Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands


principal center was St. Augustine, Spain's northern outpost on
the Atlantic, which harbored most of the white residents of the
province. Besides that town there were Fernandina, on notorious
Amelia Island at the mouth of the St. Mary's; St. Mark's, on the
Gulf shore; and Apalache, at the mouth of the Apalachicola,
hardly more than an Indian trading post.
 The province was vital in the control of the Bahama channel on
the route of the fleets from Mexico to Spain. Had there been effec-
tive Spanish marine forces it might well have been the base of
operations for the suppression of illicit trade between North and
South America, and of privateering. In its own commerce, since a
large proportion of its approximately five thousand inhabitants
consisted of settlers from the United States, it had more inter-
course with Savannah, Charleston, and Baltimore than with Ha-
vana. In 1804 immigration from the northern neighbor country
was declared illegal, but a close commercial relationship con-
tinued.' The immigration restriction was hardly a major factor,
since the province had never sustained a large permanent agri-
cultural population. Certainly to the land-hungry "Anglo-Amer-
icans" it offered less attraction than did the West.
 As part of the region desired by the United States at Paris in
 1803 and at Madrid in 1805, the province drew its share of at-
 tention. At all times it was viewed with alarm and covetousness
 because of the activities and the trade possibilities of its native in-
 habitants, an offshoot of the Lower Creek Indians called the Semi-
 noles.' The Indian trade of both provinces had been in large part
 controlled by British agents from the Bahamas since the British
 occupation of the Floridas, ending in 1783.
 In recent years, disputes between the Indians and the frontier
 settlers of Georgia had increased enough to offer an occasion for
 interference by the United States. This was based on the accusa-
 tion that Spain had not lived up to her obligation, incurred in
 Pinckney's Treaty, to keep the red men pacified. Intervention was
 made even more desirable on the part of the United States when
 the threat of war with England arose.
 Further cause for contention appeared in the problem of fugi-
 tive slaves, who escaped from the southern states into East Florida
 in sufficient numbers to comprise a troublesome, lawless group. As
 early as 1733 they had received official attention in an order that