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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 247
Sicily and Palma were also parties, England in 1762 declared war against
Spain. Thus, taking advantage of her newly acquired strength, she
sought to punish the Spanish power, for secretly defending France, in
the recent European upheaval, to which the French and Indian war in
America was only an adjunct. France, Austria and Russia were allied
upon the one hand, against England and Prussia on the other; and it
was to help the former coalition that Spain had interfered.
Consequently, it was her time next. In less than six months,
England had destroyed the Spanish navy, captured Havana, and
brought Madrid to terms. Realizing that her rich colonial possessions
were at the mercy of England, there was no alternative except to yield.
Under the treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, England acquired from Spain
the Peninsula of Florida, while from France she acquired a vast belt
of land between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River.
At this time the northern boundary of Florida, long a bone of conten
tion, was finally settled. On October 10, 1763, King George III, by royal
edict fixed this boundary line at the St. Mary's River, its beginning
point, thence extending in a straight course westward, from the head
waters of this stream to the mouth of the Appalachacola River—all the
territory south of this line and east of the Appalachacola River to be
known as the Province of East Florida; all the territory west of the
Appalachacola River to be known as the Province of West Florida, with
its northern boundary line fixed at the 31st parallel of north latitude.
In this same royal proclamation, King George annexed to the Prov
ince of Georgia, all the lands included between the Altamaha River
and the St. Mary's; and, out of these lands, in 1765, were created four
new parishes: St. David, St. Patrick, St. Thomas and St. Mary. Besides
gaining an increase of territory, the effect of which was to make her
cue of the largest provinces in America, she also gained an English
neighbor to the south. Subsequently a new commission was issued to
Govemor Wright, giving the precise boundaries of the enlarged prov
ince over which he was to rule, a document which at the close of the war
with England, in 1783, when Florida reverted back to Spain, was to
play an important part in settling the lower boundaries of the United
States.*
Likewise in this same proclamation King George set aside for the
use of the Indians all lands lying between the Mississippi River and the
headwaters of streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. It was made
unlawful for the white settlers to occupy these lands until permitted to
do so under future treaties of cession. Friendly relations with the In
dians were enjoined, to which end the royal governors in each of the
English provinces, within whose borders lay these Indian lands, were
directed to hold a joint conference with the chiefs of the various tribes;
and Augusta, having been selected as the most convenient site for the
assemblage, it here met, on November 5, 1763, at the King's Fort, near
the present, site of St. Paul's Church. It is estimated that not less than
700 Indians were in attendance upon this congress, over which Governor
Wright presided. Five days were consumed in negotiations, after which
a solemn compact, pledging perpetual friendship, was signed by all par-
L. ~3. Ivans' "History of Georgia," p. 68.