented a petition for a charter to the Privy Council, Parliament's executive body, headed by the chancellor of the exchequer, Robert Walpole. The petition was routinely passed on to the notoriously inefficient Board of Trade, which dawdled for a year without acting. Walpole, the prime minister, was less than eager to challenge the Spanish, who had a prior claim to the region requested by the petitioners. Walpole needed the support of the influential members of Parliament who supported the charter, however, and he managed to bring the charter before the Privy Council. After going through several revisions, the notion of helping debtors gave way to a more pragmatic plan to send over "the deserving poor" who would protect South Carolina while producing such goods as wine and silk for England. The Georgia Charter The charter contained contradictions. The colonists were entitled to all the rights of Englishmen, yet there was no provision for the essential right of local government. Religious liberty was guaranteed, except for Roman Catholicism and Judaism. A group of Jews landed in Georgia without explicit permission in 1733 but were allowed to remain. The charter created a corporate body called a Trust and provided for an unspecified number of Trustees who would govern the colony from England. Seventy-one men served as Trustees during the life of the Trust. Trustees were forbidden by the charter from holding office or land in Georgia, nor were they paid. Presumably, their motives for serving were humanitarian, and their motto was Non sibi sed aliis ("Not for self, but for others"). The charter provided that the body of Trustees elect fifteen members to serve as an executive committee called the Common Council, and specified a quorum of eight to transact business. As time went on, the council frequently lacked a quorum; those present One face of the 1733 seal of the Georgia Trustees features two figures resting upon urns. They represent the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, which formed the northwestern and southeastern boundaries of the province. The genius of the colony is seated beside a cornucopia, with a cap of liberty on her head and a spear in one hand. The abbreviated Latin phrase Colonia Georgia Aug means "May the colony of Georgia prosper." Seal of the Trustees would then assume the status of the whole body of Trustees, a pragmatic solution not envisioned by the framers of the charter. Historian John McCain counted 215 meetings of the Common Council and 512 meetings of the corporation. Twelve Trustees attended the first meeting on July 20, 1732, at the Georgia office in the Old Palace Yard, conveniently close to Westminster. Committees were named to solicit contributions and interview applicants to the new colony. On November 17, 1732, seven Trustees bade farewell to Oglethorpe and the first settlers as they left from Gravesend aboard the Anne. The Trustees succeeded in obtaining £10,000 from the government in 1733 and lesser amounts in subsequent years. Georgia was the only American colony that depended on Parliament's annual subsidies. Active Trustees The most active members of the Trust, in terms of their attendance at council, corporation, or committee meetings, were, in order of frequency, James Vernon, the earl of Egmont, Henry L'Apostre, Samuel Smith, Thomas Tower, John Laroche, Robert Hucks, Stephen Hales, James Oglethorpe, and Anthony Ashley Cooper, fourth earl of Shaftesbury. The number of meetings attended ranged from Vernon's 712 to Shaftesbury's 266. Sixty-one Trustees attended fewer meetings. James Vernon, one of the original Associates of Dr. Bray and an architect of the charter, maintained an interest in Georgia throughout the life of the Trust. He arranged the Salzburger settlement and negotiated with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for missionaries. He differed from Egmont and Oglethorpe in his willingness to respond to the colonists' complaints. When Oglethorpe became preoccupied with the Spanish war, Vernon proposed the plan of dividing the colony into two provinces, Savannah and Frederica, each with a president and magistrates. The Trustees named William Stephens president in Savannah, and he served until 1751, when he was replaced by Henry Parker in the final year of the Trust's tenure. Oglethorpe neglected to name a president for Frederica, and the magistrates there were instructed to report to Stephens. The Trustees did not want to appoint a single governor because the king in council had to approve the appointment of governors, and the Trustees preferred to keep control in their hands. After Egmont's retirement in 1742, Vernon became the indispensable man. He missed only 4 of 114 meetings during the last nine years of the Trust and supervised the removal of restrictions on land tenure, rum, and slavery. Egmont, the first president of the Common Council and the dominant figure among the Trustees until his retirement, acted as Georgia's champion in Parliament. He strongly opposed Walpole's attempts to conciliate Spain at the expense of Georgia. He had to walk a careful line, however, because the Trustees depended upon Walpole for their annual subsidies. Other Trustees contributed according to their abilities. Henry L'Apostre advised on finances, Samuel Smith on religion, and Thomas Tower on legal matters, particularly on instructions to Georgia officials. Stephen Hales's closeness to the royal family and his standing as a scientist lent prestige to the body of Trustees. Shaftesbury, a political opponent of Walpole, joined the Common Council in 1733 and, except for a brief resignation, remained faithful to the end. He led the negotiations to convert Georgia to a royal colony. For the entire twenty years the Trustees employed only two staff members, Benjamin Martyn as secretary and Harman Verelst as accountant. Georgia Indians in London Oglethorpe returned to England in June 1734 with goodwill ambassadors in the persons of Yamacraw chief Tomochichi, Senauki, his wife, their nephew Toonahowi, As the principal mediator between the native population and the new English settlers during the first years of Georgia's settlement, Tomochichi (left) contributed much to the establishment of peaceful relations between the two groups and to the ultimate success of Georgia. His nephew, Toonahowi, is seated on the right in this engraving, circa 1734-35, by John Faber Jr. Tomochichi and six other Lower Creek tribesmen. The Indians were regarded as celebrities, feted by the Trustees, interviewed by the king and queen, entertained by the archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, and made available to meet the public. All but two of them posed with a large number of Trustees at the Georgia office for the painter William Verelst. One of the absent Indians died of smallpox, despite the ministrations of the eminent physician Sir Hans Sloane, and was buried by his grieving comrades in the burial plot of St. John's in Westminster. After performing their social obligations, the Indians became tourists, visiting the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Oglethorpe's Westbrook Manor, and Egmont's Charlton House, and enjoying a variety of plays, from Shakespearean dramas to comic farces. Salzburgers, Moravians, and Highlanders The Indians departed on October 31, 1734. With them went fifty-seven Salzburgers to join the forty-two families already in Georgia at Ebenezer. In 1734 and 1735 two groups of Moravians went to Georgia. As pacifists they opposed doing military duty and left Georgia by 1740. After delivering the Indians and Salzburgers to Georgia, Captain George Dunbar took his ship, the Prince of Wales, to Scotland. Dunbar and Hugh Mackay recruited 177 Highlanders, most of them members of Clan Chattan in Inverness-shire. In 1736 the Highlanders founded Darien on Georgia's southern boundary, the Altamaha River. The Scots of Darien, who were extremely capable fighters, assisted Oglethorpe during the siege of St Augustine in 1740. They were also responsible for introducing another denomination of Christianity to the colony, Presbyterianism. Dunbar subsequently served as Oglethorpe's aide in Georgia and in Oglethorpe's campaign against the Scots in 1745. Oglethorpe went to Georgia in 1736, with the approval of his fellow Trustees, to found two new settlements on the frontiers, Frederica on St. Simons Island and Augusta at the headwaters of the Savannah River in Indian country. Both places were garrisoned by troops. In 1737 Oglethorpe returned to England to demand a regiment of regulars from a reluctant Walpole. Not only did he get his regiment and a commission as colonel, but Egmont persuaded Walpole to pay for all military expenses. Trustee Legislation and Reactions In 1735 the Trustees proposed three pieces of legislation to the Privy Council and had the satisfaction of securing the concurrence of king and council. An Indian act required Georgia licenses for trading west of the Savannah River. Another act banned the use of rum in Georgia. A third act outlawed slavery in Georgia. South Carolina protested the Indian act vehemently and objected to the Trustees' order to restrict the passage of rum on the Savannah River. The Board of Trade sided with South Carolina, and a compromise was reached, allowing traders with Carolina licenses to continue their traditional trade west of the Savannah River. The Trustees objected to the Board of Trade's tampering and refrained from proposing any additional legislation requiring approval of the Privy Council. Continual complaints by the colonists and the near abandonment of Georgia during the war with Spain discouraged all but the most dedicated of the Trustees. Especially embarrassing was the list of grievances presented on the floor of Parliament by Thomas Stephens, son of the Trustees' agent in Georgia, William Stephens. A committee went through the motions of looking into the complaints and then exonerated the Trustees. Stephens was made to kneel in apology on the floor of Parliament. However, the prestige of the Trustees had been wounded, and their influence in Parliament weakened. Walpole lost office in 1742, and the new administration declined the Trustees' request for funding. Egmont resigned in protest, but not all the Trustees gave up. Under the leadership of Vernon and Shaftesbury, the Trustees conciliated the administration, and the government renewed the annual subsidies until 1751, when the Trustees' request was again denied. Oglethorpe returned from Georgia in 1743 and never again showed the same enthusiasm for the work of the Trust. He disagreed with the relaxation of the ban on rum in 1742 and with the admission of slavery in 1751. He engaged in an unfortunate argument with the Trustees over expenses. The accountant claimed that he owed the Trust £1,412 of funds used for military purposes for which he had been compensated. Oglethorpe countered that the Trustees owed him far more than that amount. No agreement was reached. Oglethorpe attended his last meeting on March 16, 1749. End of Trustee Rule In March 1750 the Trustees called upon Georgians to elect delegates to the first representative assembly but cautioned them only to advise the Trustees, not to legislate. Augusta and Ebenezer each had two delegates, Savannah had four, and every other town and village had one. Frederica, now practically abandoned, sent no delegate. Sixteen representatives met in Savannah on January 14, 1751, and elected Francis Harris speaker. Most of the resolutions concerned improving trade. The delegates showed maturity in requesting the right to enact local legislation, and they opposed any annexation effort on the part of South Carolina. The Trustees intended to permit further assemblies, but the failure of Parliament to vote a subsidy in 1751 caused the Trustees to enter into negotiations to turn the colony over to the government a year before the charter expired. Only four members of the Trust attended the last meeting on June 23, 1752, and of the original Trustees only James Vernon persevered to the end. The earl of Halifax, the new president of the Board of Trade, secured broader powers and infused new life into the administration of the board. He regretted that the colonies had been neglected for so long, and he intended to make Georgia a model colony and an example to others. Thus Georgia passed from the control of one set of gentlemen of Parliament to another. In 2009 the Georgia Historical Society, in conjunction with the governor's office, created an awards program called the Georgia Trustees, which honors "Georgians whose accomplishments and community service reflect the highest ideals of the founding body of Trustees, which governed the colony from 1732 to 1752."

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. ADDRESS OF HON. WALTER G. CHARLTON. —the Highlanders sailed on the Prince of Wales, Oct. 20, 1735.

(Landers) March 29 - Montiano officially appointed Governor, unaware of English intentions to invade it. Once there, he repeatedly begs for reinforcements.

When the Spaniards mounted a major retaliatory offensive against Georgia in 1742, Governor Montiano once again employed his Mose militia. Montiano’s war plans called for sending English-speaking blacks of the Mose militia to range the countryside gathering and arming slave recruits, which suggests that he placed great trust in their loyalty and ability, as well, perhaps, as in their desire to punish their former masters. (Landers)

“Iberian concerns about religious orthodoxy were transformed in the New World into a preoccupation with racial purity. As black and mixed populations in the Indies grew, so did a body of discriminatory legislation designed to regulate them.” (Landers, “Jorge Biassou,” Escribano 1988, p85-100)

A week later, a small vessel brought big news to St. Augustine.* An explorer in the little boat had sailed from Port Royal, South Carolina, where a big ship from London had delivered big news.* He said the Queen of Great Britain had died three months earlier on November 20th.* Upon the queen’s death, Spain’s ambassador, the Count of Montijo, had spoken to the court of Britain.* The count explained Spain’s right to the land in America south of 33½ degrees latitudethe land England was actively settling in Georgia.* He relayed his king’s request that the English give up that land without a fight, and that sending troops there would be regarded as an act of war.* The count’s message was not well-received. England’s response was to issue a very large order.* Sixty ships were to sail to Cadiz and sit ready to attack.* Eight hundred soldiers were to report to James Oglethorpe500 from England and 300 from the garrison of Gibraltar.* The best engineer in the kingdom was to command those soldiers.* Oglethorpe was to command both Carolinas, and look for two frigates, one with 40 cannons.* He was also to stock up provisions in Georgia to support all these people at any cost.* The count did not feel welcome at the British court anymore.* He returned to Madrid, where everyone had no doubt the English would follow through on this action.* The explorer in the little vessel said the Carolina settlers were also on edge.* One of their frigates out at sea was approached by an English one that had just left Havana, with news that Havana planned to attack Carolina in March.* The Carolinians were fortified, and they ordered 6,000 of their Chalaque Indian allies to go to Georgia.* According to the explorer, the inhabitants of Old Carolina didn’t care for Oglethorpe.* They thought he was overly bold and prideful, and that he was disrupting their commerce.* The explorer also delivered an array of world news. He’d heard that, · 4,000 men would come from Spain, as well as some vessels of war which had joined the Windward Armada.* · The English ask of the Spaniards the prizes made in America.* · Spaniards in Europe had captured an English merchant ship, killed all its crew, and carried it to Alicante.* · Hollanders had captured a Spanish vessel on the coast of America with some persons of note and held them as hostages until they returned the prizes which they had made.* · The Germans & French maintained a strict peace.* · The Germans and the Muscovites had captured many places & provinces from the Turks, killing a great number of them with little loss on their side.* Montiano didn’t know what to make of this explorer’s freedom of speech.* Or did he pay him? He refers to this man as a spy.* It was far more information than his adjutant Rodriguez had been able to collect. He wondered if perhaps the man was trying to discourage St. Augustine’s battle preparations.* With those numbers of troops, Indians, and arms, St. Augustine didn’t stand a chance. Montiano had already heard some of these details from Guemes’s letters.* However, the part about the ambassador abandoning his position at the British court was new news, and it didn’t feel good to have to hear it from an outsider.* Now, the squatting English settlements began to feel more like army camps preparing to attack. A few days later, Don Juan de Ojeda prepared his bilander for a trip to Havana. Montiano wrote his update to send to Guemes.*

