A number of other vessels arrive soon after Martínez secures control of the Nootka Sound, including the Princess Royal, under Thomas Hudson, along with Iphigenia (William Douglas); the Argonaut, under James Colnett, and North West America, under Robert Funter—all British fur trading vessels.

Martínez is particularly troubled by the appearance of Colnett's Argonaut.

Not only is the Argonaut carrying material and supplies obviously intended for the construction of a permanent base, but a group of Chinese laborers are also on board, one of the first examples of "coolie" labor in the Pacific Northwest.

Martínez, whose warships give him de facto control, asserts Spanish sovereignty.

After a heated exchange between the two men, Martínez has Colnett arrested, along with the crew of the Argonaut.

Martínez writes in his journal about personal insults slung at him by Colnett.

He is also irritated by Colnett having sailed the Argonaut under a Portuguese rather than a British flag, which he feels is deceptive.

After a complicated series of events, Martínez ends up with three captured ships and their crews, including the Argonaut, Princess Royal, and North West American.

Hudson had taken the Princess Royal into Nootka Sound earlier and had been allowed to leave on the condition he proceed to China.

Instead, he had collected more furs from the region and returned to Nootka Sound, expecting Martínez would no longer be there.

Hudson did not intend to enter the sound but the Princess Royal was becalmed on an incoming tide.

A Spanish longboat had captured the ship and towed it in.

Martínez also impounds the holdings and ship, the Efigenia Nubiana, of John Meares, a British navigator and fur trader who has settled in the area.

The prisoners had eventually been released and the ships returned.

The Chinese workers have been forced to help build Fort San Miguel, a small battery of Spanish cannon overlooking the entrance to Friendly Cove, the main harbor of Nootka Sound at this time.

Santa Cruz de Nuca, the northernmost establishment of New Spain, is the first colony in British Columbia and the only Spanish settlement in what is now Canada.

Kendrick meets with Martínez, whom he and Gray had met with earlier that June, in the Spanish fort.

Martínez had asked both captains when they first met why they were here and the captains did not say anything about trading furs, but rather said that they were looking for barrel staves, telling of their loss of fifteen water casks previously.

Gray also tells Martínez that they are only guests here.

Their meeting ends in a friendship.

The capture of the British ships lead to the Nootka Crisis and near war between Britain and Spain.

The British challenge Spanish claims to allegedly "un-colonized" land on the Pacific coasts of North and South America.