d taken refuge with their
kinsmen, the Seminoles, and were inciting malcontents of every stripe
against the whites. A band of negroes, estimated at not less than a
thousand in number, together with some Creek Indians, had taken
possession of an abandoned fort on the Apalachicola and had terrorized
the country for miles around. The Spanish commander at Pensacola was
summoned to destroy this pirates' nest and to disperse the marauders;
but he was either unable or unwilling to do so, and in 1816 a red-hot
shot from a United States gunboat blew up the magazine of the negro
fort, killing nearly three hundred men, women, and children. Early in
1818, in equally summary fashion troops of the United States expelled a
band of freebooters from Amelia Island.

The slight regard which the United States paid to the territorial
sovereignty of Spain in Florida sprang from a general conviction that
Spain could not and would not observe the provisions of the Treaty of
1795. Spain had then agreed to restrain the Indians living within her
borders from attacking the citizens or Indians of the United States.
President Monroe seemed to assume that Spain had forfeited her rights
over Florida. At all events, he authorized General Andrew Jackson to
assume command of the forces at Fort Scott and to call on the governors
of adjacent States for militia to terminate the war. This order of
December 26, 1817, was stated in dangerously broad terms. Jackson did
not doubt for an instant that it authorized him to pursue the Indians
into Florida. To his mind the time seemed opportune for the seizure of
East Florida as an indemnity for the outrages committed by the
Seminoles. He wrote to the President to this effect. "Let it be
signified to me," said he, "through any channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that
the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States
and in sixty days it will be accomplished."

To his dying day Jackson maintained that the President signified his
approval through Congressman Rhea, of Tennessee. Monroe denied that he
had read Jackson's letter until after the exploits which so nearly
plunged the country into war with Spain. Whatever may be the truth of
the matter, General Jackson acted in accord with what he believed to be
the President's desires. With a thousand men he marched across the
border and was soon in possession of St. Mark's. Among those who fell
into his hands was Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader who was
susp