1811.

TECUMTHE IN THE SOUTH.

535

of making war without just cause and for his own ends, and attributed the death of Daveiss to his military blunders.

The immediate result of the battle fell short of what was expected. While the flush of victory lasted it was supposed that the Indian power was broken, that the Confederacy would fall to pieces, and that Tecumthe and the Prophet would be given over by the Indians to the United States. None of these things came to pass immediately. The influence of the Prophet did indeed perceptibly diminish. Yet in a few weeks he was once more in his village and, with the opening of the new year, the frontier was again distracted by rumors of a war. Tecumthe had returned from his Southern tour.

Leaving Vincennes in July, Tecumthe and his twenty warriors hurried southward, crossed the country of the Chickasaws and the Choctaws, and in October reached Tuckaubatchee, a Creek town on the Tallapoosa river. There the annual council of the Creeks was to be held, and there in the midst of a great gathering of Indians-Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokeesbrought to the spot by the report that he would be present, he delivered his talk. In the speech before the council Tecumthe seems to have urged unity and peace. But his presence, or perhaps the fame of his brother's skill, perhaps his conversations in private, greatly excited the younger warriors. Prophets began to appear who undertook to rouse a war spirit against the whites, and to overthrow the authority of the chiefs. They sang the songs and danced the dances of the Indians of the lakes. They called to their aid all that was terrible in magic and all that was grand and mysterious in nature. Amidst shrieks, cries, and the signs of hysteria they gave forth prophesies predicting all manner of evils for those who did not receive, or, receiving, made known their "talks." Towns which refused aid to the prophets were to be destroyed by the lightning, or swallowed by earthquakes, or covered up by the hills that were to be toppled over upon them. Such as did give aid were to suffer no harm, for the prophets would draw a magic line around them and make the earth an impassable quagmire. Well knowing that the arts of peace the Creeks had so long been cultivating were ruinous to

a spirit of war, the prophets became the enemies of civilization and were soon calling on the people to break their looms, kill their cows and hogs, and do no work of any kind. Of all this the old chiefs of the confederacy knew nothing and looked on the dancing and singing of the followers of the prophets as the foolish amusement of the idle and the giddy. Having started this fanaticism in the South, Tecumthe came North through the Osage country and reached Indiana in December.

That he would seek vengeance on the settlers for the victory at Tippecanoe was fully expected. No surprise was felt, therefore, when, in April, 1812, war began along the frontier. During that month ten men were murdered within three miles of Fort Dearborn. Several more were killed near Fort Madison on the Mississippi, near Sandusky, near Defiance, and near Greenville in Ohio. A whole family was massacred not five miles from Vincennes, and one settler scalped near the Ohio and another on White river.*

And now the outlying population of the Territory took to flight, and a stream of fugitives came pouring through Vin· cennes on their way to Kentucky. Still others, abandoning their farms, took refuge in block-houses or such temporary forts as they could build hastily, where they suffered terribly for the necessaries of life. Even Vincennes was not thought safe, and it seemed not unlikely that, if a general Indian rising took place, Indiana would be depopulated. But Tecumthe most happily was not ready. Meantime he continued to assert his friendship for his white brothers, treated the affair at Tippecanoe as of slight moment, declared that the border murders were the work of the Pottawotomies, over whom he had no control, and waited for the signal from Canada.

While one agent of the Government was thus exciting the Indians to war in the far Northwest, another agent was doing his best to excite the Spaniards and the Indians in the far Southeast. Under authority of the act of January fifteenth, 1811, which was no longer a secret, ‡ Madison selected General George

* American State Papers. Indian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 807, 808. Harrison to the Secretary of War, ibid., p. 808.

Though ordered by Congress not to be made public, a copy of the law was obtained and published by the Connecticut Mirror and by the True American.

1811.

AMELIA ISLAND.

537

Matthews and Colonel John McKee to be commissioners to proceed to East Florida. The purpose of the United States was to take possession of East Florida and hold it, lest, in the turbulent condition of the Spanish monarch, some foreign power should seize it. The country was, however, at some future day, to be returned to Spain. Matthews and McKee were therefore instructed to take peaceful possession if the Governor would surrender it, or forcible possession if they had any reason to suspect the approach of a foreign power. Arriving at St. Mary's, a little town on the American side of the boundary line, Matthews found a state of affairs which seemed to him to justify instant possession on the principle of self-preservation. The river was full of British craft busily engaged in smuggling British goods, wares, and merchandise into the United States in violation of the Non-importation Law. Amelia Island, which lay off the Florida coast just at the mouth of the St. Mary's river, was a nest of smugglers. Fernandina, the Spanish town on the island, was a mere depot for illicit trade. The authority of Spain was purely nominal, for there was in fact no law of any kind in force.

