Oglethorpe pays particular attention to internal Improvements--Meets
with many annoyances--The Creeks, under Toonahowi, make an incursion
into Florida--The Spanish form a design upon Georgia--Some of their
fleet appear on the coast--Oglethorpe prepares for defence--Applies
to South Carolina for assistance--Spaniards attack Fort
William--Dangerous situation of Oglethorpe--Spanish fleet enter the
harbor and land on St. Simons--In three successive engagements they
are defeated--A successful stratagem--Enemy defeated at Bloody Marsh--
Retire and attack Fort William, which is bravely defended by Ensign
Stewart--Spanish forces, repulsed in all their assaults, abandon the
invasion in dismay, and return to St. Augustine and to Cuba.
Of the year 1741 but few memorials are to be found. Oglethorpe resided
principally at Frederica; but occasionally visited Savannah; and,
every where, and at all times, actively exerted his powers of
persuasion, his personal influence, or his delegated authority to
reconcile the jarring contests and restore the social accordance
and peace of the community, while with vigilance and precaution
he concerted measures to guard the Colony against the threatening
purposes of the Spaniards. In reference to his peculiar trials and
vexatious annoyances, are the following remarks, copied from a letter
of a gentleman at Savannah, deeply read in the early history of the
Colony.[1]
[Footnote 1: WILLIAM B. STEVENS, M.D., _letter, October_ 19,1840.]
"The difficulties with which General Oglethorpe had to contend,
were peculiarly onerous and perplexing, not only with the
Spanish foes,--with the restless Indians,--with the clamorous
settlement,--with discontented troops,--with meagre supplies,--with
the defection of Carolina,--with the protest of his bills, and with
the refusal of a just naval protection;--but the officers of his
regiment were at enmity with him and with each other, and crimination
and recrimination followed, disturbing the peace, and weakening the
efficiency of the military corps. At a Court Martial, held in the
early part of January, 1739, composed of thirteen officers, they, in
their letter, dated 12th of January, to the General speak thus--'2d.
That we have observed a great spirit of mutiny among the soldiers,
particularly those of Lieutenant Colonel Cochran's company,' and '3d.
That by evidence given in Court, it appears to us that Lieutenant
Colonel James Cochran was in the knowledge of, and concealed a
mutiny.' The wonder is, that, with such opposing influences, and such
discordant materials, he effected _any thing_. That he achieved _so
much_, under such adverse circumstances, proves him to have been a
firm, bold, intrepid, and sagacious man; to have possessed the most
eminent military qualifications, and those sterling virtues which mock
at the petty malice of the envious, and triumph over the machinations
of malignity."
He was, also, fully aware that, as the Spanish of Florida and Cuba
entertained no good will towards him, they would seek an opportunity
to retaliate his "assault and battery," which, though it had proved
on his part a failure, had been to them a grievous annoyance. He,
therefore, kept scout-boats continually on the look out, to give
notice of the approach to the coast of any armed vessel. On the 16th
of August advice was conveyed to him that a large ship had come to
anchor off the bar. He immediately sent out the boat to ascertain
what it was; and it was perceived to be manned with Spaniards, with
evidently hostile purpose. Whereupon he went on board the guard sloop
to go in search of her; took, also, the sloop Falcon, which was in
the service of the Province; and hired the schooner Norfolk, Captain
Davis, to join the expedition. These vessels were manned by a
detachment of his regiment under the following officers: viz.: Major
Alexander Heron, Captain Desbrisay, Lieutenant Mackay, Lieutenant
Tamser, Ensign Hogan, Ensign Sterling, and Ensigns Wemyss and Howarth,
and Adjutant Maxwell; Thomas Eyre, Surgeon and Mate; six sergeants,
six corporals, five drummers, and one hundred and twenty-five
privates. Before they could get down to the bar, a sudden squall of
wind and storm of thunder and rain came on; and when it cleared up the
vessel was out of sight.
Unwilling, however, to lose the object of this equipment, on the next
day he sailed directly towards St. Augustine in pursuit of the ship.
