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Show TEXAS CONTINUED. 423 Spain, to keep England from getting it. Bear in mind that Louisiana then meant all the country drained by the Mississippi, except where the English had obtained prior rights on its eastern affluents. Next year peace was made, by which England got Canada and all the French country east of the Mississippi and above the present Louisi-ana. One clause in that treaty was afterwards of immense importance to the United States, viz. : " The navigation of the Mississippi to be free to the subjects of both England and France." This state ofaffairs continued forty years, and was of immense ad-vantage to Texas ; the missions died out, and regular colonists began to take their place. Meanwhile the American Revolution occurred, and there was no end of fighting between England on one side and France and Spain on the other. Spain refused the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the people of the western States swore they would take it by force. Then the French Revolution took place, and for awhile France had to fight all the rest of Europe. By secret treaty in 1800, Louisiana was transferred back from Spain to France, though the United States did not know it till two years after. All this time the boundaries of Texas and Louisiana had remained unsettled ; the French had often claimed as far west as the Rio Grande, the Span-iards always as far east as the Sabine. This condition invited revolu-tionists and adventurous spirits, and there were numerous incursions, battles, skirmishes, and massacres which have no connection with the general history. Meanwhile the French Revolution progressed ; Bon-aparte got control of that country, and found himself engaged in a life and death struggle with England. He could not hold Louisiana, and needed money ; the United States was on hand with the cash, the sale was made, and the transfer completed by imposing ceremonies in New Orleans, in December, 1803. This brought up the old border question in a new shape. While the diplomats of Spain and the United States used up two years in at-tempts at a treaty, the provinces were a dozen times on the point of actual war. Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana, called out the militia, and forbade the Spaniards to cross the Sabine. At length it was set-tled that the strip between the Sabine and Arroyo Hondo should be neutral ground for the present. This was a beautiful arrangement. Of course the neutral strip was soon infested by desperadoes, and countless robberies and outrages were perpetrated. In one instance two desperadoes were captured, and to make them betray their com-panions were severely whipped. Then live coals were passed over their raw and bleeding backs. But they were gritty rascals, and re- |
