Sunday, February 25, 2007

WILLIAM BOWLES


The Spanish Florida-United States border problem was further complicated by the presence of colorful opportunists who profited from the region's lack of political control.
None was more troublesome than WILLIAM AUGUSTUS BOWLES, a former British naval officer. While visiting Florida during the American Revolution, he lost his rank due to insubordination, insulted his commander, and threw his uniform into into the Gulf. Bowles escaped into the forests of West Florida, where he was adopted by the Creeks. In 1781, he gained a pardon when he led some Creeks to the rescue of Pensacola, then under seize by a Spanish fleet.

Bowles accepted a job as an Indian agent, but was considered an unreliable and ruthless individualist. When the Spanish regained Florida in 1783, Bowles was told to leave, but instead elected to wage a personal war against the Penton and Leslie Company and its monopoly of the fur trade in West Florida. Gaining the support of the Nassau firm of Bonamy & Miller, Bowles tried to get the English to support him in an attempt to overthrow the Spanish in Florida.

Authorities in London rejected Bowles' plans and the Spanish sought the help of Alexander McGillivray. Within weeks McGillivray's men captured Bowles and brought him to the Spanish in Pensacola. The Spanish tried to convince the daring Englishman to join the Spanish navy, but when Bowles refused them, he was sent to a prison in the distant Spanish Philippines.

Several years later, Bowles was reassigned to Madrid, but escaped enroute off the coast of British West Africa. Bowles was treated as a wayward hero in London, but he elected to return to Florida in 1791 to renew his personal war against Spain. By now, his Creek friends had deserted him and Bowles was recaptured and sentenced to Morro Castle prison in Havana, Cuba.

Struck down by the plague and on his death bed in prison, Bowles was visited by the Governor of Cuba who wanted to see the celebrity prisoner. Bowles informed his guard, "I am sunk low indeed, but low enough to greet a Spaniard." The death of Bowles, however, did not lessen the conflict along the borderlands. Bowles was merely a symptom of Spain's lack of control of its frontier.

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