The Oregon Territory Part 3

The names of several vessels have been omitted in this brief summary, which were engaged in the fur trade subsequently to the year 1785. Two vessels, however, require notice,--the Washington under Captain Gray, and the Columbia under Captain Kendrick, which were despatched from Boston, under the American flag, in August, 1787. Captain Gray reached Nootka Sound, on Sept. 17, 1788, and found Meares preparing to launch a small vessel called the North-west America, which he had built there. The Columbia does not appear to have joined her consort till after the departure of Meares and his companions. Meares himself set sail in the Felice for China, on Sept. 23, whilst the Iphigenia proceeded with the North-west America to the Sandwich Islands, and wintered there. In the spring of 1789, the two latter vessels returned to Nootka Sound, and found the Columbia had joined her consort the Washington, and both had wintered there. The North-west America was despatched forthwith on a trading expedition northward, whilst the Iphigenia remained at anchor in Nootka Sound.

Events were now at hand which were attended with very important consequences in determining the relations of Spain and Great Britain towards each other in respect to the trade with the natives on their coasts, and to the right of forming settlements among them. These will fitly be reserved, as introductory to the Convention of the Escurial, which will be discussed in a subsequent Chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE PRETENDED DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST.

Memoir of Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, in 1588.--Voyage of the Descubierta and Atrevida, in 1791.--Tale of Juan de Fuca, in 1592.--Voyages of Meares, Vancouver, and Lieutenant Wilkes.--Letter of Admiral Bartoleme Fonte or de Fuentes, in 1640.--Memoir of J. N. de l'Isle and Ph. Buache, in 1750.--California discovered to be a Peninsula in 1540; reported to be an Island in 1620; re-explored by the Jesuit Kuhn and others, in 1701-21.--Maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries.--Fonte's Letter, a jeu-d'esprit of Petiver, the Naturalist.

The general belief in the existence of a North-west pa.s.sage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in the direction of Gaspar de Cortereal's reported Straits of Anian, led to the circulation of many false accounts of the discovery of the desired channel. The most celebrated fictions of this cla.s.s seem to have originated with individuals who hoped to secure, through their pretended knowledge and experience, future employment, as well as immediate emolument. A memoir of this kind is reported to have been laid before the Council of the Indies at Seville, in 1609, by Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, who professed to have sailed in 1588 from Lisbon to the coast of Labrador, and thence into the South Sea through a channel in 60 north lat.i.tude, corresponding to the Strait of Anian, according to ancient tradition. He pet.i.tioned, in consequence, that he might be rewarded for his services, and be entrusted with an expedition to occupy the Strait of Anian, and defend the pa.s.sage against other nations. His cotemporaries, according to the author of the Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana, were men of more judgment and intelligence than some of the writers of the 18th century. The former at once discovered, by personal examination of the author, the fict.i.tious character of his narrative, and rejected his proposal. Two copies of this memoir are supposed to exist; one of these being preserved in the library of the Duke of Infantado at Madrid, the other in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. The former of these is considered by the author of the Introduction to be certainly a cotemporaneous, and perhaps the original, copy of the memoir: the Ambrosian ma.n.u.script, on the other hand, has been p.r.o.nounced, in an article in the London Quarterly Review for October, 1816, to be "the clumsy and audacious forgery of some ignorant German," from the circ.u.mstance of fifteen leagues to the degree being used in some of the computations. To the same purpose Capt. James Burney, in the fifth volume of his Voyages, published in 1817, observes, that "it must not be omitted that the reckoning in the narrative is in German leagues. It is said, 'from the lat.i.tude of 64 you will have to sail 120 leagues to the lat.i.tude of 72, which corresponds with the German league of 15 to a degree, and not with the Spanish league of 17-1/2 to a degree, by which last the early Spanish navigators were accustomed to reckon.' From this peculiarity in the narrative it may be conjectured, that the real author was a Fleming, who probably thought he could not better advance his spurious offspring, than by laying it at the door of a man who had projected to invent a compa.s.s without variation," as Maldonado professed to do to the Council of the Indies, according to Antonio Leo in his Bibliotheca Indica.

