Relations with Spain. shall be made out, and certified by an officer appointed by each of us, and a receipt given for the same, to be accounted for to His Catholic Majesty by the United States. The subject of my possession of the garrison of St. Mark's will be referred to our respective Governments for amicable adjustment. Some armed vessels of the United States are in the bay of St. Mark, with whom I wish to communicate. You will, I trust, furnish me with a small vessel to convey a letter as well as some sick and wounded that are with me. As our mutual savage enemies are concentrating their forces near or on the Suwanee, an early and prompt answer is requested to this letter, with an English translation, as neither myself nor staff are acquainted with the Spanish. This will be handed you by my aid-de-camp, Lieutenant James Gadsden, by whom an answer is expected. I have, &c. ANDREW JACKSON, Major Gen. commanding. The COM'NG OFFICER at St Mark's. No. 42. F. C. Luengo to General Jackson. ST. MARK'S OF APPALACHE, April 7, 1818. MOST EXCELLENT SIR: Being made to understand, although with the greatest difficulty, the contents of the letter with which your excellency honored me yesterday evening, delivered to me by your aid-de-camp, James Gadsden, I will declare to your excellency the satisfaction the knowledge of your expedition against Mickasuky has afforded me. That such would be the event could not be doubted, on considering the superior talents and skilful conduct of your excellency, and to these must be attributed the success, on which I tender you my most cordial congratulations. My chief, the Governor of Pensacola, had in truth reason to mention to your captains (Gordon and Call) what your excellency states to me, and to entertain fears for the fate of this fort, menaced by Indians and negroes, for some months past, and particularly since they have been disappointed in their expectations of obtaining powder and ball, which they have so repeatedly solicited, and to which they thought themselves entitled, from the practice which existed of supplying them annually therewith. This proves how entirely unfounded is the assertion of the wife of the chief Chenubby, that the Indians have been supplied with munitions in this fort since I was advised and determined to maintain the most perfect neutrality. No one can better remove from your excellency's mind any unfavorable impressions you may have formed on this subject than the bearer, William Hambly, as he has at various times interpreted to me the solicitations of the several Indian chiefs in my neighborhood; and he can also inform you of the advice I always gave them to avoid the destruction which has overtaken them, and which I foresaw from the beginning. This being realized, and there being now no motive to fear any insult to the fort from these barbarians and the negroes, I beg permission of your excellency to call your attention to the difficulty I should involve myself in with my Government if I were presently to assent to what your excellency proposes to me to garrison this fort with the troops of the United States without first receiving its orders. Such I will solicit immediately an opportunity offers, and I do not for a moment doubt that they will be given to me, so zealous is my Government to comply with the stipulations between her and the United States. In the interim, I hope your excellency will desist from your intention, and be firmly persuaded of the good faith and harmony which will reign between this garrison and whatever troops you may think fit to leave in this vicinity, who may assist me in the defence of this fort on any unforeseen event. The sick your Excellency sent in are lodged in the royal hospital, and I have afforded them every_aid which circumstances admit. I hope your Excellency will give me other opportunities of evincing the desire I have to satisfy you. I trust your Excellency will pardon my not answering you as soon as requested, for reasons which have been given you by your aid-de-camp. I do not accompany this with an English translation, as your Excellency desires, because there is no one in the fort capable thereof; but the before-named Wm. Hambly proposes to translate it to your Excellency in the best manner he can. May our Lord preserve your Excellency many years, such is my prayer. Most excellent sir, I kiss your Excellency's hands. Your most devoted and obedient servant. FR. CASO Y LUENGO. The Most Excellent A. JACKSON, General-in-chief, &c. No. 43 a. General Jackson to F. C. Luengo. HEADQUARTERS, DIVISION OF THE SOUTH, Camp near St. Mark's, April 7, 1818. SIR: I refer you to my communication of yesterday for the motives which have compelled me to occupy the fort of St. Mark. I again repeat that I have entered the territory of Spain as a friend, to chastise a mutual enemy of both nations, and whom His Catholic Majesty was bound, under the most sacred of