George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

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Chapter 38:

The King and the British Parliament against the Town of Boston.—Hillsborough's Administration of the Colo-Nies continued.

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October—December, 1768.

Spain valued Louisiana as a screen for Mexico;

Chap. XXXVIII.} 1768. Oct.

and England, in her turn, held the valley of the Mississippi from jealousy of France, not to colonize it. To the great joy of Spain,¹ and in conformity to a policy,² against which the advice³ of Shelburne could not prevail, every idea of settling the country was opposed; and every post between Mobile and Fort Chartres was abandoned; John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, who this year passed through Kentucky,⁴ found not one white man's cabin in all the enchanting wilderness. Gage would have even given up Fort Chartres, and as a consequence the intermediate Pittsburg.⁵

It was Hillsborough's purpose to prevent colonization,⁶