The Nootka Sound Controversy

NS AT NOOTKA BEFORE

ll the coast. Just ten days before this[83] Colnett had sailed from China with instructions and equipment to make it, an English port.[84] During the next two months, while the Englishman was crossing the Pacific, the Spaniard was making good use of the time. When the latter reached Nootka there seems to have b

ins, who had spent the winter of 1788-89 at Nootka, declared that when Martinez arrived there was no trace of Meares's house in the cove; that there had been a house, or rather a hut, when they arrived in the fall, b

me indirect evidence to support their statement, and its value is the greater because of its being indirect, and still greater because it comes from the side of the English to whose interest it would have been to maintain the contrary. This appears in the extract w

of the Iphigenia in the preceding autumn is silent on the subject. In fact, there is no statement made even in Meares's memorial that his house was still standing; but the memorial is so written, doubtless intentionally, that the casual reader would infer that the house was still there and that evi

as little better than high-handed robbery.[88] It is, then, pretty safe to assert that there was no indication whatever of English occupation when Martinez arrived, and that he was consequently perfectly justified in taking possess

ington, which was out on a trading[315] cruise at the time, were slightly involved in the relations between the Spanish and Engl

he small vessel, the Northwest America, built at Nootka during the summer, going for the winter to the Sandwich Islands.[89] Returning to the American coast in the spring of 1789, the Iphigenia had reached Nootka sixteen days before the arrival of Martinez. Four days after her the little vessel, her consort, arrived, and preparations were immediately made to send the latter out on a trading cruise, that they might not be worsted in competition by t

f a Portuguese rather than an English ship. During the first few days all of the commanders seem to have been on the best of terms. According to the journal of the Iphigenia, Douglas was invited to dine on board the Spanish ship on the day of Martine

nd the latter had promised to relieve him as far as lay in his power. On the 8th the Portuguese instructions and passport of the Iph

h its captain (flag) and passport of the Portuguese nation, but its supercargo (wh

ernor and captain-general of the p

Juan Carvalho,[94] a subject of the same master of this port, and is of 200 tons burden having artillery, powder, balls, arms, and munitions

by Juan Carvalho. Besides the perplexity of the double nationality of the vessel, Martinez's

d protest against such violent and illegal proceedings before a tribunal at the first port in which you arrive, giving also an estimate of the value of the ships and cargoes. You will send to us at Macao a copy[317] of said protest, with a narrative of all that shall have occurred, and another such to Francisco Josef Bandieras and Geronimo Ribeiro Nores, our correspondents at Lisbon, and likewi

he first of the vessels seized, and in order to show that the Spanish commander considered that he was acting under ins

tructions and other superior orders, dated the 23d of December of the year last passed, 1788, and according to an order of His Majesty in Arto. 17, Tito. 5, Trato. 6, of the royal orders for the navy, I ought to order and leave ordered to appear before me Don Francisco Josef Viana, an inhabitant of Lisbon and captain of the packet boat named the Iphigenia Nubiana coming from Macao, which I found on the 5th of the present month an

is one by the interpreter of the expedition saying that he delivered the above

coast had been discovered by the Portuguese Admiral Fonte in 1640.[98] To this last Martinez responded that Portugal was at that time under the dominion of Spain. He likewise charged them to tell who this Carvalho was that had given such despotic instructions as the minister of a sovereign would hardly have given; to which they answered that he was the owner of the vessel. He then charged them with articles 18 and 19 of their instructions (the objectionable clauses quoted above). They replied that the articles in question had been misinterpreted; that they ordered Viana, in case his crew mutinied and

ce of the arrest. It would be more charitable and possibly more just to suppose that owing to his imperfect understanding of the language that they used, or its imperfect translation by his interpreter, he understood them to say this when they really said something very different. It is quite evident that his first translation of what he considered the objectionable clause in their instructions was incorrect. For in his rendering of it in the above account of the investigation he makes the clause read that Viana was to treat with respect all English, Russian, and Spanish vessels whose force was superior to his own, but, if he had the superior force, he was to seize them and carry them to Macao, where their crews should be tried as pira

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ught out in Douglas's account

ives as pirates. I told him they had not interpreted the papers right; that though I did not understand Portuguese I had seen a copy of them in English at Macao,[101] which mentioned, if I was attacked by any of those three nation

ez did make this mistake and later was led to restore the vessel by the discovery of it, he

ship, the Princesa, and part on the San Carlos, the other Spanish ship, which had reached Nootka a week later than the commander's. Of the condu

most inhumanely treated, and their valuable personal effects and even their very clothes were stolen; Spanish colors were hoisted on their vessel and it was looted of its provisions and articles for trading with the natives and anything else that the Spaniards fancied. When his vessel was restored a very meager supply of provisions was sent on board, and an account presented which listed five times the quantity actually sent and charged five times their cost; he was compelled to sign a paper saying that Martinez had found him in distress and in want of everything, had supplied him with all necessary to tak

