138 University of California Publications in History

the boundary, another scheme which had been discussed many
years before. Pizarro accepted the plan of a no-man's land, but con-
troversy ensued over its location.
 In July Erving became worried by reports that the prohibition
on the sale of the lands granted to the court favorites had been
removed. He wrote Pizarro warning him that the supposition
might be made that, having mollified the United States by ratifica-
tion of the convention, Spain felt free to proceed with alienation
of the lands. He restated the expectation which his country natu-
rally held of being able to sell the unoccupied lands in order to meet
the claims as adjudicated. Pizarro replied in a manner tending to
reassure Erving, but he did not state specifically whether or not
the prohibition remained in force."
 These futile negotiations ended when further news of Jackson's
enterprise reached Madrid. On August 6 Pizarro wrote Erving of
the capture of St. Marks, a Spanish post, by United States troops,
who charged that its officials had aided the Indians. Five days
later, Pizarro vehemently protested Jackson's seizure of the capital
of West Florida, Pensacola. The secretario demanded restitution,
and conditioned any agreement with Ervingon a previous restora-
tion of the seized territory. On the twenty-ninth the American
minister received a note suspending negotiations until satisfaction
should be had for the peacetime invasion of the Floridas." Copies
of the letter were sent to the leading governments of Europe.
 Erving replied with a withdrawal of his offer of a thirty-league
desert on the boundary, and with that note he ended direct nego-
tiations at Madrid on the whole affair. Erving's only subsequent
contributions to the Adams-Onis Treaty were bits of information
on developments at the Spanish capital. He was recalled before the
argument over ratification arose. But the remarks which he made
to Adams on his dealings with Pizarro in 1818 merit attention.
 Erving believed that the pressure applied by such events as
Jackson's maneuver would provide the only means of forcing
Spain to come to an agreement." In his estimation it would have
been possible to reach a settlement which included the Colorado as
a boundary had the decision been left to Pizarro. This opinion is
supported in Pizarro's letter to Onis emphasizing the need for con-
cessions. But Erving realized, as Pizarro himself stated, that the
secretario was overruled in the councils of state.