Discoveries and 
Sett l 
M E N T S 
more effedually to block up the Place, which for want 
of Numbers they were not able regularly to inveft, the 
Carolina Regiment Was fent over to Anafiatia. In 
this IPxand there were three Batteries erefted, all above a 
Mile trom St. Augnftin : But, however, they fired from 
them warmly, with fome Prejudice to the Place •, from 
whence they Were as warmly anfwered, but were moft 
hurt from the Fire from fix Spanijh Half-Galleys that lay 
within the Haibour., This induced a Propofal to the 
Captains of the three Men of War, to attempt the burn- 
ing of thefe Half-Galleys ; and upon a Confultation be- 
tween them and the Land Officers, this was agreed to •, 
but afterwards the Sea Captains declared they thought it 
impradi cable, for want of fufficient Depth of Water at 
the Entrance : Yet this was difproved on the 27th of 
June^ by the going in of Captain Robert SSyrrek and his 
coming out again on board a Schooner, who reported 
that there was Water enough ; yet the Majority voted 
the Defign ftill impradicable, which hindered any At- 
tempt to carry it into Execution, though the Land Offi- 
cers confidered it as a Point that would have greatly con- 
tributed to the reducing of the Place. 
When itwas firft propofed to attack the Galleys, it was 
projeded in the following Manner, viz. the General was 
to make a Diverfion on the Main., by attacking the 
Town ; ColomlVanderduJfen., with Part of his Regiment, 
was to keep a continual Fire on the Town and Caftle, 
from the Batteries, while Captain Tyrrel was to have fet 
upon the Galleys, with the Seamen and the reft of the 
ColonePs Regiment. The General was accordingly on 
the Main with his Troops, expeding that Service ; but 
the Commodore difapproving this, and it being yet a 
fecond Time agreed to be attempted, upon the Re- 
monftrances of Colonel Vanderdujfen, and Captain IVar- 
ren •, when the Commodore’s Lieutenant was to have 
commanded the Attack, new Difficulties were further 
ftarted when they came on Shore, and fo it was ftill un- 
attempted. Yet it appears, that foon after the Men of 
War flipping their Cables, and putting out to Sea in a 
Storm, the Colonel endeavoured to revive the Attempt 
on the Galleys in their Abfence : But propofing it to the 
Commodore’s Lieutenant, Mr. Swanton.^ who appeared 
to be a Gentleman of Spirit, and commanded the Sea- 
men left on Shore, he was told, “ He had Orders left 
“ not to venture any of them before the Return of the 
“ Shipping.” 
Towards the End of June.^ fome Sloops, with a Supply 
of Provifions for the Garrilbn, got in fafe at the South 
Entrance, to the Harbour of St. Augufiiny called the Me- 
tanfas., without having been difcovered by any of our 
Men of War, till it was too late to intercept them. How 
this happened has not been hitherto accounted for, but it 
was a feafonable Relief to the Garrifon, who had not then 
above three Days Provifion of Bread-kind in the Place ; 
and the Hurricane Seafon coming on, the Commodore 
gave Notice to the General, that he muft leave his Sta- 
tion, and fail away with the King’s Ships on the 5th of 
July. Upon this it was reprefented, “ That fince the 
“ Men of War were obliged to fail away, it would be 
“ neceftary to fend the two Men of War Sloops into 
the Metanfas., to guard that, and either fecure the Re- 
“ treat of the Forces to Anafiatia., if they ffiould be re- 
“ duced to one, or affift in continuing the Blockade, till 
“ they ffiould be enabled to a<ft more offenfively, by a 
“ further Affiftance.” 
To this Propofal it was agreed, provided the Sloops 
of War had Water enough to get in there •, and a Coun- 
cil was held July the 3d, wherein fome of the Pilots that • 
had been fent to found, declared upon Oath, “ There 
“ was not Water enough on the Bar of the Metanfas for 
“ the Sloops to go in, and if they could go in, they 
“ could not lie fafe there from a Hurricane, nor could 
‘‘ they fight above one a-breaft, in cafe they were attack- 
ed by the Galleys.’'’ 
