He reported, May 22, 1817: "I have just received
information from a source on which I can implicitly rely, that it has
already become the practice to introduce into the state of Georgia,
across the St. Mary's River, from Amelia Island, East Florida, Africans,
who have been carried into the Port of Fernandina, subsequent to the
capture of it by the Patriot army now in possession of it ...; were the
legislature to pass an act giving compensation in some manner to
informers, it would have a tendency in a great degree to prevent the
practice; as the thing now is, no citizen will take the trouble of
searching for and detecting the slaves. I further understand, that the
evil will not be confined altogether to Africans, but will be extended
to the worst class of West India slaves."[85]
Undoubtedly, the injury done by these pirates to the regular
slave-trading interests was largely instrumental in exterminating them.
Late in 1817 United States troops seized Amelia Island, and President
Monroe felicitated Congress and the country upon escaping the "annoyance
and injury" of this illicit trade.[86] The trade, however, seems to have
continued, as is shown by such letters as the following, written three
and a half months later:--
PORT OF DARIEN, March 14, 1818.
... It is a painful duty, sir, to express to you, that I am in
possession of undoubted information, that African and West India
negroes are almost daily illicitly introduced into Georgia, for
sale or settlement, or passing through it to the territories of
the United States for similar purposes; these facts are
notorious; and it is not unusual to see such negroes in the
streets of St.
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