254 ANDREW JACKSON 



commit atrocities on the United States frontier. The 

 Spanish government was at that time engaged in war- 

 fare with its revolted colonies in South America, and 

 the coasts of Florida became a haunt for contraband 

 traders, privateers, and filibusters. One adventurer 

 would announce his intention to make Florida a free 

 republic ; another would go about committing robbery 

 on his own account ; a third would set up an agency 

 for kidnapping negroes on speculation. The disorder 

 was hideous. On the Apalachicola River the British 

 had built a fort, and amply stocked it with arms and 

 ammunition, to serve as a base of operations against 

 the United States. On the departure of the British, 

 the fort was seized and held by negroes. This 

 alarmed the people of Georgia, and in July, 1816, 

 United States troops, with permission from the Span- 

 ish authorities, marched in and bombarded the negro 

 fort. A hot shot found its way into the magazine, 

 three hundred negroes were blown into fragments, 

 and the fort was demolished. In this case the Span- 

 iards were ready to leave to United States troops a 

 disagreeable work for which their own force was 

 incompetent. Every day made it plainer that Spain 

 was quite unable to preserve order in Florida, and for 

 this reason the United States entered upon negotia- 

 tions for the purchase of that country. Meanwhile 

 the turmoil increased. White men were murdered by 

 Indians, and United States troops under Colonel 

 Twiggs captured and burned a considerable Seminole 

 village known as Fowltown. The Indians retaliated 

 by a wholesale massacre of fifty people who were 

 ascending the Apalachicola River in boats; some of 

 the victims were tortured with firebrands. Jackson 



