Desire of the Settlers for it.

It naturally followed that for the moment the attention of the backwoodsmen was directed much more to New Orleans than to the trans-Mississippi territory.  A few wilderness lovers like Boone, a few reckless adventurers of the type of Philip Nolan, were settling around and beyond the creole towns of the North, or were endeavoring to found small buccaneering colonies in dangerous proximity to the Spanish commanderies in the Southwest.  But the bulk of the Western settlers as yet found all the vacant territory they wished east of the Mississippi.  What they needed at the moment was, not more wild land, but an outlet for the products yielded by the land they already possessed.  The vital importance to the Westerners of the free navigation of the Mississippi has already been shown.  Suffice it to say that the control of the mouth of the great Father of Waters was of direct personal consequence to almost every tree feller, every backwoods farmer, every land owner, every townsman, who dwelt beyond the Alleghanies.  These men did not worry much over the fact that the country on the farther bank of the Mississippi was still under the Spanish Flag.  For the moment they did not need it, and when they did, they knew they could take it without the smallest difficulty.  But the ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi was a matter of immediate importance; and though none of the settlers doubted that it would ultimately be theirs, it was yet a matter of much consequence to them to get possession of it as quickly as possible, and with as little trouble as possible, rather than to see it held, perhaps for years, by a powerful hostile nation, and then to see it acquired only at the cost of bloody, and perchance checkered, warfare.

    Terror of the Spaniards.

This was the attitude of the backwoods people as with sinewy, strenuous shoulder they pressed against the Spanish boundaries.  The Spanish attitude on the other hand was one of apprehension so intense that it overcame even anger against the American nation.  For mere diplomacy, the Spaniards cared little or nothing; but they feared the Westerners.  Their surrender of Louisiana was due primarily to the steady pushing and crowding of the frontiersmen, and the continuous growth of the Western commonwealths.  In spite of Pinckney’s treaty the Spaniards did not leave Natchez until fairly drowned out by the American settlers and soldiers.  They now felt the same pressure upon them in New Orleans; it was growing steadily and was fast becoming intolerable.  Year by year, almost month by month, they saw the numbers of their foes increase, and saw them settle more and more thickly in places from which it would be easy to strike New Orleans.  Year by year the offensive power of the Americans increased in more than arithmetical ratio as against Louisiana.

    Incursions of American Adventurers.