On the 19th the Falcon sloop, being disabled, was sent back, with
seventeen men of the regiment; and the General proceeded with the
guard sloop and schooner. On the 21st, by day-break, they discovered a
ship and a sloop at anchor, about four or five leagues distant; and,
it being a dead calm, they rowed, till they came up to them, about
noon, when they found one to be the black Spanish privateer sloop,
commanded by a French officer, Captain Destrade, who had made several
prizes to the northward; and the other to be a three-mast ship; both
lying at anchor outside of the bar of St. Augustine. The General
issued orders to board them, when the wind freshing up, and the
English bearing down upon them, they began firing with great and small
arms, and the English returning the fire, they immediately left their
anchors, and run over the bar. The sloop and schooner pursuing them;
and, though they engaged them for an hour and a quarter, they could
not get on board. The Spanish vessels then run up towards the town;
and as they were hulled, and seemed disabled, six half-galleys came
down, and kept firing nine-pounders, but, by reason of the distance,
the shot did not reach the sloop or schooner. That night the General
came to anchor within sight of the castle of St. Augustine, and the
next day sailed for the Matanzas; but, finding no vessel there,
cruised off the bar of St. Augustine, and nothing coming out, the
whole coast being thus alarmed, he returned to Frederica.
There were three ships, and one two-mast vessel lying within the
harbor at the time that the English engaged the sloop and ship.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Annals of Europe_, page 404.]
This summer one of the Georgia boats off Tybee saved a three-mast
vessel which the Spaniards had abandoned, leaving eighteen Englishmen
on board, after having barbarously scuttled her, and choked the pumps,
that the men might sink with the ship; but the boat's men, getting on
board in good time, saved the men and the ship.
It seems that the Creeks, in retaliation of some predatory and
murderous outrages of the Florida outposts, made a descent upon them
in return. This is referred to in the following extract from a letter
of General Oglethorpe to the Duke of Newcastle, dated
Frederica, 12th of December, 1741.
My Lord,
"Toonahowi, the Indian who had the honor of your Grace's protection in
England, with a party of Creek Indians, returned hither from making
an incursion up to the walls of Augustine; near which they took Don
Romualdo Ruiz del Moral, Lieutenant of Spanish horse, and nephew to
the late Governor, and delivered him to me.
"The Governor of Augustine has sent the enclosed letter to me by some
English prisoners; and, the prisoners there, the enclosed petition. On
which I fitted out the vessels, and am going myself, with a detachment
of the regiment, off the bar of Augustine, to demand the prisoners,
and restrain the privateers."
In the early part of the year 1742, the Spaniards formed a design upon
Georgia, on which, from the time of its settlement, they had looked
with a jealous eye.[1] For this end, in May, they fitted out an
armament at Havanna, consisting of fifty-six sail, and seven or eight
thousand men; but the fleet, being dispersed by a storm, did not all
arrive at St. Augustine, the place of their destination. Don Manuel
de Monteano, Governor of that fortress, and of the town and region it
protected, had the command of the expedition.
[Footnote 1: Appendix, No. XXV.]
About the end of May, or beginning of June, the schooner, which had
been sent out on a cruise by General Oglethorpe, returned with the
information that there were two Spanish men of war, with twenty guns
each, besides two very large privateers, and a great number of
small vessels, full of troops, lying at anchor off the bar of St.
Augustine. This intelligence was soon after confirmed by Captain
Haymer, of the Flamborough man of war, who had fallen in with part of
the Spanish fleet on the coast of Florida, and drove some vessels on
shore.
Having been apprized of this, the General, apprehending that the
Spaniards had in view some formidable expedition against Georgia or
Carolina, or perhaps both, wrote to the Commander of his Majesty's
ships, in the harbor of Charlestown, urging him to come to his
assistance. Lieutenant Maxwell, the bearer, arrived and delivered the
letter on the 12th of June. Directly afterwards he sent Lieutenant
Mackay to Governor Glenn, of South Carolina, requesting his military
aid with all expedition; and this despatch reached him on the 20th.
He then laid an embargo upon all the shipping in Georgia; and sent
messages to his faithful Indian allies, who gathered to his assistance
with all readiness.
And now the design of the Spaniards was manifest. On the 21st of June
the fleet appeared on the coast; and nine sail of vessels made an
attempt on Amelia Island, but were so warmly received by the cannon
from Fort William, and the guard-schooner of fourteen guns and ninety
men, commanded by Captain Dunbar, that they sheered off. When the
General was informed of this attack, he resolved to support the
fortifications on Cumberland Island; and set out with a detachment of
the regiment in three boats; but was obliged to make his way through
fourteen sail of vessels. This was very venturesome, and, indeed, was
considered as presumptuously hazardous. For, had a shot from one of
the galleys struck the boat in which he was, so as to disable or
sink it, or had he been overtaken by a gun-boat from the enemy, the
colonial forces would have become the weakly resisting victims of
Spanish exasperated revenge. But by keeping to the leeward, and thus
taking advantage of the smoke, he escaped the firing and arrived in
safety.
