They could devise no plan by which this could be effected. Their people
reached back from the river, along the thirty-first degree of north
latitude, far into the interior, and extended thence to the lake
border. On three sides they were encompassed by an American population
and an American government. They had carried with them into this
country all their American habits, and all their love for American laws
and American freedom; to the east they were separated by an immense
stretch of barren pine-woods from any other settlements upon Spanish
soil. Pensacola was the seat of governmental authority, and this was
too far away to extend the feeble arm of Spanish rule over these
people. They were pretty much without legal government, save such laws
and rule as had been by common consent established. These were all
American in character, and, to all intents, this was an American
settlement, almost in the midst of an American government, and yet
without the protection of that or any other government. It was evident
that at no distant day the Floridas must fall into the hands of the
American Government.
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