[38] Monette says that three thousand stands of arms and six hundred barrels of powder were destroyed by the explosion. This is probably somewhat of an exaggeration. We have no fact to warrant the assertion, that there was any addition made to the stores left by Col. Nichols, when he delivered the fort to the Exiles. The same author states, that one magazine, containing one hundred and sixty barrels of powder, was left unharmed by the explosion; but no mention of such fact is found in the Official Report, by Sailing-Master Loomis. [39] Vide Documents before the Committee of Congress appointed to investigate the cause of General Jackson's invasion of Florida: XVth Congress, 2d Session. [40] This bill was reported by Mr. Ingham of Connecticut, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. [41] Vide Statutes enacted at 2d Session, XXVIth Congress. The author was then a member of the House of Representatives, but had not learned to watch the movements of slaveholders and "their allies," so closely as subsequent experience taught him would be useful. [42] Vide Speeches of Hon. George Poindexter and others on the Seminole War, in 1819. [43] Hon. William Jay, of New York, published his Views of the action of the Federal Government in 1887. [44] Monette says Arbuthnot sent word to the Negroes and Indians, notifying them of the approach of General Jackson; but the official report of that Officer shows that his advance guard was daily engaged in skirmishing with the Indians. [45] Vide General Jackson's Official Report of this battle, Ex. Doc. 175, 2d Session XVth Congress. [46] Williams, in his History of Florida, states that three hundred and forty Negroes again rallied after the first retreat, and fought their pursuers, until _eighty_ of their number, were killed on the field. "Monetta" also states the same fact; but General Jackson, in all his Reports, evidently avoided, as far as possible, any notice of the Exiles, as a people. Indeed such was the policy of the Administration, and of its officers, and of all slaveholders. They then supposed, as they now do, that slavery must depend upon the supposed ignorance and stupidity of the colored people; and scarcely an instance can be found, where a slaveholder admits the slave to possess human intelligence or human feeling; indeed, to teach a slave to read the Scriptures, is regarded as an offense, in nearly every slave State, and punishable by fine and imprisonment. [47] Various names have been given this Fort. The author, having heretofore adopted that of "Blount's Fort," prefers to continue that name. It was equally known, however, as the "Negro Fort," and as "Fort Nichols." [48] The people of the free States should understand, that almost every question touching slavery which has arisen between our Government and that of England, the latter has yielded, since the formation of Jay's Treaty in 1795.