After having withdrawn the command from St. Andrews, and removed the
stores and artillery that were there, and reinforced Fort William,[1]
where he left one of the boats, he returned to St. Simons.
[Footnote 1: These two Forts were on Cumberland Island.]
He now sent another express to the Governor of South Carolina, by Mr.
Malryne, informing him of his situation, and urging the necessity of
a reinforcement. This application was not promptly complied with, in
consequence of an unfortunate prejudice arising from the failure
of his attempt upon St. Augustine. But as Georgia had been a great
barrier against the Spaniards, whose conquest of it would be hazardous
to the peace and prosperity of South Carolina, "it was thought
expedient to fit out some vessels to cruise down the coast, and see
what could be done for its relief."[1]
[Footnote 1: WILLIAMS's _History of Florida_, p. 185.]
In the perilous emergency to which he was reduced, Oglethorpe took,
for the King's service, the merchant ship of twenty guns, called the
_Success_,--a name of auspicious omen,--commanded by Captain Thompson,
and manned it from the small vessels which were of no force. He also
called in the Highland company from Darien, commanded by Captain
McIntosh; the company of rangers; and Captain Carr's company of
marines.
On the 28th of June the Spanish fleet appeared off the bar below
St. Simons; but from their precaution for taking the soundings and
ascertaining the channel, was delayed coming in, or landing any of the
troops, for several days; in which time "the General raised another
troop of rangers; and, by rewarding those who did extraordinary duty,
and offering advancement to such as should signalize themselves on
this occasion, he kept up the spirits of the people, and increased the
number of enlistments."[1] He was placed, indeed, in a most critical
situation; but he bore himself with great presence of mind, and
summoned to the emergency a resolution which difficulties could not
shake, and brought into exercise energies which gathered vigor from
hindrance, and rendered him insensible to fatigue, and unappalled by
danger. This self-collected and firm state of mind, made apparent in
his deportment and measures, produced a corresponding intrepidity in
all around him; inspired them with confidence in their leader; and
roused the determined purpose with united efforts to repel their
invaders.
[Footnote 1: The passages distinguished by inverted commas, without
direct marginal reference, are from the official account.]
At this critical juncture, his own services were multiplied and
arduous; for Lieutenant Colonel Cook, who was Engineer, having gone
to Charlestown, on his way to London,[1] the General was obliged to
execute that office himself, sometimes on ship-board, and sometimes
at the batteries. He therefore found himself under the necessity of
assigning the command to some one on station, during his occasional
absences; and accordingly appointed Major Alexander Heron; raising him
to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
[Footnote 1: We shall see, in the sequel, that the absence of this
officer, whatever its pretence, was with treacherous purpose, as may
be surmised by the following extract from a letter to the Duke of
Newcastle, dated 30th of July, 1741; where, mentioning the despatches
sent to Governor Glen, earnestly requesting some military aid, the
General informs his Grace that "Lieutenant Colonel Cook, who was
engineer, and was then at Charlestown, hastened away to England; and
his son-in-law, Ensign Erye, sub-engineer, was also in Charlestown,
and did not arrive here till the action was over; so, for want of
help, I was obliged to do the duty of an engineer."]
On Monday, the 5th of July, with a leading gale and the flood of tide,
a Spanish fleet of thirty-six sail, consisting of three ships of
twenty guns, two large snows, three schooners, four sloops, and the
rest half-galleys, with landsmen on board, entered the harbor; and,
after exchanging a brisk fire with the fort, for four hours, passed
all the batteries and shipping, proceeded up the river. The same
evening the forces were landed upon the island, a little below
Gascoigne's plantation. A red flag was hoisted on the mizzen-top of
the Admiral's ship, and a battery was erected on the shore, in which
were planted twenty eighteen-pounders. On this, the General, having
done all he could to annoy the enemy, and prevent their landing, and
finding that the Fort at St. Simons had become indefensible, held a
council of war at the head of his regiment; and it was the opinion of
the whole that the fort should be dismantled, the guns spiked up, the
cohorns burst, and that the troops there stationed should immediately
repair to Frederica, for its defence. He accordingly gave orders for
them to march, and sent for all the troops that were on board the
vessels to come on shore.
