from the lakes reached you, and urged your nation to those acts of violence that have involved your people in wretchedness and your country in ruin. Through it leads the path Tecumseh trod when he came to visit you; that path must be stopped. Until this be done your nation can not expect happiness, nor mine security. I have already told you the reasons for demanding it; they are such as ought not, can not be departed from. This evening must determine whether or not you are disposed to become friendly. Your rejecting the treaty will show you to be the enemies of the United States, enemies even to yourselves.

"When our armies came here, the hostile party had even stripped you of your country; we retook it, and now offer it to you; theirs we propose to retain. Those who are disposed to give effect to the treaty will sign it. They will be within our territory, will be protected and fed, and no enemy of theirs or ours shall molest them. Those who oppose it, shall have leave to retire to Pensacola. Here is the paper, take it, and show the President who are his friends. Consult, and this evening let me know who will sign it, and who will not. I do not wish, nor will I attempt to force any of you; act as you think proper."

A strange feature of this Creek treaty was the gift of lands to Jackson, Hawkins, George Mayfield, and Alexander Cornells. In the point of generosity the Indians were not disposed to be outdone. After submitting to the cession of their lands, willing or unwilling, they wanted to indicate their friendly feelings towards Jackson, their affection for Hawkins and Lavinia, his wife, and the two interpreters, one of whom, Cornells, was a half-breed, by stipulating that a part of the ceded lands should be deeded by the United States to these friends. General Jackson and Colonel Hawkins were to have, each, "three miles square," and the others a mile square. In the imperfect language of the gift, Colonel Hawkins's "three miles square was defined as three square miles, for it was to be taken in three bodies, each a mile square, which really, but undesignedly, gave him six square

The

miles less than General Jackson was to receive. gifts were accepted, and two years afterwards, in a message to Congress, Mr. Madison recommended that provision be made, in this exceptional instance, for carrying out this whim of the Indians. But Congress deemed it dangerous, even in this case, to admit presents to be made to agents and negotiators of treaties, and after looking over the matter a little, it was dropped, and no notice of it ever taken again.

CHAPTER XII.

THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA HEARS FROM THE NEW REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES-BATTLE

AT FORT BOWYER-BARATARIA-JEAN

LAFITTE, THE PIRATE AND

PATRIOT.

OON after closing this Indian business, General

his

Jackson proceeded, with his staff, to Mobile, which for a time became his head-quarters. His first step was to ascertain the condition of affairs on the Gulf, and especially did he make it his business to find out what the Indians and their pretended friends, the Spanish and British, were doing in Florida.

Mobile was in no state of defense, and the fort at the Point thirty miles below, on the beautiful Bay, was not in use, and was possessed of an old armament in no wise formidable. Jackson saw that this fort, with its rusty cannon and piles of rusty cannonballs, was the point from which to make the defense. Mobile itself, a town of only a few hundred people, was not worth fighting for; but it was then, as now, a great cotton-market, and was extremely valuable as a point of defensive operations to a vast extent of coast, and next to New Orleans would have been the first object of interest to the British in carrying into effect their scheme of invasion from the South, and forming a connection with Canada by the Mississippi.

Jackson at once set about repairing Fort Bowyer, since called Fort Morgan, at Mobile Point, and in it he placed Major Wm. Lawrence, of the Second Regiment of United States infantry, and one hundred and sixty men. These soldiers knew nothing of artillery fighting, and with them everything was to be learned and to be done to make Fort Bowyer what it was desired to be, a complete defense to the entrance of Mobile Bay.

General Jackson now occupied himself in putting before the Administration the state of affairs at the South, and in urging on the troops then collecting in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, for his army.

On the 12th of September, Colonel Edward Nichols appeared before Fort Bowyer with a small body of English and Indians, the latter actually having submitted to be drilled as white soldiers at Pensacola. On the same day four British war-vessels also appeared, and anchored without the Point. A day or two the enemy now spent in reconnoitering and firing an occasional shot. On the 14th Major Lawrence sent a messenger to General Jackson, notifying him of the state of affairs. This messenger met the General on his way to visit the fort. He returned in great haste in his barge to Mobile, and in a few minutes had Captain Laval with eighty men on his way down. to re-enforce Lawrence. Laval reached the neighborhood of the fort when the fighting was going on, and supposing himself too late to be of service, put back to Mobile to tell the General the unwelcome news.

But Lawrence and his men took an oath to stand by the post, and fight while there was any hope. The whole British force, land and naval, was under the

direction of Captain W. H. Percy, of the ship Hermes. At 4 o'clock, on the 15th, the Hermes entered the narrow channel leading to the bay, and anchored within short range of the fort; the other vessels followed, and the battle began.

Broadside after broadside was poured into the fort, and the inexperienced Americans answered back as best they could. An occasional shot from them kept the land force at a respectful distance, and the battle was yet mainly with the ships, on the British side. In an hour and a half the flag of the Hermes went down, and Lawrence, thinking or hoping she had struck, ceased firing; but when the smoke cleared away he saw his mistake, and resumed the contest. A fortunate shot now cut the anchor of the Hermes, when she became unmanageable and soon ran aground, but not until most of her crew had been killed or wounded. At this juncture the flag of the fort was shot down, which discovery led Woodbine, who had charge of the Indians, to think the garrison was beaten, and the time had come for scalps and spoils; and accordingly, with a howl these gentle allies rushed towards the fort. But a little grape and canister speedily changed their view of the case, and sent them behind the hills again. Another of the enemy's vessels now appeared to be crippled, and showed a disposition to give up the contest; and soon they all moved out of the bay, and before midnight the Hermes blew up. When morning dawned nothing could be seen of the gallant Britons but their three ships, and before night they too had disappeared.

On the same morning Laval arrived at Mobile with the news Jackson was loath to receive. And what was