The declaration of Spain imported, that his Britannic Majesty having complained of the violence committed on June the 10th, 1770, at the island commonly called the Great Malouine, and by the English Falkland’s Island, in obliging by force the commander and subjects of his Britannic Majesty to evacuate the port by them called Egmont, a step offensive to the honour of his Crown, the Prince of Masserano, Ambassador Extraordinary of his Catholic Majesty, had received orders to declare, that his Catholic Majesty, _considering the desire with which he is animated for peace_, _&c._, had seen with displeasure this expedition, tending to disturb it; and being persuaded of the reciprocity of sentiments of his Britannic Majesty, &c., his Catholic Majesty did disavow the said violent enterprise, and, in consequence, the Prince de Masserano declared that his Catholic Majesty engaged to give immediate orders that things should be restored in the Great Malouine, at the port called Egmont, to the state in which they were before the 10th of June, 1770; for which purpose his Catholic Majesty would give orders to one of his officers to deliver up to the officer authorised by his Britannic Majesty the port and fort called Egmont, with all the artillery, stores, and effects of his Britannic Majesty and his subjects, agreeable to the inventory that had been made of them. The Prince of Masserano declared at the same time, in the name of the King his master, that the engagement of his said Catholic Majesty to restore to his Britannic Majesty the possession of the port and fort called Egmont, could not nor ought in anywise to affect the question of the prior right of sovereignty of the Malouine Islands. This declaration was, as I have said, accepted, but no notice taken on our side of the protest of prior right. The act was, in truth, as appears on the face of it, a mere temporary expedient to prevent present rupture; Spain relinquishing no claim, nor expressing a surrender of anything more than Port Egmont--which we accepted with the air of a sacrifice to which we had very slender pretensions. Indeed, the worse the grace was with which we seemed to accept the concession of Spain, the greater in reality was our triumph; for though the Opposition affected to decry our acquiescence, the humiliation certainly fell on the King of Spain, who yielded a flower of his crown, to which we pretended no right but that of convenience and very recent occupation; and which very convenience had no meaning but that of an opportunity to annoy Spain thereafter.