Note 46 — Chapter II · THE ENGLISH PLANS FOR OCCUPYING NOOTKA SOUND.

Meares, Memorial, appendix to Voyages. Also Colnett to the Viceroy, October 1, 1789. (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, 90-3-21.) The latter represents Colnett as the chief promoter, while the former represents Meares in that capacity. Colnett says that the Prince of Wales had broken her keel and was not in a condition to make another such a voyage, so that the correspondents of his company offered him the Argonaut. It seems that some difficulty had arisen over the fact that the license which Colnett bore was for his use on the Prince of Wales. He told the Viceroy that if he had apprehended any disadvantage arising from his change of ships it would have been easy to have named the new ship the Prince of Wales also. He had not considered it necessary.