As his only measures must be on the defensive, "he sent scouting
parties in every direction to watch the motions of the enemy; while
the main body were employed in working at the fortifications, making
them as strong as circumstances would admit."[1]
[Footnote 1: McCALL, I. 179.]
The Creek Indians brought in five Spanish prisoners, from whom was
obtained information that Don Manuel de Monteano, the Governor of
St. Augustine, commanded in chief; that Adjutant General Antonio de
Rodondo, chief engineer, and two brigades, came with the forces from
Cuba; and that their whole number amounted to about five thousand men.
Detachments of the Spaniards made several attempts to pierce through
the woods, with a view to attack the fort; but were repulsed by
lurking Indians. The only access to the town was what had been cut
through a dense oak wood, and then led on the skirt of the forest
along the border of the eastern marsh that bounded the island
eastward. This was a defile so narrow, that the enemy could take no
cannon with them, nor baggage, and could only proceed two abreast.
Moreover, the Spanish battalions met with such obstruction from the
deep morasses on one side, and the dark and tangled thickets on the
other, and such opposition from the Indians and ambushed Highlanders,
that every effort failed, with considerable loss.
On the morning of the 7th of July, Captain Noble Jones, with a small
detachment of regulars and Indians, being on a scouting party, fell
in with a number of Spaniards, who had been sent to reconnoitre the
route, and see if the way was clear, surprised and made prisoners of
them. From these, information was received that the main army was
on the march. This intelligence was immediately communicated, by an
Indian runner, to the General, who detached Captain Dunbar with a
company of grenadiers, to join the regulars; with orders to harass the
enemy on their way. Perceiving that the most vigorous resistance was
called for, with his usual promptitude he took with him the Highland
company, then under arms, and the Indians, and ordered four platoons
of the regiment to follow. They came up with the vanguard of the enemy
about two miles from the town, as they entered the savannah, and
attacked them so briskly that they were soon defeated, and most of
their party, which consisted of one hundred and twenty of their best
woodsmen and forty Florida Indians were killed or taken prisoners. The
General took two prisoners with his own hands; and Lieutenant Scroggs,
of the rangers, took Captain Sebastian Sachio, who commanded the
party. During the action Toonahowi, the nephew of Tomo Chichi, who
had command of one hundred Indians, was shot through the right arm by
Captain Mageleto, which, so far from dismaying the young warrior, only
fired his revenge. He ran up to the Captain, drew his pistol with his
left hand, shot him through the head, and, leaving him dead on the
spot, returned to his company.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Gentleman's Magazine_, XII. 497.]
The General pursued the fugitives more than a mile, and then halted on
an advantageous piece of ground, for the rest of the troops to come
up, when he posted them, with the Highlanders, in a wood fronting the
road through the plain by which the main body of the Spaniards, who
were advancing, must necessarily pass. After which he returned, with
all speed, to Frederica, and ordered the rangers and boat-men to make
ready, and all to use their utmost endeavors to resist the invaders.
During his temporary absence on this pressing emergency, Captain
Antonio Barba, and two other Captains with one hundred grenadiers,
and two hundred foot, besides Indians and negroes, advanced from the
Spanish camp into the savannah with drums and huzzas, and halted
within an hundred paces of the position where the troops left by
Oglethorpe lay in ambuscade. They immediately stacked their arms, made
fires, and were preparing their kettles for cooking, when a horse
observed some of the concealed party, and, frightened at the uniform
of the regulars, began to snort. This gave the alarm. The Spaniards
ran to their arms, but were shot down in great numbers by their
invisible assailants; and, after repeated attempts to form, in which
some of their principal officers fell, they decamped with the utmost
precipitation, leaving the camp equipage on the field. So complete was
the surprise, that many fled without their arms; others, in a rapid
retreat, discharged their muskets over their shoulders at their
pursuers; and many were killed by the loaded muskets that had been
left on the ground. Generally the Spaniards fired so much at random,
that the trees were pruned by the balls from their muskets.[1]
[Footnote 1: McCALL's _History_, I. 185.]
