Note 5 — MATTA’S REPORT, 1843

The Spanish government decided to aid France against England, and declared war against the latter power in June, 1779. The Spaniards aided the Americans against the British in Florida and Mississippi, and in March, 1780, captured Mobile. Martin A. S. Hume says in Modern Spain (New York, 1900), p. 6: “As Aranda himself foresaw, and set forth in a most remarkable prophecy, the aid lent by Spain to the revolt of the English North American Colonies formed a dangerous precedent for the separation of her own colonial dominions, and promoted the establishment of a great Anglo-Saxon republic in America, which in time to come should oust Spain from her last foothold in the New World. ‘This new federal republic,’ wrote Aranda to Floridablanca, ‘is, so to speak, born a mere pigmy, and has needed the support of two powerful nations like France and Spain to win its independence. But the day will come when it will grow into a giant, a terrible Colossus. It will then forget the benefits it has received, and think only of its own aggrandizement.’ ” ↑