80 University of California Publications in History

revival of that unratified agreement. The declaration was to be
made that Spain would assist the United States in appealing to
France for payment of the claims for spoliation by French cor-
sairs, but not that Spain herself was liable.
 With respect to limits, Pizarro's plan included the cession of
the Floridas to the United States, with the western boundary of
this nation being put at the Mississippi River from its source to its
mouth. Further, the scheme was to be contingent upon the ap-
proval of the Powers signatory to the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713,
which, Pizarro maintained, had guaranteed the integrity of Spain's
dominions as they stood before the death of King Charles II of
Spain (1700)."
 Pizarro, realizing that the United States would probably not
accept the Mississippi as a western limit, proposed an alternative
to his project, namely, to submit the whole affair to the mediation
of one or more Powers friendly to both nations.
 Erving replied that he could not consider such an agreement,
and offered some explanations, but said nothing of the mediation
plan." He professed ignorance of the new proofs of the Spanish
title to Texas as well as of the new claims of Spain for spoliations
since 1805 and declared the eighth article of the Treaty of Utrecht
no longer effective. Furthermore, he referred to the United States'
Neutrality Act of March 3, 1817, as fulfilling certain demands of
Pizarro on that point.
 Erving at that time wrote to his superior in Washington that he
thought Pizarro had offered an intentionally unacceptable pro-
posal in order to throw the affair into the mediation suggested as
an alternative." He told of a visit from Garay, the finance minister,
who asked that Erving propose something to Pizarro. He added
that Garay and the secretario de estado were conciliatory them-
selves, but seemed to be bound by opposition in the Cabinet. With
respect to possibilities for the mediation, Erving thought that Eng-
land and Russia were the Powers which Spain depended on chiefly,
and that the latter was the more influential because of the strength
of its minister Tatistcheff in the camarilla (inner council, or
"kitchen cabinet").