[Footnote 1: Dr. RAMSAY, the historian of South Carolina, with his usual frankness and impartiality, closes his narrative of this siege with the following remark. "On the 13th of August the Carolina regiment had reached Charlestown. Though not one of them had been killed by the enemy, their number was reduced, fourteen, by disease and accidents.">[
[Footnote 2: London Magazine, Vol. XXVII. p. 23.]
"Thus ended the expedition against St. Augustine, to the great disappointment of both Georgia and Carolina. Many reflections were afterwards thrown out against General Oglethorpe for his conduct during the whole enterprise. He, on the other hand, declared that he had no confidence in the Provincials, for that they refused to obey his orders, and abandoned the camp, and returned home in large numbers, and that the assistance from the fleet failed him in the utmost emergency. To which we may add, the place was so strongly fortified both by nature and art, that probably the attempt must have failed though it had been conducted by the ablest officer, and executed by the best disciplined troops."[1]
[Footnote 1: HARRIS's Voyage, II. 340.]
The difficulties which opposed his success, showed the courage that could meet, and the zeal that strove to surmount them; and, while we lament the failure, we perceive that it was owing to untoward circumstances which he could not have foreseen; and disappointments from a quarter whence he most confidently expected and depended upon continued cooperation and ultimate accomplishment. Referring to this, in a speech in the British house of Peers, the Duke of Argyle made these remarks: "One man there is, my Lords, whose natural generosity, contempt of danger, and regard for the public, prompted him to obviate the designs of the Spaniards, and to attack them in their own territories; a man, whom by long acquaintance I can confidently affirm to have been equal to his undertaking, and to have learned the art of war by a regular education, who yet miscarried in the design only for want of supplies necessary to a possibility of success."[1]
[Footnote 1: "Laudari viris laudatis"—to be praised by men themselves renowned, is certainly the most valuable species of commendation.]
A writer, who had good authority for his opinion, declares, that," though this expedition was not attended with the success some expected from it, the taking the fortress of St. Augustine, it was, nevertheless, of no little consequence, inasmuch as it kept the Spaniards for a long time on the defensive, and the war at a distance; so that the inhabitants of Carolina felt none of its effects as a Colony, excepting the loss suffered by their privateers, till the Spaniards executed their long projected invasion in 1742, in which they employed their whole strength, and from which they expected to have changed the whole face of the Continent of North America; and, even then, the people of Carolina suffered only by their fears."[1]
[Footnote 1: HARRIS's Voyages, Vol. II. page 340.]
In a letter to Lord Egmont, by Governor Belcher, dated Boston, May 24th, 1741, is this remark; "I was heartily sorry for the miscarriage of General Oglethorpe's attempt on Augustine, in which I could not learn where the mistake was, or to what it was owing, unless to a wrong judgment of the strength of the place, to which the force that attacked it, they say, was by no means equal. I wish that a part of Admiral Vernon's fleet and General Wentworth's forces may give it a visit, before the Spaniards sue for peace. It seems to me absolutely necessary for the quieting of the English possessions of Carolina and Georgia, that we should reduce Augustine to the obedience of the British crown, and keep it, as Gibraltar and Mahon."[1]
[Footnote 1: Letter-book of his Excellency JONATHAN BELCHER, in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. V. p. 254.]