[Sidenote] Its troubles from the Spaniards.

Notwithstanding the public treaty already mentioned, a religious society
of the Spanish nation laid claim to the large territory of Florida, not
only on the foot of prior discovery, but also by virtue of a grant from
the pope; and the garrison kept at Augustine regarding the British
settlement as an encroachment on their possessions, were disposed to
throw every difficulty in the way of the Carolineans, in order to compel
them to relinquish the country. They encouraged indented servants to
leave their masters, and fly to them for liberty and protection. They
instilled into the savage tribes the most unfavourable notions of British
heretics, and urged them on to the destruction of the colony. Good policy
required that the governor should keep a watchful eye on the motions of
such neighbours, and guard his weak and defenceless colony against the
pernicious designs of their Spanish rivals. Some men he discovered who
were attempting to entice servants to revolt; these were ordered to
receive so many stripes. Others, in defiance of the feeble power of the
magistrate, took to such courses as were subversive of public peace and
justice. Except a few negroes whom Sir John Yeamans and his followers
brought along with them from Barbadoes, there were no labourers but
Europeans for the purposes of culture. Until the fields were cleared the
brute creation could afford the planters no assistance; the weak arm of
man alone had to encounter all the hardships of clearing and cultivation,
and the thick forest seemed to bid defiance to his strength. Hard indeed
was the task of these labourers while employed in felling the large and
lofty trees, and all the while exposed to the heat of an inclement sky,
and the terrors of barbarous enemies; with great truth it may be said of
them, that they purchased their scanty morsel with the sweat of their
brows. After all, the provisions they raised were exposed to the