CHAPTER V. Negro fort on the Apalachicola destroyed-Aury and and M'Gregor's enterprises-Galveston and Amelia Island-Piratical establishments suppressed-East Florida-Mickasuky and Sawaney villages-Instructions to General Gaines-Destruction of Fowltown-Massacre of Lieutenant Scott's party-Instructions to General Jackson-His proceedings-Tennessee volunteers raised and organized by him-Fort Gadsden builtMickasuky villages destroyed-St. Marks taken-Sawaneytown destroyed -Arbuthnot and Ambrister taken-Their character and conduct, trial and sentence-Pensacola and the Barancas taken-Governor of Florida, and civil officers appointed by General Jackson-Orders issued to take St. Augustine-Countermanded by the president-Proceedings in relation to Captain Wright-Correspondence between General Jackson and Governor Rabun-Remonstrance of Spanish government-Mr. Adams' reply-Proceedings of congress relating to the Seminole war. Hostile collections in the Floridas. When the British withdrew their military force from the Floridas, at the close of the late war, Edward Nicolls, formerly a colonel, and James Woodbine, a captain in the British service, who had been the principal agents in exciting the Indians and negroes of the south to hostilities, remained in the territory, and industriously employed themselves in forming combinations against the south-western frontier. To the Creek Indians, whose lands had been ceded to the United States by Jackson's treaty of August, 1814, Nicolls represented that they had been grossly injured and defrauded; that a restoration of their lands was provided for by the treaty of Ghent, and that the British government would guaranty and enforce their claims. He assumed the character of a British agent, and pretended that he had special powers from the government to support their pretensions. In furtherance of these views, Nicolls and Woodbine established a fort on the Appalachicola river, which divides the provinces of East and West Florida, a station which, from its proximity to Georgia, Louisiana, and the Mississippi territory, was well adapted to collect runaway negroes, and disaffected Indians of the south, to a single point. the difficulty of getting heavy artillery to bear upon it, the place was considered impregnable, and had become the general rendezvous of Nicolls and Woodbine's troops. In July, 1816, about four hundred negroes and Indians had col From lected at this spot, and fortified it with twelve pieces of artillery, and well stored it with provisions and munitions of war. In consequence of these hostile appearances, Colonel Chinch, with a detachment of United States troops, and five hundred friendly Indians under the command of M'Intosh, moved down from the head waters of the Apalachicola, and invested the fort on the land side. Nicolls and Woodbine, after exacting an oath from their followers that they would not suffer an American to approach the place alive, gave it up to them and went off. Massacre of a watering party. Two schooners laden with military stores and provisions for Colonel Chinch's forces from New Orleans, convoyed by two gunboats, having obtained permission of the commandant at Pensacola, entered the river on the 10th of July. On nearing the fort, a watering party of seven men was attacked by an ambuscade of negroes from the shore; five were killed on the spot, one escaped, and one was taken prisoner, who was carried into the fort, and there covered with tar, and inhumanly burned. The gunboats had only one twelve pounder each, and the whole force did not exceed fifty men. On communicating with the troops above, they were advised not to approach the fort; notwithstanding this advice, they determined to attack it, and began to warp up, occasionally throwing a shot to ascertain the distance, the negroes at the same time firing their long guns, but without skill or effect. Having warped sufficiently near, the Americans commenced firing hot shot, when one of the first entered their principal magazine, and blew up the fort; two hundred and seventy were killed, most of the remainder badly wounded; only three of the whole number escaped unhurt. Three thousand stands of arms, five hundred carbines, eight hundred pair of pistols, five hundred swords; five hundred kegs of powder stored outside of the fort, and a large quantity of clothing were taken. These munitions of war were designed to supply the hostile assemblages in the Floridas with the means of depredating on the American frontier. Two of the principal chiefs of the fort were made prisoners, whom, Colonel Chinch, on hearing the barbarous manner in which they had murdered the American prisoners, gave up to the M'Intosh Indians, who executed upon them a terrible act of retributive justice. Aury's establishment at Galveston. The unsettled state of the Spanish South American provinces afforded favorable opportunities for the turbulent and adventurous to engage in desperate enterprises. Of this description was Louis Aury, a West Indian, of French extraction, who in July, 1816, having collected several vessels at Aux Cayes, and manned them with a mixture of brigands, mulattoes, and refugees from the piratical station at Barrataria, recently broken up, proceeded to form an establishment at Snake Island, in the bay of St. Barnard, in the gulf of Mexico. This was a small uninhabited sand bank, of a few miles in circumference, on the coast of Texas, 130 miles westward of the mouth of the Mississippi, and within what was claimed to be the Louisiana purchase. Aury having planted himself on this spot, immediately opened a communication with Herrara, another adventurer, who at New Orleans had assumed the character of agent from a Mexican congress. Herrara, with what followers and friends he could obtain, proceeded to join Aury; and they, with their associates, to the amount of three hundred desperadoes, of every description and color, immediately became patriots, contending for the liberties of man. Their first proceeding was to organize a republic, of which Aury was the civil and military governor: their next to institute a court of admiralty to pass judicial sentences upon the prizes which might be taken and brought in by their squadron. Another Frenchman, a bankrupt auctioneer, from New Orleans, was