SUBSEQUENT NEGOTIATIONS AND FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE NOOTKA SOUND DISPUTE.

Although the convention was concluded in 1790, yet the Nootka Sound affair was still far from settled. The first article of the convention, agreeing to restore to British subjects the buildings and lands which had been taken from them at Nootka, had to be carried out. The agreement of the Spanish declaration of July 24 to indemnify the parties concerned in the ships captured at Nootka was also still to be fulfilled. It required a long arbitration and two new conventions to accomplish these results, and in the meantime an intimate treaty of alliance had been entered into for mutual protection against the excesses of the French Revolution. It was more than four years before these matters were finally adjusted. The present chapter will review them briefly.

The English and Spanish Governments each appointed a commissioner to go to Nootka and carry out the agreement of the first article of the convention of October 28, 1790. The commissioners did not meet until the summer of 1792. A brief statement should be made concerning the establishment at Nootka between the events of 1789 and the meeting of the commissioners three years later. Martinez’s abandonment of Nootka in the fall of 1789 and his return to Mexico was discussed in a former chapter. The plans of the Viceroy for sending a new expedition under Eliza to reoccupy the post in the spring of 1790 were studied in the same chapter.[451] The Viceroy feared that Nootka would be seized by the English before his expedition could reach the place, or that an English expedition might later attempt to wrest the post from the Spanish.[452] His fears were not realized. The port was reoccupied and held without opposition. During[464] the three following seasons a substantial Spanish settlement was formed, and, using this as a center, exploring expeditions examined the neighboring coast.[453]

The British commissioner for carrying out the convention was Captain Vancouver. He left England in 1791 and was to reach the Northwest Coast in the spring of the following year. His principal business was to explore that coast. Additional instructions concerning the transfer of Nootka were to be sent to him later.[454] These reached him during the summer of 1792 while he was engaged in exploring the coast in the neighborhood of the island that later received his name. He arrived at Nootka late in August. He found there Bodega y Quadra, the Spanish commissioner. It would be of little value to follow in detail the negotiations between them, since their mission accomplished nothing. They could not agree, although, personally, a very strong friendship sprang up between them. Vancouver expected that the entire establishment would be transferred to England. Quadra, after careful investigation, became convinced that the English had never purchased nor taken possession of any land except the small plat of ground on which Meares’s temporary house had stood in 1788. Consequently he offered to transfer this, but no more. Vancouver refused to accept so little and the whole matter was referred back to the Governments at London and Madrid.[455] Having continued his survey of the coast for two years longer, Vancouver returned to Nootka in the summer of 1794 expecting that new instructions would be awaiting him regarding the transfer. He was disappointed. He waited two months at Nootka for them, then went to Monterey, where he waited nearly two months more. The English instructions still did not come, but the Spanish commissioner had received his orders, and Vancouver was informed that a special British commissioner had been sent for the purpose. On December 1 he sailed for England.[456]

[465]

While the arrangements were being made to send the above commissioners to Nootka to carry out the stipulations in the first article of the convention, steps were also being taken to fulfill the agreement in the declarations of July 24. The two Governments appointed commissioners to decide on the amount of the indemnity which Spain should pay to those interested in the ships captured at Nootka. Their negotiation was conducted at London. The Spanish agent, Manuel de Las Heras, was sent in May, 1791. Baron St. Helens [Fitzherbert] wrote on May 29 introducing him to Lord Grenville, who had succeeded the Duke of Leeds in the foreign office. Heras was also consul-general to England. St. Helens said:

He appears to me to be very sensible, well informed, and right headed; so that I am persuaded that he will do his best in order to execute the commission with which he is charged to the satisfaction of both Courts.[457]

When the Spanish commissioner reached London he either misunderstood his instructions or was intentionally very reserved regarding them. On August 26 Grenville wrote to St. Helens:

The sending of M. Las Heras at last without any instructions is really abominable, and would be reason enough, if we were so disposed, to refuse to hear of alliance or anything else.

He appealed to St. Helens to “make those slow Spaniards send instructions and powers, and, above all, liberty to refer the matter to arbitration, by which the ministers of both Courts will get it off their hands.”[458] On receipt of this letter the British ambassador called the attention of Floridablanca to the commissioner’s delay in negotiating. The Spanish minister thought that the instructions to Heras were clear and explicit; nevertheless, he sent additional instructions on September 8 authorizing the commissioner to settle and liquidate the damages, with the concurrence of Campo, the Spanish ambassador. He was to give the British Court to understand that in case of difference the Spanish King was willing to submit the matter to arbitration. The Count had given St. Helens a copy of these instructions and the latter sent[466] them to Grenville, saying that they seemed satisfactory except that the commissioner did not have authority to settle finally without submitting the matter to the Spanish King. He remarked that such would have been an unprecedented power and said that His Catholic Majesty had promised to act on it immediately.[459]

It seems that the commissioners failed to agree and that the matter was referred to a court of arbitration, which sat at or near Madrid in the early part of the next year. On May 14, 1792, St. Helens wrote from Aranjuez that the Nootka arbitration business was “en bon train,” and though it was going more slowly than expected he hoped to send dispatches concerning it in a very few days.[460] A fortnight later the business had taken a new turn. The British ambassador wrote:

I can not but hope that the proposal which goes by this messenger for settling what the Count of Aranda[461] calls the fastidious business of the Nootka claims by the payment of a round sum of money as a discharge in full will strike your fancy as much as it does his and mine.

The writer added that if the offer should be thought too small he was confident that Spain would increase it ten, fifteen, or even twenty thousand Spanish dollars. If Grenville should reject the offer and wish the matter to revert to arbitration he said that Aranda would facilitate it.[462] The amount offered was 200,000 Spanish dollars. About two months later the Nootka claimants were called upon to decide whether they wished to accept the offer or to have the matter referred back to Madrid in hope of having the sum increased.[463] The claimants apparently did not accept the offer. A month afterwards Dundas, the home secretary, wrote:

The Nootka business, I take it for granted, will get on, but it hangs rather unaccountably. I suspect that both sides are in some degree to blame.[464]

[467]

After a delay of several months more, the Spanish Court increased the offer by $10,000. On February 12, 1793, the following convention was signed:

Nootka claims convention.

In virtue of the declarations exchanged at Madrid on the 24th of July, 1790, and of the convention signed at the Escorial on the 18th [28th] of the following October, Their Catholic and Britannic Majesties, desiring to regulate and determine definitely everything regarding the restitution of the British ships seized at Nootka, as well as the indemnification of the parties interested in the ships, have named for this purpose and constituted as their commissioners and plenipotentiaries, to wit, on the part of His Catholic Majesty, Don Manuel de Las Heras, commissary in His said Majesty’s armies, and his agent and consul-general in the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland; and on the part of His Britannic Majesty, Mr. Ralph Woodford, Knight Baronet of Great Britain; who, after having communicated their full powers, have agreed upon the following articles:

Article I.

His Catholic Majesty, besides having restored the ship Argonaut, the restoration of which took place in the port of San Blas in the year 1791 [1790], agrees to pay as indemnity to the parties interested in it the amount of two hundred and ten thousand hard............