USA > Georgia > A history of Georgia : from its first discovery by Europeans to the adoption of the present constitution in MDCCXCVIII. Vol. I > Part 13
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25 Gentleman's Magazine, 1739, 69.
26 Anderso :. 's Commerce, iii. 490.
161
WAR WITH SPAIN DECLARED.
jects to make reprisals, and these were the orders which met Oglethorpe on his return to Savannah. The convention, however, had been of some service to Georgia. As soon as Oglethorpe received it, he acted upon it; and trusting to its pacific terms, not only discontinued fortifying his posts, but took occa- sion of this lull to make his important journey to the Indian council, which he would not have felt war- ranted in doing, had there been no such armistice. His promptness was now peculiarly manifested. So soon as he received the " orders," he addressed him- self to the work of putting South Carolina and Georgia, of which provinces he was commander-in-chief, in a state of defence. He sent up an officer to bring down a thousand Indians to his aid,27 raised a troop of horse, and called upon the men-of-war to cover the harbour and sea-coast. By further instructions from the king, he was directed, after consulting with the governor and council of South Carolina, to proceed, if both thought it advisable, to Florida, and either demolish St. Augustine, or capture it and leave in it a proper English garrison. Such hostile instructions, emanating from both monarchs, made war inevitable ; and on the 22d of October, 1739, it was declared, in London, with the usual formalities.
As yet, however, Oglethorpe had only been acting on the defensive; and it was reserved for the Span- iards, even before the news of the declaration was received in America, to begin the hostilities of the ensuing campaign, by an act of cruelty and atrocity worthy, not of soldiers, but of dastardly cowards.
A party from St. Augustine landed on Amelia island and killed two unarmed men, who were carrying
27 State Paper Office, i. 114.
11
162
EXPEDITION UP THE ST. JOHN'S.
wood, cut off their heads, and mangled their bodies; and failing in an attempt to surprise the fort, fled to their boats and precipitately retired. Oglethorpe im- mediately manned all the boats at Frederica with the Highland rangers, a detachment of the regiment, and a number of the inhabitants, and placing himself at their head, pursued the enemy to the St. John's, de- stroying all the boats he found on that river, and proceeded one day's march towards St. Augustine, repulsing the cavalry and foot which for a moment dis- puted his progress. Unable, from the hurried nature of his expedition, to take advantage of his success, he hastened back to Frederica and sent Lieutenant Dun- bar, with forty soldiers and ten Indians,28 up the St. John's, to destroy the remaining boats and recon- noitre the fort, which, contrary to express treaties, the Spaniards had built at Picolata. Having exam- ined this place, and discovered what he supposed a pregnable part, Lieutenant Dunbar attacked it with much spirit ; but having no cannon, was obliged to retire, three of his party being wounded, and one Spaniard killed in the conflict. Returning to Fred- erica, the story of this disaster only elevated the ardour of the troops and Indians; and the latter, in particular, were clamourous to be led against the enemy who had built on their hunting ground and invaded their territories. Finding his own impulses thus seconded, the general organized a large military and Indian force, and with several pieces of cannon, embarked on the first day of December for Florida. Steering up the St. Johns, he sent a party of Indian
28 Montiano (MS. Letters) makes this force to consist of two hundred and forty English and Indians, while
the fort which he attacked was, accord- ing to the same authority, defended with but seventeen men.
163
CAPTURE OF FORT ST. FRANCIS.
scouts before him, who, suddenly falling upon Picolata, surprised and burnt it at daylight, on the seventh, two hours before Oglethorpe with his forces arrived. Proceeding onward, he landed under shelter of the woods near Fort St. Francis; and, while the Indians and Highland rangers under Adjutant Hugh Mackay, skirmished from an adjoining wood, he with his regu- lars, screened by the dense forest, erected two bat- teries, mounted his artillery, and then, at five in the afternoon, cutting down the intervening trees, dis- covered his position, fired his cannon, and summoned the fort to surrender. The Spaniards sent back an answering volley, one ball of which well nigh proved fatal to Oglethorpe ; but a second discharge from the battery brought them to terms, and in the evening the fort was surrendered with all its munitions, and the garrison marched out as prisoners of war. The object of his expedition was accomplished, and leaving a small garrison in Fort St. Francis, he returned to Fred- erica to repose his troops and devise new plans for the future. This little expedition was valuable to the English, as it gave them the navigation of the St. Johns, and was a serious loss to the Spaniards, as it cut off their communication with Appalachee, and pre- vented the passage of couriers to West Florida or to the friendly Indians. "To endure this occupation of the St. John's," says Montiano, with Spanish grandilo- quence, " would subject to scorn the sacred honour of the king-give a hideous stain to the Catholic arms- and offend the pride of the nation ;"29 and therefore he entreated Guemes y Horcasitas, the Captain-General of Cuba, to send him schooners and seamen to dislodge the English and recover Francisco de Pupo. Such
29 Montiano MSS.
1
164
NOTICE OF CHRISTIAN PRIBER.
