tory of Florida, fully concurred with
General Jackson in this view, and so informed the Secretary of War.

The Government, disregarding these wise suggestions, entered into a
treaty with the Florida Indians, September 18, 1823, at Camp Moultrie,
stipulating for their continued residence in the territory for twenty
years. They were by this treaty established in the heart of the
country, and their claims to the lands acknowledged and guaranteed.
The treaty provided, among other things, that the Seminole Indians
should relinquish all their claim to lands in Florida except a tract
estimated to contain some five millions of acres, within the limits of
which they agreed to abide.

The Government of the United States agreed to pay to the Indians two
thousand dollars to aid them in removal to the new reservation, to
furnish them with certain articles of husbandry and stock to the
amount of six thousand dollars, to furnish them with corn, meat, and
salt for one year, to pay them forty-five hundred dollars for their
improvements on their surrendered lands, to allow them one thousand
dollars per annum for a blacksmith and one thousand dollars per annum
for a school fund, and these last two allowances to extend during the
term of the treaty. Complaints were made by the whites, and counter
complaints by the Indians, of depredations, but the preponderance of
testimony is that the whites were the principal aggressors. These
Indians were slave-holders, having a number of negroes held in
slavery by the same tenure that slaves were held by the whites in
Florida. The whites commenced and carried on a systematic and
continued robbery of the slaves and cattle belonging to the Indians,
sending them to Mobile for sale. A protest was made by the inhabitants
of ten of the Seminole towns, complaining in substance that the white
people had carried all their cattle off; that the white men first
commenced to steal from them; that within three years six Indians had
been killed by the whites, admitting that the Indians had taken
satisfaction, but were not even on that score by three.

Complaints from whites of Indian depredations and counter complaints
from the Indians became so frequent that the President determined to
endeavor to make a new treaty, abrogating that of Camp Moultrie. For
this purpose Colonel James Gadsden, of Florida, was appointed a
commissioner to carry out this purpose. The Indians, by invitation,
assembled at Payne's Landing,