But Quiroga apparently understood that the time had passed for a successful campaign to recover 33 Guale and Santa Elena. He now turned to negotiation. About a year after the [8/1686] raid, Bernardo de Medina, an officer of the garrison, accompanied by a friar, appeared at Charles Town. The negotiations that ensued were typical of a long series of futile border parleys.47 [Note 47: Historical Magazine, III. 298 f.: James Colleton to Quiroga, 1687 or 1688, original in Archives of the Indies, Seville; Brooks (comp.), Unwritten History, p. 145: royal orders regarding runaway slaves.] The Spanish denied that the late expedition had been commissioned to attack the English king's subjects in Carolina, and complained of the bad conduct of the Carolinians. In reply, Colleton had first to deny complicity in the pirate raids into Guale; he also disclaimed responsibility for the actions of the Yamasee, 'a people who live within our bounds after their own manner taking no notice of our Government.' He demanded the return of the slaves and plunder carried off in 1686, and proposed the regular delivery in the future of the fugitive slaves and servants, 'who run dayly into your towns.' With the development of the plantation regime in Carolina this grievance became increasingly serious, and furnished the theme of recurring protests to the Spaniards. Apparently the friar had instructions to persuade the Yamasee to return to Florida. A demand that they be sent back Colleton refused. Only war, he declared, could accomplish this, as they were confederated with a larger nation, the Lower Creeks. With this inconclusive diplomatic exchange, the conflict in the coastal region came, temporarily, to an end. The Spanish governor continued to assert the inclusive Spanish claims, and reported to Charles Town his orders from Spain 'not to lett the English come south of St. Georges.'48 But his hands were tied by the Anglo-Spanish partnership in the Grand Alliance, and even more by the weakness of Florida. 49 English traders continued to win over the Indian allies of the Spanish, or to reduce them to slavery.