Allusions had been occasionally made to this work by Spanish writers in the 17th century, amongst others by De Luque, the author of the "Establecimientos Ultramarinos de las Naceones Europeas." It was not, however, till so late a period as 1790 that the attention of men of science was drawn to the Madrid ma.n.u.script by J. N. Buache, the geographer of the King of France, in a paper read before the Academy of Sciences at Paris in that year. Captain Burney states, that the ma.n.u.script had been brought to notice shortly before by M. de Mendoza, a captain in the Spanish navy, who was employed in forming a collection of voyages for the use of that service. M. Buache, who had succeeded D'Anville as Geographer Royal in 1768, followed the geographical system of Ph. Buache, his relative and predecessor, and, like him, clung fondly to questionable discoveries. He had been employed to prepare instructions for the expedition of La Perouse, and thus his attention had been especially drawn to voyages of discovery on the north-west coast of America. He declared himself in his memoir so strongly in favor of the genuineness of the ma.n.u.script, and of the good faith of Maldonado, that the Spanish government, in order that the question might be definitively set at rest, directed its archives to be searched, and the ma.n.u.script in the library of the Duke of Infantado to be carefully examined, and at the same time gave orders that the corvettes Descubierta and Atrevida, which were fitting out at Acapulco for a voyage round the world, should explore the coasts and port which Maldonado pretended to have discovered in the South Sea. The archives, however, furnished ample evidence of the correctness of the ancient opinion that Maldonado was an impostor, and the expedition of the corvettes, which sailed in 1791, confirmed this fact beyond dispute. A memoir to that effect, founded upon their observations, was published in 1797, by Don Ciriaco Cevallos, who had accompanied the expedition, to prove the utter falsity of Maldonado's story.

It was, however, once more revived by the discovery of the Ambrosian ma.n.u.script in 1812 by Carlo Amoretti. This is said to give a more succinct account than the Madrid doc.u.ment, and it has been thought by some to be an abridgment of it. The article in the Quarterly Review above alluded to was occasioned by its appearance, and to the curious will furnish ample information. The Milan account of the voyage may be referred to in the fifth volume of Burney's History of Voyages. The Madrid doc.u.ment will be found in Barrow's Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions.

A much more plausible narrative was published in 1625, in the third volume of "The Pilgrims," by Purchas, the successor of Hakluyt as the historian of maritime enterprises. It is ent.i.tled "A Note made by me, Michael Lock the elder, touching the Strait of Sea, commonly called Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the North-west Pa.s.sage of Meta Incognita." The writer purported to give an account of what had been communicated to him at Venice, in April, 1596, by an ancient Greek pilot, commonly called Juan de Fuca, but properly named Apostolos Valeria.n.u.s, who represented himself to have been taken in a Spanish ship by Captain Candish, and to have thereby lost 60,000 ducats, and to have been at another time sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to discover and fortify the Straits of Anian. His tale was to this effect: "That shortly afterwards, having been sent again, in 1592, by the Viceroy of Mexico, with a small caravel and pinnace, armed with mariners only, he followed the coast of North America until he came to the lat.i.tude of 47, and there finding that the land trended east and north-east, with a broad inlet of sea between 47 and 48 degrees of lat.i.tude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometimes north-west and north-east and north, and also east, and south-eastward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he pa.s.sed by divers islands in that sailing. And that at the entrance of this said strait, there is _on the north-west coast_ thereof a great headland or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon.

"Also, he said, he went on land in divers places, and there he saw some people on land, clad is beasts' skins; and that the land is _very fruitful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like new Spain_.

"And also, he said, that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being _come into the North Sea_ already, and finding the sea wide enough everywhere, and to be about _thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits, where he entered_, he thought that he had now well discharged his office, and that not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail, and returned homewards again towards New Spain, where he arrived at Acapulco, anno 1592, hoping to be rewarded by the Viceroy for the service done in the said voyage.

"Also, he said that, after coming to Mexico, he was greatly welcomed by the Viceroy, and had promises of great reward; but that having sued there for two years, and obtained nothing to his content, the Viceroy told him that he should be rewarded in Spain of the King himself very greatly, and willed him therefore to go to Spain, which voyage he did perform.

"Also, he said, that when he was come into Spain, he was welcomed there at the King's court; but after long suit there also, he could not get any reward there to his content. And therefore at length he stole away out of Spain, and came into Italy, to go home again and live among his own kindred and countrymen, he being very old.

"Also, he said, that he thought the cause of his ill reward had of the Spaniards, to be for that they did understand very well that the _English nation had now given over all their voyages for discovery of the North-west Pa.s.sage_, wherefore they need not fear them any more to come that way into the South Sea, and therefore they needed not his service therein any more.

