[Footnote 1:  We shall see, in the sequel, that the absence of this officer, whatever its pretence, was with treacherous purpose, as may be surmised by the following extract from a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, dated 30th of July, 1741; where, mentioning the despatches sent to Governor Glen, earnestly requesting some military aid, the General informs his Grace that “Lieutenant Colonel Cook, who was engineer, and was then at Charlestown, hastened away to England; and his son-in-law, Ensign Erye, sub-engineer, was also in Charlestown, and did not arrive here till the action was over; so, for want of help, I was obliged to do the duty of an engineer.”]

On Monday, the 5th of July, with a leading gale and the flood of tide, a Spanish fleet of thirty-six sail, consisting of three ships of twenty guns, two large snows, three schooners, four sloops, and the rest half-galleys, with landsmen on board, entered the harbor; and, after exchanging a brisk fire with the fort, for four hours, passed all the batteries and shipping, proceeded up the river.  The same evening the forces were landed upon the island, a little below Gascoigne’s plantation.  A red flag was hoisted on the mizzen-top of the Admiral’s ship, and a battery was erected on the shore, in which were planted twenty eighteen-pounders.  On this, the General, having done all he could to annoy the enemy, and prevent their landing, and finding that the Fort at St. Simons had become indefensible, held a council of war at the head of his regiment; and it was the opinion of the whole that the fort should be dismantled, the guns spiked up, the cohorns burst, and that the troops there stationed should immediately repair to Frederica, for its defence.  He accordingly gave orders for them to march, and sent for all the troops that were on board the vessels to come on shore.

As his only measures must be on the defensive, “he sent scouting parties in every direction to watch the motions of the enemy; while the main body were employed in working at the fortifications, making them as strong as circumstances would admit."[1]

[Footnote 1:  McCALL, I. 179.]

The Creek Indians brought in five Spanish prisoners, from whom was obtained information that Don Manuel de Monteano, the Governor of St. Augustine, commanded in chief; that Adjutant General Antonio de Rodondo, chief engineer, and two brigades, came with the forces from Cuba; and that their whole number amounted to about five thousand men.

Detachments of the Spaniards made several attempts to pierce through the woods, with a view to attack the fort; but were repulsed by lurking Indians.  The only access to the town was what had been cut through a dense oak wood, and then led on the skirt of the forest along the border of the eastern marsh that bounded the island eastward.  This was a defile so narrow, that the enemy could take no cannon with them, nor baggage, and could only proceed two abreast.  Moreover, the Spanish battalions met with such obstruction from the deep morasses on one side, and the dark and tangled thickets on the other, and such opposition from the Indians and ambushed Highlanders, that every effort failed, with considerable loss.