the
Georgians were the Americans with whom they had most friction and
closest connection. The Georgians, it is true, were only indirectly
interested in the navigation question; but they claimed that the
boundaries of Georgia ran west to the Mississippi, and that much of the
eastern bank of the great river, including the fertile Yazoo lands, was
theirs.

Spaniards Incite the Indians to War.

The Indians naturally sided with the Spaniards against the Americans;
for the Americans were as eager to seize the possessions of Creek and
Cherokee as they were to invade the dominions of the Catholic King.
Their friendship was sedulously fostered by the Spaniards. Great
councils were held with them, and their chiefs were bribed and
flattered. Every effort was made to prevent them from dealing with any
traders who were not in the Spanish interest; New Orleans, Natchez,
Mobile, and Pensacola were all centres for the Indian trade. They were
liberally furnished with arms and munitions of war. Finally the
Spaniards deliberately and treacherously incited the Indians to war
against the Americans, while protesting to the latter that they were
striving to keep the savages at peace. In answer to protests of
Robertson, setting forth that the Spaniards were inciting the Indians to
harry the Cumberland settlers, both Miro and Gardoqui made him solemn
denials. Miro wrote him, in 1783, that so far from assisting the Indians
to war, he had been doing what he could to induce McGillivray and the
Creeks to make peace, and that he would continue to urge them not to
trouble the settlers. [Footnote: Robertson MSS., Miro to Robertson, New
Orleans, April 20, 1783.] Gardoqui, in 1788, wrote even more explicitly,
saying that he was much concerned over the reported outrages of the
savages, but was greatly surprised to learn that the settlers suspected
the Government of Spain of fomenting the warfare, which, he assured
Robertson, was so far from the truth that the King was really bent on
treating the United States in general, and the West in particular, with
all possible benevolence and generosity. [Footnote: Gardoqui MSS.,
Gardoqui to "Col. Elisha Robeson" of Cumberland, April 18, 1788.] Yet in
1786, midway between the dates when these two letters were written,
Miro, in a letter to the Captain-General of the Floridas, set forth that
the Creeks, being desirous of driving back the American frontiersmen by
force of arms, and knowing that this could be don