The letter written by Mr. Shaler in Spanish, and complaining of the
outrageous conduct of the Governor to the unoffending citizens of
a friendly power, was sent by a courier. It produced an interchange
of several letters, the purport of which was, on one side, to deny
the right of any foreign vessel to traverse these seas, which, his
Excellency said, like the territory, belonged exclusively to his
Catholic Majesty; on the other, to refute the absurd doctrine of any
nation’s possessing an exclusive right to any particular sea, and
giving chapter and verse in the treaty, not only for our right to
sail where we please, but to enter their ports and demand succor. His
Excellency closed the correspondence by expressing a hope that if
we did not admit their exclusive right to these seas, we would, at
least, allow them to be masters in their own ports....