Relations with Spain.

They all started on horseback. The two deputies that go to Nassau with me left behind.

These men are children of nature; leave them in their forests to till their fields and hunt the stag and graze their cattle, their ideas will extend no farther; and the honest trader, in supplying their moderate wants, may make a handsome

territory prior to the war being guarantied by the
treaty between England and the United States,
and to request that he, the commandant, would re-
frain from further encroachments, and give orders
that their lands should be respected. The answer
they received from the commander was, that it was
all true they had told him, but that he had orders
to act as he did. A chief of the Fowl Town In-profit of them.
dians stated that the American troops, returning
from the destruction of the fort at Prospect Bluff
burnt cne entire town and murdered several of
their people, because they would not join them
when going down the river. The Tiger warrior,
and two other men of note, spoke, stating the cir-
cumstances of aggression and cruelty that had
come to their knowledge. Cappachimico, Mc-
Queen, and the others, further stated what reports
they had from Doyle, Hambly, &c., and all were
of opinion, and firmly believed, that Hambly, a
clerk to and influenced by Forbes, was the cause
of the destruction of the fort at the bluff; and
that Hambly went down the river as a guide to
the American army, and was particularly instru-
mental in its being blown up, as he pointed out
to the American officers where the magazines |
were placed, that they might play their shells
against them. Such few negroes as were saved
from the explosion unhurt were carried off by the
Americans, with cannon, ammunition, arms, &c.,
that were found in the fort.

N. B. I take no notice of Captain W.'s talk to the Indians, because I doubt much of what he stated was not founded in fact, and was only mentioned by him to strengthen the chiefs in their attachment to the British Government. I say no further on this head. Of his promises, I fear he has also gone too far; and, perhaps, at a future time, when the Indians find them unperformed, the rage for their disappointment may fall on me as a party aiding and abetting Captain W. in his deception. I have gone beyond my promise to Captain W.; I have been deceived in almost everything; and yet he thinks every thing and person must be subservient to him. I have had himself and aid-de-camp on board since the 31st August; in any expedition, in canoe or boat, I have supplied his wants. I kept three negroes on board more than two months on his account. I presented the chiefs for him and on his account. I have seen my provisions taken and given away when we were on short allowance; for Captain W. gives liberally when it is not out of his own pocket, but is extremely costive when anything is wanted from home.

10th. Cappachimico and McQueen gave me a note of the most necessary articles they wanted immediately, and which I promised them to bring, if possible, by the end of December, and land them as agreed. Gave them a card with seals &c., as a token that, when they received a messenger with the duplicate thereof in R. W., he came with the straight talk from me; made each a present of rum, sugar, coffee, and one hundred cigars; also, the Tiger warrior and two others and the rest had a good lot of cigars each; gave them a parting glass; took leave at twelve, midday.

They have been ill-treated by the English, and robbed by the Americans; cheated by those who have dealt with them, receiving goods and other articles at most exorbitant prices for their peltry, which has been much undervalued. I say the English ill-treat them: after making them parties in the war with America, they leave them without a pilot, to be robbed and ill-treated by their natu ral and sworn enemies, the Americans. When the English officer, Colonel Nicholls, left Prospect Bluff, on the Appalachicola river, he left particular orders with Cappachimico and the other chief's not on any account to enter on the territory of the Americans; while, at the same time, he informed them the Americans were to give up that territory they had taken possession of during the war; but, while he informed the Indians how they should act, and what the Americans were to do in compliance with the treaty, he left no person to guide them in their conduct in case the latter should not comply, or continue to extend their encroachments and commit aggressions. When such was the case, they had none to represent their case to the British Government but William Hambly, the clerk of John Forbes, and Doyle, another of his clerks, both of whom had long before the conclusion of the war sold themselves to the American Government, and, while they were receiving British pay, acted as spies to the Americans. These persons were not likely to represent the conduct and encroachment of the Americans in their true light. No, they attempted to influence the chiefs to join the Americans. Doyle stated, in a talk at St. Mark's, that in four years no Englishman durst set his foot in the Floridas; yet these were the only persons to whom the poor untutored Indian could apply to represent their grievances to the British Government, or any governor of their islands; and it was not likely they, the tools of the Americans, would give a just and true account of the Indian grievances. Hambly, the Indian interpreter, was ordered to write to the Governor of New Providence, demanding his interference; and, by an intercepted letter from his brother, dated at Regla, in February last, it appears he had written a letter to New Providence; but to whom?

No. 69.

Arbuthnot to the commanding officer at Fort Gaines.

