88 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Its boundary on the west, had it ever been described, must have followed 

 the summit of the Rocky Mountains from the vicinity of the forty-ninth 

 parallel to the headwaters of the Arkansas River. It is not impossible 

 that the line should have extended even farther south, to the source of 

 the Rio Grande. 1 But, whichever river be accepted as the southern 

 limit of Louisiana, it is certain that by the purchase of this province the 

 eastern half of Colorado became the property of the United States. 



By an act of March 26, 1804, Congress provided its first government 

 for the new lands. 2 So much of Louisiana as lay south of the thirty- 

 third parallel became the territory of Orleans, while the remaining por- 

 tion of the purchase was appended to the territory of Indiana with the 

 name of district of Louisiana. 3 It was not until March 3, 1805, that 

 Congress gave an independent territorial organization to this district, 

 under the same name. 4 



When the territory of Orleans was admitted to the union in 1812, it 

 received for its name Louisiana, 5 and the territory to the north, thus 

 deprived of its name, was called Missouri by the act of June 4, 181 2. 6 

 For a period of seven years this new territory of Missouri stretched from 

 the Mississippi indefinitely to the west. Spain was in no hurry to define 

 the boundaries between her American possessions and those of the 

 United States, and it was not until 181 5 that the United States was ready 

 to receive a minister from His Catholic Majesty. The first minister 

 sent by Ferdinand VII after his restoration to the throne of Spain in 

 181 5 was Don Luis De Onis, who entered upon the threefold task of 

 protesting against American intervention in the Floridas, of withstand- 

 ing the American sympathies for Spain's revolted colonies, and of drawing 

 a line between the respective American territories of Spain and the 

 United States. 7 



The three tasks of De Onis were almost inextricably entangled, and 



1 Hermann, 48, takes this view; and Henry Adams, History of the United States, II, 5, shows that France 

 believed this to be the case. 



3 Poore, Charters and Constitutions, I, 601; Henry Adams, II, 125. 



3 McMaster, History of the People of the United States, III, 23. 



4 Poore, 1, 6o7- 



s Act of April 8, 1812, Henry Adams, VI, 235; McMaster, III, 375. 



6 Poore, II, 1097; McMaster, V, 570. 



' Paxson, Independence of the South American Republics, p. 114. 



