INDIAN HISTORY. 195 



of free Spanish negroes, all of whom were living with and adopting 

 the habits of the Indians. So wide the extent of country over 

 which they roamed, and so inaccessible their villages, that even the 

 existence of some tribes was unknown until after many years of 

 warfare. The tribes were different from each other in government 

 and location, and some of them were hostile to the others. 



After the cession of the province by the Spanish, the United 

 States sought to control the haughty nations that peopled the 

 newly acquired territory, many of which had never been subject to 

 Spain, and to induce them to cede their lands and delegate their 

 government to the Government of the United States, upon the 

 condition of protection and alliance. To this end three Commis- 

 sioners were appointed by the United States, at Fort Moultrie, 

 near St. Augustine, in September 1823, who caused thirty-five of 

 the principal men of the northern tribes to sign with their marks 

 a treaty, denominated the treaty of Fort Moultrie. The first article 

 of this treaty stated that themselves and their tribes have appealed 

 to the humanity, and thrown themselves on the protection of the 

 United States, "and do cede all claim to the whole territory of 

 Florida." The United States Government in its turn agreed to 

 pay six thousand dollars in goods, and an annual payment of five 

 thousand dollars. 



Immediately upon the execution of this agreement, settlers 

 poured in and commenced cultivating the lands relinquished by 

 the Indians, and many quarrels as to the intrusion and the rights 

 of person and property arose between these two classes, so antagon- 

 istical in every element of character. Another difficulty arose from 

 the desire of the whites to recover their negro slaves that had fled 

 to the Indians and fraternised with them, sometimes inter-marrying 

 with them, and the government records are full of complaints of 

 these losses, and the war was largely stimulated on this account. 



This difference of feeling led the United States Government to 

 propose, and carry into effect, in May 1832, a conditional treaty 

 known as the Payne's Landing Treaty, signed by seventeen chiefs, 

 whereby the Seminoles agreed to emigrate to the territory of 

 Arkansas, west of the Mississippi River, providing they should be 

 satisfied with the country, after first sending some of their chiefs 



