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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02299 3502
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES
-OF-
FORT WA
Colonial Florida.
ALLE
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
C
-BY-
RICHARD L. CAMPBELL.
563
THE
CLEVELAND, OHIO ! THE WILLIAMS PUBLISHING CO. 1892.
23HOT3X8 JADISIOTOIM
LBETT JUSTA HOUH
-
2
1735207
Entered according to Act of Congress, in year 1892, by RICHARD L. CAMPBELL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
ed
Dr.
"the 'Bi
ice
:
T:32S03
3
PREFACE.
-
THE inducement to write this book was to supply, in a slight measure, the want of any particular history of British rule in West Florida. With that inducement, however, the effort would not have been made but for the sources of original information existing in the Archives of the Dominion of Canada, as well as others, pointed out to me by Dr. William Kingsford of Ottawa, author of the 'History of Canada;' to whom I take this occasion of making my acknowledgments.
An account of British rule necessitated one of Spanish colonial annals, both before and afterit.
If any apology be necessary for the space devoted to the Creeks, it will be found in the considerations that for twenty years the body
10 30 b
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PREFACE.
of the nation was within the limits of British West Florida; that their relations with the British, formed during that period, influenced their conduct towards the United States until after the War of 1812; and above all, that the life of Alexander McGillivray forms a part of the history of West Florida, both under British and Spanish rule.
The prominence given to Pensacola is. due to its having been the capital of both British and Spanish West Florida, and therefore the centre of provincial influence.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I 9
The Discovery of Pensacola Bay by the Panfilo de Narvaez. The Visits of Maldonado, Captain of the Fleet of Her- nando de Soto.
CHAPTER II 19
The Settlement of Don Tristram de Luna at Santa Maria- His Explorations-Abandonment of the Settlement- The First Pensacola.
CHAPTER III 31
Don Andrés de Pes-Santa Maria de Galva-Don Andrés d'Arriola-The Resuscitation of Pensacola-Its Conse- quences.
CHAPTER IV 36
Iberville's Expedition-Settlement at Biloxi and Mobile -. Amicable Relations of the French and Spanish Colonies from 1700-1719.
CHAPTER V 41 .
War Declared by France against Spain -- Bienville Surprises Metamoras-Metamoras Surprises Chateauqné-Bien- ville Attacks and Captures Pensacola-San Carlos and Pensacola Destroyed-Magazine Spared.
CHAPTER VI 51
Sketch of Island Town-Its Destruction-The Third Pensa- cola-The Cession of Florida by Spain to Great Britain -- AAppearance of Town in 1763-Captain Wills' Report -Catholic Church.
1 .
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII 59
British West Florida-Pensacola the Capital-Government Established-Johnstone first Governor -- British Settlers -First Survey of the Town-Star Fort-Public Buildings --- Resignation of Johnstone-His Successor, Monteforte Brown.
CHAPTER VIII 71
General Bouquet-General Haldimand.
CHAPTER IX 78
Governor Elliott-Social and Military Life in Pensacola -- Gentlemen-Women -Fiddles-George Street-King's Wharf on November 14, 1768.
CHAPTER X 87
Governor Peter Chester-Ft. George of the British and St. Michael of the Spanish-Council Chamber-Tartar Point-Red Cliff.
CHAPTER XI 93
Representative Government.
CHAPTER XII. 97
Growth of Pensacola-Panton, Leslie & Co .- A King and the Beaver-Governor Chester's Palace and Chariot- The White House of the British and Casa Blanca of the Spanish-General Gage-Commerce-Earthquake.
CHAPTER XIII 111
Military Condition of West: Florida in 1778-General John Campbell-The Waldecks-Spain at War with Britain- Bute, Baton Rouge and Fort Charlotte Capitulate to Galvez-French Town-Famine in Fort George-Galvez's Expedition Against Pensacola-Solana's Fleet Enters the Harbor-Spaniards Effect a Landing-Spanish En- trenchment Surprised-The Fall of Charleston Cele- brated in Fort George.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV 131
Fort San Bernardo-Siege of Fort George-Explosion of Magazine-The Capitulation-The March Through the Brcach -- British Troops Sail from Pensacola to Brook- lyn.
CHAPTER XV 142
Political Aspect of the Capitulation-Treaty of Versailles- English Exodus-Widow of the White House.
