reign
Relations, I., _passim_, etc., etc.]

Systematic Treachery of the Spaniards.

In dealing with the British the Americans sometimes had to encounter bad
faith, but more often a mere rough disregard for the rights of others,
of which they could themselves scarcely complain with a good grace, as
they showed precisely the same quality in their own actions. In dealing
with the Spaniards, on the other hand, they had to encounter deliberate
and systematic treachery and intrigue. The open negotiations between the
two governments over the boundary ran side by side with a current of
muddy intrigue between the Spanish Government on the one hand, and
certain traitorous Americans on the other; the leader of these traitors
being, as usual, the arch scoundrel, Wilkinson.

Their Intrigues with the Indians.

The Spaniards trusted almost as much to Indian intrigue as to bribery of
American leaders; indeed they trusted to it more for momentary effect,
though the far-sighted among them realized that in the long run the
safety of the Spanish possessions depended upon the growth of divisional
jealousies among the Americans themselves. The Spanish forts were built
as much to keep the Indians under command as to check the Americans. The
Governor of Natchez, De Lemos, had already established a fort at the
Chickasaw Bluffs, where there was danger of armed collision between the
Spaniards and either the Cumberland settlers under Robertson or the
Federal troops. Among the latter, by the way, the officer for whose
ability the Spaniards seemed to feel an especial respect was Lieutenant
William Clark. [Footnote: Draper MSS., Spanish Documents, Carondelet to
Don Louis de Las Casas, June 13, 1795; De Lemos to Carondelet, July 25,
1793.]

The Chickasaws Befriend the Americans.

The Chickasaws were nearly drawn into a war with the Spaniards, who were
intensely irritated over their antagonism to the Creeks, for which the
Spaniards insisted that the Americans were responsible. [Footnote:
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I., p. 305, etc.] The
Americans, however, were able to prove conclusively that the struggle
was due, not to their advice, but to the outrages of marauders from the
villages of the Muscogee confederacy. They showed by the letter of the
Chickasaw chief, James Colbert, that the Creeks had themselves begun
hostilities early in 1792 by killing a Chickasaw, and that the
Chickasaws, because of this spilling of blood