428 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 



The principles laid down cannot be adapted to the case. The 

 vessels detained attempted to make an establishment at a port where 

 they found a nation actually settled, the Spanish commander at Nootka 

 having, previous to their detention, made the most amicable represen- 

 tations to the aggressors to desist from their purpose. 



Your excellency will also permit me to lay before you, that it is not 

 at all certain that the vessels detained navigated under the British flag, 

 although they were English vessels ; there having been reason to believe 

 that they navigated under the protection of Portuguese passports, fur 

 nished them by the governor of Macao as commercial vessels, and not 

 belonging to the royal marine. Your excellency will add to these rea- 

 sons, that, by the restitution of these vessels, their furniture and cargoes, 

 or their value, in consequence of the resolution adopted by the viceroy of 

 Mexico, which has been approved of by the king, for the sake of peace, 

 every thing is placed in its original state, the object your excellency aims 

 at — nothing remaining unsettled but the indemnification of losses, and 

 satisfaction for the insult, which shall also be regulated when evidence 

 shall be given what insult has been committed, which hitherto has not 

 been sufficiently explained. 



However, that a quarrel may not arise about words, and that two 

 nations friendly to each other may not be exposed to the calamities of 

 war, I have to inform you, sir, by order of the king, that his majesty 

 consents to make the declaration which your excellency proposes in your 

 letter, and will offer to his Britannic majesty a just and suitable satisfac- 

 tion for the insult offered to the honor of his flag, provided that to these 

 are added either of the following explanations: 



1. That, in offering such satisfaction, the insult and the satisfaction 

 shall be fully settled, both in form and substance, by a judgment to be 

 pronounced by one of the kings of Europe, whom the king, my master, 

 leaves wholly to the choice of his Britannic majesty; for it is sufficient to 

 the Spanish monarch that a crowned head, from full information of the 

 facts, shall decide as he thinks just. 



2. That, in offering a just and suitable satisfaction, care shall be 

 taken that, in the progress of the negotiation to be opened, no facts be 

 admitted as true but such as can be fully established by Great Britain 

 with regard to the insult offered to her flag. 



3. That the said satisfaction shall be given on condition that no 

 inference be drawn therefrom to affect the rights of Spain, nor of the 

 right of exacting from Great Britain an equivalent satisfaction, if it shall 

 be found, in the course of negotiation, that the king has a right to 

 demand satisfaction, for the aggression and usurpation made on the 

 Spanish territory, contrary to subsisting treaties. 



Your excellency will be pleased to make choice of either of these 

 three explanations to the declaration your excellency proposes, or all the. 

 three together, and to point out any difficulty that occurs to you, that 

 it may be obviated ; or any other mode that may tend to promote the 

 peace which we desire to establish. 



I have the honor to be, &c, 



El Conde de Florida Blanca. 



