Фредерик Марриет
Diary in America, Series Two
“I venture to hope, if these measures are adopted by Congress, and carried into effect at an early day, so as to anticipate any hostile movement of the Indians, peace will be preserved on our Western borders; but if they should, unfortunately, be delayed until the discontent which exists among many of the tribes breaks out into open hostility, and the first movements of that wild and warlike people prove successful, as they infallibly would do in our present unprepared state, it might require double the force and quadruple the means I have here indicated to restore and preserve peace along that extended frontier. All which is respectfully submitted.
“JR Poinsett.
“Honourable James K Polk,
“Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
The acting quarter-master-general, in his report, makes the following observation:—
“The obligations of the Government in reference to the Western frontier are of a very peculiar character. It is first bound, by a common duty, to protect its own border settlements, extending along a line of one thousand miles, against the incursions of numerous savage tribes, separated from those settlements by mere imaginary lines; and it is next bound, by the solemn treaty stipulations, with such of those tribes as have emigrated to that frontier, ‘to protect them at their new residences against all interruptions or disturbances from any other tribes or nations of Indians, or from any other person or persons whatsoever.’
“If these obligations are to be scrupulously fulfilled in good faith, which would seem to be due to our character as a nation professing a paternal care over these people, a military force of thirty thousand men on the Western frontier would scarcely be adequate to enable the Government to discharge its duties to its own citizens, and redeem these pledges of protection to the Indians.
“It is not my intention, however, to propose such a force. Political expediency, I presume, would not tolerate it, however it might be justified by military considerations. It is merely adverted to here in connexion with the heavy obligations which rest upon Government, and which have probably been contracted from time to time, without any very nice calculation of the means that would be necessary to a faithful discharge of them. I will, therefore, without enlarging upon this point, proceed to state the minimum force that is deemed necessary to give protection to the border settlements, and assist in preserving peace among them and their Indian neighbours along the line of the frontier. These are great and important objects of themselves, without superadding the yet more difficult task of protecting the emigrant tribes, whom our policy has placed beyond the frontier, from the wild and warlike Indians of the Far-West.”
And Colonel Gratiot, in his report, makes the following admission. Speaking of the second, or middle, section, he says:—
“Second, or Middle Section.—The country beyond this line is mostly elevated and free from marshy ground; is abundantly watered, thinly wooded, healthy, and has been assigned for the permanent residence of the tribes which have been, or are to be, removed from the States and territories east of the Mississippi, and is still occupied by the Aborigines originally found within its limits. In numbers they count, according to some estimates, 131,000, and can send to the field 26,200 warriors. As yet, no community of feeling except of deep and lasting hatred to the white man, and more particularly to the Anglo-Americans, exists among them; and, unless they coalesce, no serious difficulty need be apprehended from them. Not so, however, should they be induced to unite for purposes offensive and defensive: their strength would then become apparent, create confidence, and, in all probability, induce them to give vent to their long-suppressed desire to revenge past wrongs, which is restrained, as they openly and freely declare, by fear alone. That such a union will be formed at no distant day, we have every reason to believe; and the period may be accelerated by their growing wants, and the policy of Mexico to annoy Texas, and raise an impenetrable barrier in the direction of her frontier.”
That at present the Western frontier is defenceless is undeniable, and the Florida war does not appear to be at all nearer to a conclusion than it was two or three years ago. That the Indians to the west of the Mississippi are not ignorant of what is going on is very certain; and the moral effect arising from the protracted defence of the Seminoles may eventually prove most serious, and be attended with enormous expense to the United States.
The Federal Government takes every precaution to impress the Indians with an idea of the impossibility of their opposing the white men. The agents persuade the chiefs to go down to Washington to see their great father, the President. On these occasions they are accompanied by the Indian agent and interpreter, and, of course, all their expenses are paid. They are lodged at the hotels, taken to all places of public amusement, and provided with conveyances. But the policy of the Government is to cause them to make a circuit through all the most populous cities, as the crowds attracted by the appearance of the Indians give them an extraordinary and incorrect idea of the American population. Wherever they go they are in a crowd. If they are at the windows of an hotel, still the crowds are immense; and this is what the Government is anxious should take place. I was at Boston when the two deputations of the Sioux and Sacs and Foxes tribes arrived. The two nations being at enmity, the Sioux were conducted there first, and left the town on the arrival of the Sacs and Foxes, or there would probably have been a fight. The Governor received the latter in the Town-hall, and made a speech; I was present. I thought at the time that it was not a speech that I would have made to them, and if I mistook not, it brought up recollections not very agreeable to the chiefs, although they were too politic to express their feelings. But a few years before, their lands east of the Mississippi had been wrested from them in the most unfair way, as I have mentioned in my remarks upon the treatment of the Indians by the American Government.
