142 University of California Publications in History

 "I was roused from bed," wrote Adams in his diary on July 7,
"by a servant from the Spanish Minister Onis, who brought me a
note from him ... asking for an interview as soon as possible upon
objects of the highest importance to Spain and to the United
States."" Onis had come posthaste from Bristol on receipt of defi-
nite reports that Pensacola had fallen to the "Napoleon of the
woods" (as Hyde de Neuville once characterized Jackson)." In the
conference, as well as in a note written the following day, he
vehemently protested the seizure and demanded the restitution of
the Spanish towns." The Spaniard stayed in Washington six days,
long enough for three conversations with Adams, and long enough
to send complaining notes on the affair to all the other foreign
representatives.
 Despite the border complications, the two principals endeavored
to work out treaty provisions. In discussing possible boundary
delineations, they used the map of the United States prepared by
John Melish. Onis at the time called it "a map prepared at the order
of this Government to sustain its pretensions.'" The charge seems
to have been groundless. Melish was a Scotch geographer and com-
mercial map maker, who had made his home in the United States
and won repute as a fair, unbiased, and reasonably accurate au-
thority. His map showed physical features as completely as any
then available, and the fact that it was accepted as a basis for a
treaty might well be interpreted as one indication of its merit. In
long conferences over it, Onis urged the Arroyo Hondo as the
proper Louisiana-Texas limit, whereas Adams pointed to the Colo-
rado River as the last concession which the United States would
make.
 When Adams suggested the innovation of drawing a boundary
to the Pacific Ocean from the head of the Missouri, Onis evaded
the issue by opening a verbose discussion of titles on that coast,
based on vague information. But the conversation is highly sig-
nificant as marking the first pronouncement of the idea which was
Adams' most original contribution to what he termed his greatest
diplomatic accomplishment-the idea of a transcontinental bound-
ary agreement.
 The Spanish minister was sufficiently worried at this time to
advise his government that it would be wise to come to a settlement
on any basis obtainable. He declared that it would be impossible