The fame of Sevier's martial exploits and of his bold stroke for independence had long since gone abroad, astounding even so famous an advocate of liberty as Patrick Henry and winning the sympathy of the Continental Congress. One of the most interested observers of the progress of affairs in the State of Franklin was Don Diego de Gardoqui, who had come to America in the spring of 1785, bearing a commission to the American Congress as Spanish chargé d'affaires (Encargados de Negocios) to the United States. In the course of his negotiations with Jay concerning the right of navigation of the Mississippi River, which Spain denied to the Americans, Gardoqui was not long in discovering the violent resentment of the Western frontiersmen, provoked by Jay's crass blunder in proposing that the American republic, in return for reciprocal foreign advantages offered by Spain, should waive for twenty-five years her right to navigate the Mississippi. The Cumberland traders had already felt the heavy hand of Spain in the confiscation of their goods at Natchez; but thus far the leaders of the Tennessee frontiersmen had prudently restrained the more turbulent agitators against the Spanish policy, fearing lest the spirit of retaliation, once aroused, might know no bounds. Throughout the entire region of the trans-Alleghany, a feeling of discontent and unrest prevailed--quite as much the result of dissatisfaction with the central government which permitted the wholesale restraint of trade, as of resentment against the domination of Spain. No sooner had the shrewd and watchful Gardoqui, who was eager to utilize the separatist sentiment of the western settlements in the interest of his country, learned of Sevier's armed insurrection against the authority of North Carolina than he despatched an emissary to sound the leading men of Franklin and the Cumberland settlements in regard to an alliance. This secret emissary was Dr. James White, who had been appointed by the United States Government as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern Department on November 29, 1786. Reporting as instructed to Don Estevan Miró, governor of Louisiana, White, the corrupt tool of Spain, stated concerning his confidential mission that the leaders of "Frankland" and "Cumberland district" had "eagerly accepted the conditions" laid down by Gardoqui: to take the oath of allegiance to Spain, and to renounce all submission or allegiance whatever to any other sovereign or power. Satisfied by the secret advices received, the Spanish minister reported to the home authorities his confident belief that the Tennessee backwoodsmen, if diplomatically handled, would readily throw in their lot with Spain. [214]