Governor Everett commenced his speech as follows:—
“Chiefs and warriors of the confederated Sacs and Foxes, you are welcome to our Hall of Council. You have come a far way, from your red friends of the West, to visit your white brethren of the East. We are glad to take you by the hand. We have heard before of the Sac and the Fox tribes: we have heard much of their chiefs, warriors, and great men: we are now glad to see them here. We are of Massachusets: the red men once resided here: their wigwams were on yonder hill: and their Council Chamber was here. When our fathers came over the great waters, they were a small band, and you were powerful: the red man stood on the rock by the seaside, and looked at them with friendly eyes: he might have pushed them into the water, but took them by the hand, and said welcome, white man. Our fathers were hungry, and the red man gave them corn and venison. Our fathers were cold, and the red man spread his blanket over them and made them warm. We are now great and powerful, but we will remember in our prosperity the benefits bestowed by our red brethren in our adversity.”
Up to the present, they certainly have forgotten them!!
But the fate of the red man appears to be nearly decided. What between their wars with each other, the use of spirituous liquors, and the diseases imported by the whites, they dwindle away every day. The most fatal disease to them is the small-pox. The following account, which I have extracted from one of the American papers, was confirmed to me by a letter from Fort Snelling:—
Appalling destruction of North-west Indians by Small-pox
“We gave yesterday an account of the origin of this epidemic by means of a steam-boat trading on the Missouri. Today we subjoin, from the St. Louis bulletin slip of March 3rd, a detailed account of its ravages. The disease had reached the remote band of the Blackfeet, and thousands of them had fallen victims. They do not blame the traders.
“The Pipe Stem, a chief of great influence, when dying, called his people around him, and his last request was, that they would love their traders, and be always governed by their advice. ‘I may,’ says one of the traders, ‘be blamed for not using measures to arrest the progress of the disease, but without resort to arms on the arrival of the boat with supplies, the Indians could not have been driven from the fort.’
“An express went two days a-head of the boat, but it was of no use preaching to the Indians to fly—they flocked down to the boat as usual when she arrived. The peltry trade in that quarter is ruined for years. The company agent at Fort Union, writes, Nov. 30, that all their prospects on the Upper Missouri are totally prostrated. The epidemic spread into the most distant part of the Assinaboin country, and this tribe were dying by fifties and hundreds a day. The disease appeared to be of a peculiarly malignant cast; some, a few moments after severe attacks of pain in the head and loins, fell down dead, and the bodies turned black immediately after, and swelled to three times their natural size. The companies erected hospitals, but they were of no use. The carts were constantly employed burying the dead in holes; afterwards, when the earth was frozen, they were consigned to the water. Many of the squaws are left in a miserable condition. The disease has not reached the Sioux, many of whom have being vaccinated.
“The Mandans, numbering 1,600, living in permanent villages 1,600 miles above St. Louis, have all died but thirty-one.
“The Minatarees, or Gros Ventres, living near the Mandans, numbering about 1,000, were, by our last accounts, about one half dead, and the disease still raging.
“The Arickarees, amounting to 3,000, who but lately abandoned a wandering life, and joined the Mandans, were about half dead, and the disease still among them. It is probable they have been reduced in proportion to the Mandans.
“The Assinaboins, a powerful tribe, about 9,000 strong, living entirely by the chase, and ranging north of the Missouri, in the plains below the Rocky Mountains, down towards the Hudson’s Bay Company, on the north Red River, are literally annihilated. Their principal trade was at Fort Union, mouth of the Yellow Stone.
