1789.] SEIZURE OF THE 1PHIGENIA. 191 



" she had like to have foundered at sea, for want of pitch and tar 

 to stop the leaks ; she had no bread on board, and nothing but salt 

 pork for her crew to live on ; she was without cables," and, on 

 attempting to moor her in the harbor, it was necessary to " borrow 

 a fall from the American sloop Washington," which, with the ship 

 Columbia, was found lying there. The North-West America was 

 in no better condition ; and, as they had no articles for barter with 

 the natives, they must have remained inactive for some time, had 

 they not procured some assistance and supplies from the American 

 vessels, by means of which the schooner was enabled to leave the 

 sound on the 28th of the month, for a short trading trip along the 

 coasts. The Washington, about the same time, also departed on a 

 similar expedition ; and the Iphigenia, lying at Friendly Cove, and 

 the Columbia, at Mawhinna, a few miles higher up, were the only 

 vessels in Nootka Sound on the 6th of May, when the Spanish 

 commander Martinez arrived there in the corvette Princesa, to take 

 possession of the country for his sovereign. 



Martinez immediately communicated his intentions to the captains 

 of the other vessels, whose papers he also examined ; and, appear- 

 ing to be content, he landed materials and artillery, and began to 

 erect a fort on a small island at the entrance of Friendly Cove. 

 With this assumption of authority on his part, no dissatisfaction 

 appears to have been expressed or entertained by either of the other 

 parties ; on the contrary, the utmost good feeling for some time 

 prevailed on all sides : the officers of the different vessels visited 

 and dined with each other, and Martinez readily supplied the 

 Iphigenia with articles of which she was in need, in order to go to 

 sea immediately, accepting, in return for them, bills drawn by her 

 Portuguese captain, Viana, upon Juan Cavallo, the Portuguese 

 merchant of Macao, as her owner. 



Things remained thus at Nootka for a week, at the end of which 

 time the other Spanish vessel, the San Carlos, arrived, under 

 Captain Haro. On the following day, the 15th of May, Martinez 

 invited Viana and Douglas to come on board his ship; and, on 

 their doing so, he immediately told them that they were prisoners, 

 and their vessel was to be seized. " I inquired," says Douglas, in 

 his journal, " the cause of his not taking the Washington sloop, as he 

 had orders from the king of Spain to take every vessel he met out 

 on this coast. He gave me no satisfactory answer, but told me my 

 papers were bad ; that they mentioned I was to take all English, 

 Russian, and Spanish vessels that were of inferior force to the 



