But while it is true that by the treaty of 1782 Great Britain thus acknowledged the south boundary of her revolted colonies as the line of 31°, it is not less true that she did not then own so far south. Spain, who was in possession, recognized the boundary through the Yazoo mouth, and, in fact, Great Britain in this treaty proposed to do the same thing if she re-acquired West Florida. Walnut Hills and Natchez on the Mississippi, Fort Confederation and Fort St. Stephen on the Tombigbee were strong Spanish posts and all above 31°. The all-conquering Galvez was governor-general for a year after that treaty and would certainly have maintained the Spanish rights by force of arms if necessary. But his successor, the politic Miro, lived to see a rapid American growth west of the mountains, and the death of the active King Charles III. and the French Revolution wrought a change in Europe. The weak Charles IV. let his wife and her notorious paramour, Godoy, rule Spain.[144] It so happened that French successes led to peace, but Godoy thought that Spain would soon be at war with England and that therefore peace with the United States was important for Spanish-America. At all events he suddenly assented to the demands of Thomas Pinckney, the American envoy, and on October 27, 1795, signed a treaty whose second article declared 31° as the boundary from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee, and thence east by a line from the junction of the Flint and Chattahoochee to the head of the St. Mary's River. The colonial authorities could never believe this agreement _bona fide_ and sought by delay to give the court a chance to undo the treaty. In 1797 the Spanish minister declared the United States guilty of bad faith in making friends with England by Jay's treaty. A commissioner to run the line had to be as much of a diplomat as of a surveyor. Such, at least, was the opinion of Andrew Ellicott, whom President Washington in the last part of 1796 sent by way of the Ohio and Mississippi to act for the United States. Baron de Carondelet, the governor general, was to represent Spain. Ellicott arrived at Natchez on February 24, 1797, and until he left on April 9, 1798,[145] his time was taken up in negotiations with commandant Gayoso de Lemos or encouraging the dissatisfied citizens there to claim the rights of Americans.[146] Among the prominent men there named by Ellicott were those on the revolutionary committees,--Anthony Hutchins, Bernard Lintot, Cato West, Isaac Gaillard, William Ratliff, Joseph Bernard, Gabriel Benoist, Peter B. Bruin, Daniel Clark, Philander Smith and Roger Dixon.