“The Crees, living in the same region, numbering 3,000, are nearly all destroyed. The great nation called Blackfeet, who wander and live by the chase, ranging through all the region of the Rocky Mountains, divided into bands—Piegans, Gros Ventres, Blood Indians, and Blackfeet, amounting in all to 50,000 or 60,000, have deeply suffered. One thousand lodges or families have been destroyed, and the disease was rapidly spreading among the different bands.”
The average number in a lodge is from six to eight persons.
“The boat that brought up the small-pox made her voyage last summer, and the ravages of the distemper appear to have been greatest in October. It broke out among the Mandans, July 15th. Many of the handsome Arickarees who had recovered, seeing the disfiguration of their features, committed suicide; some by throwing themselves from rocks, others by stabbing, shooting, etcetera. The prairie has become a grave yard; its wild flowers bloom over the sepulchres of Indians. The atmosphere for miles is poisoned by the stench of hundreds of carcases unburied. The women and children are wandering in groups without food, or howling over the dead. The men are flying in every direction. The proud, warlike, and noble looking Blackfeet are no more. The deserted lodges are seen on the hills, but no smoke issues from them. No sound but the raven’s croak, and the wolf’s long howl, breaks the awful stillness. The wolves fatten on the dead carcases. The scene of desolation is described as appalling beyond the powers of imagination to conceive.”
That they may give the Americans much trouble, however, previous to their final extermination, is true, and that they are very anxious to revenge themselves, is equally certain. The greatest misfortune which could happen to the United States would be a union or mixture of the negroes with the Indian tribes. If this were to take place, the population would, in all probability, rapidly increase, instead of falling away as it now does; as then the negro population would till the ground sufficiently for the support of themselves and the Indians, as they now do among the Creek and Seminole tribes, who have plenty of cattle and corn. The American Indian in his natural state suffers much from hunger, and this is one cause of the non-increase of their population. What might be effected by the bands now concentrated on the American frontier, if at any future time they should become amalgamated with the negroes, will be fairly estimated by the reader when he has read the account I am about to lay before him of the war in Florida.
Volume Three—Chapter Nine
Causes of the Florida War
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.
An American author states that two men, Robinson and Wilburn, belonging to Georgia, contrived to steal from one chief twenty slaves, to the value of 15,000 dollars, and carried them to New Orleans. I will however quote a portion of the work.
“Another influential chief, Emachitochustern, commonly called John Walker, was robbed of a number of slaves in a somewhat similar manner. After making an appeal to the government agent, without the least chance of redress, he says: ‘I don’t like to make any trouble or to have any quarrel with white people, but, if they will trespass on my lands and rights, I must defend myself the best way I can, and if they do come again they must bear the consequences. But is there no civil law to protect me? Are the negroes belonging to me to be stolen away publicly in the face of all law and justice? carried off and sold to fill the pockets of these land pirates? Douglass and his company have hired a man, who has two large trained dogs for the purpose, to come here and take off others. He is from Mobile, and follows catching negroes.’
“Colonel John Blount, another estimable chief, was inhumanly beaten by a party of white men, who robbed him of several hundred dollars; he made application to the authorities, but the villains were allowed to escape.
“These facts show how mild and forbearing the Seminoles have acted under the most trying circumstances; and even when their property has been assailed in this way, they have, in numerous instances, refrained from making resistance; their hands were bound, as the severest punishment awaited any attack they might make upon the intruders, even though circumstances justified it. But as the Indian’s evidence could not be received in a court of justice, the white man’s oath would condemn him to the most torturing punishment.”
But in every way were the poor Indians the prey of the white men. The same author says, among many other cases brought forward, “A man, by the name of Floyd, was employed by an Indian woman to recover some negroes for her, and instead of presenting a mere power of attorney for her signature, she found, alas! it was a bill of sale for all her negroes! Another individual was requested by Miconopy, governor of the Seminoles, to draw a piece of writing for him, to which, without suspicion of its character, he attached his name; it was soon after discovered to be a conveyance of a large tract of land!”
