[474] Jackson to Alcudia, August 16, 1794. (MS. Arch. Hist. Nacional, Madrid, Sec. Estado, 4287.) This announces the British commissioner’s arrival at La Coruna and requests a passport for him.
[475] Mexico á Través de Los Siglos, II, 880. This work gives a very good brief account of the transfer and abandonment.
[476] Alava to Alcudia, San Blas, April 23, 1795. (MS. Arch. Hist. Nacional, Madrid, Sec. Estado, 4287.) In this letter the Spanish commissioner reports to Godoy the final ceremonies at Nootka. He gives as the date of the ceremonies March 28; but since an error may have been made in copying, and since other accounts agree on the above date, that has been adopted. Bancroft, Northwest Coast, I, 301-303, discusses the final settlement.
THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION, ARRANGED IN THE ORDER OF THEIR IMPORTANCE.
_Documents copied from the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid, 169 pages._--Letters and official papers that passed between the British and Spanish negotiators; correspondence between Floridablanca and other Spanish officials; negotiations between the Spanish and French Courts.
_Documents copied from the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, 262 pages._--Correspondence between Martinez and the Viceroy relating to the occupation of Nootka and to the captured English vessels; also accounts of the matter from the Viceroy to the Government at Madrid, inclosing copies of all of the documents relating to it.
_Documents copied from the British Museum, 37 pages._--Instructions from the British Cabinet to Fitzherbert, and correspondence between the Cabinet and the British ambassadors at Berlin and The Hague.
_Documents copied from the public record office, London, 36 pages._--Letters from Fitzherbert to the British Cabinet.
_Documents copied from the Archives of the Department of State at Washington, 35 pages._--Correspondence between Jefferson, the Secretary of State, and Short, the United States chargé at Paris. Very little of value.
Meares, John: _Voyages made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the Northwest Coast of America_, etc. London: 1790.--The appendix contains important documents relating to Meares’s temporary establishment at Nootka in 1788, to the plans for planting a permanent colony in 1789, and to the capture of the English vessels in 1790. These documents, if taken at their face value, give a decided prejudice in favor of England. They have hitherto been the principal source of information for the events at Nootka.