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. 1738-3 or 1742-6-2* ORDERS TO THE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE FLEET. *AN463 Orders to be obeyed by the commander of the Fleet, and instructions for his guidance, with the understanding that he is in all matters to be under the orders of the general selected to command the expedition which is to dislodge the foreigners that have settled and established themselves in the dominions of the King in the Provinces of Florida. 1. He will leave the post of Havana, if the weather permit, on the day appointed, with all the vessels of war and transports after having made all necessary arrangements to keep his ships together in good order during the journey, and established signals for prompt comprehension and correct action in any case that may come up. He will likewise have drawn up the special orders to be observed with all the precision and clarity possible by the respective commanders of the vessels under his command. 2. He will proceed directly to Saint Augustine in Florida, without anchoring anywhere, unless driven to it by inevitable necessity. 3. When in sight of the Bar of Saint Augustine he will approach as closely as possible, and anchor with his entire fleet on the bar. 4. As soon as the tide serves, he will order the transports to enter the harbor, and anchor in front of the castle. 5. As soon as the said tide nears the flood, he will determine whether the depth on the bar will permit the entrance of the vessels under his command, without lightening, and if so, these will enter, and proceed to anchor in front of the Hermitage of Our Lady de la Leche. Should lightening prove necessary, all will execute it at the same time with the greatest dispatch, transporting in launches and boats the weight that may be necessary. But this is to be done only in case it is impossible, by reason of storms, to remain at anchor outside. 6. He will remain in port (or wherever else he may think proper) until the commanding general gives orders to begin operations and put to sea with his entire fleet, which he will obey without loss of time. 7. He will convoy the flotilla of small vessels that are to cross the bar of the Saint John's River, until he sights its inlets on an east and west line, when he will either lie-to, or if the weather permit, anchor; the first is the better course, if it should be necessary to go outside under the threat of the east wind, dangerous on this coast; the second, in order to avoid drifting with the currents. Circumstances must determine which of these two courses appears to him the better, without losing sight of the fact that he must endeavor as far as possible to keep the coast in view during the entire course of the expedition so as distinctly to observe the signals made from it, or to receive information sent out to him, since the happy issue of the enterprise depends partly if not entirely on the unity and joint effort of the two fleets. 8. He will lie-to or remain at anchor, as may be determined, off the inlets, until he shall have received from the beach a signal to proceed on his course. 9. He will continue on his way, observing both by day and by night the signals made to him from land, so that on receiving information of the point at which the interior flotilla happens to be resting, he will again anchor or lie-to, until again ordered to proceed. For, as the interior flotilla can proceed only when the tide is favorable, at intervals of six hours and a few minutes, it is incumbent on the sea fleet so to adjust its progress, as to be but a short distance away, and so avoid slipping on and then being discovered by the foreigners of Fort Frederica or Gualquini before the interior flotilla shall have come up and taken its disposition for attack. 10. Should some accident prevent people coming down to the shore to make signals, he will proceed along the coast under shortened sail; and, after taking into account the change of tides, and whatever may further the advance, will estimate approximately where the interior flotilla must be, giving due regard to the increase of distance caused by the windings of the interior channels, and by the fact that on some nights it will perhaps be impossible to sail and take advantage of the tide on account of a few narrow passes impossible to navigate save by day. 11. He will also consider a possible delay due to the capture of the Fort of Vegeses on the channel of the Island of Whales, this in order that both fleets may always be approximately on the same parallel. And if all the precautions mentioned should remain without the result expected, after having maturely weighed the aforesaid contingencies, and adjusted his course accordingly, he will set his course directly for the entrance of Gualquini, where he will anchor on the bar with his entire squadron in from four and a half to six fathoms, so as to bring the point of the north of the Island of Saint Simon to bear N. N. W., and that of the north of the bar of Whales to bear S.W. ¼ S. If while on this position, the sea should rise and, unable to ride it out, he should fear that his cables would not hold, he may go in nearer to shelter himself, setting his course N. W. ¼ W., and proceeding some four miles in four fathoms of water, so that the said point of the Island of Saint Simon shall bear N., that of Whales S. S. W., and the Castle of Frederica W. N. W., this being recognizable by the reddish color of the mound of earth at the shoulder of the bastion. If however, he can maintain himself without the said risk in the said six fathoms, he will do so, in order to be in a better position to land, on account of the surf on the shoals at the entrance. 12. He will maintain himself thus at anchor, with the English flag flying, unless signaled to get under way and capture the port. This the commanding general will order to take place on the beach of the south point at the place marked R,* whenever the opportune occasion shall arise, as determined by his readiness to surprise or attack the fort which the foreign settlers have built on the island in question. This in turn will depend on the time of junction of the two fleets, provided always that not the slightest movement shall take place until the proper signal is made. *The chart to which reference is made here and elsewhere in these orders has apparently not come down to us. 13. As soon as he shall see the said signal, he will order the landing body assigned to this duty with its officers to embark in launches, and direct it to go ashore on the nearest beach of the Island of Saint Simon outside of the surf of the north shoals, near the point Q. 14. The said landing shall be so ordered that the troops shall set foot ashore a short time before dawn, neither sooner nor later. To this end he shall measure the time he may consider necessary, having the day before marked the shoals and indicated the nearest point for the execution of the plan, and approximately observed the distance between shipside and shore. Although announcing that one and the same signal will be made of the arrival of the interior flotilla in the Bay of Gualquini, of the disembarkation of the troops and of their getting under way to enter the port, yet, even though the said signal be made at the hour of prayers, or later, or at any other hour, he will not on that account undertake any movement before the time already mentioned of the break of day, unless the signal should be made to undertake everything at the moment when it is set, no matter what the hour, because it is possible that this course might be advantageous; and in this case he will without the slightest delay set about the disembarkation, and get under way to capture the port provided that this operation take place by daylight. 15. As soon as the launches carrying the troops shall have sheered off, the commander will, if the tide be falling, stand by with his anchors apeak; if not falling, he will hoist sail ; if the wind does not serve, he will begin to tow, or do whatever he thinks best. With the bilanders leading ahead by the hawse he will set out to capture the port, using his best endeavor to have the landing troops very early in the morning surprise the look-out of the foreigners, marked O on the chart. He will also cause the fleet to take the port as early as possible, so that the enemy seeing himself attacked on all sides without hope of relief shall at once surrender without resistance. 16. This bar of Gualquini lies in north latitude 31° 18', with 6 to 4½ fathoms at the point mentioned above. To enter the port, set the course N. W. % W., and continue on it in 4½ and 5 fathoms till 3½ are reached; shift to N.W.N., when the bar will be found, with 3½ fathoms at half tide. From this point with course N.W. ¼W., easing to N. W., 5, 6, and 7 fathoms will be found, deepening until a line north and south through the fort of the strangers is crossed, where 14 fathoms will be obtained, shallowing as shown on the chart. 17. Having taken the position mentioned with his squadron, if the foreigners open fire on him with their artillery, he will return it, as will also all the boats under his command, signal having been previously made to form in line and to fire on the enemy in the aforesaid case. But if they do not open fire upon his ships, he will in no wise fire himself, but will merely order his vessels to anchor in good order in the part marked thus Y, provided that if he should be compelled to fire against the hostile fort, he will endeavor to dismount and disable its guns. He will direct that in going about, so as to use both broadsides, all vessels must have their launches and boats ahead by the hawse, to prevent drifting with the current, in order that they may with the greatest promptitude forge ahead or in any other direction which may appear to him suitable. It is indispensable that each vessel go about in the proper place in which it may find itself, the vanguard and rear guard standing on opposite tacks. For if the said maneuver is not executed in this form and the ships lose their positions, it will be impossible to make head against the current so as to present the other broadside to the enemy. 18. From the conditions already laid down, it is evident that the ships should lie-to when delivering their fire, keeping up against wind and current in such manner as to secure, without undue drifting, a good position for the purpose in hand. 19. It is possible that in this port of Gualquini we shall find at anchor a packet boat or war vessel which they own. If this shall not have surrendered when he arrives with his squadron, he will take possession of it, either by capitulation or by force, if it resists; he must send it to the bottom without giving quarter to anybody; but if it surrenders voluntarily, he will give it the best treatment possible. 20. If while at anchor outside on the bar with the English flag flying, as already arranged, there should come out, as is usual, a boat to reconnoiter or to bring a pilot, he will cause it to be captured with the boats and launches which he will have overboard and ready from the moment he shall have anchored. 21. Should he be forced by any wind to remove from the coast and for this reason be unable to see all the signals, then, as soon as the wind shall have ceased, he will return to the coast, and depending on the length of time that he will have been absent, he will examine the state in which he finds the interior flotilla. As a measure of prudence, and according to the conclusions arrived at, he will see to it that no matter what cause, contingency, delay, or weather shall have come up, the flotilla shall cross over to the Bay of Gualquini and take whatever action has been decided upon. 22. Whenever he encounters vessels, he will cause them to be searched as he may think proper; but no matter of what nation they may be, he will, for the purpose of embarrassing the enemy, take possession of them, either peacefully or by force, and of all the commercial vessels belonging to these new colonies, from which are to be evicted the intruding settlers as having furtively and illegally settled upon them. But if these vessels should be registered from Noyorca [New York, probably] and bound to St. Augustine with stores for its garrison, or else returning from the said place to their own country or coming from any other country, in respect of which the reason given above does not hold good, he will not capture them, but will compel and order them to continue their voyage under his convoy. He will take these precautions to make sure of the first class of vessels, and to detain the second, Until the commanding general may have taken cognizance of the case and ordered that there is no objection to giving them their liberty. 23. The Inlanders and other smaller vessels under his command will proceed nearer to the coast than the larger ships, in order that they may the more clearly and promptly pick up the signals made from it and communicate them to the flagship, according to the directions which the commander of the fleet shall have given to this end before leaving port. 24. As soon as this operation shall have been concluded, he will leave the port of Gualquini with his squadron and landing body and proceed directly to the Bay of Saint Simon, at whose entrance he will anchor on the bar in proper order and with the same precautions which he observed in that of Gualquini. Here he will remain until the commanding general orders him by pre-arranged signal to put to sea, so that if the signal should be set to disembark his people, he will answer by executing the order and sending his launches to the beach on the south point of the entrance. In this case, he will order the captains of the bilanders to sail into the harbor and join hands with the interior flotilla, with orders to fire on the redoubt of the foreigners, if this should open. If on the contrary, it should not, he will keep his station with his ships without undertaking any movement whatever as much to avoid risking his ships in entering and leaving the harbor as because it has been considered unnecessary to employ so great a force in the reduction of the redoubt and its garrison, and principally to prevent hostile vessels from going south and thus possibly embarrassing the withdrawal of our own vessels through the interior channels. To this end, he will constantly maintain in the tops a good guard of men of the utmost trustworthiness, who will attentively keep a good lookout in all directions. 25. As soon as he shall have seen the bilanders leaving the said port and a signal to make sail and continue the voyage, he will obey it, setting his course with his entire squadron direct for the bar of Las Cruces [Tybee Bar]; and without waiting for any other order or signal, he will enter the bay. 26. The mouth of Las Cruces, he will recognize by means of a lofty, wooden tower, which the foreigners have built on the north point; on the south, they have a small redoubt. 27. On coming within sight of the said bar, he will hoist the English ensign and will keep it flying until he shall have entered and placed himself in a position to prevent communication of this event to other parts. He will then hoist the Spanish ensign and at the same time will send an officer ashore under a white flag with orders to inform the commanding officer of the fort, that if he does not surrender without resistance or delay, he will be put to the sword with his entire garrison without exception, and to tell him at the same time that the remaining forts and settlements of the south have been depopulated and ruined and that a strong fleet is coming by the interior channels to destroy and reduce to naught those which may have remained. 28. The officer designated for this duty will carefully observe the disposition and force of the redoubt and the strength of its garrison in order that in case of refusing to surrender and offering resistance, the most convenient and best measures may be taken to capture it. He will withdraw to his ship, as soon as he has executed his commission. 29. While all this is going on, he [the Naval Commander] will anchor in the middle of the channel, posting the vessels under his order, so as to occupy both mouths of the Tamaja,* these being the same which on joining form the Savannah River. In this way, all the approaches will be covered and the communications of the enemy embarrassed. *This word suggests the Altamaha, but as this stream has no connection with the Savannah, it is not impossible that the scribe has written T for Y, and that the word is really Yamaha, i.e., Yamacraw. If this emendation be acceptable, then the author of these orders probably has some local configuration in mind. 30. If the commanding officer of the said fort should surrender without resistance, the garrison will be distributed among the vessels of the fleet, orders being given to treat them well. The guns, munitions and stores found will be collected and orders given to burn to the ground all the houses and to ruin and destroy whatever may be found. The same orders will be issued with regard to the tower mentioned. 31. If the commanding officer, in contempt of the courteous and peaceful proposition made to him, should decide to defend himself, the naval commander will make the best disposition to invest the place. He will disembark troops in sufficient number, having regard to the report on the garrison of the fort and its situation made by the officer he sent ashore, to secure success without risk, because if he considers that the operation is somewhat difficult he must not expose himself, but instead will send with the greatest dispatch one or two launches, well-armed and manned, to the south through the channels, with an officer to report everything accurately to the general; and, in addition, the conclusion he had come to in respect of what is needed to attack and conquer the said fort and settlement. The officer will be enjoined to travel night and day until he shall have met the interior flotilla. He must be furnished with the countersign and parole because it is considered important that this information should reach the general as soon as possible. 32. Even should the commanding general of the fort surrender without resistance, the two launches will be sent to report this result to the commanding general with all the incidents which may have occurred, and with an account of the state in which it was found. 33. Since it is possible in the said port to find a few vessels from Europe, bringing stores and people, for the support of these settlements, he will take as many as he shall have found, using them for the service and re-enforcement of his squadron. He will take the most exact precautions for safety until the general shall have joined and given directions, the expedition being concluded, for its orderly and well-arranged withdrawal. There is no doubt that in all relations the general will labor, in accordance with the zeal and experience he is known to have, for the complete success of the royal service, and the glory and reputation of the king's arms. In respect of accidents which cannot be anticipated, I have confidence that his experience and prudence will lead him to display the same zeal in prosperity as in adversity, and a perfect constancy, such that neither will success produce the slightest carelessness nor misfortune abate his courage, keeping in mind, as he will, that all of us depend upon the Divine Omnipotence to which must be attributed both prosperity and adversity, while displaying on his own part the diligence, activity and strength that are required to achieve success in anything upon which we have set our hearts.