CHAPTER XVI 150
Boundary Lines-William Panton and Spain-Indian Trade -Indian Ponies and Traders-Business of Panton, Leslie & Co.
CHAPTER XVII 158
Lineage of Alexander McGillivray-His Education-Made Grand Chief-His Connection with Milfort-His Rela- tions with William Panton-His Administration of Creek Affairs-Appointed Colonel by the British- Treaty with Spain-Commissioned Colonel by the Spanish-Invited to New York by Washington-Treaty -Commissioned a Brigadier-General by the United States -- His Sister, Sophia Durant-His Trials-His Death at Pensacola.
CHAPTER XVIII 200
Governor Folch-Barrancas-Changes in the Plan of the Town-Ship Pensacola-Disputed Boundaries-Square Ferdinand VII -English Names of Streets Changed for Spanish Names-Palafox-Saragossa-Reding-Baylen Romana-Alcaniz-Tarragona.
CHAPTER XIX 217
Folch Leaves West Florida-His Successors-War of 1812- Tecumseh's Visit to the Seminoles and Creeks-Conse- quences-Fort Mims-Perey and Nicholls' Expedition.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX 227
Attack on Fort Boyer by Percy and Nicholls-Jackson's March on Pensacola in 1814-The Town Captured- Percy and Nicholls Driven Out-Consequences of the War to the Creeks-Don Manuel Gonzalez.
CHAPTER XXI. 243
Seminole War, 1818-Jackson Invades East Florida -De- feats the Seminoles-Captures St. Marks-Arbuthnot and Ambrister-Prophet Francis-His Daughter.
CHAPTER XXII. 252
Jackson's Invasion of West Florida in 1818-Masot's Pro- test-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.
CHAPTER XXIII 267
Treaty Ratified-Jackson Appointed Provisional Governor- Goes to Pensacola-Mrs. Jackson in Pensacola-Change of Flags-Callava Imprisoned-Territorial Government -Governor Duval-First Legislature Meets at Pensa- cola.
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ERRATA.
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Page 10. Sixteenth for Eighteenth.
66 61. Distant for District.
113. Journal for Journey.
". 117. 1779 for 1789.
" 225. Barrataria for Banataria.
276. Domingo for Doningo.
233. During for Doing.
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CHAPTER I.
The Discovery of Pensacola Bay by Panfilo de Narvaez- The Visits of Maldonado, Captain of the Fleet of Hernando de Soto. .
ON ONE of the early days of October, 1528, there could have been seen, coasting westward along and afterwards landing on the south shore of Santa Rosa Island, five small, rudely- constructed vessels, having for sails a grotesque patchwork of masculine under and over-wear. That fleet was the fruit of the first effort at naval construction within the present limits of the United States. It was built of yellow pine and caulked with palmetto fibre and pitch. Horses' tails and manes furnished the cordage, as did their hides its water vessels. Its freight- age consisted of two hundred and forty human bodies, wasted and worn by fatigue and ex- posure, and as many hearts heavy and racked with disappointinent. It was commanded by His
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
Excellency Panfilo de Narvaez, Captain-general and Adelantado of Florida, a tall, big-limbed, red-haired, one-eyed man, "with a voice deep and sonorous as though it came from a cavern."
These were the first white men to make foot- prints on the shores of Pensacola Bay and to look out upon its waters. Although they landed on the Island, there is no evidence that their vessels entered the harbor.
Narvaez, an Hidalgo, born at Valladolid about 1480, was a man capable of conceiving and undertaking great enterprises, but too rash and ill-starred for their successful execution, possess- ing the ambition and avarice which impelled the Spanish adventurers to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico during the eighteenth century, with whom Indian life was but a trifling sacrifice for a pearl or an ounce of gold.
Five years before his Florida expedition he had been appointed, with a large naval and land force under his command, by Velasquez, governor of Cuba, to supersede Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, and to send him in chains to Havana, to answer charges of insubordina- tion to the authority of Velasquez. But Cortez
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
was not the man to be thus superseded. Never did his genius for great enterprises make a more striking display than by the measures he adopted and executed in this emergency. By them he converted that threatening expedition into one of succor for himself, embracing every supply, soldiers included, he required to complete his conquests. Of this great achievement the de- feat of the incompetent Narvaez was only an incident.
