by Scott Ridley
Estevan Martinez mentioned Gaetano: Estevan José Martinez to Viceroy Manuel Antonio Flores, July 13, 1789.
162 one officer described as “tasting‘: Alexander Home, master’s mate. James Cook, The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery …, 565.
Off the eastern end of the island: Ibid., 191–92.
163 there was panic and debate: Sheldon Dibble, History of the Sandwich Islands, 31, 34–35.
they were temples of Lono: Ralph S. Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom: Foundation and Transformation 1778—1854, vol. 2, 8.
Voyage records show that more: The Resolution’s pay book records showed sixty-six men with confirmed venereal disease.
Cook decreed that no women: Cook, Journals, vol. 2, 196.
One man carried off a butcher‘s cleaver: Ibid., 195.
Another was shot and killed: Ibid., 197–98.
164 the natives knew their disease: “March 1779: As soon as they got on board, one of the men began to tell us, that we had left a disorder amongst their women, of which several persons of both sexes had died. He was himself afflicted with venereal disease.” James Cook and James King, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean …, vol. 3, 89.
165 Kealakekua—the “pathway of the gods”: Following the pronunciation of James Cook, the British and American captains called this bay “Karakakooa.”
This was the annual four-month period: For background on the makahiki celebrations, see Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 7–9.
“singing and shouting and exhibiting‘: Cook and King, Voyage, vol. 3, 2–3.
Cook found villagers falling: Ibid., 5–7.
According to officers’ accounts: Ibid., 10–11. Also Fornander, Polynesian Race, 189.
“thesepeople will oblige me”: Cook and King, Voyage, vol. 3, 40.
166 killing him and four marines: Ibid., 45–46.
wanted Cook‘s body returned: Ibid., 65.
His skull was said to be: Ibid., 68.
Two warriors’ heads were cut off: The retaliation for Cook’s killing continued off and on for days, resulting in the village of Waipunauloa being burned and priests and others killed. General retaliation: Ibid., 54–75; the incident of the severed heads: Ibid., 75.
who made a brief visit in May 1786: Nathaniel Portlock, A Voyage Round the World…, 63–64. Also see James Colnett, The Journal of Captain James Colnett aboard the Argonaut from April 26, 1789 to November 3, 1791, 323, fn 395. Dixon also believed that Kealakekua was unsafe and may have communicated this information to Colnett when they met at Nootka.
168 a system of religious instructions: Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 7–9.
Life was a journey: George Kanahele, Ku Kanaka Stand Tall: A Search for Hawaiian Values, 32.
the first who stabbed Cook: Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 19, fn 27. Vancouver said this man was living on an estate in eastern Hawaii belonging to Kahowmotoo. George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World…, vol. 5, 55.
169 “seemed not to esteem chastity”: Ingraham, Journal, 47.
“that few could but admire”: Ebenezer Dorr, A Journal of a Voyage from Boston Round the World …, entry for April 17, 1791; Ingraham, Journal, 47, fn 1.
even James Cook was seduced: Dibble, History, 33; Fornander, Polynesian Race, 162.
171 Richard Howe, warned: Richard Howe, September 7, 1789.
as a fearless warrior: Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 429–30.
172 The old island lord was rumored: Fornander, Polynesian Race, 260.
174 one tale says it was a coincidence: Dibble, History, 68; James Jackson Jarves, History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, 155; William De Witt Alexander, A Brief History of the Hawaiian People, 134.
people called the mako’u: David Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities (Mooleo Hawaii), 74.
one of the most savage faces: Jarves, History, 171.
175 the carpenter Isaac Ridler: Ingraham, Journal, 78–79.
With two younger crew members: Ingraham mentions two crewmen. A threatening letter Simon Metcalfe sent ashore is addressed to Ridler, Mackay, and Thomas. See Bruce Cartwright, “Some Early Foreign Residents of the Hawaiian Islands.” “During the stay of these three weeks”: John Kendrick Recommendation for Kaiana, December 11, 1789.
176 opened fire with grapeshot: Ingraham, Journal, 82.
177 He was left for dead: Ibid., 79.
“to take ample revenge”: Letter of Simon Metcalfe to Isaac Ridler et al., March 22, 1790; included in Bruce Cartwright “Some Early Foreign Residents of the Hawaiian Islands,” 25th Annual Report of the Hawaiian Historical Society, 58.
teaching his warriors how to fire: Ibid., 82.