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. 1738-3 LIST OF NAVAL SIGNALS, AND VARIOUS DIRECTIONS, FOR THE EXPEDITION AGAINST GEORGIA. Havana, March, 1738. Signals to be made by night by the Commanding General and obeyed by Commanding Officers of Squadron and Ships. 1. A light astern and one in the bow: Hoist anchor and get under way forming front with the entire fleet. 2. Two lights astern: Hoist anchor and get under way each squadron in four ranks. 3. Light astern: Hoist anchor and get under way in column of four abreast. 4. Light in the foretop for the first and light in the bow for the second: Hoist anchor and sail in column, two abreast, or in single file, bow and stern. 5. Light astern and one in the bow: Anchor with the fleet in a single line. 6. Two lights astern: Anchor each squadron in four ranks. 7. Light astern: Anchor in column, four abreast. 8. Light in the foretop for the first case, and one in the bow for the second: Anchor in column, two abreast, or in single file, bow and stern. 9. Light to port and another to starboard: Go ashore and cook. 10. The same signal aloft, adding another light in the bow: Each man to go aboard his ship. 11. Light in the main top, another in the foretop and one on the bow: Everybody to go ashore. 12. Light in the main top, another in the foretop: The people of the first and second squadrons, and no more, to go ashore reckoning the commanding general's as the first. 13. Light in the foretop and another in the bow: The people of the second and third squadrons to go ashore. 14. Light at half mainmast and another at half foremast: People of the third and fourth squadrons to go ashore. 15. Light at half mainmast: Half the people of each boat to go ashore. 16. Light at half foremast: A fourth of the people of each boat to go ashore. 17. Three gun flashes if to the westward and two if to eastward: To give notice that there are people or a noise ashore. 18. [Missing] 19. To show a light three times at the bow, giving sufficient time between appearances to allow them to be distinctly counted: To give notice of one or of many boats. 20. Light in the bow: Whenever the commanding officer of a vessel gives notice that he needs something, or reports something unforeseen or unprovided for aboard his ship. 21. Light astern and three gun flashes: To give notice that a hostile ship has been encountered and captured. 22. Light astern and four gun flashes: To give news that a hostile ship has been encountered and has escaped. 23. A swivel-gun shot and a light in the main top: All the ships will go to quarters. 24. A light in the main top and three rounds from a swivel-gun shots: All the vessels will fire their swivel-guns against their antagonists whether ashore or afloat. 25. Light in the main top and three swivel-gun shots: All the vessels will open with their swivel-guns and small arms. Note- It should be noticed that this order deals only with vessels having the enemy in their front or on their flanks and not embarrassed by such others of their own ships as might be ahead; because if it should be impossible, as it may, for all our ships to extend their front against the enemy and thus perhaps be unable to fire all at the same time- as intended by this order, then only those will open that have a clear field of fire in front, or are so situated that they can fire without embarrassing one another, so that the fire may be opportune and useful and all confusion and danger avoided, for these could easily occur in our own fleet unless these precautions were taken. 1. [skipped] 2. Two lights on the mainmast, one about a yard below the other: To go about whether under sail or under oars. Note- It should be noticed that this maneuver must be carried out so that the vessels of the second file shall go about after having occupied the place in which the flagship or its file and vanguard went about; the third file will do the same where the second went about; the fourth where the third and the movement will be carried out in this fashion until the rear guard is reached; one succeeding the other in the same order and distance so that after all the vessels shall have tacked, the fleet will remain in the same formation as before. Day Signals to be made by the Commanding General and obeyed by the Commanding Officers of Squadron and Ships. 1. The Spanish ensign in the bow and the pennant of Spain in the mainmast: Hoist anchor and get under way forming front with the whole fleet. 2. Ensign of Spain in the bow and the same pennant in the foretop: Hoist anchor and get under way in column, four abreast. 3. Standard of Spain in the bow and the pennant at half mainmast. Hoist anchor and get under way in column, four abreast. 4. Ensign of Spain in the bow and the pennant at half foremast in the first case; and in the second the ensign of Spain in the foretop: Hoist anchor and get under way in column, two abreast, or in single file, bow to stern. 5. Ensign of Spain in the bow and pennant of Spain in the maintop: Anchor in single line of the whole fleet. 6. Ensign of Spain in the bow and the same pennant in the foretop: Anchor, each squadron in four ranks. 7. Ensign of Spain in the bow and the pennant at half mainmast: Anchor in column, four abreast. 8. Ensign of Spain in the bow and pennant at half foremast for the first case; and for the second, ensign of Spain in the foretop: Anchor in column, two abreast, or in single file, bow to stern. 9. Ensign of Spain in the main top: Go ashore to cook. 10. Ensign of Spain in stops in the bow and blue pennant in the maintop: Each man to return to his ship. 11. Blue pennant in the foretop: Go ashore for water. 12. The same blue pennant at half mainmast: Each man to return to his ship. 13. Ensign of Spain in the bow and red pennant in the maintop: All ships will display their ensigns in the bow. 14. Ensign of Spain in the main top and pennant of Spain in the foretop: Everybody ashore. 15. Ensign of Spain in the main top and blue pennant in the foretop: The people of the first and second squadrons, and no more, to go ashore, reckoning the commanding general's as the first; the people of the remaining squadrons not to stir. 16. Ensign of Spain in the main top and blue pennant in the foretop: The people of the second and third squadrons, and no more, to go ashore. 17. Ensign of Spain in the foretop and Spanish pennant in the maintop. The people of the third and fourth squadrons, and no more, to go ashore. 18. Ensign of Spain at half main mast and Spanish pennant at half foremast: Half the people of each ship, and no more, to go ashore. 19. Ensign of Spain at half main mast: A quarter of the people on each ship, and no more, ashore. 20. The ensign of Spain in stops at the stern and the bow set or pointing to the place where the people were seen, and so kept until the flagship answers with the same signal which will be, when it will have picked up the said people: To give notice of having seen people ashore. 21. Spanish ensign in stops in the maintop and the bow pointing where fire was seen and to remain in this fashion until the flagship answers with the same signal: To give notice of some fire ashore. 22. Ensign of Spam in stops in the bow, this pointing where the ships were seen and the said stopped flag hoisted and lowered as many times as there were boats seen, with a sufficient interval to give opportunity to distinguish them: To give notice of one or of many vessels seen. 23. Ensign of Spain in the bow, hoisted and lowered three times and the commanding officer of the squadron will answer in the same way in forming the commanding general, who will take the proper action: Whenever the commanding officer of a vessel gives notice that he needs something or reports something unforeseen or unprovided for aboard his ship. 24. Ensign of Spain in the bow and red pennant in the foretop: All ships whether under sail or at anchor will go to quarters. 25. Ensign of Spain in the bow and the red pennant in the maintop: All vessels to open fire with their swivel-guns on their antagonists whether afloat or ashore. 26. Ensign of Spain in the bow, red pennant in the maintop and another Spanish pennant in the foretop: All vessels will open fire with their swivel-guns and muskets at one and the same time. Note— It should be noticed that this order deals only with vessels having the enemy in their front or on their flanks and not embarrassed by such others of their own ships as might be ahead; because if it should be impossible, as it may, for all our ships to extend their front against the enemy and thus perhaps be unable to fire all at the same time, as intended by this order, then only those will open that have a clear field of fire in front, or are so situated that they can fire without embarrassing one another, so that the fire may be opportune and useful and all confusion and danger avoided, for these could easily occur in our own fleet unless these precautions were taken. 27. Spanish pennant in the main top: To go about whether under sail or under oars. Note- It should be noticed that this maneuver must be carried out so that the vessels of the second file shall go about after having occupied the place in which the flagship or its file and vanguard went about; the third file will do the same where the second went about; the fourth where the third; and the movement will be carried out in this fashion until the rear guard is reached; one succeeding the other in the same order and distance so that after all the vessels shall have tacked, the fleet will remain in the same formation as before. Day and Night Signals which the Commanding General of the Expedition will Order to be made on the Coast and in the Places Indicated, to Maintain the Union and Co-operation Required and Provided for in the Instructions on the Journey and During the Operations of Both Fleets. 1. A fire on the beach: In order that the commanding officer of the sea squadron may know where the interior flotilla happens to be, let him either lie-to or anchor. 2. Two fires on the beach, a quarter of a mile apart: The said commanding officer will put to sea and continue his voyage. 3. One fire in the place indicated and eight or ten flashes of powder at intervals: Order the disembarkation of the troops designated upon the beach of the Island of St. Simon, get under way and capture the port of Gualquini, according to previous instructions. 4. Two fires on the same beach already mentioned, the same flashes and a few musket shots at the same time: Order the disembarkation of the troops on the beach of the said island, get under way, capture the port as soon as this signal is received, without waiting for any other. 5. Three fires on the beach at a distance of a quarter of a mile, one from the other: The armed bilanders to get under way, enter the Bay of St. Simon so as to co-operate with the disembarkation of the troops, told off for this purpose, on the beach of the south point; the ships to remain at anchor outside, as already decided. Signals of Recognition by Day or Night. Whenever the commanding general sends a boat or launch to speak to the commanding officer of the sea squadron, if it should be day, he will carry a Spanish flag in his bow and fire a blank cartridge from his swivel-gun. To this, answer will be made with a Spanish flag in the stern, by clewing up the mainsail and foresail, lowering and hoisting the main topsails, and by bracing the foretopsail, lying to and waiting. If it should be night, he will show a light in his bow and fire three blank rounds from a swivel-gun and the answering signal will be a light in the stern, another in the bow, and lying-to to wait. Whenever the commanding officer of the sea squadron shall send a boat or launch to speak to the commanding general- if it be day, he will carry the Spanish ensign in his bow and when near enough, will fire five musket shots. The answering signal will be to lower the distinguishing pennant, to place the ensign in the bow and five musket shots. If it be by night, he will show a light in his bow, and challenged "Who goes there?" will answer "Phillip the Fifth and Havana." The answering signal will be a light in the stern, and as many other musket rounds, and on receiving the same challenge, the answer, "Spain and Cuba."

[Such autonomy is evident in both the black and Indian militias that operated on St. Augustine’s frontiers. Their role in the defense of the Spanish colony has not yet been appreciated. They were cavalry units that served in frontier reconnaissance and as rebel fighters. They had their own officers and patrolled independently, although Spanish infantry officers also commanded mixed groups of Spanish, free blacks, and Indians on scouting missions. The Florida garrison was never able to maintain a full contingent, and these militias constituted an important asset for the shorthanded governors.(Landers)] Between June 3rd and June 17th, Don Philipe de Yturrieta and his troop left somewhere in transports.* Montiano received more hearsay that the English at Frederica had built a fort on St. Simons Island. * Two hundred men worked on the fort day and night, using bricks that were brought in from St. George in a convoy of piraguas.* He still didn’t know whether this news was a lie, so apparently it came from an English source.* Montiano considered sending someone to sail up and visit the settlement and see if this story was true.* However, he decided it would turn out the same as before.* Frederica’s security personnel would probably allow a Spanish person to come ashore, but they wouldn’t allow that person to actually go into the settlement or speak to anyone.* Arredondo was still in town, and Montiano sought the engineer’s help in finding a suitable spy.* They considered and rejected candidate after candidate.* Then Montiano thought of his trusty Indian agent, Juan Ignacio.* He instructed Ignacio to choose whoever he wanted to take with him and go visit the Georgia settlements.* They began preparing for the overland journey.* However, one obstacle after another thwarted their plans.* Finally, Montiano tabled idea until and unless some better opportunity arose to gather information on the rumored English fortifications.* Apparently, Ignacio eventually set out on the mission, because he was missing in action when Montiano wrote his letter on August 8th.*

[Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745. (Landers)]

[Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745. (Landers)]

Oglethorpe’s momentous visit to Coweta culminated in the ratification of a second Anglo-Creek treaty two days later. The treaty recapitulated many of the points expressed in Georgia’s 1733 treaty with the Lower Creeks. The Creeks asserted their prior territorial claims and reaffirmed Georgia’s original land grant on the sea coast. Though similar to the agreements reached six years earlier in Savannah, the 1739 treaty lowered the price of trade goods in the Creek nation, perhaps by as much as one-third. Oglethorpe’s intention, of course, was to lure the Creeks with this discount and recruit more warriors to the British cause.97 Ultimately, however, Oglethorpe was sorely mistaken to think that the majority of the Creeks could be bribed into helping Britain raise the Union Jack over St. Augustine. Nevertheless, Oglethorpe returned to Savannah in late September, brimming with optimism for Creek assistance in the (as of yet undeclared) war effort. “In conversation,” William Stephens wrote, “he [Oglethorpe] was pleased most agreeably to inform us, how unquestionably he had the Friendship of the lower and upper Creek Indians secured to us.” As a consequence of this self-confidence, Oglethorpe spent more than a month “waiting for his Indians” as he assembled a main army of Scottish highlanders. Oglethorpe grew tired of waiting, however, and returned to Fort Frederica in early November. When Spanish interlopers killed two unarmed Georgians on Amelia Island, Oglethorpe decided that war was at hand and soon thereafter set out with his army toward Florida. In the three or so years that followed, the British and Spanish fought four major battles before the so-called War of Jenkins’s Ear ground to a stalemate and caused Oglethorpe to be recalled to England (permanently, as it turned out) to defend his apparent ineptitude. The first such battle occurred in late December 1739, when the Georgians briefly captured Forts Picolata and Pupo on the Florida frontier, only to abandon them weeks later when their position appeared indefensible. The following spring Oglethorpe launched an extended siege of St. Augustine, which eventually foundered when Spanish sloops evaded a British blockade. Spain retaliated in the summer of 1742 by invading St. Simon’s Island, only to be repulsed by the Georgians and their Indian allies during a series of skirmishes known as the legendary Battle of Bloody Marsh. Oglethorpe staged a final siege of St. Augustine in the spring of 1743, but once again failed to raise the Union Jack over St. Augustine. Though it is clear that Oglethorpe successfully recruited Indian allies at every stage of the war, the extent to which the Creeks actually fought is questionable. Both Spanish and English sources attest to the fact that the number of Creek warriors who actually fought for Oglethorpe fell far short of the 1,500 promised to him in Coweta in August 1739. In the initial foray against Fort Picolata on December 29, for example, Governor Manuel de Montiano reported that the attack party consisted of approximately 150 Englishmen but only 30 Indians. Forty-six Uchise warriors, he added, had attacked the Indian town of Ayamon, indicating that the total number of active Indian troops may not have exceeded 80 warriors. Montiano’s correspondence during the siege of St. Augustine that summer tells a similar tale. Though Montiano believed that British forces had numerous Indian allies scouring across Florida territory, evidence indicates that relatively few Creek warriors actually fought. Spies revealed that Oglethorpe’s army during the summer siege was comprised of approximately 130 Indian warriors, an estimate far shy of the most boastful British accounts, which claimed that 500 Indians had assisted them in the siege. In addition, another 35 Indians may have participated in the attack on Fort Mose and, in the wake of the fort’s capture, stayed there as a part of the garrison.102 One Spanish soldier who took part in the Battle of Bloody Marsh estimated that Oglethorpe had no more than 100 Indian allies, only 50 of whom appear to have played an active role in the skirmishes.

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. ADDRESS OF HON. WALTER G. CHARLTON. "During the intervals, Oglethorpe, with the assistance of Tomochichi, made frequent demonstrations along the Spanish frontier. Hostilities began on November 15, 1739, with the slaying of two Highlanders by the Spaniards, on Amelia Island. Oglethorpe at once gave pursuit, pushing on to the St. John's river, and burning three outposts. Marching in the direction of St. Augustine he attacked and defeated a detachment of the enemy, and attempted unsuccessfully to take Forts St. Francis [Pupo?] and Picolata.

As a veteran soldier, Montiano was unwilling to accept a continued siege without striking back. On June 25 he gambled a goodly number of his able-bodied men in a midnight attack on Fort Mose. A few of the defending Highlanders escaped, vaulting (with painful results) over the sharp-pointed Spanish bayonets which surrounded the little fort, but most were killed or captured. In the face of the subsequent upsurge of morale within the castillo at this success, Oglethorpe’s next move was particularly inept. It was within that week he chose to send Montiano a formal demand for surrender, “…in order to prevent the shedding of Christian blood and the evil consequences which may result from the unrestrained fury of the several [Indian] nations when they capture a plaza by force of arms…” Two days later Montiano replied. The heard of his message: “…we respond that we are entirely prepared and resolved to shed Christian blood in defense of this fort and this plaza to the glory of the sacred name of God and the honour of the armed forces of the King of all Spains…” (Source lost) The shelling had begun on Friday morning.* All the residents spent the all day Friday and all day Saturday in the Castillo.* Meanwhile, they all knew that an English army sat one mile away in Fort Mose.* It was commanded by Colonel Palmer, who had led a previous attack on St. Augustine years ago.* At eleven o'clock Saturday night, Montiano sent 300 men to ambush Fort Mose, under the command of Don Antonio Salgado.*

On January 2nd, Montiano heard that the Carolina pilot says that frigate was scheduled to leave Charleston for the purpose of remaining four months off St. Augustine’s port.* He also said the captain of the frigate had this agreement with Parliament.* Now Montiano was afraid for any boats returning to St. Augustine, including the small boats missing from the last shipment, and that of Escalera.* Montiano didn’t want to lose his privateering momentum to another blockade.* He wrote to Guemes updating him on the privateering activities, and asked Guemes to send some strong ship to scare away the frigate, clear the coast, and put the fear in the English so they do not take lightly the idea of blockading St. Augustine.* [Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745, and which struggled under the additional burden of maintaining the large number of Cuban reinforcements that had arrived in 1740. Corsairing ships were manned by volunteers, some of whom were drawn from the free black community, for, as Governor Garcia noted, “without those of ‘broken’ color, blacks, and Indians, which abound in our towns in America, I do not know if we can arm a single corsair solely with Spaniards.” Unfortunately, when these men were captured, the British presuppose them by their color to be slaves and sold them for profit.(Landers)]

[With the outbreak of the War of Jenkins Ear, international and local grievances merged. In January 1740, Governor James Oglethorpe of Georgia raided Florida and captured forts Pupo and Picolata on the St. John’s River west of St Augustine. These initial victories enabled Oglethorpe to mount a major expeditionary force, including Georgia and South Carolina regiments, a vast Indian army, and seven warships for a major offensive against the Spaniards. The free black militia of Mose worked alongside the other citizenry to fortify provincial defense. They also provided the Spaniards with critical intelligence reports.(Landers)] Ignacio and his party returned the next day.* They had found the Picolata fort in ashes.* From the ruins, they could see the two English vessels sitting in the river near the Pupo fort across the water.* At Pupo, they saw many people in red coats going in, out, up, and down through the fort.* Obviously, Pupo was in the hands of the enemy.*

On April 14th, Montiano’s dream came true.* Six schooners sailed into St. Augustine’s harbor, captained by Don Juan Fandiño and Don Francisco del Castillo.* They were not in the best condition.* One of them had sprung a foremast, they were missing many small parts, and the arms were mostly broken.* [Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745, and which struggled under the additional burden of maintaining the large number of Cuban reinforcements that had arrived in 1740.(Landers)]

As a veteran soldier, Montiano was unwilling to accept a continued siege without striking back. On June 25 he gambled a goodly number of his able-bodied men in a midnight attack on Fort Mose. A few of the defending Highlanders escaped, vaulting (with painful results) over the sharp-pointed Spanish bayonets which surrounded the little fort, but most were killed or captured. In the face of the subsequent upsurge of morale within the castillo at this success, Oglethorpe’s next move was particularly inept. It was within that week he chose to send Montiano a formal demand for surrender, “…in order to prevent the shedding of Christian blood and the evil consequences which may result from the unrestrained fury of the several [Indian] nations when they capture a plaza by force of arms…” Two days later Montiano replied. The heard of his message: “…we respond that we are entirely prepared and resolved to shed Christian blood in defense of this fort and this plaza to the glory of the sacred name of God and the honour of the armed forces of the King of all Spains…”Error! Bookmark not defined. (From Mose in Secondary Literature by Amy)