Another source of profit to these scoundrels was the obtaining by fraudulent means from the Indians, orders upon the American Government for the payment of portions of their annuity granted in return for the cession of the territory. “One of the government agents was a delinquent to them for a considerable amount. He robbed the principal interpreter of the nation, a very influential black chief by the name of Abraham, of several hundred dollars, by getting a receipt from him without paying the money, under the plea that it was necessary to send the receipt to Washington, where it was filed to the credit of the agent. Several other Indians of influence were robbed in a similar manner; and when they demanded the money from the succeeding agent, they were told that the government would not pay them. Is not this an unsound principle to adopt in our intercourse with the Indians? Is it just or honourable for us to send our own agents among them, without their approval, and not hold ourselves responsible for their conduct? If we were indebted to a nation, and the funds are sent through an agent to pay over, and he neglects to do so, are we not still liable, and would not a civilised power still hold us responsible?”
I have mentioned these facts to show that the Indians were justified in their want of faith in the white men: they were robbed and pillaged and had no redress; nay, they were imprisoned as thieves for taking away their own cattle which had been stolen from them, although they showed their own marks and brands upon them. Whether the American Government suffered all this spoliation with a view to disgust the Indians and incline them to remove to the westward, the reader will be better able to judge for himself when he has read a few pages more.
The Florida people were now subjected to retaliation, on the part of the Indians, who, finding that they could obtain no redress, naturally took the law into their own hands, and loss of life on both sides was the consequence. This produced petition after petition from the Florida white population to the government, requesting that the Indians might be moved west prior to 1843, the period agreed upon by the treaty of Camp Moultrie. Colonel Gadsden, a citizen of Florida, was appointed commissioner to treat with the Indians, and on the 8th of April 1832, had an interview with Mic-e-no-pah, and a few other chiefs. The Indians requested thirty days to collect the opinions of the absent chiefs, and on the 8th of May 1832, they met the commissioner, according to appointment, at Payne’s Landing. The commissioner had a great deal of difficulty in obtaining their consent to the removal, which was ultimately given upon certain conditions.
By this treaty, the Indians agreed to remove west upon being paid a certain sum for the reserved land; an annuity for a certain number of years; and other advantages, which would occupy too much space to particularise here. The treaty was signed by Mic-e-no-pah, the head chief, Jumper, and thirteen more.
But the treaty was assented to upon one condition, which was, that the Seminoles were satisfied with the lands apportioned to them west of the Mississippi. This is acknowledged by Colonel Gadsden, in his letter to the Secretary of War, who says—“There is a condition prefixed to the agreement, without assenting to which the Florida Indians most positively refused to negotiate for their removal west of the Mississippi. Even with the condition annexed, there was a reluctance (which with some difficulty was overcome) on the part of the Indians, to bind themselves by any stipulations before a knowledge of facts and circumstances would enable them to judge of the advantages or disadvantages of the disposition the government of the United States wished to make of them. They were finally induced, however, to assent to the agreement.” “The final ratification of the treaty will depend upon the opinion of the seven chiefs selected to explore the country west of the Mississippi river. If that corresponds to the description given, or is equal to the expectations formed of it, there will be no difficulty on the part of the Seminoles.”
There was a very unwise delay on the part of the American government after the signing of this second treaty. More than two years were permitted to elapse before any appropriation of land was made for the Indians, who became dissatisfied, and the treaty was by them pronounced to be “a white man’s treaty,” which they did not any longer consider to be binding.
But there were other reasons why the Seminoles did not consider the treaty as binding; they did not like the lands allotted to them. A deputation of seven was sent west of the Mississippi: the land they acknowledged was good land, but they found that they were close to the Pawnee territory, and that that tribe was proverbially famous for stealing cattle and horses. It was also the determination of the American Government, as they were considered as a portion of the Creek nation, to settle them near to and incorporate them with that nation. This did not suit them; the Creeks had claimed many of their slaves, and they knew that they had no chance with so superior a force as that of the Creek nation, who would have taken all their slaves from them. As, therefore, the Pawnees would have stolen all their cattle, and the Creeks have taken all their slaves, they considered that utter destitution would be the consequence of the removal as proposed by the American Government. To get over the latter difficulty, the government proposed that the Seminoles should sell their slaves previous to their removing, but this they objected to. The American author I have quoted says:—
“It was then suggested to them that, by a sale of these negroes before they left Florida, they would augment their resources, and could go into their new country without the dread of exciting the cupidity of the Creeks. But these Indians have always evinced great reluctance to parting with slaves: indeed the Indian loves his negro as much as one of his own children, and the sternest necessity alone would drive him to the parting: this recommendation was, therefore, viewed with evident alarm, and as the right of retaining possession of them was guaranteed by the commissioner, strong doubts were raised as to the sincerity of the pledge.
