Events were now to occur that would affect the Wilderness more than anything which up to this time had taken place. Spain in 1800 secretly transferred to France the great region called Louisiana, the Spaniards to remain in possession till such time as it pleased France to assume direction of the territory. About two years passed before this transfer was published, and meanwhile, though Napoleon had contemplated putting a large army there, circumstances interfered. Having had an agreement with the United States by which the latter were permitted to use New Orleans as a port of deposit, Spain reversed this, and the relations between these countries were thenceforward not the pleasantest. Spain declined to renew this privilege on the ground that the country belonged to France and she had no right to do it. Thereupon the American Government endeavoured to purchase the lands on the east at the mouth of the river, West Florida and New Orleans, and Napoleon, evidently discovering that he would be unable to carry out his plans with regard to Louisiana, and notwithstanding his solemn pledge to Spain that he would never part with it, offered the whole to the United States. The offer was accepted, and the sum of fifteen million dollars was finally agreed upon as the purchase price. Communication was slow; events were rapid; so that Lussat, who had been sent as French Governor to New Orleans, to accept the territory from Spain, received instructions that, instead of holding it, he was to transfer it to the Americans. No one was more surprised or chagrined than the French representative. Spain protested that the transfer was not in conformity with the French agreement, but it availed nothing, and the Spaniards at first were inclined to refuse to give up the land. But on the 30th of November, 1803, Louisiana was formally surrendered by Spain to France and twenty days later France gave possession to the United States. Next to the Revolutionary War, the acquisition of this vast region was the most important occurrence in the life of the Americans. Yet it was a veritable "pig in a poke" which they bought, for not only were its bounds undetermined, except on the east, where it met the Republic, but the character of the domain, for the most part, as is evident from the preceding pages, was entirely unknown. Yet by this purchase the mouth of the Mississippi was permanently secured to the American people, and this was an object of paramount importance; the nature of the Wilderness was secondary. On the part of the Americans there had been a growing impulse to investigate the great wild realm that so invitingly rolled away from their very feet, and had the purchase not been consummated it is probable they would nevertheless soon have passed over into the forbidden land.[61] A vast amount of future difficulty and war, for it takes as little to start a disastrous war among the whites as ever it did among the Amerinds, was permanently avoided.

The acquisition, indeed, was a boundless area. The very first thing to be accomplished was to gain some knowledge of its limits and possibilities. As for limits, it had, as noted, but vague ones, yet on all maps showing the territory purchased at this time the lines delimiting it, which were arrived at only after years of diplomatic discussion, are presented as though they had existence at the moment of purchase and had been measured off like a town lot. As originally ceded by France to Spain and again by Spain to France there were no defined limits whatever other than the Mississippi River on the east, though France claimed to the Rio Grande. The United States acquired the same hazy demarkation. The map on [page 154] shows in the dotted portion what the claims were at the time of purchase, in 1803, as well as the defined boundaries that eventually were established.

THE WILDERNESS SHOWING AMERICAN ACQUISITIONS

[View larger image]

The Spanish claims ran up the western side of the continent indefinitely, and thence eastward indefinitely. Great Britain considered as belonging to her everything west, south, and north of Winnipeg Lake indefinitely, and everything east, north, and south from Nootka Sound indefinitely. Russia thought that the continent from Bering Strait down to the Columbia River and eastward indefinitely belonged to her, while the United States on their part believed the Louisiana they had taken off Napoleon's hands extended to the Rio Grande on the south-west; and on the west and north-west, and on the north as well, to an undefined distance. The task was now to fit these indefinite bounds against each other, and it was a task that consumed years of diplomacy. In pursuance of this design, President Jefferson projected an expedition which was to traverse the continent where no white men as yet had penetrated—the region of the Columbia. It was destined to take a first place among the explorations of the New World, and to weld into one the names of two admirable men, and this indelibly into the fabric of American history.

The Spanish sentinel had challenged, but the challenge was unheeded. He was obliged to step back; and other backward steps were in store for him.