Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 15, pp. 270-282. Footnote 62: Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 15, p. 281. Footnote 63: So impressed was General Jackson’s chivalric nature with the lion-like courage of the Red Sticks at the battle of the Horse Shoe, that he made an earnest, but ineffectual effort to end the conflict, and thereby save a remnant of that band of heroes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXII. Jackson’s Invasion of West Florida in 1818—Masot’s Protest—Capture of Pensacola—Capitulation of San Carlos—Provisional Government Established by Jackson—Pensacola Restored to Spain—Governor Callava— Treaty of Cession—Congressional Criticism of Jackson’s Conduct. Hitherto Jackson’s operations had been confined to the province of East Florida. On the tenth of May, 1818, he began his invasion of West Florida by crossing the Appalachicola river at the Indian village of Ochesee. Thence he followed a trail which led him over the natural bridge of the Chipola river—a bridge which it would be difficult for the wayfarer to observe, as it is formed by the stream quietly sinking into a lime-stone cavern, through which it again emerges within a distance of half a mile. Within a few hundred yards of the trail, and near the north side of the bridge, there is a cave one-fourth of a mile in length, with many lateral grottoes, its roof pendant with glittering stalactites and its floor covered with lime-stones moulded in varied and eccentric forms. Panic-stricken by Jackson’s campaign in East Florida, the Indians on the west of the Appalachicola river, when he began his westward march, made this cave a place of refuge, and were there quietly concealed when his troops unconsciously marched over their subterranean retreat. The army marched in two divisions. The one commanded by Jackson in person followed the bridge trail, the other moved by a trail which led to the river, northward of the place where it made its cavernous descent. The water being high, the construction of a bridge or rafts became necessary to enable the wagons and artillery to cross. Whilst the northern division was thus obstructed, General Jackson, unimpeded in his march, reached the appointed place of junction. Here he waited, in hourly expectation of the appearance of the other column, until worked up to a frenzy of impatience which was changed to indignation when, after the junction, the interposition of a river—contradicted, as he supposed, by his own immediate experience—was assigned as the cause of the delay. At length, however, the guides, by disclosing the existence of the bridge, solved the riddle and restored the general to good humor.