Transcriber’s Note
Obvious spelling and punctuation errors corrected.
Corrections noted by the printer in the ERRATA have been made to the
text.
Befrenings Kriege was changed to Befreiungskriege in reference “Die
deutschen Hülfstruppen im Nordamerikanischen Befreiungskriege, 1776
bis 1783” to match that book’s title in other sources.
If Vol. 11 was used to refer to a second volume of Von Elking, it was
changed to Vol. II to be consistent with the majority of references.
Other inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation and use of space after
d’ (e.g. d’Iberville and d’ Iberville) have been left as in the
original.
Italic text in the original is represented by underscores surrounding
the _italic text_.
Small capitals in the original have been converted to ALL CAPS in the
text.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the relevant chapter.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES
—OF—
Colonial Florida.
—BY—
RICHARD L. CAMPBELL.
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
THE WILLIAMS PUBLISHING CO.
1892.
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Entered according to Act of Congress, in year 1892, by RICHARD
L. CAMPBELL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington.
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PREFACE.
The inducement to write this book was to supply, in a slight measure,
the want of any particular history of British rule in West Florida. With
that inducement, however, the effort would not have been made but for
the sources of original information existing in the Archives of the
Dominion of Canada, as well as others, pointed out to me by Dr. William
Kingsford of Ottawa, author of the ‘History of Canada;’ to whom I take
this occasion of making my acknowledgments.
An account of British rule necessitated one of Spanish colonial annals,
both before and after it.
If any apology be necessary for the space devoted to the Creeks, it will
be found in the considerations that for twenty years the body of the
nation was within the limits of British West Florida; that their
relations with the British, formed during that period, influenced their
conduct towards the United States until after the War of 1812; and above
all, that the life of Alexander McGillivray forms a part of the history
of West Florida, both under British and Spanish rule.
The prominence given to Pensacola is due to its having been the capital
of both British and Spanish West Florida, and therefore the centre of
provincial influence.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I 9
The Discovery of Pensacola Bay by the Panfilo de
Narvaez. The Visits of Maldonado, Captain of the
Fleet of Hernando de Soto.
CHAPTER II 19
The Settlement of Don Tristram de Luna at Santa
Maria—His Explorations—Abandonment of the
Settlement—The First Pensacola.
CHAPTER III 31
Don Andrés de Pes—Santa Maria de Galva—Don Andrés
d’Arriola—The Resuscitation of Pensacola—Its
Consequences.
CHAPTER IV 36
Iberville’s Expedition—Settlement at Biloxi and
Mobile—Amicable Relations of the French and
Spanish Colonies from 1700-1719.
CHAPTER V 41
War Declared by France against Spain—Bienville
Surprises Metamoras—Metamoras Surprises
Chateauqné—Bienville Attacks and Captures
Pensacola—San Carlos and Pensacola Destroyed—
Magazine Spared.
CHAPTER VI 51
Sketch of Island Town—Its Destruction—The Third
Pensacola—The Cession of Florida by Spain to Great
Britain—Appearance of Town in 1763—Captain Wills’
Report—Catholic Church.
CHAPTER VII 59
British West Florida—Pensacola the Capital—
Government Established—Johnstone first Governor—
British Settlers—First Survey of the Town—Star
Fort—Public Buildings—Resignation of Johnstone—His
Successor, Monteforte Brown.
CHAPTER VIII 71
General Bouquet—General Haldimand.
CHAPTER IX 78
Governor Elliott—Social and Military Life in
Pensacola—Gentlemen—Women—Fiddles—George Street—
King’s Wharf on November 14, 1768.
CHAPTER X 87
Governor Peter Chester—Ft. George of the British and
St. Michael of the Spanish—Council Chamber—Tartar
Point—Red Cliff.
CHAPTER XI 93
Representative Government.
CHAPTER XII 97
Growth of Pensacola—Panton, Leslie & Co.—A King and
the Beaver—Governor Chester’s Palace and Chariot—
The White House of the British and Casa Blanca of
the Spanish—General Gage—Commerce—Earthquake.
