determined to keep it exclusively for the
mother-country. It was impossible to prevent English ships from
interfering with it. The colonies of Spanish America were discontented;
some insurrections had been made with the object of gaining direct trade
with other nations, and the malcontents hoped for help from
England.[221] Florida Blanca believed that England sought first to
establish direct commercial communication with her Spanish American
colonies, and, finally, to separate them from the mother-country.[222]
He was determined to prevent these designs, which had no existence in
England, and was upheld in his purpose by the extravagant opinion held
by himself and his nation as to the strength of their country. He found
his opportunity in 1789. Some English merchants had established a
settlement at Nootka Sound, off Vancouver's island, for trade in furs
and ginseng with China. In April one of their ships with its cargo was
seized in the Sound by a Spanish frigate, the officers and crew were
maltreated, and two more ships were seized shortly afterwards.
Satisfaction was demanded by the English government, and was refused by
Spain on the grounds that all lands on the west coast of America as far
as 60 deg. north latitude were under the dominion of Spain, and further that
Nootka belonged to Spain, because it had been discovered and occupied by
a Spanish captain four years before Cook visited those coasts.

[Sidenote: _CONVENTION WITH SPAIN._]

The English government held that these pretensions were inadmissible,
for there was no effective occupation by Spain; it refused to discuss
them, and claimed that the king's subjects had a right to navigate and
fish in those waters and settle on unoccupied lands.[223] Spain prepared
for war, and Florida Blanca seems to have made overtures to Austria and
Russia in the vain hope that they would enter into an active alliance
with his court.[224] The affair was kept secret in England until May 3,
when the preparations of Spain demanded immediate action. On that day an
order in council was passed for pressing seamen in every port in the
kingdom, and the commons unanimously agreed to a vote of credit of
L1,000,000 for expenses. The matter was laid before the two other
members of the triple alliance; the Dutch at once fitted out a squadron
to act with the British fleet, and a favourable answer was received from
the Prussian king. The French ministers, moved by the news of the naval
prepar