 During the War of 1812, Nicolls was posted to Spanish Florida as part of an attempt to recruit the Seminoles as allies against the United States. He was to operate from a position established in April 1814 at Prospect Bluff (sometimes called the British Post, later the Negro Fort, replaced still later by Fort Gadsden). Sailing from Bermuda in the summer of 1814, the expedition Nicolls commanded stopped in Spanish Havana, where it was told not to land in Florida without prior request by the Captain General, Juan Ruiz de Apodaca. When Nicolls arrived at Prospect Bluff, Florida in August, the Spanish Governor of Pensacola, Don Mateo González Manrique, aware of the threat the Americans posed to Florida, requested the redeployment of British forces to Pensacola.
