USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 23
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 23
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On the 10th of February, 1790, the Spanish ambassador at London presented to the British ministry a note, in which, after communicating the fact of the seizure of a British vessel (the Argonaut) at Nootka, he required, in the name of his government, that the parties who had planned the expedition should be punished, in order to deter other persons from making settlements on territo- ries long occupied and frequented by the Spaniards ; and he at the same time complained of the trade and fishery, by British subjects, in the seas adjoining the Spanish American continent on the west, as contrary to the rights of Spain, guarantied by Great Britain in the treaty of Utrecht, and respected by all European nations. To this the British ministers answered, on the 26th, that, although they had not received exact information as to the facts stated by the
203
DISCUSSIONS IN LONDON.
1790.]
ambassador, yet the act of violence against British subjects described in his note necessarily suspended all discussion of the claims ad- vanced by him, until adequate atonement should have been made for the outrage. In the mean time, they demanded the immediate restoration of the vessel seized, reserving further proceedings on the subject until more complete details of the circumstances could be obtained.
This unexpected answer, with other circumstances, induced the Spanish cabinet to suspect that more was meant than had been openly declared by Great Britain ; that this power was, in fact, only seeking an occasion to break the peace with Spain for some ulte- rior object : and, under the influence of this suspicion, preparations for war were commenced in all the naval arsenals of the latter king- dom. The king of Spain being, however, anxious to prevent a rupture, if possible, his ambassador at London addressed another note to the British government in April, declaring that, although the Spanish crown had an indubitable right to the continent, islands, harbors, and coasts, of America on the Pacific, founded upon trea- ties and immemorial possession, yet, as the viceroy of Mexico had released the vessel seized at Nootka, his Catholic majesty regarded the affair as concluded, without entering into any disputes and dis- cussions on the undoubted rights of Spain ; and, desiring to give a proof of his friendship for Great Britain, he should rest satisfied, if her subjects were commanded to respect those rights in future.
This last communication was received about the time when Meares arrived in London from China ; and the information brought by him was not calculated to render the British government inclined to accept the pacific overture of Spain. On the contrary, orders were issued for arming two large fleets, and the whole affair, which had been previously kept secret, was submitted to Parliament by a message from the king on the 5th of May.
In this message, his majesty states that two vessels, belonging to his subjects, and navigated under the British flag, and two others, of which the description was not then sufficiently ascertained, had been captured at Nootka Sound, by an officer commanding two Spanish ships of war; the cargoes of the two British vessels had been seized, and their crews had been sent as prisoners to a Span- ish port ; - that, as soon as he had been informed of the capture of one of these vessels, he had ordered a demand to be made for her restitution, and for adequate satisfaction, previous to any other discussion ; from the answer to which demand, it appeared that the
204
THE KING OF ENGLAND'S MESSAGE. [1790.
vessel and her crew had been liberated by the viceroy of Mexico, on the supposition, however, that ignorance of the rights of Spain alone induced individuals of other nations to frequent those coasts, for the purposes of trade and settlement ; - but that no satisfaction was made or offered by Spain, and a direct claim was asserted by her government to the exclusive rights of sovereignty, navigation, and commerce, in the territories, coasts, and seas, of that part of the world. In consequence of all which, his majesty had directed his minister at Madrid to make a fresh representation on the subject, and to claim such full and adequate satisfaction as the nature of the case evidently required. Having, moreover, been informed that considerable armaments were in progress in the ports of Spain, he had judged it indispensable to make preparations for acting with vigor and effect in support of the honor of his crown, and the inter- ests of his people ; and he recommended that Parliament should enable him to take such other measures, and to make such aug- mentations of his forces, as might be eventually requisite for this purpose .*
The recommendations in this message were received with every mark of concurrence in Parliament and throughout the kingdom ; the supplies were immediately voted, and the preparations for war were continued with unexampled activity. On the day in which the message was sent, a note was addressed to the Spanish ambas- sador at London, containing a reiteration of the demands previously made, and of the declaration that, until those demands should have been satisfied, the question of the rights of Spain would not be dis- cussed. " His majesty," says the note, " will take the most effectual pacific measures to prevent his subjects from trespassing on the just and acknowledged rights of Spain: but he cannot accede to the pretensions of absolute sovereignty, commerce, and navigation, which appeared to be the principal objects of the last note from the Spanish ambassador ; and he considers it his duty to protect his subjects in the enjoyment of the right of fishery in the Pacific Ocean." The British Chargé d'affaires at Madrid also presented, in the name of his government, formal demands for the restitution of the other vessel [the Princess Royal] and cargo seized at Nootka, and for reparation of the losses and injuries sustained by the British subjects trading in the North Pacific under the British flag ; asserting,
* This message, and all the other official documents relative to the discussion which have been published, will be found in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D.
