Soon after 1783, the Spanish settlers, increased by recruits from the United States, and stimulated by the example of the citizens of Georgia, began to cultivate cotton. The northern part of the province was found admirably calculated for its growth; and hence attention and capital was attracted towards the banks of the river St Mary, and the boundary beyond that river, which divides it from Georgia. By the laws of Spain, her colonies can only export their productions to the northern country, and in ships of that nation; but the facilities of conveying the cotton-wool grown on the Spanish side, to the American side of the boundary, lessened this impe diment to the cultivation of the valuable production best suited to the soil and climate. The navigation of the river was common to both nations, and the ships loaded with cotton from the American side of the river had their cargoes principally furnished to them from the growth of the Spanish territories. This contraband trade, which no laws could prevent, gave a great encouragement to the settlements on the northern part of the province, and it has conse quently become both the most populous and the most wealthy. Attempts have been made to culti vate wheat, but hitherto without success ; probably owing to the experiments having been tried on the sandy soil near the shores, and not on the clay lands on higher elevations in the interior. Maize and rice are abundant, and form the principal food of the in habitants.
The woods abound with troops of wild horses, which traverse the whole peninsula. They are of small size, but strong. They are easily taken and rendered tractable by the Indians, who bring them to the European establishmentak and exchange them for such weapons as they want. Their value is so trifling, that a good saddle may be exchanged for twenty. Abundance of wild hogs are running over the country, especially over the islands on the sea shore, and near the borders of the lakes. They are not indigenous, but evidently of European origin, and seem to have changed their nature very little by having ceased to be domesticated. Numberless deer inhabit the woods ; they are killed by the natives principally for the sake of the skins; but when any of the Indian hunters take them near the settled parts, they sell the flesh for food to the inhabitants, who can frequently, for a knife not worth in Europe sixpence, or for some other article of equally diminu tive value, obtain the whole carcase of a deer.
Black bears are numerous ; they are of a very small size, very timid, never attacking but flying from man. The hunting them is a diversion to the inhabitants, and their flesh is considered a great dainty. There are but few cows, and still fewer sheep, and none of either in an unreclaimed state. Goats have not been introduced.
The sea coasts, the rivers, and the lakes, abound with every variety of fish, and they furnish food to the greater proportion of the people, especially on that days, and in Lent, which the Minorquins, as well as the Spaniards, observe with great rigidity. The rivers and lakes swarm with alligators, who feed most voraciously on the innumerable fry of smaller fish. The abundance of these smaller fish is a most singu lar fact. The sea shore abounds with sharks, who, hire the alligators, find a supply of food by preying on the smaller tribes, who, when pursued by those voracious monsters, and ascending the creeks to parts where they suddenly contract, so fill the water as to impede the passage of a boat. In some in stances, where the contraction of the stream is very sudden and very great, those smaller fish have been seen so closely crowded as to become a mass actually filling the channel, and even rising, so wedged toge ther, above the surface of the water.
Though the land near the shore is level, and the soil sandy, yet, on proceeding to the interior, the pines. are no longer seen, the soil is richer, and mountains rise. On the coast, the tuna or prickly pears form, with aloes, the sole fences ; in advancing inland, the live oak, the hickory, chesnut, and walnut trees appear, and there are abundance of cabbage trees.
The bird tribes are very extensive and numerous in both the Floridas. Wild ducks and wild geese are found in prodigious flights ; wild turkeys are plentiful, of a very large size, some of them weigh ing more than forty pounds. There are, besides, bustards, herons, cranes, partridges, pigeons, hawks, and macaws, and many of the smaller kinds, thrushes, jays, larks, and sparrows.
There are some considerable lakes in the centre of the province ; the most beautiful is that of St George. It is near the source of the river St Juan, is fifteen miles long, about ten in its mean breadth, and from fifteen to twenty feet in depth. In this lake are some islands ; the largest of them is two miles broad, has a most fertile soil, and contains vestiges of an ancient Indian town of considerable extent. In the centre stands a lofty moundof earth, of a conical shape, from which a causeway is carried to the shore .through groves of magnolias, oaks, palms, and orange trees. From the fragments dug up, the place is supposed to have been very populous. It was probably a station of the Apulachian Indians, whose remains show some approaches to civilization.
West Florida, in its productions, in its soil, and climate, so nearly resembles East Florida, that it will admit Of a morebrief description. It is bounded by East Florida to the eastward, by the Gulf of Mexico to the south, to the north its isoundary is the at de.. gree of north latitude from the Apalachicola to its western extremity, where the river Iberville sepa. rates it from Louisiana. The province is about 120 miles in length, from east to west, and from 40 to 80 in breadth ; and, consequently, its longest side is to wards the sea. Pensacola, the capital, is in 20' north latitude, and 12' nest longitude from Lon don. It is situated on the western side of Pensacola bay, which is a most excellent harbour, safe from all winds, has a good entrance, secure holding ground, in seven fathom water, and vessels drawing 20 feet water may enter it at all times. Indeed there is very little tide, the greatest rise not exceeding one foot. The entrance into the bay is defended by a fort on the Island of Rosa, and by a battery on the opposite shore. The city on the sea-coast, extending a mile in len , and a quarter of a mile in breadth. It was fortified by the English, though not in a very perfect but, being well garrisoned, it withstood a long siege from a numerous army under the Spanish General Calves, in the year 1781. Owing to the principal magazine, which was supposed to be bomb-proof, having been enteredly a shell, an explosion tookplace, by which almost the whole powder of tbe'garrison wardestroy ed, and it was compelled to capitulate. The trade, whilst it was in possession of the British, was consi derable; its exports amounting to about L.100,000 annually, and its imports were nearly of the same value. Besides the productions common to both Floridas, this division furnished considerable quanti ties of dyeing woods, and several medicinal plants, especially snakeroot and ginseng. The quantity of paltry collected by the Indians, and brought to Pen sacola, was much more considerable than that which found an outlet by St Augustine, St John's, and St Mary's rivers.