<P> Over half of all new British immigrants in the South initially arrived as indentured servants . They were mostly poor young people who couldn't find work in England and couldn't afford passage to America and . In addition, about 60,000 British convicts were transported to the new British colonies in Georgia in the 18th century . Most of these so - called convicts were guilty of being very poor and out of work . "Serious" criminals were generally executed . Ironically, these "convicts" are often the only immigrants with nearly complete immigration records as other immigrants typically showed up with few or no records . </P> <P> Although Spain set up a few forts in Florida, notably San Agustín (present - day Saint Augustine) in 1565, they sent few settlers to Florida . Spaniards moving north from Mexico founded the San Juan on the Rio Grande in 1598, and Santa Fe in 1607--1608 . The settlers were forced to leave temporarily for 12 years (1680--1692) by the Pueblo Revolt before returning . </P> <P> Spanish Texas lasted from 1690 to 1821 when Texas was governed as a colony which was separate from New Spain . In 1731, Canary Islanders (or "Isleños") arrived to establish San Antonio . The majority of the few hundred Texan and New Mexican colonizers in the Spanish colonial period were Spaniards and criollos . California, New Mexico, and Arizona all had Spanish settlements . In 1781 Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles . </P> <P> At the time they joined the U.S., Californios in California numbered about 10,000 and Tejanos in Texas about 4,000 . New Mexico had 47,000 Spanish settlers in 1842 . Arizona was only thinly settled . </P>

Most migrants to the united states during the peak of the late nineteenth century