There were three ships, and one two-mast vessel lying within the harbor at the time that the English engaged the sloop and ship.[1] [Footnote 1: _Annals of Europe_, page 404.] This summer one of the Georgia boats off Tybee saved a three-mast vessel which the Spaniards had abandoned, leaving eighteen Englishmen on board, after having barbarously scuttled her, and choked the pumps, that the men might sink with the ship; but the boat's men, getting on board in good time, saved the men and the ship. It seems that the Creeks, in retaliation of some predatory and murderous outrages of the Florida outposts, made a descent upon them in return. This is referred to in the following extract from a letter of General Oglethorpe to the Duke of Newcastle, dated Frederica, 12th of December, 1741. My Lord, "Toonahowi, the Indian who had the honor of your Grace's protection in England, with a party of Creek Indians, returned hither from making an incursion up to the walls of Augustine; near which they took Don Romualdo Ruiz del Moral, Lieutenant of Spanish horse, and nephew to the late Governor, and delivered him to me. "The Governor of Augustine has sent the enclosed letter to me by some English prisoners; and, the prisoners there, the enclosed petition. On which I fitted out the vessels, and am going myself, with a detachment of the regiment, off the bar of Augustine, to demand the prisoners, and restrain the privateers." In the early part of the year 1742, the Spaniards formed a design upon Georgia, on which, from the time of its settlement, they had looked with a jealous eye.[1] For this end, in May, they fitted out an armament at Havanna, consisting of fifty-six sail, and seven or eight thousand men; but the fleet, being dispersed by a storm, did not all arrive at St. Augustine, the place of their destination. Don Manuel de Monteano, Governor of that fortress, and of the town and region it protected, had the command of the expedition. [Footnote 1: Appendix, No. XXV.] About the end of May, or beginning of June, the schooner, which had been sent out on a cruise by General Oglethorpe, returned with the information that there were two Spanish men of war, with twenty guns each, besides two very large privateers, and a great number of small vessels, full of troops, lying at anchor off the bar of St. Augustine. This intelligence was soon after confirmed by Captain Haymer, of the Flamborough man of war, who had fallen in with part of the Spanish fleet on the coast of Florida, and drove some vessels on shore.