rnment of
Macao a license for two ships — the FeHce and Iphegenia — to sail under the Portuguese flag to the northwest coast of America. To further carry out their enterprise, these British merchants procured Lieut. John Meares, of the British navy, on leave, to command this fur trading expedition. Meares' character in the venture was further complicated by the fact that he was at that time in the British East India Company service as an English subject, which company held the sole right to trade in these parts, and which company had given Meares the license of its company to make a trade venture to the Oregon coast on his own account. To further complicate matters, the adventuring merchants took out the papers of the two ships in the Portuguese language, and in the name of Portuguese captains, who were to go along as figure heads, and who were referred to in Meares' reports as "second captains."
And in the letter of instructions issued to Lieut. Meares by these merchants, they tell him: "That if any Russian, English or Spanish vessels attempt to seize him or his ships, or to carry him out of his way, you must prevent it by every means in your power and repel force by force ; and should you, in such conflict, have the superiority, you will then take possession of the vessel that attacked, as also her cargo, and bring both, with the officers and crew to China, that they may be condemned as legal prizes, and their crews punished as pirates."
And thus officered and authorized, the two ships — Iphegenia and Felice — sailed for the Oregon coast and reached Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island May 13, 1788. A few days after their arrival, the Indian chief Maquinna, who claimed the island as his real estate, granted to Meares "a. spot of ground in his territory whereon a house might be built for the ac- commodation of the people intended to be left there, and promised also the as- sistance of his Indians in building houses, and the protection of the Indians for the people who were to remain during the absence of the ships. In return for this permission to build the house, Meares presented Maquinna with a pair of pistols ; and to secure the further attachment and protection of Maquinna, he was promised that when the people of those ships finally left the coast, he should enter into the full possession of the house and all the goods belonging therewith."
This was the first house built on all the vast region of old Oregon, and these were the circumstances under which it was erected. It was a mere tem- porary shelter from the weather, with some stockade defense against an attack from the Indians.
Hearing of these operations of the fur traders, great uneasiness was aroused in Spain. And in 1789, the Spanish viceroy in Mexico dispatched two ships to the north with instructions to proclaim and enforce the rights of Spain to the country. These ships — the Princesa and San Carlos — commanded by Lieut. Martinez, reached Nootka Sound, May 5, 1779, and found there the American ship Columbia ; and the ships Iphegenia and the Felice, with Captain Meares, arriving a few days afterward.
The Spaniard promptly announced his business, and the American as promptly recognized the rights of Spain to the country. The captain of the Iphegenia gave an evasive and untruthful reply, saying he had put in there in distress to await the arrival of Captain Meares. But the Spaniard hearing that- the Iphegenia carried orders to capture any Russian, Spanish or English vessel, he seized the ship, and subsequently the Northwest America, another ship in the same service as the Iphegenia.
Captain Meares, not returning on account of a reorganization of the adven- turing merchants, which had replaced Meares with Captain Colnett, also hold- ing a commission in the British navy, now ofif on leave, events dragged until Colnett came into Nootka oflf the ship Princess Royal. Colnett's instructions directed him "to establish a factory to be called Fort Pitt, for the purpose of permanent settlement, and as a center of trade around which other
