The Seminoles had been incorporating escaped slaves into their society for at least a half-century. The so-called Lower Creeks had accompanies General James Oglethorpe from Georgia southward when he invaded Spanish Florida in 1740, and they returned to claim the lush savannas of central Florida after the Spanish and their Indian allies departed for Cuba in 1763. The Seminoles established a settlementnear present-day Gainesville, Florida, which they named La Chua for a nearby sinkholel. [Landers note: The Seminole town is variously spelled Latchaway or Alachua. Many Southeastern indigenous groups spoke languages of the Muskogean linguistic family. English traders designated those living along the Chatahoochee and Flint Rivers as Lower Creeks, while the so-called Upper Creeks lived on the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers] (309). (Landers: Atlantic Creoles)