A STATE OF THE PROVINCE OF GEORGIA, ATTESTED UPON OATH, IN THE COURT OF SAVANNAH, NOV, 10, 1740. THE Province of Georgia lies from the most Northern Stream of the River Savannah (the Mouth of which is in the Latitude of 32 Deg.) along the Sea-coast, to the most Southern Stream of the Alatamha (the Mouth of which is 30½ Deg.) and Westward from the Heads of the said Rivers, respectively in direct Lines to the South Seas. This Province was Part of South-Carolina; but the Eastern and Southern Parts of it, inhabited by the Creek-Indians; the Northern by the Cherokees and Chickesaws; the Western by the Chactaws; the Blewmouths, and other Indian Nations, to the South-Sea. The Creek-Indians, who always acknowledged the King of England for their Sovereign, yet made War with the People of Carolina, to obtain Satisfaction for Injuries done by their peddling Traders: The War was concluded by a Peace, which obliged the People of Carolina not to settle beyond the River Savannah; and no Englishman was settled within this District, that we know of, when the first Colony of Georgia arrived. The Country was then all covered with Woods. Mr. 4 Oglethorpe agreed with the Indians, and purchased of them the Limits mentioned in the Treaty. The Town of Savannah was laid out, and began to be built, in which are now 142 Houses, and good habitable Huts. The Soil in general, when cleared, is productive of Indian Corn, Rice, Peas, Potatoes, Pumpions, Melons, and many other Kinds of Gourds, in great Quantities; Wheat, Oats, Barley, and other European Grains, 'tis found by divers Experiments, may be propagated in many Parts (more especially in the Uplands toward Augusta ) with Success. Mulberry-Trees and Vines agree exceeding well with the Soil and Climate, and so does the Annual Cotton, whereof large Quantities have been raised; and it is much planted: But the Cotton, which in some Parts is perennial, dies here in the Winter; which nevertheless the Annual is not inferior to in Goodness, but requires more Trouble in cleansing from the Seed. Cattle, Hogs, Poultry, and Fruit-Trees of most Kinds, have increased even beyond Imagination. Ships of about three hundred Tons can come up to the Town, where the Worm (which is the Plague of the American Seas) does not eat; and the River is navigable for large Boats, as far as the Town of Augusta, which lies in the Latitude of 33 D. 5 M. and is 250 Miles distant from Savannah by Water; small Boats can go 300 Miles further, to the Cherokees. There is already a considerable Trade in the River; and there is in this Town a Court-House, a Goal, a Store-House, a large House for receiving the Indians, a Wharf or Bridge, a Guard-House, and some other public Buildings; a public Garden of ten Acres cleared, fenced, and planted with Orange-Trees, Mulberry-Trees, Vines, some Olives, which thrive very well, Peaches, Apples, &c. It must be confessed, that Oranges have not so universally thriven with us, as was expected, by Reason of some severe Blasts by Frosts in the Spring; yet divers with proper Care have preserved them; and as we see them grow and thrive well, with many of our Neighbours of Carolina to the Northward, we are convinced that they will with us also, as soon as we are become more perfect in the Knowledge of propagating them in a right Manner; in order to which freuqent Experiments are making; and we have already discovered not only what Kind of Soil agrees best with them, but also that they flourish most when they grow under Forest Trees, whereby we imagine they are protected from Blasts; and 'tis observed, that they take no Harm from the Droppins of any, except the Pine, which suffers nothing to grow near it, unless of its own Kind. Notwithstanding the Quantity of Silk, hitherto made, has not been great, yet it increases, and will more and more considerably, as the Mulberry-Trees grow, whereof there are great Numbers yearly planted. Vines likewise of late are greatly increased, many People appearing to have an Emulation of outdoing their Neighbours; and this Year has produced a considerable Quantity of very fine Grapes, whereof one Planter in particular made a Trial, to see what Kind of Wine they would make, which he put into a large Stone-Bottle, and made a Present of it to the General; who upon tasting, said he found it to be something of the Nature of a small French White Wine, with an agreeable Flavour; and several Persons here, who have lived formerly in Countries where there are a Plenty of Vineyards, do affirm, that all young Vines produce small Wines at first, and the Strength and Goodness of it increases as the Vines grow older. Three Miles up the River there is an Indian Town, and at six Miles Distance are several considerable Plantations: At ten Miles Distance are some more, and at fifteen Miles Distance is a little Village, called Abercorn. Above that, on the Carolina Side, is the Town of Purysburgh, twenty-two Miles from Savannah; and on the Georgia Side, twelve Miles from Purysburgh, is the Town of Ebenezer, which thrives very much; there are very good Houses built for each of the Ministers, and an Orphan-House; and they have partly framed Houses and partly Huts, neatly built, and formed into regular Streets; they have a great deal of Cattle and Corn-Ground, so that they sell Provisions at Savannah; for they raise much more than they canconsume. Thirty Miles above Ebenezer, on the Carolina Side, lies the 6 Palachocolas Fort: Five Miles above the Palachocolas, on the Georgia Side, lies the Euchee Town (or Mount Pleasant ) to which about a hundred Indians belong; but few of them stay now in the Town, they chusing rather to live dispersed. All the Land from Ebenezer to the River Briers, belongs to those Indians, who will not part with the same, therefore it cannot be planted. One hundred and forty-four Miles above Mount Pleasant, on the Carolina Side, is Silver Bluff, where there is another Settlement of Euchee Indians: On both Sides of the River are Fields of Corn planted by them. Thirty Miles above Silver Bluff is New Windsor, formerly known by the Name of Savannah Town, or Moore's Fort, where there are but two or three Families on the Carolina Side, and a small Fort. Seven Miles above New Windsor, on the Georgia Side, lies the Town of Augusta, just below the Falls; this was laid out by the Trustees Orders in the Year 1735, which has thriven prodigiously; there are several Warehouses thoroughly well furnished with Goods for the Indian Trade, and five large Boats belonging to the different Inhabitants of the Town, which can carry about nine or ten thousand Weight of Deer-Skins each, making four or five Voyages at least in a Year to Charles-Town, for exporting to England; and the Value of each Cargo is computed to be from 12 to 1500 l. Sterling. Hither all the English Traders, with their Servants, resort in the Spring; and 'tis computed above two thousand Horses come thither at that Season; and the Traders, Packhorse-men, Servants, Townsmen, and others, depending upon that Business, are moderately computed to be six hundred white Men, who live by their Trade, carrying upon Packhorses all Kinds of proper English Goods; for which the Indians pay in Deer-Skins, Beaver, and other Furs; each Indian Hunter is reckoned to get three hundred Weight of Deer-Skins in a Year. This is a very advantageous Trade to England, since it is mostly paid for in Woollen and Iron. Above this Town to the North-West, and on the Georgia Side of the River, the Cherokees live, in the Valley of the Appelachin 7 Mountains; they were about five thousand Warriors; but last Year it is computed they lost a thousand, partly by the SmallPox, and partly (as they themselves say) by too much Rum brought from Carolina. The French are striving to get this Nation from us, which if they do, Carolina must be supported by a vast Number of Troops, or lost: But as long as we keep the Town of Augusta, our Party in the Cherokees can be so easily furnished with Arms, Ammunition and Necessaries, that the French will not be able to gain any Ground there. The Creek Indians live to the Westward of this Town. Their chief Town is the Cowetas, two hundred Miles from Augusta and one hundred and twenty Miles from the nearest French Fort. The Lower Creeks consist of about a thousand, and the Upper Creeks of about seven hundred Warriors, upon the Edge of whose Country, the French Fort of Albamahs lies: They are esteemed to be sincerely attached to his Majesty's Interest. Beyond the Creeks lie the brave Chikesaws, who inhabit near the Mississippi River, and possess the Banks of it; these have resisted both the Bribes and Arms of the French; and Traders sent by us live amongst them. At Augusta there is a handsome Fort, where there is a small Garrison of about twelve or fifteen Men, besides Officers; and one Reason that drew the Traders to settle the Town of Augusta, was the Safety they received from this Fort, which stands upon high Ground on the Side of the River Savannah, which is there one hundred and forty Yards wide, and very deep; another Reason was the Richness and Fertility of the Land. The great Value of this Town of Augusta occasioned the General to have a Path marked out, through the Woods, from thence to Old Ebenezer; and the Cherokee Indians have marked out one from thence to their Nation, so that Horsemen now can ride from the Town of Savannah to the Nation of Cherokees, and any other of the Indian Nations, all on the Georgia Side of the River; but there are some bad Places which ought to be causewayed and made good, and which the General says he has not yet Capacity to do. This Road begins to be frequented, and will every Day be more and more so, and by it the Cherokee Indians can at any Time come down to our Assistance. At Old Ebenezer there is a Cow-Pen, where the Trustees have a great Number of Cattle, and 'tis hoped with Care they will amount to six or seven hundred Head in another Year: But they were much neglected, there not being Horses or Men sufficient to drive up the young and outlying Cattle. This is the Situation of the Settlements upon the River, at the Mouth of which lies the Island of Tybee, with the Light-House, which has been of the greatest Use to all Ships falling in with this Part of America. But from Savannah Southward, there are several Plantations (besides the Villages of Hampstead and Highgate ) several of which are settled by such of the Inhabitants of the Town, as being able to purchase Cattle, have petitioned for Leases of Lands, and are settled upon those Lands by the General's Permission, until the Trustees Pleasure be known concerning the Leases: The Terms they propose, is the Lease to be for twenty-one Years, renewable every seven Years, upon paying one Year's Purchase of the improved Value; the first seven Years to be free, and no Fine paid for the first Renewal. Besides these Settlements, there are some others of five hundred Acres per Grant from the Trust, which extend as far as the Ogeechy River; upon which River lies Fort Argyll, in such a Situation, as is intended thereby to command all the Passes in that Part of the Province. The next is Darien, where the Scots Highlanders are settled; the Buildings are mostly Huts, but tight and warm; and they have a little Fort. They have been industrious in Planting, and have got into driving of Cattle, for the Supply of the Regiment, &c. but this last Year most of them going voluntarily into the War, little was done at home, where their Families remained. Below the Town of Darien, is the Town of Frederica, where there is a strong Fort, and Store-Houses, many good Buildings in the Town, some of which are Brick, there is a Meadow near adjoining that is ditch'd in, of about three hundred and twenty Acres, of which there is good Hay made. The People have not planted much there this Year, occasioned by the War so near their Doors, and being chiefly Tradesmen, who make more by working, or selling to the Camp, than they can by Planting. There are some little Villages upon the Island 9 of St. Simon's, and some very handsome Houses built by the Officers of the Regiment; and there has been Pot-Herbs, Pulse, and Fruit, produced upon the Island, of great Use towards supplying the Town and Garrison: But Corn, Beer, and Meat, they have from elsewhere. Between this Island and Jekyll Island, is an Inlet of the Sea, called Jekyll Sound, which is a very fine Harbour, and is one of the best Entries the English have to the Southward of Virginia. This is an excellent Station for Ships to cruize on the Spaniards, it commanding the homeward bound Trade, which must come through the Gulph of Florida, and near St. Simon's; the Entry lies in 31 D. 10. M. The Place is barred, but upon the Bar there is Water sufficient every Tide to carry in Twenty-Gun Ships; and taking the best Opportunity, Forty-Gun Ships may be carried in to refit—a great Convenience to a Squadron in this Place. Upon Jekyll Island there is but very little good Land, not above three or four hundred Acres, the rest being sandy Sea-Beach. Mr. Horton has his Lot upon this Island, and has made great Improvements there. To the Southward of Jekyll lies the Island of Cumberland, and the Fort of St. Andrew's, situated upon a fine commanding Ground; and on the S. E. of the same Island, is another strong Fort called Fort William, which commands Amelia Sound, and the inland Passage from Augustine. The next Island is Amelia; beyond that is St. John's, one of the Spanish Outguards; and between forty and fifty Miles from that is Augustine. We are now fully acquainted with the Colony, and what it will produce; the inland Part is hilly, till it rises into Mountains, where all Kinds of Timber grow. Near the Sea the Ground is more level and flat, where Laurels, Cedars, Cyprus, Bays, and Live Oak, are of the Size of Timber-Trees: Among the Shrubs, some of the principal are Pomegranates, which will grow well in Hedges, Myrtle, Prickly Pears, Shumach, Sassafrass, China Root, several Sorts of Snake Root, &c. There is commonly black Mould in the low Lands; the rising Ground is frequently Clay, where Oak and Hickery mostly grow; as it also does in a great Part of the fiat Land that is dry, where Walnut, Ash, B 10 Gum-Tree, Oak of several Kinds, Hickery, Beech, wild Cherries, &c. are in great Plenty to be found. The higher Lands are of a sandy Surface, where Pines usually grow, all Parts producing Trees of some Kind or other, except the Savannahs, and Marshes, which bear Grass; and many of the low Land Swamps covered with Canes, which are excellent Feed for Cattle in the Winter. Where the Oak and Hickery grow, the Soil is in general of a strong Nature, and very well esteemed for Planting, being found by Experience to produce the best Crops of Indian Corn, and most Sorts of Grain, except Rice, which thrives best in swampy Ground: This is only spoken of the lower Parts of Georgia, which reaches from The Sea-Shore to the Foot of the Hills, being a flat Country of sixty or seventy Miles, or more, in Breadth. The Hill Country is very different, there being Marble, Chalk, Gravel, Rocks, and all the same Variety of Soil that is in Europe; with respect to the Proportion of the different Kinds of Soil, it cannot be given, unless the Whole were surveyed; but The American Dialect distinguishes Land into Pine, Oak, and Hickery, Swamp, Savannah, and Marsh. Near the Town of Savannah we have found Stone, which is dug for Building; as there is also good Clay, whereof Bricks are made; and a Pottery Work is carried on with Success, where common Ware for most Uses is made in good Plenty, and exported to the neighbouring Provinces; and the Master, who is of an enterprizing Genius, has undertaken, as soon as he has made proper Furnaces, to make a superfine Sort, of such as shall not be inferior to Porcelian itself; but a little Time will discover his further Performances. The Coast is low, with a hard, sandy Beach: When we approach it at twenty-five Leagues Distance, we find Ground in twenty-five Fathom Water, and it shoals gradually to the Shore; the Sounding being so regular, makes it a safe Coast to fall in with, having good Anchoring all along, and no Rocks. The Mouths of the Rivers Savannah and Alatamaha make a great Number of Islands, and the Entries between them form good Harbours. To the Southward of Tybee are the following Entries, viz. Wassaw, Ossebah, St. Catharine's, Sapello, Doboy, 11 St. Simon's, which is the North-Entry to Frederica; Jekyll Sound, which is the South-Entry to Frederica, to which Place the Channel is navigable, from the ordinary Place of Anchoring in the Sound, for Ships of a good Burden up to the Town. The Staple of the Country of Georgia being presumed, and intended to be, principally Silk and Wine, every Year confirms more our Hopes of succeeding in those two, from the great Increase (as has been before observed) of the vines and Mulberry-Trees, wherein Perseverance only can bring it to Perfection. Several other Things might be produced, and perhaps more immediately profitable to the Planters; but it is apprehended, that it is not any Business of this Colony, nor any Benefit to the Trade of England, to interfere with what other English Plantations have produced, such as Rice, &c. As the Boundaries of the Colony are now known, together with the Climate, and Manner of Agriculture, more might be done henceforward in one Year, than could in several Years before we attained to that Knowledge; but our People are weak, being decreased, by great Numbers having been decoyed away to other Colonies: Many having taken to Idleness, upon shutting up the Store went away; but those who stayed, and now remain are still a Body of the most valuable People, that find Means to live comfortably, some by their Trades, some by Planting, and raising live Stock, and some by their Labor, either by Land or Water; and one of those remaining, are worth three that left us, for such Work: And if an Embarkation was to come in with the next Year, it would be of great Service to the Colony, the Saltzburghers wishing for more of their Countrymen, and having been very industrious. The Persons sent from England on the Charity were of the Unfortunate, many of whom have by their Industry proved that they deserved better, and have thriven; many also shewed they were brought into those Misfortunes by their own Faults; and when those who quitted their own Country to avoid Labor, saw Labor stand before their Eyes in Georgia, they were easily persuaded to live in Carolina by Cunning, rather than work: This has been a great Misfortune also upon many Persons, who 12 brought over Servants indented to serve them, for a certain Number of Years, who being picked up in the Streets of London, or some such Manner, their Masters found them unfit for Labor, and many of them took such Opportunities as they could get, to desert and fly into Carolina, where they could be protected. Indeed, good and bad which came from England, were mostly Inhabitants of Towns there; but such seldom turn out good Husbandmen with their own Hands; yet some of them proved very useful in a new Colony, since they most readily compose Towns, which is the first Thing necessary to be a Receptacle for new Comers: And from thence, when all Demands of Labor, for Building and Trade are supplied, the laborious People may enlarge into the Country, and raise Provisions for the Use of the Towns: Whereas, if the first were all laboring Countrymen, they would naturally disperse to the most fertile Land, and perhaps succeed for a While; but for Want of Neighbourhood and Markets, would force most of them to remove, and the Country remain little or nothing the better improved, as it happened in Virginia, till the Government, with great Difficulty at last, raised Towns in that Province. It ought not here to be passed over, how ready the Country is to receive a Number of German Families, accustomed to Husbandry, such as usually come once a Year down the Rhine to Holland, and embark thence for America, or the East-lndies; some of these we have already had Experience of, insomuch that the People here would take off a good Number of them: And it would be of great Service (as we apprehend) to this Colony, at present, to send a Ship over, loaden with Germans, on the same Terms Mr. Hope does to Philadelphia, only taking Care that Provisions for them on their Passage be more plentiful, and that they are less crowded than on board his Ships: The Terms are, they pay Half their Passage themselves on embarking, and six Weeks after their Arrival, to pay the other Half, which they Generally do, with private Contracts to People; but in case they do not, then they may be bound by the Ship's Master for four or five Years, if they are above twenty-one Years of Age; but if under, they may be bound until the Age of twentyone if Men, and eighteen if Girls. It must be at the same Time confess'd, that divers of these Foreigners have, during the Time of their Servitude, shewn themselves of a dogged Disposition, surly and obstinate, discovering an Averseness to their Masters Orders, which proceeds (as we imagine) from a Dislike of their being subject to Strangers; whilst others again have behaved well; but it may be alledged with Truth, that when, or wheresoever among us, any of them have worked for their own Benefit, they are indefatigable, and outdone by none, which joined with great Parsimony, fits them for excellent Settlers when free. To enable the industrious English Settlers to go on with Planting, who are truly desirous of Cultivating Land; we humbly conceive nothing could be a greater Inducement to it, than that the honorable Trustees would please to import yearly, so long as they see good, a Number of English or Welch Servants, such as are used to hard Labor in the Country, and Strangers to London, to be contracted with in England to serve the Trustees for five Years, from two to four Pounds yearly Wages, according to their Ability, for finding themselves in Apparel. Those Servants, on their Arrival, to be hired, by the Inhabitants for one Year, the Person hiring to pay over and above the contracted Wages, one Pound yearly to the Trustees, so that in five Years the Passage-Money will be paid. And to enable the Planters to pay the said Wages, it is humbly proposed, that a Bounty be settled on every Product of the Land, viz. Corn, Pease, Potatoes, Wine, Silk, Cotton, Flax, &c. to what Value the honorable Trust shall judge meet to be limited in the following, or any other Manner, viz. For the first Years the said Bounty to be payable for Corn, Pease, Potatoes, &c. only; and thenceforward to cease wholly, and the Residue of Years wherein any Bounty should be allowed, to be payable only for Silk, Wine, Oil, &c. by which Means the Planter so assisted might be able to live, whilst at the same Time he propagates Vines, Mulberry-Trees, &c. from which he can expect no immediate Benefit before they come to some Maturity. A Rule to be made, that they who hire the said Servants shall employ them only in Plantation-Work of their own, 14 and not let then out at Hire to Work at handicraft Trades, or any other Business, &c. That each Servant shall serve one whole Year; and if they part at the Year's End he shall find himself another Master within Days to serve for one Year also, and so on to the End of their respective Times to serve; by which Means good Masters will not want good Servants, and 'twill be a great Means to make other Masters become good, in order to get good Servants, or else be content with the bad, or none. If any Disputes arise between Masters and Servants, such to be determined by the Magistrates, according to the Laws of England, wherein the Magistrate concerned as a Party shall not appear as a Judge, or offer to interfere with the Opinion of the others, but acquiesce in their Determination, if it happens to be in Favor of the Servant, whom they ought to defend from cruel Usage, and where they find such evil Treatment either thro' too severe Correction, or want of sufficient wholsome Food, according to the Custom of the Colony, the Magistrates to have Power of vacating such Services, and obliging the Servants to find another Master. The kind Intention of the honorable Trustees to extend the Tenure of Lands in the manner proposed (as signify'd to their Secretary here) gave great Satisfaction to all reasonable Persons who seem'd to desire no more, and only wish to find that ratify'd, which they apprehend to be not yet done, and that occasions some Anxiety about it. Whether these Helps, or whatever other, the honorable Trustees shall be pleas'd to afford us, the Ability of The Inhabitants to support themselves must still in a great Measure depend on the Industry and Frugality of each. Divers in the Province who understand Planting, and are already settled, provided they can attain to some live Stock, can and do support themselves. Men working for Hire, Boat-men, Pack-horse-men, &c. support themselves very well, if they will work; and more such would, were they to be found. Shopkeepers, Tradesmen, and Artificers, such as Tallow-Chandlers, Soap-Boilers, Brasiers, Sadlers, Shoe-makers, Tanners, &c. live very well on their Business here, and many more might, were there more Merchants to 15 import Goods for supplying the Indian Traders, which would increase the Resort to Savannah; whereas those Traders are now obliged to get the greatest Part of what they want from Charles-Town in Carolina. New Planters, and such as go on upon particular Improvements, such as Wine, Silk, &c. will need some Assistance. Magistrates, Constables, and Tything-men, and others whose Time is taken up in the public Service, require some Allowance for the same. It is also needful for the Well-being of the Colony, that Roads should be maintain'd: Posts for communicating of Letters, and Forts upon the Frontiers, as well towards the Indians as Spaniards, be supported: As likewise other public Works, which the People here are in no Degree able to bear. When the East Part of the Province of Georgia was taken Possession of under the Trustees Charter by Mr. Oglethorpe, according to the Limits of the British Dominions in America, Forts were erected upon the Extremities to keep up Marks of Possession: The Strength and Materials were of such a Nature, as the Men he had with him could make, and sufficient for Defense against any Strength that could be brought against them by the neighbouring Indians, or Spaniards in Florida. The first Foundation of the Colony was upon Tenures, by which each Lot was to be occupied by a Freeholder, obliged to take Arms for the Defense of the Colony; and this Militia, with the Assistance of our friendly Indians, held the Colony against all Attempts of the Spaniards from Augustine, who alarmed them almost every Spring, pretending a Claim, and therefore a Right to invade, without being said to infringe the Peace; but did not take one Foot of Ground from us. In the Beginning of the Year 1738, great Preparations were made at the Havannah, and Troops were sent from thence and Old Spain to Augustine, for the taking Possession (as they call'd it) of that Part of Carolina in which Georgia was comprehended, and which they gave out belong'd to them. Upon the Trustees having early Notice of these great Preparations, they applied to his Majesty to take upon him the Protection of the Colony, which in its Infancy was unable to repel so great a Force. 16 His Majesty thereupon ordered a Regiment to be raised, and posted on the Spanish Frontiers, since which the War is broke out, and that Regiment, with the Assistance of Troops and Indians raised in Georgia and Carolina, in Conjunction with a Squadron of Men of War, attack'd Augustine, and after raising the Siege of that Place, remain'd in the Possession of the Frontiers, as before the War; but for the Defense of the Colony now, it is necessary to have Vessels that can act in shoal Water, on so large and extended a Frontier towards the Sea, and Rangers who can ride the Woods; as also Artillery, and all other Things necessarily appertaining thereto, and Means for augmenting our Fortifications equal to the increas'd Strength of the Spaniards. Savannah, Nov. 10, 1740. We whose Names are hereunto subscribed, being duly sworn in open Court, do declare, that the above State of the Province of Georgia is true, according to the best of our own Knowledge, and from the most certain Informations we could obtain from others; and do desire, that the Seal of this Court may be affixed thereto. * Pat. Graham * Jos. Fitzwalter * James Carwells * Thomas Upton * Giles Becu * Thomas Egerton * Thomas Cundell Anthony Camuse John Burton Jos. Pavey Robert Hainks John Mellidge Tho. Bayley (Smith) George Johnson Samuel Parker Thomas Palmer William Stephens Henry Parker Thomas Jones Samuel Mercer James Campbell John Rae Noble Jones Thomas Young Thomas Ellis. N. B. Those seven marked with*, at their own voluntary Desire, were admitted to sign it, and were sworn before the Magistrates out of Court.

[Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745. (Landers)]

[When the British ship Revenge captured a Spanish prize in July 1741, found aboard was a black named “Signior Capitano Francisco,” who was “Capt. of a comp’y of Indians, Mollattos, and Negroes that was att the Retaking of the Fort [Mose] att St. Augus’ne formally taken Under the command of that worthless G------ O-----pe who by his trechory suffered so many brave fellows to be mangled by those barbarians.” His captors tied Francisco Menendez to a gun and ordered the ship’s doctor to pretend to castrate him (as Englishman at Mose had been castrated), but while Menendez “frankly owned” that he was Captain of the company that retook Mose, he denied ordering such atrocities, which he said the Florida Indians had committed. Menendez stated that he had taken the commission as privateer in hopes of getting to Havana, and from there to Spain, to collect a reward for his bravery. Several other mulattoes on board were also interrogated and substantiated Menendez’s account, as did several of the whites, but “to make Sure and to make him remember that he bore such a Commission,” the British gave him 200 lashes and then “pickled and left him to the Doctor to take Care of his Sore A—se.” The following month, the Revenge landed at New Providence, in the Bahamas, and her commander, Benjamin Norton, who was due the largest share of the prize, vehemently argued before the Admiralty Court that the blacks should be condemned as slaves. “Does not their Complexion and features tell all the world that they are of the blood of Negroes and have suckt Slavery and Cruelty from their Infancy?” He went on to describe Menendez as “this Francisco that Cursed Seed of Cain, Crust from the foundation of the world, who has the Impudence to Come into this Court and plead that he is free. Slavery is too Good for such a Savage, nay all the Cruelty invented by man… the torments of the World to Come will not suffice.” No record of Francisco’s testimony appears in this account, but the Court ordered him sold as a slave, “according to the Laws of the plantation.” However, as we have seen, Menendez was a man of unusual abilities. Whether he successfully appealed for his freedom in British courts as he had in the Spanish, was ransomed back by the Spanish in Florida, or escaped is unknown, but by at least 1752, was once again in command at Mose. This incident illustrates the extreme racial hatred some British felt for Spain’s black allies, as well as the great dangers the freedmen faced in taking up Spanish arms. Other blacks captured as privateers in the same period were never returned. (Landers)]

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. NOTE ON THE BATTLE GROUND OF BLOODY MARSH. By Otis Ashmore. The battle in which Oglethorpe defeated Montiano on St. Simon's Island is known locally as the Battle of Bloody Marsh and the exact site of this engagement has long been in much doubt. In the summer of 1912, accompanied by Lawton B. Evans, C. B. Gibson, Col. Charles M. Snelling, and L. B. Robeson, I made a visit to St. Simon Island for the purpose of identifying if possible the exact location of the battlefield. Every account of the battle had been carefully studied, including that of Montiano himself, from translations furnished by Lieut. Col. C. DeW. Willcox, U. S. A., professor at the United States Military Academy. In the light of all these accounts, and after going over the ground very carefully, there seems to be no doubt that this memorable battle was fought at a point upon the margin of the marsh about two miles from the south end of the island, and about one mile from the hotel, where the road from Gascoigne's Bluff enters the road to Frederica. This spot agrees perfectly with the account of Capt Thomas Spalding,* which for many obvious reasons is by far the clearest and the most trustworthy. *See account of this battle by Capt. Thomas Spalding in Vol. I. Ga. Hist. Society Collections. A sketch of the island and of the battle ground itself, made at the time of my visit, will make more clear Spalding's graphic account, and will show all the stragetic points in the campaign more satisfactorily than any verbal description could do. It is, perhaps, needless to say that with the exception of the causeway, which still exists, and the crescent shaped woodland so well described by Spalding, not a vestige of this tragic episode remains. No trace of the road around the crescent could be found, as this circuitous pathway has long since been abandoned for the more direct road across it. The traditions of the people living upon the island all agree that the marsh just east of the causeway is the true battle ground of Bloody Marsh. There is scarcely a doubt that the ambuscade was laid at the two points of the crescent woodland where the road from Gascoigne's Bluff enters the main road to Frederica, and that the Spaniards were entrapped in the curved roadway around this crescent. In their confusion the Spaniards attempted to retreat along the road over the causeway, but when they were met by the claymores of the Highlanders, they were forced into the marsh just east of the causeway where much of the execution took place.

