1790.] FURTHER NEGOTIATION AT MADRID. 207 



depend. The negotiation on the subject of these demands was 

 continued at Madrid for three months after the acceptance of the 

 Spanish Declaration ; during which period couriers were constantly 

 flying between that city and London, and the whole civilized world 

 was kept in suspense and anxiety as to the result. 



The British plenipotentiary at Madrid, Mr. Fitzherbert, began by 

 requiring from Spain a distinct admission of the right of his coun- 

 trymen to navigate and fish in any part of the Pacific, and to trade 

 and settle on any of its unoccupied American coasts ; in reply to 

 which, the Spanish minister, Count de Florida Blanca, proposed to 

 admit the rights of fishery, trade, and settlement, with regard to the 

 open sea, and to coasts north of the 51st parallel of latitude, on 

 condition that the British should never penetrate more than twenty 

 leagues into the interior, from those coasts, and to allow the privi- 

 lege of fishing about the southern extremity of the continent, but 

 not of settling there, leaving to Spain the right to destroy any such 

 establishments, " as is practised in the Falkland Islands." * Mr. 

 Fitzherbert rejected this proposition, and insisted that certain lines 

 of boundary should be drawn from the coasts, through the interior 

 of the continents, in the north and in the south, between which 

 British subjects should form no settlements ; the territories beyond 

 those lines, in either direction, being free to both nations, provided 

 that the subjects of either should have access to the settlements 

 thus made by the other party. The line first proposed by the 

 British as the northern boundary, was to extend from the Pacific, 

 along the 31st parallel of latitude, to the Colorado, thence along 

 that river to its source, and thence to the nearest branch of the 

 Missouri ; but another line was afterwards offered, running from 

 the Pacific, along the 40th parallel of latitude, eastward to the 

 Missouri. The Spanish government, however, positively refused to 

 assent to these or any other lines of boundary thus arbitrarily 

 chosen ; and all hope of accommodation seemed to be destroyed. 

 It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the admission of either 

 of these lines would have materially affected the destinies of the 

 United States, and, indeed, of the whole northern continent. 



In the mean time, events were occurring in other parts of Europe, 

 which contributed to change the views of the disputing parties, and 

 to incline them to compromise their differences, and even to unite 

 their forces. 



As soon as the dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the 



* Narrative of the negotiations occasioned by the dispute between England and 

 Spain in the year 1790, officially published by the British ministers in 1790. 



