Turning eastward, Jackson bore down
upon the Spanish settlement of St. Marks, where it was rumored that
the hostile natives had assembled in considerable numbers. A small
fleet of gunboats from Mobile and New Orleans was ordered to move
along the coast and intercept any fugitives, "white, red, or black."
Upwards of two thousand friendly Indians joined the land expedition,
and the invasion became from a military standpoint a sheer farce. The
Seminoles were utterly unprepared for war, and their villages were
taken possession of, one by one, without opposition. At St. Marks the
Indians fled precipitately, and the little Spanish garrison, after a
glimpse of the investing force, asked only that receipts be given for
the movable property confiscated. The Seminole War was over almost
before it was begun.
But Jackson was not in Florida simply to quell the Seminoles. He was
there to vindicate the honor and establish the sovereignty of the
United States. Hence there was further work for him to do. The British
instigators of lawlessness were to be apprehended; the surviving
evidences of Spanish authority were to be obliterated.
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