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. 1742 ARREDONDO’S JOURNAL JOURNAL KEPT BY DON ANTONIO DE ARREDONDO, CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE PRESENT EXPEDITION. June 5, 1742. At sunrise the signal was made to put to sea and executed by the entire convoy, as it was ready to sail. At twelve o'clock, we sallied from the Morro, at which time we hauled up our launches and boats; steady drizzle. June 6th. From yesterday noon until today at the same hour: at one o'clock in the afternoon we ran into a rain squall without wind, which lasted until 5. We stood all night under foresail and mizzen sail until 5 o'clock in the morning. At noon, we took the sun, but as there were great differences in the observations, we took the mean to fix the course which was northeast by north. June 7th. From yesterday until today: at sunset, all the elements of the convoy kept together. At nine in the evening, great signs of a squall which burst upon us with thunder, lightning and rain, lasting until one o'clock in the night. At sunrise two vessels were missing. At noon, we took the sun and found our latitude to 24° 40', and our longitude 295° 16'. At this hour the two boats which had been missing rejoined us. June 8th. From yesterday until today: at one o'clock in the after noon, we sighted Long Key, its northeast head bearing north five and a half degrees toward the east and the southwest point, west. At sunset all the vessels were together. At midday the sun gave us 25° 3' latitude and longitude 295° 40', all the vessels being together. June 9th. At three of the afternoon, signal was made to crowd on all sail which was kept up till four. At six land was discovered from the top and recognized by the pilot as Biscayne Key which bore west by north at a distance of five leagues. At six in the morning, the top announced that only twenty-two vessels were in sight: at seven, land was visible and after examination by the pilot he declared that it was the shore of Jega, bearing west by northwest. At 8 a sloop signaled that she wished to speak to us, and observing that her bowsprit had been injured, the Honduran was sent to find out what was the matter, and returned saying, that it was the royal sloop "St. Joseph," and that the night before, on going about, the guard schooner had fouled her, and thus had damaged her bowsprit, but that she was not making any water nor had suffered any other damage. At noon we took the sun and found ourselves in 26°54' latitude and 295° 25' longitude. On this day a sloop of the convoy was missing. June 10th. From yesterday until today: at 4 of the afternoon, we sighted main land, being the palm grove of Ays [Ais?], according to the pilot. At 5, signal was set to go about, which was executed by the entire convoy, the course being set S. E., with the wind E. N. E. At sunset the top announced that only twenty-two vessels were in sight. At this hour we had lost the land. The whole night remained calm. At sunrise we saw the same vessels as those of yesterday afternoon and found at noon our latitude to be 28° 28' and longitude 292° 15'. June 11th. From yesterday until today: at 1:30 of the afternoon signal was made to put about, which was done, and the course set W. N. W., the wind being north and light. At sunset all the boats visible this morning were still in sight. The whole night a moderate wind blew out of the southwest. At sunrise twenty-one vessels were seen. At noon, we took soundings and found ourselves in twenty-two fathoms, bottom reddish gravel and dark colored sand. At ten, we tacked to the S. S. W., wind west, and at noon our latitude was 30° 1' and longitude 295°^ 10'. June 12th. From yesterday until today: at 2:30 of the afternoon sounded in twenty-six fathoms; found the bottom the same, for which reason we decided to cast anchor because the currents were carrying us to leeward. Signal to this effect was made and obeyed. At sunset only eighteen vessels were seen because apparently the currents had prevented their keeping together, and at the same time it was conjectured that they were invisible because the horizon was overcast. The entire night was calm, with the wind to the southwest, but we found the currents extremely strong; at 5:30 of the morning, signal was made to hoist sail, which was done with the wind to the northwest, course S. W. Only fifteen vessels were visible, being those only that had anchored. At noon, our observation gave us 29° 42' latitude, and longitude 245° 4'. June 13th. From yesterday until today: at one of the afternoon, we set our course W. S. W., with the wind north, northwest, eastern horizon heavily submerged. At three of the afternoon we saw land but could not make out what it was, bearing W. ¼S. W., at a distance of three leagues. At sunset signal to go about and set the course east, wind north, northeast. At this hour only fourteen vessels were in sight. The eastern horizon was strongly overcast, with more or less indications of weather. At ten at night the wind freshened from the north into a squall so that we stood under foresail and mizzensail. At three in the morning signal was made to change our course to the E. S. E. and S. E., with the wind northeast, this on account of having sounded and found only twelve fathoms and a half. The night continued calm with some swell until half past four, when the wind settled in the south and southeast with many squalls and showers. At this hour we set our course to the E, and E. ¼ N. E. At sunrise, the sun being invisible, the top announced that fifteen vessels were in sight. Afterwards two others, small ones, were discovered and a frigate to the windward which made a signal of recognition which was answered, and we found it to be the Sacra Familia, so that we were now eighteen, all told. At ten we sounded in fifteen fathoms and the skies having cleared and the rain stopped, signal was made to head south, the wind being east-southeast. At midday we took the sun and found our position to be latitude 29° 28', and longitude 297° 7'. June 14th. From yesterday till today: at six of the afternoon, signal made to set the course N. E. by N., with the wind east southeast. At this hour there was a flurry of rain. At sunset seventeen vessels were in sight, the two small ones that were seen this morning having been unable to come up. The night continued calm, and the currents proving more powerful than the wind, we cast anchor in twelve and a half fathoms of water at half past one in the morning. At six, signal to make sail was set, which we all did, with the course S. S. W.; wind east-southeast, which all sixteen vessels executed. At 8 :00 land was seen at a distance of four leagues and a half, continuous coast. At midday the sun gave us 29° latitude and at the same time we recognized that we were off the bar of Mosquito Inlet, for which reason we set our course N. N. W. June 15th. From yesterday till today: at six of the afternoon, the packet boat "Diligent" was signaled to come up within speaking distance and ordered to press all sail and hasten to reconnoiter the bar of Matanzas and inform us by cannon shot and to hoist a signal lantern for our guidance; and that as soon as she should be off the bar of Saint Augustine, she should anchor, and from time to time make a smoke signal. We continued with the rest of the vessels on the same course and at one o'clock in the morning anchored east and west on a line with the tower of St. Anastasia in twelve fathoms of water. As soon as it dawned we discovered at anchor the seven vessels which had been missing. They had succeeded in getting in two days before, so that we were finally all reunited. At 8:00 there came alongside a boat from the garrison to take ashore the second in command, Don Francisco Rubiani and myself. The officer who came off told us that: • on the 5th, the first division of small vessels that had set out from Havana on the first day, having run into an English frigate, our galley called upon her to show her colors and as she failed to do so, • we cleared for action and opened fire on her with our guns, to which • the frigate made no answer, and under her courses alone, advanced upon our galley, and prepared to attack her. But this design was perceived, and the wind being fresh, • the galley rejoined the convoy under a signal to press on all sail; • but her commanding officer seeing that the Saint Augustine sloop, in which were embarked the sub-lieutenant and the artillerymen of Havana, was far astern, gave orders to stick close to the sloop and resist the launch and boat of the hostile frigate, which she had just put overboard and was directed to cut off two schooners which were somewhat delayed behind the remainder of the convoy. • As the wind continued to freshen, the galley sent a boat with the ensign and ten men of his garrison to re-enforce the aforesaid schooners. In fact, • the launches of the Englishman had come alongside to board, • but were by the help of the officer and ten men just mentioned, formally beaten off in the three attempts that they made. • In this affair we suffered no damage, except that Don Francisco Molina, the lieutenant of the militia of Guanabacoa, was wounded in the thigh. • The hostile ship, seeing that her launches had not succeeded in their attempt, now directed them to attack the Saint Augustine bilander and the launch from the convoy sent by the commanding officer of the galley to support the vessels that were far astern. • Although the utmost defense possible had been made, they were unable to resist the fire of the ship which was at anchor in three fathoms of water, and so ran ashore, the sub-lieutenant, Don Domingo de la Cruz, having been killed in the action by a gun-shot, as well as the corporal, Manuel del Pino, by another. • When they saw our people had got ashore, the enemy leaving their boat, swarmed over the bilander in order to loot the cargo which they supposed she carried. • From the shore, we opened fire on them, encouraged by seeing that the English boat had sunk in the surf on the shore, and assisted by two Indians who happened to be fishing, and who had come up at the sound of the guns. • We succeeded in overcoming our adversaries who, after a moment or two of struggle, asked for quarter. • Of the English in the boat, six were wounded and nine unhurt. • The ship when it saw her people captured set sail. • The dragoons who went to the help of the bilander were clever enough on going ashore to take their arms with them and from the shore diverted the hostile launches, so as to permit the artillerymen also to go ashore. Without this, the affair would not have succeeded. • The prisoners have been brought to this place and among them, the officer in command, who is a brother of Captain Makay. From these we learned all about the fight and that the ship is one of the men-of-war of Carolina. I have had word of mouth with one of them but have learned nothing more than what we already know. In respect of the condition of affairs in Saint Augustine, I also learned that the day before our arrival a schooner had allowed itself to be sighted on the north and that she had changed her course as soon as she had seen the seven vessels at anchor. At one o'clock of the afternoon, the second in command, Don Francisco de la Pena and I went ashore, and we passed the rest of the day informing ourselves of the state of the preparations of this place. June 16th. Today we convened the pilots, white as well as Indian, and examined them carefully in regard to everything we should know for the purpose of our expedition. Later we held council, the commanding officers and the naval ensign, Don Francisco de la Pena, in which we agreed upon the method of attacking the north and south entrances of St. Simon's in order to cut off the communication between the various stations of the enemy, deciding to detach three galliots with their canoes to the more northerly entrance and two to enter by the Bar of Whales; these two to post themselves within the river between the Fort of St. Andrew and Frederica. Today we had squalls from the northeast and more or less water was sent on board, in spite of the fact that all the launches were busy unloading stores. June 17th. Another council was held between the commanding officers and Don Francisco de la Pena, in which was discussed the question of the point at which we should disembark to invade the Isle of St. Simon; and after various reflections upon the matter, and weighing all the circumstances with the greatest attention, it was unanimously agreed that the disembarkation should take place on the east coast at the most sheltered point of the shoals north of the Bar of Gualquini and that from this point a cordon should be formed with part of the troops to reach as far as the careening ground in order to maintain free communication within the river with our ships and to receive supplies and whatever else might be needful from that point in full security. It was further agreed that the ships and the remaining vessels should enter in good order and force the hostile battery, and should string themselves across the river of the harbor in the formation to be prescribed by the senior naval officer, Don Antonio Castaneda, and that afterward operations should conform to the turn of events. I caused lists to be given to me of the troops, the convicts, the Indians and the negroes of the garrison, the first being composed of five pickets of the re-enforcement and of one of the garrison, well equipped; of ninety convicts, of fifty-five Indians and of fifteen negroes, all armed. Then I promptly made the lists of distribution of all these classes according to the capacity and quality of the vessels and they were so allotted. We continued today sending as much water as we could on board, having regard to the necessities of the vessels and especially those of the royal frigates. Today we had squalls from the northeast and some of them gave us real concern, by preventing communication and because our vessels were so completely exposed out beyond the bar. Our arrangements were thus delayed. Today we saw a schooner off in the north and the commanding officer Don Antonio Castaneda, made signal to the Honduran ship to chase her, and after some time, she declared herself to be English and put her boat overboard and sent it to us with the French captain who was captured on this bar at the beginning of March of this year, with three Spanish prisoners and a negro of Espinosa's. Don Diego Ogletorp was returning these people with a letter to the Governor of St. Augustine, with directions to leave these prisoners at that place. I learned from the French captain that the schooner in which he had come is the same that was seen on the fourteenth; that on account of the bad weather she had not approached the shore to carry out the order of Oglettorp and that having recognized our sloop, the English captain had taken the resolution to leave aboard of her both the French captain and the prisoners. These declared that they had been kept confined and deprived of all communication. The French captain, a reasonably just, fair man, had been kept on board of the bilander which, from the description he gave, is the one from this place which they captured after it had come to anchor in the river of St. Simon. He was not permitted to set foot on shore more than twice, when he was taken before a Board, presided over by a Doctor, to make a declaration in respect of certain effects and bilanders. These he lost, for the verdict was adverse although it was established that he had come to bring supplies to the garrison. In spite of the closeness of the confinement in which he was kept, they nevertheless treated him with the greatest distrust as though he had been an enemy. He understood that Oglettorp had not the forces to resist ours because, all told, they have not more than six hundred English, divided between troops and farmers, and that these are distributed in different posts. He relates further that the battery of the city or town of Frederica is dismounted and he reports the deep poverty in which they are living, without fresh meat, the soldiers without money and without any relief, except that a French officer has a few sheep and cattle. The negro of Espinosa, however, enjoyed a little liberty and says that a storm and heavy rains have gradually destroyed the battery at the entrance of Gualquini, so that he saw it, at least so he says, fallen over on one side. On asking the French captain what opinion Oglettorp's people had formed on seeing our seven vessels anchored in front of the bar, he said, that they thought it was the privateer, Estrada (who has as yet not come in from his cruise), with a few prizes; and that the captain of the English man-of-war, whom a few days before he had met, had told them of the combat which he had had with our galley and the boats of the first division, and that he had given them an account of the prisoners which the Spaniards had taken from them at the Bar of Mosquitos, telling them that they had come with stores for the garrison escorted by the galley; so that it seems they have not perceived the purpose for which our expedition is intended. The letter of Oglettorp to the Governor [Montiano] reduces itself to communicating to him the fact that he is returning the prisoners aforementioned, claiming credit for having rescued them from the power of the Indians who had captured them [at Fort Diego?]; and to saying that the others which he holds in his power must, by order of the king, his master, be sent to London, Don Romualdo Morales being of the number; and makes frivolous excuses for not having before given an answer to our Governor. June 18th. We drew up plans of battle, divided the troops into columns, and selected the reserve; the three naval lieutenants, Don Vicentte Quintta, Don Carlos Regio, and the Marquess de Casinas, were appointed to take over as many other pickets* belonging to the Captains Don Bernardo Quena and Don Gregorio Bermejo, on duty as regimental staff captains,** and that of Don Francisco Palafox, chosen as aide-de-camp by the commanding general. [*The piquete at the beginning of the XVIII century, wee a provisional and temporary company forming up on the left, and made up of men drawn from all the companies. Later in the text It has its regular meaning of picket, i.e. guard.] [** Sargentos maiores, [or mayors, in modern form]. The sargento mayor was charged with duties of administration, accountability, inspection and discipline. He took rank after the captains, but they nevertheless were under his orders in matters relating to his office. The title is rather that of an office than of a grade. There is no English equivalent.] Ballast was sent out to the frigate, Escalera, assigned to the fleet by direction of the commanding general and in agreement with his royal officers and the agents of the Royal Exchequer. Besides we continued to send out water and I made a distribution of cartridges, at the rate of twenty rounds for the disembarkation, and ordered them to be distributed to each vessel by the adjutants.* [*Ayudantes, In all probability the assistants of the sargentos mayores, who were called ayudantes. The term used in the translation "adjutant," must not be taken to mean what we actually understand by it in the military service, but is used in a more general way. Strictly speaking we have no English equivalent for ayudante, any more than we have for sargento mayor.] I also ordered the issue of 183 muskets and bayonets to the militia but these orders could not all be carried out because there was not time during this day on account of the great distance to be covered and because the tide did not serve. The supply of water has continued and the ballast for the frigate of Escalera. I ordered the negro of Espinosa to be held a prisoner with directions that he should be allowed to speak to no one because I suspected some knavery. June 19th. I have drawn up the order of disembarkation and the stores have been transported to the frigate of Escalera for the troops which are embarking, namely, the detachment of Don Gregorio Aldana. The schooner, Guaraia, has succeeded in entering this port. It has on board a part of the supply of stores for the schooners and other vessels of the garrison [of Saint Augustine]. The baggage of the officers of the pickets has been ordered on board, and the supply of water and ballast to the boats has continued with the greatest energy, each of these being about completed. Today we saw a schooner to which chase was given, by order of the senior naval officer, by the bilander of Fide and the Honduran. They did not succeed in overtaking it, but we have formed the opinion that it is the same one which brought the Frenchman and prisoners sent by Ogletorp and that it has come to spy us out and observe our movements. June 20th. While we were completing the distribution of stores, I passed the day writing to the Captain General of Havana, giving his Excellency an account of all that had passed up to the present day. Orders have been given for the embarkation tomorrow afternoon of the troops of the garrison, and that they should set out at the first tide and come to anchor near the flagship, in order that each may receive its sailing instructions from the naval commander and that there may be nothing more to do than to put to sea. Today we saw a brigantine which we have decided must be that of Estrada, because it seems suspicious that so large a vessel off this bar could have disappeared. We are copying out the order of disembarkation in order that each one of the vessels may have its own copy. June 21st. Yesterday we finished supplying the vessels of the garrison with their proper stores. The watering of the ships, too, has been finished. At dawn, we saw a brigantine which we decided to be the same as that seen yesterday: and in fact, at one o'clock of the afternoon it anchored off our bar, and we discovered it to be that of Estrada. At six of the afternoon the ship's writer came ashore with a letter from the said Estrada, giving us an account of what had happened on his cruise. He reports having captured a schooner of rice which has already arrived here and a packet boat, and reports further having been attacked by a Carolina war vessel on the third instant at about six of the afternoon, when the combat opened; that it lasted until midnight and that each damaged the other more or less, with the loss on the part of the Spaniards of one man killed and four wounded; among them, the captain in the hand, the lieutenant in the head, and two sailors. As for the loss of the English, he knew nothing. He judges merely that the damage must have been great because the fire of all sorts which he opened on him was incessant, and because the Englishman, dropping astern, was the first to cease the combat, so that this action may be compared to that which Don Pedro Goycochea had with the English frigate between the islands of San Domingo and Porto Rico, because the circumstances were almost the same. He also says that he has learned from prisoners that two hundred sailors have been sent from Boston to re-enforce the fleet of Admiral Vernon which it is known was occupied, according to current reports, before Cartagena; and that it was common rumor that additional forces were to come out to join those of Oglettorp and that if these should arrive, he would doubtless use them before St. Augustine; that Carolina was not of a mind to give the help which Oglettorp was seeking, unless there should be some order from the King to that effect, and the command of the expedition committed to some other chief. The brigantine comes in short of meat and for that reason cannot form part of the convoy; only as soon as it shall have entered, we shall try to shift its arms and equipment to the guard schooner, and if Captain Estrada shall have recovered from his wound, we shall give him the command of her. This night we had squalls, winds and showers. June 22nd. Frequent rains, squalls and thunderstorms have today impeded the embarkation of the troops, nor was Estrada's brigantine able to come in; and as the horizons indicated foul weather, all the pilots were assembled and gave their opinion that the vessels should not set out, but should remain until tomorrow when the embarkation would take place and the ships put forth, but only if the weather should be good. In a gazette from Boston, brought by Estrada, there is a ridiculous article as follows: It says that a gentleman, of Georgia, who had arrived in Boston on the 26th of March, had given trustworthy news that General Oglettorp with eight hundred men had gone to lay siege to St. Augustine, that among these men he had three hundred Indians who had resolved to burn the place; and he added that the motive of Ogleltorp's expedition was that he had got news that the Spaniards were weak and in great need of stores, caused by the presence of Admiral Vernon's fleet in the waters of Cuba. June 23rd. Although we had thought that today we could set forth, the morning dawned with a strong wind from the northeast, accompanied by squalls and showers, and the water on the bar had become so rough that it was impossible to cross it; notwithstanding which two attempts were made, in order to bring in the brigantine of Estrada, which is causing us concern, on account of its bad condition. It fired a few guns of distress but it was not possible to reach it. At ten of the morning, we had the unhappy news that Father Domingo, chaplain of the packet boat "Diligente," and a sailor of its crew, who were going on board, had been drowned at the exit of the bar, but that fortunately the vicar general of the expedition had miraculously saved his life by happily seizing hold of the launch and keeping himself on it until she came ashore. We have also seen ashore on the beach a boat without knowing which boat it is, nor how many people have been drowned. This afternoon it became calm so that the Commanding General [Montiano?] assembled the commanding officers and naval officers and the pilots of the garrison, and requested that each should give his opinion in respect of our sallying forth, as it was important that our trip should be short, and clear that the inconveniences of delay would be serious; in general, each person should give reasons for and against. The pilots were unanimous in declaring that it was not possible to cross the bar as long as the sea was still up, agitated as it was by the squalls and wind that had prevailed. After various reflections on the subject, and after taking into account the fact that the small boats, which were to follow the fleet without losing land from view were absolutely necessary to the success of our operations, and therefore should not expose themselves to separation from the convoy, on account of the contrary winds that had been blowing, and the great variation of the weather, and considering further that the journey from this point to the hostile coast was so short, it was decided to be absolutely necessary that we should set out in settled weather. Accordingly, all minds were of the opinion that we should wait until things were safe and that if the wind should shift tomorrow we should go out. With this opinion, the order was given that at the beat of the drum everyone should go on board his ship. [End of Arredondo's Journal.]

