This map shows one of the important and controversial ports which belonged to West Florida during the British Period (1763-1783) and the first part of the Spanish Period 1783-until it was ceded back to France by the Spanish in 1795, including all the portion of West Florida west of the Perdido River. That is the current western border of the panhandle portion of Florida. That western part was later to become part of the United States when the Louisiana Purchase took place in 1803 and later divided between Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in 1811 and 1812.
The Harbor of Mobile had been valuable to the British and was described by a Captain Robinson in 1750 as ""a most noble and spacious harbour running thirty miles north and six miles broad to the several mouths of the Halabana and Chicasaw rivers. It affords good anchorage, and is capable of containing the whole British navy.""* The continued interest in this by the British and French and Spain's inability to use it or properly defend it and Pensacola was one of the factors that persuaded Spain to sell Florida to the United States in 1819.