Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/393

 Galvez reduced the Mississippi forts in the fall of 1779, and the next spring attacked Mobile by land, after an adventurous voyage. Durnford was in command, but he had only two hundred and seventy-five men with which to oppose two thousand. A cannonade, and Campbell's slowness in sending aid, compelled a capitulation on March 14th, and the district became Spanish. Next year, Pensacola also succumbed. The treaty of 1783 confirmed the Floridas to Spain, and gave the English but a few months to sell their property and leave.

During the intervening years, Mobile was under military rule, but affairs gradually settled down to a peace basis. Many British abandoned their houses or farms, and left them as the property of his Catholic Majesty. The King, after an inquest showing their vacancy, regranted them, in different sizes, to his own subjects, and even to British who had taken an oath of allegiance. In this way, the grants still existing are generally new, and can seldom be traced back to English owners. Courts were held by alcaldes, and the commandant, as civil (political) and military governor, also exercised judicial power. Many proclamations, grants, suits, wills and inventories of this time are still