CHAPTER XIII 111
Military Condition of West Florida in 1778—General
John Campbell—The Waldecks—Spain at War with
Britain—Bute, Baton Rouge and Fort Charlotte
Capitulate to Galvez—French Town—Famine in Fort
George—Galvez’s Expedition Against Pensacola—
Solana’s Fleet Enters the Harbor—Spaniards Effect
a Landing—Spanish Entrenchment Surprised—The Fall
of Charleston Celebrated in Fort George.
CHAPTER XIV 131
Fort San Bernardo—Siege of Fort George—Explosion of
Magazine—The Capitulation—The March Through the
Breach—British Troops Sail from Pensacola to
Brooklyn.
CHAPTER XV 142
Political Aspect of the Capitulation—Treaty of
Versailles—English Exodus—Widow of the White
House.
CHAPTER XVI 150
Boundary Lines—William Panton and Spain—Indian
Trade—Indian Ponies and Traders—Business of
Panton, Leslie & Co.
CHAPTER XVII 158
Lineage of Alexander McGillivray—His Education—Made
Grand Chief—His Connection with Milfort—His
Relations with William Panton—His Administration
of Creek Affairs—Appointed Colonel by the British—
Treaty with Spain—Commissioned Colonel by the
Spanish—Invited to New York by Washington—Treaty—
Commissioned a Brigadier-General by the United
States—His Sister, Sophia Durant—His Trials—His
Death at Pensacola.
CHAPTER XVIII 200
Governor Folch—Barrancas—Changes in the Plan of the
Town—Ship Pensacola—Disputed Boundaries—Square
Ferdinand VII.—English Names of Streets Changed
for Spanish Names—Palafox—Saragossa—Reding—Baylen
Romana—Alcaniz—Tarragona.
CHAPTER XIX 217
Folch Leaves West Florida—His Successors—War of
1812—Tecumseh’s Visit to the Seminoles and Creeks—
Consequences—Fort Mims—Percy and Nicholls’
Expedition.
CHAPTER XX 227
Attack on Fort Boyer by Percy and Nicholls—Jackson’s
March on Pensacola in 1814—The Town Captured—Percy
and Nicholls Driven Out—Consequences of the War to
the Creeks—Don Manuel Gonzalez.
CHAPTER XXI 243
Seminole War, 1818—Jackson Invades East Florida—
Defeats the Seminoles—Captures St. Marks—Arbuthnot
and Ambrister—Prophet Francis—His Daughter.
CHAPTER XXII 252
Jackson’s Invasion of West Florida in 1818—Masot’s
Protest—Capture of Pensacola—Capitulation of San
Carlos—Provisional Government Established by
Jackson—Pensacola Restored to Spain—Governor
Callava—Treaty of Cession—Congressional Criticism
of Jackson’s Conduct.
CHAPTER XXIII 267
Treaty Ratified—Jackson Appointed Provisional
Governor—Goes to Pensacola—Mrs. Jackson in
Pensacola—Change of Flags—Callava Imprisoned—
Territorial Government—Governor Duval—First
Legislature Meets at Pensacola.
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ERRATA.
Page 10. _Sixteenth_ for Eighteenth.
“ 61. _Distant_ for District.
“ 113. _Journal_ for Journey.
“ 117. _1779_ for 1789.
“ 225. _Barrataria_ for Banataria.
“ 276. _Domingo_ for Doningo.
“ 233. _During_ for Doing.
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CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of Pensacola Bay by Panfilo de Narvaez—The Visits of
Maldonado, Captain of the Fleet of Hernando de Soto.
On one of the early days of October, 1528, there could have been seen,
coasting westward along and afterwards landing on the south shore of
Santa Rosa Island, five small, rudely-constructed vessels, having for
sails a grotesque patchwork of masculine under and over-wear. That fleet
was the fruit of the first effort at naval construction within the
present limits of the United States. It was built of yellow pine and
caulked with palmetto fibre and pitch. Horses’ tails and manes furnished
the cordage, as did their hides its water vessels. Its freightage
consisted of two hundred and forty human bodies, wasted and worn by
fatigue and exposure, and as many hearts heavy and racked with
disappointment. It was commanded by His Excellency Panfilo de Narvaez,
Captain-general and Adelantado of Florida, a tall, big-limbed,
red-haired, one-eyed man, “with a voice deep and sonorous as though it
came from a cavern.”