were the opening scenes of the bloody contests that were soon to follow.
While Oglethorpe was thus engaged in Florida, a plot was discovered among the Indians, which threat- ened serious consequences to all the southern colo- nies. This was occasioned by the artful intrigues of a German Jesuit named Christian Priber, who was em- ployed by the French to spy out the condition of the English provinces, and to seduce the Cherokees from their allegiance to the English. He went up into the nation in 1736, and conforming at once to all their manners and customs, made himself master of their language, and gradually insinuated into their minds a distrust of their allies, a love for the French, and such notions of independence and importance as made them fit to assert rights never before claimed, and which he knew would not be conceded; and upon this antici- pated refusal, he based his scheme of bringing them to an open rupture with the English. Acting upon their vanity, he got up what in the eyes of the savages was a splendid coronation scene, in which he crowned the chief as king of the confederated towns, and bestowed upon the other head-men and warriors such pompous titles as flattered their pride and stimulated their am- bition. Priber was appointed royal secretary to the King of the Cherokees, and under this official title cor- responded with the English Indian agents and the colonial governments. An attempt was made by South Carolina to secure him, and Colonel Fox was sent up as a commissioner to demand him of the Indian authorities; but he had so ingratiated himself with them that they refused, and with such a spirit and resentment that the commissioner was compelled to return without securing his prey. His ascendency
165
PLAN OF CHRISTIAN PRIBER.
over the nation was great. He used the Indians as the tools of his machinations, and they looked upon him with feelings of profound veneration, and pro- fessed subservience to his scheme of linking their interest to that of the French on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. His plans, however, were de- feated by his capture at the Tallipoose town, when within a day's journey of the French garrison, to which he was hastening. Thus secured by the traders, he was sent down with all his papers under a strong Indian guard to Frederica, to be judged and punished as Oglethorpe should direct. On the return of the general from Florida, he ordered his strange prisoner to be examined, and was not a little surprised to find under his coarse dress of deerskins and Indian mocca- sins, a man of polished address, great abilities, and extensive learning. He was versed not only in the Indian language, of which he had composed a diction- ary, but also spoke the Latin, French, and Spanish fluently, and English perfectly. Upon being interro- gated as to his design, he acknowledged that it was " to bring about a confederation of all the southern Indians, to inspire them with industry, to instruct them in the arts necessary to the commodities of life, and, in short, to engage them to throw off the yoke of their European allies of all nations." He proposed to make a settlement in that part of Georgia which is within the limits of the Cherokee lands at Cusseta, and to settle a town there of fugitive English, French, and Germans; and they were to take under their par- ticular care the runaway negroes of the English. All criminals were to be sheltered, as he proposed to make his place an asylum for all fugitives, and the cattle and effects they might bring with them. He
166
PRIBER'S SCHEME OF GOVERNMENT.
expected a great resort of debtors, transported felons, servants, and negro slaves from the two Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia, offering as his scheme did tolera- tion to all crimes and licentiousness, except murder and idleness. Upon his person was found his private jour- nal, revealing, in part his designs, with various memo- randa relating to his project. In it he speaks not only of individual Indians and negroes, whose assistance had been promised, and of a private treasurer in Charleston for keeping the funds collected ; but also that he expected many things from the French, and from another nation whose name he left blank. There were also found upon him letters for the Florida and Spanish governors, demanding their protection of him, and countenance of his scheme. Among his papers was one containing articles of government for his new town, regularly and elaborately drawn out and digest- ed. In this volume he enumerates many rights and privileges, as he calls them, to which the citizens of this colony are to be entitled, particularly dissolving marriages, allowing a community of women, and all kinds of licentiousness. It was drawn up with much art, method, and learning ; and was designed to be privately printed and circulated. When it was hinted to him that such a plan was attended with many dan- gers and difficulties, and must necessarily require many years to establish his government, he replied : " Proceeding properly, many of these evils may be avoided ; and as to length of time, we have a succes- sion of agents to take up the work as fast as others leave it. We never lose sight of a favourite point ; nor are we bound by the strict rules of morality in the means, when the end we pursue is laudable. If we err, our general is to blame; and we have a merciful
167
DEATH OF PRIBER.