treaties, to have punished himself. Peculiar circumstances, however, have prevented, and it was therefore expected that every facility would have been given to the American arms to have insured success to their operations. The occupation of St. Mark's is essential to the accomplishment of my campaign, and is peculiarly so at this period, when evidence is derived from every source of the designs of the negroes and Indians against that fortress. They are now concentrating with the intention of taking possession of St. Mark's the moment my army moves from its vicinity; the dislodging them from which will cost me more Relations with Spain. American blood than I am disposed should be shed. Success to my operations requires despatch; you will excuse me, therefore, in refusing your request that a suspension should be granted until a permit is obtained from your Government, and in insisting that St. Mark's should be immediately occupied by American troops. Major Fanning, my inspector general, and Lieutenant Simmons, of the ordnance department, are appointed to act with one or two officers nominated on your part, to take an inventory of and inspect all public property in the fort of St. Mark, for which receipts will be given in the name of the American Government. Any disposition which you would wish made with the private property of yourself, officers, and soldiers, or any other arrangements gratifying to yourself, will be settled by my aids de-camp, Lieutenants Gadsden and Glassell. ANDREW JACKSON, Major Gen. commanding. DON FRANCISCO CASO Y LUENGO, Commanding Fort St. Mark's. No. 43 b. General Jackson to F. C. Luengo. Camp near St. Mark's, April 7, 1818. SIR: I have received your protest against my proceedings. The occupancy of Fort St. Mark's by my troops previous to your assenting to the measure became necessary from the difficulties thrown in the way of an amicable adjustment, notwithstanding my assurances that every arrangement should be made to your satisfaction, and expressing a wish that my movements against our common enemy should not be retarded by a tedious negotiation. I again repeat what has been reiterated to you through my aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Gadsden, that your personal rights and private property shall be respected, that your situation shall be made as comfortable as practicable while compelled to remain in Fort St. Mark's, and that transports shall be furnished as soon as they can be obtained to convey yourself, family, and command to Pensacola. I daily expect some vessels from the Bay of Appalachicola; as soon as they arrive, the most suitable shall be selected for said purpose. ANDREW JACKSON, No. 44. F. C. Luengo to General Jackson. APPALACHICOLA, April 7, 1818. MOST EXCELLENT SIR: I should insist on what I stated to your excellency in my letter of this morning, as to the necessity of awaiting orders from the Governor of Pensacola for the delivery of the fort under my command, were I not, in addition to what your excellency says in your answer, threatened by your aid-de-camp and the 15th CoN. 2d SESS.-64 | officers appointed to negotiate on the subject, and had not so large a body of troops entered without awaiting my permission, and taken possession of all the stores and posts, lowering the Spanish flag, and hoisting the American. So manifest a violation of the territory of His Catholic Majesty obliges me to complain of it, and to protest against it; and I accordingly do protest it, and beg of your excellency to provide, as speedily as possible, the vessels necessary to transport me to Pensacola, together with the troops and those persons who are in the royal employ; and also to give orders that, in the interim, the private property and effects of every Spanish individual here be respected. With respect to the public property of His Catholic Majesty, I have nominated the subaltern of the detachment and commissary of the fort to make, with three officers whom you name to me, an inventory thereof. I repeat to your excellency my respects, and pray to God to preserve your life many years. Most excellent sir, I kiss your excellency's hands. Your most obedient and devoted servant, F. CASO Y LUENGO. The Most Excellent A. JACKSON. 