Hon. SECRETARY OF STATE.
* * * * *
DARLING’S CREEK, November 8, 1798.
SIR: On the 10th of last month, having opened the boundary
between the United States and His Catholic Majesty, from the
Mississippi River to the thin pine country, we ceased carrying
the line on in that accurate scientific manner in which it was
begun, and from the end of the line, designated in the report
which accompanies this, the work will generally be done with
a common surveying compass, and corrected at the different
navigable water-courses which it may happen to cross.
The line mentioned in the report is opened sixty feet wide, and
passes through a country impenetrable to any but Americans. The
labor has been equal to what would in our country have opened
at least one hundred miles. The business, it is evident, will
not go on with that rapidity we could wish; nothing, however,
will be wanting on our part, and I think it will be completed
the ensuing season. Governor Gayoso has evidently been brought
into a co-operation very reluctantly, and certainly has no
desire of having it pushed. Mr. Power, a gentleman well known
for his intrigues in Kentucky and other parts of the United
States, is the surveyor on the part of the Crown of Spain; he
has attended but one week on the line, and I do not believe
that he will attend another, during the execution of the work.
He has, however, employed a deputy, who is Mr. Daniel Burnet,
the same person who carried Mr. Hutchins’s papers to Congress
last winter; he has yet behaved very well. The others employed,
Major Minor excepted, are of little consequence, except to
disorganize and talk politics. The acting commissary is a Mr.
Gensack; he was taken by the British at the Cape, and carried
to Jamaica, from whence he made his escape to the United
States, where he found safety, but, in the true character of
his nation, he equally hates both Americans and British: he
is sullen, reserved, and intriguing. There are no Spaniards
concerned in the business, and but a few of the common
soldiers. Major Minor and Mr. Burnet are Americans; the others,
including the laborers, are generally French, or descended from
French ancestors, or Roman Catholic Irish. When I look over
this strange heterogeneous collection, I cannot help asking
this question: “Can the Spaniards really be serious in carrying
the treaty into effect?” If they are, it is very extraordinary
that there is not one of that nation employed above the rank of
a common soldier.
I have always been of opinion that it was a happy circumstance
for both countries that Major Minor was appointed Commissioner
on behalf of the Crown of Spain; his prudence and sound
judgment will, in all probability, enable us to carry the work
through, which I am confident would not have been the case,
had Mr. Power been appointed to that trust, as was proposed by
Governor Gayoso, and to which I pointedly objected, as did Mr.
Dunbar also.
If our surveyor had been a man of prudence and talents, our
difficulties would have been much less; but his want of
information, extreme pride and ungovernable temper, constantly
furnish the opposite party with weapons. He has insinuated
that the work is erroneous, and that Major Minor and myself
have combined to injure both Governments, and wantonly lavish
away public money. He himself has been the only idle person
on the side of the United States; his whole attendance on the
line as surveyor would not exceed one week. His insinuations,
I am confident, would have but little weight with the people
of the United States, but the case is very different with
the Spaniards, naturally jealous, and uninformed in science,
particularly so far as it relates to astronomical operations.
On Friday, the 12th of last month, General Wilkinson arrived
at our camp, and continued with us until Sunday, the 14th.
We had much conversation on the state and situation of the
country; his ideas respecting both appeared very correct so
far as I was able to determine. He informed me that he had
seen some of Mr. Freeman’s correspondence with Captain Guion,
which, in his opinion, came fully within the meaning of the
late sedition law; and recommended, in the most serious manner,
that he should be immediately suspended from his employment
on the line. This, added to the opinion of Governor Sargent,
(who spent a number of days at our camp,) Colonel Bruin, and
many other respectable gentlemen, determined me in taking that
measure. The surveying at present is done by Mr. Gillespie,
the chain-carrying by Mr. Ellicott and Mr. Walker. General
Wilkinson has removed Mr. McClary from the command of my
escort; his conduct was far less exceptionable than that of Mr.
Freeman, and when he did err it was generally the effect of bad
advice.
Mr. Freeman left our camp on the 30th September, at the very
time we were changing our system of carrying on the work, and
in which the compass only is used, without giving me any notice
of his departure, that arrangements might be made to meet the
want of a surveyor. He was absent until the evening of the 17th
ultimo, and on the morning of the 18th he was furnished with a
note of suspension. He has constantly conducted himself in that
same independent way.
The reference, No. 9, which was in cipher, in my communication
of the 14th of November last, contained an account of an
extraordinary plan; but that plan, in my opinion, is now given
over, and the knowledge obtained of the country, its strength,
and the disposition of the inhabitants, will be turned to
the advantage of the United States by some of the principal
characters concerned. It is the best they can now do. That
the plan is given over may be collected from No. 1, which for
particular reasons is in cipher, and ought to be secret. It
cannot be considered as a literal translation, which you will
see by the introduction, but it conveys accurately the ideas
contained in the letter from which it is extracted.
