184 APPREHENSIONS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1787. 



having waited in vain for the promised intelligence until the ena of 



1787, resolved to despatch vessels to the North Pacific, in order to 

 ascertain the truth with regard to the trade and settlements of the 

 Russians and other foreign nations on the coasts of that division of 

 the ocean. 



Before relating the particulars of the expedition made for that 

 purpose, a circumstance may be mentioned, which serves to show 

 the state of feeling of the Spanish government at the period in 

 question, with regard to the proceedings of foreigners in the Pacific, 

 and the extent of the measures which it was ready to adopt in order 

 to exclude them from that ocean. It has been said, ,in the preced- 

 ing chapter, that the ship Columbia having received some damage 

 on her way from Boston to the north-west coast of America, in May, 



1788, entered a harbor in the Island of Juan Fernandez, where as- 

 sistance was afforded in refitting her by the Spanish commandant 

 Don Bias Gonzales and his garrison. After her departure, the 

 commandant communicated the circumstances, by a despatch, to 

 his immediate superior, the captain-general of Chili, who thereupon 

 recalled Gonzales from the island, and placed him in arrest, address- 

 ing, at the same time, a report on the subject, with a request for 

 instructions, to the viceroy of Peru. The viceroy, after consulting 

 with his official legal adviser, replied to the captain-general at length 

 on the subject, and expressed his surprise and displeasure at the mis- 

 conduct of the commandant of Juan Fernandez, in allowing the 

 strange ship to leave the harbor, instead of seizing her and her crew ; 

 as he should have known that, by the royal ordinance of November, 

 1692, every foreign vessel found in those seas, without a license 

 from the court of Spain, was to be treated as an enemy, even though 

 belonging to a friend or ally of the king, seeing that no other nation 

 had, or ought to have, any territories, to reach which its vessels 

 should pass around Cape Horn or through Magellan's Straits. In 

 so serious a light did the viceroy regard the matter, that a ship was 

 sent from Callao to track or intercept the Columbia ; the authori- 

 ties on the coasts of Peru and Chili were specially enjoined to be 

 vigilant, and, in case any foreign vessel should appear in the vicini- 

 ty, to seize her; and the whole affair was made known by a de- 

 spatch to the viceroy of Mexico, in order that similar precautions 

 might be adopted on his part. The unfortunate commandant Gon- 

 zales was cashiered for his remissness ; and he subsequently ad- 

 dressed a petition to the government of the United States for its 

 intercession with his sovereign. Thus were half of the Spanish do- 



