The New Hampshire Gazette

A Description of AUGUSTIN.

Augustin St. a city in Florida, in North-America, situated on the eastern coast of the peninsula, washed by the Atlantic ocean, about 80 leagues from the mouth of the gulph of Florida, or channel of Bahama, and 47 from the town and river of Savanah. It is built along the shore, at the bottom of a hill, in an oblong square, divided into four streets: Near it is the church and monastery of the order of St. Augustin. The castle is called St. John's Fort, built of soft stone has four bastions, a curtain 60 yards long, a parapet, nine feet thick, and a rampart 20 feet high, cemented, arched, and bomb proof: There are 50 pieces of cannon, 16 of which are brass, and some are 24 pounders; it has a covered way, and the town is entrenched with 10 salient angles. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake took it; and in 1665, it was plundered by captain Davis the buccaneer. The English and Indians of Carolina attacked it again in 1702, under colonel Moore, who abandoned it after three months siege, and plundering and burning the country, leaving the ships and stores to the enemy, on the sight of some Spanish cruisers: and marched back to Charlestown, 300 miles by land. General Oglethorpe was the last who besieged it, in 1740; he bombarded both the town and castle, but was obliged to raise the siege. This town, as well as Georgia, is within the limits of S. Carolina; tho' unjustly kept from us by the Spaniards. Lat. 29. 30. N. Long. 81. 10. West.