Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderkeds 61
mittance. Morris called the reply "extraordinary," and declared
that he thought he could detect "the cloven foot of the British
Government" in it. Erving himself thought the answer was given
on grounds of his own "intimacy and negotiations with the king of
Naples [Joseph Bonaparte] when he was Lieutenant of Napoleon
at Madrid.'"
 Serving was the son of a British Loyalist who had left America
during the Revolution. The son had later been in the United States,
but much of his life had been spent abroad. He was not in good
health, and had a doctor attending him during much of his resi-
dence in Spain. He was qualified for the position by his broad
experience, but he had a thoroughgoing distrust of Spain. This
was illustrated by such comments as "it is difficult to say when that
country was well governed, but surely the exhibition of ineptitude,
bigotry & tyranny which it now presents has no parallel.""
 The new minister had to wait two years, however, before his
acceptance by the court at Madrid. Onis had already waited three
times that long for recognition by the United States, and Spain
held out in insisting that their envoy be recognized first.
 ONfs Is ADMITTED
Onis, following his rejection, had taken up residence in Philadel-
phia, where he lived until 1817. He had with him his family, which
consisted of his wife (who became ill and died in 1818), his mother,
his two daughters," and his son. His summers were usually spent at
Bristol, some thirty-six miles up the Delaware from Philadelphia.
 During the War of 1812, as has been seen, he continued his va-
rious complaints to Monroe. He was also interested in schemes to
offset probable expansionist threats from the United States. One
interesting despatch presented a proposal which he had received
from Luis de Clouet, former Spanish consul at New Orleans, to
regain Louisiana by a threefold attack. This well-studied plan was
to employ from three to ten thousand men: two thousand cavalry
were to cross the Sabine, and the other two groups, of infantry,
were to be landed at the mouth of the Mississippi and at Lake Pont-
chartrain." Clouet later went to Spain to discuss the plan, but
nothing came of it.
 Just at the time of the discussion of this plan at Madrid, while
 Spain was in the midst of her effort to gain support at the Congres