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vived the extermination of their tribe; and in this, the greater and better part of their lands is adjudged to the United States, who are thus successively getting rid of these neighbours, and possessing themselves of the countries which they occupy. The two campaigns of General Jackson against the Indians of the Floridas, present some examples of what I have stated, particularly the last, which, perhaps, if we examine its circumstances, exceeded all the rest in horrours, the remembrance of which will last for ever.[1]
- ↑ The horrours to which the author here alludes, are, we presume, the military execution of the instigators of these Indian wars—Arbuthnot, Ambrister, and the prophet, Francis—and the taking possession of Pensacola. Sufficient evidences that the Indians had been excited to the savage hostilities which brought upon them the chastisement of General Jackson, by Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and other agents of the British government, were found at every step which our army took. And the fact, that the prophet Francis had been commissioned as a Brigadier General in the British service, has never been disputed. These Indians were under the jurisdiction of Spain; and, even had not the Spanish authorities at St. Marks supplied them with arms, ammunition, provision and clothing, as upon their own acknowledgment they did, still the influence which they permitted the English to exercise, within their territories, and the protection which they afforded to the Indian Chiefs, in violation of an existing treaty, will justify General Jackson, in the eyes of every discerning and impartial politician, in the course which he pursued. T.