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DEMANDS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.
1790.]
at the same time, as a principle which would be maintained by his government, that " British subjects have an indisputable right to the enjoyment of a free and uninterrupted navigation, commerce, and fish- ery, and to the possession of such establishments as they should form, with the consent of the natives of the country, not previously occu- pied by any of the European nations."
To these formal exactions of the British government, the court of Madrid replied, at first indirectly, by a circular letter addressed, on the 4th of June, to all the other courts of Europe. This letter was couched in the most conciliatory language : it contained a recapitu- lation of the circumstances of the dispute, according to the views of Spain ; denying all intention, on her part, to commit or defend any act of injustice against Great Britain, or to claim any rights which did not rest upon irrefragable titles; insisting that the cap- ture of the British vessel had been repaired by the conduct of the viceroy of Mexico in immediately restoring her ; and declaring the readiness of his Catholic majesty to satisfy any demands which should prove to be well founded, after an investigation of the ques- tion of right between the two crowns. This reply not being con- sidered sufficient by the British ambassador, a Memorial was deliv- ered to him, on the 13th of the same month, by count de Florida Blanca, the Spanish minister of state, not differing essentially in its import from the circular letter ; which, however, served only to render the ambassador still more urgent for a specific answer to the demands of his government. At length, after repeated conferences, the Spanish minister, on the 18th, officially signified that his sove- reign, having approved the restitution of all the vessels and their car- goes seized at Nootka, was willing to indemnify the owners for their losses, and also to make satisfaction for the insult to the dignity of the British crown ; provided, that the extent of the insult and of the satisfaction should be settled, in form and substance, either by one of the kings of Europe, to be selected by his Britannic majesty, or by a negotiation between the two governments, in which no facts were to be admitted as true, except such as were fully established ; and that no inference affecting the rights of Spain should be drawn from the act of giving satisfaction.
This offer of reparation was accepted by the court of London ; and, on the 24th of July, count de Florida Blanca presented to Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador at Madrid, a Declaration, In the name of his sovereign, to the effect - that he would restore the vessels and indemnify the owners for their losses, so soon as the
206
DECLARATION OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT. [1790.
amount should have been ascertained, and would give satisfaction to his Britannic majesty for the injury of which he had complained ; and this Declaration, together with the performance of the engage- ments made in it, was admitted by the ambassador in his Counter Declaration,* as full and entire satisfaction for those injuries : it be- ing, however, at the same time admitted and expressed on both sides, that the Spanish " Declaration was not to preclude or preju- dice the ulterior discussion of any right which his Catholic majesty might claim to form an exclusive establishment at Nootka Sound." +
The affair had thus far proceeded, nearly in the same course as that of the expulsion of the British from the Falkland Islands, twen- ty years previous ; and the government of Madrid probably expected that it would have been terminated in the same manner. But Mr. Pitt, then in the fulness of his power in England, had inherited his father's hatred for and contempt of the Spanish nation ; and he was determined either to bend their government to his views, or to strike a decisive blow at their empire. He had already, in an inconceivable short space of time, assembled a mighty armament, which he intended, in the event of a war, to direct against the Spanish possessions in America, for the purpose of wresting those countries from their actual rulers, either by conquest or by internal revolution ; t and, having assumed this position, he did not hesitate to require from Spain the surrender of many of the exclusive rights with regard to navigation, commerce, and territorial sovereignty, upon which her dominion in the western continent was supposed, with reason, to depend. The negotiation on the subject of these demands was continued at Madrid for three months after the ac- ceptance of the Spanish Declaration ; during which period couriers were constantly flying between that city and London, and the whole
* The Declaration and Counter Declaration may be found among the documents connected with the discussion, in the Proofs and Illustrations, under the letter D.
It may be here mentioned that the amount of the indemnification for the seizures at Nootka was, after a long negotiation on the subject, finally settled by a Commission of subjects of both nations, appointed for the purpose, who, in 1792, awarded to the proprietors of the property the sum of two hundred and ten thousand dollars - a third of the amount demanded by Meares, but undoubtedly far more than was justly due.
t Mr. Pitt's scheme for detaching from Spain her transatlantic dominions is be- lieved, with reason, to have been suggested to him by Francisco Miranda, a native of Caraccas, through whose ageney a number of exiles and fugitives from those countries, including many of the expelled Jesuits, were engaged in the plan, and cor- respondences were commenced with the principal persons inclined to a separation from Spain in all parts of her American territories. On this subject, many curious particulars may be found in the Edinburgh Review for January, 1809. The subse- quent history and the melancholy fate of Miranda are well known.
207
SPAIN APPLIES FOR AID TO FRANCE.
