THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 27
wrote a friendly note requesting the use of Martinez' launch in raising his anchor and setting sail the following morning. "I saw then that the reasons which he had given me in the morning for not presenting the papers which I had demanded were merely pretexts for not showing them, so that he could delay until he could find a favorable opportunity to get away." Martinez therefore refused assistance until Colnett should place the papers in his hands. Colnett then went on board the Princesa and showed his passport, but refused to show his instructions, which, he said, were addressed to himself alone. A moment later, he asserted that he had no instructions other than his passport, and demanded an instant reply to his re- quest for the Spaniard's launch, that he might set sail at once. Being again refused until he should show his instructions, he announced his determination to sail at once, "and if I did not like it, I might fire at him, for he was not afraid of us. He accompanied this talk by placing his hand two or three times on his sword, which he wore at his belt, as if to threaten me in my own cabin. He added in a loud voice the evil sounding and insulting words, *G d d d Spaniard.' ... I de- cided that if I let him go free from my deck, I would thereby suffer the arms of his Catholic Majesty to be dishonored. Many, too, would think that I had failed to act, through fear, though I had no reason to be afraid, since I was superior in force to Colnett." Then, to avoid a conflict with possible loss of life, and for fear Colnett would sail at once to London to report, Martinez says, he arrested the Englishman and his crew, and took over the ship.
Thus the log corrects Dr. Manning's statement (p. 334) that everything seems to have been harmonious on the morning of July 3, for at the outset Colnett began the day by suspicious actions and haughty disregard of Martinez' claim to the sovereignty of the land. He followed this by an ill-timed disclosure of his purposes in Nootka, resorting to patent mis- representation in saying that he could not find his papers to
