The United States engaged to pay the Seminoles fifteen thousand four hundred dollars as a consideration for the improvements on the lands which they abandoned, and a further sum of two hundred dollars each to two negroes, Abraham and Cudjoe, each Indian to be furnished with a blanket and homespun frock, and a sufficient quantity of corn, meat, and salt for one year’s support after arriving in the new reservation.  Two blacksmiths, at one thousand dollars a year, were agreed to be furnished for a period of ten years, and an annuity of three thousand dollars for fifteen years to be paid after their arrival in the West; which sum, together with the four thousand dollars stipulated for in the Camp Moultrie treaty, making seven thousand dollars per annum, was to be paid to the Creek nation with their annuities.

In order to relieve the Seminoles from vexatious demands on them for their slaves and other property, the United States stipulated to have the matter investigated, and to liquidate such as were satisfactory, provided the amount did not exceed seven thousand dollars.  This treaty was executed on May 9, 1832, and signed by Holata Amathla and fourteen other chiefs.  Seven of the chiefs were deputed to visit and explore the new country, accompanied by their interpreter and by Major John Fagan, formerly Indian agent in Florida.  The delegation reported their approval of the country, and the ratification on the part of the Indians was made by seven of the chiefs at Fort Gibson, La.

This ratification by the seven chiefs was in excess of their authority, as they were only authorized to examine the country and report the result of their mission to a general council of the nation, which was to be convened on their return.

Colonel Gadsden, the commissioner on the part of the United States, addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, in which he said:  “There is a condition prefixed to the agreement without assenting to which the Florida Indians most positively refused to negotiate for their removal west of the Mississippi.  Even with the condition annexed, there was a reluctance, which with some difficulty was overcome, on the part of the Indians to bind themselves by any stipulations before a knowledge of the facts and circumstances would enable them to judge of the advantages or disadvantages of the disposition the Government of the United States wished to make of them.  They were finally induced, however, to assent to the agreement....

“The payment for property alleged to have been plundered was the subject most pressed by the Indians, and in yielding to their wishes on this head a limitation has been fixed in a sum which I think, however, will probably cover all demands which can be satisfactorily proved.  Many of the claims are for negroes said to have been enticed away from their owners during the protracted Indian disturbances, of which Florida has been for years the theater.  The Indians allege that the depredations were mutual, that they have