ndelet.

It was not the first time that Gayoso's superior knowledge of the
Indians and of their American foes had prevented his carrying out the
orders of his superior officer. On one occasion Carondelet had directed
Gayoso to convene the Southern Indians, and to persuade them to send
deputies to the United States authorities with proposals to settle the
boundaries in accordance with the wishes of Spain, and to threaten open
war as an alternative. Gayoso refused to adopt this policy, and
persuaded Carondelet to alter it, showing that it was necessary above
all things to temporize, that such a course as the one proposed would
provoke immediate hostilities, and that the worst possible line for the
Spaniards to follow would be one of open war with the entire power of
the United States. [Footnote: _Do.,_ De Leraos to Carondelet, Dec. 6,
1793.]

Pressure of the Westerners on the Spanish Domain.

Of course the action of the American Government in procuring the recall
of Genet and putting a stop to Clark's operations lightened for a moment
the pressure of the backwoodsmen upon the Spanish dominions; but it was
only for a moment. The Westerners were bent on seizing the Spanish
territory; and they were certain to persist in their efforts until they
were either successful or were definitely beaten in actual war. The acts
of aggression were sure to recur; it was only the form that varied. When
the chance of armed conquest under the banner of the French Republic
vanished, there was an immediate revival of plans for getting possession
of some part of the Spanish domain through the instrumentality of the
great land companies.

The Land Companies.

These land companies possessed on paper a weight which they did not have
in actual history. They occasionally enriched, and more often
impoverished, the individual speculators; but in the actual peopling of
the waste lands they counted for little in comparison with the steady
stream of pioneer farmers who poured in, each to hold and till the
ground he in fact occupied. However, the contemporary documents of the
day were full of details concerning the companies; and they did possess
considerable importance at certain times in the settlement of the West,
both because they in places stimulated that settlement, and because in
other places they retarded it, inasmuch as they kept out actual
settlers, who could not pre-empt land which had been purchased at low
rates from some legisla