The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-08
oeLErHoRPE ANrEpArEp.

An Atlanta Lady Puts Savannah's
Settlement in the Sixteenth Cen
tury.
Several matters Of interest came up at
the August meeting Of the Georgia His
torical Society last night Many Of the
members are out Of the city, and there
was only a small attendance. Col.
John Screven, vice president, presided.
letter was read from Miss A. NJ.
Brooks, of Atlanta, asking information
as to old maps of Georgia, which she
thought might be in possession of the
historical society. Miss Brooks is en-
gagged in writing a history of Georgia,
and in the prosecution of this work visited
Spain last year for the purpose of search
ing records of the early history of Florida.
large portion of Georgia was claimed
blythe Spaniards as part of Florida, and
Miss Brooks thought she might find &C
counts of their settlements in this
state She has 500 pages of manu-
script, thirty-tive lines to the
page, consisting of TRANSACTIONS
from the old Spanish records. 1t con-
tains series of letters written by the
kings Of Spain TO their officers in this
country beginning with "Le Capitula-
ciOn' addressed by Ferdinand to Ponce
DE Leon In 1912. and the reports given by
the Spanish Adventures of theirexplora-
tiOnS in this country. Miss Brooks was
given one of the Spanish maps of Florida
while in Spain. She also saw a map of
the Indian settlements in Georgia and
Florida which were known to the Span
iards
Miss Brooks is of the opinion that Sa-
vannah was first settled by the French in
1862, Ill years before Oglethorpe saw the
place upon which he founded the present
pityr bt1f no
the next year and resettled by the Span
iards in 1856. Her authority for this is a
map found in the archives at Seville with
description which was translated as
follows:
Bar of Santa Elena, at the entrance of
which Juan Ribaut founded a settlement
in 1862, which he called Caroline. Forty
years previous to this Lucas Vasquez de
Ayllon embarked here
I'm 1868 it was abandoned by the French.
In 1866 1t was settled by Pedro Menendez
Marquee and fortified with q castle.
which he named San Philippe 1t con
tinued under Spanish rule with a
governor until 1886, when the Spaniards
left and went to ST GATHERINGS and from
there to St Simons, being driven out by
the English and Indians. Afterwards
when the English took possession they
called the place Royal Port of St George,
now Port Royal. They planted their
forts farther north than the Spaniards
had done. The chart speaks of a river
called Sabannah. About one hundred
miles up this river it.states is the city of
Sabannah, or Sabantaon, an Indian
town"
If Miss Brooks is correct in her suppo-
sition Savannah was in possession of the
Spaniards for 100 years, from 1866 to 1885.
According to this it had been abandoned
AZ years by the Spaniards when Ogle-
thorpe arrived in 1773, long enough for
the savages to have destroyed ali traces
of the settlement, with the aid of time.
In all probability, their settlement was
not upon the site which Ogle-
thorpe selected, or there would
have been some evidences of their stay
OglethOrpe would certainly have been
able to learn from the Indians if such a
settlement had existed in this neighbor-
hood for such length of time
A request was received from the Ameri-
can historical society of the Smithsonian
Institution at Washington for brief
sketch of the sOciety's history and of the
amount and character of its collections
An invitation was received from the
New Haven Colony Historical Society for
the president and delegates of the Geor-
gta Historical Society to be present at the
dedication of the new building of the
New Haven society on Sept. %; with a
request that the Georgia society have a
representative present.