These were the first white men to make footprints on the shores of
Pensacola Bay and to look out upon its waters. Although they landed on
the Island, there is no evidence that their vessels entered the harbor.
Narvaez, an Hidalgo, born at Valladolid about 1480, was a man capable of
conceiving and undertaking great enterprises, but too rash and
ill-starred for their successful execution, possessing the ambition and
avarice which impelled the Spanish adventurers to the shores of the Gulf
of Mexico during the sixteenth century, with whom Indian life was but a
trifling sacrifice for a pearl or an ounce of gold.
Five years before his Florida expedition he had been appointed, with a
large naval and land force under his command, by Velasquez, governor of
Cuba, to supersede Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, and to send him in
chains to Havana, to answer charges of insubordination to the authority
of Velasquez. But Cortez was not the man to be thus superseded. Never
did his genius for great enterprises make a more striking display than
by the measures he adopted and executed in this emergency. By them he
converted that threatening expedition into one of succor for himself,
embracing every supply, soldiers included, he required to complete his
conquests. Of this great achievement the defeat of the incompetent
Narvaez was only an incident.
No labored comparison of conqueror and vanquished could present a more
striking contrast between them than that suggested by their first
interview. “Esteem it,” said Narvaez, “great good fortune that you have
taken me captive.” “It is the least of the things I have done in
Mexico,” replied Cortez, a sarcasm aimed at the incapacity of Narvaez,
apart from the gains of the victor.
The fruits of the expedition to Narvaez were the loss of his left eye,
shackles, imprisonment, banishment, and the humiliation of kneeling to
his conqueror and attempting to kiss his hand. To the Aztec the result
was the introduction of a scourge that no surrender could placate, no
submission, however absolute and abject, could stay, and, therefore,
more pitiless than the sword of Cortez—the small-pox.
After leaving Mexico, Narvaez appeared before the Emperor Charles V., to
accuse Cortez of treason, and to petition for a redress of his own
wrongs, but the dazzling success of Cortez, to say nothing of his large
remittances to the royal treasury, was an effectual answer to every
charge. The emperor, however, healed the wounded pride, and silenced the
complaints of the prosecutor by a commission with the aforementioned
sonorous titles to organize an expedition for a new conquest, by which
he might compensate himself for the loss of the treasures and empire of
Montezuma, which he had so disastrously failed to snatch from the iron
grasp of Cortez.
The preparations to execute this commission having been made by
providing a fleet, a land force, consisting of men-at-arms and cavalry,
as well as the necessary supplies, Narvaez, in April, 1528, sailed for
the Florida coast, and landed at or near Tampa bay.
Having resolved on a westward movement, he ordered his fleet to sail
along the coast, whilst he, by rather a circuitous march, would advance
in the same direction. This parting was at once final and fatal. He
again reached the Gulf, somewhere in the neighborhood of St. Marks, with
his command woefully wasted and diminished by toil, battle and disease;
and, as can well be imagined, with his dreams of avarice and dominion
rudely dispelled.
No tidings of the fleet from which he had so lucklessly parted being
obtainable, despair improvised that fleet with motley sails which we
have seen mooring off the island of Santa Rosa in the early days of
October, its destination being Mexico—a destination, however, which was
but another delusion that the winds and the waves were to dispel.
Narvaez found a grave in the maw of the sea, as did most of the remnant
of his followers. Famine swept off others, leaving only four to reach
Mexico after a land journey requiring years, marked by perils and
sufferings incident to such a journey through a vast forest bounded only
by the sea, intersected by great rivers, inhabited by savages, and
infested by wild beasts. One of the survivors was Cabeça de Vaca, the
treasurer and historian of the expedition.