No" labored comparison of conqueror and vanquished could present a more striking con- trast between them than that suggested by their first interview. "Esteem it," said Narvaez, "great good fortune that you have taken me captive." "It is the least of the things I have done in Mexico," replied Cortez, a sarcasm aimed at the incapacity of Narvaez, apart from the gains of the victor.
The fruits of the expedition to Narvaez were the loss of his left eye, shackles, imprisonment, banishment, and the humiliation of kneeling to his conqueror and attempting to kiss his hand. To the Aztec the result was the introduction of a scourge that no surrender could placate, no
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
submission, however absolute and abject, could stay, and, therefore, more pitiless than the sword of Cortez-the small-pox.
After leaving Mexico, Narvaez appeared before the Emperor Charles V., to accuse Cortez of treason, and to petition for a redress of his own wrongs, but the dazzling success of Cortez, to say nothing of his large remittances to the royal treasury, was an effectual answer to every charge. The emperor, however, healed the wounded pride, and silenced the complaints of the prosecutor by a commission with the afore- mentioned sonorous titles to organize an expe- dition for a new conquest, by which he might compensate himself for the loss of the treasures and empire of Montezuma, which he had so disastrously failed to snatch from the iron grasp of Cortez.
The preparations to execute this commission having been made by providing a fleet, a land force, consisting of men-at-arms and cavalry, as well as the necessary supplies, Narvaez, in April, 1528, sailed for the Florida coast, and landed at or near Tampa bay.
Having resolved on a westward movement,
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
he ordered his fleet to sail along the coast, whilst he, by rather a circuitous march, would advance in the same direction. This parting was at once final and fatal. He again reached the Gulf, somewhere in the neighborbood of St. Marks, with his command woefully wasted and diminished by toil, battle and disease; and, as · can well be imagined, with his dreams of avarice and dominion rudely dispelled.
No tidings of the fleet from which he had so lucklessly parted being obtainable, despair im- provised that fleet with motley sails which we have seen mooring off the island of Santa Rosa in the early days of October, its destination being Mexico-a destination, however, which was but another delusion that the winds and the waves were to dispel.
Narvaez found a grave in the maw of the sea, as did most of the remnant of his followers. Famine swept off others, leaving only four to reach Mexico after a land journey requiring years, marked by perils and sufferings incident to such a journey through a vast forest bounded only by the sea, intersected by great rivers, in- habited by savages, and infested by wild beasts.
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
One of the survivors was Cabeça de Vaca, the treasurer and historian of the expedition.
Twelve years elapsed after Narvaez discovered Pensacola Bay before the shadow of the white
man's sail again fell upon its waters. In January, 1540, Capitano Maldonado, who was the commander of the fleet which brought Fernando de Soto to the Florida coast, entered the harbor, gave it a careful examination, and bestowed upon it the name of Puerta d' Anchusi, a name probably suggested by Ochus,* which it bore at the time of his visit. In entering Ochus he ended a voyage westward, made in search of a good harbor, under the orders of Soto, who was at that time somewhere on the Forida coast to the westward of Apalachee.
Having returned to Soto, Maldonado made so favorable a report-the first official report- of the advantages of Puerta d' Anchusi that Soto determined to make it his base of supply. He accordingly ordered Maldonado to proceed to Havana, and after having procured the
* So the name is given by historians ; but, to be consistent with the termination of other Indian namesin West Florida. it should be written Ochee or Ochusee.
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
required succors to sail to Puerta d' Anchusi, where he intended to go himself, and there to await Maldonado's return before he ventured into the interior; a prudent resolve, suggested possibly by the sight of the bones of Narvaez's horses, which had been slain to furnish cordage and water-vessels for his fleet.
But the resolve was as brief as it was wise. A few days after Maldonado's departure a cap- tured Indian so beguiled Soto with tales of gold to be found far to the northeast of Apalachee, where he then was, that banishing all thoughts of Puerta d' Anchusi from his mind, he began that circuitious march which carried him into South Carolina, northern Georgia, and Alabama, where he wandered in search of treasure until disappointment, wasted forces, and needed sup- plies again turned his march southward, and his thoughts to his rendezvous with Maldonado.
That rendezvous was to be in October, 1540. Faithful to instructions, Maldonado was at Puerta d' Anchusi at the appointed time with a fleet bearing all the required supplies. But Soto did not keep the tryst. He was then at Mau- villa, or Maubila, supposed to be Choctaw
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H STORICAL SKETCHES OF
Bluff, on the Alabama river, absorbed by diffi- culties and engaged in conflicts such as he had . never before encountered. Through Indians they had communicated, and intense was the satisfaction of Soto and his command at the prospect of a relief of their wants, repose from their toils, and tidings of their friends and loved ones.
