The new commanding general sent a force of mechanics and convicts in February, 1718, to clear the territory now occupied by the city of New Orleans, and to lay the foundations of a new settlement.[54] The channel at Dauphin Island having been blocked by a storm, the headquarters of the colony were removed, first to Old Biloxi, and afterward by order of the Company in 1719, to New Biloxi. During the fall of 1718 MM. Benard de la Harpe and Le Page du Pratz, whose names are associated with the annals of Louisiana, both arrived in the colony. The pages of the chroniclers of colonial events are now sprinkled with the names of ships which arrived with troops and emigrants, including young women from the hospitals and prisons of Paris. On the 6th of June, 1719, two vessels arrived direct from the coast of Guinea with “five hundred head of negroes.” The Company had entered with fervor upon the performance of the stipulation imposed by the charter. The news of the war between France and Spain reached the colony in the spring of 1719. The inconvenience of the roadsteads occupied by the French had made them anxious to possess Pensacola. Iberville had urged upon the Government the necessity of procuring its cession from Spain if possible. So forcible were his arguments that negotiations to that end had been opened by Pontchartrain. [Illustration: NOUVELLE ORLÉANS.[55]] Although the settlement had been neglected by the Spanish Government, yet the proposition to cede it to France was rejected with pompous arguments, in which the title of Spain was asserted as dating back to the famous Bull of Alexander VI., dividing the newly discovered portions of the world between Spain and Portugal.[56] Upon receipt of the news of hostility between the two nations, Bienville promptly availed himself of the opportunity to capture the place. [Illustration: _Plan de la_ Nouvelle Orleans _Capitale de la Louisiane_ [This is the “Plan de la Nouvelle Orléans” (1718-1720) in Dumont’s _Mémoires historiques de la Louisiane_, ii. 50, made by Le Blond de la Tour and Pauger. A plan signed by N. B[ellin] in 1744, “Sur les manuscrits du dépôt des chartes de la marine,” was included in Charlevoix’s _Nouvelle France_, ii. 433, and reproduced in Shea’s translation, vi. 40. In November, 1759, Jefferys published a “Plan of New Orleans, with the disposition of its quarters and canals as they have been traced by M. de la Tour in the year 1720.” He inserted this map (which included also a map of the lower Mississippi) in the _History of the French Dominion in America_ (London, 1760), and in the _General Topography of North America and West Indies_ (London, 1768).—ED.]]