by the Spaniards; and, therefore, felt that he had
a right to avail himself of the present opportunity for obtaining
redress.[1]

[Footnote 1: _London Magazine, for_ 1757, page 592.]

For several years, the British trade to America, particularly that to
the West Indies, had suffered great interruption and annoyance from
the Spanish _guarda-costas_, which, under various pretences, seized
the merchant ships, and carried them into their ports, where they were
confiscated. This piratical practice had increased to such a degree
that scarcely any vessels were safe in those seas; for the Spaniards
pretended that wherever they found logwood, cocoa, or pieces of
eight on board, the capture was legal. Now, the first two of those
commodities were the growth and produce of the English islands, and
the last was the current specie of all that part of the world; so that
there was hardly a ship homeward bound but had one or other of these
on hoard.

These depredations were also aggravated by circumstances of great
inhumanity and cruelty; the sailors being confined in loathsome
prisons, at the Havana, and at Cadiz; or forced to work with irons on
their legs; with no sustenance but salt fish, almost putrid, and beds
full of vermin, so that many died of their hard captivity[1].

[Footnote 1: _History of the Colonies planted by the English on the
Continent of North America_, by JOHN MARSHALL. 8vo. Philadelphia,
1824. Chap. X.]

The increasing complaints of the merchants, and the loud clamors of
the nation, at length forced the British minister to abandon his
pacific system; and war was declared against Spain on the 23d of
October, 1739. A squadron, commanded by Admiral Vernon was detached
for the West Indies, with instructions to act upon the defensive; and
General Oglethorpe was ordered to annoy the settlements in Florida.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe, from
the commencement of the War with Spain, in_ 1739, _to the Insurrection
in Scotland, in_ 1745, by SAMUEL BOYSE. 8vo.. Dublin, 1748. Vol. I. p.
27.]

It now became necessary for Oglethorpe to take the most prompt and
effective measures for the protection of the Colony; and, as his
settlement had, from the beginning, been opposed by the Spaniards
at St. Augustine, and would now have to encounter their resentful
assaults, he must put into requisition all his military force, and see
to their adequate equipment. He immediately took measures for r