but no real dash to explore and claim the land.
This changed in late 1787, when Spanish
mariner Estéban José Martínez returned to
Mexico from Prince William Sound to
announce that he had learned that Russian
traders were planning to establish a perma-
nent settlement on Nootka Island, off the
coast of Vancouver Island.
Martínez, an experienced mariner with a
reputation for belligerence, was immediately
ordered back to Nootka to maintain Spanish
control. Soon after his return in summer 1789,
he encountered two ships flying the Por-
tuguese flag, but staffed and commanded by
English traders. On grounds that the English
were violating Spanish sovereignty by their
presence, Martínez briefly seized, then
released one of the ships. When two more
English trading vessels appeared shortly
thereafter, Martínez seized them both, then
sailed for Mexico with the captured ships and
crews.
News of the incident eventually reached
England in January 1790, causing a war scare.
The infuriated British government demanded
compensation. Resolution of the confronta-
tion may have been hastened by the ongoing
French Revolution, which had erupted in the
summer of 1789. Taking the side of the French
monarchy and worried about political turmoil
within its own empire, Spain chose to settle
the Martínez incident quickly—and in terms
favorable to Britain—in an agreement known
as the Nootka Convention in October 1790.
Both countries agreed to use the area as an
international trading zone, as soon as dam-
ages over the Martínez incident were settled.
Resolving the Nootka dispute on paper did
not stop Spanish exploration or claims in the
Pacific Northwest. In 1790 Manuel Quimper
explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca aboard the
Princess Royal,one of the British ships seized
by Martínez and renamed Princessa Real.
Spanish charts improved as the coastline’s
complex islands and harbors were surveyed
by José María Narváez (1791), Salvador
Fidalgo (1792), and Jacinto Caamaño (1792).VANCOUVER ARRIVES
In April 1791 George Vancouver, a naval officer
and veteran of Captain Cook’s second and
third voyages, was dispatched to Nootka
Island. Captain Vancouver was assigned to
settle Britain’s claims under the Nootka Con-
vention and to survey the coast from Califor-
nia to Alaska. He was also ordered to search
for a transcontinental strait allegedly discov-
ered in 1592 by Juan de Fuca, a Greek pilot
sailing under the Spanish flag. Fuca may—or
may not—have discovered the strait laterCharting the Pacific Northwest B 163
During his voyage along the Pacific coast, George
Vancouver charted the coastline’s features on maps
that were used by later explorers. (Alaska State
Library PCA 20-25)