In 1789 the Viceroy of New Spain, Manuel Antonio Flórez, instructed Esteban José Martínez to occupy Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island in present-day British Columbia, build a settlement and fort, and to make it clear that Spain was setting up a formal establishment. The Russians were threatening to take the sound, and in May 1788 the British fur trader John Meares had used Nootka Sound as a base of operations and claimed purchase of land there from the indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth people. In 1788, John Meares, an English navigator and explorer sailing under falsified papers, sailed from China and explored Nootka Sound and the neighbouring coasts. He, among other claims subsequently discredited by George Vancouver in 1792, claimed to have bought some land from a local chief named Maquinna and built a trading post there. In 1789, the Spanish commander Esteban José Martínez led an expedition that arrived at Nootka Sound on May 5, 1789. This territory was already considered as part of New Spain by the Spanish due to the previous explorations of the region. On May 15, 1789 Martínez chose the location of his fortification and settlement at the entrance of Friendly Cove (Yuquot) on Hog Island. Work progressed so that on May 26 they were able to place their artillery followed by the construction of barracks and a powder storeroom. The new Santa Cruz de Nuca settlement included houses and a hospital. During the summer of 1789 a number of fur trading vessels, British and American, arrived at Nootka. The American captains heeded warnings and left. 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. On July 4, the American vessels and their captains Gray and Kendrick (who had arrived in the harbour 7 months earlier than Martínez) fired salvos and fireworks in recognition of their recent independence from Britain accompanied by a further salvo from the Spanish fort. On July 29, 1789 new orders arrived from Viceroy Flores directing Martínez to abandon Fort San Miguel and return to San Blas. The artillery from the fort was loaded back aboard "Princesa Real" and he left Friendly Cove on October 30, 1789. The fort was dismantled, but anticipating a reoccupation, Martínez buried crates of bricks and lime.