lo come lo this place, I could have convinced him by the concurrent testimony of hundreds of the most respectable inhabitants of this section of the frontier, that there was impending and imminent danger of an attack upon this frontier by al least six or eight tribes of Indians, capable of turning out from 2,000 to 5,000 warriors, among whorn 1 have ascertained the Cherokees and Cacldoes, though by no means the most numerous, would have been the most formidable, inasmuch as their perfect knowledge of the country, and of hundreds of helpless families scattered over a vast extent of country, between this place and Fort Towson, and between the Red and Sabine rivers, embracing from 12,000 lo J !l,000 square miles, would have enabled them lo lead the Camanchcs, Pawnees, Delawares, and Shawnees, lo every plantation, cabin, and camp. . True it is that the apprehended attack has been averted, not by the report or any interposition of an officer at New Orleans, but, first, by the timely concentration of force at Fort Jesup, at this place, and at Fort Towson; and, secondly, by one of those extraordinary, and I may sayy Providential triumphs of the spirit of free government over cold-blooded tyranny, for which the people of the country of our own beloved Washington have had more cause lo be grateful than those of any other parl of the world. But for these movements, followed by the late occurrences at San Jacinto, I have very little doubt that this settlement, including the most bcautifula dn most productive section of the cotton-growing region of the United States, viz: "from Alexandria, upon the Red river, to the great raft, and thence to Fort Towson," would have been as completely depopulated as is now the southern frontier of East Florida. I am truly rejoiced lo find that I cannot point to the massacre of one single family on our side of the disputed territory to sustain me in this opinion;and, although my enemies may exult in the apparent truth of their prophecy that I was mistaken, yet I would n1uch rather all the officers of high rank in the army would charge me with the fault of being over-cautious, or over-credulous, than that any one of the pioneers of our frontier should be tomahawked and scalped. The enclosed papers, marked A and 8, just now received, will apprizc you of the massacre of several men, and the captivity
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