Pitt and Grenville had early foreseen trouble ahead with Spain on the subject of the West Indies. When affairs at Toulon were causing friction, Grenville instructed Lord St. Helens, British ambassador at Madrid, to urge that Court to secure the hoped-for indemnities in the French districts north of the Pyrenees. As for England, she had in view Hayti and certain of the French Leeward Islands. This plan, continued Grenville, could not offend Spain, seeing that the Haytian or western part of San Domingo fronted Jamaica and fell naturally to the Power holding that island. But, as the Court of Madrid was known to cherish desires for a part of Hayti, St. Helens must endeavour to ascertain their extent so as to come to a friendly compromise.[381] The Spanish Government, at that time incensed by the quarrels at Toulon, vouchsafed no reply to these courteous overtures. They were renewed during the year 1794, but with no better result. Meanwhile, Don Garcia, the Spanish Governor of San Domingo sought to pour oil on the flames of civil strife. He allowed the bands of negroes to retire into the Spanish districts, and replenish their stores. In fact, his conduct was so openly hostile to England, that on 11th November 1794 Grenville instructed Jackson, British _charge d'affaires_ at Madrid, to demand the recall of that arrogant official.[382] Charmilly also averred that the brigands often sallied forth from Spanish territory to ravage the western districts.[383] Other facts point in the same direction. Whence could the Republicans and their black allies have gained supplies of arms and ammunition but from the Spaniards? The survey of the British over the western coasts was close enough to bar those supplies, at least in the quantities that the negroes demanded. In truth, the enigmas of the Hayti affair can be solved only by delving in the Spanish archives. The whole question is closely connected with the extraordinary change that came over Anglo-Spanish relations in the years 1795-6, a topic which will be treated in the following chapter. FOOTNOTES: [363] See "Eng. Hist. Rev.," October 1909. [364] "Dropmore P.," ii, 395, 438, 443, 444, 464. [365] Pitt MSS., 349. [366] Pitt MSS., 121. [367] "F. O.," France, 40. [368] Malouet, "Mems.," ii, 209-11; Morse Stephens, "French Rev.," ii, 481-4; "Dropmore P.," ii, 388. [369] Fortescue, iv, pt. i, 77, 78. [370] "Dropmore P.," ii, 402, 403. [371] Pitt MSS., 349. [372] Pitt MSS., 155, 349. In the latter packet is Malouet's letter of 10th March 1793 from Kingston, Jamaica, to M. Franklyn at London, dwelling on the woes of San Domingo and Martinique--all due to the folly and wickedness of one man, probably Brissot. He despairs of the French West Indies. See, too, "Dropmore P.," ii, 388. [373] Pitt MSS., 349. [374] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 586.