Relations with Spain. have had at another period; and I call your attention, sir, to the following observations before I enter on the examination of the data or grounds on which the United States rest their claims of extending in that quarter the boundaries of Louisiana to the Rio Bravo del Norte. It is well known that for ages before France thought of forming establishments on the Mississippi, and therefore long before she had made any in Canada, the Crown of Spain possessed the whole territory around the Gulf of Mexico, from the peninsula of Yucatan to the southern cape of Florida. If the eastern part of said gulf, as far as Panuco, the whole of which was then known under the extensive (generico) name of Florida, was not actually peopled by Spaniards, it is notorious and indubitable that it was discovered by them as early as the year 1511, under the expedition of Juan Ponce de Leon; that all the coast, from the present Florida to Panuco, was explored by Francisco de Garay in 1518, and also by Hernando de Soto, and continually by other Spanish commanders until 1561, when it was explored and described by Angel de Villafane and Jorge Ceron; said discoveries and description having been made in pursuance of a royal order issued for that purpose, papers of that description being still extant; and it was confirmed that from those remote periods Spain was established as the mistress and possessor of all that coast and territory, and that she never permitted foreigners to enter the Gulf of Mexico, nor any of the territories lying around it, having repeated the royal orders by which she then enforced the said prohibition, and charged the Spanish Viceroys and Governors with the most strict observance of the same. The right and dominion of the Crown of Spain to the northwest coast of America as high up as the Californias is not less certain and indisputable, the Spaniards having explored it as far as the forty-seventh degree in the expedition under Juan de Fuca in 1592, and in that under the Admiral Fonte to the fifty-fifth degree in 1640. The dominion of Spain in these vast regions being thus established, and her rights of discovery, conquest, and possession, being never disputed, she could scarcely possess a property founded on more respectable principles, whether of the law of nations, of public law, or any others which serve as a basis to such acquisitions as all the independent Kingdoms and States of the earth by Hernando de Soto, the Spaniards were incessantly engaged in advancing their discoveries and settlements in this extensive country, not only in the time of Luis Moscoso and of Pedro Melendez, between the years 1542 and 1545, but they were constantly so in the time of all their successors. At the time of their first expeditions they landed in the bays of Santa Rosa and Espiritu Santo or St. Bernardo, surveyed the whole coast, and crossed the Mississippi. They penetrated into the countries of Hirrhigua, Moscoso, Umbaracuxi, Aurera, Ocali, Apalache, Altapalia, Cofa, Mobile, Chasquin, Guigate, Uhangue, Guachoya, and others, which it would be tedious to enumerate. The same Hernando de Soto, after having in person surveyed the coast and interior of the country, crossed the Mississippi, and penetrated as far as the Rio Negro, in 1542 died at Guachoya. No European nation had yet attempted to disturb the Spaniards in their possessions in the new world; none had trod on any point of those territories; and the Spaniards continued extending their establishments, as the only nation which had acquired the possession and the property of that part of the American continent and islands. They gave rise to the new kingdoms of Leon and Santander in the year 1595, and to the province of Cohaquila in 1600. They founded that of Texas in 1690, establishing missions, hamlets, and posts, under the name of presidios, such as those of Bahia del Refugio, St. Antonio, Espiritu Santo, St. Juan, Nacogdoches, Ayeses, and San Miguel de los Adaes, a short distance from the Rio Roxo, (Red river,) extending themselves to the banks of that river. Long before, they had established themselves in New Mexico, where they built the capital of Santa Fe, in thirty-nine degrees north latitude, and opened and worked mines in its neighborhood. From thence they spread themselves wide of the rivers that empty from north and south into the Missouri, communicating and trading with the Indian nations; so that from that time Spain considered all the territory lying to the east and north of New Mexico as far as the Mississippi and Missouri as her property. These dominions and settlements of the Crown of Spain were connected with those which she had on the Gulf of Mexico, that is to say, with those of Florida and the coasts of the province of Texas, which, being on the same gulf, must be acknowledged to belong Confining ourselves at present to the Mexican to Spain, since the whole circumference of the Gulf and to the Spanish provinces situated to the gulf was hers; which property, incontestably acwestward of Louisiana, we shall see in what quired, she had constantly maintained among her manner Spain