UR narrative now takes us to the Spanish province of Florida. Special messengers, sent by Jackson to Pensacola, had reported the presence of the British and hostile In

dians there, in great force. One of these messengers, Captain Gordon, reported that he saw in Pensacola and its vicinity upwards of one hundred and fifty British officers, a park of artillery, and about five hundred Indians, dressed in British uniform, and under drill by British officers. General Jackson, to make assurance doubly sure, despatched Lieutenant

Murray, with twenty-five men, to reconnoitre Pensacola and the fortress of Barrancas, and report the truth of the matter. They saw seven British armed vessels in the bay, and the British jack hoisted beside the Spanish flag on the walls of the Barrancas. Returning, within three miles of Pensacola, Lieutenant Murray was mortally wounded by a rifle-shot of an Indian. The report of the rifle was answered from the fort and the town, and the detachment had to hasten onward to avoid capture. The Indian was slain, and Murray was put on horseback, when the troop proceeded. It had gone but a short distance, when it was perceived that the lieutenant was dead. In full hearing of the whoops, yells, and firing, indicating a close pursuit, the troops halted at a little hole in the earth, or ravine, and laid the body of their commander therein, "with his martial cloak around him;" a little earth and leaves were hastily thrown over his remains, and the party pushed forward to the American camp.*

All this was done in Spanish territory, in the territory of a king professing to be neutral in the war between Britain and the United States. Jackson immediately made this state of affairs known to the government. In detailing to the secretary of war what had been communicated to him, he remarks:

"If the hostile Creeks have taken refuge in Florida, and are there fed, clothed, and protected; if the British have landed a large force, and munitions of war, and are fortifying and stirring up the savages; will you only

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say to me, raise a few hundred militia, which can be quickly done, and with such regular force as can be conveniently collected, make a descent upon Pensacola, and reduce it? If so, I promise you the war in the south shall have a speedy termination, and English influence be for ever destroyed with the savages in this quarter."

The secretary of war, General Armstrong, coincided with him, and, indeed, authorized him to attack Pensacola; but though his letter bore date the 18th of July, 1814, it was never received by Jackson until the 17th of January, 1815; that is, nine days after the British army had been partly slaughtered and partly driven into the sea by the battle of New Orleans!

In the meantime he had received no instructions from the war department relative to the course to be pursued towards the neutral Spanish authorities in Florida. Accordingly, he at first remonstrated with Manriquez, the Spanish governor, upon the impropriety and impolicy of his conduct in admitting and sheltering within his walls a power with which the United States were at war. He concluded by soliciting the expulsion of the hostile Creeks and British from Pensacola and the Barrancas, and by requesting him to point out the course he was about to pursue.

The governor, however, felt himself growing in importance. He had received intelligence from Europe of the defeat and imprisonment of Napoleon Buonaparte, he had placed arms in the hands of savages " for the purposes of self-defence"-many of them were flocking into his territory, and more even yet expected the British had already landed a partial

force, and a greater one was daily looked for. Against this certain and expected strength, added to what his own resources could supply, he believed an American general would not venture to advance. These considerations led him to assume a lofty tone in his answer to Jackson. He arraigned the conduct of the United States, in extinguishing the Indian title on the Alabama; in harbouring the pirates of Barataria; in disregarding and violating their treaties; and he pointed out the danger to which the restoration of peace in Europe might shortly expose them.

He was as yet ignorant of the energy of the man already near his borders, and who, to march against and break down his fancied securities, did not desire to be ordered, but only to be apprised by his country that he was at liberty to do it. Jackson determined again to address him, and to close the correspondence by exhibiting fully the grounds of complaint and accusation against him, in a style at least as courtly as his own. He accordingly despatched to him the following letter.

"Were I clothed," he remarks, "with diplomatic power for the purpose of discussing the topics embraced in the wide range of injuries of which you complain, and which have long since been adjusted, I could easily demonstrate that the United States have been always faithful to their treaties, steadfast in their friendships, nor have ever claimed anything that was not warranted by justice. They have endured many insults from the governors and other officers of Spain, which, if sanctioned by their sovereign, amounted to acts of war, without any previous declaration on the

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subject. They have excited the savages to war, and afforded them the means of waging it: the property of our citizens has been captured at sea, and if compensation has not been refused, it has at least been withheld. But, as no such powers have been delegated to me, I shall not assume them, but leave them to the representatives of our respective governments.

"I have the honour of being intrusted with the command of this district. Charged with its protection and the safety of its citizens, I feel my ability to discharge the task, and trust your excellency will always find me ready and willing to go forward in the performance of that duty, whenever circumstances shall render it necessary. I agree with you, perfectly, that candour and polite language should, at all times, characterize the communications between the officers of friendly sovereignties; and I assert, without the fear of contradiction, that my former letters were couched in terms the most respectful and unexceptionable. I only requested, and did not demand, as you have asserted, the ringleaders of the Creek confederacy, who had taken refuge in your town, and who had violated all laws, moral, civil, and divine. This I had a right to do, from the treaty which I sent you, and which I now again enclose, with a request that you will change your translation, believing, as I do, that your former one was wrong, and has deceived you. What kind of an answer you returned, a reference to your letter will explain. The whole of it breathed nothing but hostility, grounded upon assumed facts and false charges, and entirely evading the inquiries that had been made.