Their friendship was sedulously fostered by the Spaniards. Great
councils were held with them, and their chiefs were bribed and
flattered. Every effort was made to prevent them from dealing with any
traders who were not in the Spanish interest; New Orleans, Natchez,
Mobile, and Pensacola were all centres for the Indian trade. They were
liberally furnished with arms and munitions of war. Finally the
Spaniards deliberately and treacherously incited the Indians to war
against the Americans, while protesting to the latter that they were
striving to keep the savages at peace. In answer to protests of
Robertson, setting forth that the Spaniards were inciting the Indians to
harry the Cumberland settlers, both Miro and Gardoqui made him solemn
denials. Miro wrote him, in 1783, that so far from assisting the Indians
to war, he had been doing what he could to induce McGillivray and the
Creeks to make peace, and that he would continue to urge them not to
trouble the settlers. [Footnote: Robertson MSS., Miro to Robertson, New
Orleans, April 20, 1783.] Gardoqui, in 1788, wrote even more explicitly,
saying that he was much concerned over the reported outrages of the
savages, but was greatly surprised to learn that the settlers suspected
the Government of Spain of fomenting the warfare, which, he assured
Robertson, was so far from the truth that the King was really bent on
treating the United States in general, and the West in particular, with
all possible benevolence and generosity.
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