426 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 



that he has taken the steps you will observe in the said extract, and that 

 he has commenced an amicable and direct negotiation with England, 

 which he will finish with Mr. Fitzherbert, the new ambassador sent 

 from that court to the court of Madrid. We are in hopes that the con- 

 sequences of this negotiation will be favorable ; but, at the same time, we 

 must employ all the necessary means to make it so. 



An immediate and exact accomplishment of the treaty signed at Paris, 

 the loth of August, 1761, under the title of the Family Compact, becomes 

 an indispensable preliminary to a successful negotiation. It is in conse- 

 quence of the absolute necessity which Spain finds of having recourse to 

 the succor of France, that the king, my master, orders me to demand 

 expressly what France can do in the present circumstances to assist 

 Spain, according to the mutual engagements stipulated by the treaties. 

 His Catholic majesty desires that the armaments, as well as other proper 

 measures to fulfil and realize these sacred engagements, be immediately 

 put in execution. He charges me to add further, that the present state 

 of this unforeseen business requires a very speedy determination, and that 

 the measures which the court of France shall take for his assistance, shall 

 be so active, so clear, and so positive, as to prevent even the smallest 

 ground for suspicion. Otherwise his most Christian majesty must not be 

 surprised that Spain should seek other friends and different allies among 

 all the powers of Europe, without excepting any one, upon whose assist- 

 ance she can rely in case of need. The ties of blood and personal friend- 

 ship which unite our two sovereigns, and particularly the reciprocal 

 interest which exists between two nations united by nature, shall be 

 respected in all new arrangements, as far as circumstances will permit. 



This, sir, is the positive demand which I am obliged to make, and in 

 consequence of which I hope his most Christian majesty will immediately 

 take such measures as shall seem most suitable, in the present circum- 

 stances, to satisfy my master, in an object so interesting and important to 

 the preservation of his legal rights, and the honor of his nation. 

 I have the honor to be, &c, 



El Conde de Fernan Nunez. 



(5.) 



Letter from Mr. Fitzherbert to Count de Florida Blanca. 



Madrid, [probably,] June 16<A, 1790. 

 Sir, 



In compliance with your excellency's desire, I have now the 

 honor to communicate to you, in writing, what I observed to you in the 

 conversation we had the day before yesterday. 



The substance of these observations are briefly these : — 

 The court of London is animated with the most sincere desire of 

 terminating the difference that at present subsists between it and the 

 court of Madrid, relative to the port of Nootka, and the adjacent lati- 

 tudes, by a friendly negotiation; but as it is evident, upon the clearest 

 principles of justice and reason, that an equal negotiation cannot be 

 opened till matters are put in their original state, and as certain acts have 

 been committed in the latitudes in question by vessels belonging to the 



