Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/355

 F L O F L O 341 Virginia, whore the queen had commanded him to afford relief to Sir Walter Raleigh s newly planted colony. The English colonists of Georgia and Carolina continued to wage war against the Spaniards in Florida. Governor Moore of South Carolina made an unsuccessful attempt on St Augustine in 1702; and General Oglethorpe of Georgia besieged it in 1740 with the same result. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1837, the U.S. engineers found balls thrown by Oglethorpe in the moat of the old Spanish fortress. In 17G3 Florida was ceded to Great Britain in return for Havana, captured by Albemarle the previous year. Most of the Spaniards left the country. Vigorous efforts were made by the British Government to promote settlement by liberal grants of land to settlers. Besides a large number of emigrants who came over from Europe, promising settlements were made under the patronage of Lords Rolle and Beresford and Governor Moultrie. In addition to these many royalists emigrated thither from Georgia and Carolina, on the breaking out of hostilities between Great Britain and her American colonies. Twenty years of British possession accomplished more in settling and improving Florida than two hundred years of Spanish rule. In 1781 Don Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish governor of Louisiana, having previously taken Mobile, besieged and captured Pensacola, thus completing the conquest of West Florida. In 1 783 Florida was ceded back to Spain, when the greater part of the English population, estimated at 25,000, left the province and passed into the adjoining states. Some unimportant military operations took place in 1814. In February 1819 a treaty for the cession of Florida to the United States was concluded at Wash ington, and in 1821 was reluctantly ratified by the king of Spain, thus concluding a long and tedious negotiation. Possession was taken in July by General Jackson, who had been appointed governor of the Floridas by the Govern ment at Washington. Immigration flowed in rapidly from the southern States, the Bahamas, and even the North Atlantic States ; but a great drawback to the prosperity of the newly acquired territory was found in the deter mined resistance of the warlike nation of Seminole Indians to the encroachments of the whites upon their hunting- grounds. A resolution on the part of the United States Government to remove these Indians led to the long and bloody struggle known as the Seminole War, in which for seven years tho Indians successfully defied every effort to subdue them, retreating into the fastnesses of the Ever glades when closely pressed. Osceola, chieftain of the Seminoles, having been captured by treachery, the war ended in 1842. The remnant of tho Indians were removed beyond the Mississippi, and in three years after their expulsion (1845) Florida was admitted into the Union as a State. On the 10th January 1SGI, Florida, by a convention assembled on the 3d, seceded from the Union. Fort Marion and the arsenals at St Augustine and Chattahoot- chee were seized on the 7th, the forts and dockyards at Pensacola on the 12th, except Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa island, which was held by the United States forces. Not being within the line of great military operations, the con flicts between the Federal and Confederate forces were of minor importance. Fernandina, Jacksonville, and St Augustine fell into the hands of the national forces early in 1862. Pensacola was reoccupied by them the same year. In April 1865 President Johnson, by a proclama tion, declared the restrictions on commercial intercourse with Florida removed; in July William Marvin was named provisional governor. A State convention assembled in October at Tallahassee which repealed the ordinance of secession. Civil government was practically resumed the following year by the election of State officers and a legis lature. A subsequent State convention met at Tallahassee, January 20, 1868, to form a new constitution, which was ratified by the people in May, a legislature and State officers being chosen at the same election. Tho State having complied with the enactments of Congress relative to recon struction resumed its place in the Union. In 1876 the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, republican, as president of the United States, over Samuel J. Tildeu, democrat, was determined by the electoral votes of Florida and Louisiana, which by a decision of the extraordinary commission created by Congress were counted for the former. (s. A. D.) The foregoing article is reprinted, by permission of Messrs Little, Brown, & Co., Boston, Mass., from Florida, its History, Condition, and Resources, by S. A. Drake, Boston, 1878. FLORIDA-BLANCA, DON JOSE MONINO Y REDONDO. COUNT OF (1728-1808), Spanish statesman, was born at Murcia in 1728. He was the son of a notary, and received a good education, which he completed at the university of Salamanca, especially applying himself to the study of law. For a time he followed the profession of an advocate, and acquired a high reputation. A more public career was opened to him by the marquis of Esquilache, then chief minister of state, who sent him ambassador to Pope Clement XIV. Successful in his mission, he was soon after appointed by Charles III. successor to his patron, and his administration was one of the most brilliant Spain had ever seen. Ho regulated the police of Madrid, reformed many abuses, projected canals, established many societies of agriculture and economy, and many philanthropical in stitutions, and gave encouragement to learning, science, and the fine arts. Commerce flourished anew under his rule, and the long-standing disputes with Portugal about the South American colonies were settled. He sought to strengthen the alliance of Spain with Portugal by a double marriage between the members of the royal houses, design ing by this arrangement to place ultimately a Spanish prince on the throne of Portugal. But in this he failed. His attacks on Algiers in 1775, and on Gibraltar in 1782, cost Spain the loss of nearly 80,000 men. He dealt a heavy blow to the Cortes, prevailing upon them by various forms of bribery, and by sowing dissension among the members, to proclaim the heir to the throne without making the customary assertion of their privileges. He retained his office for three years under Charles IV. ; but in 1792, through the influence of his enemies, he was dis missed and imprisoned in the castle of Pampeluna. Here he was saved from starvation only by the intervention of his brother. Ho was afterwards allowed to retire to his estates, and remained in seclusion till the French invasion of 180S. He was then called by his countrymen to take the presidency of the central junta. But his strength failed him, and he died at Seville, November 20 of the same year. He left several short treatises on jurisprudence. FLORIO, GIOVANNI (about 1552-1625), lexicographer and translator, was born in London about 1552. He was of Tuscan origin, his father and mother being Waldenses who had fled from persecution in the Valtelline and taken refuge in England. The family left England on the acces sion of Queen Mary, but returned after her death. The son resided for a time at Oxford, and was appointed, about 1576, preceptor to the son of Barnes, bishop of Durham, then studying at Magdalen College. In 1578 Florio published a work entitled First Fmits, which yield Familiar Speech, Merry Proverbs, Witty Sentences, and Golden Sayings (4to). This was accompanied by A Perfect Induction to the Italian and English Tongues. The work was dedicated to the earl of Leicester. Three years later Florio was admitted a member of Magdalen College, and became a teacher of French and Italian in the university. In 1591