Soon after possession was taken by the British, various plans were projected for settling the province. The late Mr. Denis Rolle, father of the Peer of that title, established a large plantation on the river St John. The Beresford family of Ireland attempted another establishment on the same river. The re ports of the healthiness and fertility of the country attracted various settlers under the auspices of these patrons, but the projects were ultimately unsuccess ful, and were finally abandoned. The Grenville fa mily adopted a more splendid project. Under their patronage, Dr Turnbull collected numerous emi grants from the island of Minorca, and conveyed them to East Florida. They were bound to serve for a stipulated term of years, by articles signed before they left their dative island. A settlement was made at the mouth of the river Musquito in latitude 29° 45', and called New Smyrna. The situation was supposed to be very favourable for the growth of silk and vines, to the culture of which the emigrants from Minorca had been accustomed. Considerable sums had been expended in this establishment, when dis content arose among the settlers, and after much al tercation, they all abandoned the rising plantation, and removed to the capital. It is needless to add, that the project thus terminated ruinously. In sub sequent suits in the courts of law, Dr Turnbull was unsuccessful, and the Minorquins declared to be freed from their engagements. By the failure of this great project the settlers became dispersed, and as they were mostly married, multiplied very rapidly, and thus the colony was growing in population, When the revolutionary war took place, many royalists repaired from Carolina and Georgia to Flo rida, and further increased the numbers and the wealth of the province. In this condition, in 178S, it was ceded to Spain, in exchange for the Bahama Islands, which that country had recently conquered. As the colonial laws of Spain neither admit foreign ers, except under certain conditions, nor allow any but Catholics to live on their transatlantic dominions, the plantations were broken up; the British inhabit ants and their slaves removed to other countries; and only the Minorquins and their descendants re mained to people the country, thus again become subject to the Spanish court. They are said to have increased very considerably, and now to amount to upwards of 5000 souls. Some few Spanish families have also removed to East Florida; but altogether, the population, including imported negroes, is not nearly equal to what existed when the British relin quished the settlement.
The city of St Augustine consists of three long streets parallel to the shore, a square or parade, and several streets that cross the principal ones at right angles. There are two churches, but neither of them large or highly ornamented. The state-house built by the British, now called the Cabildo, is a hand some building of stone, and displays considerable taste. The government-house is large and conve nient, but built without any regular plan, and has by no means a prepossessing appearance. The abun dance of orange trees which are growing in the town, and which are in constant bloom, and have green and ripe fruit on them through the whole year, give a pleasing appearance to this place. It badly supplied with water, as all the springs are somewhat brackish. ' There is no other place in East Florida that de serves even the name of a town. Matanzas, about twenty miles south of St Augustine, consists only of a few scattered plantations; and New Smyrna has, by the desertion of its Minorquin settlers, become almost without inhabitants. There are no settle
ments to the southward of New Smyrna, and only a few tribes of scattered Indians resort there for the chace. Occasionally, temporary habitations are con structed on the shore by people from the Bahama Islands, who repair thither to catch turtle, or to em ploy themselves as wreckers, by saving what they can from the numerous vessels that are stranded in their passage from the West Indies, through the Gulf, of Florida.
On the western side of east Florida, though seve ral considerable rivers empty themselves into the Gulf of Mexico, no settlements have been formed, except at the mouth of the River St Mark, and that, though protected by a fort, has gone to decay, and is now nearly deserted.
The climate of East Florida is perhaps the most pleasant and salubrious of any in the globe. It is within the reach of the tropical winds, which, in the midst of summer, temper the heat, and give a daily freshness to the air. In winter frosts are scarcely known, and snow and ice, if they are occasionally experienced, disappear with the first rays of the sun. No country can be more free from fogs, and other noxious exhalations : and hence the troops quarter ed here, as well as the inhabitants, have experienced a portion of health and longevity scarcely known in any part of the western continent.
The soil of East Florida on the sea shore is gene rally sandy, and covered with tall pine trees, without any underwood beneath them. It is, however, inter mingled with swamps, filled with almost impenetrable woods of every description, and with extensive sa vannahs, well calculated for the cultivation of rice. The fine barrens, as they are called, yield with little labour vast quantities of turpentine, tar, and pitch. The turpentine exudes by the heat of the sun alone from the body of the trees, whose bark is pared away to admit of the action of the sun upon the woody fibres. It is collected by the slaves from small boxes cut in the tree, near the bottom, into which it runs; it is thence carried to a general re servoir, from which the casks are filled for exports. tion. In extracting tar, the pines are cleft into small pieces ; a kiln is constructed with them on a grating of iron bars laid over a hole in the ground; by means of a gentle heat the tar is extracted, and runs into the pit. The pitch is made by a simple process : two or three red-hot cannon-balls are thrown into the pit in which the tar is deposited. A fire is by that means kindled in the mass of tar, which burns with a prodigious noise, and produces a very thick smoke. The burning is continued till the moisture in the tar is consumed or dissipated, when the fire is extinguished by laying hurdles over the pit, and covering them close with sods of turf. When the substance cools it becomes hard and shin ing, and requires axes to chop it out of the holes. After various experimental projects on the vine, the mulberry, and the indigo plants, the English settlers, from the year 1776 to 1788, almost confined their agricultural labours to the production of these naval articles, the prices of which had been increased dur ing the war that raged in those years. The exports consisted then principally of the naval stores, with the addition of some peltry collected by the Indians in the interior.