CHAPTER VIII.

Treaty between Spain and the United States.-The Count de Santa Clara.-The Baron de Bastrop-Lighting of the city-Power's mission to Kentucky-Clark and Lachaise's expeditions. Royal audience at Puerto del Principe.--New regidors.--Ellicot.-Lieutenant M'Leary.—The Baron seeks to delay the evacuation of the Spanish posts.—Lieutenant Pope.--Power's second mission: His instructions.-The Baron®reinforces the garrisons of Fort Panmure and Walnut Hill.-Commotion at Natchez-Gayoso retires into the fort: His proclamation.—General meeting of the people.-Committee of safetyTheir propositions are approved by Gayoso.The Baron accedes to them.-His departure.— State of Tennessee.--John Adams.

By the Spanish treaty, the southern boundary of the United States, as given by their treaty of peace with Great Britain, was recognised; and their western, as far as related to the boundary of the territory of Spain, was declared to be a line, beginning at a point in the middle of the channel or bed of the Mississippi, on their northern boundary, running along the middle of said channel, to the thirty-first degree of north latitude.

The king agrees that the navigation of the Mississippi, in its whole breadth, from its source to the gulf, shall be free only to his subjects and the colonies of the United States, unless, by special convention, he

extends the privilege to the subjects of other pow

ers.

The parties promise to maintain, by all the means in their power, peace and harmony among the several nations of Indians inhabiting the country adjacent to the southern boundary of the United States; and the better to attain this object, both parties bind themselves, expressly, to restrain, by force, all hostilities on the part of Indian nations living within their territories, and to make no treaty, except a treaty of peace, with any Indian nation living within the territory of the other.

Provision is made for the protection of vessels, for cases of embargo and seizure for debt or crime, stress of weather, vessels captured by pirates, the estates of the deceased, passports, contraband trade, access to courts of justice, &c.

The principle that free ships make free goods, is recognised.

It is provided that the subjects or colonies of either party shall not make war against those of the other.

Arrangements are made for running the southern boundary line of the United States.

The king promises to permit citizens of the United States, during a period of ten years, from the ratification of the treaty, to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of N. Orleans, and export them free from duty, except a fair charge for the use of stores; and he engages to extend the permission, if it does not, during that period, appear prejudicial to his interests; and if he does not continue to permit the deposit there, he will assign to them an equivalent establishment on some other spot of the banks of the Mississippi.

Perez and Lachaise were the ordinary alcades for the year 1796.

Early in January, Gayoso, Sebastian, and Powers came to New-Orleans; and early in the spring the two, latter sailed for Philadelphia.

The Count de Santa-Clara succeeded Las Casas as captain-general of the island of Cuba, the provinces of Louisiana and East and West-Florida.

The alarm into which the late attempt of the blacks at Pointe-Coupee threw the colonists, induced the cabildo, on the 29th of February, to request the Baron to transmit to the king their prayer that the introduction of slaves from any part of the world might be prohibited; and they desired the Baron to issue his proclamation, provisorily, to forbid their importation. He complied with their wishes.

Boré's success, in his first attempt to manufacture sugar, was very great, and he sold his crop for twelve thousand dollars. His example induced a number of other planters to plant cane.

By a royal order, given at Aranjuez, on the 20th of June, Don Carlos de Jaen, a licentiate of Havana, was appointed judge of residence of Miro. He did not, however, come over for several years.

Don Francisco de Rendon, having been appointed intendant and corregidor of the province of Zacatecas, sailed from New-Orleans, and the functions of the intendant devolved on Don Juan Benaventura Morales, the contador.

This year the canal behind the city was completed, and a number of schooners went through it to a basin that had been dug near the ramparts. The cabildo, as a mark of their gratitude for the administrator, to whose care this important improvement was due, directed that it should be called "the Canal Carondelet."

The project of inducing French royalists to migrate to Louisiana, continued to be a favorite one with the Baron; and, with a view of promoting it, very extensive grants of land were made.

The most considerable one was that made to the Baron de Bastrop. It was of twelve square leagues, on the banks of the Washita. The emigrants were intended to be employed in the culture of wheat and the manufacture of flour. The colonial government took upon itself the charge of bringing them down from-New-Madrid, and of providing for their subsistence during six months. It promised not to inolest them on account of their religion; but declared that the Roman Catholic was the only one the rites of which would be allowed to be performed.

Another grant was to James Ceran Delassus de St. Vrain, an officer of the late roval navy of France, who had lost his fortune in the late revolution in his own country, and who, having been compelled to remove to the United States, had rendered himself useful to Spain, in assisting the emissaries of the Baron in defeating the plans of Genet against the king's dominions on the Mississippi and the gulf. This grant was of ten thousand square arpents. The grantee proposed to exert his industry in discovering and working lead mines. The privilege was given him of locating his grant in several mines, salines, millseats, and other places, as might best suit his interest, without any obligation, on his part, of making any settlement thereon, as the execution of his plan would require large disbursements, and could be realised only in places remote from the white population and among the Indians,

Julien Dubuc had made a settlement on the frontiers of the province, on land purchased from the Indians, in the midst of whom it was effected, and opened and worked several lead mines, which he called "the mines of Spain." The Baron now granted him all the land from the coast, above the little river Maquequito to the banks of the Mosquebemanque, forming about six leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi river, by a depth of three leagues.

'The Marquis de Maison-Rouge having completed his establishment on the Washita, the Baron, on the twentieth of June, appropriated conclusively thirty thousand superficial acres of land for the Marquis's establishment; it being understood that no American settler was to be admitted within the grant.

The expenses of lighting the city of New-Orleans, and the wages of thirteen watchmen, had originally been provided for by a tax on chimneys. The destruction of a considerable number of houses by the late conflagration, now rendered this provision insufficient, and the Baron proposed to the cabildo that three hundred toises in depth, of the land of the city beyond the fortifications in its rear, should be parcelled out into small tracts, to be leased out for gardens, from which the market could be supplied with vegitables; and he expressed his belief that by the draining of the land, the city would be relieved from the noxious exhalations of such an extent of ground, covered with water during the greatest part of the year. This proposition was not, however, adopted; and a tax was laid on wheat bread and meat. It was thought the tax on bread would fall on the rich only; the poorer class of people using

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