Note 106 — Chapter X

This was probably Don Estevan Martinez, who, on the 6th of May 1789, arrived in the corvette Princesa, to take possession of the country for his sovereign. He it was who landed materials and artillery, and began to erect a fort on a small island at the entrance to Friendly Cove. He seems to have been a most high-handed kind of Don, for he seized the British vessels Iphigenia, North-West America, Argonaut, and Princess Royal, then trading under the Portuguese flag, and acted in so arbitrary a manner to the officers and crew, that it was easy to believe he was not over scrupulous in his dealings with the Indians. It was during his stay in Nootka Sound that Callicum, a relation of Maquina's, and next to him in rank, was barbarously murdered by an officer on board one of the Spanish ships, and his father refused permission to dive for the body until he had handed over a number of skins to the white savage.