Before the close of that year the Spaniards had captured Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. By these conquests the Spaniards had extended the north boundary of West Florida from the thirty-first parallel to the mouth of the Yazoo. The territory between these boundaries, from the Mississippi to Chattahoochee, remained a matter of contention between Spain and the United States to 1795. Spain had little intention of standing by her stipulations in that matter. Benevolence has no place in the relations between nations.
Interest alone dictates their actions.
The old monarchies of Europe were none too well pleased with the erection of a republic in North America. The attitude of the British Government toward the United States was always reprehensible down to the close of the Civil War. Of this condition she took every advantage, hoping to bring about the dismemberment of the young republic. At the close of the war for Independence the Americans poured over the Alleghenies in ever increasing numbers. Boone, Kenton, Robertson, Sevier and other explorers and settlers had blazed the way.