Kentucky Gazette

OFFICIAL.

From the National Intelligencer.

We have seen some conjectures in the newspapers, respecting the delivery of the Spanish posts, in Florida, which it has been announced are to be restored to the Spanish government, that have led us to some inquiry into the subject.

The two posts, we are induced to believe, will be surrendered under varying circumstances.

The post of St. Marks will not be surrendered, but to a force competent to hold it. It is a military post, remote from any population, surrounded by hordes of desperate Indians and negroes; it is the only barrier against their ravages and incursions. To evacuate it on the mere demand of any Spanish agent deputed to receive, or to a force incompetent to hold it, would be to evacuate it to the Indians; for, we have the authority of the late Spanish commander of it, for saying, that the Indians controlled him, and not he them. Self-preservation is the first dictate of nature; and there is nothing in the law of nations, most rigorously construed, which requires a nation to prostrate any part of its population at the mercy of an infuriated and savage enemy. We have daily accounts that the Seminole Indians remaining unsubdued are embodied in force; this check withdrawn, and they might sweep our borders. On the appearance of a force adequate to garrison the post, it will be promptly given up.

With respect to Pensacola, that post stands on a different footing. There are not few warriors west of the Appalachicola, and the population of the frontier is sufficient to keep them in awe. The population of Pensacola alone is abundantly competent to preserve it from falling into the hands of the Indians. That post, therefore, will be surrendered, without condition, to any agent of Spain duly authorized to receive it.

It is thus seen, that the United States do not desire to hold the Spanish posts; one of which is surrendered without condition, and the other without any condition but that it shall not be surrendered to a force, nominally Spanish, under a control actually Indian. In a word, it is to Spain, and not to the Seminoles, that both the posts are to be surrendered.