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for protection to the Country, and ensuring to the Officer and the Soldier, the Pass of Christian and Mouth of Pascagoula cannot be surpassed nor equalled either in the Mississippi Territory or that of Orleans.
With great respect &C &C (sgd) William FloodXXXVI
J.F.H. Claiborne, in another work, also wrote, ?Judge Favre was a man of education,
fortune and standing. He had originally lived in Mobile and on the Tombecbe river, but as far back as 1777, he was residing on Pearl River. Bartram... states that in 1777 Favre offered him passage to his house on the Pearl where he entertained him with great hospitality.?xxxv".
Even before West Florida changed hands, the Spanish were having difficulty with the Choctaws observing the boundary between the Spanish lands and Mississippi Territory. Having felt betrayed by France in the sale of Louisiana, Spain increased patrolling its remaining borders. In the process, direct conflict with the Choctaws was the result. Not having clear concepts of land ownership or territorial restrictions, the Indians often crossed the 31st parallel, and some were arrested by Spain. According to De Rosier, ?the United States acted wisely toward their transgressions. It protected the Indians against the Spaniards, and the result was a greater Choctaw dependence on, and respect for, the federal government.?xxxv?'
The Choctaws were generally friendly to the early settlers, but a number of letters of W.C.C. Claiborne written between 1801 and 1812 repeatedly state that the Choctaws committed ?depredations? against the white people of the Pearl and other areas. Details of their transgressions, however, indicate that their offences were principally involving cattle and hogs, and in one case four barrels of flour and ?a deal of meat.?,xxxlx (see comment elsewhere about this being in Spanish archive papers).
In 1812, there undoubtedly had been some questions of the Choctaw loyalty in the mind of Governor Claiborne. At that time, he wrote to Simon Favre a letter, two versions of which are found, a problem similar to that described above in the case of the Flood report. The first to be
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