His patient proved to be Don Jaime Urrea, and the rich Mexican grandee conceived a warm friendship for the young physician.
At that very time, France had just ceded to the United States the territory of Louisiana, and its western boundary was a subject about which Americans were then angrily disputing.

They asserted that it was the Rio Grande; but Spain, who naturally did not want Americans so near her own territory, denied the claim, and made the Sabine River the dividing line.

And as Spain had been the original possessor of Louisiana, she considered herself authority on the subject.
The question was on every tongue, and it was but natural that it should be discussed by Urrea and his physician.

In fact, they talked continually of the disputed boundary, and of Mexico.

And Mexico was then a name to conjure by.