302 The Winning of the West 



movements kept the Spaniards alive to the imminent 

 danger of the general American attack which they 

 heralded. 



Spain watched her boundaries with the most jeal- 

 ous care. Her colonial system was evil in its suspi- 

 cious exclusiveness toward strangers; and her re- 

 ligious system was marked by an intolerance still 

 almost as fierce as in the days of Torquemada. The 

 Holy Inquisition was a recognized feature of Span- 

 ish political life; and the rulers of the Spanish- 

 American colonies put the stranger and the heretic 

 under a common ban. The reports of the Spanish 

 ecclesiastics of Louisiana dwelt continually upon the 

 dangers with which the oncoming of the back- 

 woodsmen threatened the Church no less than the 

 State. 2 All the men in power, civil, military, and 

 religious alike, showed toward strangers, and espe- 

 cially toward American strangers, a spirit which 

 was doubly unwise; for by their jealousy they cre- 

 ated the impression that the lands they so carefully 

 guarded must hold treasures of great price; and 

 by their severity they created an anger which when 

 fully aroused they could not well quell. The fron- 

 tiersmen, as they tried to peer into the Spanish do- 

 minions, were lured on by the attraction they felt 

 for what was hidden and forbidden; and there was 

 enough danger in the path to madden them, while 

 there was no exhibition of a strength sufficient to 

 cow them. 



The Spanish rulers realized fully that they were 

 9 Report of Bishop Penalvert, Nov. i, 1795, Gayarr6. 



