it is ten to one, whether what I now write you, does not fall into some of their hands; for the practice of opening and detaining letters is very common here; nor is it even looked upon as disgraceful, but on the contrary is laughed at, or applauded as a piece of dexterous policy ;—but none of those people can ever expect to see any favourable picture of themselves. I think it is immaterial, to say any thing of the performance of William Stork-M. D. only according to our West Florida reading: this title is a modern dentist.

As

for myself, it is said, I study law too much; that is, I am able to discover when a lawyer would pass his own ipse dixit upon us for the laws of our country, and when the Georgia forms are like to be crammed down our throats, though contrary to the express statutes of Great Britain, since his majesty has always declared that our laws shall be as nearly agreeable to them as may be."

The above exhibit became the subject of remonstrance from the inhabitants to the British ministry, who complained also to them of the governor and his proceedings; but they were treated with utter disregard.

The only traces of commerce to be discovered among this anti-commercial people, consisted in the peltries obtained from the Indians by the house of Panton, Leslie, and Forbes, under licenses from the government; in a few boards, shingles, and corn, transported to the Havana ; and in a miserable coasting trade through Lake Ponchartrain with New-Orleans, from whence, and Mobile, were derived their principal supplies of foreign goods.

The prospect of an extensive trade with the Spaniards induced many people to settle in this town, which they did at a great expense; their expectations, however, were thwarted, as their trade, which was carried on under Spanish colours, and promised great advantages, was entirely destroyed by the British cruisers.

The principal effort, at the present period, will be more particularly employed upon the natural productions of the country, consisting of sugar, indigo, cotton, rice, hemp, tobacco, and lumber, which, with the Indian trade, will afford ample profits, until a more liberal policy shall extend them to our southern neighbours; whom it is more profitable to receive with their dollars in our ports, than to furnish with goods conveyed to them in our vessels. This, for obvious reasons, is very generally understood.

In Maryland and Virginia, where the heats are greater, and the soil moist, especially on lands not cleared, we find agues, fevers, and fluxes, very distressing to strangers; though the natives in general are pretty healthy, and sometimes long-lived. In South Carolina, we find these diseases much more obstinate, acute and violent. In that state, especially in the months of July and August, during the growth of the rice, the fevers which attack strangers are very anomalous, not remitting or intermitting soon, but partaking much of the nature of those which are so fatal to the newly arrived Europeans in the West India climates. The same may be said of Georgia and East Florida; during these two months, the diseases of strangers approach still nearer to those of the West India Islands. At Pensacola, where the

soil is sandy and quite barren, the English have suffered much by sickness; some, for want of vegetables, died of the scurvy, but a far greater part of fevers. The excessive heat of the weather has sometimes produced, in this place, a severe fever, similar to the Yellow Fever. This, in the year 1765, proved very fatal to a regiment of soldiers sent from England unseasoned to such climates, they having been landed there in the height of the sickly season. It raged chiefly in the fort, where the air in the soldiers' barracks was extremely sultry and unhealthy; the sea-breeze being shut out by the walls of the fort. And it is worthy of remark, that during the fatal rage of this fever at Pensacola, those that lived on board the ships in the harbour escaped it. Pensacola, however, is of late, esteemed more healthy than Mobile, where intermitting fevers prevail in the months of July, August, and September.

APPENDIX.

Extracts from the definitive Treaty concluded between England and France, Nov. 3d, 1762.

Art. 6. In order to re-establish peace on the most solid and lasting foundations, and to remove for ever every subject of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed, that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britannic Majesty, and those of his most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from the source as far as the Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and of the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea; and to this purpose the most Christian King cedes in full right, and guaranties to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and every thing that he possesses or ought to have possessed on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the Island on which it is situated, which shall remain to France; provided that the navigation of the river Mississippi shall be equally free as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea; and that part expressly which is between the said island of New Orleans and the right bank of that river, as well as the passage both in and out of its mouth. It is further stipulated, that the vessels belonging to