45. W. Hambly's certificates, July 24, 1818. I do hereby certify that, during my long residence on the river Appalachicola, my knowledge of the Indian language, and my intimate acquaintance with the different chiefs, gave me many opportunities of knowing through them the advice given them, from time to time, by the Governors of West Florida hostile to the United States. In the year 1812 or 1813, I saw a letter from the Governor of Pensacola to the late chief of the Seminoles, Thomas Perryman, advising him to collect his forces and join his Upper Town brethren, who he said had come to a determination to rise in arms and shake off the American yoke; he would supply their arms and ammunition; and he said he was sure that, in less than a month, their fathers and protectors, the Spaniards, would have a sufficient army in the field to aid and protect them. Not long after I saw this letter, a large party of Indians went down to Pensacola, where they received a large supply of ammunition and some arms. It was but shortly after this when they attacked and destroyed the garrison of Fort Mimms; this was the commencement of the first Indian war. On the 13th of December last, when on my plantation on the Appalachicola, I was made a prisoner by a party of Seminole Indians, and was taken up to the Ocheehee bluffs in company with Mr. Doyle, who was made a prisoner with me; they kept us there three days, during which time they were busily engaged with some transports which were then ascending the river to Fort Scott; from thence they took us to the Mickasuky, where the Indians informed me that they had been told by the commandant of St. Mark's that war was declared between Spain and the United States. From this place we were carried to the Suwanee, where Kenhagee, Relations with Spain. principal chief of the Seminoles, told me that we had been taken and robbed by order of Arbuthnot, and brought there to be tried by him; shortly after we reached this, Arbuthnot arrived from Providence, when we were tried and sentenced by said Arbuthnot to be tortured; this sentence was not put in execution by the friendly interference of Mr. Cook, clerk to Arbuthnot, and the negro chief Nero; we were then conducted back to the Mickasuky; then Kenhagee went down to the Fort St. Mark's to consult the commandant if he would take us as prisoners to keep at his order; they held a council among the neigh-strained, and several councils were held, at one boring chiefs, and on the fifth day he returned, and ordered us to be conducted down next morn ing; we arrived at St. Mark's on the 12th Febuary, at night; the Spanish officers received us kindly, but the commandant did not forget to remind us that we were still prisoners, and marked out that night the limits of our prison, which he rigidly kept during the time of our stay. Next morning, the first thing that presented itself to my view was my saddle-horse which had been taken from me by the Indians; he was in the possession of the commissary. I mentioned it to the commandant, but he said that he bought him of an Indian, and he could do nothing in it. A few days after, in the course of conversation, I mentioned it to the Spanish doctor; he assured me that two-thirds of the property taken from us by the Indians had been bought by them and others in the fort. The plundered property from Georgia was every day briskly bought by the commandant and others. I know one instance of an Indian making an engagement with the commandant for cattle that he was going then to plunder, and in fourteen or fifteen days brought them in and sold them. On our first arrival at St. Mark's, we had, by help of a friendly Indian, conveyed intelligence to our friends in Pensacola of our situation, and they sent us on a small vessel to effect our escape; on her arrival, the commandant said to us that he had no objection to our getting out of the power of the Indians, but that he should first demand a written obligation that we should never return to that country, nor hold any communication, direct or indirect, with the United States Government, or any of her officers. This being settled, we left St. Mark's on the night of the 28th of March, and joined Captain McKeever, in his gunboats, in the bay of Appalachicola; on the 30th returned with him to St. Mark's, where we found General Jackson, on the 6th of April. Given under my hand the 24th July. WILLIAM HAMBLY. No. 46 a. W. Hambly and E. Doyle to General Jackson. SIR: We beg leave to submit to you the following facts: On the 13th of December, 1817, we were violently torn from our settlement on the Appalachicula river, by a number of Indians, headed by Chenubby, a chief of the Fowl Town tribe, car- WILLIAM HAMBLY, No. 46 b. J. Gadsden to General Jackson. FORT GADSDEN, May 3, 1818. SIR: In conversation with the commandant of Fort St. Mark's, on the subject of having that work occupied by an American garrison, I had occasion to notice the aid and comfort the hostile party of Indians had received, as reported from him; that they had free access within the walls of his fort; and that it was well known no small supplies of Relations with Spain. ammunition had been received from that quarter. In reply, he stated that his conduct had been governed by policy: the defenceless state of his works, and the weakness of his garrison, compelled him to conciliate the friendship of the Indians, to supply their wants, to grant what he had not the power to deny, and to throw open, with apparent willingness. the gates of his fortress, lest they should be forced by violence; that he had been repeatedly threatened by