502 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
fisheries at these islands." He quoted a provision in the treaty 
of San Lorenzo el Real, made between Spain and Great Britain 
on the twenty-eighth of October, seventeen hundred and ninety, 
in which it was stipulated mutually, that no settlements should be 
made on the islands in question by either party ; but that the 
waters and the shores might be used by the subjects of each 
for the purposes of the fishery. Can it be supposed that Spain, 
a nation jealous of her rights and sovereignty, and peculiarly 
sensitive on the subject of her South American dominions, 
would have virtually abandoned her sovereign rights over these 
wide regions, if she supposed her title to be well founded, and free 
from doubt ? There could be no dispute as to the real object of 
the treaty, which was to leave an open fishery in these regions. 
In the year seventeen hundred and sixty-four, a squadron was 
ordered to the South Seas by the King of Great Britain, George 
III., which was placed under the command of the Honourable 
John Byron. In his instructions it is asserted, that the Falkland 
Islands were first discovered by English navigators ; and he was 
directed to survey them. On the twenty -third of January, seven- 
teen hundred and sixty-five. Commodore Byron took possession 
of the Falkland Islands, with all the usual solemnities, in the 
name of the King of Great Britain. • , 
On the eighth of January, seventeen hundred and sixty-six, 
Captain Macbride arrived at Port Egmont with a military force, 
erected a block-house, and stationed a garrison, under the au- 
thority of Great Britain. Some attempts at cultivation were made, 
and several thousand young trees, with the mould about their roots, 
were brought from Port Famine Bay for the purpose of being re- 
set at the Falklands. All these proceedings were had by order 
of the King of Great Britain, " and as to all consequent rights 
the occupation was complete." 
It is a well-known fact, however, that some Frenchmen 
had made a temporary establishment on one of the Falkland 
Islands about this period, and that in consequence of a remon- 
strance made by Spain, the King of France ceded all his right to 
those islands to his Catholic majesty. If the doctrine assumed 
by Spain was correct, — that France had not even a colourable 
title — the cession was a nullity ; and it is a fact that Spain so re- 
