had been consumed in the conquest of the island.
Twenty-four thousand men had been sacrificed at the very threshold of
colonial empire, and the skies of Europe were not so clear as they had
been. And then came the news of Leclerc's death (November 2, 1802).
Exhausted by incessant worry, he too had succumbed to the pestilence;
and with him, as events proved, passed Bonaparte's dream of colonial
empire in the New World.

Almost at the same time with these tidings a report reached the settlers
of Kentucky and Tennessee that the Spanish intendant at New Orleans had
suspended the right of deposit. The Mississippi was therefore closed to
western commerce. Here was the hand of the Corsican.* Now they knew what
they had to expect from France. Why not seize the opportunity and strike
before the French legions occupied the country? The Spanish garrisons
were weak; a few hundred resolute frontiersmen would speedily overpower
them.

* It is now clear enough that Bonaparte was not directly
responsible for this act of the Spanish intendant. See
Channing, "History of the United States," vol. IV, p. 312,
and Note, 326-327.

Convinced that he must resort to stiffer measures if he would not be
hurried into hostilities, President Jefferson appointed James Monroe as
Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to France and Spain.
He was to act with Robert Livingston at Paris and with Charles Pinckney,
Minister to Spain, "in enlarging and more effectually securing our
rights and interests in the river Mississippi and in the territories
eastward thereof"--whatever these vague terms might mean. The President
evidently read much into them, for he assured Monroe that on the event
of his mission depended the future destinies of the Republic.

Two months passed before Monroe sailed with his instructions. He had
ample time to study them, for he was thirty days in reaching the coast
of France. The first aim of the envoys was to procure New Orleans and
the Floridas, bidding as high as ten million dollars if necessary.
Failing in this object, they were then to secure the right of deposit
and such other desirable concessions as they could. To secure New
Orleans, they might even offer to guarantee the integrity of Spanish
possessions on the west bank of the Mississippi. Throughout the
instructions ran the assumption that the Floridas had either passed with
Louisiana into the hands of France or had since been acquired.