1792.] PROPOSITIONS OF QJJADRA. 243 



had been in habits of constant intercourse with Maquinna and his 

 people for nine months, they had never heard of any purchase of 

 lands on that coast by British subjects ; and that the only building 

 seen by them, when they reached the sound in September, 1789, 

 was a rude hut, made by the Indians, which had been destroyed 

 long before the arrival of the Spaniards.* These statements were, 

 in all respects, confirmed by Viana, the Portuguese, who had been 

 the captain of the Iphigenia in 1788 and 1789, and who was then 

 with his vessel at Nootka ; and the Spanish commissioner thereupon 

 considered himself authorized to assume that no lands were to be 

 restored, and no buildings to be replaced or paid for by Spain. 



A communication to this effect, with copies of the letters of Gray 

 and Ingraham and Viana, was, accordingly, addressed by Quadra 

 to Vancouver, on the arrival of the latter at Nootka. The Spanish 

 commissioner, however, at the same time offered, with the view of 

 removing all causes of disagreement between the two nations, to 

 surrender to the British the small spot of ground on the shore of 

 Friendly Cove, which had been temporariij* occupied by Meares and 

 his people in 1788 ; to give up, Tor their use, the houses and cul- 

 tivated lands of the Spaniards near that place ; and to retire with 

 all his forces to Port Nunez Gaona, in the Strait of Fuca, (where 

 an establishment had been begun by Fidalgo,) until the two govern- 

 ments should determine further on the matter: with the under- 

 standing, nevertheless, that this cession was not to be considered as 

 affecting the rights of his Catholic majesty to the dominion of the 

 territory, and that Nootka was to be regarded as the most northern 

 settlement of the Spaniards, to whom the whole coast lying south 

 of it, and the adjacent country, was to be acknowledged to belong 

 exclusively. 



Vancouver, on the other hand, had thought proper to construe 

 the first article of the convention of 1790 as giving to his country- 

 men possession of the whole territory surrounding Nootka and Clyo- 

 quot ; and he therefore refused to receive what was offered by 

 Quadra, declaring, with regard to the concluding part of the 

 Spaniard's proposition, that he was not authorized to enter into any 

 discussion as to the rights or claims of the respective nations. In 

 this conviction he was supported by the evidence of Robert Duffin, 

 the former mate of the Argonaut, who happened to arrive at Nootka 

 while the negotiation was in progress. This person testified that 



* See letter of Gray and Ingraham to Quadra, among the Proofs and Illustrations, 

 in the latter part of this volume, under the letter D. 