1790.]
civilized world was in suspense and anxiety as to the issue. The particulars of the negotiation have never been officially made public; and we are therefore only able to form suppositions as to its nature and course from its result, and from other circumstances connected with the dispute. The manner in which that result was effected appears, however, to have been as follows : -
As soon as the dispute between Great Britain and Spain, and the preparations of those powers for war, became known, King Louis XVI. of France ordered fourteen sail of the line to be equipped for active service ; either in consequence of an application for aid from Spain, or in order to be ready to meet contingencies. He was, however, under the necessity of communicating this measure to the National Assembly, then in session, which seized the occasion to deprive the crown of one of its most essential attributes. On the 24th of May, a decree was passed by that body, establishing that the right to make war or peace belonged to the nation, and could only be exercised through the concurrence of the legislative and the executive branches of the government; and that no treaty with an- other power could have effect until it had been ratified by the rep- resentatives of the nation : a committee was at the same time appointed to examine and report upon all the existing treaties of alliance between France and other nations. This decree was itself equivalent to an annulment of the Family Compact between the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon : nevertheless, when the king of Spain found himself pressed by Great Britain to relinquish his exclusive pretensions with regard to America, he formally applied to his cousin of France for aid, agreeably to that compact, in resist- ing those demands; declaring, at the same time, that, unless the assistance should be given speedily and effectually, "Spain would be under the necessity of seeking other friends and allies among all the powers of Europe, without excepting any on whom she could rely in case of need."
The letter of the king of Spain was submitted by Louis XVI. to the National Assembly, by which it was referred to the committee appointed to examine the existing treaties between France and other nations ; and, in the name of that committee, the celebrated Mirabeau, on the 24th of August, presented a luminous report, in- cluding considerations of the character of the Family Compact and other engagements between France and Spain, and a view of the actual positions of Spain and Great Britain towards each other and towards France. The questions raised by this report
208
DECREE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
[1790.
were debated,* with great display of eloquence and political wis- dom, by Mirabeau, the Abbé Maury, Lameth, Barnave, and other distinguished members of the Assembly : and it was decreed that France, while taking proper measures to maintain peace, should observe the existing commercial and defensive engagements between her government and that of Spain; but that a new and national treaty should be immediately negotiated, wherein the relations of the two countries towards each other should be defined and fixed with precision and clearness, agreeably to the views of general peace, and the principles of justice, which were, in future, to prevail in France ; and that, taking into consideration the armaments then in progress throughout Europe, and the dangers to which the commerce and colonies of France might be exposed, the marine force of the kingdom should be increased, without delay, to forty- five sail of the line, and a proportionate number of frigates.
Although this decree contained no direct promise of assistance to Spain, yet it showed that the French government penetrated the designs of the British, and considered them inimical to its own interests ; while, at the same time, the report, on which the decree was based, evinced an ardent desire, on the part of the French reformers, to preserve peace. Meanwhile, revolutionary, anti- monarchical principles were rapidly spreading, not only through France, but in all the surrounding countries, and even in England. The Dutch, who had engaged to assist the British with a fleet, in case of a war with Spain, found their forces necessary at home; and Sweden, having, much to the dissatisfaction of the court of London, made peace with Russia, the latter power was left at liberty to prosecute its schemes for the dismemberment of " Eng- land's old ally," Turkey. Moreover, the financial condition of Great Britain was not such as to encourage her government to begin a war, which would, in all probability, become general. Under these circumstances, Mr. Pitt's views were necessarily changed ; and peace, and even alliance, with Spain were considered preferable to a rupture with that power. He therefore commis- sioned a gentleman at Paris, upon whom he could rely, to sound Mirabeau, and other leaders of the National Assembly ; and, having reason to believe them sincerely anxious to prevent hostilities, he instructed his agent to propose a secret negotiation, to be carried on through the medium of the French government, for the restora- tion of a good understanding between Great Britain and Spain.
* Paris Moniteur for August 25th, and succeeding numbers.
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TERMINATION OF THE DISPUTE.
1790.]
In the letter of instructions from Mr. Pitt to his agent at Paris,* he declares it to be essential that " the French should not appear in the business as mediators, still less as arbitrators," and that no en- couragement should be given to them to propose any other terms than those on which Great Britain had already insisted ; that, " whatever confidential communications may take place with the diplomatic committee of the National Assembly, for the sake of bringing them to promote the views of Great Britain, no ostensible intercourse could be admitted, except through accredited minis- ters ; " and especially that " no assurances be given, directly or indirectly, which go further than that Great Britain means to perse- vere in the neutrality which she has hitherto observed with respect to the internal dissensions of France, and is desirous to cultivate peace and friendly relations with that country." The agent, thus instructed, presented himself to the diplomatic committee of the National Assembly, which at once resolved to do all in its power to strengthen the relations with England, and to prevent a war, if possible ; and, with this view, three of its most influential members, Fréteau, Barnave, and Menou, were deputed to conduct the busi- ness on its part. These members conferred with the British agent, and also with M. de Montmorin, the minister of foreign relations of France, who communicated directly with the Spanish government ; and in this manner the controversy was brought to a close, by a convention signed, at the palace of the Escurial, on the 28th of October, by Mr. Fitzherbert, the British ambassador, and count de Florida Blanca on the part of Spain.
