On the 13th of September, while yet at this place, an express arrived from Savannah to acquaint him that a sloop from Rhode Island had brought the intelligence, that the Governor of that Colony had, by orders from Great Britain, issued commissions for fitting out privateers against the Spaniards. This was not a little surprising to him. He could not conceive how a distant Colony should have any such orders, before they were sent to him who was most in danger of being attacked, in case of any rupture with Spain. However, he deemed it expedient to hasten his return, in order to obtain more direct information. On the 22d he reached Savannah, where he received and published his Majesty's orders for reprisals. In consequence of these, a stout privateer of fourteen guns, was immediately fitted out by Captain Davies, who had suffered by having had a ship and cargo, to the value of forty thousand pieces of eight, captured and most unjustly condemned by the Spaniards; and, therefore, felt that he had a right to avail himself of the present opportunity for obtaining redress.[1] [Footnote 1: _London Magazine, for_ 1757, page 592.] For several years, the British trade to America, particularly that to the West Indies, had suffered great interruption and annoyance from the Spanish _guarda-costas_, which, under various pretences, seized the merchant ships, and carried them into their ports, where they were confiscated. This piratical practice had increased to such a degree that scarcely any vessels were safe in those seas; for the Spaniards pretended that wherever they found logwood, cocoa, or pieces of eight on board, the capture was legal. Now, the first two of those commodities were the growth and produce of the English islands, and the last was the current specie of all that part of the world; so that there was hardly a ship homeward bound but had one or other of these on hoard. These depredations were also aggravated by circumstances of great inhumanity and cruelty; the sailors being confined in loathsome prisons, at the Havana, and at Cadiz; or forced to work with irons on their legs; with no sustenance but salt fish, almost putrid, and beds full of vermin, so that many died of their hard captivity[1]. [Footnote 1: _History of the Colonies planted by the English on the Continent of North America_, by JOHN MARSHALL. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1824. Chap. X.] The increasing complaints of the merchants, and the loud clamors of the nation, at length forced the British minister to abandon his pacific system; and war was declared against Spain on the 23d of October, 1739. A squadron, commanded by Admiral Vernon was detached for the West Indies, with instructions to act upon the defensive; and General Oglethorpe was ordered to annoy the settlements in Florida.[1]