The Nootka Sound Controversy: A dissertation

by William R. Manning

Chapter V.
THE QUARREL AND SEIZURE.

The English ship from China, the Argonaut, Captain Colnett, whose equipment and instructions have already been discussed, arrived at Nootka late in the evening of July 2, 1789. She had neared the coast some distance north the previous evening. Sailing southward, she was visited in the morning by some Indians, who told of five vessels in Friendly Cove, but could not identify them. The officers conjectured that the ships belonged to Mr. Etches, one of the merchants interested in their proposed colony. They hastened to join them. As their vessel approached the entrance they saw the sloop Princess Royal pass out and sail away. This increased their confidence, since she was their consort. Shortly after they passed the sloop they saw two launches approach in the growing darkness. A voice in Spanish asked permission to come on board and was answered in the affirmative. The leader of the party was the Spanish commander, Martinez. Two hours earlier he had been notified from the port of the approach of a ship. Thinking it to be the Aranzazu, which he had been anxiously expecting for some weeks from San Blas with provisions, he had hastened to welcome her in.

The events that follow this meeting of Martinez with Colnett, the commander of the English expedition, are the real genesis of the Nootka controversy. Had the vigorous measures of the Spanish commander stopped with the seizure of the two vessels already discussed, the matter would probably never have reached the cabinets of London and Madrid. Since these events are so important, a detailed account is given. This is drawn from five separate narratives, all written by men who were present and took part in them. One is the letter of Martinez, written at the close of the events, giving his official account to the Viceroy. Another is a letter from Colnett to the same official, written some three months later. These two are unpublished. The third is a second account by Colnett, written nine years later, appearing as a footnote to his published narrative of a subsequent voyage. The fourth is a series of letters, written while the events were in progress, by Duffin, second in command to Colnett, but really in control during most of the time. The fifth is the letter, written three years later, by the American captains, who were eyewitnesses of most of the events.[130]

At the first meeting each commander was disappointed at finding the other very different from the person whom he expected. Martinez at once presented to Colnett a letter from Captain Hudson, of the Princess Royal, saying that the bearer was commander of two ships of His Catholic Majesty anchored in Friendly Cove; that the writer had received all possible aid from him and had departed. The letter had been written that very morning, and put Colnett somewhat at his ease. He invited Martinez and his party, among whom were the officers of the American ships, down into the cabin, where they drank freely together. The Spaniard was very courteous, declared that the vessels under his command were in great distress from the want of provisions and other necessaries, and urged the English commander to go into port in order to supply their needs, inviting him to stay for some time. Colnett, in his letter to the Viceroy, says that he consented to stay, provided he should be permitted to build a sloop, for which he had the materials on board; but this being refused, he said that he could not stay longer than the next day.

On the other hand, Martinez says that Colnett claimed to have come under authority from the King of England, with orders to take possession of Nootka, construct a fort, establish a factory, and plant a colony, for which he had brought 29 Chinese laborers; that having learned this his interpreter made the Englishman understand that Martinez had already taken possession of the port in the name and under an order of the King of Spain; that thereupon the English captain claimed the land for His Britannic Majesty on the ground of Cook’s discovery, adding that his company had purchased the rights to the place which were acquired the previous year by the Portuguese company, their vessels, the Iphigenia and the North-West America, being also included in the purchase. To refute the Englishman’s arguments, the Spaniard declared that a Spanish expedition had discovered the port four years earlier than Cook;[131] that he himself had accompanied the expedition, and from him the spoons had been stolen which Cook tells of purchasing; that the Portuguese company had done wrong in selling land which was not theirs but belonged to the King of Spain, not only this port being the property of that Crown, but all the coast as far as Prince Williams Sound. Colnett, the Spaniard continues, was unable to reply to these well-founded arguments. The American captains say:

Colnett asked if he would be prevented from building a house in the port. The commodore, mistaking his meaning, answered him he was at liberty to erect a tent, get wood and water, etc., after which he was at liberty to depart when he pleased; but Captain Colnett said that was not what he wanted, but to build a blockhouse, erect a fort, and settle a colony for the Crown of Great Britain. This was refused.

Colnett, in his published account, says that he hesitated, being uncertain whether to enter the port, but—

The Spaniard, observing my unwillingness to comply with his request, assured me on his word and honor, in the name of the King of Spain, whose servant he was, and of the Viceroy of Mexico, whose nephew he declared himself to be, that if I would go into port and relieve his wants I should be at liberty to sail whenever I pleased.

Martinez’s plea of distress and his solemn promise, with Hudson’s letter, the Englishman says, influenced him to enter the harbor, and, as there was a calm, he allowed the Spanish boats to assist in towing his vessel into the cove. Among the party that had come out in the launches was the pilot of the captured English schooner. He told Colnett of the situation in the cove—the Spanish war ships, the fort, the formal possession, the seizure of the Iphigenia and North-West America, and the arrival and departure of Captain Hudson. He advised Colnett to anchor outside the cove until morning, but the latter, depending on the Spaniard’s honor, entered and brought up between the Spanish ships at about midnight.