st efforts of Spain.

The probability of failing in any attempt to hold the mouth of the
Mississippi by force, and the resentments against Great Britain which
prevailed generally throughout the western country, diminished the
danger to be apprehended from any machinations of that power; but
against those of Spain, the same security did not exist.

In contemplating the situation of the United States in their relations
not purely domestic, the object demanding most immediate consideration
was the hostility of several tribes of Indians. The military strength
of the nations who inhabited the country between the lakes, the
Mississippi, and the Ohio, was computed at five thousand men, of whom
about fifteen hundred were at open war with the United States.
Treaties had been concluded with the residue; but the attachment
of young savages to war, and the provocation given by the
undistinguishing vengeance which had been taken by the whites in their
expeditions into the Indian country, furnished reasons for
apprehending that these treaties would soon be broken.

In the south, the Creeks, who could bring into the field six thousand
fighting men, were at war with Georgia. In the mind of their leader,
the son of a white man, some irritation had been produced by the
confiscation of the lands of his father, who had resided in that
state; and several other refugees whose property had also been
confiscated, contributed still further to exasperate the nation. But
the immediate point in contest between them was a tract of land on the
Oconee, which the state of Georgia claimed under a purchase, the
validity of which was denied by the Indians.

The regular force of the United States was less than six hundred men.

Not only the policy of accommodating differences by negotiation which
the government was in no condition to terminate by the sword; but a
real respect for the rights of the natives, and a regard for the
claims of justice and humanity, disposed the President to endeavour,
in the first instance, to remove every cause of quarrel by a treaty;
and his message to congress on this subject evidenced his preference
of pacific measures.

Possessing many valuable articles of commerce for which the best
market was often found on the coast of the Mediterranean, struggling
to export them in their own bottoms, and unable to afford a single gun
for their protection, the Americans could not view with unconcern the
dispositions which were man