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in words of affection; and to smoke with their nations
the pipe of peace.
It was then agreed, that the ancient love of the tribes to the
British king should re-
main unimpaired; that the lands from the
St. John's to the
Savannah, between the sea and the mountains, belonged, of ancient right, to the Muskhogees.
Their cession to the
English of the land on the
Savannah, as far as the
Ogeechee, and along the coast to the
St. John's, as far into the interior as the tide flows, was, with a few reservations, confined; and the entrance to the rest of their domains was barred forever against the Spaniards.
The right of preemption was reserved for the trustees of
Georgia alone; nor might they enlarge their possessions, except with the consent of the ancient proprietaries of the soil.
The news of this treaty could not have reached
England before the negotiations with
Spain were abruptly terminated.
Walpole desired peace; he pleaded for it in the name of national honor, of justice, and of the true interests of commerce.
But the active English mind had become debauched by the hopes of sudden gains, and soured by disappointment, and was now resolved on illicit commerce, or on plunder and conquest.
A war was desired, not because
England insisted on cutting logwood in the
Bay of Honduras, where
Spain claimed a jurisdiction, and had founded no settlements; nor because the
South Sea company differed with the king of
Spain as to the balances of their accounts; nor yet because the boundary between
Carolina and
Florida was still in dispute;— these differences could all have been adjusted;—but because
English ‘merchants were not permitted to
Lord Mahon's History of England, III. 5 |
smuggle with impunity.’
A considerable part of the population of
Jamaica was sustained by the profits of the contraband trade with Spanish ports; the annual
