236 The Winning of the West 



of an interesting and amusing and fundamentally 

 sound, albeit somewhat rancorous, history of his 

 State. This loyal counter-movement hindered and 

 hampered the separatists greatly, and made them 

 cautious about advocating outright disunion. It 

 was one of the causes which combined to render 

 abortive both the separatist agitations, and the Span 

 ish intrigues of the period. 



While Miro was corresponding with Wilkinson 

 and arranging for pensioning both him and Sebas 

 tian, Gardoqui was busy at New York. His efforts 

 at negotiation were fruitless; for his instructions 

 positively forbade him to yield the navigation of 

 the Mississippi, or to allow the rectification of the 

 boundary lines as claimed by the United States; 51 

 while the representatives of the latter refused to 

 treat at all unless both of these points were con 

 ceded. 52 Jay he found to be particularly intractable, 

 and in one of his letters he expressed the hope that 

 he would be replaced by Richard Henry Lee, whom 

 Gardoqui considered to be in the Spanish interest. 

 He was much interested in the case of Vermont, 53 

 which at that time was in doubt whether to remain 

 an independent State, to join the Union, or even 

 possibly to form some kind of alliance with the 

 British; and what he saw occurring in this New 

 England State made him for the moment hopeful 

 about the result of the Spanish designs on Kentucky. 



51 Gardoqui MSS., Instructions, July 25 and October 2, 1784. 

 51 Do., Gardoqui 's Letters, June 19, 1786, October 28, 1786, 

 December 5, 1787, July 25, 1788, etc. 

 83 Do., May n, 1787. 



