182 



CHAPTER VIII. 



1788 and 1789. 



Uneasiness of the Spanish Government at the Proceedings of the Fur Traders in the 

 North Pacific — Voyage of Observation by Martinez and Haro to the Russian 

 American Settlements — Remonstrances of the Court of Madrid to that of St. 

 Petersburg, against the alleged Encroachments of the latter Power — Martinez 

 and Haro sent by the Viceroy of Mexico to take Possession of Nootka Sound — 

 Seizure of British and other Vessels at Nootka by Martinez — Captain Gray, in 

 the Washington, explores the East Coast of Queen Charlotte's Island, and en- 

 ters the Strait of Fuca — Return of the Columbia to the United States. 



Having, in the preceding chapter, presented a sketch of the geo- 

 graphical discoveries effected on the north-west coasts of America, 

 in the interval between the time of Cook's last voyage and the year 

 1790, we now proceed to relate the important events of a political 

 nature, which occurred on those coasts during the latter part of the 

 same period. These events have been variously represented — or 

 rather misrepresented — by the historians to whom reference is usu- 

 ally made for information respecting them ; * and ample proofs will 

 be here offered, that the most essential circumstances have been ex- 

 hibited in false forms, and under false colors, either designedly, or 

 from indifference and want of research on the part of the authors. 



The movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific were, 

 from the beginning, regarded with dissatisfaction and mistrust by the 

 court of Madrid. It was at first proposed to counteract them by 

 monopolizing that branch of commerce ; for which object an agent 

 was despatched to California, in 1786, with orders to collect all the 



* Namely, the histories of England, by Bissett, Miller, Belsham, (in which latter 

 the accounts are more fair and more nearly correct than in any other,) Hughes, Wade, 

 and the Pictorial History of England — Schoell's Histoire des Traites de Paix — Bren- 

 ton's Naval History of Great Britain, last edition — Introduction to the Journal of 

 Galiano and Valdes — History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, by T. D. Cooley — 

 Gifford's Life of William Pitt, &c. In the most recent of these works, namely, the 

 Pictorial History of England, the account is farthest from the truth; the author has 

 evidently not consulted any original evidence on the subject, except, possibly, the 

 Memorial of Meares, or the abstract of that paper in the Annual Register. 