extended her population and found-possessions, not because she occupied it throughed settlements in different points of the vast ter-out its whole extent, which was impossible, but ritory of which she was the mistress and possessor in this part of the new world. All the country extending from the Rio de las Palmas to the confines of Panuco, in latitude forty-eight degrees, was then included under the name of Florida, and crossed the Mississippi. From the time of the expeditions undertaken to explore it in 1512 by Juan Ponce, in 1525 by Vasquez de Ayllon, in 1527 by Panfilo de Narvaez, and in 1538 consist of. on the principle generally recognised, that the property of a lake or narrow sea, and that of a country, however extensive, provided no other Power is already established in the interior, is acquired by the occupation of its principal points. These premises being established, and not to be shaken, as they are all supported by history, ancient monuments, tradition, and irrefragable documents, let us proceed to examine for their Relations with Spain. origin the grounds on which your Government do, crossing the territories of another nation; maintains its pretensions. that he returned to Quebec without any further As early as the commencement of the seven- result than that of an imperfect exploration of teenth century, France and England began to the country; and that he embarked at Quebec form expeditions in imitation of the Spaniards, for France, from whence he returned in 1684 and to discover points for settlements in that with an expedition composed of four vessels, part of America. The French expeditions pen- commanded by Captain Beaujeau, to explore the etrated into Canada by the river St. Lawrence, mouth of the Mississippi. This expedition enand those of the English were directed to differ-tered the Gulf of Mexico on the 12th of Decement parts of the coast on the Atlantic. Hence ber of the following year. La Salle, being deoriginated the basis on which the two nations ceived in his reckoning by the currents of the afterwards founded and extended their respective gulf, could not find the mouth of the river, and, settlements. I shall now only speak of those being overtaken by a storm on the coast of the made by the French, as they serve as a support province of Texas, he was obliged to take shelter to the actual pretensions of the United States. in the Bay of St. Bernard. Two of his vessels Francis Ribaut, an adventurer of that nation, were captured by the Spanish cruisers, another had already penetrated into Florida with some was lost in the bay, and Beaujeau returned to followers towards the end of the sixteenth cen- France in the only one that escaped. La Salle, tury, and built the fort called Charles le Fort; having landed with some people and ten pieces but this rash enterprise on the territory of the of artillery, then built a small fort as a protection Crown of Spain was immediately overthrown against the Indians, and was obliged to change and dissipated, the Spanish Governor, Pedro his ground three different times; notwithstandMelendez, having attacked and taken the fort, ing which, the Clancoates Indians, inhabiting and made prisoners of Ribaut and all his people. the adjoining country, forced him to abandon the Mention is likewise made by some writers of an- fort, and to retreat by the Rio de la Trinidad other Frenchman, called Rene de Laudoniere, (Trinity river.) While on this retreat, he formed who is said to have landed from the squadron of a project of penetrating into the interior of the Admiral Coligny, on the coast of Florida, in the country, to see if he could discover the fabulous year 1564, and built a fort, which he named Car- mines of Santa Barbara ; but he was assassinated olin, about the spot where Pensacola now stands; on his route by his own people; and such was but the same writers add that the Spaniards im- the result of the famous French expedition so mediately attacked the French, put them to death, much talked of. The Indians fell immediately and razed the fort or redoubt they had built; on Fort St. Louis, and massacred the small garriothers say that it was on that same fort that the son left by La Salle. The remainder of the Spaniards afterwards built the fortress of St. French who accompanied him shared the same Augustine; so vague and so uncertain is the in- fate, being dispersed in different directions after formation respecting these particular adventu- the fall of their chief, they perished by the hands The story related of a Recollet friar, of the Indians. called Father Hennipen, is still more ridiculous, who is said to have been made a prisoner by the Indians at the time they were at war with the French of Canada, and taken to the Illinois, whence he was occupied in exploring the country as far as the banks of the river St. Louis or Mississippi, of which he took possession in the name of Louis XIV., and gave it the name of Louisiana, (doubtless in his secret thoughts, and by a mere mental act.) It is added that this friar escaped from the Illinois, and returned to Canada, where he related all he had seen, and