At that time, none of the three men had heard of Thomas Brown or the Florida Rangers, but a few days after they began issuing orders, Brown was thoroughly familiar with their plans. After sharing his intelligence with Governor Tonyn and Colonel Prevost, he immediately assumed as his own responsibility the marshaling of Creek Indian attacks on a few settlements, which greatly reduced the recruitment of frontiersmen into the Georgia militia. As usual, he was able to furnish a complete report of these preparations to his superiors and to prepare his own forces for a confrontation. One of his agents in Savannah obtained a copy of a message from Lee to his superiors, which proved to be quite amusing to Governor Tonyn and the military commanders:

The people here are if possible more harum skarum than their sister colony of South Carolina. They will propose anything, and after they have propos’d it, discover that they are incapable of performing the least. They have propos’d securing their frontiers by constant patrols of horse rangers, when the scheme is approv’d of they scratch their heads for some days, and at length inform you that there is a small difficulty in the way; that of the impossibility to procure a single horse. Their next project is to keep their inland navigation clear of tenders by a numerous fleet of Guarda Costa arm’d boats, when this is agreed to, they recollect that they have not a single boat. Upon the whole I shou’d not be surpris’d if they were to propose mounting a body of Mermaids on Alligators . . .

Still somewhat skeptical, General Lee came to Savannah in August and, despite the terribly hot and humid weather, began preparations for an invasion of Florida, designed to break up the settlements between the St. Johns and St. Marys rivers, to punish the Florida Rangers and stop their raids into south Georgia, and then to take St. Augustine. But after only a few days in the town he confirmed the colony’s vulnerability and expressed deep concern about bitter divisions among the leaders. Lee even recommended abandoning all land south of the Altamaha River and expending all their effort in defending the rest of the state, but Georgia leaders unanimously rejected his proposal and he finally agreed to join in an attack on east Florida. As the general commented, “This is the only issue on which the leaders in Savannah can agree.”