God to pardon us." " But, believe me," he continued, " before this century is passed, the Europeans will have a very small footing on this continent." Indeed, he often hinted that there were others of his brethren labouring among the Indians for the same purpose. Being confined in the barracks at Frederica, he exhib- ited a stoical indifference to his fate, conversed with freedom, conducted with politeness, and attracted the notice and favourable attentions of many of the gen- tlemen there. His death in prison put an end to all further proceedings, and his plans died with him.
Such was the strange being, whose Jesuitical in- trigues well nigh eventuated in the destruction of Georgia. A thorough Jesuit, an accomplished linguist, a deep tactitian, far-sighted in his plans, and far-reach- ing in his expedients, he possessed every qualification for his design, and only failed of bringing down great evil upon the English, because he was apprehended before his scheme had been matured.30
The hostilities already begun, were in the estimation of Oglethorpe but a preface to severer contests that were soon to follow. But before we enter upon the recital of these stirring events, let us take a survey of
30 State Paper Office, ii. 142. Dods- ley's Annual Register, 1760, Charac- ters, 22. Extracts from South Caro- lina Gazette, 1743. Adair's American Indians, 240-3. Grahame, in his His- tory of the United States, ii. 73, 139, American edition, compares him to Fa- ther Sebastian Rasles, the able French Jesuit among the New England In- dians. But Rasles busied himself about no scheme of conquest-no fanciful city of refuge-no con- federation of tribes-no wide-spread destruction of colonial settlements. Pri-
ber, like Rasles, was deeply versed in the Indian dialects-was of the order of Loyola-was identified with the In- dians-was strong in his hatred to the English ; but they had scarcely any other points in common, and it is rather degrading to the character of Raslos to put him in comparison with the in- triguing Priber. Vide Life of Rasles, by Dr.Francis, in Sparks's Amer.Biog., vii. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d series, viii. 250. Kip's Early Jesuit Missions in North America, Letters i. ii. iii.
168
UNPROTECTED STATE OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
the belligerent powers, as they then appeared in Flor- ida and Georgia.
Don Manuel Joseph de Justis, who had succeeded Moral as Governor of St. Augustine, was himself dis- placed in 1735, and Don Manuel de Montiano, a cap- tain in the grenadier corps of infantry of Aragon, with the rank of colonel, was appointed to the office the same year. He found the city without proper protection or defences, there being neither bomb-proof vaults, nor counter-scarp, nor covered way, nor ravelines in the curtains, nor other outer works that could make a de- fence. Its interior was dilapidated, and its ordnance such that it had no cannon that could fire twenty-four hours.31 He promptly set to work to repair and ex- tend the fortifications ; and on his representations Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas, Captain-Gen- eral of Cuba, sent over from time to time money, can- non, munitions of war, soldiers, sailors, convicts, cloth- ing, and other fort supplies, besides the skilful engineer Don Antonio de Arredondo, under whose supervision the works were rapidly perfected and enlarged. The ramparts were heightened and casemated ; a covered way was made by planting and embanking four thou- sand stakes ; bomb-proof vaults were built, and en- trenchments were thrown up all around the town, pro- tected by ten salient angles and the usual accompani- ments of such fortifications. The castle was built of tabby, with four bastions, the curtains forty yards long, the counter-scarp faced with stone, and a covered way well protected. It was garrisoned by about a thou- sand foot, artillery and cavalry, besides the militia of the town, the convicts sent by the Archbishop of Vir- rey, and their Indian allies. Situated behind the
31 Montiano MSS.
169
MILITARY FORCE OF GEORGIA.
island of Anastasia, which protected it from the sea, it was further defended from attacks by water, not only by the natural shallowness of its bar, but by a fort erected on the north end of Anastasia, covering the entrance to the harbour. Well located therefore as to its geographical advantages, it was put in a good state of defence by Don Antonio Arredondo and other skilful engineers, who fortified every assailable point and strengthened every defensible position. Besides all this, St. Augustine was nigh to Havana, where was posted a considerable body of troops as well as vessels and munitions of war.