afterwards published it in France more circumstantially in a memoir, which he dedicated to the celebrated Colbert. These accounts, and others of a like nature, are contemptible in themselves, even though the facts they relate were authentic, since nothing can be inferred from them that can favor the idea started by those who speak of these transient adventures and incursions. rers. Let us see what importance can be attached to what is said of Bernardo de la Salle, who, in 1679, descended from Canada to the Mississippi, and there built Fort Crevecœur, according to M. Du Pratz, or Fort Prudhomme, according to others. What is certain amounts to this: that he only made a rapid incursion from Canada to the Mississippi, as any other adventurer might In the meantime news of this incursion having reached Mexico, the Viceroy, fearful of a repetition of similar attempts, held a council of war to deliberate on the affair, in obedience to the royal order issued by Philip II., enjoining the extermination of all foreigners who would dare to penetrate into the Gulf of Mexico. An expedition was then resolved on, to be formed at Cohaquila, under the command of Alonzo de Leon, to scour the country, and hunt out the French, if any were still remaining. Having set out with the necessary force, he arrived, on the 22d of April, 1689, at the place where La Salle had built Fort St. Louis, and on the 24th at the entrance of the bay, where he fell in with the remains of the French vessel that had been wrecked. Having heard in his march that some of La Salle's companions were still wandering about the country, or had taken refuge with the Indians, he shaped his course towards the nation of the Asimais, and was received by them with marks of friendship and respect. He, however, found no traces of the French, as no more of them were in existence. Alonzo de Leon treated the Asmais with the greatest kindness, and called them Texas, which in their language signifies "friends." On the 22d of May, of the same year, he wrote to the Viceroy, Relations with Spain. informing him that there existed neither French nor any other foreigners in the whole country; that the Texas Indians possessed great attachment and good will to the Spaniards; and that it would be very proper to establish missions and garrisons throughout that country to prevent any future attempt or incursion of foreigners, and to preserve the conquest. This subject having been deliberated on in Mexico, the mission of St. Francisco de Texas was founded in 1690, after that nation had voluntarily submitted to the Crown of Spain. The Viceroy of Mexico continued to take effectual measures for protecting the country and preventing the intrusion of any French adventurers. The Court of Spain, on being informed of what had passed, renewed rigorous orders to the same effect, and also gave directions for the instruction and government of the Indians. Such were the objects of the expedition under Don Domingo de Teran, and of that which was effected under the command of Don Gregorio Salinas, in May, 1693. Since that period the province of Texas has continued in perfect tranquillity under the Spanish Government, and no further attempts were made by the French to penetrate into any part of it. You see, sir, that the excursion of La Salle can give France no rights to that province, which had long before been acknowledged to be, and was, incorporated in the Spanish dominions. Such an excursion was, in fact, nothing more than the rash attempt of a foreigner to explore part of the territories of another nation, and is not substantially different from that made by Mr. Le Vaillant in the country of the Caffres, to the northeast of the Cape of Good Hope; by which, however, France acquired no right to that part of the Dutch possessions, although they were still desert when the said Le Vaillant explored them. What territories are there in the world, especially in extensive dominions still new and thinly peopled, in which excursions of that nature have not been made by individuals of foreign countries, sometimes of neighboring nations, (which is the most common,) and sometimes of those which, although at a distance, actuated either by curiosity or ambition, undertake to explore unknown countries, inhabited by other people and governed by other Powers? Nor can I refrain from recalling here what has been written and thoroughly investigated touching the pretended settlement of the French in the Illinois and Arkansas. Whether they were some of the individuals of La Salle's expedition who had survived it, as M. Du Pratz has it, or whether they were other adventurers from Canada, it seems beyond a doubt that some Frenchmen did penetrate as far as the Arkansas, towards the end of the seventeenth century, or the beginning of the eighteenth; on which point, however, the records of that period do not exactly agree. Enterprising people from Canada, both Frenchmen and natives, communicated with the Indian tribes, and penetrated far into the interior, to purchase cattle and for other purposes of traffic. Some of them, there fore, fixed themselves at the