In April, a French sloop of war arrived on the confines of Georgia and East Florida, with a small body of troops, who were landed on one of the islands on the coast, south of the St.Mary, and who declared themselves to be part of a larger force, which might soon be expected.

Upon their arrival, several small corps of Americans who had engaged to serve the republic of France, assembled in Georgia, for the purpose, as was universally understood, of co-operating with the French against the neighbouring dominions of Spain.
The interposition of government, and the inadequacy of the force to the object, disconcerted this expedition.

Its leader conducted his followers into the Indian country, and endeavoured to make a settlement on their hunting grounds.
While these turbulent scenes were acting, the loud plaudits of France, which were dictated by a passionate devotion to that country, were reechoed from every part of the American continent.

The friendship of that republic for the United States, her respect for their rights, the ingratitude with which her continuing benefits were repaid, the injustice done her by the executive, its tameness under British insults, were the inexhaustible themes of loud, angry, and unceasing declamation.

It required a firmness of mind, and a weight of character possessed only by the chief magistrate, to maintain the ground he had taken, against such an assemblage of passions and of prejudices.
It will be recollected that in the preceding year, the attempt to treat with the hostile Indians had suspended the operations of General Wayne until the season for action had nearly passed away.