D.] PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 425 



of the two courts ; adding that the court of Spain was actuated by the 

 most pacific intentions, and a desire to give every satisfaction and indem- 

 nification, if justice was not on their side, provided England did as much 

 if she was found to be in the wrong. 



This answer must convince all the courts of Europe that the conduct 

 of the king and his administration is consonant to the invariable principles 

 of justice, truth, and peace. 



El Conde de Florida Blanca. 



(4.) 



Letter from Count de Feman Nunez, the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, 

 to M. de Montmorin, the Secretary of the Foreign Department of 

 France. 



Paris, June 16zA, 1790. 

 Sir, 



I have the honor to address you, with this, a faithful extract of 

 all the transactions which have hitherto passed between my court and that 

 of London, on the subject of the detention of two English vessels, which 

 were seized in the Bay of St. Lawrence, or Nootka, situated in the 50th 

 degree to the north of California, and which were afterwards taken to the 

 port of St. Bias. 



You will observe by this relation, 



1. That, by the treaties, demarkations, takings of possession, and the 

 most decided acts of sovereignty exercised by the Spaniards in these 

 stations, from the reign of Charles II., and authorized by that monarch in 

 1692, the original vouchers for which shall be brought forward in the 

 course of the negotiation, all the coast to the north of the Western Amer- 

 ica, on the side of the South Sea, as far as beyond what is called Prince 

 William's Sound, which is in the 61st degree, is acknowledged to belong 

 exclusively to Spain. 



2. That the court of Russia, having been informed of this extent of 

 our boundary, assured the king, my master, without the least delay, of 

 the purity of its intentions in this respect, and added, " That it was 

 extremely sorry that the repeated orders issued to prevent the subjects of 

 Russia from violating, in the smallest degree, the territory belonging to 

 another power, should have been disobeyed." 



3. That the state of the possessions and exclusive commerce on the 

 sea-coast of the Southern Ocean, as it existed in the time of Charles II., 

 had been acknowledged and defined anew by all the nations of Europe, 

 and more particularly by England, in the eighth article of the treaty 

 of Utrecht. 



4. That, notwithstanding the just title he has to a preservation of his 

 ancient rights, the king, my master, has approved of the conduct of the 

 viceroy of Mexico, who, in consequence of his general orders and instruc- 

 tions for the preservation of peace with every power, took upon himself to 

 release the vessels seized in the port of Nootka, upon a supposition that 

 the conduct of their captains was a consequence of their total ignorance 

 with respect to the legitimacy of the rights of Spain on those coasts. 



It is in consequence of the desire of his Catholic majesty to pre- 

 serve peace to himself, and to establish the general tranquillity of Europe, 



54 



