An island at the mouth of the
St. Mary River, near the boundary between
Georgia and
Florida.
In the summer of 1817
Gregor McGregor, styling himself “
Brigadier-general of the armies of New
Granada and
Venezuela, and general-in-chief employed to liberate the provinces of both the
Floridas.”
commissioned by the supreme councils of
Mexico and
South America, took possession of this island.
His followers were a band of adventurers which he had collected in
Charleston and
Savannah; and when he took possession he proclaimed a blockade of
St. Augustine.
In the hands of these desperadoes the island was soon converted into a resort of buccaneering privateers under the
Spanish-American flag, and a depot for smuggling slaves into the
United States.
Another similar establishment had been set up on
Galveston Island, off the coast of
Texas, under a leader named Aury.
This establishment was more important than that on
Amelia Island, as well on account of numbers as for the greater facilities afforded for smuggling.
It was a second
Barataria, and to it some of the old privateers and smugglers of
Lafitte's band of Baratarians resorted.
Under a secret act, passed in 1811, and first made public in 1817, the
President took the responsibility of suppressing both these establishments.
Aury had joined
McGregor with the
Galveston desperadoes, and their force was formidable.
The President sent
Captain Henly, in the ship
John Adams, with smaller vessels, and a battalion of
Charleston artillery under
Major Bankhead, to take possession of
Amelia Island.
McGregor was then at sea, leaving Aury in command of the island.
He was summoned to evacuate it; and on Dec. 23 the naval and military commanders, with their forces, entered the place and took quiet possession.
Aury left it in February, and so both nests of pirates and smugglers were broken up. At the same time there was much sympathy felt in the
United States for the revolted Spanish-American colonies, and, in spite of the neutrality laws, a number of cruisers were fitted out in American ports under their flags.
