From the start, diseases such as smallpox and scabies spread in the area. Floods, hurricanes, and droughts destroyed crops year after year. Due to the somewhat remote location from New Orleans, supplies were expensive to obtain (in the pre-steamboat era). By the end of 1779, Galveztown lost much of its importance as a military post after the British, who were fighting the rebel colonies on the East coast, lost Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Pensacola to Spain. (Four years later, Spain had control over all of Florida once again, with the Treaty of Paris.)