hed by the bullet or in the
flames. The military power of the tribe was at an end. The remnant,
utterly dispirited, sued for peace.

Quite a number of the Creek warriors fled to Florida, and joined the
hostile Indian tribes there. We were at this time involved in our
second war with Great Britain. The Government of our mother country was
doing everything in its power to rouse the savages against us. The
armies in Canada rallied most of the Northern tribes beneath their
banners. Florida, at that time, belonged to Spain. The Spanish
Government was nominally neutral in the conflict between England and
the United States. But the Spanish governor in Florida was in cordial
sympathy with the British officers. He lent them all the aid and
comfort in his power, carefully avoiding any positive violation of the
laws of neutrality. He extended very liberal hospitality to the refugee
Creek warriors, and in many ways facilitated their cooperation with the
English.

A small British fleet entered the mouth of the Apalachicola River and
landed three hundred soldiers. Here they engaged vigorously in
constructing a fort, and in summoning all the surrounding Indian tribes
to join them in the invasion of the Southern States. General Jackson,
with a force of between one and two thousand men, was in Northern
Alabama, but a few days' march north of the Florida line. He wrote to
the Secretary of War, in substance, as follows:

"The hostile Creeks have taken refuge in Florida. They are there fed,
clothed, and protected. The British have armed a large force with
munitions of war, and are fortifying and stirring up the savages. If
you will permit me to raise a few hundred militia, which can easily be
done, I will unite them with such a force of regulars as can easily be
collected, and will make a descent on Pensacola, and will reduce it. I
promise you I will bring the war in the South to a speedy termination;
and English influence with the savages, in this quarter, shall be
forever destroyed."

The President was not prepared thus to provoke war with Spain, by the
invasion of Florida. Andrew Jackson assumed the responsibility. The
British had recently made an attack upon Mobile, and being repulsed,
had retired with their squadron to the harbor of Pensacola. Jackson
called for volunteers to march upon Pensacola. Crockett roused himself
at the summons, like the war-horse who snuffs the battle from afar. "I
wanted," he wrote, "a small taste of Br