1500 SKETCHES, HISTORICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL, OF THE FLORIDAS ; MORE PARTICULARLY OF EAST FLORIDA. BY JAMES GRANT FORBES. New-York: PRINTED ANd published BY C. S. VAN WINKLE, No. 101 Greenwich-street. 1821. Southern District of New-York, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fifteenth day of May, in the forty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, C. S. VAN WINELE, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: "Sketches, Historical and Topographical, of the Floridas; more particularly of East Florida. By James Grant Forbes." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." G. L. THOMPSON, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. SINCE Florida has become an integral part of the Union, and our republic has been strengthened by this important acquisition, curiosity has been considerably excited on the subject of its situation, its soil, climate, and history. A desire to emigrate, and numerous other motives, combine to heighten this excitement; and what hitherto has been but little known and regarded, while a neglected Province of Spain, bids fair to rise to eminence and fame, as a component part of the American family. The imperfect and contradictory accounts of the Floridas, made it the duty of those possessing any information on the subject, to afford their fellow citizens the most correct and authenticated information. Under this impression, I have ventured to publish the following sketches, which have grown out of personal observation, and been strengthened by such facts as the nature of my situation, and considerable research, have placed within my reach. I offer them to the consideration of my fellow citizens with all possible deference, and as my motives are purely patriotic, I indulge the hope, that my imperfec tions, as a writer, may be balanced by the utility of the work. In my researches connected with the natural and political history of the Provinces and their inhabitants, I have adopted many interesting facts of other writers. Bartram, Romans, and Pursh, have been of great service to me; yet if their publications were not almost obsolete, and their subject less analogous to the present times, my labours might have been dispensed with. The following description of the tract of land called "Forbes' Purchase," of which a Map is presented to our readers, is from a source entitled to the fullest credit, and is added in consequence of the emigration which is daily taking place. "That tract of land known by the name of Forbes' Purchase, contains about twelve hundred thousand acres, and was purchased many years since by John Forbes & Co. from the Aborigines, with the approbation of the Spanish government, permission having been first obtained from the government to treat for the same; and every step toward the accomplishment and ratification of the treaty, was taken in the presence of a regularly appointed Spanish agent, as well as an interpreter in the pay of the government. This purchase is on record in the proper office of Florida, as well as in that of the surveyor general, Don Victor Pintado; and that no doubt of, or objection to, its title should ever be made, should the land at any time be ceded either to the American or British government, several sales of small tracts were early made and recorded in the proper public offices. "This tract is said to possess much good land; and those who had occasion to examine it, when it was surveyed, report it as a body of land much superior to any thing south of New-York, situated so near the sea board. In a tract embracing upwards of a million of acres, there must necessarily be a good deal of pine barren; but it is thought that no tract in the southern states, of equal extent, can be found possessing so many advantages in point of soil, water, and situation. It contains the richest cane bottoms, and upland cane hammocks, within fifteen miles of the sea, proper for the cultivation of sugar, the greatest profusion of oak timber of every description, and saw-mill seats, surrounded with forests that have never been touched. Streams of pure water run through the tract in every direction. It contains, also, beds of lime stone, and abundance of game; and upon the coast may be procured the greatest abundance of oysters, and fish of every kind. "Sugar can be produced here of the very best quality; and little doubt is entertained, that coffee can also be raised in large quantities. On the coast are some of the finest sea islands for the cultivation of cotton. "The Apalachicola river, which is the western boundary of this tract, is navigable for sloops of considerable burthen to its junction with Flint River, a distance of about 200 miles, and for boats of considerable size for 450 miles from its mouth; thus supplying any settlements which may be made upon it, with a rich and valuable back country to an immense extent. "Should a communication hereafter be made by a canal between St. Johns River and Apalachie Bay, which |