This convention, commonly called the Nootka treaty, contains eight articles, of which the substance is as follows : -
With respect to the circumstances which occasioned the dispute, it was stipulated, by the first and second articles, that the build- ings and tracts of land, on the north-west coasts of America, of which British subjects were dispossessed by a Spanish officer, " about the month of April, 1789," shall be restored ; a just repara- tion shall be made for all acts of violence or hostility committed by the subjects of either party against those of the other, " subsequent to the month of April, 1789;" and, in case the subjects of either should have been, " since the same period," forcibly dispossessed of their lands, vessels, or other property on the American coasts, or the
* The whole letter is given by Bishop Tomline, in his Life of Pitt, chap. xii. The name of the person to whom it is addressed does not appear; he is simply mentioned as " a gentleman resident at Paris, of considerable diplomatic experience."
27
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NOOTKA CONVENTION.
[1790.
adjoining seas, they shall be reestablished in the possession thereof, or a just compensation shall be made to them for their losses.
For the future, it was agreed, by the third article of the conven- tion, that the subjects of the two parties shall not be disturbed in navigating or fishing in the South Seas, or the Pacific Ocean, or in landing on the coasts thereof, in places not already occupied, for the purposes of settlement or of trade with the natives; the whole subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions specified in the three following articles, to wit :- that his Britannic majesty shall take the most effectual means to prevent his subjects from making their navigation or fishery in those seas a pretext for illicit trade with the Spanish settlements ; with which view it is agreed that British subjects shall not navigate or fish within ten leagues of any part of the coast already occupied by Spain; that the subjects of both nations shall have free access and right of trading in the places restored to British subjects by this convention, and in any other parts of the north-west coasts of America, north of the places already occupied by Spain, where the subjects of either party shall have made settlements since the month of April, 1789, or may in future make any ; and that no settlement shall in future be made, by the subjects of either power, on the eastern or the western coasts of South America, or the adjacent islands, south of the parts of the same coasts or islands already occupied by Spain ; though the subjects of both remained at liberty to land on those coasts and islands, and to erect temporary buildings only, for the purposes of their fishery.
Finally, it was agreed, by the seventh article, that, in cases of infraction of the convention, the officers of either party shall, with- out committing any act of violence themselves, make an exact report of the affair to their respective governments, which would terminate such differences in an amicable manner. The eighth article relates merely to the time of ratification of the convention .*
The convention, together with the declaration and counter declaration preceding it, were submitted to Parliament on the 3d of December, unaccompanied by any other papers relative to the negotiation ; and they became the subjects of animated debates, in which the most distinguished members of both houses took parts. The arrangements were extolled by the ministers and their friends in general terms, as vindicating the dignity of the nation, and
* The convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 1.
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NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT.
1790.]
providing reparation for the injuries sustained by its subjects, and as securing to those subjects, in future, the rights of navigation and fishery in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on their unoccupied coasts, and establishing the long-discussed ques- tions on those points, on such grounds as must prevent all further dispute. The opposition, on the other hand, contended that the reparation promised by Spain was incomplete and insufficient ; that the arrangements for the prevention of future difficulties were merely culpable concessions to that power, whereby the rights of British subjects were materially abridged, and the Spaniards would be encouraged to commit further acts of violence ; and, finally, that all the advantages which could be expected from the con- vention, even according to the views of the ministers, were far below the amount of the expense at which they had been obtained.
It was noticed by Mr. Charles Fox, as a curious and inexplicable incongruity in the treaty, that "about the month of April, 1789," should have been inserted as the date of what was known to have taken place, agreeably to all the evidence produced, in May of the same year ; and that, although, by the first article, the lands and buildings declared to have been taken from British subjects by a Spanish officer, " about the month of April, 1789," were to be restored, yet, by the second article, the lands, buildings, and other property, of which the subjects of either party had been dispos- sessed " subsequent to the month of April, 1789," were to be restored, or compensation was to be made to the owners for the losses which they might have sustained. Upon this point, it will be seen that, if the word " or," in the concluding part of the second article, were replaced by and, the incongruity would disappear ; but then, also, the first article would become entirely superfluous. It would, however, be idle to suppose that any error could have been committed with regard to matters so essential, or that the want of accordance between the different provisions of the con- vention, noticed by Mr. Fox, should have been the result of accident or carelessness. The ministers, when pressed for explanations on this head, answered, indirectly, that the Spanish government would make the restitutions as agreed in the first article.
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