62 University of California Publications in History

of Vienna and while the negotiations at Ghent were in progress,
came Erving's application for a passport. It is natural to presume
that part of the Spanish disinclination to receive him was based on
a desire to await the outcome of these enterprises.
 Onis was still not recognized, and there was no longer reason to
base this nonrecognition on the civil war in Spain. Monroe wrote
Erving in 1814 that Onis had made himself unacceptable to the
Washington government (by such anti-United States expressions
as were contained in his letter of 1810, which had been intercepted
and presented to Congress), but that, if it were particularly de-
sired that he remain, the objections might be waived "as an act of
courtesy to his government.'" In July, 1815, the same offer was
repeated, with the stipulation that Ferdinand "express a desire
that the Chevalier de Onis should be received," when "it will be
complied with in a spirit of accommodation with the wishes of
His Majesty."" The Spanish held out for a time, refusing to ask as
a special favor what they expected as a right, but finally yielded.
Accordingly, Monroe received Onis' credentials on December 19,
1815.
 Onis then began an active three and a half years of official serv-
ice, in which his zeal was certainly evident. The notes he wrote to
the United States government were multitudinous. And although
all Spanish officials were required to keep their copyists busy,
On!s must have been one of the more avid, for at times he com-
plained that even two copyists'could not meet his demands. The
volume of his despatches for his ten years' residence in this coun-
try is approximately ten thousand pages. Almost a third is of his
own composition; another third consists of various enclosures; and
the remaining bundles of papers are filled with drafts of replies,
decipherations, and notations." These comprise his correspondence
to the Spanish secretary of state alone, exclusive of regular com-
munication with consuls, other ministers and ambassadors, and
officials in Havana, Mexico, and even Peru.
 Among the various men who aided him as copyists, secretaries,
messengers, or secret agents, the most interesting are Joes Alvarez
de Toledo, the Mexican revolutionary leader who eventually be-
came a confidant and adviser of the minister, and a publicist named
Miguel Cabral de Norofia. The latter had incurred absolutist wrath
by his publication of a liberal paper in CAdiz, but after many ap-