EAST-FLORIDA 231 



great desire to engage in the grubbing of waste 

 lands, preferring to make a living in the town. They 

 form very nearly the greatest part of the inhabitants 

 of the place, the rest being a few Spanish still remain- 

 ing, with French, English, Americans, and in what 

 part of the world are they not to be found? Ger- 

 mans. After the relinquishment of Georgia and Caro- 

 lina the town and the surrounding country received a 

 considerable number of new inhabitants in the emi- 

 grant royalists, who however have found no continuing 

 place here, but must go farther if they do not wish to 

 be under the Spanish yoke. Round about the town 

 stand the hastily built cabins of these poor fugitives, 

 walled and thatched with palmetto (yucca) leaves. 



The town lies under latitude 29 50' north, on a 

 very narrow tongue of land formed by the North 

 River, the Bay, and St. Sebastian's Creek, behind the 

 town. The sole and narrow approach, on the north or 

 land-side, is covered by outworks as well as by Fort 

 St. John, which also fully protects the entrance to the 

 harbor. This fort is a high, regular quadrangle, en- 

 closing a spacious court, with 4 bastions, walled moats, 

 and large casemates. It is built wholly of the fine 

 shell-stone common here, which is also the material of 

 all the other stone houses of the town. This stone is 

 excellently adapted for fortification works, being not 

 entirely hard and receiving balls as well or better than 

 burnt bricks. Several holes are pointed out on the 

 east side, made by balls fired across the very wide bay, 

 at the time of General Oglethorpe's siege of Fisher's 

 Island. On the water-side the walls of the parapet are 

 5 ft. thick, and on the land-side 4 ft., and supplied with 

 64 cannon-ports. 