post of Arkansas, not as settlers, but as agents to carry on the trade between Canada and the natives of this district. The same took place at the post of the Illinois, long before the first foundation of the French colony of Louisiana was thought of. Father Marquez, a Jesuit, had penetrated in 1671, as a missionary, into the Indian nation called Saulteux, as far as Chagwanigung, on Lake Superior; and in the year following one Saliet, with a view to explore the Mississippi, proceeded from Canada to Chagwanigung point. After joining Father Marquez, they both advanced and succeeded in penetrating to that river by the Ouisconsin. They met with a considerable population in the country of the Illinois, at the mouth of the river Moingora ; and after promising to visit them on their return, they suggested to those Indians the idea of entering the country by the river since called the Illinois; and the Indians did so, and settled in a district known by the name of the Great Rock, or Great Penasco, about five leagues higher up than the mouth of the river. Saliet and Father Marquez could descend the Mississippi no farther than the Arkansas; and on their return from their excursion they found the Illinois encamped at the Great Penasco. Saliet continued his retreat, and Father Marquez determined to remain with these Indians, to instruct them in the principles of the Christian faith. In this attempt he was succeeded by other missionaries, who afterwards proceeded to found a church there, sufficiently regular, composed of Illinois and Canadians who had met and united with each other; these people were no wise subject to the French Government, but lived independent, in the manner of several Indian nations bordering on the United States. Several other Indians of the Miami and Shawanee tribes came and settled themselves near the Big Rock, or Great Penasco, but they disagreed, and soon after dispersed. A party of the Illinois went down the river and setiled at Cahokia, on the left bank of the Mississippi, fifteen or sixteen miles below the mouth of the Illinois. Other missionaries followed them; and thus went on this kind of colony, informal or wandering, but always independent of, and unconnected with the French of Canada. Let us now speak of the settlement of the French in the country called by them Louisiana. The first spot occupied by them in this country was the bay of Biloxi, about thirty leagues to the eastward of the Mississippi, in the year 1699, or, more strictly speaking, in 1700; and Mobile, a little farther eastward, where they established themselves, was, during two-and-twenty years, the capital of their new colony. From that time they observed the greatest caution in the settlements they formed on the banks of the Mississippi. Seventeen years had passed since the foundation of their colony, when they ventured to raise some huts on the left bank of that river; and this was on the spot now occupied by New Orleans, which five years afterwards became the capital of the colony, when the intimate relations between France and Spain, not only by virtue of Relations with Spain. it was not until several years afterwards that they settled St. Genevieve, opposite Kaskaskia, on the right of the said river-an inconsiderable settlement, which made no progress until the country was ceded to England. the family compact, but more particularly by the elevation of Philip V. to the throne of Spain, favored the toleration of a dexterous encroachment on a territory which was acknowledged to belong to that monarchy. In 1722 the French succeeded in fixing some German families on the In fine, all the written documents and historiright bank of the river, opposite to the settlements cal evidence relating to French Louisiana agree which they already had above and below the new in dividing it into Upper and Lower, and provcity of Orleans. They afterwards settled some ing that Lower Louisiana is bounded on the Acadians a little higher up, and finally some north by bayou Manchac, by which it commuothers at Point Coupée. But the whole limits nicates from the river Mississippi to the Iberville; of these cottages or settlements did not extend to and that Upper Louisiana commences above the more than fifteen or twenty acres of land upon said bayou, the post of Natchez being the princithe front of the river; so that the French, seeing pal settlement of the French in that quarter, in a want of cattle, and feeling the necessity of es- whose neighborhood they cultivated tobacco. tablishing herds to keep up a supply, turned their The settlement of Natchitoches, which they afterviews to the extensive and fertile prairies of At-wards formed, was considered as depending on takapas, and the Governor of Louisiana there- Upper Louisiana. upon applied to the commandant of the interior It would be easy to prove that this latter settleprovinces of Mexico for permission to establishment was made by the French within the Spansome herds only, which was frankly granted to ish territory, and merely through the condescenhim by the Spanish commandant. In fact they sion or sufferance of the viceroys of Mexico, and