gifts, two thousand muskets and blankets for the Indians. A fort was constructed, and Cochrane sent Edward Nicolls to oversee the operations at Prospect Bluff. Nicolls left Bermuda with 112 Royal Marines, 3 field pieces, 300 uniforms and 1,000 muskets for recruits to his corps. On 26 August 1814 Nicolls issued his first "order of the day" for his "battalion". It remains uncertain how many men Nicolls had under his command at that time, since muster and pay records have not been found. More escaped slaves were recruited in Pensacola (to the chagrin of the Spanish), but they were forced to return to Prospect Bluff in November after the American capture of Pensacola. Post-war developments The war ended in February 1815, and the three European companies of the 3rd Battalion, Royal and Colonial Marines were sent back to Britain. With their departure, the battalion was reformed as the 3rd Battalion, Colonial Marines, consisting of six infantry companies of Colonial Marines and a staff company of Royal Marines brought from Canada. They performed garrison duty at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Ireland Island, Bermuda and were carried from there in the transport Lord Eldon to be disbanded in Trinidad on 20 August 1816. Near what is now known as Princes Town, the former Colonial Marines formed a free farming community, known as the Merikens (sometimes spelled Merikins), under the supervision of their former non-commissioned officers. Households had plots. These settlements were successful, and in 1847 their ownership of the land was formally recognised. The community of descendants retains its identity and commemorates its roots in an annual celebration. The detachment in Florida, which had grown to about 400 men, was paid off and disbanded when the British post was evacuated at the end of the war. A small number of men went to Bermuda with the British as part of a refugee group, rejoining the main body of Colonial Marines. Others from the Florida unit remained in settlements around the Fort which had become a symbol of slave insurrection. Southern plantation owners considered the presence of a group of armed fugitive slaves, even in a remote and sparsely-populated area of Spanish Florida, an unacceptable danger; this led, under the leadership of General Andrew Jackson, to the Battle of Negro Fort in July 1816 and the beginning of the First Seminole War. For their involvement in the conflict, two former auxiliary officers