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intentions of the French and British to the gathering of Indians who apparently had a difficult time understanding the politics and territorial realignments of the Europeans?. D?Abbadie fully intended to collaborate with the British to avoid possible problems with the Choctaw Nation during the transition to British rule. Fie visited with Robert Farmar, the British officer who commanded Mobile prior to the November meeting with the Choctaw and wrote in his diary: ?...we have indicated how advantageous it will be to our common interests to await the convocation of the Indians which I have set primarily to arrive at an agreement concerning what will be done with them [the Choctaws].??1? The British Governor of Mobile, Robert Farmar, met with D?Abbadie at Mobile. Here, they expressed their desire :
?... to cooperate reciprocally... [as] stipulated in article seven of the treaty of peace concluded on the tenth of February 1763... we have agreed ...for the said articles to be made known and included under the name and territory of the region of the Alabamas, particularly the Kawitas, Abihkas, Chiachas, Kasihtas, and other dependents of the Kawitas, andfinally the Talapoosas and Alabamas. (insert footnote from Swanton on tribes) This shall be accomplished by several separate assemblies, some for the above-mentioned Choctaw nation only, and the others for those known under the name of Alabamas, observing so far as possible that the above-mentioned Choctaws and Alabama Indians shall not be at Mobile together. The speech was interpreted by Sieur Favre, interpreter maintained by his very Christian majesty, according to his certificate below, to the Indians of the Choctaw nation assembled for that purpose in the presence of the two governors of New Orleans and of Mobile and of the respective officers of the two crowns... " (note this is also cited as an endnote, but may be more proper to place it in the text, like it was originally)
Spanish settlements
On September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally ceded the Floridas to Spain by a treaty which did not specify definite boundaries. The Spanish were ignorant of a secret clause contained in the preliminary treaty between England and the United States and did not insist upon the clarification of the boundary question. A definitive treaty was concluded the same day between the United States and Great Britain and the line of the thirty-first parallel was confirmed. The uncertainties concerning the boundaries of West Florida persisted well into the 19th century and were not finally resolved until the signing of the Adam-Onis treaty of 1819.
In 1782, Spanish authorities had established firm control over the area of West Florida that included the future site of Hancock County along the East Pearl River The Spaniards generally dismissed the previous British claims to the area and encouraged settlements along the
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