The General, returning with all expedition, heard the report of the
musketry, and rode towards it; and, near two miles from the place of
action, met some platoons, who, in the heat of the fight, the air
being so darkened by the smoke that they could not see where to
direct their fire, and a heavy shower of rain falling, had retired in
disorder. He ordered them to rally and follow him, apprehending that
immediate relief might be wanting. He arrived just as the battle
ceased; and found that Lieutenant Sutherland, with his platoon, and
Lieutenant Charles Mackay, had entirely defeated the enemy.
In this action Don Antonio de Barba, their leader, was made a
prisoner, but mortally wounded. "In both actions, the Spaniards lost
four captains, one Lieutenant, two sergeants, two drummers, and more
than an hundred and fifty privates. One captain, one corporal, and
twenty men were taken prisoners. The rest fled to the woods, where
many of them were killed by the Indians, who brought in their
scalps."[1]
[Footnote 1: From the great slaughter, the scene of this action has
ever since been called "the bloody marsh."]
Captain Demerey and ensign Gibbon being arrived, with the men they had
rallied, Lieutenant Cadogan with the advanced party of the regiment,
and soon after the whole regiment, Indians and rangers, the General
marched down to a causeway over a marsh, very near the Spanish camp,
over which all were obliged now to pass; and thereby stopped those
who had been dispersed in the fight, from getting back to the Spanish
camp. Having passed the night there, the Indian scouts in the morning
got so near the Spanish place of encampment, as to ascertain that
they had all retired into the ruins of the fort, and were making
intrenchments under shelter of the cannon of the ships. Not deeming
it prudent to attack them while thus defended, he marched back to
Frederica, to refresh the soldiers; and sent out parties of Indians
and rangers to harass the enemy. He now, at a general staff, appointed
Lieutenant Hugh Mackay and Lieutenant Maxwell, Aids de camp, and
Lieutenant Sutherland, Brigade Major.
While signal instances of heroism were thus honored, he warned the
troops of the necessity of union and vigilance, of prompt attention to
orders, and of maintaining an unflinching firmness in every emergency;
for in these, under God, depended their safety.
Although he thus encouraged others, he was himself filled with
perplexity. He began to despair of any help from Carolina. His
provisions were bad and scarce, and, while the enemy commanded the
river and the harbor, no supplies could be expected. Of all this,
however, he gave no intimation, but, firm and self-possessed,
submitted to the same fare with the meanest soldier, exposed himself
to as great fatigue, and often underwent greater privations. At the
same time his fixed resolution and irrepressible zeal in the defence
and protection of his people, nerved him to further and even greater
exertions.
On the 11th the great galley and two small ones, approached within
gun-shot of the town; but they were repulsed by guns and bombs from
the fort, and the General followed them in his cutter, with attendant
boats, well manned, till he got under the cannon of their ships, which
lay in the sound.
This naval approach, as appeared afterwards, was in consequence of a
concerted plot. It seems that, at the commencement of the siege of
St. Augustine, a Spanish officer quitted one of the outer forts and
surrendered himself to Oglethorpe, who detained him prisoner of war.
He was readily communicative, and gave what was supposed important
information. After the close of the war, he might have been exchanged;
but he chose to remain, pretending that the Spaniards looked upon him
as a traitor. He, at length, so artfully insinuated himself into
favor with the magnanimous Oglethorpe, that he was treated with great
courtesy. On this invasion he begged permission to retire into the
northern colonies of the English, saying that he apprehended that
if he should fall into the hands of the Spaniards, they would deal
rigorously with him. The General, not being aware of any treacherous
design, gave him a canoe to go up the river till he was out of danger;
whence he might proceed by land to some back settlement. Some days
past and he came back to Frederica, pretending that he could not
make his way through, nor by, the fleet without being discovered and
captured. Most fortunately, some days after his return, an English
prisoner, who had escaped from one of the ships of war, acquainted the
General with the treachery of this officer, assuring him that he had
been aboard at such a time, and talked over his insidious project
of setting fire to the arsenal which contained all the powder and
military stores, and that its explosion should be the signal to the
Spanish galleys to approach, and, in the confusion of the occasion,
make an assault upon the fort. This disclosure confirmed suspicions
which had been excited by some of his management since his return;
and he was put under guard. In consequence of this precaution, the
concerted signal could not be given; and the ruinous project was most
happily defeated.[1]
[Footnote 1: URLSPURGER, IV. p. 1260.]