"Also, he said, that _understanding the n.o.ble mind of the Queen of England_, of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her majesty would _do him justice for his goods lost_ by Captain Candish, he would be content to go into England, _and serve her majesty in that voyage for the discovery perfectly of the north-west pa.s.sage into the South Sea_, if she would furnish him with only one ship of forty tons burthen and a pinnace, and that he would perform it in thirty days time from one end to the other of the straits, and he wished me so to write to England."

As this a.s.serted discovery was one upon which the Spanish commissioner, in the negotiations antecedent to the Treaty of the Floridas, relied to support the claim of the Spanish crown to the north-west coast of America, and as authors of late whose opinions are ent.i.tled to respect, such as Fleurieu, and Mr. Greenhow, have inclined to admit the general truth of the account, the substantial part of it has been quoted at full length, as it appears both that Fuca's narrative, if we admit it to be genuine, does not accord, in respect to any substantial fact, with the authentic reports of subsequent voyages, and that the object of the fiction is patent on the face of the story.

The object of the Greek pilot was evidently to obtain, upon the faith of his narrative, employment from the Queen of England; and as, from his own statement, he was aware that the spirit of discovery was for the moment languid amongst the English nation, he represented the country as "very fruitful and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like New Spain." This exaggeration of the probable profits of the undertaking would not perhaps alone disent.i.tle the narrator to credit in respect to the other circ.u.mstances of his voyage, though his integrity in making the communication might thereby become open to question: but when we look to the a.s.serted facts of his voyage, the truth or falsehood of which must be conclusive as to the character of the narrative itself, we find that they do not correspond in any respect with ascertained facts. The straits to which Meares gave the name of Juan de Fuca in 1788, are between the 48th and 49th parallel. Mr. Greenhow considers that the difference in the position is sufficiently slight as to be within the limits of supposable error on the part of the Greek pilot; and certainly, if this were the only difficulty, it might not be conclusive against his veracity. But the straits which he professed to have discovered were from 30 to 40 leagues wide at the mouth where he entered, and according to his story he sailed through them into the North Sea, and upon the faith of this he offered to perfect his discovery of the north-west pa.s.sage into the South Sea for the Queen of England, and to perform it in thirty days time from one end to the other of the straits. Now this description is so totally at variance with the real character of any straits on the west coast of America, that the happy coincidence of trifling circ.u.mstances can hardly be considered sufficient to turn the scale in its favor. Amongst the latter, the existence of a pillar has been alleged, as corresponding with De Fuca's account. Meares, for instance, on approaching the straits from the north, speaks "of a small island, situated about two miles _from the southern land_, that formed the entrance of this strait, near which we saw a very remarkable rock, that wore the form of an obelisk, and stood at some distance from the island," (p. 153,) which, in his Observations on a North-west Pa.s.sage (p. lxi.) he seems to consider to be the pinnacle rock of De Fuca; but unfortunately De Fuca has placed his "island with an exceeding high pinnacle or spiral rock" _on the north-west coast_, at the entrance of the strait, instead of on the southern sh.o.r.e. Vancouver, on entering the straits, failed himself to recognize any rock as corresponding to the pinnacle rock which Mr. Meares had represented, but he observes that a rock within Tatooche's Island, _on the southern side_ of the entrance, which is united to the main land by a ledge of rocks, over which the sea breaks violently, was noticed, and supposed to be that represented as De Fuca's pinnacle rock: "this, however, was visible only for a few minutes, from its being close to the sh.o.r.e of the main-land, instead of lying in the entrance of the straits, nor did it correspond with that which has been so described." On the other hand, Lieutenant Wilkes, in his Account of the United States Exploring Expedition, says, "In leaving De Fuca's Straits, I anxiously watched for De Fuca's Pillar, and soon obtained a sketch of it;" but he does not state whether he meant the pillar which Meares observed on the southern side, and called De Fuca's Pillar, or one which, according to the Greek pilot, should have formed a prominent object on the north-western coast of the strait.

It is not unimportant to observe, that there is no Spanish writer who speaks of De Fuca or his discovery: that neither in any private archives in Spain, nor in the public archives of the Indies at Seville, is there any notice of this celebrated navigator or of his important expedition, which the author of the Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana observes is the more remarkable, from the great number of other voyages and expeditions of the same period preserved in the archives, which have escaped the notice of contemporary writers; and, what is perhaps still more conclusive, that Humboldt, in his account of New Spain, (l. iii., ch. viii.,) states, that in spite of all his researches he had not been able to find throughout New Spain a single doc.u.ment in which the name of the pilot De Fuca occurs.

