hour; then ceased, and we
marched back in silence. The next day I prevailed with a prisoner, and
gave him a sum of money to carry a letter privately, and deliver it to
that Frenchman who had deserted. This letter was written in French, as
if from a friend of his, telling him he had received the money; that
he should try to make the Spaniards believe the English were weak;
that he should undertake to pilot up their boats and galleys, and then
bring them under the woods, where he knew the hidden batteries were;
that if he could bring that about he should have double the reward he
had already received; and that the French deserters should have all
that had been promised to them. The Spanish prisoner got into their
camp, and was immediately carried before the General, Don Manuel de
Monteano. He was asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters;
but denying he had any, was strictly searched, and the letter found,
and he, upon being pardoned, confessed that he had received money to
deliver it to the Frenchman, (for the letter was not directed.) The
Frenchman denied his knowing any thing of the contents of the
letter, or having received any money, or correspondence with me.
Notwithstanding which, a council of war was held, and they decreed the
Frenchman to be a double spy; but General Monteano would not suffer
him to be executed, having been employed by him. However they embarked
all their troops with such precipitation that they left behind their
cannon, &c., and those dead of their wounds, unburied."

[Footnote 1: Transcribed from the Georgia Historical documents, by my
excellent friend T.K. TEFFT, Esq., of Savannah. The particulars of
this singularly interesting _ruse de guerre_ are detailed in all the
accounts of the Spanish invasion; and in each with some variation, and
in all rather more circumstantially than the above. See _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for 1742, p. 695; _London Magazine_ for 1758, p. 80;
HEWATT'S _History of South Carolina_, Vol. II. p. 117; McCALL'S
_History of Georgia_, I. p. 184; RAMSAY'S _History of the United
States_, I. 167, and MARSHALL'S _History of the Colonies_, p. 289.]

The Spanish General now deemed it expedient to relinquish a plan
of conquest attended with so many difficulties, and the further
prosecution of which would put to hazard the loss of both army and
fleet, and perhaps of the whole Province of Florida.

"On the 14th of July the Spaniards burned all the works and houses on
the