The Nootka Sound Controversy: A dissertation

by William R. Manning

This affidavit was signed by Martinez before the notary, Canizares. Following it is one by the interpreter of the expedition saying that he delivered the above order, and then comes a long one giving an account of the interview that followed.

Viana, the captain, Douglas, the supercargo, and Adamson, the first pilot, immediately answered the summons, and repaired on board the Princesa. Martinez began by demanding an explanation for their having anchored in a port of the Spanish dominions without a license from that Monarch. They replied that they were there in virtue of their passport from the governor of Macao; that, as to this port’s belonging to the Spanish dominions, they were ignorant of it, since the fact had not been published at the European Courts; and that they were informed by the first article of their instructions that this 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 he met with the vessel of a foreign nation, to appeal to that vessel for assistance in imprisoning his own crew and conducting them to Macao, and that the mutinous crew were the ones to be punished as pirates. Martinez insisted that this was not the true import of the articles, but a clumsy pretext. Considering their defense unsatisfactory, according to the cited article of the orders for the royal navy, Martinez demanded in the name of the King that they should surrender themselves as prisoners of war. The affidavit giving account of this was signed by Viana, Douglas, and Martinez before Canizares.[99]

This is Martinez’s account of the arrest, written at the time or very soon thereafter, since it bears the signature of Viana and Douglas, and they would have been most unlikely to sign it if they had not been compelled to do so while in captivity. It is very doubtful whether Martinez was truthful in his report of the clumsy fabrication offered by Viana and Douglas in defense of the objectionable clause. To have offered such, expecting it to be believed, they would have had to be either very stupid or absolutely certain that Martinez and all his associates were entirely ignorant of the Portuguese language—a very unlikely circumstance. This false defense may have been invented by the Spanish commander to give more color to the justice 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 pirates. This is what he referred to when he spoke of their being so despotic. It is impossible to understand how, in a correct translation, he could have seen anything so obnoxious as he claimed to see. If, however, this rendering had been the correct one, it would have made the Iphigenia virtually a pirate ship, and Martinez would have been fully justified. But if his first translation was faulty, his later one was correct, as will be seen by comparing the quotation from it given above with the instructions of the Merchant Proprietors to Meares, the English commander of the expedition. They correspond almost word for word, differing only in the details necessary to give the appearance of a Portuguese instead of an English expedition.[100]

This error of Martinez is brought out in Douglas’s account of the investigation. He says:

[Martinez] told me my papers were bad; that they mentioned I was to take all English, Russian, and Spanish vessels that were of inferior force to the Iphigenia, and send or carry their crews to Macao, there to be tried for their lives 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 nations, to defend myself, and, if I had the superiority, to send the captain and crews to Macao to answer for the insult they offered. The padries and the clerk read the papers over, and said they had interpreted the papers right.[102]

The American commanders say that the capture was due to a misinterpretation.[103] If Martinez did make this mistake and later was led to restore the vessel by the discovery of it, he remains entirely silent regarding it, giving other reasons for the release, as will be seen.

Between May 13, when the Iphigenia was seized, and May 25, when she was released, part of her officers and crew were detained on board Martinez’s 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 conduct of the Spanish during these twelve days while they held the Iphigenia prisoner there are the most divergent accounts in the different sources.

According to the account of Douglas, a deaf ear was turned to his plea that he had been forced to enter the port because of the distress of his vessel, which was such that, had he entered a port of the Spanish dominions of South America he would have been allowed to repair his damages and depart in peace, and that consequently to take him prisoner in a port to which the King of Spain had never laid claim was a piece of injustice that no nation had ever attempted before. His offer to leave the port immediately in spite of his distress, if permission should be granted, was refused; he and his crew were 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 take him to the Sandwich Islands, and had not interfered with his navigation; another paper was forced upon him by which he agreed that, if his papers should be found to be bad, the vessel was to be delivered up at Macao, and before he was allowed to sail a letter was demanded from him to Captain Funter, of the North-West America, ordering the latter to sell the schooner to Martinez; but, not having authority either to sell or to order another to sell, he said nothing in the letter that he left about selling the vessel, but advised Funter to act to the best of his judgment for the benefit of his employers.[104]

According to the account of the American captains, on the other hand, the officers of the Iphigenia “were treated with all imaginable kindness, and every attention paid them.”