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Our Cat/1olic Heritage in Texas
30,000 men to conquer the whole of the province of Mexico." 1114 Wilkinson seemed bent on war at all costs from the moment he arrived in Natchez on September 7 until September 27, when Herrera avoided the conflict by ordering a retreat of the Spanish forces west of the Sabine. 105 But the matter was not definitely settled until November 5, when the celebrated Neutral Ground Agreement was finally concluded. It is nec- essary to trace the Spanish reaction to the attitude and actions of Wilkinson just described in order to understand the ultimate settlement of the vexing question. 1t is well to keep in mind also that it was Governor Cordero who was inclined to be bellicose, and that it was Salcedo who had steadfastly advocated avoidance of hostilities. Herrera, the governor of Nuevo Leon, had been ordered to the frontier to assist Cordero because of his knowledge of English, his acquaintance with the United States where he had spent some time, and his known moderation and tact. 106 Governor Claiborne's letter of August 26 and a copy of Herrera's reply had been forwarded to Salcedo. On September 18, the commandant general, still unaware of the arrival of Wilkinson on the scene, wrote a long letter to Governor Claiborne. Had this letter reached Claiborne sooner, the subsequent disagreeable events might never have occurred. He took up the various complaints and answered them in detail. To the protest against the occupation of the territory east of the Sabine River by Spanish troops he replied that Spain had always had an indisputable claim to the land as far as the Arroyo Hondo, as shown by the permanent maintenance of Los Adaes until 1772, when it was abandoned after the cession of Louisiana to Spain. He further cited in support of this contention that in 1745 France had tacitly admitted that, on the occasion of a controversy over de- serters from Natchitoches, Arroyo Hondo was the boundary. When Gov- ernor Mir6 had proposed in 1790-1791 the extension of the limits of Louisiana to the Sabine River. the request was denied. Salcedo assured 1114McCaleb, The Aar011 Burr Conspiracy, 122-131; Orleans Gazette, October 3, 1806; Wilkinson, Memofrs, Appendix lxxvii. Blanks in the quotation are in the original manuscript. IOSWilk!nson, op. cit., Appendix xc!i; McCaleb, op. cit., 184. I06Herrera's wife was an Englishwoman. Pike says of her: "Herrera married an English lady in early youth at Cadiz, who, by her suavity of manners, makes herself as much beloved and esteemed by the ladies as her noble husband is by the men. By her he has several children, one now an officer in the service of his royal master." Pike, Explorations, 289.
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