During the latter part of the British possession the exports of rum, sugar, molasses, indigo, and lumber had become considerable. As early as 1770 the records of the Custom-House showed the entry of fifty schooners and sloops from the northern provinces and the West Indies, beside several square-rigged vessels from London and Liverpool. In 1771 the imports were: 54 pipes of Madeira wine, 170 puncheons of rum, 1,660 barrels of flour, 1,000 barrels of beef and pork, 339 firkins of butter, and 11,000 pounds of loaf sugar. These cargoes were brought in twenty-nine vessels, of which five were from London. There were also imported about 1,000 negroes, of whom 119 were from Africa. The average annual expenses of East Florida, while under the British flag, were £122,660 sterling, without including the pay of the army or navy. In 1778, a period of the greatest prosperity reached under the British flag, the whole value of the exports was only £48,000 sterling, or a little more than one-third of the expenses of the province. Through the exertions of the Anglo-Saxon settlers, who had brought to the province their advanced ideas of government, agriculture, and commerce, Florida was just entering upon a career of prosperity, when it was again ceded to Spain. These constant changes, necessitating the transfer of property to the subjects of the ruling sovereign, would, of themselves, have prevented any considerable improvement in the material wealth of the province; but the treaty between Great Britain and Spain so far neglected to provide for the interests of the British subjects who had settled in Florida, that the only stipulation relating to them was one allowing them the privilege of removing within eighteen months from the time of the ratification. Whatever real property was not sold to Spanish subjects, at the end of this period, was to become the property of the Spanish Crown. Under the British there had settled in the town of St. Augustine a large number of half-pay officers of the British Government, who, with others possessing certain incomes, had greatly improved the place. It is said that those conversant with the place in 1784, spoke highly of the beauty of the gardens, the neatness of the houses, and the air of cheerfulness and comfort that seemed during the preceding period to have been thrown over the town. Florida was literally deserted by its British subjects upon the change of flags. Vignoles says: “Perhaps no such other general emigration of the inhabitants of a country, amicably transferred to another government, ever occurred.” Among the British subjects, who remained and transferred their allegiance to Spain, were several families whose descendants are still living in Florida. CHAPTER XVI.