90 University of California Publications in History

regarding the situation on Amelia and Galveston islands. Con-
cerning the President's speech, the Spaniard said:
S. you will see, finally, that [this government] does not attempt to hide
the fact that it take Indian land* and eneourages [white] settlement in ae-
cordanee with its plan of extending the limits of this Bepublie toward the
South, and then of realizing its great Project of reaching the Paciie Ocean.
I eonfem to you that I cannot comprehend how the Powers of Europe fail to
awaken from their lethargy on seeing the extraordinary steps of this Be-
publie, and how they can fail to se that it will be too late when they wish
to place limits on it, if they allow it to take the light on which its political
actions are rapidly leading it.*

 Inasmuch as a delay would still occur before the British sugges-
 tion of mediation could be made. Onis proceeded with plans for a
 detailed discussion of the territorial claims of the two Powers. He
 wrote asking for an appointment, and was requested to come to
 the State Department on December 18." In the interview the Span-
 ish minister said to Adams that he thought the proper procedure
 would be to discuss the respective titles to territory owned by the
 two governments and then to define the indemnifications due, en-
 abling them to decide what suitable equivalent Spain might accept
 for the Floridas, which the King had decided to cede." Adams
 headed off Onis' efforts to argue the boundary questions by stating
 that the United States had reached a decision in those matters, and
 that he simply wished to know if Onis had the powers to make
 further proposals. The Spanish minister then suggested that, since
 Spain's propositions had already been advanced and rejected, the
 United States should make a counteroffer. He hoped that the re-
 public would propose to cede its own territory, not Spain's, in
 exchange for the Floridas, alluding to previous projects advanced
 by the United States concerning the region west of the Mississippi.
 The two men then agreed that the spoliations and claims for
 damages growing out of the suspension of the right of deposit at
 New Orleans could be left to a claims commission. In this they
 evidenced their willingness to exclude those matters from the nego-
 tiations and to devote all the attention to the boundaries. And in
 fact such was the course of their subsequent dealings. The claims
 settlement was easily made, once an agreement was reached on
 the difficult territorial questions.
 Onis, in reporting this conversation, warned Pizarro of the