European Americans renamed the settlement New Madrid in about 1780 under the auspices of Spanish Governor Bernardo de Gálvez, who was appointed to rule Spanish Louisiana (the land west of the Mississippi River), and Manuel Pérez, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana in Saint Louis. They welcomed settlers from the United States, but required them to become citizens of Spain. In addition, they had to agree to live under the guidance of his appointed empresario, Colonel George Morgan, an American Revolutionary War veteran from New Jersey. Morgan recruited a number of American families to settle at New Madrid, attracting a few hundred people to the region. Settlement in the 1790s and early 1800s remained relatively low due to the physical geography of New Madrid and its hinterlands. The Mississippi frequently washed away the town's river banks, and a Spanish fort was washed away. Surrounded by low, swampy land, New Madrid developed a well-earned reputation for illnesses, especially in the summer and fall. Spanish censuses taken in the late 1790s recorded around 800 residents at the village of New Madrid. New Madrid continued to operate as a site of exchange between Native Americans in the St. Francis River Valley and European American traders operating out of New Madrid.