308 The Winning of the West 



use attempting to influence any of his subordinates, 

 save in so far as these subordinates might in their 

 turn influence him. For some time it appeared that 

 Napoleon was bent upon occupying Louisiana in 

 force and using it as a basis for the rebuilding of 

 the French colonial power. The time seemed ripe 

 for such a project. After a decade of war with all 

 the rest of Europe, France in 1802 concluded the 

 Peace of Amiens, which left her absolutely free 

 to do as she liked in the New World. Napoleon 

 thoroughly despised a republic, and especially a re- 

 public without an army or navy. After the Peace 

 of Amiens he began to treat the Americans with 

 contemptuous disregard ; and he 'planned to throw 

 into Louisiana one of his generals with a force of 

 veteran troops sufficient to hold the country against 

 any attack. 



His hopes were in reality chimerical. At the 

 moment France was at peace with her European 

 foes, and could send her ships of war and her trans- 

 ports across the ocean without fear of the British 

 navy. It would therefore have been possible for 

 Napoleon without molestation to throw a large body 

 of French soldiers into New Orleans. Had there 

 been no European war such an army might have 

 held New Orleans for some years against American 

 attack, and might even have captured one or two 

 of the American posts on the Mississippi, such as 

 Natchez; but the instant it had landed in New Or- 

 leans the entire American people would have ac- 

 cepted France as their deadliest enemy, and all 