“The Seminole Indians are poor agriculturists and husbandmen, and withal too indolent to till the ground, and, without their negroes, would literally starve: besides, should they dispose of them they could not be replenished in a new country. Again: the opposition of the slaves themselves to being sold to the whites would excite all their energies to prevent emigration, for they dread the idea of being transferred to sugar and cotton plantations, where they must be subject to the surveillance of the overseer. The life of a slave among the Indians, compared with that of negroes under overseers, is one of luxury and ease; the demands upon him are very trifling, scarcely ever exceeding eight or ten bushels from the crop, the remainder being applied to his own profit: they live separate, and often remote, from their owners, and enjoy an equal share of liberty. The negro is also much more provident and ambitious than his master, and the peculiar localities of the country eminently facilitate him in furnishing the Indian with rum and tobacco, which gives him a controlling influence over the latter, and at the same time affords him an immense profit; so that it can be easily imagined that the negroes would in no manner be benefited by the change.”
On the 23rd of October, 1834, being two years and a half after the signing of the second treaty at Payne’s Landing, a council of Indians was again summoned by the agent, who informed them that all they had now to answer were the following questions:—
Will you incorporate yourselves with the Creek nation in the Far-West?
Will you have money for your cattle which you leave here on your arrival there, or will you have cattle in return?
Will you go by water, or by land?
Will you have your next annuity paid in money or in goods?
Upon this, the chiefs retired and held a private council. It is said that Asseola, the principal chief of the tribe of Micosukees, persuaded them strongly to resist going, and declared that he would consider as his enemy any one who agreed to go. Asseola had not signed the treaty. The next day the council was resumed, and the chiefs made the following replies to the agent.
The first who spoke was Holata Mico, principal war chief. He expressed his wish that there should be no quarrelling, at the same time that he gave his evidence as to the truth of the first book of Moses.
“Holata Mico then rose, and said:– ‘God made all of us, and we all came from one woman, sucked one bubby; we hope we shall not quarrel; that we will talk until we get through.’
“Miconopy then said—‘When we were at Camp Moultrie we made a treaty, and we were to be paid our annuity for twenty years. That is all I have got to say.’
“Jumper said—‘At Camp Moultrie they told us all difficulties should be buried for twenty years, from the date of the treaty made there; that after this we held a treaty at Payne’s Landing, before the twenty years were out; and they told us we might go and see the country, but that we were not obliged to remove. The land is very good, I saw it, and was glad to see it; the neighbours there are bad people; I do not like them bad Indians, the Pawnees. I went and saw the place; I told the agent that I was a rogue; that he had brought me to the place here alongside, and among the rogues, the bad Pawnees, because I am a rogue. I went to see the land, and the commissioners said that the Seminoles must have that land. When we went west to see the land, we had not sold our land here, and we were told only to go and see it. The Indians there steal horses, and take packs on their horses; they all steal horses from the different tribes; I do not want to go among such people; your talk seems always good, but we don’t feel disposed to go west.’
“Charley Amathia then rose, and said—‘The speakers of the nation are all dead; but I recollect some of their words when they had the meeting at Camp Moultrie. I was not there, but heard that we would be at peace, and that we would have our annuity paid to us for twenty years. White people have told me that the treaty at Camp Moultrie, which was made by great men, and not to be broken, had secured them for twenty years; that seven years of that treaty are still unexpired. I am no half breed, and do not lean on one side. If they tell me to go after the seven years, I say nothing. As to the proposition made us by the agent about removing, I do not say I will not go; but I think that, until the seven years are out, I give no answer. My family I love dearly and sacredly. I do not think it right to take them right off. Our father has often said to me that he loves his children—and they love him. When a man is at home, and got his stock about him, he looks upon it as the subsistence of himself and family. Then when they go off, they reflect and think more seriously than when quiet at home. I do not complain of the agent’s talk. My young men and family are all around me. Should I go west, I should lose many on the path. As to the country west, I looked at it; a weak man cannot get there, the fatigue would be so great; it requires a strong man.’”
