Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands 85

cid6 was adopted, though Pizarro in his Memorias says he pre-
ferred the first and second. Accordingly, in his note of August
17, 1817, already referred to, that minister offered Erving the
project of a treaty. It was not accepted Apparently Pizarro's de-
sign was not to submit an intentionally unacceptable plan, but he
at least welcomed the resulting delay, which allowed him to sound
out England and France.
 ONfs' NEw PROBLEMS
Immediately upon the failure of Pizarro's approach to Erving, a
session of the Consejo de Estado was held, from which resulted new
instructions for Onis. They became the basis of his first dealings
with Adams when he met the new secretary of state in Washington
in December of that.year.
 The Consejo agreed, on August 27, that Onis should be instructed
to advance at Washington essentially the same proposal made to
Erving, that is, he was to offer the cession of the Floridas (contin-
gent upon approval of England in accordance with the Treaty of
Utrecht) in exchange for acceptance of the Mississippi as the west-
ern limit of the United States." Simultaneously he was to suggest
as an alternative an appeal to the good offices or mediation of two
or more friendly Powers.
 Furthermore, a complete survey of the situation was made and
a policy agreed upon which was to be followed if the United States
rejected the plan. Onis was to advance as his own ideas the fourth,
fifth, and sixth possible arrangements of the Heredia Ezposicien,
but if any of them was agreed upon he must sign it sub spe rati
only." The all-important aim was to keep the negotiation open,
trying by magnanimous dealings and by propaganda to dispel anti-
Spanish sentiment in the United States. Onis was thus to ward off
a breach of relations, or, what would be worse, open aid by the
United States to the Spanish American insurgents, or perhaps
even a declaration of war.
 Special importance attaches to the date of these first instructions
to Onis for the cession of the Floridas. After they were sent, Ferdi-
nand made certain notorious land grants in that area which would
seriously have embarrassed the United States. Their validity be-
came a major issue later between the two countries. However, the
chronology of Spanish diplomacy at this time appears to convict