The Virginia Gazette

London, Sept. 2.

By a private Letter from the Hague, we are inform'd of the Propositions made by the Spanish Minister at the Court of Great Britain, touching the Pretensions of His Catholick Majesty, to Carolina and Georgia. What is concluded from these Propositions here, that the Court of Spain has Two Views herein: Its first is this, Being conscious that the continual piratical Depredations of the Guard Coastas, which, against all Right, and contrary to all Treaties, take and confiscate, without any Form of Process, all the British Merchant Ships that come in their Way, can, by no means, be justified; the King of Spain thinks hereby to make an exchange of Grievances and Pretensions, which may conduce to a Treaty like that which was enter'd into in the Year 1670, on the like Occasion. The second Reason is, That if the Court of Spain does not sacrifice these Pretensions to repair the Damage done by the Depredations of her Privateers, they may employ them in pursuing more vigorously than hitherto her Pretensions to Port-Mahon. and Gibraltar. and particularly to the last Place, for the Sake of obtaining which, we would willingly yield up her Pretensions to Georgia and Carolina. That we would be willing to do this, no one will make the least doubt. There is actually no Foundation for these Pretensions in the Treaty of 1670, no mention being therein made of any Degree of Latitude or Longitude, for determining the Limits of the Two Nations; but on the contrary, it is, by Article the 7th of that Treaty, concluded, That the Two Kings Shall be confirm'd in the Possession of the Provinces, Establishments. and Colonies they were then possess'd of; and that Carolina was then One of the English Colonies: And on the other Side, Georgia has been established in a Country not inhabited by any European Nation. but always look'd on to be within the Limits of Carolina, regulated by the above Treaty.