The plan of Baron de Carondelet, mentioned in my communication
of 27th of June last year, was correct as there stated; the
particulars I have since obtained, and will be detailed to you
by a gentleman, in the course of a few months, who was in the
secret of the whole business. That you may not be at a loss
when that gentleman calls upon you, he will have a letter of
introduction from me, with an official communication, and a
number of questions in the same cipher with reference to No.
1. His answers to those questions will convince you that my
information has constantly been correct.
I shall leave this place (where I have only halted to draw
up this communication) to-morrow, and proceed to the Pearl
River, where the guide line will be corrected. I shall then
proceed down the river to Lake Maurepas, from thence into
Lake Pontchartrain and to New Orleans, where I expect to
arrive about the 1st of January next. From New Orleans I shall
follow the coast to Mobile, and again correct the guide line
as run by the surveyors. From Mobile I shall follow the coast
to Pensacola; I shall pursue the coast to the Chatetucka,
and ascend the river to the guide line; as soon as that is
corrected, I shall proceed to the mouth of Flint River and from
thence to St. Mary’s.
You will easily perceive that my design in following the coast
is to obtain an accurate knowledge of its situation, the
navigation of the different rivers we shall have to ascend,
and to correct the geographical positions where it may be
necessary. My map of the Mississippi, corrected by a great
number of observations, is now made out in the rough, and
ready for copying.
The astronomical observations which I have made since I
left Philadelphia, will make a large and not uninteresting
publication.
Our business now goes on with the greatest harmony. That part
near the coast, in which, as an American and friend to my
country, I feel myself the most interested, will be nearly
completed before Mr. Freeman can join us, if the President
should disapprove of the measures which have been taken with
him; and in that case I must request the favor of being
permitted to return home. All that his friend General Mathews,
Colonel Pannell, and a few others, can say of him, must be
negative evidence; they may say what he has done; but what
they say he has done in forwarding our business must be from
his own report. They have not been visitors at our camp, where
the only information founded upon facts could be had. He has
not made a single observation since we came into this country,
though he endeavored, after my course at the beginning of the
line was furnished, one whole week without success. He is,
nevertheless, by General Mathews and Colonel Pannell, declared
not inferior to Newton! This is not strange; they may possibly
have less scientific knowledge than he has, and the solemn
air and dictatorial manner of a professional schoolmaster may
have contributed much to establish his character with them.
His abuse of me I disregarded, till his caballing got into
the camp; the consequences then became more serious, and the
measure which I took was founded upon the best of motives--the
service of my country, _and I have but one_, added to a
natural desire to live in peace with all mankind. I have but
few observations to add to the depositions respecting his
conduct which are forwarded with this. Mr. Robins, one of the
deponents, is superintendent of the laborers, and always with
them. Mr. Collins, another of the deponents, is as worthy a man
as any in the United States, and assistant to Mr. Anderson; he
constantly resides in the laborers’ camp. Mr. Lindsey likewise
resides in the camp; he is a gentleman of veracity, and agent
for the contractor. These gentlemen have been with us from the
commencement of the business to the present time, and perfectly
acquainted with the conduct of Mr. Freeman, and superior to his
art, which he frequently exerted with them in vain. Similar
depositions to those forwarded might be obtained from the
gentlemen of the Spanish camp, but it appeared to me improper.
You will see I have omitted taking those of Mr. Gillespie and
the chain-bearers; it might be said they were interested. And,
as Mr. Anderson has been equally abused with myself, on that
account his has not been taken. You will see by the depositions
that I rise early: it is generally before the break of day;
from that time until dark I rarely sit down one hour; after
candle-light I am generally engaged until 10 o’clock in writing
and arranging my observations.
I hope the citizens of the United States begin by this time
to be weaned from their attachment to the French nation. For
my part I have experienced so much want of principle and
integrity among them, and their partisans in this country, both
individually and collectively, that my prejudices against the
whole nation are so strong, that it is with difficulty I can
guard my expressions so as not to give offence.
The arrival of General Wilkinson has created considerable alarm
in the Spanish colonies below, and Governor Gayoso has directed
that the militia within his Government he immediately armed.
The fears and jealousies of the Spanish nation will certainly,
in the course of a few years, occasion the loss of all the
country on this side of the Mississippi, to the Crown of Spain.
The whole of my correspondence on various subjects, since
my communication of the 29th of July last, would make a
large volume, and as there is but little of it immediately
interesting to the United States, I shall only refer you to
Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5.
I am sensible you will perceive a great want of arrangement in
this communication; but at the same time I am equally so that
you will excuse it, when I assure you that the whole packet,
except Mr. Clark’s letters and the correspondence with Governor
Gayoso, is the work only of two nights and one day, and that in
the woods, without any other table than a small instrument box,
the weather cold and windy, and all my young men who used to
aid me in copying many miles ahead on the line.
I am sorry that the report mentioned in the beginning of this
is not forwarded; my part has been done some time, but the
Spanish part is not yet ready, owing to the absence of Mr.
Power. I shall write to you again from New Orleans. In the mean
time, believe me to be, &c.