The Spanish on Jekyll Island

Within sight and sound of St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island was ideal for entertaining Spanish visitors to the settlement at Frederica. Major William Horton, resident of the island, received the guests while Oglethorpe on St. Simons, with cannon booming and his few soldiers appearing and reappearing on the south beach, professed a strength he did not have. In 1736, Spanish Commissioners Don Pedro Lamberto and Don Manuel d'Arcy, sent by Governor Sanchez of St. Augustine to discuss rival claims to the Georgia coast, were feted on Jekyll. On board the Sloop Hawk in Jekyll Sound, kilted Highlanders from Darien with clanging broadswords, Tomo-Chi-Chi and Hyllispilli with about 30 of their "chiefest" Indians in war paint and regella loudly denounced the Spanish and helped Oglethorpe impress the visitors with strength and good will of the colonists. Agreeing to leave all questions to the courts of Spain and England, the emissaries returned to St. Augustine pleased with their mission. Angered by the decision, Spain recalled and executed Governor Sanchez. After the Battle of Bloody Marsh, the Spaniards burned the buildings on Jekyll Island.