Groups of lower Creeks began moving into Florida from central Georgia about 1715, and fifty years later they had established a separate identity as Seminoles, a group of bands with common traditions and language rather than a united tribe. They dealt first with the British in Florida, then the Spanish, and then the Americans. Even before the U.S. acquisition of Florida, Americans pressed for Seminole lands, while disputes over cattle and retaliatory rustling deepened conflict. A series of treaties failed in part because the Seminoles had no single strong leader, and chiefs differed over whether to support or reject agreements. In 1800, a black militia detachment was headquartered at Mala Compra, then owned by Josiah Dupont, to ward off Indian attacks, and after it withdrew to Fort Matanzas, Seminoles raided the site; in 1802 Dupont returned to find Seminoles in war paint who took ten horses, four Negroes, and household goods. The murders of whites on December 28, 1835, marked the beginning of the Second Seminole War, and plantations in coastal Florida, including Mala Compra, were abandoned as residents fled to Saint Augustine and farther north. The Army and militia occupied damaged or fortified plantations, officers were quartered in the manor house at Mala Compra, and the site may have served as a briefing station for detachments heading south and as a holding place for slaves recaptured from the Seminoles. Hernandez's nearby plantation Saint Joseph was the main military depot for the region south of Saint Augustine, and both plantations were occupied and abandoned several times before being totally destroyed as the Seminoles moved northward. Seminole fighters sought to retain their lands and improve their negotiating position, waging mostly scattered guerrilla raids in familiar territory; some African Americans fought with them, while others served the Army as interpreters, adding problems of translation and mixed loyalties to a conflict already divided among militia, volunteers, Army officers, politicians, and frustrated white residents. By 1842, few Seminoles remained in Florida, most having gone to reservations in Arkansas and then to Oklahoma, while about 200 or so were pushed into the Everglades. General William Worth declared the Second Seminole War over on August 14, 1842, without any treaty or surrender, ending the longest of the three Seminole Wars after devastating the area's old plantation economy.