The military force of Georgia was small. Its only fort of importance was at Frederica on St. Simons Island. This work was constructed in the form of half a hexagon, with two bastions, and two half bas- tions, and towers upon the point of each bastion, after Vauban's method. The walls were of earth, faced with timber ten feet high in the lowest places, and thirteen in the highest, the timbers being from three to twelve inches thick.32 These were surrounded by a deep entrenchment, with gates which admitted the tide. Landward it showed two strong bastions; riv- erward there was a water battery; and seaward, just beyond the review ground, was a dense wood com- pletely hiding the fort from all advancing vessels ; while in front of that wood, and protected by a deep creek and wide miry marsh, was a battery of twelve heavy guns, which perfectly commanded the entrance to the harbour of Frederica. The place was garri- soned by a part only of General Oglethorpe's regi- ment, the remainder of the forces being distributed in .
32 State Paper Office, i. 125.
170
PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACKING ST. AUGUSTINE.
the small forts on the other islands commanding the passages and frontiers of Georgia.
Such was the relative position of parties when the news arrived that war had been declared.
Resolved now to attack St. Augustine, Oglethorpe, after putting the forts on the islands and main in good defence, repaired to Charleston, where he urged upon the assembly their co-operation. They passed an act for the raising of a regiment of four hundred men, and a company of rangers ; which latter being found imprac- ticable, a hundred men were added to the regiment in its place, for four months ; and they also made appro- priations for manning and equipping a colonial schooner, with ten carriage and sixteen swivel guns, and a crew of fifty men. This force was only placed at Ogle- thorpe's disposal after much debate and much opposi- tion, though his presence tended to rouse some enthu- siasm and call forth some volunteers. Hastening to Frederica, he was actively employed in arranging and training his forces for the proposed expedition. Num- bers of his Indian allies were called down to Frederica ; a vessel was despatched to Providence, in the Bermu- das, for mortars, powder, bombs, and cannon; while Captain Pearce, in the Flambo, and Captain Warren, in the Squirrel, sixth-rates of twenty guns and a hun- dred and thirty men each, co-operated by sea. Sir Yel- verton Peyton, in the Hector, a forty-gun ship, was requested to assist at the siege; and the Assembly of South Carolina also augmented their regiment by rais- ing two hundred additional men.
The entire force destined for the attack of St. Augustine consisted of a detachment of five hundred officers and men of His Majesty's regiment of foot, one troop of Highland rangers, one troop of English
171
DISPOSITION OF TROOPS.
rangers, one company of Highland foot, one company of English foot, one Carolina regiment of six hundred men, under Colonel Vander Deusen, besides Indians, boatmen, and some few volunteers from Charleston.
It was under great obstacles that the general col- lected his forces, which he divided into two bodies, and directed his course towards Florida. One body, consisting of the Carolina troops, the Highlanders, and the Indian allies, were to proceed by land for the St. Johns; the other, with the artillery, convoyed by the men-of-war, went round with Oglethorpe by water. He crossed the St. John's on the 9th of May, and on the 10th took Fort St. Diego, three leagues from St. Augustine, containing fifty-seven men, nine small and two large cannon, seventy small arms, and much am- munition. Leaving Lieutenant Dunbar and fifty men to garrison this post, he returned to the St. John's, to await the arrival of the Carolina troops. These soon joined him; and on the 15th, he entered the Spanish territories, with a force consisting of nine hundred regu- lar and provincial troops, and eleven hundred Indians. With these he marched upon Fort Moosa, which the Spaniards evacuated without resistance, and retired into St. Augustine, two miles distant. Having failed in his design to surprise the city, he now held a con- ference with the naval officers, and resolved to attack the place from three points, combining as much as pos- sible the strength of the land and naval forces. Ac- cording to this plan, the Hector, the flag-ship of the Commodore, Sir Yelverton Peyton, the Flamborough, Captain Pearce, the Phoenix, Captain Fanshaw, the Squirrel, Captain Warren, the Tartar, Captain Towns- hend, of twenty guns each, and the two sloops, the Spence, Captain Laws, and the Wolf, Captain Dan-
.