OCHLOCHNEE SOUND, March 3, 1817. SIR: I am desired by Peter McQueen, an unfortunate chief, who was some years since obliged to fly from his town of Tuckabatchee, on the Tallapoohatche river, to claim of your friendship the delivery of a negro man named Joe, (aken away from him since the peace,) whom he states

Relations with Spain.

The American headmen and officers, that were A. Culloh to Arbuthnot, (answer to No. 69,) found accustomed to live near him, can testify to his civility and good fellowship with them; and there are none of them, he is convinced, that would not serve him if in their power. As he owes nothing, nor ever took any person's property, none have a right to retain his; and he hopes that, through your influence, those persons now holding his negroes will be induced to give them up.

I am in hopes that ere this there is arrived at ❘ ment.

The following letters, in addition to those al

SIR: Kenhagee, head chief of the Lower Creek nation, has called on me to request I would re-ready made public, tend to show the deep interest present to you the cruel and oppressive conduct which this unfortunate gentleman took in proof the American people living on the borders of curing redress for what he conceived to be the the Indian nation, and which he was in hopes, unprovoked aggressions of the American back from a talk you were pleased to send him some settlers on the Indian boundary line. weeks since, would have been put a stop to, and peace restored between the Indians and the American people; but, far from any stop being put to their inroads and encroachments, they are pouring in by hundreds at a time, not only from the land side, but both troops and settlers ascending the Appalachicola river in vessel-loads. Thus, the Indians have been compelled to take up arms to defend their homes from a set of lawless invaders.

Your known philanthropy and good-will towards the Indians in general induce the chiefs to hope that you will lose no time in using your influence to put a stop to those invasions of their lands and paternal birthright, and also order that those who have already seized on their fields may retire therefrom. The Indians have seized two persons known to have been greatly instrumental in bringing the Americans down on their lands, and they are now in their possession as prisoners; and they have it in report that sales of their lands have been made by those two people, without consent, approbation, or knowledge of the chiefs; and, from their long residence in the nation, and the one having enjoyed great confidence in the nation and with the chiefs, as Eng lish interpreter, there is some reason to believe those reports, when leagued with the swarms of Americans coming from Mobile and other places seizing the best of the Indian lands. Such improper sales have actually been made.

I

In taking this liberty of addressing you, sir, in behalf of the unfortunate Indians, believe me have no wish but to see an end put to a war which, if, persisted in, I foresee must eventually be their ruin; and as they were not the aggressor, if, in the height of their rage, they commit any excesses, that you will overlook them as the just ebullitions of an indignant spirit against an invading foe. I have the honor to be, &c.

A. ARBUTHNOT,

By order of Kenhagee and Bowlegs, acting for themselves and the other chiefs.

Gaines.

4. Arbuthnot to the commanding officer at Fort [This is an extract from the letter No. 69 in this collection, consisting of the four paragraphs before the last, which is omitted. See the document No. 69, and the answer to it, No. 70.]

Copy of a talk sent from the British agents in East Florida to the Big Warrior, head chief of the Creek nation of Indians.*

OCHLOCHNEE RIVER, March 3, 1817. When the English made peace with the Americans, they included the whole of the Indian nations, viz: Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee. Those nations were guarantied in the quiet possession of their lands, and the Americans engaged to give up such lands of the Indians as they had taken possession of during the war.

If they have not done so, or if they have been making further encroachments, the chiefs have only to represent their complaints and the aggressions of the Americans to the Governor of New Providence, who will forward them to England, Washington, who has orders from the King of or get them conveyed to the British Minister at England to see that the rights of the nations above mentioned are protected, and the stipulations contained in the treaty, in their favor, are faithfully carried into execution.

The Americans have no wish to go to war; they will not, therefore, do anything contrary to the treaty; and what encroachments have been

made must be without the knowledge of the chief
of the American Government; and, so soon as
he is informed thereof by the British Minister at
Washington, he will order the American people
draw back to their own possessions.
who have taken possession of Indian lands to

The Indian nations are all one great family; they possess lands their great forefathers handed down to them, and they ought to hand them down entire to their children. If they sell their land, what do they receive for it? Nothing that will last. It is wasted away in a few years. Whether, therefore, they sell, or give it away, they are rob Ar-ing their children of the inheritance they had a to live as such with each other. Let the four right to expect. As a great family, they ought

CAMP BEFORE ST. MARK'S, April 8, 1818. The foregoing letter was produced to A. buthnot, on his examination before me, and acknowledged by him to have been written by him to General Mitchell, agent of the Creek nation. ANDREW JACKSON.

Present: Mr. FULTON.

This appears to be the same talk with the letter to the Little Prince, mentioned in the proceedings of the court-martial on Arbuthnot's trial.

Relations with Spain.

