they reached the Cowkeeper's town, they could get no other intelligence from the women and children, than that the Cowkeeper and his men were gone to war; whence they proceeded to Mr. Spalding's store; from that to Joseph Grey's plantation, where they saw Okouthly, of whom Mr. Bryan asked, if he and the Latchaway Indians would give him land to erect a town, where large boats and vessels could come to that he had obtained the consent of the head men of the nation, and that he only wanted theirs.

To which Okouthly replied, that he was now grown old, and had not long to live, and that if the head men of the nation had given him the land, he must have it, and asked Mr. Bryan what land he wanted, and where he meant to settle: To which Mr. Bryan replied, at St. Marks, or Little Suanne, where there was good navigation, and that he meant to settle a town, which the Indians considered to be a large tract of land. That from thence Mr. Bryan and the others above. mentioned proceeded to the Indians settled at Black Creek, where they found only Ohalgie, a young Indian, and women and children, (the rest of the Indians being at that time at St. Augustine,) whom he addressed in the same manner as he had done Okouthly, promising to return in two months with presents, and expecting by that time the Cowkeeper would be at home, and that the whole would be finished; and made him a present of two shirts. He further declares, that he did not see the land surveyors make use of surveying instruments; but they kept a journal, and that regularly they transferred their memorandums from the horn book to the pocket book; that in last June, he saw Mr. Bryan,

who informed him that last February, he meant to have carried the presents he intended for the Indians, but that being on St. John's river, he, Bryan, was informed the governor of East Florida meant to apprehend him and distress him, and that he was obliged to return; that Mr. Bryan gave him an order for fifteen pounds sterling for going with him to Latchaway, and requested him, as he intended to go there soon, that he would remember the memorandum he had given him concerning the lands, and communicate it to the Cowkeeper and Latchaway Indians, and try if they could be prevailed upon to give their consent to what the head men of the nation had agreed to, respecting the lands on which he wanted to make a settlement. That about a month ago St. Jago, and another Indian, came to his house, and that his uncle told him he was going to Latchaway to the Cowkeeper and head men with a message from Mr. Bryan, to signify to them that the said Bryan had got the head men of the nation to sign a paper, giving him lands for a settlement; and to sound the Latchaway Indians, if they would join in confirming the deed: which message or talk from Mr. Bryan St. Jago delivered to the Cowkeeper, who would not hear the talk, and said it was false; that he would not believe that the nation would give him the land. He would soon know the truth, as some Indians were soon expected from the nation to visit the governor.

Talahasochte, a small Indian town on the old road from St. Augustine to Apalachicola, is on an elevated spot near thirty feet high, having about thirty houses, like Cuscovilla. It bor

ders on the River Little Suanee, which is remarkable for the transparency of its waters. It is two hundred yards wide opposite the town, and from fifteen to twenty feet deep; and, like the River St. Mary's, derives its source from Lake Okefonoke. Owing to its meanders, it runs a course of nearly two hundred miles to the sea.

COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.

The commerce of the Floridas, though at present comparatively insignificant, is nevertheless entitled to particular notice, both on account of its former consequence, and the resources which the increase of an industrious people will develope by the cultivation of the soil, as well as by the discovery of new objects of commercial enterprise.

It is said that the want of water on the different bars is an almost insurmountable barrier to the advancement of commerce; this, like the too common representation of the barrenness of the soil, would leave nothing for expectation from those territories, but expense to the nation, and disappointment to individuals.

The futility of the assertions can be established, and numerous other vague reports can be easily controverted, by reference to the accounts of the former productions of the country, and by adverting to the bounteous provisions made by nature, in affording spacious harbours on the western side of the Peninsula; while mechanism and art can, with very little exertion and expense, improve the navigation along the Eastern coast, which is every where accessible to craft drawing eight feet, at St. Mary's eighteen feet, and St. John's twelve feet.

From the subjoined statements, it is evident, that commerce was carried on with Florida, although to a very limited extent, before the American war; during which it increased, until the evacuation placed it in the hands of a government that may be denominated anti-commercial. When the trade was carried on by a few regular traders, the amount of imports and exports to and from Great Britain were,

There was a bounty upon Indigo raised in the province.

In 1770 there were fifty schooners and sloops entered at the custom house of St. Augustine, from the Northern Provinces and West Indies, besides several square rigged vessels in the trade to London and Liverpool.

General imports in 1771 were, 54 pipes Maderia wine, 170 puncheons rum, 1660 barrels of flour, 1000 barrels of beef and pork, 339 firkins of butter, and 11,011 pounds of loaf sugar, în twenty-nine vessels; of which there were from London, 5 ;