Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 56 Number 3 Florida Historical Quarterly, Volume Article 1 56, Number 3 1977 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3 Florida Historical Society [email protected] Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Historical Quarterly by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Society, Florida Historical (1977) "Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3," Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 56 : No. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol56/iss3/1 Society: Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3 Published by STARS, 1977 1 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 56 [1977], No. 3, Art. 1 COVER Indian children playing in a stream near their village in Royal Palm Hammock in south Florida, ca. 1930-1940. Reproduced from a postcard. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol56/iss3/1 2 Society: Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3 THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume LVI, Number 3 January 1978 COPYRIGHT 1978 by the Florida Historical Society, Tampa, Florida. Second class postage paid at Tampa and DeLeon Springs, Florida. Printed by E. O. Painter Printing Co., DeLeon Springs, Florida. Published by STARS, 1977 3 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 56 [1977], No. 3, Art. 1 THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Samuel Proctor, Editor Stephen Kerber, Editorial Assistant EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Herbert J. Doherty, Jr. University of Florida Michael V. Gannon University of Florida John K. Mahon University of Florida Jerrell H. Shofner Florida Technological University Charlton W. Tebeau University of Miami (Emeritus) J. Leitch Wright, Jr. Florida State University Correspondence concerning contributions, books for review, and all editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor, Florida Historical Quarterly, Box 14045, University Station, Gainesville, Florida 32604. The Quarterly is interested in articles and documents pertaining to the history of Florida. Sources, style, footnote form, original- ity of material and interpretation, clarity of thought, and interest of readers are considered. All copy, including footnotes, should be double-spaced. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively in the text and assembled at the end of the article. Particular attention should be given to following the footnote style of the Quarterly. The author should submit an original and retain a carbon for security. The Florida Historical Society and the Editor of the Florida Historical Quarterly accept no responsibility for statements made or opinions held by authors. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol56/iss3/1 4 Society: Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3 Table of Contents “A FREE FACETIOUS G ENTLEMAN ,“ JEAN SAVY, DOUBLE AGENT? Aileen Moore Topping 261 THE AMBUSH OF CAPTAIN JOHN WILLIAMS, U.S.M.C.: FAILURE OF THE EAST FLORIDA INVASION, 1812-1813 J. H. Alexander 280 PRIVATE SOCIETIES AND THE MAINTENANCE OF SEMINOLE TRIBAL INTEGRITY, 1899-1957 Harry A. Kersey, Jr. 297 CAREER OF A “CARPETBAGGER“: MALACHI MARTIN IN FLORIDA Mildred L. Fryman 317 THE WHITE SPRINGS POST OFFICE CAPER Jerell H. Shofner 339 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS: FLORIDA HISTORY RESEARCH IN PROGRESS ........................ 348 BOOK REVIEWS ............................................................................... 360 BOOK NOTES ................................................................................... 390 H ISTORY N EWS .............................................................. 398 iii Published by STARS, 1977 5 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 56 [1977], No. 3, Art. 1 BOOK REVIEWS THE ENTERPRISE OF FLORIDA: PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES AND THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF 1565-1568, by Eugene Lyon reviewed by Michael V. Gannon FLORIDA POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE, 1877-1893, by Edward C. Williamson reviewed by Charlton W. Tebeau OGLETHORPE IN AMERICA, by Phinizy Spalding reviewed by Jack P. Greene COLONIAL GEORGIA, A HISTORY, by Kenneth Coleman reviewed by David R. Chesnutt THE PAPERS OF GENERAL NATHANAEL GREENE, VOLUME I, DECEMBER 1766- DECEMBER 1776, edited by Richard K. Showman, Margaret Cobb, and Robert E. McCarthy reviewed by Kenneth Coleman THIS AFFAIR OF LOUISIANA, by Alexander DeConde Gilbert C. Din THE DIARY OF EDMUND RUFFIN, VOLUME II, THE YEARS OF HOPE, APRIL, 1861- JUNE, 1863, edited by William Kauffman Scarborough reviewed by John Hebron Moore A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND FREEDMEN’S RIGHTS, 1861 TO 1866, by Herman Belz reviewed by Elizabeth Studley Nathans JOSEPH E. BROWN OF GEORGIA, by Joseph H. Parks reviewed by Bell I. Wiley VENDETTA: A TRUE STORY OF THE WORST LYNCHING IN AMERICA, THE MASS MURDER OF ITALIAN-AMERICANS IN NEW ORLEANS IN 1891, THE VICIOUS MOTIVA- TIONS BEHIND IT, AND THE TRAGIC REPERCUSSIONS THAT LINGER TO THIS DAY, by Richard Gambino reviewed by George E. Pozzetta