The whole of these latter observations apply with equal force to the voyage of Admiral Bartoleme Fonte or de Fuentes, which purposes to have been performed in 1640; the narrative, however, did not make its appearance till 1708, when it was published in London, in two parts, in "The Monthly Miscellany, or Memoirs of the Curious." The mode in which it was ushered into public notice would alone be sufficient to expose it to considerable suspicion, and the gross absurdities with which it is replete would have at once exempted it from any serious criticism, had not the Spanish commissioner, in the negotiations already alluded to, and of which a full account will be given in a subsequent place, rested upon it the territorial t.i.tle of Spain to the north-west coast, up to 55 of north lat.i.tude. Fonte, according to the narrative, sailed with four vessels from Callao into the North Pacific, with orders from the Viceroy of Peru to intercept certain vessels which had sailed from Boston in New England, with the object of exploring a north-west pa.s.sage. On arriving at C. St.

Lucas, at the south point of California, he despatched one of his vessels "to discover whether California was an island or not, (for before, it was not known whether it was an island or a peninsula.") He thence coasted along California to 26 of north lat.i.tude, and having a steady gale from the S.S.E., in the interval between May 26, and June 14, "he reached the River los Reyes in 53 of north lat.i.tude, not having occasion to lower a top-sail in sailing 866 leagues N.N.W., 410 leagues from Port Abel to C.

Blanco, 456 leagues to Rio de los Reyes, having sailed about 260 leagues in crooked channels, amongst islands named the Archipelagus de St.

Lazarus, where his ships' boats always sailed a mile a-head, sounding, to see what water, rocks, and sands there was." "They had two Jesuits with them, that had been on their mission at 66 of N. L., and had made curious observations." Fonte ascended the Rio de los Reyes in his ships to a large lake, which he called Lake Belle. Here, he says, he left his vessels and proceeded down another river, pa.s.sing eight falls, in all 32 feet perpendicular, into a large lake which he named De Fonte. Thence he sailed out through the Estrecho de Ronquillo into the sea, where they found a large ship where the natives had never seen one before, from a town called Boston, the master of which, Captain Shaply, told him that his owner was "a fine gentleman, and major-general of the largest colony in New England, called the Maltechusets." Having exchanged all sorts of civilities and presents with this gentleman, the admiral went back to his ships in Lake Belle, and returned by the Rio de los Reyes to the South Sea. One of his officers had in the mean time ascended another river, which he named Rio de Haro, in the lake Velasco, in 61, whence he sailed in Indian boats as far north as 77. Here he ascertained that there was no communication out of the Spanish or Atlantic Sea by Davis' Straits, from one of his own seamen, who had been conducted by the natives to the head of Davis' Strait, which terminated in a fresh lake of about 30 miles in circ.u.mference, in 80 N. L. He himself in the meantime had sailed as far north as 79, and then the land trended north, and the ice rested on the land. The result of this expedition was, that they returned home, "having found there was no pa.s.sage into the South Seas by what they call the North-west Pa.s.sage."

Such is the substance of this rather dull story, which may be read in full in the third volume of Burney's History of Voyages in the South Sea, p.

190. Mr. Greenhow (p. 84) observes, that "the account is very confused and badly written, and is filled with absurdities and contradictions, which should have prevented it from receiving credit at any time since its appearance: yet, as will be shown, it was seriously examined and defended, so recently as in the middle of the last century, by scientific men of great eminence, and some faith continued to be attached to it for many years afterwards."

Amongst its defenders the most conspicuous were J. N. de l'Isle, the brother of William de l'Isle, and Philippe Buache, the geographer of the French King, the predecessor of J. N. Buache, who has already been mentioned as the author of a memoir in defence of Maldonado's narrative.

De l'Isle presented to the Academy of Sciences, in 1750, a memoir "sur les nouvelles decouvertes au nord de la mer du Sud," with a map prepared by Ph. Buache, to represent these discoveries. The communication was in other respects of great importance, as it contained the first authentic account of the discoveries lately made by Behring and Tchiricoff, in 1741.

It is not stated from what source De l'Isle derived the copy of Fonte's letter, which seems to have come into his possession accidentally at St.

