Brooks: Diplomaacy ad the Borderlands 39
isiana, the Marquis of Casa Calvo, Spanish commissioner, and
Ventura Morales, former Spanish intendant, had indulged in con-
tumacious bickering. Both the Spaniards remained long after Clai-
borne thought they were entitled to and argued long over land
titles and the boundary. In the winter of 1805-1806 Casa Calvo
explored the boundary area himself. He concluded that on the basis
of long acceptance the line should be at the Arroyo Hondo, near
Natchitoches and east of the Sabine."
 Antonio Cordero, then governor of Texas, took steps to pstab-
lish that limit, and rumors of his activities, though probably -x-
aggerated, worried the Louisiana officials. In 1805 the Spanish post
of Los Adaes, seven leagues west of Natchitoches, was reoccupied,
and settlements were made at Bayou Pierre and Nana, both east
of the Sabine. The few men at Los Adaes were easily dislodged by
a United States force from Natchitoches in January, 1806. But
soon seven hundred more men were sent to guard the Spanish front.
Various encounters in the disputed area increased the fear of war
between the two countries, until in the spring of 1806 orders came
from Washington for a general dressing up and reinforcement of
the border poets.
 Wilkinson was ordered to take charge at New Orleans. He soon
drew up a temporary palliative agreement with the Spanish com-
mander, Herrera, whereby the Spanish troops were to remain west
of the Sabine and the United States forces were to stay east of the
Arroyo Hondo, the intervening few miles being considered neutral
ground. This agreement was a part of Wilkinson's scheme to re-
establish himself as the protector of the West, by staving off the
Spanish threat and by exposing at the same time the Aaron.Burr
conspiracy." A later governor of Texas, Manuel Salcedo, in 1809
sought to discredit this so-called "Neutral ground treaty" by say-
ing that the real Spanish line was the Arroyo Hondo and that the
United States' demand for the neutral area was unwarranted. At
the same time he sent to Spain advice on methods of protecting his
province.
 Neither government, however, was possessed with a legal con-
clusion to the argument, and at both Madrid and Washington the
diplomats continued their efforts to establish rival claims. Jeffer-
son's conceptions of the proper boundaries of Louisiana became
more and more comprehensive. He eventually asserted that, in-