224 The Winning of the West 



ada and Louisiana were beginning to come to an 

 understanding. In another letter Carondelet ex 

 plained that the system adopted by Lord Dorchester 

 and the English officials in Canada in dealing with 

 the savages was the same as that which he had 

 employed, both the Spaniards and the British having 

 found them the most powerful means with which to 

 oppose the American advance. By the expenditure 

 of a few thousand dollars, wrote the Spanish Gov 

 ernor, 42 he could always rouse the Southern tribes 

 to harry the settlers, while at the same time cover 

 ing his deeds so effectually that the Americans could 

 not point to any specific act of which to complain. 



There was much turbulence and some treachery 

 exhibited by individual frontiersmen in their deal 

 ings with Spain, and the Americans of the Missis 

 sippi Valley showed a strong tendency to win their 

 way to the mouth of the river and to win the right 

 to settle on its banks by sheer force of arms; but 

 the American Government and its authorized rep 

 resentatives behaved with a straightforward and 

 honorable good faith which offered a striking con- 



49 Draper Collection, Spanish MSS. State Documents. 

 Baron de Carondelet to Manuel Gayrso de Lemos, Aug. 20, 

 1794; Carondelet to Duke Alcudia, Sept. 25, 1795; Caronde- 

 let's Letter of July 9, 1795; Carondelet's Letter of Sept. 

 27. 1793- These Spanish documents form a very important 

 part of the manuscripts in the Library of the State Histori 

 cal Society of Wisconsin. I was able to get translations of 

 them through the great courtesy of Mr. Reuben Gold 

 Thwaites, the Secretary of the Society, to whom I must 

 again render my acknowledgments for the generosity with 

 which he has helped me. 



