268 



OLD SPANIARDS 



tification and envy, the growing prosperity of the 

 country, no longer exclusively theirs. They felt 

 the foundation of their own fortunes gradually 

 slipping from them ; and having been habituated 

 to the enjoyment of exclusive privileges, could 

 not reconcile themselves to share their fortunes 

 and long established rights, with their former de- 

 pendents. Being conscious that these feelings 

 rendered them unworthy of confidence, they na- 

 turally inferred, that in reality they were not 

 trusted. In this frame of mind, they lived in 

 constant dread of popular vengeance, and often 

 gave way to terrors from causes insignificant, or 

 imaginary. When they met together, they never 

 failed to augment one another''s fears, by repeat- 

 ing stories of the threats and insults they had 

 met with ; and spoke of the various symptoms of 

 enmity on the part of the free Americans, who, 

 they said, were only waiting for an opportunity to 

 expel them from the country. 



The correspondence also which they maintain- 

 ed with all parts of the interior contributed, in a 

 remarkable degree, to heighten these feelings of 

 alarm ; since it was impossible to investigate every 



