al Jackson,
with sleepless vigilance, was anticipating and watching the movements of
the British upon the Gulf coast, and marshaling his forces to resist any
attack. There had been reported to him the arrival of a squadron of nine
English ships in the harbor of Pensacola. Spain was at peace with our
country, and it was due that the Spanish commandant of Florida, yet a
province of Spain, should observe a strict neutrality pending
hostilities. Instead of this comity of good faith and friendship, the
Spanish officials had permitted this territory to become a refuge for
the hostile Indians. Here they could safely treat with the British
agents, from whom they received the implements of war, supplies of food
and clothing, and the pay and emoluments incident to their services as
allies in war. In violation of the obligations of neutrality, the
Spanish officials not only tolerated this trespass on the territory of
Florida, but, truckling to the formidable power and prestige of the
great English nation, they dared openly to insult our own Government by
giving aid and encouragement to our enemy in their very capital.

The most important and accessible point in Spanish Florida was
Pensacola. Here the Governor, Gonzalez Maurequez, held court and
dispensed authority over the province. The pride of the Spaniards in the
old country and in Florida and Louisiana was deeply wounded over the
summary sale of the territory of Louisiana by Napoleon to the United
States in 1803; recalling the compulsory cession of the same to France
by Spain in 1800. Naturally they resented with spirit what they deemed
an indignity to the honor and sovereignty of their nation. The Spanish
minister at Washington entered a solemn protest against the transaction;
questions of boundaries soon after became a continuing cause of
irritating dispute. The Dons contended that all east of the Mississippi
River was Florida territory and subject to their jurisdiction. A
military demonstration by General Wilkinson, then in command of the army
of the Southwest, was ordered from Washington, opposition awed into
silence, and the transfer made. In brief time after the boundaries of
Florida were fixed on the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and
east of a line near to the present boundary between Louisiana and
Mississippi. Previously Mobile was the seat of government for Florida,
but American aggression made the removal of the Government to Pensacola
compulsory, and gave a