The buffalo had all been hunted out in Georgia by the late 1700’s. James Oglethorpe wrote to King George in 1735 that there were “over 10,000 buffalo between the Savannah and the Altamaha Rivers.” After the buffalo were all gone, frontiersmen and their Indian allies turned to cow beef that were routinely poached from Spanish ranchers. When British and Indian raids began in 1702, the Spanish ranchers fled to the protection of St. Augustine and its large fortress. The numerous ranches were eventually abandoned and their large domesticated herds were released into the wilds. In a short period, these feral longhorn cattle exploded across the land. Their hardiness resisted parasites and disease and they grew in numbers unprecedented by any past domestication. When Spain relinquished all rights to Florida in 1763, the well-established Scottish Highlanders became the first cowboys in British held territory. As cow hunters, they brought north for domestication thousands of the wild Spanish cattle. Among the Highlanders were the black cowboys, they were some of the best horsemen in the world and their efforts as “cow hunters” supplied ranches with abandoned Spanish cattle. This is a forgotten chapter in history, the Gaelic speaking Highlanders and the African American cowboys working long days side by side on horseback in the marshes of Georgia. The term “cracker” comes from the Scottish Gaelic word crack, which means ruffian which was fitting considering Highlanders were known for their defiant nature. For generations these Colonials had been cattlemen in the Highlands of Scotland, but now turned cow hunters and spent their days rounding up feral cattle from the harsh savannah terrain and mosquito infested swamps. From a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth in the 1760’s, -”I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascals on the frontiers.” Many Highlanders traded in their kilts and broadswords for Indian style leather pants and unique leather whips. The term “cracker” was also associated with the Georgia cowboys in the 1700’s because of the eighteen-foot braided bull whips used. The cracking of the whip was the only thing that could move wild cattle out of the swamps and in a manageable direction. Cowboys then would crack the whip near the bull’s ear, as it frightened them similar to lightning strikes. They became very proficient with the whip as it was the tool used to keep alligators and rattlesnakes at bay. Some bronze statues and paintings by Frederick Remington featured in Harper’s Magazine were in fact not western cowboys, but Georgia-Florida crackers. Even the famous cowboy song ‘Ballad of Bone Mizell’ was about Morgan Bonaparte Mizell of Florida, who stood six foot five and was a real cowboy legend in America. Ziba King from Ware County, Georgia was another legendary tall cowboy, standing six foot six, he enlisted in the Battalion of Savannah Guards during the Civil War. While serving as a cavalrymen, he well understood why both the North and South laid claim to Florida. It was because the Navy and Army could be fed off the half a million feral cattle left behind by the Spanish hundreds of years earlier. A cowboy or cow hunter in his youth, Ziba King, took his Georgia experiences to become known as the cattle baron of the South. His ranch in Florida was well over 65,000 acres, and at the time of his death he had amassed upwards of 80,000 head of cattle. Today the oldest cattle ranches in the Americas are found in Florida and Georgia and the countries best horsemen were both white and black men. The deep South cowboys served in cavalry units in the British Colonial Wars and the Revolutionary War. Shortly after the War between the States, many Georgians drove cattle to Texas and began the large ranches of today.