According to the letter signed by Ingraham and Gray, Meares had made many false claims about the events of 1789. The Portuguese ships, Ingraham said, were definitely British ships flying Portuguese flags. The "house" that Meares said he built at Nootka Sound, and which was explicitly mentioned in the Nootka Convention, was only a "rough hut", built and torn down in 1788. By 1789, when the Spanish arrived, "there was no vestige of any house remaining". The Nootka Convention said that Spain had seized buildings and that these must be restored to Britain. Further, Ingraham wrote that Meares had not purchased any land from Maquinna, as claimed. About the arrest of James Colnett by Esteban José Martínez, Ingraham and Gray wrote that Colnett had insulted and threatened Martínez, and that Colnett had drawn his sword on Martínez, justifying Colnett's arrest. The letter closed with a statement of friendship: "We sincerely hope, sir, when things are represented with truth, it will rescue our friend Don Estevan J. Martínez from censure... As to the treatment of the Americans by Don Estevan, we have ever testified to it in terms due to such hospitality, and we are again happy to have it in our power to do what we deem justice to his conduct." The Americans were not a neutral party; the United States had only gained its independence from Britain through war a few years before. Also, the Americans were in direct competition with the British, but not the Spanish, for the fur trade of the Northwest coast. It was in their interest to support the Spanish case.