Relations with Spain.

advantages offered in the said proposals, I now observe that they still appear insufficient to meet the wishes and views of your Government; which is the more a subject of regret to me, as the reasons and grounds on which I founded a hope of a different result were, and still are, of the greatest weight.

understood. It follows the course of the Mississippi to the Iberville, running through it, and the lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne, to the Gulf of Mexico. In opposition to facts of such notoriety, unfounded assertions can have no weight. The offer of the United States, made through the medium of the French Government, to require of Spain the territory lying between the Mississippi and the Perdido, at the time the United States were already in possession of Lou

strate the certainty and notoriety of the boundaries I have just alluded to. And the French Government, which sold Louisiana to the United States, solemnly declared to this Government, in a note addressed to Mr. Monroe, dated the 21st December, 1804, not only what was its extent, but that it had delivered that province to the United States, such as Spain had retroceded it to France; and that, so far from having sold to this Republic any part of the territory_east of the Mississippi, known and possessed by England and by Spain under the name of West Florida, His Imperial Majesty, with a full knowledge of what belonged to His Catholic Majesty, early in the eleventh year of the Republic, authorized General Bournonville, his Ambassador at Madrid, to open a negotiation with Spain for the purchase or cession of the Floridas. From what I have just pointed out, as well as from what I have repeatedly stated in the course of my correspondence, it evidently follows that the real and unquestionable sacrifice was that made by His Catholic Majesty in favor of the United States, as expressed in the above-mentioned proposal.

What you now state, namely, that your proposal relative to the western boundary between the two Powers involved a great sacrifice on the part of the United States in favor of Spain, ap-isiana, is an additional proof tending to demonpears incomprehensible to me. That proposal, even modified and adapted to that which I made to you on the 24th of last month, included in favor of the United States a considerable extent of territory to the right and left of the Mississippi, to which they neither had nor can have any right whatever; and that fact being, as assuredly it is, beyond all contradiction or doubt, I cannot conceive in what consists the sacrifice made by the United States to Spain in the proposal offered by you. In fact, how can it be denied that Spain has ever been in the peaceable possession of all the countries lying to the westward of the Mermento, the boundary between the Spanish dominions and those of France, in that quarter, being a line running due north from the said river to the Rio Roxo (Red river) between the Adaes and Natchitoches, and thence to the Missouri, although it was not exactly determined whether it was to ascend until that river emptied into the Mississippi, or to some other point? Has the Government of France, peradventure, ever taken any step or contested with His Catholic Majesty's Crown, or carried her pretensions beyond those limits? Is it not universally notorious that this dividing line was always respected by both nations; and that, even after the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, the different Governors of Louisiana and Texas, with a view to avoid disputes, came to an agreement to consider the territory between the Mermento and the Sabine as neutral, and that it should remain unsettled? Is there the least probability that the United States would propose such an arrangement if they conceived themselves to be the owners of the immense country lying between that river and the Rio del Norte? I cannot but think you must admit these facts. As to the other points of the frontier separating the possessions of both Powers, they are equally well known, being accurately determined and defined in solemn treaties, and particularly in that of 1795, between Spain and the United States. The dividing line between the dominions of the two Powers to the eastward of the Mississippi was fixed on that river to the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, running thence due east to the midstream of the river Appalachicola or Chatahoochee; thence along the mid-stream of that river to its junction with the Flint; thence in a right line to the head-waters of the St. Mary's river, and following the course of the same to the Atlantic ocean. On the side of the Gulf of Mexico the line has also been accurately determined, so as to prevent its ever being confounded or mis

The continued persistance of your Government in its pretensions to all the territory lying between the Mermento and the river Bravo del Norte is not sufficient to invalidate the titles of property and possession which establish the right and dominion of Spain therein, when the English colonies composing the Republic of the United States were not yet in existence, nor the French settlements, which serve as the pretext for the amazing pretensions of your Government. For, what titles and proofs have been produced to justify them? The disastrous expedition of M. de la Salle; the absurd grant in favor of Crozat; and the erroneous narratives of travellers with maps formed at pleasure, by uninformed and interested geographers-such as Melish and others—who ran their lines as they were dictated to them, and thus disposed of the dominions of Spain as suited their wishes. When did La Salle enter the Rio Bravo, and take possession of the extensive countries between it and the Sabine? Was not his expedition, the sole object of which was to discover the mouths of the Mississippi, lost on the coast of the province of Texas? Did not the Spanish troops immediately advance from Mexico to expel these adventurers? What establishment did France, or any other nation, ever hold on the Bravo or the Colorado? The grant of Louis XIV., no less contemptible than the tales and fables of the missionary Hennepin-will it perchance name the river Bravo, the Colorado, or