But the Commodore, afterwards afking Mr. Blomfield 
Barradel., Lieutenant of the Wolf Sloop, who had been 
along with the Pilots, and happened to be aboard his 
Ship that Night, with fome Captains, what he had to 
fay in that Affair ? he replied, that the Pilots had given 
their Opinion, and that he was not then to be examined ; 
but it they afked his Opinion, he would give it. They 
then defired he would ; he affirmed, “ I'hat there was 
“ Water enough on the Bar for the Sloops to get in j 
“ that they could lie fafe from a Hurricane when in • 
“ and that there was alfo fufficient Room, when in, to I 
“ figlrt three a-breaft, in cafe they w'ere attacked.” Upon 
the Pilots afterwards objefting to their lying fafe, he 
aficed them, “ Whether they remembred to have feen 
“ fuch an Hand when they were there ?” And when 
they acknowledged they did, he replied, “ That they 
“ ought to know they could lie fafe from a Hurricane 
“ under that Hand.” Notwithftanding which, it was 
refolved afterwards in Council, that they ffiould take oft' 
all their Men, and fail away, leaving Captain T ownfend 
at Frederica-, which put an End to the Enterprize. 
Thus ended this Expedition, which, though not at- 
tended with the Succefs fome expedted from it, I mean 
the taking the Fortrefs of St. Augufiin, was neverthelefs 
of very great Confequence, inafmuch as it kept the Spa- 
niards for a long Time upon the defenfive ^ when if the 
Siege had not been undertaken, they would certainly have 
been otherwife employed ; it laid all the Country open, 
fo that the Indians, in Friendfliip with us, made Excur- 
fions up to the .Gates of the Fortrefs •, and the War be- 
ing carried on in this Manner for a length of Time, 
and in Conjundlion with the Indians, bound them fo 
ftrongly to the Englifij Intereft, that with a very little 
Affiftance from the People of Georgia, they kept the 
War at a Diftance ; fo that the Inhabitants of Carolina felt 
none of its Effedls as a Colony, except the Lofies fuffer- 
ed by their Privateers, till the Spaniards executed their 
long projefted Invafion, in 1742; in which they em- 
ployed the whole of their Strength, and from which they 
expedfed to have changed the whole Face of Affairs on 
the Continent of America and even then the People of 
Carolina fuffered only by their Fears. 
12. This Expedition of the Spaniards, as has been al- 
ready hinted to the Reader, was really meditated before the 
War commenced, and had very probably taken pla,ce, if 
Reprifals had not been made upon the Spaniards, on 
Account of the Depredations committed by their Guarda 1 
Cofias ; at leaft we have Reafon to judge fo, from the 
Memorial of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, before-mentioned; 
in which he afferted, that Georgia belonged to the Crown 
of Spain, and which he repeated in a fubfequent Memorial. 
But the Operations of our Fleet in the Wefi Indies, under 
Admiral V ernon, put a Stop to their Preparations at the 
Havanna ; and the Siege of St. Augufiin, and its Con- 
fequences, retarded them likewife for fome timie. Yet as 
the Spaniards are not apt to defift from Projedls they have 
once formed, and as the Miniftry at Madrid had very 
high Expedlations from the Execution of this, they ftill 
kept it on foot, and only waited for a favourable Op- - 
portunity for performing what they imagined would 
have entirely changed the Scene of Things in North \ 
America. As to the Manner in which they executed it 
at laft, and the amazing Difappointment they met with 
notwithftanding the vaft Force they employed, and the 
I'mallnefs of that by which they were affifted, we had fo 
full, fo clear, and fo authentic an Account publiffied by 
Authority, that I know of no Method msore fit to convey 
an Idea of it, or lefs liable to any Exceptions, than tranf- 
cribing it, the rather becaufe as it ftands here connefred 
with the Hiftory of Georgia, the Reader will have all the 
Lights that are neceffary to render every Circumftance 
in it perfedUy intelligible. Thus then that Account, 
tranfmitted to us by General Oglethorpe, ran ; “The Be- 
“ ginning of May laft the Spaniards fitted out their 
“ Fleet from the Havanna, confifting of fifty-fix Sail and 
“ between feven and eight thoufand Men, with an Intent 
“ to invade Georgia and South Carolina, and the other 
“ northern Colonies. At their firft fetting out, in turn- 
“ ing the Moor Caftle, they loft a large Settee with one 
“ hundred and fifty Men, and a few Days after the Fleet 
“ was difperfed by a Storm fo that all the Shipping did 
“ not arrive at St. Augufiin. The latter end of May, or 
“ beginning of June, Capt, Ilayrner of the Flamborough, 
“ in his Cruife to the Southward, fent in to General 
Oglethorpe 
