its highest floods, and only its western margin (which is the highest
ground) secured by banks and inhabited. I suppose this idea too much
even for the Count de Montmorin at first, and that, therefore, you will
find it prudent to urge, and get him to recommend to the Spanish court,
only in general terms, 'a port near the mouth of the river, with a
circumjacent territory sufficient for its support, well defined, and
extra-territorial to Spain,' leaving the idea to future growth.

I enclose you the copy of a paper distributed by the Spanish commandant
on the west side of the Mississippi, which may justify us to M. de
Montmorin, for pushing this matter to an immediate conclusion. It cannot
be expected we shall give Spain time, to be used by her for dismembering
us.

It is proper to apprize you of a circumstance, which may show the
expediency of being in some degree on your guard, even in your
communications to the court of France. It is believed here, that the
Count de Moustier, during his residence with us, conceived a project
of again engaging France in a colony upon our continent, and that
he directed his views to some of the country on the Mississippi, and
obtained and communicated a good deal of matter on the subject to his
court. He saw the immediate advantage of selling some yards of French
cloths and silks to the inhabitants of New Orleans. But he did not take
into account what it would cost France to nurse and protect a colony
there, till it should be able to join its neighbors, or to stand by
itself; and then what it would cost her to get rid of it. I hardly
suspect that the court of France could be seduced by so partial a view
of the subject as was presented to them, and I suspect it the less,
since the National Assembly has constitutionally excluded conquest from
the objects of their government. It may be added too, that the place
being ours, their yards of cloth and silk would be as freely sold as if
it were theirs.

You will perceive by this letter, and the papers it encloses, what part
of the ideas of the Count d'Estain coincide with our views. The answer
to him must be a compound of civility and reserve, expressing our
thankfulness for his attentions; that we consider them as proofs of the
continuance of his friendly dispositions, and that though it might be
out of our system to implicate ourselves in trans-Atlantic guarantees,
yet other parts of his plans are capable of being improved to the common
be