Since the beginning of hostilities between the British and their American subjects, Spanish governors in New Orleans assisted the American rebels with weapons and ammunition. Along with his appointment as the new commander of St. Louis, Fernando de Leyba was instructed to abet any rebel Americans in British territory and recruit Catholics living in British territory to move to St. Louis. Upon his arrival in St. Louis, Leyba invited George Rogers Clark, an American colonel who was leading the Illinois campaign and had recently captured the town of Kaskaskia, to a two-day banquet and reception in his honor. Leyba also encouraged St. Louis merchants to supply Clark's forces with weapons and provided guarantees of credit for Clark.