The French had found no trouble with the climate or the marshes of the Mobile delta, but the British troops were less careful, and for several years suffered greatly. Summer camps were provided, one year on historic Dauphine Island, and longer at “Croftown,” on the high red bluff below Montrose, where the eye commands the full expanse of the beautiful upper bay, and where the British ships could lie at anchor within musket-shot of the sandy beach. The troops one year were practically withdrawn from all Florida on account of the expense of the establishments; but, as New Orleans was in Spanish hands, prudence compelled their early restoration. A popular revolution broke out in New Orleans, followed by a strong Spanish occupation, and the British at Mobile found it expedient to watch their neighbors closely. When war began in Europe between these two powers, the American colonies on the Atlantic were in revolt against Great Britain. West Florida, under the overcautious General Campbell, was weak in military force. Louisiana, on the other hand, with Mexico and Cuba at her back, and ruled by the young, able, and ambitious Galvez, was strong. The result was what might have been expected. Galvez reduced the Mississippi forts in the fall of 1779, and the next spring attacked Mobile by land, after an adventurous voyage. Durnford was in command, but he had only two hundred and seventy-five men with which to oppose two thousand. A cannonade, and Campbell’s slowness in sending aid, compelled a capitulation on March 14th, and the district became Spanish. Next year, Pensacola also succumbed. The treaty of 1783 confirmed the Floridas to Spain, and gave the English but a few months to sell their property and leave. During the intervening years, Mobile was under military rule, but affairs gradually settled down to a peace basis. Many British abandoned their houses or farms, and left them as the property of his Catholic Majesty. The King, after an inquest showing their vacancy, regranted them, in different sizes, to his own subjects, and even to British who had taken an oath of allegiance. In this way, the grants still existing are generally new, and can seldom be traced back to English owners. Courts were held by alcaldes, and the commandant, as civil (political) and military governor, also exercised judicial power. Many proclamations, grants, suits, wills and inventories of this time are still preserved in the Probate Court. They are in thin books of rough paper, the size of legal cap, with curious old watermarks showing through the Spanish text.