respect.

"The idea of a regular trade was first conceived by General
Wilkinson, who had served with distinction as an officer in the
late war, and whose name is as conspicuous in the annals of the
west, as any other. He had connected with it a scheme for the
settlement of several thousand American families in that part
of the present state of Louisiana, now known as the parishes of
East and West Feliciana, and that of Washita, and on White
river, and other streams of the present territory of Arkansas.
For these services to the Spanish government, he expected to
obtain the privilege of introducing, yearly, a considerable
quantity of tobacco into the Mexican market.

"With a view to the execution of his plan, Wilkinson descended
the Mississippi, with an adventure of tobacco, flour, butter,
and bacon. He stopped at Natchez while his boat was floating
down the stream to New-Orleans, the commandant at the former
place having been induced to forbear seizing it, from an
apprehension that such a step would be disapproved by Miro, who
might be desirous of showing some indulgence to a general
officer of a nation with whom his was at peace--especially as
the boat and its owner were proceeding to New-Orleans, where he
could act towards them as he saw fit.

"Wilkinson having stopped at a plantation on the river, the
boat reached the city before him. On its approaching the levee,
a guard was immediately sent on board, and the revenue officers
were about taking measures for its seizure, when a merchant,
who was acquainted with Wilkinson, and had some influence with
Miro, represented to him that the step Navarro was about to
take might be attended with unpleasant consequences; that the
people of Kentucky were already much exasperated at the conduct
of the Spaniards in seizing all the property of those who
navigated the Mississippi, and if this system was pursued, they
would probably, in spite of Congress, take means themselves to
open the navigation of the river by force. Hints were, at the
same time, thrown out, that the general was a very popular
character among those who were capable of inflaming the whole
of the western people, and that, probably, his sending a boat
before him, that it might be seized, was a scheme laid by the
government o