, made war on the Creeks,
and sent word to the Americans to join in the war. The letter ran: "I
hope you will exert yourselves and join us so that we might give the
lads a Drubbeen for they have encroached on us this great while not us
alone you likewise for you have suffered a good dale by them I hope you
will think of your wounds." [Footnote: Blount MSS., James Colbert to
Robertson, Feb. 10, 1792.] The Americans had "thought of their wounds"
and had aided the Chickasaws in every way, as was proper; but the
original aggressors were the Creeks. The Chickasaws had entered into
what was a mere war of retaliation; though when once in they had fought
hard, under the lead of Opiamingo, their most noted war chief, who was
always friendly to the Americans and hostile to the Spaniards.

The Situation at Natchez.

At the Chickasaw Bluffs, and at Natchez, there was always danger of a
clash; for at these places the Spanish soldiers were in direct contact
with the foremost of the restless backwoods host, and with the Indians
who were most friendly or hostile to them. Open collision was averted,
but the Spaniards were kept uneasy and alert. There were plenty of
American settlers around Natchez, who were naturally friendly to the
American Government; and an agent from the State of Georgia, to the
horror of the Spaniards, came out to the country with the especial
purpose of looking over the Yazoo lands, at the time when Georgia was
about to grant them to the various land companies. What with the land
speculators, the frontiersmen, and the Federal troops, the situation
grew steadily more harassing for the Spaniards; and Carondolet kept the
advisors of the Spanish Crown well informed of the growing stress.

The Separatists Play into the Hands of the Spaniards.

The Spanish Government knew it would be beaten if the issue once came to
open war, and, true to the instincts of a weak and corrupt power, it
chose as its weapons delay, treachery, and intrigue. To individual
Americans the Spaniards often behaved with arrogance and brutality; but
they feared to give too serious offence to the American people as a
whole. Like all other enemies of the American Republic, from the days of
the Revolution to those of the Civil War, they saw clearly that their
best allies were the separatists, the disunionists, and they sought to
encourage in every way the party which, in a spirit of sectionalism,
wished to bring about a secession of one part