Soto, however, still ambitious of emulating the achievements of Cortez and Pizzaro, looked upon Puerta d' Anchusi as only a base of sup- ply and refuge for temporary repose, from which again to set out in search of his goal. But very different were the views of his follow- „ ers. By eaves-dropping on a dark night behind their tents, he learned that to them Puerta d' Anchusi was not to be a haven of temporary rest only, but the first stage of their journey homeward, where Soto and his fortunes were to be abandoned.
This information again banished Puerta d' Anchusi from his thoughts under the prompt- ings of pride, which impelled him to prefer death in the wilderness to the mockery and humilia- tion of failure. He at once resolved to march
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
deeper into the heart of the continent, and, un- consciously, nearer to the mighty river in whose cold bosom he was to find a grave.
As in idea we go into the camp at Mauvilla, on the morning when the word of command was given for a westward march, we see depicted on the war-worn visages of that iron band naught but gloom and disappointment, as, con- strained by the stern will of one man, they obediently fall into ranks without a murmur, much less a sign of revolt.
Again, if in fancy we stand on the deck of Maldonado's ship at Puerta d' Anchusi, we may realize the keen watchfulness and the deep anxiety with which day after day and night . after night he scans the shore and hills beyond to catch a glint of spear or shield, or strains his ear to hear a bugle note announcing the approach of his brothers-in-arms. And only after long, weary months was the vigil ended, as he weighed anchor and sailed out of the harbor to go to other points on. the Gulf shore where happily he might yet meet and succor his commander.
To this task did he devote himself for three
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
years, scouring the Gulf coast from Florida to Vera Cruz, until the curtain of the drama was lifted for him, to find that seventeen months previously his long-sought chief had been lying in the depths of the Mississippi, and that a wretched remnant only of that proud host, which he had last seen in glittering armor on the coast of Florida, had reached Mexico after undergoing indescribable perils and privations.
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
CHAPTER II.
The Settlement of Don Tristram de Luna at Santa Maria- His Explorations-Abandonment of the Settlement- The First Pensacola.
NEARLY twenty years passed away after Maldonado's visit to Ochus before Europeans again looked upon its shores.
In 1556, the viceroy of Mexico, and the bishop of Cuba united in a memorial to the Emperor Charles V. representing Florida as an inviting field for conquest and religious work. Imperial sanction having been secured, an expedi- tion was organized under the command of Don Tristram de Luna to effect the triple objects of bringing gold into the emperor's treasury, . extending his dominions, and enlarging the hounds of the spiritual kingdom by winning souls to the church. For the first two enter- prises one thousand five hundred soldiers were provided, and for the last a host of ecclesiastics,
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
friars, and other spiritual teachers. Puerta d' Anchusi was selected as the place of the projected settlement, the base from which the cross and the sword were to advance to their respective conquests.
Accordingly, on the fourteenth day of August, 1559, de Luna's fleet cast anchor within the harbor, which he named Santa Maria; the same year in which the monarch who authorized the expedition died, the month, and nearly the day on which he, a living man, was engaged in the paradoxical farce of participating in his own funeral ceremonies in the monastery of Yusté.
The population of two thousand souls, which the fleet brought, with the required supplies of every kind, having been landed, the work of settlement began. Of the place where the settle- ment was made there exists no historic informa- tion, and we are left to the inference that the local advantages which afterwards induced d' Arriola to select what is now called Barrancas as the site of his town, governed the selection of de Luna's, unless tradition enables us to identity the spot, as a future page will endeavor to do.
The destruction of the fleet by a hurricane
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
within a week after its arrival threw a shadow over the infant settlement, aggravating the natural discontent incident to all colonizations, resulting from the contrast between the stern realities of experience and of expectations col- ored by the imagination of the colonist. Against that discontent, ever on the increase, de Luna manfully and successfully struggled un- til 1562; and thus it was, that for two years and more there existed a town of about two thousand inhabitants on the shores of Pensa- cola Bay, which antedated by four years St. Augustine, the oldest town of the United States.
Don Tristram de Luna sent expeditions into the interior, and finally led one in person. In these journeys the priest and the friar joined, and daily in a tabernacle of. tree boughs the holy offices of the Catholic faith were performed, the morning chant and the evening hymn breaking the silence and awakening the echoes of the primeval forest.
