Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/32

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The Sloop "Princess Royal" shall be delivered to Thomas Hudson at Nootka in a good and serviceable condition, for which I direct the Commandant to give the necessary orders.

You will have observed in Lord St Helens Correspondence in the Month of June last, that before the Intelligence was received from the Vice Roy of Mexico, of the order he had given for the Restoration of the Princess Royal, Count d'Aranda had fixed the intended offer at 237,000 Dollars, and that he lowered the Sum to 200,000 only on the Supposition of these orders having had their full effect. I cannot therefore Doubt, when you explain these Circumstances to him, that he will consent to add the Sum of 37,000 Dollars to his Proposal as he originally intended, and as this total will then be a very little short of £50,000 Sterling.

With respect to the restitution of the Sloop Princess Royal, since Spain had offered to make it, and it had not taken place, I said to Mr. Jackson that I considered it just that the Value should be made good; though I observed to him that Captain Colnet should not have refused to admit her, but should have received the Vessel and demanded the Amount of the damage that it might appear she had sustained compared with the state in which she ought to have been restored; adding that this step had been taken at Canton with the necessary formalities on our part, by which it appeared the price for which she had been sold at Canton, after Colnet's Protest and the estimate that was made of the damages which she was found to have suffered compared with the value that had been put upon her before the same formalities.