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shall dictate. And also that I may be favoured with a reasonable reply to this communication. I am very Respectfully Your Obt. Sevt. G. Humphreys Philip R. Yonge Esqr} Darien Georgia } See Copy of Due Bill two pages farther on [[end letter]] [[start letter]] St. Augustine 11th Dec. 1846 Dear Sir. Below is a copy of Ph. R. Yonge's Due Bill to the mother of young "Bowlegs"; which forms I presume (for I can imagine no other ground) the basis of the claim he has intimated to you against me. - The history of that paper so far as I have any knowledge of or connexion with it, is as follows - Some time about the year 1824 as near as I can remember, it was first shown to me by the person in whose favour it is drawn, and a request made that I would take steps to recover the amount due - a duty which I of course, officially bound undertook to perform. Shortly after the Due Bill came into my possession, it was put for collection into the hands of a Mr. [[underlined]] Macon [[/underlined]] a lawyer then residing in St. Augustine, by whom a suit in attachment was instituted (the drawer of the note being a non resident) upon or against the property owned by him in this city, by reason of some technical error or other mismanagement, the suit failed of a successful issue, though it was prosecuted to judgment. Subsequently the late Mr. Downing was engaged in the case, by him however no specific action, that I am aware of was taken in it - and the Due Bill with other papers on private business of my own, went into the hands of Mr. [[Burrill?]] - of [[Jacksonville?] who on the 12^th^ of Sept. 1840 returned it accompanied by a note containing the following remarks, "As a long time has elapsed, and I see no prospect of being able to do any thing with them (the Due Bill and other papers) I have thought proper to return them". Considering as I did (in view of the discouraging opinion thus given by one fully competent to judge correctly.) the case hopeless to the creditor, the papers were marked and put away, as valueless, & would most probably have remained [[end page]] [[start page]] undisturbed and unlooked at, but for the circumstance of your mentioning "Bow Leg's" assertion of my indebtedness to him. — It is but right to myself as well as others to state that in the employment of a lawyer to manage the business for the Indian woman, I selected Mr. Macon because he was a law officer of the government - (U.S. Dist. Atty. for the Eastern Judicial District of Territory of Florida) and to whom I had authority to apply for legal advice and assistance, in behalf of those whom the United States [[strikethrough]] h [[/strikethrough]] assumed to protect and whose immediate interest so far at least as regarded their ordinary intercourse with the whites, had been measurably committed to my care and there is good reason to think, that had he conducted the matter entrusted to him with even middling zeal and intelligence the debt would have been collected and the rights of the Indian thereby secured, which from his neglect or incapacity have been sacrificed, and it strikes me as a question entitled to much consideration, whether the fact of the loss of the debt through the errors of the attorney of the government does not give the creditor, that creditor being held to be in the condition as relates to the United States of a Minor, (such is practically the doctrine in force in our country in reference to the Indians tribes within its borders) a claim of strong and undeniable equity upon the government for its payment. Asking that you will take early occasion to [[strikethrough]] inform [[/strikethrough]] explain to "Bowlegs" [[strikethrough]] on [[/strikethrough]] the true state of the case I am very Respecfully Your Obt. Sevt. G. Humphreys Capt. J. T. Sprague } U.S.A. Ating } Indian agt. Tampa Bay Fla} [[end of letter]] [[beginning of letter]] Eastern Judicial Circuit of Florida Circuit Court of St. Johns County. Clerks office, It is hereby certified by a [[underlined]] Certified Copy [[/underlined]] of the [[underlined]] Record [[/underlined]] and Proceedings and giving of a Judgment of a Plaint, which was in the County Court for St. Johns County, between [[Buchrd?]] woman Plaintiff and Philip R. Yonge Defendant with a plea of [[strikethrough]] Trespass in [[/strikethrough]] in the case, which Record and all proceedings
