Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
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whom are wealthy planters from Georgia and South Carolina." The same year, this county sent three representatives to the General Assembly. These were Gabriel Moore, William Winston, and Hugh M'Vey. Washington District, on the Mobile and Lower Tombigby, sent only two representatives. Such was the relative population of these remote points in the territory at the close of the year 1815. ⁵⁰⁷

Origin of the Seminole War. — But the advance of the whites was premature. The Indian tribes had not yet abandoned the country. The boundary line stipulated in the "Treaty of Fort Jackson" had not been established; and the Indians, reluctant to yield up so large a portion of their territory, under the promptings of British emissaries from Florida, refused to abandon the country, or to permit the line to be established. Influenced by these emissaries and agents, they denied the obligation of the treaty, because its terms were dictated by the victorious general, and was disapproved by a fraction of the Creek nation. They asserted their unimpaired title to the country, and forbade the advance of the white population. "The Big Warrior declared he was deceived in the extent of country to be ceded by the treaty; and that the restriction of the Creek nation to the limits of the treaty line would lead to the inevitable destruction of his nation, as it would leave their country too limited for a subsistence by hunting, and that they might as well die by the sword as by famine."

Before the 16th of October, the Creek Indians had commenced hostilities upon the frontiers of Georgia, and had broken up all the military cantonments on the line from Fort Jackson eastward to Fort Mitchell, on the Chattahoochy. ⁵⁰⁸ The pioneer settlers were compelled to retire from the exposed situations, and seek safety in the older settlements.

On the 12th of December, the president issued his proclamation forewarning all persons against entering upon the lands of the United States and making settlements thereon, when such lands had not been surveyed and thrown open to them; he also commanded the marshal in any state or territory where such trespass shall have taken place, to remove, if necessary, by military force, all persons unlawfully remaining upon any such lands after the 10th of March, 1816. ⁵⁰⁹ Meantime, the Federal

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