102 DECLINE OF THE SPANISH POWER. [1763. 



made in the American treaty, as it was called, concluded with Great 

 Britain in 1670, by which it was agreed that the British king should 

 have and enjoy forever, with plenary right of sovereignty and 

 property, all lands, regions, islands, and colonies, possessed by him 

 or his subjects in the West Indies, or in any part of America ; with 

 the understanding, however, that the subjects of neither power 

 should trade with, or sail to, any place in those countries belonging 

 to the other, unless forced thither by stress of weather or pursuit 

 by enemies or pirates. These stipulations were renewed and con- 

 firmed by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, in which the queen of 

 England, moreover, engaged to give assistance to the Spaniards for 

 the restoration of the ancient limits of their dominions in the West 

 Indies, as they were in the time of King Charles H. of Spain ; 

 and it was by common consent established, as a chief and funda- 

 mental rule, that the exercise of navigation and commerce in the 

 Spanish West Indies should remain as it was in the time of that 

 king, who died in 1700. 



The terms of these, and all other treaties on the same subject, 

 between Great Britain and Spain, were, however, so vague, that 

 they served rather to increase than to prevent disputes. The 

 meaning of the expression Spanish West Indies never could be 

 fixed to the satisfaction of both the parties ; and it was impossible 

 for them, in any case of alleged trespass by either upon the rights 

 of the other, to agree as to what were the limits of their respective 

 dominions, or what was the state of their navigation and commerce 

 at the time of the death of King Charles II., or at any other time. 

 The British colonies were, nevertheless, constantly advancing and 

 absorbing those of other European powers, and all the attempts of 

 the Spaniards to check their prosperity were ineffectual. 



The French, by their occupation of Louisiana and the western 

 half of St. Domingo, also gave great uneasiness to the Spaniards 

 for some time ; but the political interests of the two nations had 

 become so closely involved, by the family ties between their sove- 

 reigns, that Spain, as the weaker, in this and in the other cases, 

 was obliged to submit to the influence and encroachments of her 

 powerful ally. 



At length, in 1763, peace was restored among these three great 

 powers. Spain recovered from France New Orleans and the part 

 of Louisiana west of the Mississippi ; while the remainder of 

 Louisiana, together with Florida, Canada, and all the other French 

 possessions on the North American continent, became the property 