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CUBA INFORMS THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA WHAT TROOPS AND SHIPS WILL BE SENT FROM HAVANA, FOR THE EXPEDITION AGAINST GEORGIA, AND MAKES VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS. 1742-5-14 Guemes to Montiano Sir, Among the obstacles and difficulties arising in carrying out the will of His Majesty, and communicated by me to Your Lordship under date of February 3rd, past, the most serious was the possibility that, and doubt whether, the English, strengthened by the fresh re-enforcement of 4,000 men which arrived in Jamaica toward the end of January of the present year, would enter the Gulf of Mexico, and attempt to attack this Havana or some other position of the Islands. But this fear has vanished,* as you may see from the enclosed paper sent me by the Governor of [Santiago de] Cuba, and from the letter of Don Sebastian de Eslava,** Viceroy of Santa Fe*** a copy of which I enclose. [*The allusion is to the failure of the English troops, some 5,000 in all, to capture Santiago. A squadron under Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth had landed in Guantanamo Bay; after four months' effort, the enterprise was abandoned, with a loss by the English of over 2,000 men from the effects of the climate.] [**This officer conducted the defense of Cartagena against Admiral Vernon, who failed in his attempt to capture the place.] [***New Granada, in South America, sometimes, as here, called Santa Fe, the Colombia of today. It was one of the Spanish vice-royalties, and occasionally called the reino (Kingdom) of Santa Fe.] The occasion seemed to me therefore opportune to profit by this fortunate conjuncture of affairs, without however being able to furnish the 3,000 men nor the means which your Lordship warned me would be necessary to strike the blow directed by His Majesty. For I have neither the former, nor the frigates suitable to make it attainable in the way that I should prefer, nor any ships of war § to take the place of these frigates, inasmuch as these ships must fulfill their principal purpose.*[*A British fleet was still in West India waters.] [§ In the Spanish navy of the 18th century "the principal type of war vessel was the navio [line-of-battle-ship] assisted by the fragata [frigate] as scout or despatch vessel." "Brigantines were also used on despatch duty, and packet boats [paque-botes]." "Galleys were falling into disuse." "The armament of ships of war consisted of bronze and wrought-iron guns of calibre varying from 36(?) to 4 (weight in pounds of the projectile). The average range was about 3,000 meters." Altamira y Crevea, Historia de Espana, IV, 189-190.] Wherefore I judged that 1,000 regulars and 800 militia would suffice, and under this hypothesis was elaborating this plan, when there arrived here an Englishman, the Captain of the frigate captured by Fandino, and a man of clear mind and straightforward disposition. I tested and compared his representations with those of Simonin, who, as Your Lordship knows, is thoroughly acquainted with that port and its bar [Frederica], and with the number of whites living in Carolina, and found that his information differed materially from that which Your Lordship had sent me. As a result of this investigation and of my inability to make a greater effort than the one decided upon, I convoked a secret council of war of whose decision you will be informed by the copy that I am remitting. It is impossible to assemble a greater number of men; and even if it were, we could not transport them, for what has already been done under this head is due to the assistance of Lieutenant General Don Rodrigo de Torres. I am sending Your Lordship a boat with this news under the seal of inviolable secrecy, so that you may be informed of the determination we have taken, and show the greatest activity in equipping the expedition, to the end that it shall with the greatest promptitude set sail to anchor on that bar [Saint Simon's], and proceed without the slightest delay to the extinction of that country [Georgia]. To carry out these orders Your Lordship will take from your own post 400 regular troops, 300 of your garrison, the 100 who were sent from this place under the command of Don Gregorio de Aldana, and also the 100 of the militia of Pardo, who were sent to you at the same time. From this place will proceed in 30 transports composed of frigates and bilanders, 1,300 men, 600 regulars, 700 militia, composing the 1,800 without counting the seamen; among the transports goes separately the vessel for the 500 men who are immediately to embark at Saint Augustine and besides, two large barges well armed with swivel guns Of these vessels as many as possible will proceed with guns mounted, to say nothing of a French frigate of 24 guns, which happened to be in this port, and which we took for this expedition, of the packet boat "Diligent," and of the galley. I regard this force as sufficient to attain the end sought with happiness and without risk. All the stores and water required, go in the said vessels; it will not be necessary to draw even a single ration from your post. The proper ammunition, arms and implements likewise will be sent. Your Lordship will verify the return of property of the Agent of the Exchequer, who is to go in charge of issues and administration. Such being the dispositions taken here, Your Lordship will have equipped the six galliots, the launches, and the pirogues of your garrison, as well as any other vessel that may prove useful; the troops must be ready to embark at once, without the slightest hindrance. For delay would be prejudicial, since the urgency of the whole affair (whose success I believe to be easy) consists in this that the enemy shall neither perceive, nor be warned of, our intentions. For all reasons, it has seemed to me that your appointment to the command of this expedition will insure its success, for with the knowledge of Your Lordship, your devotion to the throne, your deeds and your experience, go the satisfaction and glory of His Majesty, and the satisfaction of all of us who are interested in his service, rejoicing over the void caused by the forces of Admiral Vernon, because of the task upon which these are engaged. Colonel Don Francisco Rubiani, Lieutenant Colonel and Commandant of the Regiment of Dragoons of Italica will go hence in command of all that set out. From your own post you will arrange for the services of Don Antonio Salgado as Lieutenant Colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Don Miguel de Rivas may be left behind to command the place. The Engineer of the Second Grade, Don Antonio de Arredondo, also accompanies the expedition, as being one who knows those parts as far as Port Royal, and has exact and detailed information in respect of everything else. He may be employed by Your Lordship on any duty you may be pleased to order for the best interest of the undertaking, and can take charge of the details of operations. The Engineer Don Pedro Ruiz Olano may also go. Should Don Pedro de Estrada, a man who has given such good proofs of spirit and gallantry, be in Saint Augustine, it would be eminently agreeable that he should fit out his bilander and accompany the expedition in any capacity your Lordship may think proper. I remain convinced not only of the partial but of the entire success of our enterprise, because of Your Lordship's known leadership. And I am expecting at the very least that the forces furnished will without the slightest let or hindrance forthwith destroy all the plantations as far as Port Royal. For as Your Lordship knows, it is His Majesty's desire that the sudden blow struck should, as far as its force will reach, and events permit, lay waste Carolina and its dependencies. But this course must be consistent with the information your Lordship may obtain from prisoners, and with other measures to be suggested by your ripe judgment looking to the secure withdrawal of our forces through the interior channels between the Keys. It is of the greatest consequence and importance to raze and destroy Carolina and its plantations. This result can be better secured by first getting rid of the regiment of Oglethorpe, which might proceed to the defense of some other point where hostilities had broken out, if not first attacked where they are now in Gualquini and Saint Simon, as projected. It is entirely probable and credible that surprised by this blow, they will abandon everything and flee to the woods, and thus give us greater freedom to draw full profit from this idea and its opportunity so favorable to us. And if it were possible to find means to notify the negroes in good time to follow the cause which Your Lordship says they desire, this would be an opportune disposition for the complete success of our plans. The expedition over with the happy issue desired, Your Lordship will take steps for the immediate return, with the least possible expenditure of time, of the troops and militia about to set forth and also of the detachment which I sent on some time ago under the command of Don Gregorio Aldana, sending them in detachments in the vessels which Your Lordship will judge best fitted for the navigation of the Canal. I beg leave to remind Your Lordship that I have only 400 men left for the service of this place. Whatever I may have forgotten or omitted, I beg Your Lordship's attention and perspicuity to supply, as of one on the spot. It is my desire to overlook not even the most trifling circumstance which might forward the happy issue I am anticipating. May Your Lordship have no other care than to secure and bring victory, unless it be to employ me in any relation in which I may satisfy Your Lordship. God keep Your Lordship many years. Havana, May 14, 1742. Postscript in margin. I warn Your Lordship that this expedition will sail hence the 2nd or 4th of the next month, according to the effort made to complete its equipment, so as to take advantage of the fine weather, and that you must have made all your preparations, and warned some of the monks of the missions in those parts to go along as missionaries. Your most affectionate, faithful servant Who kisses your hand. Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas. To Don Manuel de Montiano

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CUBA APPOINTS THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST GEORGIA, AND ISSUES HIS ORDERS FOR THE CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS. 1742-6-2 Guemes to Montiano Copy. Sir, Having received orders from His Majesty, to send an expedition from this island against the English, his enemy, to punish them for the insults committed against his subjects, by the subjects of Great Britain in Carolina and by those recently and unlawfully settled in His Majesty's territories in a place called Georgia, and impressed by its importance to His Majesty's service and by the pernicious results of having tolerated the aforesaid insults, I have made up a command of all the land and naval forces I can possibly assemble, to accomplish these very just and very important ends, according to the wish of the king. In consequence of this and of the faculty he has bestowed upon me, to select as the commanding officer of this expedition, one who possesses the requisite character and qualities, I am led to designate you as the Commanding General of all these forces, as much by the confidence I have in your fitness and experience as because of the knowledge which you possess of those places. I am also guided by your affection for His Majesty and your zeal for his service, as shown in your letter of the 3rd of March of the present year. For the troops which are to be under your orders, I anticipate the greatest success, and I am directing you according to what I believed was best adapted to secure a happy termination, in conformity with the resolution of the board, a copy of which I have sent you, enjoining upon Your Lordship the least possible effusion of the blood of His Majesty's troops and subjects, and to insure in any event a withdrawal. The number of regular troops will be 1,000, with proper number of officers, and of militia 800, composed of whites, mulattoes and negroes, also properly officered. These troops you will assign as will seem best to you. The naval forces which it has been possible to assemble are reduced to one frigate of 24 guns, to a packet boat of 14, one galley, and the six galliots which you have with you; two schooners, two bilanders, and two barges and pirogues under oars, which will be used to convoy the transports, guard and cover the coasts and inlets, and to manage and carry on within the interior channels the movement and landing of troops during the operations. All these elements (excepting the troops to embark at Saint Augustine, and the schooner and pirogues to join there) will leave this port [Havana] under the command of Colonel Don Francisco Rubiani, Lieutenant Colonel, Governor, and Commanding Officer of the Regiment of Dragoons of Italica, who is to arrive off your bar, and deliver this letter to Your Lordship. He will be under your orders as second in command and join his forces with the troops and vessels, which are to be ready in the post for the campaign. As the fundamental condition of the most rapid and easy outcome of the expedition, and of the reduction of risks, consists in making withdrawal sure, in whatever misfortune, I regard as indispensable the invasion before anything else is attempted, of the Island of Saint Simon, first occupying the northern entrance so as to close the pass to the enemy, and intercept any relief he might receive from that direction; the landing is to take place from three vessels at one and the same time on the beach facing east. This first step having been, thanks to the Divine Grace, and to Your Lordship's wise management, successfully taken, Your Lordship will next adopt such measures as are suggested by the information you may have or obtain, to proceed northward by interior channels, devastating, laying waste, sacking and burning whatever settlements, plantations, and towns there may be as far as Port Royal inclusive, razing its fort, and taking possession of the entire country; for Your Lordship is informed of the fact that those parts hold no hostile troops able to resist those under your command. The necessity of gaining time whenever possible, without any delay must ever be kept in mind, so as to give no opportunity for resistance to form. Our operations must, under His Majesty's commands, be reduced to a sudden stroke, and for this reason the greatest celerity is imperative. After taking possession of Port Royal, it will be proper to send out negroes of all languages (some of which sort accompany the militia of this place for this very purpose) to convoke the slaves of the English in the plantations round about, and offer them, in the name of our King, liberty, if they will deliver themselves up of their own accord, and to say that lands will be assigned them in the territories of Florida, which they may cultivate and use for themselves as owners, under the direction and laws of the Kingdom of Spain. In proportion as you receive and obtain (and this I believe will be the case) trustworthy and favorable information forwarding the conquest and increasing the damage done the enemy, you will act accordingly, never losing sight of the importance of making sure of your withdrawal, in order not to lose the fruit of our operations. All the neutral and friendly vessels met on the way, you may detain, requiring them to follow the convoy, until there shall be no disadvantage in allowing them to proceed on their course. To the person who goes as agent in charge of all matters relating to the Royal Exchequer, in respect of the good and economical administration of warlike stores and implements, you will afford all necessary help, showing him and requiring him to show the greatest attention, corresponding to the confidence I have reposed in him, and maintaining the best of relations with him, in order that the service may thus be punctually and easily performed. All the effects found and taken by our troops you will collect and keep in a secure place under the supervision of the agent of the Royal Exchequer, who will be required to make an inventory for the distribution in equal parts among soldiers, militia and sailors. As regards prisoners, in respect of whose classes and numbers no decision can be reached in advance, Your Lordship will take such measures as seem most suitable; just as in all the other cases that come up, you will make such decisions as most redound to the advantage of the King's service, and to the glory and reputation of his arms. The expedition having been concluded with the happy issue that we have a right to expect, Your Lordship will direct that the troops and militia of this place [Havana] return to it without the slightest delay, in the vessels that can make the best way through the [Florida] channel, seeing that now the southwest winds will prevail; all the ships will take the same course, even at the cost of increased labor and of a longer voyage, because thus we avoid encounters which otherwise might have injurious consequences for us. The Second Engineer, Don Antonio de Arredondo, goes informed with regard to all I have been able to anticipate and advance for the success and safety of this important operation. He will communicate with you, so that you may select what may appear to you best fitted for the happy issue of our plans, the glory and satisfaction of our royal master, and of his royal intentions. I am inclosing to your Lordship a full copy of the orders under which I have been acting, and of which I beg that you will acquire full understanding. Commending myself to your Lordship in the sincerest affection, I pray Our Lord to keep you many years. Havana, June 2, 1742. Your most affectionate faithful servant, who kisses your hand. Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas. To Don Manuel de Montiano.

