railroad, and under existing circumstances the enemy can take Saint Mark's and this place with but slight resistance. We have no adequate force to defend it, scarcely enough to act as pikets to notify us of the approach of the enemy. That they itend to occupy Florida permanently is manifest from their having completed the fort near Fernandina at considerable expense and connected it by railroad with the city, and the other preparations which they are making upon our coast to defend themselves from attack by water. Permit me to invite your attention to the certificate of the comptroller of the State, exhibiting the number of slaves, cattle, &c., and their value in the respective portions of the State. I would also respectfully invite your attention to the inclosed copy of a letter addressed by me to Brigadier General John H. Forney at Mobile,* and to add that at this time there are not more than forty men (a part of a cavalry company) in arms to defend the part of this State embraced between Apalachicola River and Milton, unless General Forney has recently ordered a company to Yellow River, near the west ern boundary of Walton County.

Abundant crops of corn, potatoes, sugar-cane, and peas have been made in every portion of the State except Hillsborough County, and an unusually large number of hogs are being fattened for bacon and pork, and in almost every portion of the State there is a large quantity of cotton-last year's crop. On the western bank of Chattahoochee River, and at gin/houses on plantations not far distant from the river, and at Columbus, Ga., there are, I presume, not less than 200,000 bales of cotton. With the map of the State and the statement of the statistick, exhibiting the character and value of property in the various portions of it, your sagacity as a statesman and experience in military life will readily suggest the important points to be defended. From an examination of the map of Florida in connection with the inclosed table it will be perceived that the whole of East and South Florida has but about one-half the number of slaves that are in Middle Florida alone, independent of West Florida. The returns show 16,202 slaves for the east and south (now considerably diminished), 26,247 for the middle, 8,117 for the west. These numbers willshow relatively the value of other property in these respective districts, with the exception of cattle, in which the east and south exceed, but which is more than compensated by other destructible property in the middle which takes their place. It will be further observed that the counties bordernig on the Saint John's River, and to which access may be had by that stream, to wit, Duval, Putman, Saint John's, Marion, Volusia, and Orange, together with Nassau, have but 8,024 slaves altogether, while Leon County alone in the middle has 8,727; Jefferson, 6,001, and Gadsden, 4,151. These counties re within a few miles of the coast at Saint Mark's and t Apalachicola, and together with Jackson County, in the west, which has a slve population of 4,444, is the largest slave district in the State. I do not complain but sincerely regret that suggestions and remonstrances made by me, with a full knowledge of the geography and resources of the State, and an intimate acquaintance with the character and dispositions of the citizens in every portion of it, and made after mature reflection, have been so frequently disregarded, in consequense of which, in my humble judgment, disaster after disaster has occurred, until the State is exposed to and thretened with immediate subjagation, and many of our citiyens have become indignant and almost reckless as to the fearful results. How could it be otherwise,

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*Not found as an inclosure, but see Milton to Forney, October 11, VOL. LII, partII, p.372.

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