Then Wilkerson explained carelessly that they were his, going to New Orleans, and that he had on them some trifling things like butter and eggs and tobacco for his Majesty’s people there, and he hoped they might be allowed to pass on.
The Don looked at the boats and he looked at the officer and then he looked long and lovingly at the horses—and they won, by a neck. He waved his hand to the officer and said:
“Let them pass. Let them report to Miro, at New Orleans.”
And so Wilkerson and his horses won, and for the first time an American cargo went down the great river unmolested.
At New Orleans Wilkerson played a different game. He tried to wheedle and frighten the Spanish commander by turns. He told him he could bring enough riflemen there to wipe out Spain’s troops, but that in reality the Westerners were tired of the Republic and would go under the protection of Spain if the latter showed them any favors, such as opening up the river to their trade, and thus playing on Spain’s fear, credulity, vanity and ambitions, he accomplished his purpose, finally ending in Spain opening up the river, and later, from fear, selling out the last remnant of her once mighty empire of virgin land in the North American country.
But it was Wilkerson and his Kentucky geldings that did it, after John Jay and Congress had failed.
(Continued.)
A New Industry in the South—Tea Raising in Texas.