72 



THE ISLAND OF 



whofe fouthern fettlements on the continent would have hereby been fecured 

 againft any attempts of the Spaniards by land, befides the great fervice this 

 place would have been to our trade, not only, by depriving the Spaniards of 

 a poft from whence they might annoy us on that fide, but alfo by enabling 

 us to annoy them upon occafion, by cruifing on their homeward bound 

 fhips coming from the gulph of Florida. 



According to the charter of King Charles II. in 1665, which fixes the limits 

 of South Carolina at latitude 29, this town is, as well as Georgia, within the 

 Englijlo dominions, and confequently belongs to us as a forfeiture. The 

 Spaniards fay indeed that grant is an invafion of their right, they pretending 

 a right of pofleflion to all the coafl: as high as Virginia. But if the firfl dif- 

 covery gives a title, which is generally the foundation of the Spaniards pre- 

 tentions to their dominions in Atnericat it belongs to us ; for Sebajiian Cabot 

 difcovered it about the year 1497 : it was more thoroughly difcovered in 

 1512 by Leon, a Spaniard from Puerto Rico, who took poffeffion of the 

 country for the king of Spain. 



Seven leagues below the fort of Sant Augujiine are two forts, the one on the 

 north, and the other on the fouth lide of a large lake. General Oglethorpe 

 deftroyed the laft, and took poflefTion of the firft, which is called Mauchico- 

 lis, furrounded with ftrong palifadoes, eight feet high, with a parapet and 

 loop-holes, about bread high. 



G U B A, 



IS the moft confiderable Ifland of the Great Antilles, lies between 19° 50' 

 and 23° 20' of north latitude, and between 73" 40' and 85" 10' weft lon- 

 gitude. It is about 780 miles in length, but very narrow in proportion, not being 

 in fome places above 40 miles in breadth, and in its wideft not more than 132. 

 It lies within the tropic of Cancer, about 40 miles weft of Hifpaniola^ and 90 

 to the northward of Jamaica, commanding the gulph of Mexico, Florida, 

 and the windward-paflage, where it may v/ith propriety be called The Shield 



