"
[Footnote: _Do_., "sera necessaria la mayor precaucion, y mana para
contenerle cinendose a la suministracion de polvora, balas y efectos de
treta con la cantata posible para no dar a los Americanos justos motivos
de gueya."] There is an unconscious and somewhat gruesome humor in this
official belief that the Americans could have "no just cause" for anger
so long as the Spaniards' treachery was concealed.
Spanish Duplicity.
Throughout these years the Spaniards thus secretly supplied the Creeks
with the means of waging war on the Americans, claiming all the time
that the Creeks were their vassals and that the land occupied by the
southern Indians generally belonged to Spain and not to the United
States. [Footnote: _Do_.] They also kept their envoys busy among the
Chickasaws, Choctaws, and even the Cherokees.
In fact, until the conclusion of Pinckney's treaty, the Spaniards of
Louisiana pursued as a settled policy this plan of inciting the Indians
to war against the Americans. Generally they confined themselves to
secretly furnishing the savages with guns, powder, and lead, and
endeavoring to unite the tribes in a league; but on several occasions
they openly gave them arms, when they were forced to act hurriedly.
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