240 The Winning of the West 



army. 38 Carondelet saw that the fate of the Span- 

 ish-American province which he ruled, hung on the 

 separation of the Western States from the Union. 39 

 As long as he thought it possible to bring about the 

 separation, he refused to pay heed even to the orders 

 of the Court of Spain, or to the treaty engagements 

 by which he was nominally bound. He was forced 

 to make constant demands upon the Spanish Court 

 for money to be used in the negotiations; that is, 

 to bribe Wilkinson and his fellows in Kentucky. 

 He succeeded in placating the Chickasaws, and got 

 from them a formal cession of the Chickasaw Bluffs, 

 which was a direct blow at the American preten- 

 sions. As with all Indian tribes, the Chickasaws 

 were not capable of any settled policy, and were not 

 under any responsible authority. While some of 

 them were in close alliance with the Americans and 

 were warring on the Creeks, the others formed a 

 treaty with the Spaniards and gave them the terri- 

 tory they so earnestly wished. 40 



However, neither Carondelet's energy and devo- 

 tion to the Spanish Government nor his unscrupu- 

 lous intrigues were able for long to defer the fate 

 which hung over the Spanish possessions. In 1795, 

 Washington nominated as Minister to Spain Thomas 

 Pinckney, a member of a distinguished family of 

 South Carolina statesmen, and a man of the utmost 



38 Draper MSS., Spanish Documents, Carondelet to Al- 

 cudia, Nov. i, 1793. 



39 Do., Carondelet to Alcudia, Sept. 25, 1795. 



10 Do., De Lemos to Carondelet, inclosed in Carondelet's 

 letter of Sept. 26, 1795. 



