READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 37 



ficult march, found it deserted, and thus was 

 unable to deliver the crushing blow that he had 

 planned. From a white man whom he cap 

 tured he discovered that a letter from Arbuth- 

 not had warned the Indians of the impending 

 danger and prompted their escape. Robert 

 Ambrister, an employee of Arbuthnot and also 

 a British subject, was captured in the vicinity 

 of the Indian town. All the circumstances 

 seemed to Jackson to call for summary proceed 

 ings. Returning to Saint Mark s, he brought 

 the luckless Britons before a court martial, con 

 victed them of various offences under the laws 

 of war, and had Arbuthnot hanged and Ambris 

 ter shot. 



The doughty general s vigor did not end with 

 these achievements. A little later he felt obliged 

 to go and capture Pensacola again, and teach 

 the Spanish governor the error of his ways. 

 This incident was not necessary, however, to 

 set the wheels of international controversy in 

 motion; they were spinning at top speed already. 

 The summary execution of two British subjects 

 by an American general at a place where the 

 right of the victims to be secure was more ap 

 parent than the right of the commander to be 

 at all, caused a great explosion of wrath in 



