1789.] NEW EXPEDITION FROM MACAO. 189 



ted, the right to occupy thus derived cannot surely be regarded as 

 subsisting forever, to the exclusion of all other nations ; and the 

 claims of states already occupying contiguous territories are always 

 to be taken into consideration. 



Agreeably to these views, it could not with justice be assumed 

 that Spain, from the mere fact of the first discovery of the north- 

 west coasts of America by her subjects, acquired the right to 

 exclude all other nations from them forever ; but it would be most 

 unjust to deny that her right to occupy those vacant territories, 

 contiguous as they were to her settled dominions, even if they had 

 not been first discovered by her subjects, was much stronger than 

 that of any other nation. Thus the occupation, and even the 

 exploration, of any part of the north-west coasts by another power, 

 might have been reasonably considered by Spain as an unfriendly, 

 if not as an offensive, act ; while she might, on the contrary, have 

 extended her establishments at least as far north as the 56th parallel, 

 and have claimed the exclusive right to occupy all the coasts south 

 of her most northern establishment, without giving just cause of 

 dissatisfaction to any other power. The right to occupy must be 

 here distinguished from the right of sovereignty ; as no nation could 

 be justified, by virtue of the former right, and without occupation 

 or the performance of acts indicating an intention soon to occupy, 

 in depriving others of the trade of extensive vacant sea-coasts, un- 

 less upon the ground that the exercise of such trade would be 

 injurious to its actual interests in those countries. 



Resuming the narrative of events in the North Pacific — It has 

 been mentioned, in the preceding chapter, that Meares sailed in the 

 Felice from Nootka Sound to China, in the end of September, 

 1789. On reaching Macao, in December following, he learned that 

 during his absence, Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese merchant, whose 

 name appeared on the papers of the Felice and Iphigenia as their 

 owner, had become a bankrupt. What steps were taken immediate- 

 ly, in consequence of this event, is not related ; but an arrangement 

 was soon after made between the anonymous merchant proprietors 

 and Mr. Etches, the agent of the King George's Sound Company, 

 who was then at Macao, with the ship Prince of Wales and sloop 

 Princess Royal, for a union of the interests of the two parties. 

 Agreeably to this arrangement, the Felice was sold, and the Prince 

 of Wales returned to England ; and a ship called the Argonaut was 

 purchased, in which Colnett, a lieutenant in the British navy, previ- 

 ously commanding the Princess Royal, was despatched, in April, 



