Greenhow, Oregon and California, 172-178, attempts to prove that the expedition was purely Portuguese. His account is too prejudiced to be of much value. The chief purpose of his book was to prove that America had a better claim to the Oregon country than England. If this expedition had been purely Portuguese, England could have acquired no possible claim through it. Worthington C. Ford, United States and Spain in 1790, p. 18, is still further in error. He says: “The Spaniards had laid claim to nearly the whole of the western coast of America, from Cape Horn to the sixtieth degree of north latitude, and had watched with a feeling of jealousy, aggravated by a sense of injury, the establishment of a British settlement in Nootka Sound, on Vancouvers Island. This inlet of the sea had been first explored by Captain Cook in one of his voyages, and on the establishment of the English in India became a trading station, colonized by the English and recognized by grants of land from the natives. After three years of undisturbed possession the little settlement was surprised by the arrival of two Spanish ships of war from Mexico, which seized an English merchant vessel, the Iphigenia, imprisoned her crew, looted the vessel, and pulling down the British flag on the settlement raised that of Spain, and subsequently treated all comers as intruders.” Baumgarten, Geschichte Spaniens zur Zeit der franzoesischen Revolution, 282, after speaking of the arrival of Martinez and his seizure of the Iphigenia, says: “Martinez ergriff darauf Besitz von einer der kleinen Inseln, erbaute auf derselben eine Batterie, bemaechtigte sich der englischen Gebaeude, nahm die britische Flagge herunter and pflanzte die spanische auf.” First. Martinez to Flores, San Lorenzo de Nootka, July 13, 1789. (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, 90-3-18.) Second. Colnett to Flores [written at San Blas in September, 1789]. (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, 90-3-21.) Third. Colnett, Voyages, 96-102, note. Fourth. Duffin to Meares, Nootka Sound, July 12 [11], 1789; same to same, July 13 [12], 1789; same to same. July 14 [13], 1789. (Inclosure XIII, with Meares, Memorial, appendix to Voyages.) Fifth. Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, Nootka Sound, August 3, 1792. (Appendix to Greenhow, Oregon and California.) The information of William Graham, London, May 5, 1790, and the deposition of the officers and men of the North-West America, Canton, China, December 5, 1789 (Inclosures VII and XI, with Meares, Memorial, appendix to Voyages), give accounts, but add little of value to the others. “It has been generally supposed from later diplomatic correspondence that the Viceroy in restoring the vessels acted on his own judgment; but it appears from his own statement that he acted probably in accordance with orders from Spain, dated January 26, 1790.” (Bancroft, Northwest Coast, I, 223.) This author’s conclusion is exactly contrary to the fact, as has been shown above. The Viceroy did act on his own authority, finally, as has been shown; and this communication of January 26 gave no orders. The Viceroy’s statement, to which Bancroft here refers, is the Informe of Revilla-Gigedo, published by Bustamante, which is very brief and sometimes misleading. Bancroft devotes a little more than one page to discussing the subject-matter of this chapter. Besides this Informe he had the note in Colnett’s Voyage. Greenhow, Oregon and California, p. 200, speaking of the restoration of the English ships, says: “It was at length decided that … they should be released, with the understanding, however, that they were not again to enter any place on the Spanish-American coasts, either for the purpose of settlement or of trade with the natives.” This was the Viceroy’s order at first, but in the passport he gave permission to touch at places not under Spanish control, as shown above. The same writer, speaking of Colnett’s failure to get the Princess Royal at Nootka, as promised, says: “On arriving at the sound Colnett found the place deserted.” The sloop was not there, but there was a substantial Spanish settlement, as will be shown later. “La autoridad superior de Nueva EspaÑa no sancionÓ el hecho [Martinez’s seizure of the English vessels]; apenas llegÓ Á su noticia, atendiendo Á las buenas relaciones en que estaban los Gobiernos de ambos Estados y Á la ignorancia en que suponia Á las proprietarios de los bajeles, ordenÓ la immediata soltura de estas con sus cargamentos.” (Duro, Armada EspaÑola, VIII, 10.) This work was published in 1902, and is considered the best on the Spanish navy. The error, which is a common one, of thinking that they were released by the Viceroy immediately, doubtless arises from the Spanish minister’s statement in his memorial of June 13, 1790, to the British ambassador, published in the Annual Register, XXXII, 296. This states that the Viceroy released the vessels without declaring them lawful prize, and