July 12th, two English prisoners who had effected an escape, one
from the fleet, and one from the camp, informed the General that the
Spaniards, not having anticipated such vigorous resistance, had become
restless and dispirited, especially since they had ascertained by
their roll how great was their loss of men; and that the state of the
wounded was distressing. They added that these discomfitures were
increased by the want of water on board the ships, which was so great
that the troops were put upon half allowance, which, in this hot
weather was a grievous deprivation, and that several, from the effect
of the climate, were sick and unfit for service. They apprized him,
also, that they had holden a council of war, in which there were great
divisions, insomuch that the troops of Cuba separated from those of
Augustine, and encamped at a distance near the woods.
This latter circumstance suggested the idea of attacking them while
divided; and his perfect knowledge of the woods favored the project of
surprising one of their encampments. In furtherance of this design,
he drew out three hundred regular troops, the Highland company, the
rangers, and Indians, and marched in the night, unobserved within a
mile and a half of the Spanish camp. There his troops halted, and he
advanced at the head of a select corps to reconnoitre the enemy.
While he was using the utmost circumspection to obtain the necessary
information without being discovered, an occurrence of the most
villanous nature, disconcerted the project. As the particulars of this
have been variously narrated, I am happy in being enabled to give the
General's own account of the affair.[1] In his official despatch to
the Duke of Newcastle, dated at Frederica, in Georgia, 30th of July,
1742, he says,--"A Frenchman who, without my knowledge was come down
among the volunteers, fired his gun, and deserted. Our Indians in vain
pursued, but could not take him. Upon this, concluding that we should
be discovered, I divided the drums into different parts, and they beat
the Grenadier's march for about half an hour; then ceased, and we
marched back in silence. The next day I prevailed with a prisoner, and
gave him a sum of money to carry a letter privately, and deliver it to
that Frenchman who had deserted. This letter was written in French, as
if from a friend of his, telling him he had received the money; that
he should try to make the Spaniards believe the English were weak;
that he should undertake to pilot up their boats and galleys, and then
bring them under the woods, where he knew the hidden batteries were;
that if he could bring that about he should have double the reward he
had already received; and that the French deserters should have all
that had been promised to them. The Spanish prisoner got into their
camp, and was immediately carried before the General, Don Manuel de
Monteano. He was asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters;
but denying he had any, was strictly searched, and the letter found,
and he, upon being pardoned, confessed that he had received money to
deliver it to the Frenchman, (for the letter was not directed.) The
Frenchman denied his knowing any thing of the contents of the
letter, or having received any money, or correspondence with me.
Notwithstanding which, a council of war was held, and they decreed the
Frenchman to be a double spy; but General Monteano would not suffer
him to be executed, having been employed by him. However they embarked
all their troops with such precipitation that they left behind their
cannon, &c., and those dead of their wounds, unburied."
[Footnote 1: Transcribed from the Georgia Historical documents, by my
excellent friend T.K. TEFFT, Esq., of Savannah. The particulars of
this singularly interesting _ruse de guerre_ are detailed in all the
accounts of the Spanish invasion; and in each with some variation, and
in all rather more circumstantially than the above. See _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for 1742, p. 695; _London Magazine_ for 1758, p. 80;
HEWATT'S _History of South Carolina_, Vol. II. p. 117; McCALL'S
_History of Georgia_, I. p. 184; RAMSAY'S _History of the United
States_, I. 167, and MARSHALL'S _History of the Colonies_, p. 289.]
The Spanish General now deemed it expedient to relinquish a plan
of conquest attended with so many difficulties, and the further
prosecution of which would put to hazard the loss of both army and
fleet, and perhaps of the whole Province of Florida.
"On the 14th of July the Spaniards burned all the works and houses on
the south end of St. Simons and Jekyl islands.
"On the 15th the large vessels, with the Cuba forces on board, stood
out to sea; and the Governor and troops from St. Augustine embarked
in the galleys and small vessels, and took the inland passage, and
encamped on the north end of Cumberland island, at Fort St. Andrews.
