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12 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
facture have been found in comparatively recent times, telling of these
primitive mining operations.
Juan Pardo or Paedo was next sent out by Aviles, the' first Spanish
governor of Florida, to establish a fort at the foot of the mountains
northwest of St. Augustine, in the province of the chief Goaba. There
is still to be found near the Town of Spring Place, in. Murray County,
Georgia, the ruins of an old fort supposed to have been built by DeSoto.
But there is little probability that the Spanish explorer lingered long
enough in this locality to have built such a stronghold. Its origin, there
fore, is no doubt to be referred to the early mining activities of the
Spaniards at St. Augustine; nor is it at all unlikely that its builder was
Juan Pardo.
Coming down to a much later period, Johannes Lederer, a German
traveler, who visited the southern colonies in 1669 and 1670 tells us that
at this time the Spaniards were working gold and silver mines in the
Appalachee Mountains and he adds this remark: '' Had I had with me
half a score of resolute youths who would have stuck to me I would have
pushed on to the Spanish mines." Consequently, it is not to the expedi
tion of DeSoto that all the relics of, a Spanish character found in North
Georgia are to be referred. To quote Colonel Jones: * "Thus we are
enabled to account with at least some degree of probability for those
traces of ancient mining observed and wondered at by the early settlers
of upper Georgia—operations of no mean significance, conducted by
skilled hands and with metallic tools which cannot properly be referred
either to the red race or to the followers of DeSoto.''
But we must hasten on. England, as we have already seen, claimed
the right to settle North America by virtue of discoveries made by the
Cabots, especially Sebastian, who had visited this continent, extending
his explorations for several hundred miles along the coast. All of the
territory included between the twenty-eighth arid the fifty-sixth degrees
of north latitude was regarded by England as her rightful possession.
Consequently, in 1663, we find Charles II, of England, conveying to
eight noblemen called Lords Proprietors all the land lying on the Atlan
tic coast between the twenty-ninth and the thirty-sixth degrees of north
latitude, including a large part of the territory claimed by the crown.
In 1629 Charles I had made a similar grant to his attorney general, Sir
Robert Heath, but the patent for some reason had lapsed. Within the
domain granted to the Lords Proprietors for a colony to be called by the
name of Carolina was included the territory } of the present State of
Georgia. These noblemen of England who first owned the soil of our
state were: Anthony Ashley, Lord Cooper; Sir John Colleton, the Earl
of Clarendon, Sir William Berkeley, John, Lord Berkeley, the Duke of
Albermarle, the Earl of Craven, and Sir George Carteret.
According to international law, it was necessary for a power to
establish permanent settlements on its newly discovered lauds in order
to perfect its titles thereto. To quote Mr. Evans: t "The permanent
English settlements at Charleston and along the Carolina coast estab
lished England's claim to Carolina, while the permanent Spanish settle-
* '' History of Georgia,'' Chas. C. Jones, Jr., Vol. I, p. 70.
t "History of Georgia," Lawton B. Evans, p. 10.