On the morning of the 7th of July, Captain Noble Jones, with a small detachment of regulars and Indians, being on a scouting party, fell in with a number of Spaniards, who had been sent to reconnoitre the route, and see if the way was clear, surprised and made prisoners of them.  From these, information was received that the main army was on the march.  This intelligence was immediately communicated, by an Indian runner, to the General, who detached Captain Dunbar with a company of grenadiers, to join the regulars; with orders to harass the enemy on their way.  Perceiving that the most vigorous resistance was called for, with his usual promptitude he took with him the Highland company, then under arms, and the Indians, and ordered four platoons of the regiment to follow.  They came up with the vanguard of the enemy about two miles from the town, as they entered the savannah, and attacked them so briskly that they were soon defeated, and most of their party, which consisted of one hundred and twenty of their best woodsmen and forty Florida Indians were killed or taken prisoners.  The General took two prisoners with his own hands; and Lieutenant Scroggs, of the rangers, took Captain Sebastian Sachio, who commanded the party.  During the action Toonahowi, the nephew of Tomo Chichi, who had command of one hundred Indians, was shot through the right arm by Captain Mageleto, which, so far from dismaying the young warrior, only fired his revenge.  He ran up to the Captain, drew his pistol with his left hand, shot him through the head, and, leaving him dead on the spot, returned to his company.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Gentleman’s Magazine, XII. 497.]

The General pursued the fugitives more than a mile, and then halted on an advantageous piece of ground, for the rest of the troops to come up, when he posted them, with the Highlanders, in a wood fronting the road through the plain by which the main body of the Spaniards, who were advancing, must necessarily pass.  After which he returned, with all speed, to Frederica, and ordered the rangers and boat-men to make ready, and all to use their utmost endeavors to resist the invaders.

During his temporary absence on this pressing emergency, Captain Antonio Barba, and two other Captains with one hundred grenadiers, and two hundred foot, besides Indians and negroes, advanced from the Spanish camp into the savannah with drums and huzzas, and halted within an hundred paces of the position where the troops left by Oglethorpe lay in ambuscade.  They immediately stacked their arms, made fires, and were preparing their kettles for cooking, when a horse observed some of the concealed party, and, frightened at the uniform of the regulars, began to snort.  This gave the alarm.  The Spaniards ran to their arms, but were shot down in great numbers by their invisible assailants; and, after repeated attempts to form, in which some of their principal officers fell, they decamped with the utmost precipitation, leaving the camp equipage on the field.  So complete was the surprise, that many fled without their arms; others, in a rapid retreat, discharged their muskets over their shoulders at their pursuers; and many were killed by the loaded muskets that had been left on the ground.  Generally the Spaniards fired so much at random, that the trees were pruned by the balls from their muskets.[1]