Excerpt from Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. 7: The Spanish Official Account of the Attack on the Colony of Georgia, in America, and of Its Defeat on St. Simons Island

The issue proved the wisdom Of his dispositions. The first attempt of the Spaniards to push their way through the morasses was also their last, nor did they later make anyeffort of any other sort. This failure to undertake any thing more must be regarded as discreditable to the glory and reputation of the arms of the King, particularly if the Spanish account Of losses be correct. That it is not, we know from other sources. Indeed, so great were Montia no's losses, and among his best troops, so sudden and un expected his check, so uncompromising his defeat, that the matter was really then and there settled. In plain English, he had no stomach for further business. After that disas trous beating when his grenadiers fell only to incarnadine the waters of the swamp in which they were entrapped, he sent out only Indians to see if they could find some other road to Frederica. Meanwhile his rations were being reduced, he had not got his guns ashore, and rumors unnerved him. In these straits he fell to calling councils of war and so was lost. That he had made only one genuine effort to reach his Objective, that in spite of the failure of this effort, he still outnumbered Oglethorpe, that m any case his fleet was substantially intact, these things made no impression on him. His one concern was to withdraw. And yet so blind was he to his own shortcomings that he attributes his fail ure to the Almighty and actually asks his King to approve his conduct of affairs and to bestow honors upon him. To be sure, he had razed a few earthworks evacuated by their garrisons, carried off a few guns spiked by the enemy, burned a few houses abandoned by the inhabitants. And here we may now well leave him, recounting his victories over inanimate things, and glossing his failure, for this fail ure made the State Of Georgia possible.

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