Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/26

 In the Archives of British Columbia will be found many leters dealing with the efforts of Meares and his associates to wring a little more money out of Spain. The original claim of $653,433 was, in September, 1790, increased to £469,865 (i. e. it was multiplied about four times), and in order that anything omitted might thereafter be included, the statement bears the words": "Errors Excepted." Perhaps they regarded this as the 18th century form of singeing the Don's beard. The whole indemnity paid by Spain was only $210,000. From the letter appended hereto it seems that $200,000 had been tentatively agreed upon on the understanding that, inter alia, the Princess Royal had been restored in good order. After is was ascertained that this was not really the fact, $10,000 more was obtained.

The conduct of Colnett at Hawaii in April, 1791, as described by Professor Kuykendall and the letter that he reproduces show him to have been, at the best, a man who in an emergency easily became unduly excited and acted in a precipitate, ill-judged,and un-balanced manner. Meares states that on the seizure of the Argonaut Colnett became so deranged that he attempted frequently to destroy himself. Meares, though in general quite unreliable, has in this instance the support of the Spaniards. Martinez in his manuscript diary, under the date July 9, 1789, writes:

""This afternoon, the pilot Don Jose Tovar, who is entrusted with the guarding of the packet, (i. e. the Argonaut) informed me that Captain Comet, whom, the day before, I had permitted to be on board his own ship, had, either through madness or desperation at seeing himself a prisoner, made a motion as if he wished to throw himself into the water. * * * * However the men who were at work and some of his officers who were in sight prevented him from leaping overboard.""