178 The battle became known as Kepaniwai: Kuykendall, Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 1, 35.
CHAPTER TWELVE
180 By midday January 26: John Kendrick to Robert Gray and Richard S. Howe, January 27, 1790.
He had arrived at Macao: “Deposition of the Officers and Men of the Schooner North West American,” in John Meares, The Memorial of Lt. John Meares of the Royal Navy…, 52.
181 Europeans who could not learn: Ernest John Eitel, Europe in China: The History of Hong Kong from the Beginning to the Year 1882, 12–13.
182 misrule was what was called for: Kenneth Scott Latourette, The History of Early Relations between the United States and China, 1784–1844, 20–21.
Most ships arrived at the end: Eitel, Europe in China, 8.
183 The hong merchants dictated: J. Wade Caruthers, American Pacific Ocean Trade: Its Impact on Foreign Policy and Continental Expansion, 1784–1860, 77.
On January 27, he sent: Kendrick to Gray and Howe, January 27, 1790.
“very sorry to inform”: Robert Gray to John Kendrick, January 29, 1790.
184 “everything is left”: Joseph Barrell to John Kendrick, December 12, 1787.
around the south point: “The Water Islands are two small islands close off the South end of Montanha; one mile N.W. ¾ N. from them lies another small island, having a little bay called Lark’s Bay, betwixt it and the West point of Montanha, with 2 ½ fathoms in it at low water”: James Horsburgh, The India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia …, 362.
S. Wells Williams, The Chinese Commercial Guide, Sailing Instructions, 9, gives the same location: “Inside Islet, having a small inlet called Lark bay, between it and Morgan point (608 feet above the sea), the west extreme of Montanha.” floating warehouses for East India Company: Rev. J. C. Thomson, “Historical Landmarks of Macao.”
185 the Portuguese governor was involved: Samuel Shaw, The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw: The First American Consul at Canton, with the Life of the Author, 238.
186 It leased a factory at Canton: Sir Lindsey Ride and May Ride, An East India Company Cemetery: Protestant Burials in Macao, 58.
“320 Whole ones”: Robert Gray to John Kendrick, January 30, 1790.
Kendrick refused the sale: No document extant, but see Gray’s response of February 4.
Gray wrote back to discourage him: Robert Gray to John Kendrick, February 4, 1790.
186 Two days later, Kendrick wrote: John Kendrick to Robert Gray and Richard S. Howe, February 6, 1790.
187 Kendrick sent artifacts: Kendrick reportedly sent back to Rev. William Bentley of Salem a variety of artifacts, the first Northwest Coast artifacts received in New England. These included bows and arrows, bark cloth, a “squaw’s fan,” bone fishhooks, and a woven conical hat. Mary Malloy, Souvenirs of the Fur Trade: Northwest Coast Indian Art and Artifacts Collected by American Mariners, 1788–1844, 98, 102–3.
he was falling ill: Hoskins wrote, “almost immediately upon his arrival he was seized with a violent fever; which caused for his life for some time to be despaired of: and which prevented his going to Canton in person, as he had previously intended.” John Hoskins, The Narrative of a Voyage, 6.
The inventory of furs: Inventory of furs, Columbia Papers. The issue o
f Gray not recording the actual amount of skins brought ashore and sold was addressed later by Kendrick as well as by Barrell’s agent Thomas Randall. Randall’s accounting is also included in the Columbia Papers.
188 Because he hadn’t heard from Gray: John Kendrick to Robert Gray, February 9, 1790.
Gray passed out of the harbor: Richard S. Howe and Robert Gray to Joseph Barrell, June 16, 1790. Also Hoskins, Narrative, 103.
New York revolutionary Isaac Sears: Shaw, Journals, 235.
His son John had told: Josef Tobar y Tamariz, “Report of Don Josef Tobar y Tamariz, First Mate of the Royal Navy, to His Most Excellent Lordship and Viceroy of New Spain, August 29, 1789,” 118.
189 Night and day the narrow streets: Shaw, Journals, 168–72.
Kendrick purchased fireworks: He would later use the fireworks in impressive displays for natives on the Northwest Coast and in the Sandwich Islands.
190 according to his later critics: Robert Gray leveled charges that Kendrick sought to cheat the owners of the Columbia and gratify his own pleasure.
His house was broken into: Hoskins, Narrative, 103.
191 “With respect to our own”: Shaw, Journals, 354.
