The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-05-07

from the Indians at Nooilka, who there demand pay
for everything, and viii fight boldly if it be refused
A house was possibly built on this ground, and a
cannon is said to have been planted in ditch
dug around it; and, finally all these transac-
Place, under the guaranty of the Portuguese flag
This is the whole amount of ''hs settlement
Of Nsotka Sound held by British subjects" as
mentioned by Lord John Russell. This is its
whole history from its foundation to its aban-
donment, as proved by abundant evidence, of
which u suficiency is afforded by the narrative OF
Mr.. Meares, the pretended founder.
This narrative of Meares is not to be COMPOUNDED
with the memorial addressed by him to the British
government in 1890, in which the same circum-
stances are, throughout made to appear in different
forms.s The employment of the Portuguese flag
mad vessel is in the memorial, represented as merely
the consequence of an arrangement with the Portu-
guese authorities, avoid tho heavy duties exaced
by the Chinese leaving the port of Macao; keep
ing out of view entirely the provisions of the acts of
Parliament agreeaby to which the vessels would have
been seized and confscated, and their officers severely
punished, if found navigating these seas under the
British flag. The temporary use of the ground OBJ
tanned from the Indians, becomes purchase of ter
ritory on which house was built, and the British
flag was hoisted; and other grants Of ground and
trading privileges, in the vicinity of Nootka, are
mentioned in the memorial, of which nothing is said
in the tediousy minute accounts of the transactions
at these places in the narrative. British historians
improving upon Meares, convert the supposed house
and ditch into fort and factory under the flag Of
Great Britain; Lord John Russell has raised it
to the dignity of settlement and some advocate of
the British claims among us will probably, in time,
representa- province, under governor appointed
by his Britannia Majesty.
In the mean time the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico
having reason to apprehend that the Russians were
about to occupy Nootka Sound sent Captain Mar
tnez with two vessels to take possession of that
place in the name of his sovereign. The most
northern Spanish settlement on the Pacific side Of
America was at the entrance of the Bay of Saint
Francisco, between which, and the vicinity of Moot
ka, there is not single good harbor; and Martinez
was selected for this establishment, he had been
the second officer Of the vessel by which Nootka
Sound was discovered in l774, four years before
Cook entered it. Martinez arrived ia the sound on
the 9th of May, 1889, when he Immediately took
possession of the country in due form, and began
the erection of fort upon an island commanding
the entrance Of the harbor. He found there the
American ship Columbia and sloop Washington,
from Boston, which had spent the winter in the
sound and Of the Portuguese vessels brought out
by Meares in the preceding year, well as the
built by him at Nootka, which had just entered to-
gether from the Sandwich Islands. On examining
the papers of the Portuguese vessel, nstructing
her captain to take any Spanish vessel which should
attempt to interfere with him, Martinez seized her,
and was about to send her to Mexico for trial. She
was, however, released, and was even furnished with
rigging and stores, of which she stood in need for
prosecuting her voyage to China.
Soon afterwards, two other vessels arrived, which
had been sent from Macao by Meares, really under
the British flag; as they came with licenses from
both the great companies, and under instructions to
form a settlement at Nootka Sound. Martinez
received them, but declared the place to be a
Spanish port The captain of one of the British ves-
sells refused to consider it as such; whereupon,
Martinez seized both the vessels, and sent them as
prizes to Mexico.
The conduct Of the Spanish commander on this
occasion was, in many respects, most reprehensble;
and the claim for indemnifcation, addressed in
sequence by the British governmental that Of Spain,
seems to have been just and proper. But Mr.. Pitt,
then the head of the British government, deter
mined to take advantage of the circumstance, to bend
Spain to his views, and at the same time to arm
Great Britain for the conflict which he anticipated
with revolutionary France. He therefore demand
ed from Spain not only restoration of the British
vessels and PREPARATION of the losses consequent upon
their seizure, but acknowledgment of the rights of
British subjects to sail and fish in any part of the
Pacific and TO trade with the natives, and settle on
any of its vacant coasts. The Spanish government,
with the dread of British smuggers, and British
defers Of arbitrary power before it, refused to yield
to these demands; and war was on the point Of
breaking out between the two nations, when a COM
made on this occasion, we know nothing, except
the fact that secret engagement was made, to
resist the French revolutionsts in certain contingent
cies. The only stpulations communicated to the
world, are those of the well-known Nootka con-
vention, signed at the Escurial on the 28th of
October, 1890, by which it was agreed-that
Spain should restore to British subjects any lands,
buildings, or property, on the northwest coasts OF
America, Of which they had been dspossessed since
April 1889, or make compensation for them; and that
both nations should have the right to navigate and
fish in any part the Pacific, provided that no British
vessel should approach within ten leagues Of any
Spanish settlement; that neither party should form
any settlement on the coasts of South America, or
the adjacent islands south of the souhernmost Span
ish settlement; and that all parts of the northwest
coasts of America, north Of the northernmost place
occupied by Spain in April 1889, should be free and
open the people of both nations for trade and settle
ment; except that in all places so occupied by the
party, the subjects Of the other should have free
access and liberty to trade without hindrance or
molestation.
The British government endeavored to have these
latter provisions extended over all the dominion of
the continent, north of line drawn from the Pacific