Petersburg, during the absence of the Russian expedition: it was not, however, till his return to France in 1747, that he examined it in company with Ph. Buache. They were agreeably surprised to find that it accorded with Buache's own conjectures, that it harmonised in many respects with the discoveries of the Russians. In consequence, Buache laid down in his new map a water communication between the Pacific Ocean and Hudson's Bay.

Voltaire, relying on the authority of De l'Isle, maintained in his History of Russia, published in 1759, that the famous pa.s.sage so long sought for had been at last discovered. The Academy, however, received Fonte's narrative with discreet reserve; and observed, that it required more certain proofs to substantiate it.

The author of the Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana states, that the Spanish government, on the representation of the French geographers, inst.i.tuted a careful search into the archives of the Indies in New Spain, as well as into the archives of Peru, and likewise into the archives at Seville, Madrid, Cadiz, and other places, but that not the slightest allusion to De Fonte could be anywhere traced. This result was made known by Robert de Vaugondy, in his reply to Buache, int.i.tled "Observations Critiques sur les nouvelles Decouvertes de l'Amiral Fuentes, 8vo. 1753;" and the author of the Noticia di California, published in Madrid, in 1757, confirmed Vaugondy's announcement.

It is unnecessary to observe, that the experience of subsequent navigators has failed to confirm the narrative of De Fonte. There is one pa.s.sage in the narrative which seems almost of itself to be sufficient to condemn the story. The admiral is made to state, "that he despatched one of his vessels to discover whether California was an island or not; for before it was not known whether California was an island or a peninsula." Now the Californian Gulf had been completely explored by Francisco de Ulloa, in 1539, who ascertained the fact of the junction of the peninsula to the main land, near the 32d degree of lat.i.tude; and again by Fernando de Alarcon, in 1540, who ascended a great river at the head of the Gulf of California, supposed to be the Colorado. A series of excellent charts were drawn up by Domingo del Castillo, Alarcon's pilot, a fac-simile of which Mr. Greenhow (p. 61) states may be found in the edition of the letters of Cortez, published at Mexico in 1770, by Archbishop Lorenzana. The sh.o.r.es of the gulf, and of the west side of California, to the 30th degree of lat.i.tude, were there delineated with a surprising approach of accuracy. It is not a reasonable supposition that the Admiral of New Spain and Peru, who must have had ready access to the archives of the Indies at Mexico, should have expressed himself in a manner which argued a total ignorance of the previous discoveries of his countrymen; but it was very probable that a contributor to the Monthly Miscellany should stumble upon this ground, from a notion having been revived in Europe, about the middle of the 17th century, that California was an island.

Humboldt, in his Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, l. iii., c.

viii., states, that when the Jesuits Kuhn, Salvatierra, and Ugarte, explored, in detail, during the years 1701-21, the coasts of the Gulf of California, it was thought in Europe to have been for the first time discovered that California was a peninsula. But, in his Introduction Geographique, he observes, that in the sixteenth century no person in Mexico denied this fact; nor was it till the seventeenth century that the idea originated that California was an island. During the seventeenth century, the Dutch freebooters were amongst the most active and inveterate enemies of Spain in the New World; and having established themselves in the bay of Pichilingue, on the east coast of California, from which circ.u.mstance they received the name of "Pichilingues," they caused great embarra.s.sment to the Spanish viceroys from their proximity to the coasts of Mexico. To these adventurers the origin of the notion, that California was separated from the main land, has been referred by some authors; but Mr. Greenhow (p. 94) states, that it was to be traced to the captain of a Manilla ship, in 1620, who reported that the a.s.serted river of D'Aguilar was the western mouth of a channel which separated the northern extremity of California from the main land. A survey of the lower part of the peninsula was executed by the Governor of Cinaloa, and the Jesuit Jacinto Cortes, in pursuance of the orders of the Duke of Escalona, who was Viceroy during 1610-42, about the very time when Fonte purported to have sailed. They did not, however, go to the head of the gulf; and Humboldt informs us, that, during the feeble reign of Charles II. of Spain, 1655-1700, several writers had begun to regard California as a cl.u.s.ter of large islands, under the name of "Islas Carolinas." Thus we find in the maps of this period, in those for example of Sanson, Paris, 1650; of Du Val, geographer to the King of France, Abbeville, 1655; of Jenner, London, 1666; of De Wit, Amsterdam; of Vischer, Schenkius, Herman, Moll, and others, which are in the King's Library at the British Museum, California is depicted as an island; and in Jenner's Map, in which C. Blanco is the northernmost headland of California, there is this note:--"This California was in times past thought to have been a part of the continent, and so made in all maps; but, by further discoveries, was found to be an island, long 1700 leagues."

