However, these other unverified local ghost-Spanish-settlements appear to have most probably been merely a "political fiction", created by Spanish cartographers with the aim of dissuading other nations from attempting to expand in the area.

[1][2][3] Yuquot (meaning "Wind comes from all directions") was the summer home of Chief Maquinna and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht (Nuu-chah-nulth) people for generations, housing approximately 1,500 natives in 20 traditional wooden longhouses.

Captain James Cook's visit to Nootka Sound in 1778 was the second known European sighting of Yuquot after Juan José Pérez Hernández in 1774.

[4] New Spain claimed the entire west coast of North America and therefore considered the Russian American fur trading activity in Alaska, which began in the middle to late 18th century, an encroachment and threat.

On June 24, 1789 a salvo was fired from the new fort and the Spanish ships in what Martínez considered an official act of possession of Nootka Harbour.

[12] On June 24, in front of the British and Americans present at Nootka Sound, Martínez performed a formal act of sovereignty, taking possession of the entire northwest coast for Spain.

The Princess Royal was first, and Martínez ordered its captain, Thomas Hudson, to abandon the area and return to China, based on Spain's territorial and navigation rights.

After Narváez returned in the Santa Gertrudis la Magna (the seized and renamed North West America), the materials from the Argonaut were used to improve the vessel.

The pieces were taken back to Nootka Sound in 1790 by Francisco de Eliza and used to build a schooner, christened Santa Saturnina.

On July 13, one of the Nuu-chah-nulth leaders, Callicum, the son of Maquinna, went to meet with Martínez, who was on board the newly captured Princess Royal.

[11] The American ships Columbia Rediviva and Lady Washington, also fur trading, were in the area all summer, sometimes anchored in Friendly Cove.

[16] On July 29, 1789[8]: 295  the Spanish supply ship Aranzazu arrived from San Blas with orders from Viceroy Flores to evacuate Nootka Sound by the end of the year.

The captured North West America, renamed Santa Gertrudis la Magna, returned to San Blas separately.

Martínez lost favor due to his actions in the incident, and with the appointment of the new Viceroy, Juan Vicente de Güemes.

The senior commander of the Spanish naval base at San Blas, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, replaced Martínez as the primary Spaniard in charge of Nootka Sound and the northwest coast.

[5] Some months later, Manuel Antonio Flores, Viceroy of New Spain, ordered Francisco de Eliza to rebuild enlarge the fort and settlement.

In April 1790 John Meares arrived in England, confirmed various rumors, claimed to have bought land and built a settlement at Nootka before Martínez, and generally fanned the flames of anti-Spanish feelings.

The convention held that the northwest coast would be open to traders of both Britain and Spain, that the captured British ships would be returned and an indemnity paid.

Until the details were worked out, which took several years, Spain retained control of Nootka Sound and continued to garrison the fort at Friendly Cove.

Malaspina was able to regain the trust of Maquinna and the promise that the Spanish had the rightful title of land ownership at Nootka Sound.

Spain desired to set the Spanish-British boundary at the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Vancouver insisted on British rights to the Columbia River.

An agreement was signed on January 11, 1794, under which both nations agreed to abandon Nootka Sound, with a ceremonial transfer of the post at Friendly Cove to the British.

[17] The Nootka Conventions of the 1790s, carried out in part by George Vancouver and his Spanish counterpart Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, prevented the dispute from escalating to war.

However, no buildings had been seized and Bodega said no land had been acquired by the British, as attested by the indigenous chief Maquinna as well as the American traders Robert Gray and Joseph Ingraham, who were present in 1789.

Article VI provided that neither party would form new establishments on any of the islands adjacent to the east and west coasts of South America then occupied by Spain.

And Their said Majesties will mutually aid each other to maintain for their subjects free access to the port of Nootka against any other nation which may attempt to establish there any sovereignty or dominion".

[34] In the larger scheme of things the Nootka Conventions weakened the notion that a country could claim exclusive sovereignty without establishing settlements.

The United States argued that it acquired exclusive sovereignty from Spain, which became a key part of the American position during the Oregon boundary dispute.

The Catalan volunteers left the fort in 1792 and Spanish influence in the region ended in 1795 after the third Nootka Convention came into force and Santa Cruz de Nuca was finally abandoned.

Remnants of the Spanish post, including its kitchen garden, were still visible when John R. Jewitt, an English captive of Maquinna, lived there in 1803-1805.