MILITIA. In 1899 the organized aggregate mili tia of Florida was 1258, of whom 1167 were mem bers of the infantry and 91 of the light batteries. In 1900 the males of military age numbered 114.500.
Tallahassee is the capital of the State. Three Representatives are sent to the Lower House of Congress.
11 isrouv. Florida was discovered on Easter Sunday ( Pascua Florida), 1513, by Ponce de Leon, who landed near the site of the present Saint Augustine in search of the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. He failed to find the fountain, and, returning in 1521, found death instead. Ayllon carried off large numbers of Indians from Florida as slaves between 1520 and 1526, and in 1528 Pfinfilo Narvaez (q.v.) invaded the coun try with a force of 400 men eager for conquest and booty. Narvaez pushed into the wilderness north of the Gulf, and only four survivors of his band, among them Cabeza do Vaca. succeeded in reaching Mexico after infinite hardships. In 1539 Hernando De Soto (q.v.) traversed the conntry. In 1559 a well-equipped expedition of 150 men under Don Tristan de Luna sailed from Vera Cruz, and landed. August 14, on the shores of Santa Maria Bay. probably the flay of Pensa cola. The main body penetrated into the country for a distance of forty days' march, while a smaller detachment. explored the region as far as the Coosa River in eastern Alabama. Disemir aged by the hardships encountered, the expedition returned to Mexico, after passing more than a year in the country.
Under the patronage of Coligny, French Hugue nots, led by Ribault, had founded ill 1562 a colony at Port Royal, in South Carolina; when that settlement, owing to the worthless character of the colonists, failed. Rene de Laudonniere brought over a new band of emigrants in 1564, and built Fort Caroline on the Saint John's River. To uphold the Spanish claims to the country against the French, Pedro Menendez de AvilGs sailed from Spain in 1565, erected a fort at Saint Augustine, and, taking Fort Caroline, exterminated the Huguenot colony. (See GOUR GUES, DOMJNIQUE DE.) Saint Augustine was burned by Sir Francis Drake in 1586, and was plundered by English buccaneers in 1665; but the Spaniards retained their hold on the country, and about 1699 founded Pensacola. In 1702 the Perdido River was made the boundary between Florida and French Louisiana. Between the Spaniards of Saint Augustine and the southern English colonists hostile relations generally pre vailed. A force from Carolina, under Colonel Daniel, burned Saint Augustine in 1702, and in the following year Governor Moore, with a force of English and Creek Indians, defeated a Spanish force under Don Juan Alexia at Fort San Luis, near Tallahassee, and reduced a number of Span ish-Indian towns. In 1718 and again in 1719 Pen sacola was taken by the French, the town being destroyed on the second occasion. When Georgia was settled, General Oglethorpe found it neces sary to protect the new colony by an invasion of the enemy's country. He failed to take Saint Augustine, but repelled an attack of the Spanish fleet on the forts of the Altamaha in 1742. By
the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain ceded East and West Florida (the latter lay west of the Ap alachicola, River, and embraced a large part of what is now Alabama and Mississippi) to Eng land, hut recovered possession of both in 1783. West Florida was sold to France in 1795. After 1803 the United States asserted its title to the region between the Pearl River and the Perdido on the ground that it had formed part of Louisi ana as held by France, Spain, and France again, in turn. In 1812 and 1813 United States troops took possession of the disputed territory. Pensa cola was garrisoned by the British in 1814 with the consent of the Spanish authorities, but was taken by General Jackson in November of that year.
In East Florida Spain made no attempt, to preserve order, and the country was overrun by white adventurers. Seminole Indians. and es caped slaves from the Southern States. Maraud ing hands of Indians and negroes crossed the frontier into Georgia, plundered and burned. and fled into Spanish territory beyond the reach of the United States authorities. Such reasons, as well as a natural hunger for land, made the Georgians anxious for the acquisiton of the peninsula. In 1818 General Jackson, conducting operations against the Seminoles, invaded Florida, and after defeating the Indians. turned about and took Pensacola, the Governor of which had been supplying Seminoles with h a rms. The sown •;1S restored to Spain; hut in 1821 Florida. by virtue of a treaty concluded in 1819. passed to the United States, and in March. 1822, it was or ganized into a Territory. It was admitted into the Union in 1845. Between 1835 and 1843 a bit ter warfare was waged against the Seminoles, and it resulted in the removal of the greater part of them beyond the Mississippi. On January 10, 1861, the State passed an ordinance of secession. Three days previously the State authorities had seized Fort Marion and the arsenals at Saint Augustine and Apalachicola; and on the 12th the navy yards and forts at Pensacola were taken possession of. Jacksonville, Fernandina, and Saint Augustine were taken by the Federal forces in 1862; but at the battle of Olustee, Feb ruary 20, 1864, the State was lost to the Union. The ordinance of secession vvas reliVa led in October, 1865, and a State tovernment was organ ized in 1866; but it was not till June, 1868, after a new constitution had been adopted and the Fourteenth Amendment ratified, that Florida was readmitted into the Union. Igor a number of years after the war, the State was in difficult financial conditions, and the burden of taxation was heavy. Elaborate plans for the building of new railroads failed to be carried out, and ninny old roads went into bankruptcy. Between 1875 and 1880, a period during which the political power was passing from the Bepublicans to the Democrats, election contests were close and bit. ter, and appeals from the ballot-box to the courts were frequent. The part played by the electoral vote of Florida in the disputed Presi dential election of 1876 was important. ( See