On the other hand, the maps of the later part of the sixteenth, and the earlier part of the seventeenth centuries, such as those by Ortelius, the King of Spain's geographer, published in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, first edited in 1570, the two maps adopted by Hakluyt in the respective editions of his voyages, in 1589 and 1600, that of Le Clerc, 1602, of Hondius, which Purchas adopted in his Pilgrims, in 1625, of Speed, 1646, and that of Blaew in his Novus Atlas of 1648, agree in representing California as a peninsula. The single pa.s.sage, therefore, in De Fonte's account, in which he, being "then admiral of New Spain and Peru, and now prince (or rather president) of Chili, explicitly states that he despatched one of his vessels, under the command of Don Diego Pennelosa, the nephew of Don Luis de Haro," then great minister of Spain, "to discover whether California was an island or not, for before it was not known whether it was an island or a peninsula," seems to point at once to the European origin of the tale. Mr. Dalrymple, the well-known secretary of the British Admiralty at the time of the Nootka Sound controversy, who was distinguished as the author of many able works on maritime discoveries, considered the story to have been a jeu-d'esprit of Mr. James Petiver the naturalist, one of the contributors to the Monthly Miscellany, whose taste for such subjects was evinced by his collection of MS.

extracts, since preserved in the British Museum, and whose talent for such kind of composition was shown by his Account of a Voyage to the Levant, published in the same Miscellany. It is worthy of remark, that the tale of De Fuca and the letter of De Fonte, as they have derived their origin, so they have derived their support, from writers foreign to the nation in whose favour they set up the a.s.serted discoveries, and from them alone.

Maldonado, it is true, was a Spaniard, but he likewise has found defenders only amongst strangers, whilst in his own country his narrative has been condemned as an imposture by posterity equally as by his cotemporaries.

CHAPTER V.

THE CONVENTION OF THE ESCURIAL.

The King George's Sound Company, in 1785.--Dixon and Portlock.--The Nootka and Sea Otter.--The Captain Cook and Experiment.--Expedition of Captain Hanna under the Portuguese Flag.--The Felice and Iphigenia.--The Princesa and San Carlos, in 1788.--Martinez and Haro directed to occupy Nootka in 1789.--The Princess Royal arrives at Nootka.--Colnett arrives in the Argonaut, July 2, 1789, with instructions to found a Factory.--He is seized, with his Vessel, by Martinez.--The Princess Royal also seized.--Both vessels sent as Prizes to San Blas.--The Columbia and Washington allowed to depart.--Representation of the Spanish Government to the Court of London.--British Reply.--Memorial of Captain Meares.--Message of the British Crown to Parliament.--British Note of May 5, 1790, to the Spanish Minister in London.--British Memorial of May 16.--Memorial of the Court of Spain, July 13.--Declaration of his Catholic Majesty to all the Courts of Europe.--Treaty of Utrecht.--Declaration and Counter declaration of July 4.--Spain demands aid from France, according to the Family Compact of 1761.--The National a.s.sembly promotes a peaceful Adjustment of the Dispute.--Convention between Spain and Great Britain signed at the Escurial, Oct. 28, 1790.--Recognition of the Claims of Great Britain.

