In 1768, the ships arrived at the mosquito-choked inlet of Ponce de Leon. The reality hit them immediately. There was no housing. The land wasn't cleared. The provisions were short. The settlers were tasked with clearing dense palmetto scrub and pine forests to plant indigo, a cash crop the British desperate wanted. Conditions were brutal. The settlers died by the hundreds from scurvy, gangrene, and malaria. By some accounts, nearly half the population died within the first