had nothing more than cattle establishments in the governors of the province of Texas. Before Attakapas and Opelousas, when the colony was the French had founded New Orleans, there transferred to Spain in 1764. They had never already existed the Spanish missions and settlegone farther; and it is to the Spaniards that the ments of San Francisco, La Purisima Concepcolony is indebted for the extensive population cion, San José, and Nuestra Señora de la Guadand cultivation of that part of the territory after-aloupe, at a very short distance from Natchiwards ceded back to France, and transferred by her to the United States; as was also the case in the settlements of La Fourche, Avoyelles, the Rapides, and Ouachita, which did not previously exist, but were formed by the Spaniards within the proper limits of the monarchy. toches; and the right of property and possession on the part of the Crown of Spain to the whole of this territory, as far as the Mississippi, was notorious. I am aware that the French attacked the mission of Texas, during the war between France From hence you will clearly see, sir, that so and Spain, under the regency of the Duke of Orfar from Spain having retained any point belong-leans; that for this purpose they proceeded from ing to French Louisiana when she ceded it back the post of Natchitoches, and that the Spaniards by the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, she left. incorpo- retreated to San Antonio de Bexar, till the govrated with it many points, settlements, and terri-ernor of the provice, the Marquis de Valero, adtories, which in truth did not belong, nor ever bad belonged, to the said colony. vanced to chastise and keep the enemy in check. This commander marched against them in 1719, drove them from the Spanish posts, and obliged them to shut themselves up in Natchitoches. It would be too fatiguing to trace, step by step, all the incursions of the French from Canada, or from Louisiana, into other points of the Spanish This expedition is connected with the authendominions, by passing through Indian nations or tic facts of which M. Du Pratz has made up a uninhabited countries. I cannot, however, omit ridiculous and fabulous tale, in his history of Loutouching on the accidental circumstance which isiana, when he speaks of a Frenchman of the gave rise to their settlement at Kaskaskia, twenty name of St. Dennis, and supposes certain conLeagues below Cahokia. The inhabitants of Illi-ventions entered into between him and the Duke nois, who had no connexion or dependence what-de Linares, Viceroy of Mexico. In 1715, St. ever on Canada, at length undertook to go down the river and trade with the French at Biloxi and Mobile bay; and these traders having discovered fertile and beautiful prairies on the right of the small river Kaskaskia, several of the French settlers removed thither in the year 1703, and founded what is now the town of Kaskaskia; but they always lived independent and in alliance with the Indians, until the Louisiana company sent M. de Boisbriant, as the King's lieutenant, with troops, to reduce and direct this settlement. It was afterwards considerably increased in the hands of the French, who successively formed the settlements of Chartres, St. Philip, Prairie des Roches, and Prairie Dupont, but still, as you perceive, sir, on the left of the Mississippi; and Dennis penetrated from Mobile to the Spanish garrison of San Juan Bautista, with three companions and a passport, on pretence of going to buy cattle in the missions of Texas, but in reality to carry on a contraband trade and explore the country. Both he and his companions were seized and conveyed to Mexico. After a variety of adventures, St. Dennis made his escape, and was one of those who set out from Natchitoches with other Frenchinen to attack the inhabitants of Texas, as I have before stated. After this event the Marquis de Aguayo came to Texas, re-established the old missions, and founded new ones, viz: Pilar, Adaes, Loreto, at the bay of Espiritu Santo, or St. Bernard, and Dolores, known by the name of Orquizaco; he Relations with Spain. greatly improved San Antonio de Bexar, and placed the whole frontier of the province in a respectable state. Thus the Spanish settlements remained tranquil until Louisiana was ceded to Spain, when the garrisons of Adaes and Orquizaco were suppressed, as being no longer neces sary. (Red river,) existed much earlier, and did so exist until Louisiana was transferred to Spain. The parochial records of Nacogdoches and Adaes, with the registers of births, baptisms, and deaths, attest it still more circumstantially, as well as the proceedings of the pastoral visit made in 1805, by Don Primo Feliciano Marin, bishop of the new kingdom of Leon, who visited the district of Adaes, and the whole province of Texas. As a further proof that the post of Natchitoches was acknowledged even by the French as being within the Spanish territory, I shall add two facts: The right which Spain always had to all the the first is, that when Captain Don Domingo Ra- territories to the north and east of New Mexmon came with a party