Indians and negroes; and that his security depended upon exhibiting an external friendship. After Fort St. Mark's was occupied by the American troops, a black man and Spanish soldier was reported to me as having been arrested, clad in American uniform, recognised as part of the clothing of the 4th and 7th regiments, captured in the boat commanded by Lieutenant Scott, in ascending the Appalachicola river. In explanation, the Spanish commandant observed that his soldiers and the Seminole Indians were in the habit of trading with each other, and that this negro, with others of his garrison, had received his permission to purchase some clothing reported to have been brought in by the Indians. Respectfully, your obedient servant, J. GADSDEN, Aid-de-camp. Maj. Gen. A. JACKSON, No. 46 c. Major Twiggs to General Jackson, FORT GADSDEN, May 3, 1818. SIR: After the occupancy of Fort St. Mark's with American troops, on the 7th of April last, it became my duty to take charge of some goods found in one of the public stores. These goods were pointed out by the Spanish commandant, who, through Mr. Hambly as interpreter, separated several of the articles claimed as his own private property, and designated others as the property of Francis, or Hillis Hadjo, and Arbuthnot, a British agent or trader. An inventory of these was taken, and deposited with the American officer left in command of Fort St. Mark's. With respect, &c. by a number of officers and men from Georgia JACOB R. BROOKS, Assistant Commissary. No. 46 e. Andrew F. Fraser and Daniel F. Sullivan to General Jackson. We, the undersigned officers and men of the Georgia militia in the service of the United States, do hereby certify that we were at Fort St. Mark's, East Florida, at the time of its capture by Major General Andrew Jackson, on the 7th April, 1818, and saw some cattle that were purchased on account of the United States from the Spanish authorities, which we were ready to swear to as the property of our friends and neighbors in Georgia. Given under our hands, at Fort Gadsden, this 3d May, 1818. A. W. FRASER, Captain. No. 47 a. A. Arbuthnot to Lieutenant Colonel Nicholls. NASSAU, N. P., August 26, 1817. SIR: I am especially authorized to address you by the chiefs of the Creek nation whose names I affix to the present. They desire it to be made known that they have implicitly followed our advice in living friendly with the Americans who were their neighbors, and nowise attempted to molest them, though they have seen the Americans encroach on their territory, burning their towns, and making fields where their houses stood; rather than make resistance, they have retired lower in the peninsula. The town of Ecan Halloway, on the Chatahoochee, where Otomisco was chief, is one instance of the enroachments of the Americans. This town is situated under the guns of Fort I certify that I acted as interpreter in the trans-Gaines, and Mico was desired to submit to the action above alluded to, and that two separate parcels of goods were designated by the Spanish commandant of St. Mark's as belonging to Hillis Hadjo and Arbuthnot. D. E. TWIGGS, Brev. Maj. 7th Infantry. WILLIAM HAMBLY. Americans, or his town would be blown to atoms. Rather than do this he retired, is now living in the lower nation, and his fields, where the town stood, are ploughed up by the Americans. They complain of the English Government neglecting them, after having drawn them into a war with America; that the promise made them of sending people to reside among them has not been kept; and if they have not some person or persons to reside in the nation to watch over their interests, they will soon be driven to the extremity of the peninsula. You left Mr. Hambly to watch over the interests of the Creek nation, but you had hardly left the nation when he turned traitor, and was led by Forbes to take the part of the Americans. His letter (No. 47 b.) to me, of which I annex a copy, will show you what Relations with Spain. lengths he would go if he had the means. It is Hambly and Doyle who gave the Indians all the trouble they experience. They send their emissaries among the Lower Creeks, and make them believe that the Cowetas, aided by the Americans, are coming down on them. They send to the Cowetas, and report that the lower nation is arming against them. Thus both are put in fear, and their fields are neglected, and hunting is not thought of. I have endeavored to do away this fear, by writing to the chiefs of Coweta town that they ought to live on friendly terms with their brethren of the lower nation, whose wish it was to be on good terms with them, and not to listen to any bad talks, but to chase those that give them from among them. My letter was answered by them rather favorably; and I hope the talk that was sent to the Big Warrior last June will heal the differences between them. Hillis Hadjo arrived in my schooner at Ochlochnee Sound last