Persons coming in, by land or water, are to present themselves at the government house. Those who harbour convicts, or deserters, from the land or naval service, are to be punished. Any large concourse of people, without the knowledge of government, is inhibited. None are to walk out at night without urgent necessity, and not then without a light. No house or apartment to be rented to a slave. Tavern keepers are to shut their houses at regular hours, and not to sell spirituous liquors to Indians, soldiers or slaves. Purchases from soldiers, Indians, convicts, or slaves are prohibited. Regulations are made to prevent forestalling, hogs running at large in the streets, to restrain the keeping too great a number of dogs, and the removal of dead animals. Measures are taken to guard against conflagrations, for draining the streets, and keeping the landing on the levee unobstructed. Verbal sales of slaves are forbidden. Don Pedro Piernas succeeded Miro as colonel of the regiment of Louisiana. At the close of the war, there had been considerable migrations to the banks of the Ohio and the western part of Virginia. A district had here been formed called Kentucky, the population of which exceeded twelve thousand souls. There was also a large number of settlers in the state of North Carolina, on the western side of the mountains, and many had sat down on the banks of Cumberland river. These found the inconvenience of their situation, from the immense distance of the seat of government, near the shore of the Atlantic,so grievous, that in the preceding year they had made an attempt to erect themselves into a separate government, under the style of the state of Franklin. The people of Kentucky had the same wish, and those of Virginia were not averse to its gratification. They enjoyed no part of the attention of the general government. Their communication with the Atlantic was obstructed by an immense wilderness and lofty mountains; and where these obstacles were surmounted, the distance to a sea port was still immense. The climate was favourable to agriculture; and although their land produced much more than they could consume, they could find no market for the surplus. Attempts had been made to seek one on the Mississippi, but their boats had been met and seized by Spanish officers ascending the stream with supplies for St. Louis. A convention of the people met at Danville to deliberate on the propriety of an application to congress, soliciting admission into the Union as an independent state; but the majority of that body concluded that the population of the district was too small and sparse to support the expenses of a separate government. Congress seemed unwilling to take any measure to procure them a free navigation of the Mississippi. Chabert and Reggio were the ordinary alcades for the year 1787. The population of the district of Opelousas and Atakapas was heretofore supposed to be so inconsiderable, that it had been thought one commandant was sufficient for both. Don Nicholas Forstall, a regidor, was now appointed commandant of the for VOL. II. 12 mer, and the Chevalier de Clouet, who before presided over both, was left in charge of the latter. On his departure, Forstall claimed the right, as he was leaving the cabildo on the king's service, to appoint a lieutenant, in proxy, to represent him in it; but that body refused to recognise such a right. The four Irish priests from the seminary of Salamanca, chosen by the bishop, according to the request of the king, reached New-Orleans, and were sent to Baton Rouge, Natchez, and other parts of the territory conquered from Great Britain, during the last war. Altho' no treaty had been entered into between the United States and the Catholic king, the latter had sent a minister to the former. This gentleman, Don Diego de Guardoqui, now formed a plan for encour aging migration from the district of Kentucky and the western part of North Carolina, to the right bank of the Mississippi, between the settlements near the river Arkansas and those near the Missouri. George Morgan, of Pennsylvania, who offered himself as the leader of the emigrants, received the grant of a large tract of land, on which he laid the foundation of a city, which he dignified with the name of New Madrid. A company of infantry, under the orders of Pierre Foucher, was sent from New-Orleans to build and garrison a fort near the intended site of the city. ₹ 4 At the same time, Don Diego admitted the proposition of the Baron de Steuben, a general officer, who, having served the United States with tion during the late war, had, together with other officers of rank, and a number of respectable citizens of the United States, solicited an extensive tract of country on the same bank of the Mississippi, for the purpose of establishing a military colony, chiefly composed of such persons as were lately in the army, and were left without employment, on its disbandment. The cabinet of Madrid, however, did not think proper to encourage the formation of a colony, composed of such materials, in the Spanish domin ions. Morgan's plan had but a partial execution. The foundation was now laid of a commercial intercourse, through the Mississippi, between the United States and New-Orleans, which has been continu ed, with but little interruption, to this day, and has increased to an immense degree; and, to the future extent of which, the imagination can hardly contemplate any limit. Hitherto, the boats of the western people, venturing on the Mississippi, were arrested by the first Spanish officer who met them; and conconfiscation ensued, in every case; all communication between the citizens of the United States and the Spaniards, being strictly prohibited. Now and then, an emigrant, desirous of settling in the district of Natchez, by personal entreaty and the solicitations of his friends, obtained a tract of land, with permission to settle on it with his family, slaves, farming utensils, and furniture. He was not allowed to bring any thing to sell without paying an enormous duty. An unexpected incident changed the face of affairs, in this 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 pa rishes 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 |