other hand, the officers of the Iphigenia "were treated wi

ich Captain Douglas gave him bills on Cravalia, the before-mentioned merchant of Macao. On the 31st the Iphigenia sailed and was saluted by the Spanish fort, and the commodore accompanied them out of the harbor, giving every assistance with boats, etc. When Captain Douglas took his leave of the co

sents Viana as saying that he was imprisoned, was well treated, and on being liberated

that he had not been so nearly robbed of his articles of trade as he declared. Further, knowing that this journal passed through Meares's hands before it was published, and knowing this gentleman's tendency to distort the truth, when there was a possibility of thereby strengthening his case, one can not help suspecting that the journal was tampered with so that it would exhibit Martinez's treatment of the vessel in as unfavorable a light as possible. But the testimo

full above. The second, in which the interpreter says that he delivered Martinez's orders, has been referred to, and the substance has been given of the third which recounts the investigation of Douglas and Viana and their arrest. The fourth tells of the formal act of seizing the vessel, the replacing of the Portuguese colors by the Spanish, and the imprisonment of the crew. These four are dated May 13. A letter to Martinez, dated M

idavit, signed on May 25, declares that the inventory should be embodied in the account. An itemized list follows, covering five pages of manuscript and indicating that the Iphigenia was by no means destitute of general supplies, though there might have been a lack of those necessary to man the ship. Immediately following the inventory is the bond signed by Viana and Douglas, captain and supercargo of the Iphigenia, for Juan Carvalho, the owner, and by Kendrick and Ingraham, of the American ship, as witnesses, and finally by Martinez, all in the presence of Canizares, the[

of the harbor by the officers of the other two, and, after a farewell salute from the Spanish guns, sailed away, ostensibly for Macao, by way of the Sandwich Islands. At midnight

stores. For some reason not wholly plain Martinez took possession of the schooner as soon as she arrived. Meares says that the[325] Spanish commander was angered when he learned that the letter which Douglas had left for Funter was not the desired order for the latter to sell his schooner, and gave vent to his anger by seizing the vessel.[111] The American captains say that when Martinez learned later of the bankruptcy of Carvalho, on whom he had accepted bills in payment for supplies furnished to Douglas, he justified himself as holding the schooner in security for the debt.[112] Martinez gives a partial explanation in an affidavit of June 12. Learning, he said, that the sch

e was good, but without avail; the men were kept in confinement for a month and then shipped for China on board one of the American vessels, which they were compelled to assist in manning to keep from being[326] wrecked.[114] It must be admitted that at the best the provocation was sufficient to excuse some exaggeration, which is the more to be expected when it is noticed that the account was not written until several months after the occurrence of the events recorded. But that the Spanish commander meant to show a certain amount of justice and even generosity is evident from the fact

built-a workshop, a bakery, and a lodging house.[119] The ceremony had not been performed earlier because they were awaiting the[327] arrival of the Aranzazu, that it might be given greater solemnity; but that ship not coming, it was decided to delay no longer.[120] The instrument of possession is a long, very formal, and high-sounding document. The right of Spain is based on the discovery of Nootka in 1774 and the bull of Pope Alexander VI of May 4, 14

ade the Englishmen understand that the Spaniards had been the first discoverers of the port. He had proved this by having the Americans-since they also understood the Indian dialect-talk with the natives, who had described the clothes of t

emanded to know whether they were armed and received answer in English that they were, but only with a bottle of brandy. Martinez, of the Spanish ship, Kendrick, of the American, and Funter, of the captured English schooner, came on board and remained all night. The next morning, the 16th, they were towed into the harbor, and saluted by the guns of the two Spanish ships and the fort. In the afternoon Hudson and Martinez accompanied Kendrick up the sound 6 miles to his vessel, the Columbia, where they remained that night. On the 11th Hudson returned to his vessel, where he received a note from the Spanish co

port, and he was doubtless one of the Englishmen who were at Martinez's sumptuous banquet and are mentioned as not disputing the act of p

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cular letter to all commanders of Spanish ships which he might encounter ordering them to let him pass. The next morning, July 2, the launches from the American ships towed the Princess Royal out of the

with the Spanish dominions, and feeling himself responsible for maintaining that policy along this whole coast, he might easily have felt it his duty to employ harsh means, being satisfied that nothing less would be effectual. Having in mind the recent treatment accorded to the governor of the islands of Juan Fernandez because he allowed a vessel that had been in his power to continue its voyage to these very coasts, it is not strange that he should be unwilling to incur similar disgrace because of too great leniency.[127] It would seem, howe

r found nothing in their papers derogatory to the rights of Spain; that their purpose was to circumnavigate the globe; that there seemed no reason for interfering with their course nor placing them under bond, as he had done the packet boat from Macao; but that, nevertheless, he had required them, in the name of his Sovereign, not to return to these seas or coasts without bringing a passport and special permit, since that Monarch had prohibited every foreign nation from navigating the coasts of America.[128] His allowing the American ships to trade unmolested for the two months hardly seems consistent, unless his reason was