Matthews, however, set about his work, opened negotiations with the local authorities, and, after spending six months in making inquiries, concluded that quiet possession was not to Be obtained. The profits of the smuggling trade were too great to be willingly surrendered. Supposing that the country was to be taken by some means, he therefore recommended Madison to employ force. The people of East Florida should, he thought, be encouraged to do what the people of New Feliciana had already done-revolt and declare East Florida independent, and bring it over to the United States. Help would be needed to accomplish this. But if the President would furnish the commandant at St. Mary's with two hundred stand of arms and fifty horseman's swords, Matthews would see that they reached the people without in any way committing the United States. These views were yet more fully stated to William H. Crawford, a Georgia Senator, and by him were communicated to Madison. As no objection was made, Matthews presumed that silence gave consent, and began to organize the revolution. As agents he selected the post

master at St. Mary's, the United States Deputy Marshal, and a well-known Spanish subject named John H. McIntosh. By them in the course of the winter and spring a band of some two hundred adventurers was quietly collected and armed, and one day in March, 1812, was taken over St. Mary's river into Florida. There, on a bluff some six miles above Amelia Island, they camped and raised a white flag, on which was a soldier charging bayonet and the motto, "Salus populi—suprema lex."

On the island was Fernandina, a Spanish post held by ten men under the command of Don Justo Lopez. The commander of the patriots, as they called themselves, was John H. McIntosh, and by him, on the morning of March fifteenth, a flag of truce was sent to Lopez. The determination of the United States, so the note ran, to take possession of East Florida had induced some of the inhabitants of the province to do it themselves. Accordingly, under the patronage of the United States, they had taken possession of the country from St. Mary's river to St. John's, and now summoned Fernandina to surrender. In the harbor were then lying at anchor nine gun-boats belonging to the United States. The commander of the fleet was Hugh Campbell, whose duty in those waters was to stop the smuggling and enforce the Non-importation Law. To him Lopez despatched two messengers with a note telling what the patriots had stated, and asking if he had orders to aid them. Two other messengers were at the same time sent off with a note of similar purport to Major Laval, who commanded the United States troops at Point Peter. Campbell referred the whole matter to General Matthews. But Laval replied that he had no orders to help the patriots. Now, it so happened that General Matthews was at that moment in the camp engaged, as the commandant assured the messengers, in attempting to entice the troops to join the patriots. With him, therefore, the messengers had an interview, told him plainly that the patriots were Americans, brought into Florida under his promise of five hundred acres of land to each of them if the revolution was successful, and that in the eyes of Spain the affair was an American invasion of her territory. The messengers then went on to the Patriot

1812. THE UNITED STATES OCCUPIES THE ISLAND. 539

camp, assured the commander that Lopez would not under any circumstances surrender to him, but would treat with the United States. An agreement was therefore made that all parties should meet on the morrow in the patriot camp on Belle river. But the conference accomplished nothing, and the messengers returned to Amelia Island to find Fernandina under the guns of the United States gun-boats. Early in the morning Campbell had dropped down from St. Mary's and taken position before the town. In the afternoon the patriots came down the river in boats. The garrison, some ten men, marched out and grounded arms, Lopez gave up his sword, and McIntosh hauled down the Spanish flag and ran up that of the patriots instead. In the articles of capitulation was one which declared that in twenty-four hours after the capitulation the island should be surrendered to the United States, but should be exempt from the Non-importation Law. This was done, and before noon on March eighteenth, 1812, the flag of the United States was flying over the fort at Fernandina, and a company of United States riflemen were in possession. The patriots then set off to reduce St. Augustine.

With them went a detachment of United States regulars. Marching to within two miles of the town, the army camped at a place called Fort Moosa. When Madison heard of these things he recalled Matthews, and requested Governor Mitchell, of Georgia, to take his place. Should he, on reaching St. Mary's, see no prospect of foreign occupation, he was to withdraw the troops, restore Amelia Island, and take care that those who, relying on the protection of the United States, had engaged in the revolution, did not fall a prey to the anger of the Spanish governor.

Mitchell willingly accepted the mission, and hastened to St. Mary's, where he found the situation more serious than ever. The patriots showed no disposition to retire. Indeed, at a meeting held at the camp before St. Augustine, they called for five hundred more troops, and pledged their sacred honor not to lay down their arms till independence was secured. Having no money, they promised that all who should join them should be paid in land or in such property as might be taken