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144 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
offense to the Spatrish king, who demanded a discontinuance of these
hostile preparations. "No more forts and no more soldiers in
Georgia"—these were his angry orders; but when this message was
read in the King's Council the Duke of Argyle impatiently arose.
"This should be answered," said he, "but not in the usual way—the
reply should be a fleet of battleships on the coast of Spain."*
To command a squadron in the West Indies a commission was
issued to Admiral Vernon, a gallant naval officer for whom Washing
ton's country seat on the Potomac was afterwards named. Coincident
with this appointment, Oglethorpe was ordered to harrass the Spanish
settlements on the Florida coast. Before assuming an aggressive, how
ever, Oglethorpe first began to repair forts, to strengthen garrisons
and to concentrate munitions of war on the southern frontier. Relying
upon promises made to him at Coweta Town, he dispatched runners to
the Indian villages asking for a thousand warriors to reinforce him;
and there came in response to this summons a host of bowmen. Some
of these were employed as scouts. To guard the coast, vessels of war
were detailed. Nor did Oglethorpe lose any time in preparing his
regiment for hostile maneuvers. St. George's Island, having been
abandoned in 1736, his southernmost garrison was on Amelia Island.
Here he stationed a scout boat with sixteen men and later added a
sergeant's guard. On November 15, 1739, tidings of the first blood
shed were brought to Frederica. Spaniards, having secretly landed in
the night on Amelia Island and having concealed themselves in ambush,
killed two unarmed Highlanders on the following day, at an early hour,
. when these men, unsuspicious of danger, were in quest of food. To
murder, these Spaniards added butchery, frightfully mutilating the
bodies of the two hapless victims. | Oglethorpe was no sooner informed
of this outrage than he started in pursuit, only too anxious to visit
condign punishment upon its perpetrators.
While the effort proved futile, Oglethorpe, by way of retaliation,
swept the St. John's River, landed on the Spanish Main, and burnt
three outposts. He also ravaged the country in the direction' of
St. Augustine, and for three days without success endeavored to pro
voke the Spaniards to combat. On January 1, 1740, with a detachment
of his regiment, re-enforced by a band of Indians, he ascended the
St. John's River and, after burning Fort Picolata, invested another
stronghold, Fort St. Francis de Papa. Oglethorpe narrowly escaped
death from a cannon ball in seeking to reduce this second fort; but he
won the day. On driving the Spaniards out, he occupied it with a
garrison and strengthened its defenses, deeming it too strategic a point
to be abandoned.
Oglethorpe next planned a decisive blow at the enemy's citadel—
St. Augustine. With the approval of the home authorities, he left
Frederica in May, 1740, in command of a body of troops, numbering
2,000 men, of whom 1,000 were Indians. Fort San Diego, nine miles
from the Florida capital, was easily captured, after which he continued
his victorious march. Two miles from St. Augustine was Fort Moosa,
* L. B. Evans, History of Georgia, p. 28.
t Gentlemen's Magazine, 1740, Vol. X, p. 129.