AMERICAN INDIAN POLICY IN CRISIS: CHRISTIAN REFORMERS AND THE INDIAN, 1865-1900, by Francis Paul Prucha reviewed by Harry A. Kersey, Jr. INDIAN-WHITE RELATIONS: A PERSISTANT PARADOX, edited by Jane F. Smith and Robert M. Kvasnicka reviewed by Floyd A. O’Neil THE NATURAL SUPERIORITY OF SOUTHERN POLITICIANS: A REVISIONIST HISTORY, by David Leon Chandler reviewed by Joe B. Frantz THE FUTURE OF HISTORY: ESSAYS IN THE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM, edited by Charles F. Delzell reviewed by Walter Rundell, Jr. BIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION IN PREHISTORIC AMERICA, edited by Robert L. Blakely reviewed by Barbara A. Purdy https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol56/iss3/1 6 Society: Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 56, Number 3 “A FREE FACETIOUS GENTLEMAN,” JEAN SAVY, DOUBLE AGENT? by AILEEN MOORE TOPPING * HE SPANISH MINISTER, Don Joseph Patino, had read other Taccounts of the alarming growth of the new English colony called Georgia. He recalled the Franciscan friar’s report of a conversation with an Indian chief who had been brought to England from Georgia by Mr. James Oglethorpe. The chief had stated that the English would use his people to capture San Augustin de la Florida. 1 A French engineer who had come to Madrid to solicit payment for past service in the Indies had presented a description of present conditions in Cuba, Florida, and Carolina. He had learned in South Carolina that “they will not feel secure until they have thrown us out of Florida.“ 2 A Roman Catholic resident of Charles Towne had told of the manner in which parcels of His Catholic Majesty’s land were distributed to new settlers in Georgia. 3 Don Joseph Patino also recalled recent intelligence from America and England. Governor Francisco del Moral of Florida reported that San Agustin and San Marcos de Apalache were dangerously weak, but Governor Francisco de Guemes of Havana claimed he had no engineer who could be sent to Florida to ascertain what must be done to strengthen the two presidios. 4 The Conde de Montijo, His Majesty’s ambassador in London, reported that the House of Commons had ap- propriated funds to be used that year to build a line of forts * A former assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Miami, Ms. Topping now lives in Orange Park, Florida. 1. Conde de Montijo to Joseph Patino, remitting statement of the Reverend Father Joseph Ramos Escudero, November 8, 1734, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, legajo 2591. Archivo General de Indias is hereinafter cited as AGI; Audiencia de Santo Domingo as SD, followed by a legajo number. 2. Gaspar de Courseille to the King, 1735, AGI, Indiferente General, legajo 1905. 3. Francisco del Moral Sanchez to Patino, September 8, 1735, remitting Pedro Neri to the governor of Florida, August 4, 1735, AGI:SD, 2591. 4. Patino to Moral, October 19, 1735, AGI:SD, 2591. [261] Published by STARS, 1977 7 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 56 [1977], No. 3, Art. 1 262 F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY in Georgia. 5 Mr. Oglethorpe’s sister had told Montijo that recently her brother had seen in Georgia an Irishman who had no known reason for being there. Suspecting the man to be an emissary sent by a Spanish official, Oglethorpe had arrested him and expelled him from the colony. 6 These recollections were disturbing. But the year 1735 would soon come to an end. It was time to think of a new year, time to plan for action. Patino, the king’s counsellor of state, secre- tary for the Indies, and secretary for the navy, turned to the mail received that morning from the Spanish embassy at Paris, and began to reread Trevino’s letter and Jean Savy’s memorial. The series of events which were set in motion by those papers will be narrated here by the use of selected documents found in Spanish and British archives. Most of the documents are translated from Spanish or French; those which were written in English are copied verbatim. Some were written by or about a man who signed his name Jean Savy when he wrote in French and John Savy when he wrote in English. In the Spanish papers he is called Don Juan Savi. * * * * * Don Fernando Trevino had written on October 17: “A few days before I left Paris to come to this royal residence of Fon- tainebleau the commander of the Halbardier Guards of the Spanish Queen dowager came to see me accompanied by an Englishman who says he is a Catholic named Jean Savy. Savy was for many years in America where he practiced navigation and trade and served with the rank of a lieutenant of infantry in the colony of South Carolina. He says that having had serious grievances and vexations because of a difference of re- ligion with Mr. Oglethorpe, the director of the new colony of Georgia which borders on Carolina, where Mr. Oglethorpe is beginning to settle Protestant families who were expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg in the Circle of Bavaria, he decided to come to France in July of this year with the intent of revealing to the King our Sire the encroachments made every day by the English of the two colonies mentioned above 5.