From COLLECTIONS OF THE Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VII. MONTIANO'S OWN REPORT. 1742-8-3 Montiano to the king Sir, I transmit the report herewith, to the end that your Lordship place it in the hands of the Royal and Supreme Council of these Indies for their information. Your Lordship holds me in faithful unalterable affection, always at your command, and praying Our Lord to keep Your Lordship many years. Saint Augustine, in Florida, 3 August, 1742. Don Manuel de Montiano, your most obedient servant, kisses your Lordship's hand. To Don Fernando Trivifio. Letter of Montiano to the King. Sir: In a letter of October 31st of the past year, Don Jose del Campillo advised me that Your Majesty had resolved upon the formation in Havana of an expedition to lay waste Carolina and its dependencies, and that he was communicating this news to me by command of Your Majesty, to the end that I might give Lieutenant General Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas, Governor of Havana, all the information that I might have and that might conduce to the happy issue of these royal instructions. These, I obeyed with all the promptness demanded, and posted the results to the aforesaid Lieutenant General Governor of Havana, offering myself for any duty in the Royal Service that he might see fit to give me. In consequence he informed me in a letter of May 14, brought by an officer of that garrison [Havana] in a small boat, that he had selected me for the command of the expedition, sending me at the same time the particular charges and directions for the best advantage of Your Majesty's Service. He informed me that the expedition was ready to put to sea, and that, although a secret council he had called of the senior officers of both Services in Havana, as well as of those of the squadron under the orders of Lieutenant General Don Rodrigo de Torres, had declared impracticable the royal intention and will of Your Majesty through lack of sufficient naval forces, yet it was agreed that at the right time some operation should be set afoot against Georgia, to indemnify us in part for the insults and perfidies attempted and committed to the injury of these Provinces, and of Your Majesty's indispensable right to them. The convoy of ten small vessels manned by a few militiamen and escorted by a galley, sent in advance by the aforesaid Lieutenant General, fell in on June 6th with an English coastguard man-of-war of 24 guns, which with its artillery, launch, and boats, attacked a few of our vessels beforementioned. And as our galley could not go to the help of all of these, they presently found themselves in danger so great, that two of them were compelled to run ashore, one of them having lost a lieutenant of artillery and a corporal killed, and had a lieutenant of militia wounded. One of their boats tried to board a sloop of ours aground, but our troops that were on shore began to fire and so forced the crew of the English boat to ask for quarter. We thus captured one officer and 18 sailors. On the 15th of the aforesaid month the entire expedition arrived safely off this bar [that of Saint Augustine] under the command of Colonel Don Francisco Rubiani. But on account of the scarcity of water, and because of the fierce squalls and strong winds which did us some damage, and wrecked a launch, drowning a chaplain and some sailors, I was unable to leave this port [Saint Augustine] before the 23rd of the month; and as on that very day the wind blew hard out of the northeast, I delayed my departure until July 1st, when I put to sea with all the vessels of the Expedition. I laid my course for Georgia, and reached its neighborhood on the 2d, when a furious storm beyond any human power to resist, overtook us from the southwest and scattered us all. We remained dispersed many days. The greater part of the fleet having reassembled (except 4 galliots, 4 pirogues, 2 schooners, 2 launches and 1 small boat), we anchored on the 10th in sight of the port of Gualquini, where we remained, unable to close in by reason of the contrary winds, until the 16th, when we gloriously forced the port, with no greater loss than 5 men, against resistance by sea and land in succession. At the entrance of the harbor was constructed a fort of sod with brick parapets, in the shape of a horseshoe, containing a bronze shell mortar, and five for smaller shells.* *Granada* realet, smaller than the bombas, but projectiles of the fort. It had in its neighborhood a large trench mounting 3 guns to sweep the entrance. At a distance of two musket shots, and to the west, was another fort, of square trace, with four bastions, one in the middle of each curtain, constructed of heavy timbers and of earth, and having a ditch one toise** and a half wide and four feet deep. **The toeta (tuean in MS), a measure of length about 8.4 feet. On its parapet were a few rows of barrels filled with earth, and planted with thorns, to serve as a parapet. Along the interior ran a stockaded covered way to prevent a surprise, on which were mounted 7 guns, 3 of them 18-pounders and six grenade-mortars. Between the first and this second fort they had constructed a strong trench mounting 5 guns: to the west of these works was yet another large trench of circular form, whose purpose it was to annoy us by musketry. Within this harbor between the forts mentioned were stationed a 24-gun frigate, a schooner of 14, then a bilander of 10 guns. Behind these came a line of eight bilanders and schooners well manned to defend the entrance with musketry; but in spite of all this, we took possession of the Port and anchored at five of the afternoon. I immediately gave orders for the disembarkation of the entire body, in order to allow the enemy no opportunity to recover from the dismay into which our triumph had thrown him. This operation was successfully accomplished without resistance. At dawn, I set out with the entire force, my intention being to advance on the first fort. I first sent out some Indians to approach and reconnoiter the state of affairs and movements of the enemy; these having returned and reported having seen no one, the Chief of Staff, Don Antonio de Arredondo, moved forward to verify the information, having with him two companies of Grenadiers which I ordered out to ensure the greater thoroughness of the reconnaissance, and to determine whether the enemy had really retired. When this was confirmed, I continued my march to his works which I at once occupied, posting the necessary guards, and a few pickets on what appeared to be avenues of approach, in order to check any attack they might make. The Indians and grenadiers brought in two prisoners, who confirmed the flight of General Oglethorpe to the town of Frederica, distant slightly more than two leagues from the forts of Gualquini. Although I might have overtaken him, this step did not appear to be prudent, so long as I was ignorant of the road and of the ground over which one should march with full knowledge. Accordingly, as it seemed to me advantageous to advance on Frederica along two lines at the same time, I dispatched the captain of one of the pickets of this post [Saint Augustine], Don Sebastian Sanchez with 50 men, as being acquainted with these parts, to reconnoiter the road leading to the careening ground, at which point it seemed to me that it might be more advantageous to disembark the artillery. At the same time I sent the Captain of Miquelets, Don Nicholas Hernandez, with 25 of his men and 40 Indians, to examine the road that leads directly to Frederica. It fell out that Don Sebastian Sanchez lost the trail he was to follow, and joined the Hernandez party. These two continued as far as the town, in whose vicinity they were attacked by a body of English and Indians in a very narrow defile of the woods. This accident brought on inevitable disorder, in which we suffered the loss of the two captains and 11 men captured, 10 men wounded, and 12 killed. When news of this reached me, I detached three companies of grenadiers to support our troops and cover their retreat; but before the companies of grenadiers could reach the site of the action, they were attacked themselves by another ambuscade surrounding a swamp, over which the path gave passage only in single file. The Captains of Grenadiers, realizing, if they continued their efforts, that no advantage was to be gained save the sacrifice of their troops, through the impossibility of seeing who was firing on them, or of taking up any formation by reason of the nature of the ground, prudently resolved to withdraw in as good order as possible, with the loss of Don Miguel Bucareli and 6 grenadiers, who were killed. The Captain of Miquelets, Don Nicholas Hernandez, taking advantage of the fact that he had been very insecurely tied by the two soldiers who were taking him along, succeeded in breaking loose, which the soldiers observed; on their endeavoring to make him secure by tying his arms, he gave them no chance, for like a man of valor and spirit, he rushed upon one of them and took away his sword, and with it, its owner's life, and then slew the other, thus earning his liberty and returning to our camp four days later. This Captain and some of his soldiers, although born woodsmen (hombres de monte), were so exhausted by the difficulties of the underbrush, that they thought they would give up the ghost before coming out on the road. I now took these matters under serious consideration, as well as the report of the Captains of Grenadiers and our Indians, to the effect that the forest was impenetrable because of its impassable undergrowth, besides being full of swamps and lagoons. Furthermore, the representations of Don Antonio de la Atora, agent of the Exchequer, in respect of the consumption of stores, and that those to be consumed on our withdrawal should receive first thought, there being barely enough in hand to last to the end of August, gave me pause. The tempestuous weather of August and September was also a fact of no mean weight. I was moreover compelled to take into account the naval forces then off the coast of Carolina, superior to ours. Our prisoners declared that it was commonly known that General Oglethorpe was expecting them. Our delays caused by bad weather, the action between the man-of-war and our galley and small convoy, and the fact that we had maintained ourselves on his coasts, must have convinced the General of our intention to attack him, and thus have given him time to prepare his defense. The failure of thirteen vessels, among them four galliots carrying some troops and all the sappers, to rejoin the convoy, had caused us supreme embarrassment, for without these men and the row boats, no operation was possible ashore or on the rivers within a radius of somewhat more than two leagues. Lastly, I could not overlook the special injunctions of Lieutenant General Don Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas to consider the most important matter of assuring the withdrawal of the troops, having regard to the notable reduction that had taken place in the garrisons of both Havana and Saint Augustine. Having therefore maturely considered all these matters, I called a council of war composed of the senior officers of the army, and having laid before them the reasons which had led me to assemble then, I asked them to advise what we should do in the situation that faced us. They answered that there was in their opinion nothing else better than to reconnoiter the river leading to the town of Frederica, and see if there were not some place where the men and artillery could be conveniently disembarked, in order to batter the fort and town; that while this was in hand, the vessels could continue taking on water, for it was to be recollected that even if favorable terrain could be found for the disembarkation, nothing should be undertaken that would demand more than six days for its execution. The fact that we had supplies for no later than the end of August was of such gravity that we ought to think of nothing else but to withdraw to our respective garrisons, and thus avoid the dangers threatened by delay. In consequence of this advice, the Engineer Don Pedro Ruis de Olano went out with the galley and the two galliots to make the reconnaissance agreed upon, and got within musket shot of Frederica, without finding any place suitable to a disembarkation, because the bank of the river is a marsh throughout its length, and overgrown with grass; he was unable to determine whether it was quaking grass or water swamp, and it was only within cannon range that he thought there might be a clear place where he thought a landing might be possible. But on taking into account the well-recognized risk of exposing the men to much loss, especially as he had been unable to determine whether there was a battery or entrenchment or not, I resolved that it would be disadvantageous to undertake an operation so palpably dangerous. Nevertheless, I withheld my decision so far as to call a second council, principally because at dawn of this day a deserter came into camp, and declared that General Oglethorpe had been marching the entire night with 500 men to surprise us before dawn. In answer to questions intended to inform me as to the condition and forces of Oglethorpe, he said they numbered one thousand, half of them regular troops of his own regiment, and the remainder settlers and Indians, that the town of Frederica was defended by a battery that commanded the river, and mounting small guns, some 18-pounders, and mortars of both and large calibre; and that on the bank of the river near the town there was a trench in which he could place his men under cover, and prevent our landing. He continued that another channel through which our vessels could easily pass was defended by a garrisoned mortar battery. He added that the General was placing his chief trust in the thickness of the woods and the morasses. He also declared that he was expecting both men and ships, that the people of Carolina would not be long in appearing, likewise Virginians and Philadelphians, in as much as he had sent letters in all directions by reason of the suspicions excited by the affair of the galley and small convoy off Cape Canaveral, and confirmed by our long stay on his coasts. A few hours after the arrival of the deserter, and just as the second council was about to sit, the outposts on the shore, and the men in the tops, announced that three cruisers, one bilander and a schooner were approaching the port. This information compelled me to adjourn the council, and to hold one composed only of Colonel Don Francisco Rubiani, of Lieutenant Colonel Don Antonio Salgado, and of the Chief of Staff Don Antonio de Arredondo. These all agreed that we should bend all our energies to retreat, that our fear lest Oglethorpe should attack by land while his ships did the same by sea was normal. I consequently ordered that all the troops should cross over to the island in front, in order to give our ships time to prepare, unencumbered, for the defense; and that the smaller vessels should, while I was marching ashore with the troops, enter the River of Whales, and await me on the bar of the same name, where I intended to embark and go on to the capture and demolition of Fort Saint Andrew. This was all done; the fort I found unoccupied, it had one gun, a 4-pounder, three stone mortars, a few implements, and a number of horses, which we killed. From this point, in order to improve the time while the smaller vessels were completing the task of bringing up the stores that were lacking, I arranged to detach 200 men ashore to occupy Fort San Pedro, which the night before had fired on the four galliots, launches and pirogues separated from us by the storm, and which had now rejoined; but as I was without supplies, inasmuch as the vessels that had them on board, were going outside straight to Florida, I thought the most rapid transportation possible of the troops to Saint Augustine, preferable to a delay without provisions. I consequently commanded all the vessels to pass out by the Bar of Whales, while I with the 4 galliots, launches and pirogues took the inside of the river, in order to reconnoiter the aforesaid Fort San Pedro, and to attend to anything that might come up. This done, and notwithstanding the fire which they opened, and which I ordered the 4 galliots to return, I continued on my way and reached the River Saint John, where I went ashore and thence on August 1st, to this fortress [Saint Augustine] where I found all the troops carried by the vessels that had gone outside. During the time in which I abode in camp at Gualquini, notwithstanding the lack of sappers, I took such measures, that the troops and militia in detachments destroyed and razed the castles [i.e., forts] and batteries; that the artillery, mortars, and implements were carried aboard; that the houses in the country were burned to the number of thirty, and the planted fields laid waste; and so finished this business on the last day as regards the remainder of the settlement, say seventy houses in seven streets, that not a sign or vestige remained, to show that the place had ever been settled. And I did the same sort of thing with the enemy's vessels, excepting two bilanders, which I manned, and put into our armada, and the war ship, which on the very night we forced the pass, under favor of the darkness, and of a storm, succeeding in escaping, in spite of the efforts of Don Antonio Castaneda to prevent its flight. I consider that the damage done the English will amount to between 250,000 and 300,000 pesos. On the day when I went by land to the Island of Vejeces [Vegeses?], the land wind that was blowing drove off the hostile vessels from the coast, and also took ours out, for it was the intention, suggested. by me, of Don Antonio de Castaneda, commander of the Fleet, to attack the enemy. As he was unable to find them however, he set his course for Havana. All the officers, both senior and junior, of regular troops and militia; Don Antonio de Castaneda, and the naval volunteers, have given proof of special zeal and devotion to the service of Your Majesty; and particularly Colonel Don Francisco Rubiani, Lieutenant Colonel Don Antonio Salgado, and the Engineer of the Second Class, Don Antonio de Arredondo, who discharged the functions of Chief of Staff with incessant toil. For these reasons I recommend them to the notice of Your Majesty as worthy of distinction. I do not know, Sir, whether my conduct of affairs will meet with the royal approbation of Your Majesty, seeing that my entire effort has been to discharge the trust committed to my care with no other end than the ruin of the enemies of the Crown, and the honor and glory of the arms of Your Majesty. These might have been better advanced had not the All Powerful, who disposes of all things, brought to naught the plan I had in mind, of sending 3 galliots under the orders of the Naval Lieutenant Don Adrian Cantein to the river of Saint Simon, and two to the river of Whales under the command of the Ensign Don Francisco Pineda, for the purpose of cutting the enemy's communications and prevent succor reaching him from the north, agreeably with the instructions of Lieutenant General Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas. Nevertheless, I expect of the royal magnimity of Your Majesty, that it will deign to regard itself as having been well served in the operations under question, and that I shall have the satisfaction of receiving honors from Your Majesty, whose Catholic royal person I pray our Lord to preserve as many happy years, as Christendom may need. Saint Augustine, in Florida. August 3, 1742. Don Manuel de Montiano. (flourish.)

[Corsairing was practiced by both the British and the Spanish during the 1740s and 1750s, and St. Augustine became a convenient base of operations for privateers commissioned by Spain. The capture and sale of prizes provided badly needed species and supplies for war-torn Florida, which had not received government subsidies in 1739, 1740, 1741, and 1745. (Landers)]

From Mose in Secondary Literature by Amy Francisco de Guemes Reforms Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas, 1st Count of Revillagigedo, Viceroy of New SpainHe reformed the administration of the treasury of the colony in 1746. Because a large portion of the circulating coinage had been sent to Spain, he ordered the minting of 150,000 pesos for circulation in Florida (1746). He reauthorized playing cards, banned by his predecessor, in order to increase revenue from their taxation. 38 Because smuggling was still rampant, he ordered close inspection of all ships arriving in port. This measure was ineffective, however. The smugglers used small boats and made landings on deserted beaches, transferring their illegal goods to confederates in the colony. Because of complaints from Spanish merchants, chiefly in America, Spain broke relations with the Hanseatic League. The viceroy prohibited Hanseatic ships from anchoring in Veracruz. When this legal source of a large quantity of merchandise was blocked, smuggling rose. It was said that even the vicereine dressed in contraband cloth from England or from Flanders. 38 Güemes y Horcasitas earned a reputation for governing efficiently and honorably. He took steps to ensure that government employees met the obligations of their offices. He increased the revenues of the government, even though revenue from the mines decreased due to the scarcity of mercury (for extracting silver). He increased the size of the fleet protecting shipping between Veracruz and Havana. 38 With the expansion of commerce and the decrease in piracy after the end of the war with England, mercury from Spanish mines began flowing into New Spain in sufficient quantities to raise the production of silver back to pre-shortage levels. 38 He reorganized the management of official documents and required that civil and religious affairs be handled independently. These reforms are considered the foundation of what became the General Archives of Mexico. 38 He was accused of having accumulated an enormous personal fortune while in office, but when he left, he left a large surplus in the treasury, and a wealth of stores and provisions. 38 Foreign affairs Spain was at war with England again (the War of the Austrian Succession), and news was received in Mexico City that a fleet of 17 ships of the line and transports had been assembled at Portsmouth under Admiral Richard Lestock, for an invasion of Spanish possessions in America. The information did not include where the English intended to make a landing, so the viceroy worked to prepare all the provinces under his jurisdiction to repulse an attack. 38 A preliminary peace was signed April 30, 1748. Spain was required to pay its debts to England, and England to return the Spanish possessions it had captured. New Spain's military expenses suddenly decreased, and the bonus was used for such projects as the colonization of Nuevo Santander. 38 While maintaining good relations with France, he vigilantly prevented French encroachments on the territory of New Spain. The garrisons in Texas were strengthened. In 1755 he founded a presidio at Horcasitas (Sonora) for the purpose of controlling the Apaches. 38 Return to Spain After turning over the government to his successor, Agustín de Ahumada y Villalón, Güemes y Horcasitas returned to Spain, where he was made captain general of the army. He was proposed as viceroy of New Granada and of Navarre, and was president of the council of Castile and president of the council of war. 38

[Whether he successfully appealed for his freedom in British courts as he had in the Spanish, was ransomed back by the Spanish in Florida, or escaped is unknown, but by at least 1752, was once again in command at Mose. Other blacks captured as privateers in the same period were never returned. (Landers)]

From Mose in Secondary Literature by Amy • “In the first years of the second Spanish government, Governor Zespedes observed the sanctuary policy and approved the asylum requests of over 250 fugitives, although he complained “not one of them has manifested once here in the least inclination to be instructed in and converted to our Holy Faith”… He required all free blacks to register themselves, to contract for employment, and to obtain permission if they wished to live outside the city.” (Landers, “Biassou” in Escribano 1988?)