Twelve years elapsed after Narvaez discovered Pensacola Bay before the
shadow of the white man’s sail again fell upon its waters. In January,
1540, Capitano Maldonado, who was the commander of the fleet which
brought Fernando de Soto to the Florida coast, entered the harbor, gave
it a careful examination, and bestowed upon it the name of Puerta d’
Anchusi, a name probably suggested by Ochus,[1] which it bore at the
time of his visit. In entering Ochus he ended a voyage westward, made in
search of a good harbor, under the orders of Soto, who was at that time
somewhere on the Florida coast to the westward of Apalachee.
Having returned to Soto, Maldonado made so favorable a report—the first
official report—of the advantages of Puerta d’ Anchusi that Soto
determined to make it his base of supply. He accordingly ordered
Maldonado to proceed to Havana, and after having procured the required
succors to sail to Puerta d’ Anchusi, where he intended to go himself,
and there to await Maldonado’s return before he ventured into the
interior; a prudent resolve, suggested possibly by the sight of the
bones of Narvaez’s horses, which had been slain to furnish cordage and
water-vessels for his fleet.
But the resolve was as brief as it was wise. A few days after
Maldonado’s departure a captured Indian so beguiled Soto with tales of
gold to be found far to the northeast of Apalachee, where he then was,
that banishing all thoughts of Puerta d’ Anchusi from his mind, he began
that circuitous march which carried him into South Carolina, northern
Georgia, and Alabama, where he wandered in search of treasure until
disappointment, wasted forces, and needed supplies again turned his
march southward, and his thoughts to his rendezvous with Maldonado.
That rendezvous was to be in October, 1540. Faithful to instructions,
Maldonado was at Puerta d’ Anchusi at the appointed time with a fleet
bearing all the required supplies. But Soto did not keep the tryst. He
was then at Mauvilla, or Maubila, supposed to be Choctaw Bluff, on the
Alabama river, absorbed by difficulties and engaged in conflicts such as
he had never before encountered. Through Indians they had communicated,
and intense was the satisfaction of Soto and his command at the prospect
of a relief of their wants, repose from their toils, and tidings of
their friends and loved ones.
Soto, however, still ambitious of emulating the achievements of Cortez
and Pizzaro, looked upon Puerta d’ Anchusi as only a base of supply and
refuge for temporary repose, from which again to set out in search of
his goal. But very different were the views of his followers. By
eaves-dropping on a dark night behind their tents, he learned that to
them Puerta d’ Anchusi was not to be a haven of temporary rest only, but
the first stage of their journey homeward, where Soto and his fortunes
were to be abandoned.
This information again banished Puerta d’ Anchusi from his thoughts
under the promptings of pride, which impelled him to prefer death in the
wilderness to the mockery and humiliation of failure. He at once
resolved to march deeper into the heart of the continent, and,
unconsciously, nearer to the mighty river in whose cold bosom he was to
find a grave.
As in idea we go into the camp at Mauvilla, on the morning when the word
of command was given for a westward march, we see depicted on the
war-worn visages of that iron band naught but gloom and disappointment,
as, constrained by the stern will of one man, they obediently fall into
ranks without a murmur, much less a sign of revolt.
Again, if in fancy we stand on the deck of Maldonado’s ship at Puerta d’
Anchusi, we may realize the keen watchfulness and the deep anxiety with
which day after day and night after night he scans the shore and hills
beyond to catch a glint of spear or shield, or strains his ear to hear a
bugle note announcing the approach of his brothers-in-arms. And only
after long, weary months was the vigil ended, as he weighed anchor and
sailed out of the harbor to go to other points on the Gulf shore where
happily he might yet meet and succor his commander.
To this task did he devote himself for three years, scouring the Gulf
coast from Florida to Vera Cruz, until the curtain of the drama was
lifted for him, to find that seventeen months previously his long-sought
chief had been lying in the depths of the Mississippi, and that a
wretched remnant only of that proud host, which he had last seen in
glittering armor on the coast of Florida, had reached Mexico after
undergoing indescribable perils and privations.
-----
Footnote 1:
So the name is given by historians; but, to be consistent with the
termination of other Indian names in West Florida, it should be
written Ochee or Ochusee.
------------------------------------------------------------------------