We are under the disagreeable necessity of issuing this
number of the Gazette, in its present form, owing to a
very lengthy advertisement, (occupying seven columns)
being ordered out the moment the paper was ready for the
Press. It being a personal controversy between Mr. _William
Robertson_, and Messrs. _Hernandez, Kingsley_ and _Yonge_,
Esquires, and a reply to Mr. Hernandez's publication
of last week, our readers would not have found it very
interesting. Its publication was countermanded on account
of an amicable arrangement being made by the parties about
one o'clock this day.
We hope this will be a sufficient apology to our
subscribers for the manner in which the Paper appears,
as it is impossible for it to be issued this day in any
other way, being short of hands. We pledge ourselves
another instance of the kind shall never occur--and assure
the public we feel much aggrieved at the imposition. The
advertisement of Mr. Wm. Robertson, headed "_Caution_" and
the reply by J. M. Hernandez, Esq. will be discontinued
after this week, and no further altercation between the
parties will be permitted thro' the medium of this Press.
The printed portions of this early issue include an installment of a
"Historical Sketch of Florida," extracts from various newspapers, and
among others the printer's own advertisements: "COMMERCIAL BLANKS,
For Sale at this Office. _Also_, Blank Deeds, Mortgages, &c. &c."
"Blank Bills of Lading, For Sale at the Gazette Office" and "BOOK
AND JOB PRINTING, Of every description, executed at this Office." In
this century the Library bound the 10 issues into a single volume.
Those dated November 24 and December 1 are addressed in ink to the
Department of State at Washington.
From the same year the Library of Congress holds 13 issues of _The
Floridian_, published at Pensacola beginning August 18, some of which
are also addressed to the Department of State. From this year, too,
the Library possesses _Ordinances, by Major-General Andrew Jackson,
Governor of the Provinces of the Floridas, Exercising the Powers of
the Captain-General, and of the Intendant of the Island of Cuba,
Over the Said Provinces, and of the Governors of Said Provinces
Respectively_, printed at St. Augustine by Edes. This pamphlet-sized
volume was advertised as "just published" in the September 15 issue of
the _Florida Gazette_; and the Library's copy, one of two extant,[35]
was autographed twice by "John Rodman Esquire" at St. Augustine.
Since he once added the designation "Collector" to his name, he is
readily identified as the person who placed the following announcement
in the November 24 issue of the _Gazette_: "JOHN RODMAN, Attorney &
Counsellor at Law, May be consulted on professional business, at his
Office in the Custom-House."
[Illustration: (Florida Gazette ads)]
[Footnote 34: See Douglas C. McMurtrie, "The Beginnings of Printing in
Florida," in _The Florida Historical Quarterly_, vol. 23 (1944-45), p.
[63]-96.]
[Footnote 35: See no. 36 in Thomas W. Streeter's
_Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952).]