The two Courts proceeded to carry out this agreement. Godoy instructed the Viceroy of Mexico to appoint some one as the commissioner for Spain.[472] The British commissioner was appointed later, and sent by way of Spain, Havana, Vera Cruz, and Mexico.[473] He arrived at La Coruna about the middle of August, 1794.[474] On November 20 he landed at Vera Cruz, and went by way of Mexico to San Blas.[475] From this port both commissioners sailed for Nootka. The Englishman was Sir Thomas Pierce; the Spaniard, Manuel de Alava. They met at Nootka and on the appointed day, March 23, 1795, carried out the above agreement. Alava had previously destroyed the buildings of the Spanish settlement. After the prescribed ceremonies had been performed, both the Spanish and the English deserted the place.[476] Neither nation ever reoccupied it. Nootka is still inhabited by Indians.
[1] Schoell, Histoire des Traités de Paix, IV, 112.
[2] See Humboldt, Alex. von, Essai Politique, II, 460.
[3] Oscar Browning, the writer of Chapter X, in Volume VIII, of the Cambridge Modern History, recently published, gives the least prejudiced and most accurate account. However, it is very brief. He introduces the Incident as an important episode in the foreign policy of Pitt. He says: “An event occurred on the other side of the world which nearly brought about a European conflagration.” In preparing his brief discussion he consulted the documents in the public record office.
[4] See Duro, Armada Española, VIII, 8-16.
[6] Richard Cadman Etches to Captain Portlock, London, September 3, 1785. (Meares, An Answer to Mr. Dixon, 10.) The instructions were not carried out by this commander, but the same company was interested in the expedition which reached Nootka for that purpose in 1789. Nootka Sound was for a time called King Georges Sound by the English and San Lorenzo by the Spanish.
[9] Meares, Memorial, appendix to Voyages.
[10] This condition and the terms on which relief was offered him by Portlock and Dixon, who reached the place in the spring, led to a bitter personal quarrel between Meares and Dixon, which produced several mutually recriminating pamphlets.
[11] Meares, Voyages. Introductory voyage, i-xl. In this Meares quotes the letters which passed between him and Portlock in May, 1787, which gave rise to the quarrel.