192 “The English seem to be”: Ibid., 353.
Meares had assurances: John Meares, Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789 …, lxxxiii-v.
“The Japanese Islands would be”: David MacKay, In the Wake of Cook: Science, Exploration and Empire 1780–1801, 63.
193 “our Intention is to adopt”: Howay, “Four Letters,” 125–39.
193 their first London company venture: John Meares wanted the Argonaut returned to China in the autumn of 1791 so that she could be dispatched to Japan. “Extracts of Letter from Mr. Mears to Captain Colnett, Dated Macao, 25 April, 1789,” in Meares, Memorial, 29.
Viceroy Revillagigedo had sent: Warren L. Cook, Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543–1819, 195, fn 128, cites letter of Revillagigedo to Valdes, August 27, 1789.
194 Merry provided the British cabinet: Anthony Merry to the Duke of Leeds, Madrid, January 4, 1790, in John Norris, “The Policy of the British Cabinet in the Nootka Crisis,” 562, fn 3.
on February 10, Spain‘s Marquis del Campo: Cook, Flood Tide, 205.
195 “take prisoner and prosecute”: Daniel Clayton, Islands of Truth: The Imperial Fashioning of Vancouver Island, 184.
prompted orders from the Admiralty: Jeremy Black, British Foreign Policy in an Age of Revolutions, 1783–1793, 236. Also “Late Foreign Intelligence. London. May 9–15,” Boston Herald of Freedom 4, no. 34 (July 27, 1790), 153.
He carried with him: See attachments to Meares, Memorial.
Grenville read the memorial: Black, British Foreign Policy, 236.
196 Pitt went before Parliament: Robert Greenhow, The History of Oregon and California and the Other Territories on the North-West Coast of North America, 203.
“In the present enlightened age”: James Marshall and Carrie Marshall, eds. Pacific Voyages: Selections from Scots Magazine 1771–1818, 74.
The warships Pegasus, Nautilous: “Spain,” Litchfield (CT) Weekly Monitor 5, no. 261 (June 28, 1790), 2.
“insidious and mercenary conspiracy”: Etches, “An Authentic Statement.”
197 “This country is arming”: Max M. Mintz, “Gouverneur Morris, George Washington’s War Hawk,” 651–61.
Behind the scenes: Howard V. Evans, “The Nootka Sound Controversy in Anglo-French Diplomacy—1790,” 609–40.
198 Floridablanca proposed a strategic plan: Ibid., 222–23.
publishing a narrative: Meares, Voyages.
Kendrick was arrested: Hoskins, Narrative, 103.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
199 a description of the sweeping: “Spanish War,” New-York Daily News, no. 462 (June 19, 1790), 2. Also “Spanish War,” Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Evening Post, June 21, 1790, 2.
199 “the Parliament has granted”: “Boston, July 3,” Portland (ME) Cumberland Gazette, July 12, 1790, 1.
British transports were reportedly: “Late Foreign Intelligence, London. May 9–15,” Boston Herald of Freedom 4, No. 34 (July 27, 1790), 153.
200 “I believe that a war”: Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, May 29, 1790.
“with nothing less than war”: Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., June 20, 1790.
hoped to draw in: Jeremy Black, British Foreign Policy in an Age of Revolution 1783–1793, 237–38.
201 came apart when O‘Fallon: Arthur Preston Whitaker, Spanish-American Frontier 1783–1795: The Westward Movement and the Spanish Retreat in the Mississippi Valley, 141–42.
Representatives of the Cherokee: David Humphreys to Thomas Jefferson, October 20, 1790. Also Fredrick J. Turner, “The Diplomatic Contest for the Mississippi Valley,” The Atlantic, May 1904.
“If the war between Britain and Spain”: Thomas Jefferson to E. Rutledge, July 4, 1790.
It would figure not only: Turner, “Diplomatic Contest,” 676.
The Nootka crisis later became: Ibid., 680.
202 Captain Kendrick in the Lady Washington: “Boston, May 19,” Concord Herald 1, no. 23 (June 15, 1790), 3.
“In the success of these”: “Late Foreign Intelligence.”
On the morning of Monday, August 9: Justin Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County Massachusetts, 1630–1880, vol. 4, 208.
more than triple: Wade J. Caruthers, American Pacific Ocean Trade: Its Impact on Foreign Policy and Continental Expansion, 1784–1860, 72.
