Note 262 — Chapter IV · LATER TRIBES.

By the whites I refer to the descendants of the English of the northern states. While under the Spanish government, up to the first Seminole war, their nation was said to be “numerous, proud and wealthy.” (Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, App., p. 215.) This was owing to the Spanish laws which gave them equal privileges with white and free colored persons, and drew the important distinction that they could hold land individually, but not nationally. How different these beneficent regulations from the decree of the Florida Legislature in 1827, that any male Indian found out of the reservation “shall receive not exceeding thirty-nine stripes on his bare back, and his gun be taken away from him.” (Laws relating to Inds. and Ind. Affairs, p. 247, Washington, 1832,) and similar enactments.