William B. Shields, the Mississippi-based U.S. agent in charge of investigating land claims in areas south of Tennessee, wrote to Gallatin on 29 Sep. and apparently requested copies of Spanish records in New Orleans. In a letter of 5 Nov., Gallatin informed Shields that the administration had requested Claiborne’s cooperation and limited Shields to $200 for transcriptions of the records. Claiborne enclosed extracts of the requested records in a letter of 10 May 1805 to Shields (Terr. Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter and John Porter Bloom, eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1934-75, 28 vols. description ends , 5:327-8, 341, 345; Rowland, Claiborne Letter Books description begins Dunbar Rowland, ed., The Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, 1801-1816, Jackson, Miss., 1917, 6 vols. description ends , 3:52).