300 The Winning of the West 



further bank of the Mississippi was still under the 

 Spanish Flag. For the moment they did not need 

 it, and when they did, they knew they could take it 

 without the smallest difficulty. But the ownership 

 of the mouth of the Mississippi was a matter of im- 

 mediate importance ; and though none of the settlers 

 doubted that it would ultimately be theirs, it was yet 

 a matter of much consequence to them to get pos- 

 session of it as quickly as possible, and with as little 

 trouble as possible, rather than to see it held, perhaps 

 for years, by a powerful hostile nation, and then to 

 see it acquired only at the cost of bloody, and per- 

 chance checkered, warfare. 



This was the attitude of the backwoods people 

 as with sinewy, strenuous shoulder they pressed 

 against the Spanish boundaries. The Spanish atti- 

 tude on the other hand was one of apprehension so 

 intense that it overcame even anger against the 

 American nation. For mere diplomacy, the Span- 

 iards cared little or nothing; but they feared the 

 Westerners. Their surrender of Louisiana was due 

 primarily to the steady pushing and crowding of the 

 frontiersmen, and the continuous growth of the 

 Western commonwealths. In spite of Pinckney's 

 treaty the Spaniards did not leave Natchez until 

 fairly drowned out by the American settlers and 

 soldiers. They now felt the same pressure upon 

 them in New Orleans; it was growing steadily and 

 was fast becoming intolerable. Year by year, almost 

 month by month, they saw the numbers of their 

 foes increase, and saw them settle more and more 



