Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/52

 42 RALPH S. KUYKENDALL From all of this it seems clear that during the early part of April, 1791, Colnett was on his way to China, and it is reasonable to infer that he had just come from Nootka Sound or some other point on the norhtwest coast of America. What is contained in the letter and certifi- cate accords perfectly with the statements quoted from Colnett's book. On July 25, 1791, Colnett was at Canton, having recently arrived'from the American coast. Dur- ing the first seventeen days of the preceding April he was at the Hawaiian Islands on his way to China. If now we can locate him definitely a month or two earlier, we will have sufficient data to determine approximately his movements during the whole period in question. Under date of August 27,1791, Viceroy Revilla Gigedo forwarded to Count Floridablanca a packet addressed by James Colnett to the English ambassador at Madrid, with the statement: "In the port of Nootka the English- man James Colnett left with the Commandant Don Fran- cisco Eliza the accompanying packet ('pliego') with in- structions to send it to the ambassador of his government at Madrid." 14 Six days later the Viceroy wrote another letter to Count Floridablanca, in which he says: "On the 21st of August I received a leter which the English Cap- tain Colnett, commander of the ships which were captured at Nootka, wrote to me under date of February 28 of this year, a translation of which I enclose to Your Ex- cellency in the attached copy. It has seemed to me that I ought to reply to it, and I have done so in the letter which ... I enclose to Your Excellency . . ," 15 The natural con- clusion to be drawn from these two letters of the Viceroy is that on February 28, 1791, Colnett was at Nootka Sound, where he left with Commandante Eliza the letter addressed to the Viceroy and the packet to be forwarded 14 ReviHa Gigedo to Floridablanca (No. 43), Aug. 27, 1791. Copy (from Mexican Archives) in Bancroft Library. TMId to id. (No. 46), Sept. 2, 1791. Copy (from Mexican Archives) in Bancroft Library.