[5]: 273 He traveled to London as a representative of several related tribal groups, unsuccessfully seeking British support against the expansionism of the United States, then was captured and hanged by General Andrew Jackson shortly after his return to Spanish Florida.
[5]: 283 He was a trader and metal artisan, the latter skill learned from his father, David Francis,[6] a South Carolina frontier blacksmith and silversmith.
With some encouragement from the British, with whom he had contact in Canada, he attempted to create a pan-Indian confederation, from north to south, that could force the new Americans to remain east of the mountains.
[3] Although Tecumseh's visit was brief, and he was widely credited later with incendiary speeches now believed to be forgeries by whites, he left behind his partner, the prophet Seekaboo (also spelled Sukaboo).
"[6] Francis, as Prophet, was a leader of the Red Stick ("northern") faction of the Creek Indians, who opposed American expansion into their lands.
"[5] He particularly disapproved of the husbandry of domestic animals, to the point of slaughtering his own (and burning his house) when he decided, about 1812, to give up the ways of whites.
Opposition by the "Lower", or southern, Creeks, who favored accommodation to the whites, led to civil war,[13] without a clear victor.
[3] At the center of the wilderness was the strong new fort at Prospect Bluff, where Francis and Peter McQueen both wore British uniforms.
[2]: 61 "Nicolls found it necessary to support the Indians [Francis and his son Earle] from his own funds, even to the point of buying them winter clothes.
"[5]: 286 Francis was forbidden from traveling back to Florida until December 30, 1816, which was ordered by Earl Bathurst to prevent the visit from causing tensions with the United States after the Treaty of Ghent.
[5]: 286 Nicolls was chastised for exceeding his authority;[7]: 407 he was posted, apparently as punishment, to remote Ascension Island, and later to Fernando Po.
A hint of it is in this report in the American press: We see a pompous account of a ball given on board a Russian frigate lying off Woolwich, (Eng.)
on the anniversary of the emperor's birth-— we notice it on account of the following paragraph: "The double sound of a trumpet announced the arrival of the patriot Francis, who fought so gloriously in our cause in America: he was dressed in a most splendid suit of red and gold, and by his side he wore a tomahawk, mounted in gold, presented to him by the prince regent; he appeared much delighted with the appearance of the frigate."
His daughter Milly Francis in 1818 famously rescued a U.S. soldier, Douglas McCrimmon, who had been captured by the Indians, a story that received national newspaper publicity.
[1] He was placed in irons and immediately hanged at St. Marks by Jackson, without a court-martial or any other legal proceeding,[7]: 408 in sharp contrast with the "court of inquiry" he set up in the Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident.