214 The Winning of the West 



perfectly willing to betray the people who had 

 bribed him. 



However, he was an adept in low intrigue; and 

 though he speedily became suspected by all honest 

 men, he covered his tracks so well that it was not 

 until after his death, and after the Spanish archives 

 had been explored, that his guilt was established. 



He returned to Kentucky after some months' ab 

 sence. He had greatly increased his reputation, and 

 as substantial results of his voyage he showed per 

 mits to trade, and some special and exclusive com 

 mercial privileges, such as supplying the Mexican 

 market with tobacco, and depositing it in the King's 

 store at New Orleans. The Kentuckians were much 

 excited by what he had accomplished. He bought 

 goods himself and received goods from other mer 

 chants on commission; and a year after his first 

 venture he sent a flotilla of heavy-laden flat-boats 

 down the Mississippi, and disposed of their contents 

 at a high profit in New Orleans. 



The power this gave Wilkinson, the way he 

 had obtained it, and the use he made of it, gave an 

 impetus to the separatist party in Kentucky. He 

 was by no means the only man, however, who was at 

 this time engaged in the river trade to Louisiana; 

 nor were his advantages over his commercial rivals 

 as marked as he alleged. They, too, had discovered 

 that the Spanish officials could be bribed to shut 

 their eyes to smuggling, and that citizens of Nat 

 chez could be hired to receive property shipped 

 thither as being theirs, so that it might be admitted 