It has been already observed, that no British subject could trade to the west of Cape Horn without a licence from the South Sea Company, whilst, on the other hand, to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope the East India Company possessed an exclusive monopoly of commerce. Thus the mercantile a.s.sociation which a.s.sumed the name of the King George's Sound Company, and which despatched two vessels under Dixon and Portlock from England in the autumn of 1785, had found it necessary to obtain licences from the South Sea Company for them to proceed by way of Cape Horn, and they had likewise entered into an arrangement with the East India Company to carry their furs to Canton, and there exchange them for teas and other products of China, to be conveyed in their turn round the Cape of Good Hope to England. These vessels sailed under the British flag. With a similar object, two vessels, the Nootka, under Captain Meares, and the Sea Otter, under Captain Tipping, were, by an a.s.sociation under the patronage of the Governor General of India, early in 1786, despatched from Calcutta, under the flag of the English East India Company, whilst the Captain Cook and the Experiment sailed from Bombay for the same destination. An attempt, however, had been made by the British merchants in the preceding year, to organise a trade between North-west America and China, under the protection of the Portuguese flag, so as to evade the excessive harbour dues demanded by the Chinese authorities from other European nations, by means of licences granted by the Portuguese authorities at Macao. The first expedition of this kind was made by Captain Hanna, in 1785, and was most successful as a commercial speculation. In a similar manner, in 1788, some British merchants residing in India fitted out the Felice and Iphigenia for this trade, and through the interest of Juan Cavallo, a Portuguese merchant who had resided for many years at Bombay as a naturalised British subject, and traded from that place under the protection of the East India Company, obtained from the Governor of Macao permission for them to navigate under the Portuguese flag, if found convenient. Meares in his memorial states, that Cavallo merely lent his name to the firm, and that he had no real interest in the Iphigenia, as on his subsequent bankruptcy the claims of his creditors were successfully resisted, and the Iphigenia consequently lost the privileges which she had hitherto enjoyed in the ports of China, in her character of a Portuguese ship. On the other hand, in the obligation which Martinez exacted from the master and supercargo of the Iphigenia, Cavallo is spoken of as the lawful owner of the vessel in whose name they bound themselves. It is possible however that they may have bound the ostensible owner on purpose to defeat the object of the Spanish commander, instead of the real owners; and a.s.suredly the instructions of the Merchant Proprietors to Captain Meares, "commanding the Felice and Iphigenia," seem to be at variance with the fact of Cavallo being the real owner, as they are addressed to him evidently not in the mere character of supercargo, but as having the complete control of the vessels, which are expressly stated to have been fitted out and equipped by the Merchant Proprietors: and Meares is directed to defend his vessel against all attempts of Russian, English, or Spanish vessels to seize it; to protest, if captured, against the seizure of his vessel and cargo; and to take possession of any vessel that attacked him, as also her cargo, in case he should have the superiority in the conflict. (Appendix to Meares' Voyage.)

To the same effect, the orders of Captain Meares to Captain Douglas, of the Iphigenia, seem to be conclusive that the latter had full control over the vessel. "Should you," it is observed, "in the course of your voyage, meet with the vessels of any other nation, you will have as little communication with them as possible. If they be of superior force, and desire to see your papers, you will show them. You will, however, be on your guard against surprise. Should they be either Russian, English, Spanish, or any other civilised nation, and are authorised to examine your papers, you will permit them, and treat them with civility and friendship.

But at the same time you must be on your guard. Should they attempt to seize you, or even carry you out of your way, you will prevent it by every means in your power, and repel force by force."

Captain Douglas, moreover, was directed to note down the good behaviour of his officers and crew, and thus afford his employers a medium to distinguish merit from worthlessness. "This log-book," they go on to state, "is to be signed by yourself. On your return to China you will seal up your log-book, charts, plans, &c., &c., and forward them to Daniel Beale, Esq., of Canton, who is the ostensible agent for the concern; and you have the most particular injunctions not to communicate or give copies of any charts or plans that you may make, as your employers a.s.sert a right to all of them, and as such will claim them."

The person to whom such instructions were addressed must evidently have had the control of the vessel, and not been merely in charge of the cargo.

It has been, however, rightly observed by Mr. Greenhow, that the papers on board the Iphigenia, when seized by Martinez, were written in the Portuguese language, which Captain Douglas did not understand, and therefore could not well act upon. The reply to this seems to be, that Douglas himself acted upon the letter of Captain Meares, inserted in the Appendix to Meares' Voyages, which embodied in English the substance of the general instructions drawn up for the expedition in Portuguese; and that the ship's papers were in the Portuguese language to support her a.s.sumed Portuguese character. There is no doubt that there was some deception in the transaction, but the deception seems to have been directed rather against the Chinese than the Spaniards.

Whatever may have been the character which was sought to be given to the Felice and Iphigenia, Meares appears on landing at Nootka to have avowed his British character, by hoisting British colours upon the house which he built on ground granted to him by Maquilla, the chief of the neighbouring district, as well as by displaying the English ensign on the vessel which he constructed and launched at Nootka. It was his intention to employ this vessel, a sloop of about forty tons, exclusively on the coast of America, in exploring new trading stations, and in collecting furs to be conveyed by the other vessels to the Chinese markets. It was named the North-west America, and was manned by a crew of seven British subjects and three natives of China.