June, and was well received by all the chiefs and others who came to welcome him home. In consequence of his arrival, a talk was held, the substance of which I put on paper for them, and it was sent, with a pipe of peace, to the other nations. Hillis Hadjo wished to return to Nassau with me, but I prevailed on him to stay with the nation and keep them all at peace. I am desired to return Hillis Hadjo's warmest acknowledgments for the very handsome manner in which you treated him in England; and he begs his prayers may be laid at the foot of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent. I left him and all his family well on the 20th of June. Old Cappachimico desired me to send you his best respects, and requests you will send him out some people to live among them, and all the land they took from Forbes shall be theirs. At all events, they must have an agent among them, to see that the Americans adhere to the treaty, and permit them to live unmolested on their own land. This agent should be authorized by His Majesty's Government, or he will not be attended to by the Americans. cans were to give up to the Indians all the lands that may have been taken during the war, and place them on the same footing they were in Choctawhatchy in 1811. It appears that they have not done so; that Fort Gaines, on the Chatahoochee river, and Camp Crawford, on the Flint river, are both on Indian territory that was not in possession of the Americans in 1811. They are fearful that, before any aid is given them by the English Government, they will no longer be in possession of any territory. I wrote last January to his excellency the Hon. Charles Bagot, representing the encroachments of the Americans, (as I was informed, by the copy of a letter from the Right Hon. Earl Bathurst, handed me by his excellency Governor Cameron, that His Majesty's ambassadors had received orders to watch over the interests of the Indians.) Since my return here, I have received from Mr. Moodie, of Charleston, an extract of a letter from the Hon. Charles Bagot, that the expense of postage is so considerable that any further communications of the same nature must be sent him by private hands. Now, sir, as no person goes direct from this to Washington, how am I to be able to comply with this desire? Thus, he will be kept ignorant of the real situation of the poor Indians, and the encroachments made on their lands by American settlers, while we may be told by the American Government that no encroachments have been made, and that the forts they still hold are necessary to check the unruly Seminoles. Thus, the persons appointed to watch over the poor Indians have no other means of information than from the parties interested in their destruction; and, from seeing, from time to time, in the American gazettes, accounts of cruel murders, &c., committed by the Indians on the frontier settlers of the United States, he apprehends the Indians merit all the Americans do to them. But let His Majesty's Government appoint an agent with full powers, and to correspond with His Majesty's ambassador at Washington, and his eyes will then be open as to the motives that influence American individuals, as well as the Government, in vilifying the Indians. In the gazettes of Georgia, the Americans report that the Seminole Indians are continually com- The powers given me and the instructions were mitting murders on their borders, and making to memorialize His Majesty's Government, as incursions into the State. These are publica-well as the Governor General of Havana; but if tions tending to irritate the American Govern- you will be pleased to lay this letter before His ment against the poor Indians; for, during the Majesty's Secretary of State, it will save the netime I was in the nation, there was only one cessity of the first, and I fear that a memorial_to American killed; and he, with two others, was the Governor General would be of no use. Rein the act of driving off cattle belonging to Bo-ferring you to the enclosed, (No. 47 b,) I remain, leck, chief of Suwanee; whereas, three men and most respectfully, your obedient servant, a boy were killed last June, by a party of cattleA. ARBUTHNOT. stealers, while in their hunting-camps; the boy they scalped; and one of Boleck's headmen was killed on St. John's river in July. The backwoods Georgians, and those resident on the borders of the Indian nation are continually entering it and driving off cattle. They have in some instances made settlements, and particularly on the Choctawhatchy river, where a considerable number have descended. By the treaty with Great Britain, the Ameri To Lt. Col. NICHOLLS. No. 47 b. Extract of a letter from W. Hambly to A. Arbuthnot, received at Ochlochnee Sound, dated SPANISH BLUFF, May 10, 1817. SIR: I am desired by the chiefs of the nation to request you will extricate yourselves from among a band of outlaws, among whom you now |