6 University of California Publication in Hiutory
 Monroe and Pinckney endeavored to obtain Spanish recognition
of the Louisiana Purchase, including West Florida, and to pur-
chase East Florida. Instructions to them stipulated that, in the
event of a money payment by the United States, the funds in-
volved should be applied to claims of United States citizens against
Spain. Though their mission was a failure, certain of the points
in their discussion are of interest because they were revived after
the fall of Napoleon.
 An alternative proposal in their advances concerned the western
limits of Louisiana, which, as the United States had contended
since shortly after the purchase, extended to the Rio Grande, thus
including the present Texas. This opinion was that of Livingston,
Secretary of State Madison, and President Jefferson, and has been
shown to have been originally that of Napoleon.' Pinckney and
Monroe were instructed to offer a compromise, accepting the Colo-
rado River of Texas (about 250 miles east of the Bfo Grande) as
the boundary, if Spain would cede East Florida and withdraw
claims to West Florida.
 Cevalloe, answering peremptory notes of Monroe and Pinckney
with voluminous evasiveness, reinjected the Claims Convention of
1802, and the right of deposit, into the argument. He demanded
that for ratification of the convention the time for filing of claims
should.be extended; that the clause reserving rights in the French
spoliation claims should be canceled on the ground that France
and the United States had completely settled their controversies
by their conventions of 1803; and that the part of the Mobile Cus-
toms Act which affected Spanish territory should be rescinded. He
also stated that the right of deposit at New Orleans, which had
been extended for four years beyond the stipulation of Pinckney's
Treaty, had been abused by contraband trading. Finally, Cevallos
did come to the boundary issue. But instead of answering the pro-
posal on western limits, he presented a letter from Talleyrand, who,
wanting Spanish aid against England, now said that Spain had
not ceded West Florida to France. Cevallos also stipulated that
French spoliations on United States commerce be ignored by
Spain. Later, he expounded Spain's claims to Texas.
 Monroe and Pinckney, following an assurance of the French
 foreign office to the United States minister, General John Arm-
 strong, that France would back Spain even in a war, resolved on