Meares, having left the Iphigenia and North-west America to carry on the trade on the American coast, returned with a cargo of furs to Macao, in December 1788, and having there sold the Felice, a.s.sociated himself with some merchants of London, who had embarked in this commerce under licences from the East India and South Sea Companies. Two of their vessels, under Dixon and Portlock, which have already been alluded to, the Prince of Wales and Princess Royal, had just arrived at Canton from the north-west coast of America. Meares, apprehending that mutual loss would result from compet.i.tion, entered into a formal agreement with Mr. John Etches, the supercargo of the two ships, making a joint stock of all the vessels and property employed in that trade. The new firm immediately purchased an additional ship, named the Argonaut, and the Prince of Wales being chartered with a cargo of tea to England by the East India Company, the Princess Royal and the Argonaut were ordered to sail to Nootka Sound under the command of Captain Colnett and Captain Hudson. It is indisputable that these vessels were sailing under the British flag, and from the instructions delivered to Captain Colnett, the Iphigenia and North-west America were henceforward to be under his orders, and to trade on account of the Company. He was accordingly directed to send home Captain Douglas in the Argonaut, and to receive from him the Iphigenia and North-west America, shifting their crews, &c.

"We also authorise you," the instructions go on to state, "to dismiss from your service all persons who shall refuse to obey your orders, when they are for our benefit, and in this case we give you to understand, the Princess Royal, America, and other small craft, are always to continue on the coast of America. Their officers and people, when the time of their service is up, must be embarked in the returning ship to China, and on no account whatever will we suffer a deviation from these orders."

Thenceforward, it appears, that the Iphigenia and North-west America would be considered as sailing under the same character as the other vessels of this Company.

The steady advance of the Russian establishments along the north-west sh.o.r.es of the Pacific, which had become notorious from the publication of Captain Cook's journals, could not but cause great anxiety to the Spanish government. An expedition of inquiry was in consequence sent northward from the port of San Blas in 1788, consisting of two vessels, the Princesa and San Carlos, under the command of Esteban Jose Martinez and Gonzalo Lopez de Haro. They were instructed to proceed directly to Prince William's Sound, and to visit the various factories of the Russians in that neighbourhood. Having executed their commission, they returned to San Blas in the autumn of the same year, and reported the results of their voyage to the Viceroy of Mexico. Martinez brought back the information that it was the intention of the Russians to found a settlement at Nootka.

The Court of Madrid in consequence addressed a remonstrance to the Emperor of Russia against the encroachments upon the territories of his Catholic Majesty, which were a.s.sumed to extend northward up to Prince William's Sound, and the Viceroy of Mexico in the mean time took measures to prevent the execution of any such schemes. With this object he despatched Martinez and Haro in 1789, with instructions to occupy the port of Nootka by right of the prior discovery of Perez in 1774, to treat any Russian or English vessels that might be there with the courtesy which the amicable relations between the several nations required, but to manifest to them the paramount rights of Spain to make establishments there, and by inference to prevent all foreign establishments which might be prejudicial to Spanish interests.

The Princesa sailed into Nootka Sound on the 6th of May 1789, and found the Iphigenia at Friendly Cove. The San Carlos joined her consort on the 13th. The Columbia merchantman, of the United States of America, was lying at anchor at no great distance. Mutual civilities pa.s.sed between the different vessels till the 15th, when Martinez took possession of the Iphigenia, and transferred her captain and crew as prisoners to his own vessels. He subsequently allowed the Iphigenia to depart, upon an obligation being signed by the captain and supercargo on behalf of Juan Cavallo of Macao, as the owner, to satisfy all demands, in case the Viceroy of Spain should p.r.o.nounce her to be a prize, on account of navigating or anchoring in seas or ports belonging to the dominion of his Catholic Majesty without his permission. Captain Kendrick of the Columbia, and Ingraham his first pilot, were called in to witness this agreement.

The Iphigenia was released on the 1st of June, and sailed away directly to Queen Charlotte's Island. On the 8th, the North-west America arrived from a trading voyage along the southern coasts, and was immediately taken possession of by Martinez. A few days afterwards the Princess Royal arrived from Macao, bringing intelligence of the failure of the house of Cavallo, in consequence of which Martinez hoisted Spanish colours on board of the North-west America, and employed her to trade along the coast upon his own account.