appointed secretary of state. An administrator of the public revenue, a collector of customs, and other officers deemed necessary to give their establishment the semblance of a legal government, were also appointed. The republic thus constituted, assumed the name of Galveston, and commenced their operations by capturing Spanish slave ships in the gulf of Mexico, condemning them in Aury's admiralty courts, and smuggling them into the United States. Slave speculators, in considerable numbers, resorted there, purchased their cargoes, and transported them through the marshes and swamps on the coast, to the planters of Louisiana. Other goods, also, found on board their prizes, were packed in small parcels and introduced into the United States through the same channel. This assemblage, differing from a gang of pirates only in their boldness in assuming the forms of a regular government, were not scrupulous in regard to the national character of the vessels which they plundered, but laid their hands on all where they could find specie, valuable merchandise, or slaves on board. Many of the regular merchants of New Orleans, trading in the gulf of Mexico, suffered by their depredations. Aury and his associates continued in this course at Galveston until the next April, when finding his proceedings noticed by the American government, he removed to Matagorda, on the same coast, ninety miles west of his first station; leaving only an advice boat to direct his cruisers, with their prizes, to follow him. A few days afterwards, the General Artigas, one of his privateers, arrived at Galveston with two Spanish prizes, containing two hundred and eightyseven slaves, and another with three prizes, a Spanish, a Portuguese, and an American. The Lafittes, formerly chiefs of the Barratarian pirates, were among the most conspicuous of Aury's men, and owners of several cruizers in the gulf of Mexico. After Aury had left Galveston, a new set of adventurers, to the amount of thirty or forty, proceeded to that spot from New Orleans, and organized another republic, with their courts of admiralty and public officers. Some of the prizes condemned by the Galveston courts, were afterwards sent by the captors to New Orleans for sale, where they were claimed by the Spanish consul, in behalf of the original owners, and restored. Aury, finding his last position too remote for the purpose of smuggling his plundered property into the United States, quitted it, and returned to Galveston. After remaining there a few days, and collecting together all the adventurers in the gulf of Mexico who were willing to join his fortunes, he sailed for Amelia Island, giving notice that Galveston was no longer under his protection. Amelia Island. This island lies at the mouth of the St. Mary's river, the southern boundary of the United States, opposite Cumberland Island, and nine miles from the town of St. Mary's, on the American side of the river, is thirteen miles long, and two broad, and has only one place of any consequence, the town and fort of Fernandina. Its position rendered it a convenient point for clandestinely introducing slaves into the United States; and a set of speculators had collected there, principally for that object. Although an appendage of East Florida, the Spanish authorities had ceased to have any effect there, since the troubles in South America. Previous to Aury's arrival, Gregor McGregor, a Scotchman, who had escaped from the royalist army on the Spanish main, had taken possession of the island, assuming the title of brigadier general and commander in chief of all the forces, naval and military, destined to effect the inde pendence of the Floridas; and claiming to be authorized by the republics of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, New Granada, and Venezuela, to liberate those provinces from Spanish tyranny, and give them the blessings of a free government. He was accompanied by one hundred and fifty followers, refugees and deserters from the republican armies, who were to be liberally rewarded with offices and land in the territory they were about to conquer. At this time there were but few Spanish inhabitants in the Floridas, excepting those who were employed by, or in some way dependent on, the government; and these too much dispersed to be united in any systematic opposition to royal authority. McGregor's proclamations were unattended to; and he soon quit the country, finding it ill suited to his purposes, and returned to the Spanish main, leaving Ruggles Hubbard, formerly sheriff of the city of New York, in possession of the island, under the assumed title of Governor. Hubbard, with the assistance of Irvine, from the same city, undertook the management of its affairs. Aury, hearing of McGregor's expedition, hastened to Amelia Island, with the view of joining their forces, for the conquest of the Floridas. Before he arrived, McGregor had gone, and Hubbard and Irvine had taken possession. For the want of funds, the affairs of these persons had become desperate, and they were about leaving the island when Aury arrived. By a successful course of plundering, he had obtained considerable funds, and a large number of followers, blacks, renegadoes, and brigands of every description. A negotiation soon took place between him and the occupants of the island, by which he obtained its possession, and Hubbard and Irvine a supply of their most pressing wants. Aury brought with him a number of slave vessels, prizes to his squadron, the cargoes of which he and his new associates contrived to smuggle into the United States. The principal business of the successive occupants of this island, was to commission privateers, fitted out and owned by American citizens, to cruise on the Spanish trade, in the gulf of Mexico; to furnish a convenient asylum for their prizes; and a depot from whence their cargoes might be illegally introduced into the United States. Several privateers, thus fitted out in American ports, and manned by American citizens, had been commissioned by McGregor, and had captured and sent into Amelia a number of Spanish prize ships, during his occupation of the island. The same course had been pursued, with the same result, by his successors. In October Aury received a reinforcement of |