203 new protectionist policies: The Tonnage Act of 1789 placed a duty of fifty cents per ton on foreign-built or foreign-owned vessels entering American ports. The duty on American vessels was only six cents per ton. Curtis P. Nettles, The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775–1815, 239.
change as remarkable as: Jacqueline Barbara Carr, “A Change ‘as Remarkable as the Revolution Itself’: Boston’s Demographics, 1780–1800,” 583–602.
in his brilliant yellow-and-red-feathered: Susan Ellen Bulfinch, The Life And Letters of Charles Bulfinch, Architect; with Other Family Papers, 66.
“will not be equal”: Robert Gray to Joseph Barrell, December 18, 1789.
204 Behind closed doors: John Hoskins, The Narrative of a Voyage, 6–7.
“had it in contemplation”: Ibid., 6.
204 Gray apparently also told: In response to these charges, Barrell in his instructions to Gray for the next voyage warned against forming such relationships.
205 “Thus much must be acknowledged”: Hoskins, Narrative, 7.
207 “their abilities to produce”: Ibid., 8.
The owners were divided: John Boit, “A New Log of the Columbia,” 2.
Gray, who received a total: Discharge and Wages list, September 1790, Columbia Papers.
A letter Randall wrote: Thomas Randall to Alexander Hamilton, August 14, 1791.
208 “the arrival of the Columbia”: John Quincy Adams, Writings of John Quincy Adams, vol. 1, 518. Entry for August 14, 1790.
“The owners of the Columbia”: “Extract of a Letter from Boston, August 10,”
New York Gazette of the United States 2, no. 38 (August 21, 1790), 567.
“Capt. Mears, in his representation”: “Captain Meares; British Court; Don Martinez,” Boston Columbian Centinel 14, no. 1 (September 15, 1790), 3.
209 Acknowledging the “illsweets”: Joseph Ingraham, Joseph Ingraham‘s Journal of the Brigantine Hope on a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, 1790–1782, 1–2.
“In all matters of traffic”: Joseph Barrell to Robert Gray, September 25, 1790.
210 “War was declared by England”: “Something More of War,” Massachusetts Spy 19, no. 909 (September 2, 1790), 3.
“no connection with foreigners”: Barrell to Gray, September 25, 1790.
“If the wind is fair”: Letter of Joseph Barrell to Robert Gray, September 25, 1790.
211 The last news before sailing: “British Advices, via Philadelphia: London July
13,” New York Daily Gazette, no. 538 (September 16, 1790), 886.
The naval mobilization and armament: Expenses were reported as 3,072,114 pounds in “Accounts as far as can be made up, of the expences of the armament on account of the Dispute with Spain, up to November 11, 1790, presented to the House of Commons.” James Marshall and Carrie Marshall, eds., Pacific Voyages : Selections from Scots Magazine, 1771–1808, 92–93.
212 His revised terms: Warren L. Cook, Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543–1819, 232, fn 74.
King George III went sleepless: Ibid., 241, fn 91. Floridablanca, too, was anguished: Ibid., 232–33.
In an unexpected turnaround: See Jeremy Black, British Foreign Policy in an Age of Revolutions, 1783–1793, 250. Also figuring into Floridablanca’s problems was the opposition he faced from the queen, who had gained great influence over government policies. The U.S. chargé d’affairs in Madrid, William Car- michael, wrote to Thomas Jefferson, “This government is weak; the ministry is in a ticklish situation; the Queen governs with caprice; the people begin to dispute their sovereigns; and altho’ they have no chiefs to look up to, the dissatisfaction is general …” This uncertainty was made even greater in view of the fact that the queen was about to give birth and there was fear she would die. See William Carmichael to Thomas Jefferson, January 24, 1791.
212 Alleyne Fitzhebert, and Count Floridablanca: Black, British Foreign Policy, 250.
213 mutual interest in defending monarchy: Cook, Flood Tide, 232.
To undermine this effort: Max Mintz, “Gouverneur Morris, George Washington’s War Hawk.” Also Jared Sparks, The Life of Gouverneur Morris: With Selections from His Correspondence and Misc. Papers.
215 Vancouver‘s expedition was to consist: George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World…, vol. 1, 49–50.
“the nature and extent”: Ibid., 60.
“required and directed”: Ibid., 62–63.
216 The young British captain was: Ibid., 58.
the merchant Butterworth expedition: J. F. G. Stokes, “Honolulu and Some New Speculative Phases of Hawaiian History,” 61–62, 96–98.