Читать книгу The Nootka Sound Controversy: A dissertation - William R. Manning - Страница 6

Table of Contents

The Spanish name of most importance in connection with affairs at Nootka is that of Estevan José Martinez. Besides playing the chief rôle in the drama enacted there in 1789, which proved to be but the prelude to a greater drama played in Europe the following year, it was he who first suggested the planting of a Spanish colony at this point. This is contrary to the notion prevalent in the minds of the diplomats when the controversy was at its height, a notion which has been more or less accepted ever since, viz, that one or more of the Governments concerned had engaged in the enterprise with malice aforethought, having some ulterior end in view. These suspicions will be discussed in their proper place. At present it suffices to show, from documentary sources, the actual genesis of the original Spanish expedition.

On the return of Martinez, late in 1788, from a voyage to Alaska, where he had gone under a royal commission to investigate the Russian settlements on the coast, he reported to Florez, the Viceroy of Mexico, as follows: