On November 14, 1768, we are walking down the east side of George street from the gardens to the Bay. After passing two blocks we find ourselves on the Public Square and in front of a large building. Going in and out of that building are many people, the most of them soldiers and Indians, and somewhere in or about it we find a Mr. Arthur Neil. Upon inquiry we are informed the building is the king’s store-house, and Mr. Neil its keeper. Leaving the store, a short walk brings us to the shore and afterwards to the king’s wharf, which we see covered with troops, some of them getting into boats, whilst others, already embarked, are going to a ship lying at anchor. That ship is the _Pensacola_ bound for Charleston, South Carolina. The troops are the Thirty-first regiment, lately stationed at Mobile, whence they have just arrived, after an overland march, for the purpose of embarking in the _Pensacola_. Whether they shall remain at Charleston in winter quarters will, according to a letter of General Haldimand to Colonel Chisolm, “depend upon the conduct of the Bostonians.”[11] ----- Footnote 10: Formerly Fort Condé at Mobile. Footnote 11: Can. Archives, B. 14, pp. 31, 37, 41. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER X. Governor Peter Chester—Fort George of the British and St. Michael of the Spanish—Tartar Point—Red Cliff. Peter Chester, having been commissioned governor of West Florida in 1772, came to Pensacola, the capital of the province, and entered upon the administration of the office. He was recognized and deferred to by General Haldimand as a man of capacity and experience, a reputation which was not impaired by his nine years’ rule in Florida. The first days of his administration were marked by a determination to reform the public service, and to supersede the old star fort by more stable and efficient defenses for the town and harbor, and the spirit which animated him was at once communicated to the military commander of the province. Early in his administration, after much discussion by engineers of several plans for the defense of the town, a fort was built, under orders from General Gage, on Gage Hill, and named Fort George for his majesty George III.[12] In the centre of the fortress was the council chamber of the province and the repository of its archives, where the office duties of the governor and the military commander were performed, where audience was given to Indian chiefs and delegations, and where really centered the government of West Florida, according to its English boundaries.