Instead of discussing "false and idle punctilios" of speculation, lets look at the political climate of the time period of 1795 to the signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty.
Spanish territory in North America in 1783 extended from Florida and the land west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish government controlled the Mississippi port of New Orleans, and would not give the United States access, or the free navigation of the Mississippi. This was resolved with the 1795 Pinckney Treaty with Spain.
n 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte forced Spain to cede the Louisiana Territory to France, with Spain retaining Florida and the Southwest territories to the Pacific.
After Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase, Spain began to see the encroachment of the United States on their remaining claimed property's rich resources.
In 1810 and 1813, the United States the area of Spanish West Florida, and the Spanish government responded by forbidding Anglo-American intrusion in their remaining claimed territory, arresting, detaining, and at times, executing the American trespassers. This was the political climate during the time of the alleged Beale expedition as related in the job pamphlet. With the time involved in the mining of the gold and silver, it is highly unlikely that it would have gone unnoticed by the authorities in Santa Fe.
What is curious, as Bigscoop has pointed out, is that Beale Bedford county treasure deposit dates in the job pamphlet, coincide with the signing and ratifying dates of the Adams-Onis Treaty.
