Note.—The map opposite, showing the coast from St. Augustine to Charlestown (S. C.), is copied from one in vol. v. of the Urlsperger Tracts. There is another plan of St. Simon’s Island in W. B. Stevens’s Georgia. i. 186.
The town proper was to be protected by embankment and ditch, and places for two gates, called respectively the Town and Water posts, were indicated. The citadel was to be made of tabby, and formidably armed. In front, a water battery, mounting several eighteen-pounder guns, was designed to command the river. It was contemplated to guard the town on the land side by a formidable intrenchment, the exterior ditch of which could be filled with water. As Savannah was intended as the commercial metropolis of the province, so was Frederica to constitute its southern outpost and strong defence. It soon became the Thermopylæ of the southern Anglo-American Colonies, the headquarters of Oglethorpe’s regiment, the depot of military supplies for the dependent forts built at the south, and the strong rallying point for British colonization in the direction of Florida. In the history of the colony there is no brighter chapter, and in the eventful life of Oglethorpe no more illustrious epoch, than that which commemorates the protracted and successful struggle with the Spaniards for the retention of the charming island of St. Simon. In 1737 Oglethorpe kissed His Majesty’s hand on receiving his commission as colonel. He was also appointed general and commander-in-chief of all His Majesty’s forces in South Carolina and Georgia, that he might the more readily wield the military power of the two provinces in their common defence.
The finances of the Trust were now in a depressed condition, and the General was compelled to draw largely upon his private fortune and to pledge his individual credit in conducting the operations necessary for the security of the southern frontier, and in provisioning the settlers. Matters were further complicated by the defalcation of Thomas Causton, the first Magistrate of Savannah and Keeper of the public stores. Silk culture, from which so much was anticipated, proved a positive expense. There was no profit in the vine. Enfeebled by the hot suns of summer, and afflicted with fevers and fluxes engendered by malarial exhalations from the marish grounds, many of the inhabitants lost heart and cried aloud for the introduction of African slavery. Disappointed in their plans for the religious instruction of the colonists and the conversion of the natives, the brothers John and Charles Wesley had quitted the province. In the consummation of his benevolent and educational scheme, the Rev. George Whitefield was compelled to rely upon foreign aid. With the exception of the Highlanders at Darien, the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, and the Indian traders at Augusta, Georgia could not boast that her inhabitants were either contented or prosperous. There was general clamor for fee-simple title to lands, and permission to buy slaves was constantly urged. The disaffected hesitated not to malign the authorities, to disquiet the settlers, and to exaggerate the unpleasantness of the situation. Fortunately the Indian nations remained peaceful; and in general convention held at Coweta-town in August, 1739, in the presence of Oglethorpe, they renewed their fealty to the King of Great Britain, and in terms most explicit confirmed their previous grants of territory.
[Fac-simile of a plan of St. Augustine in Roberts’s Account of Florida, London, 1763.—Ed.]
And now the Spanish war-cloud which had so long threatened the southern confines of the province, seemed about to descend in wrath and power. Acting under the discretionary powers confided to him, General Oglethorpe resolved to anticipate the event by an invasion of Florida and the reduction of St. Augustine,—the stronghold of Spanish dominion in that province.