172
PLAN TO ATTACK ST. AUGUSTINE FAILS.
dridge, were to blockade the northern and Matanzas passages to St. Augustine. Capt. Warren was to land with two hundred sailors on Anastasia, and throw up works for the purpose of commanding and bombarding the town; while Oglethorpe, with the land forces, designed to attack the town in the rear. When the general had drawn up his troops in attacking columns, he was to notify Sir Yelverton of the commencement of the action by certain signals mutually agreed upon, when the batteries on Anastasia, consisting of six eighteens, three mortars, and twenty cohorns, were to open upon the town in front. All things being ready, Oglethorpe gave the signal of attack, but no answer was returned. In great impatience, his forces being judiciously posted and eager for the onset, he repeated it, but failing to obtain the counter-sign, he was com- pelled to march the army back to its quarters, until he ยท could learn the cause of this unlooked-for and painful derangement of his well-laid schemes. He found that the co-operation of the ships was rendered impractica- ble in consequence of the drawing up of the Spanish gallies just inside the bar, sufficiently removed to be protected from the fire of the ships, and yet so disposed that no boats could land troops without being exposed to the fire both of the gallies and the batteries of the town; while the shallowness of the bar did not permit of their being dislodged by the advance of the English ships.
Mortified at the failure of his cherished design, of the success of which he had been so confident, he was now compelled to change his plan of operation from a storm to a siege. To prevent succour being given to the garrison, which was now closely invested, General Oglethorpe directed Colonel Palmer, with eighty-five
CAPTURE OF FORT MOOSA. 173
whites and forty Indians, to scour the vicinity of St. Augustine as a flying party, showing themselves now here and now there, taking care not to let the enemy know their numbers, not to engage in suspicious places, not to encamp two nights in the same spot, but to take the thickets in the night and the plains in the day, and at all times to keep open a passage to St. Diego, to which post they were to retreat if attacked by superior force. These judicious orders Colonel Palmer dis- obeyed; and by remaining at the negro fort, or Moosa, two or three nights in succession, under the impression that the Spaniards would not venture out to attack him, subjected himself and his brave troops, most of whom were Highlanders, to the dreadful surprise and massa- cre which followed. On Saturday night, June 25th, at eleven o'clock, three hundred men, under the com- mand of Don Antonio Salgrado, made a sortie from the gates of St. Augustine, and early on Sunday morning, after most desperate resistance by the troops under Colonel Palmer, succeeded in capturing Fort Moosa. In this bloody conflict the colonel, a captain, and twenty Highlanders were killed, besides several Indians and twenty-seven soldiers taken prisoners; the rest, effect- ing their escape, brought the dismal news to Ogle- thorpe. This victory, bought by the Spaniards at the cost of over a hundred lives, opened to them the country, and was valuable as it enabled them to pro- vision their already straitened garrison. Thwarted in this important measure, his troops already wasting under the effects of the noon-day sun and the midnight dews, his Indian allies restive from inaction, and the ships compelled soon to depart, Oglethorpe, unwilling to give up all further efforts, resolved to make one more attempt for the reduction of St. Augustine. He now posted the
-
174
BOMBARDMENT OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
Carolina regiment on a neck of land between the North Channel and St. Mark's river, called Point Quartel, commanding the castle on the north-east, while the rest of his troops passed over to Anastasia island, and joined the seamen, under Captains Warren, Laws, and Townshend, who were detached from the squadron, which lay at anchor just outside the bar. The landing of the soldiers and sailors on the island was not effected without opposition, for the Spaniards had erected a sand battery opposite the north breakers, which com- manded the landing-places for some distance on both sides; but this was soon taken, and the enemy retreated to the half gallies, which, after taking them on board, anchored a little to the south of the town, in Matanzas river. The cannon and mortars being already placed in battery, the English opened upon the town on the 24th of June, from a mortar of grenades, some of which fell and exploded within the enemy's fort, but from which, says Montiano, " glory be to God, we received no corporeal damage."
The cannonading and bombardment was continued at intervals, with occasional feints of open attack, to test their prowess or draw out sorties, until the 1st of July, when Oglethorpe sent in a flag demanding its surrender. Montiano refused; and a severe fire was poured upon the city, which the Spaniards returned with much briskness from the castle and half gallies, drawn up in Matanzas river. But though little execu- tion was done by the artillery, and no breach that would admit a storming party was made in the walls or castle, yet the distress of the besieged for food was very great, and nearly forced them to capitulate. "My greatest anxiety," writes the Spanish Governor, " is for provisions ; and if they do not come, there is no doubt
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