The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907 Page: 37
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The Louisiana-Texas Frontier.
Jamaica vessel. He made a sketch map of the region traversed,
and later, in the summer of 1777, departed upon another tour of
exploration from the Trinity to the Brazos, but with what result
we are not informed.1
These incidents may indicate either a simple exploration of the
coast by the English or an attempt to settle, defeated by Indian
hostility. At any rate, rumors of their presence at various points
stirred Governor Ripperda to unwonted activity in patrolling the
coast. The greatest fear of governor and viceroy arose from the
fact that these dreaded energetic pioneers were more able than the
French to destroy the uncertain hold of the Spanish upon the Texas
Indians, and less scrupulous in the methods they employed. The
conquest of the Floridas by Governor-General Galvez, in 1779-
1781, promised for a time to remove this peril, provided the new
American Republic could be restricted to the eastward of the Ap-
palachians. When the attempt of French and Spanish diplomacy
to accomplish this result was foiled, the energies of the Spanish
court were bent to the task of keeping the new power from the
lower Mississippi, and for a decade and a half with success. Yet
during this very period there appeared upon the Louisiana-Texas
frontier the pioneer representatives of the very migration that
Spain so greatly dreaded. A typical class of these border repre-
sentatives is well illustrated by their most prominent prototype,
Philip Nolan, whose career will be treated in a later chapter.
IV. DIPLOMATIC INTRIGUES FOR THE POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA.
Negotiations for the retrocession of Louisiana to France began
.almost as soon as those frontier movements which determined its
ultimate possession by an English-speaking people. For a time it
seemed that the final ownership of this vast province was a ques-
tion to be determined by European diplomacy, and diplomacy cer-
tainly hastened its final solution. For this reason it is necessary to
review diplomatic manoeuvres, as forces supplementing frontier ex-
pansion, in order fully to comprehend all the influences which af-
fected the Louisiana-Texas frontier after 1803. One must, however,
remember that aside from hastening certain frontier complications,
1Historia XLIII, Opdisculo IV, Par. IV; Correspondence of Viceroys,
Vol. 33, No. 703; Vol. 67, No. 1827; Carta of Ripperda, Memorias de
Nueva Espana, XXVIII; Bancroft, North Mexican States. I 631; Bolton
in THE QUARTERLY, IX 102, 117, 118.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 10, July 1906 - April, 1907, periodical, 1907; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101040/m1/45/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.