U.S. Surgeon General’s Report
December 30, 1838

There is an extensive range of country, and very good land between the cove of the Withlacoochee and Silver Spring Branch, at the head of navigation, on the Ocklawaha, and there are many good tracts between these tow rivers, extending to the Indian settlement called Pilaklikaha, where there is anther bod of good land.

  This section of country is capable of supporting several thousand inhabitants; there is plenty of game in it, and the rivers and lakes in the vicinity afford fish in abundance, and , withal, it has the advantage of water communication by the Withlacoochee with the Gulf of Mexico, and through the Ocklawaha and the St. Johns river with the Atlantic.

…

  I have, like yourself, arrived at the conclusion that the war with the Seminole Indians can be terminated in a short time, and at less cost, by an armed occupation of the country, tan by the continuance of a regular mode of warfare. Our armies have been for year engaged in hunting up, pursuing, and killing a few Indians in each campaign; and, judging from the success we have already have, it will take five or ten years longer to kill off those that still remain, and seem determined to remain, in the country.

T.H. Lawson,
Surgeon General