In order to establish a plantation in the British province of West Florida, Dunbar descended the Ohio and Mississippi in 1773, and selected a tract of land near Baton Rouge, then called by the English, New Richmond. He went to Pensacola, capitol of West Florida, where he received from Governor Chester permission to settle the tract selected, and thence to Jamaica, where he bought a large number of slaves, direct from Africa. With these, he returned to his new home, by way of Pensacola, the lakes, and the Amite. He first directed his attention to raising indigo, but soon found that it was more profitable to manufacture staves for the West India market. These he exchanged for such commodities as were demanded by his neighbors along the Mississippi.[25] From a document written in 1773, and found among the papers of George Chalmers, Secretary of Trade of Great Britain, we find that at this time there were only thirty-three settlements east of the Mississippi and between Natchez and what is now the state of Louisiana.[26] But from that date the streams of immigration began to flow steadily into this new country. This fact is shown by another contemporary manuscript, which was written by Gov. Chester, shortly after the Spanish conquest of West Florida. In it he says that in 1778, "considering the importance of the Western Parts of the Colony (of West Florida) lying on the River Mississippi which had so far increased in its inhabitants____that since the____last Assembly (held in 1772) it had been divided from the District of Mobile or Charlotte County and erected into Two Districts, viz.: The District of Manschack and the District of Natchez and contained a great number of respectable wealthy Planters and Settlers than either of the other Districts in the Colony" (Mobile and Pensacola).[27] During the greater part of his first six years' residence near Baton Rouge, Dunbar suffered from a series of misfortunes which well-nigh destroyed all that he could accumulate through his industry and thrift. In 1775, he lost some of his most valuable slaves through a rebellion in which they were implicated. Three years later, his house and plantation were plundered by one Capt. James Willing,[28] who, although a commissioned officer in the continental army was really a freebooter. In speaking of Willing's visitation, Dunbar says, in his private Journal that "the houses of the British gentlemen on the English side were plundered, and among the rest, mine was robbed of everything that could be carried away--all my wearing apparel, bed and table linen; not a shirt was left in the house,--blankets, pieces of cloth, sugar, silverware. In short, all was fish that came in their net____I was plundered of £200 sterling value."[29] The year following, 1779, his plantation was again raided,--this time by marauding bands of soldiers from the Spanish army that subdued the district under their gallant leader, Galvez.