to Texas, after St. Den-ico, as far as the right bank of the Mississippi and nis and his followers were sent to Mexico, he paid a friendly visit to the French at Natchitoches, and entered that fort with the royal batova and insignia as a sign of the dominion and jurisdiction of Spain, to which the French made no opposition. The second fact is, that in the year 1742 the French Governor of Natchitoches being desirous to remove that fort, which had been injured by an inundation, somewhat farther from the bank of the Rio Roxo, (the Red river,) he waited on the Spanish Governor of the Adaes, Don Manuel de Sandoval, and requested the necessary permission to do so. Sandoval granted it, as the site to which he wished to remove it was no farther than a musket-shot from its former situation. Notwithstanding the Viceroy of Mexico, on being informed of this act of accommodation, highly disapproved it, and despatched Col. Don Francisco de Brito to Adaes, to supersede Governor Sandoval, and bring him under guard to Mexico, to be tried there before a court martial; which was carried into effect with all the rigor of the law. It is unquestionable, from the historical series of facts, and the most unexceptionable documents, that the province of Texas extended to the Mississippi, and that the French never crossed the river into that district but through the sufferance or permission of the Spanish Governors; and that, in consequence of the former abusing the generosity with which they were permitted to trade with the Indians of that territory, and to hold, for that purpose only, the posts of Natchez and Natchitoches, positive orders were issued to drive the French from the whole district, and destroy the said posts. The Spanish commandant advanced with a sufficient force to execute those orders; but he acceded to the proposals of the French at Natchitoches, which were confined to this: that Arroyo Hondo, which is midway between Natchitoches and Adaes, should be considered as the dividing line, until the determination of the two Courts. In this state things remained without further change, and so continued until the cession of Louisiana to Spain relieved those provinces of Spanish America from all embarrassment and trouble from the French. But it always was an undeniable fact, established by the irresistible titles and documents, that the French neither held nor had held, to the westward of the Mississippi, in 1719, any other posts than Natchitoches, which they held merely by the condescension of Spain; and that the Spanish settlement of Adaes, only five leagues distant from the Rio Roxo, the Missouri, is proved with equal certainty. All these territories, and the different branches, falls, and waters of the Mississippi, were always comprehended within the line of the Spanish dominion in that part of America from the earliest periods of its discovery and conquest. Although the French penetrated several times from Mobile and Biloxi to different parts of that line, they never acquired any right to them. Their excursions were confined to trading, or smuggling, or exploring the country. The huts or posts which they had in some Indian nations were trifling establishments, clandestine and precarious, which they were unable to preserve. The Spaniards had traded much earlier than the French with all these Indian nations; with the Missourias, extending along the river of that name; the Padorcas, beyond the river La Platte; and, still farther to the Northwest, with the Latanes; and, finally, with several others, as being within the dominions of the Crown of Spain. The French themselves never disputed the rights of the Spaniards to possession and property, nor laid claim to injure the rights of Spain on all occasions of making grants of land within her settlement of Louisiana; and the French settlers at all times carefully respected the right bank of the Mississippi, throughout its whole extent, as the well-known property of Spain. No memorial can be found declaratory of a contrary opinion, except a decree of Louis XIV., dated at Fontainebleau, on the 14th of September, 1712, in favor of M. Crozat, ceding to him and the company formed by him the French settlement of Louisiana, with an ideal and vague demarcation of boundaries, by extending them mentally to New Mexico and the English province of Carolina, and along the Mississippi from the sea to the Illinois, &c. It is evident that the Court of France did not then possess any knowledge of the geography of that country, or that New Mexico was considered as bordering on the Mississippi, notwithstanding Louis XIV. had carried his liberality so far in that grant as to give the French company even the river Mississippi and the Missouri. He might, with equal reason, have given those of the Amazons, the La Plata, and Oronoko. You are perfectly aware, sir, the expressions of this grant are vague and absurd. They never could alter the fixed limits of French Louisiana, or of the Spanish possessions. The grant of Louis XIV. was always considered as the act of a disordered imagination. The Spaniards constantly preserved their dominion over |