198 SEIZURE OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL. [1789. 



there, and be allowed to depart at his pleasure ; and it seems to be 

 equally certain that the English captain did afterwards conduct 

 himself with so much violence and extravagance towards the Span- 

 ish commandant, as to render his own arrest perfectly justifiable. 

 The seizure of the Argonaut, the imprisonment of her other officers 

 and crew, and the spoliation of her cargo, cannot, however, be 

 defended on those or on any grounds afforded by the evidence of any 

 of the parties ; for Martinez had no reason to apprehend an attack 

 from the Argonaut, and he had been specially instructed, by his 

 immediate superior, the viceroy of Mexico, to suspend, with regard 

 to British vessels on the north-west coasts, the execution of the 

 general orders to Spanish commandants, for the seizure of foreign 

 vessels entering the ports of the American dominions. 



Still less excusable was the conduct of Martinez towards the sloop 

 Princess Royal, on her second arrival at Nootka. She appeared at 

 the entrance of the sound on the 13th of July, having made a short 

 trading cruise along the northern coasts ; and her captain, Hudson, 

 on coming up to Friendly Cove in a boat, was arrested, after which 

 his vessel was boarded and brought in as a prize by a party of 

 Spaniards despatched for the purpose. On the following day, the 

 majority of her crew were transferred to the Argonaut, which 

 carried them as prisoners to San Bias ; her cargo was then taken 

 out, and she was herself afterwards employed for nearly two years 

 in the Spanish service, under Lieutenant Quimper. 



The schooner North- West America was also retained in the 

 national service of Spain ; her officers and men, with some of 

 those of the Argonaut and Princess Royal, were, however, placed 

 on board the American ship Columbia, to be carried as passengers 

 to China, one hundred of the sea otter skins found in the Princess 

 Royal being allowed in payment of their wages and transportation. 

 Martinez remained at Nootka until November, when he departed, 

 with his three vessels, for San Bias, agreeably to orders received by 

 him from Mexico. 



The Columbia had remained in the sound ever since her first 

 arrival there, in October, 1788; the Washington being, in the mean 

 time, engaged in trading along the coasts north and south of that 

 place, to which she, however, frequently returned, in order to 

 deposit the furs collected. The officers of these vessels were thus 

 witnesses of nearly all the occurrences at Nootka during the summer 

 of 1789, in which, indeed, they frequently took part as mediators ; 



