The discontent of the Western settlers with regard to the free navigation of the Mississippi had reached an acute stage; the French minister to the United States had come armed with instructions to secure the co-operation of trans-Allegheny Americans for a raid upon the Spanish territory of Louisiana, aimed to recover that province for the power to which it had formerly belonged, and make it a basis for revolutionary movements in Canada, the West Indies, and ultimately all Spanish America.[2] This minister arrived in Charleston in February, 1793, and selected Michaux as his agent to communicate with the Kentucky leaders. An ardent republican, already in the pay of the French government, and friendly with influential men in government circles, Michaux seemed a most desirable as well as the most available agent possible. One characteristic was not, however, sufficiently considered. Whatever may have been his interest in the intrigue, whatever accounts thereof are through caution or prudence omitted from the journal here printed, one fact is evident--that Michaux was chiefly devoted to the cause of science; these pages reveal that a rare plant or new tree interested him much more than an American general or a plot to subvert Spanish tyranny. His first Kentucky journey was, from the point of view of the diplomats, but moderately successful. With the collapse of the enterprise--due to the imprudence of Genet, the firmness of Washington, the growing loyalty of the Westerners to the new federal government, and the change of leaders in France--Michaux returned to botanical pursuits, and his later journeys appear to have been undertaken solely in order to herborize. There are, however, some slight indications in the text that he entertained hope of continuing the enterprise, and of its ultimate success. His inquiries, in the Cumberland, for guides for the Missouri expedition, prove that he had by no means abandoned his purpose of undertaking that hazardous project. But these long Western journeys had exhausted his resources; for seven years he had had no remittance from the French government, and was now under the necessity of returning to Europe to attend to his affairs. Accordingly in 1796 he embarked for France, and was shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, losing part of his collections; but his herbarium was preserved, and is now in the Musée de Paris. He ardently desired to be sent back to America; but his government offered him no encouragement, and finally he accepted a post upon an expedition to New Holland, and in November, 1802, died of fever upon the island of Madagascar.