"The next day the General pursued the enemy, and, landing where
they had encamped, sent an express in the night to Ensign Alexander
Stewart, who commanded at Fort William, directing him, in case of an
attack, to defend the place to the last extremity; and that he would
reinforce him early the next day. At day-light twenty-eight sail of
the Spanish line appeared off Fort William, fourteen of which came
into the harbor, and demanded a surrender of the garrison. Stewart
replied that it should not be surrendered, and could not be taken.
They attacked the works from their galleys and other vessels, and
attempted to land; but were repulsed by a party of rangers, who had
arrived by a forced march down the island. Stewart, with only sixty
men, defended the fort with such bravery, that, after an assault of
three hours, the enemy discovering the approach of Oglethorpe, put to
sea, with considerable loss. Two galleys were disabled and abandoned;
and the Governor of St. Augustine proceeded with his troops by the
inward passage. Ensign Stewart was rewarded, by promotion, for the
bravery of his defence."[1]
[Footnote 1: McCall, Vol. I. p.188.]
"On the 20th, General Oglethorpe sent his boats and rangers as far as
the river St. John. They returned the next day with the information
that the enemy were quite gone."
A few days after, the armed ships from South Carolina came to St.
Simons; but the need of them was then over; and even of the British
men of war upon the American station, though they had a month's
notice, none appeared upon the coast of Georgia until after the
Spanish troops were all embarked, and their fleet was upon its return
to Havana and to St. Augustine.
In the account of the Spanish invasion, by the Saltzburg preachers
at Ebenezer, are these very just reflections: "Cheering was the
intelligence that the Spaniards, with all their ships of war and
numerous military force, had raised the siege in shame and disgrace,
and retired to Augustine! Doubtless they feared lest English ships of
war should approach and draw them into a naval combat, for which they
could have no desire. Nay, they feared, no doubt, that their own
Augustine would suffer from it."
Devoutly acknowledging the protecting and favoring providence of God
in this wonderful deliverance from a most formidable invading foe,
General Oglethorpe appointed a day of Thanksgiving to be observed by
the inhabitants of the Colony.[1]
[Footnote 1: Appendix, No. XXVI.]
Thus was the Province of Georgia delivered, when brought to the very
brink of destruction by a formidable enemy. Don Manuel de Monteano had
been fifteen days on the small island of St. Simons, without gaining
the least advantage over a handful of men; and, in the several
skirmishes, had lost a considerable number of his best troops, while
Oglethorpe's loss was very inconsiderable.[1]
[Footnote 1: McCALL, I. 188.]
The writer of a letter from Charlestown, South Carolina, has this
remark; "that nearly five thousand men, under the command of so good
an officer as the Governor of St. Augustine, should fly before six
or seven hundred men, and about one hundred Indians, is matter of
astonishment to all."[1]
[Footnote 1: Gentleman's Magazine for 1742, p. 895. See also Appendix,
No. XXVII. for an account of the forces.]
The Rev. Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to a noble Lord, says, "The
deliverance of Georgia from the Spaniards, one of my friends writes
me, is such as cannot be paralleled but by some instances out of the
Old Testament. I find that the Spaniards had cast lots, and determined
to give no quarter. They intended to have attacked Carolina, but,
wanting water, they put into Georgia, and so would take that Colony
on their way. But the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong. Providence ruleth all things. They were wonderfully repelled
and sent away before our ships were seen."[1] "A little band chased a
thousand; and a small one overcome a large people."
[Footnote 1: _Letters_, V.I. let. CCCCLXXXIX. p. 467.]
The writer of the _History of the rise, progress, and settlement of
the Colony of Georgia_, so often quoted in this chapter, closes his
account of this invasion with the following remark: "Instead of
raising and heightening their success, to do honor to the General's
character; we ought rather to lessen or diminish some of the
circumstances, to render it, in such an age as this, more credible.
But we have taken no liberties at all. The facts are represented,
step by step, as they happened; and the reader left to make his own
inferences, estimate, and opinion."[1]
[Footnote 1: HARRIS's _Voyages_, II. 345.]
The Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia and North Carolina, addressed letters to Oglethorpe,
"congratulating him upon the important services rendered to the
Colonies; and assuring him of the interest which they felt in the
honor he had acquired by his indefatigable exertions, constant
exposure, extraordinary courage, and unequalled military conduct; and
offering their humble thanks to the Supreme Governor of nations for
placing the fate of the Southern Colonies under the direction of a
General so well qualified for the important trust."[1]
[Footnote 1: For some of the letters see the work last quoted.]