Where they actually went, and how far north, it is impossible to say, owing to our inability to identify the sites of villages, rivers, and other land marks mentioned in the narratives of their
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
journeys. The presumption is strong, however, that they took, and followed northward the Indian trail, on the ridge beginning at Pensa- cola Bay, forming the water shed between the Perdido and Escambia rivers, and beyond their headwaters uniting with the elevated country which throws off its springs and creeks east- ward to the Chattahoochee and westward to the Alabama and Tallapoosa rivers. It contin- ued northerly to the Tennessee river ; a lateral trail diverging to where the city of Montgom- ery now stands, and thence to the site of We- tumpka; and still another leading to what is now Grey's Ferry on the Tallapoosa.
That trail, according to tradition, was the one by which the Indians, from the earliest times, passed between the Coosa country and the sea, the one followed in later times by the Indian traders on their pack-ponies, and the line of march of General Jackson in his invasion of Florida in 1814.
That it was regarded and used as their guid- ing thread by de Luna's expeditions in pene- trating the unknown country north of Santa Maria they sought to explore, is evidenced by
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
two facts. They came to a large river wnich, instead of crossing, they followed its course, undoubtedly by the ridge, and, therefore, not far from the trail. They also came to or crossed the line of de Soto's march, which he had made ten years previously, as following the trail they would be compelled to do and found amongst the Indians a vivid recollection of the destruction and rapine of their people by white men, which they assigned as the cause of the then sparsity of population, and the abandon- ment of clearings formerly under cultivation.
So impressed was de Luna with the fertility and other attractive features of the beautiful region of Central Alabama, which he explored, that he determined to plant a colony there. But in that design he was eventually thwarted by the discontent and insubordination of his fol- lowers, the most of whom, from the first, seem to have had no other object in view than to break up the settlement, and to terminate their insupportable exile by returning to Mexico.
There were amongst those composing the expedition two elements which proved fatal to its success. The gold-greedy soon found that
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
the pine barrens of Florida, and the fertile val- levs of Alabama were not the eldorado of which they had dreamed. To the friar, the spiritual outlook was not more promising, the Indians he encountered being more ready to scalp their would-be spiritual guide than to open their ears to his teachings.
Ostensibly, to procure supplies for the colony, two friars sailed for Havana and thence to Vera Cruz, to make known its necessities to the Viceroy of Mexico, and solicit the required suc- cor. But, as soon as they could reach his ear they endeavored to persuade him of the futility of the expedition, and the unpromising charac- ter of the country as a field for colonization.
At first, his heart being in the enterprise, he was loathe to listen to reports so inconsistent with the glowing accounts which had prompted the expedition and enlisted his zealous support ; but, at last, an impression was made upon him. and an inquiry resolved upon.
But the viceroyal investigation was fore- stalled by the visit to Santa Maria of Don Angel de Villafana, whom the Viceroy of Cuba had appointed governor of that, at that time
16 .
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COLONIAL FLORIDA.
undefined region called Florida, who permitted the dissatisfied colonists to embark in his vessels, and abandon the, to them, hateful coun- try in which they had passed two miserable years.
Don Tristram de Luna, with a few followers only, remained, with the fixed resolution to maintain the settlement, provided he could secure the approbation and assistance of the Viceroy. But an application for that purpose, accompanied by representations of the inviting character of the interior for settlement, was met by a prompt recall of de Luna and an order for the abandonment of the enterprise.
Don Tristram, against whom history makes no accusations of cruelty or bloodshed during his expeditions into the interior, or his stay at Santa Maria, and who, animated by the spirit of legitimate colonization, sought only to found a new settlement, invites respect, if not admira- tion, as a character distinct and apart from the gold-seeking cut-throat adventurers that Spain sent in shoals to the Gulf shores during the six- teenth century. Sympathy with him in his trials and regret at his failure, induce the reflec-
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
tion that, perhaps, had he been burdened with fewer gold-seekers and only one-twentieth of the ecclesiastics who encumbered and leavened the colony with discontent, his settlement might have proved permanent.
The local results of de Luna's expedition were fixing, for a time, the name of Santa Maria upon the Bay, and permanently stamping upon its shores the name Pensacola; and here narra- tion must be suspended to determine the origin of the latter.
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