Louisiana and Aaron Burr 301 



thickly in places from which it would be easy to 

 strike New Orleans. Year by year the offensive 

 power of the Americans increased in more than 

 arithmetical ratio as against Louisiana. 



The more reckless and lawless adventurers from 

 time to time pushed southwest, even toward the 

 borders of Texas and New Mexico, and strove to 

 form little settlements, keeping the Spanish Govern- 

 ors and Intendants in a constant fume of anxiety. 

 One of these settlements was founded by Philip 

 Nolan, a man whom rumor had connected with 

 Wilkinson's intrigues, and who, like many another 

 lawless trader of the day, was always dreaming of 

 empires to be carved from, or wealth to be won in, 

 the golden Spanish realms. In the fall of 1800, 

 he pushed beyond the Mississippi with a score or so 

 of companions, and settled on the Brazos. The 

 party built pens or corrals, and began to catch wild 

 horses, for the neighborhood swarmed not only with 

 game but with immense droves of mustangs. The 

 handsomest animals they kept and trained, letting 

 the others loose again. The following March these 

 tamers of wild horses were suddenly set upon by a 

 body of Spaniards, three hundred strong, with one 

 field-piece. The assailants made their attack at day- 

 break, slew Nolan, and captured his comrades, who 

 for many years afterward lived as prisoners in the 

 Mexican towns. 1 The menace of such buccaneering 



1 Pike's letter, July 22, 1807, in Natchez "Herald"; in Col. 

 Durrett's collection; see Coue's edition of Pike's "Expedi- 

 tion," LII; also Gayarr6, III, 447. 



