Most of my countrymen are aware that the Americans have been carrying on a war against the Florida Indians for the last two or three years; the details, however, are not so well known; and as this Florida war ought to be a lesson to the Americans, and may, as a precedent to the other Indians, prove of great importance, I shall enter into the particulars of it. I am moved, indeed, so to do, as it will afford the reader a very fair specimen of the general policy and mode of treatment shewn to the Indians by the American Government. Florida was ceded by Spain to the United States as a set-off against 500,000 dollars, claimed by the Americans for spoliations committed on her commerce. The white population of Florida is not very numerous even now; the census of 1830 gave 18,000 whites and 16,000 slaves, independent of the Florida Indians, or Seminoles. Seminoles is a term for runaways or wanderers; the Indian tribes in Florida being a compound of the old Florida Indians, two varieties of Creeks, who quitted their tribe previous to their removal west of the Mississippi, and Africans who are slaves to the Indians. Their numbers at the commencement of the war were estimated as follows:—
The Mico-sukee Indians, of which Osseola, or Asseola, was one of the principal chiefs, 400 warriors.
Creek and Spanish Indians, 850 warriors.
Negroes, 600 to 700 warriors.
In all about 1900 warriors.
The chief of the whole Seminole nation is Mic-e-no-pah, and next to him in consequence, as orator of the nation, is an Indian of the name of Jumper. It must be observed that these Indians, having slaves, cultivated the ground and had large stocks of cattle. Florida, like all the confines of the United States, had a white population not very creditable to any country, and many of these people went there more with a view of robbing the Indians of their negroes and cattle, and selling them in the Western States, than with any intention of permanently settling in the country.
As soon as the Floridas were ceded by the Spanish, the American Government perceived the expediency of removing the Indians from the territories, and, on the 18th of September 1823, a treaty was entered into with the Indians, by which the Indians, on their part, agreed to remove to the westward after twenty years from that date, that is on September 18th, 1843. By the same treaty the American Government secured to the Indians a tract of land in Florida, containing five millions of acres, for their subsistence during the time that they remained in that State; and agreed to pay the Indians certain advances, in consequence of their surrendering all title to the rest of the Florida country, and engaging to confine themselves to the limits of the territory allotted to them.
Nothing could be more plain or simple than the terms of this treaty, which, in consequence of the council being held at this spot, was denominated the treaty of Camp Moultrie.
The third article in the treaty of Camp Moultrie runs as follows:— “The United States will take the Florida Indians under their care and patronage, and will afford them protection against all persons whatsoever.”
One of the great errors committed by the American Government was in binding itself to perform what was not in its power. It could no more protect these Indians against the white marauders than it could prevent the insurgents from attacking Upper Canada. The arm of the Federal Government is too weak to reach its own confines, as will hereafter be shewn by its own acknowledgment. The consequence was that, very soon after the treaty of Camp Moultrie had been signed, the Indians were robbed and plundered by the miscreants who hovered near them for that purpose.