allowed them to return to Macao under bond as the Iphigenia had been disposed of. These two statements are exactly contrary to the fact. The Viceroy did declare them lawful prize, and did not place them under bond. What the Spanish minister said had been done was what Florez had said, in his second account to the home Government that he thought ought to be done, but which he left his successor, Revilla-Gigedo, to do. The Spanish minister had inferred that the new Viceroy would do this, but that official had not done it, as has been shown. Oscar Browning, Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 290, says more correctly that they “were released by the Viceroy on the ground of the friendly relations existing between the two nations, and the probability that the traders were ignorant of Spanish rights.” This Narrative is a very rare book, and very valuable for the subject in hand. No previous writer on the Nootka controversy has consulted it. Probably only a few copies were printed. The King’s own copy is now in the British Museum. That obtained for use in this study is the only other copy that Messrs. Henry Stevens, Son & Stiles, antiquarian booksellers of London, have noted during the whole of their business experience. Neither date nor name of publisher nor author is given. The British Museum catalogue gives 1791(?) as the date. It is evidently an official account prepared in the foreign office especially for the King. In a letter from J. B. Burges, under secretary for foreign affairs, to Lord Auckland, dated Whitehall, November 12, 1790, found in B. M. Add. MSS. 34434, f58, he mentions an “interesting Narrative, which, at leisure hours, I have prepared for the King, of the whole of this business.” A careful comparison of the printed Narrative with the documents in the public record office reveals the identity of the printed Narrative with the Narrative mentioned by Burges in this letter. The comparison also revealed the fact that the printed account is full and faithful. It is necessarily condensed, but nothing of importance is omitted. The British chargÉ is the same Merry who, later, as minister to the United States, was connected with the Aaron Burr conspiracy. Muriel, Historia de Carlos IV, I, 108-109, gives briefly the substance of the Spanish note of February 10 and the British reply of February 26. Apparently no previous writer on the Nootka affair has seen this memorial nor any of the earlier documents. No reference is made to them except such as is drawn from later documents which give brief reviews of the earlier correspondence. Bancroft (History of the Northwest Coast, I, 229, note 46) says: “Up to this point the correspondence is not, so far as I know, extant in its original form, but is only known from citations and references in later documents.” For English and Spanish material the documents in the Annual Register seem to have been the only source used to any extent. In fact this work contains nearly all of the documents that have been published on the diplomatic phase of the incident. Greenhow has reprinted most of them in the appendix to his Oregon and California. Muriel, Historia de Carlos IV, I, 111, mentions this memorial. The following comment on the unreasonableness of the English demand is to the point: “Es war das in der That eine eigenthuemliche Methode, Gewalt und Recht zu mischen, einer kuenstigen Eroerterung Alles vorzubehalten und zugleich das Resultat dieser Eroerterung zu anticipiren.” (Baumgarten, Geschichte Spaniens zur Zeit der franzoesischen Revolution, 289.) This letter from Carmichael and that from Humphreys referred to above make interesting comments on the court intrigues in Spain—the dominance of the Queen’s corrupt influence and the decline of Floridablanca’s prestige. In the instructions sent from London on August 17, Fitzherbert was asked to take up with the Spanish Court the matter of the liberation of the Chinese which were captured at Nootka. In the same instructions negotiations concerning a dispute over regulations for governing British subjects in the Honduras settlement were turned over to Fitzherbert. These had been in progress between Campo and Leeds at London in February, when the first Spanish note on the Nootka affair was handed to Leeds. The British Court immediately suspended all other discussions until Spain should have offered satisfaction for the insult which they felt that the British flag had suffered. The declarations of July 24 had been accepted as affording such, and consequently the usual diplomatic relations had been resumed. (See Narrative, 201, 208.) With these instructions Fitzherbert was also given orders concerning the case of Captain Macdonald. He was the captain of a vessel that had recently been seized by a Spanish frigate in the West Indies on the ground that she was carrying on contraband trade. Indemnity for this had to be assured before the Nootka matter could be settled. It was easily adjusted. (Narrative, 285.) |