Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/106

 94 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE investigate the activities of the Russians, and the protest of the Spanish to the Russian government appeared appeased by a statement that Russian subjects had been ordered not to make settlements in regions possessed by other nations. As noted above, Captain Meares, in the employ of a Portu- guese merchant, was at Nootka Sound in 1789, where he made some sort of bargain for a post with a native chief. The Portuguese merchant failed, and his interest and a vessel at Nootka were taken over by an agent of the English King George's Sound Company, who increased the establishment apparently with the intention of making it permanent. It was at this juncture that Martinez appeared at Nootka, when (May, 1789) only two vessels were in the bay, the Iphigenia, of the English company, and the Columbia. Upon the arrival of the second Spanish vessel under Captain Haro, the captain and one other from the Iphigenia were arrested by Martinez while the vessel with her papers and crew was seized. Subsequently arrangements were made to release the vessel and two other vessels belonging to the company were seized. The whole affair seems to have been based upon various assumptions and mis- understandings ; in the first place there was an avowed inten- tion on the part of the Englishmen to establish a permanent post at Nootka, an act sure to be officially condemned by the Spanish; then Martinez was evidently misled by the Portu- guese and British aspects of ownership of the vessels, as well as being possibly intentionally deceived by Meares, who, in making an arrangement for the release of the Iphigenia, might have taken advantage of Martinez' ignorance of English. The two vessels which had been seized after the release of the Iphigenia were taken to Mexico and finally set free on condi- tion that they should not be found anywhere upon Spanish coasts, although it was maintained that Martinez was sus- tained by Spanish law in his seizure of them. In London, however, the matter was not dropped, but be- came the subject of diplomatic interchanges leading to the