ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF AMERICA.
The Voyage of Francisco de Gualle, or Gali, in 1584.--Of Viscaino, in
in 1598.--River of Martin d'Aguilar.--Cessation of Spanish
Enterprises.--Jesuit Missions in California in the 18th
century.--Voyage of Behring and Tchiricoff in 1741.--Presidios in
Upper California.--Voyage of Juan Perez in 1774; of Heceta and de la
Bodega in 1775.--Heceta's Inlet.--Port Bucareli.--Bay of
Bodega.--Hearne's Journey to the Coppermine River.--Captain James Cook
in 1776.--Russian Establishments, in 1783, as far as Prince William's
Sound; in 1787, as far as Mount Elias.--Expeditions from Macao, under
the Portuguese flag, in 1785 and 1786; under that of the British East
India Company in 1786.--Voyage of La Perouse in 1786.--King George's
Sound Company.--Portland and Dixon, in 1786.--Meares and Tipping, in
1786, under Flag of East India Company.--Duncan and Colnett in
1787.--Captain Barclay discovers in 1787 the Straits in 48 deg. 30', to
which Meares gives the name of Juan de Fuca in 1788.--Prince of
Wales's Archipelago.--Gray and Kendrick.
The Spaniards had long coveted a position in the East Indies, but the Bull
of Pope Alexander VI. precluded them from sailing eastward round the Cape
of Good Hope; they had, in consequence, made many attempts to find their
way thither across the Pacific. It was not, however, till 1564, that they
succeeded in establishing themselves in the Philippine Islands.
Thenceforth Spanish galleons sailed annually from Acapulco to Manilla, and
back by Macao. The trade winds wafted them directly across from New Spain
in about three months: on their return they occupied about double that
time, and generally reached up into a northerly latitude, in order to
avail themselves of the prevailing north-westers, which carried them to
the shores of California.
An expedition of this kind is the next historical record of voyages on
this coast, after Drake's visit. Hakluyt has published the navigator's own
account of it in his edition of 1600, as the "True and perfect Description
of a Voyage performed and done by Francisco de Gualle, a Spanish Captain
and Pilot, &c., in the Year of our Lord 1584." It purports to have been
translated out of the original Spanish, verbatim, into Low Dutch, by J. H.
van Lindschoten; and thence into English by Hakluyt. According to this
version of it, Gualle, on his return from Macao, made the coast of New
Spain "under seven-and-thirty degrees and a half." The author of the
"Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes" has substituted 57-1/2
for 37-1/2 degrees in Gualle's, or rather Gali's, account, without stating
any reason for it. Mr. Greenhow, indeed, refers to a note of that
author's, as intimating that he relied upon the evidence of papers found
in the archives of the Indies, but on examining the note in p. xlvi., it
evidently refers to two letters from the Archbishop of Mexico, then
Viceroy of New Spain, to the King, in reference to an expedition which he
proposed to intrust to Jayme Juan, for the discovery of the Straits of
Anian. It is true that the Archbishop is stated to have consulted Gali
upon his project, but the author of the "Introduction" specially alludes
to Lindschoten, as the person to whom the account of Gali's Voyage in 1582
was due, and refers to a French Translation of Lindschoten's work, under
the title of "Le Grand Routier de Mer," published at Amsterdam in 1638.
But Lindschoten's original work was written in the Dutch language, being
intitled "Reysgeschrift van de Navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten,"
and was published towards the end of the sixteenth century; and two
English translations of Gali's Voyage immediately appeared, one in Wolf's
edition of Lindschoten, in 1598; the other in the third volume of Hakluyt,
1598-1600. Lindschoten's own Dutch version was subsequently inserted in
Witsen's "Nord en Oost Tarterye," in 1692. All these latter accounts,
including the original, agree in stating seven-and-thirty degrees and a
half as the latitude where Gali discovered "a very high and fair land,
with many trees, and wholly without snow." The passage in the original
Dutch may be referred to in Burney's History of Voyages, vol. v., p. 164.
The French translation, however, which the author of the Introduction
consulted, gives 57-1/2 deg., the number being expressed in figures; but as
this seems to be the only authority for the change, it can hardly justify
it. "A high land," observes Captain Burney, "ornamented with trees, and
entirely without snow, is not inapplicable to the latitude of 37-1/2 deg., but
would not be credible if said of the American coast in 57-1/2 deg. N., though
nothing were known of the extraordinary high mountains which are on the
western side of America in that parallel." It may be observed, that the
French translator has likewise misstated the course which Gali held in
reaching across from Japan to the American coast, by rendering "east and
east-by-north" in the original, as "east and north-east" in the French
version, making a difference of three points in the compass, which would
take him much farther north than his true course.
M. Eyries, in the article "Gali," in the Biographie Universelle, puts
forward the same view of the cause of the variation of the latitude in the
account adopted by the author of the Introduction, namely, that it was
derived from the French translation which he consulted. The words in the
French version of the Grand Routier de Mer are; "Estans venus suivant ce
mesme cours pres de la coste de la Nouvelle Espagne a la hauteur de 57
degrez et demi, nous approchasmes d'un haut et fort beau pays, orne de
nombre d'arbres et entierement sans neige." M. Eyries, however, has fallen
into a curious mistake, as he represents Gali to have made the identical
voyage which is the subject of the narrative, in company with Jayme Juan,
in execution of the project of the Viceroy of Mexico, which was never
accomplished, instead of his having made the account of the voyage for
him. That M. Eyries is in error will be evident, not merely from the
account of the author of the Introduction, if more carefully examined, as
well as from the title and conclusion of the Voyage of Gali itself, as
given in Hakluyt's translation of the Dutch version of Lindschoten; but
also from this circumstance, which seems to be conclusive. M. de
Contreras, Archbishop of Mexico, was Viceroy of New Spain for the short
space of one year only, and the letters which he wrote to the King of
Spain, submitting his project of an expedition to explore the north-west
coast of America for his Majesty's approval, bore date the 22d January and
8th March, 1585. But Gali commenced his voyage from Acapulco in March
1582, and had returned by the year 1584, most probably before the
Archbishop had entered upon his office of Viceroy, certainly before he
submitted his plans to the King, which he had matured after consultation
with Gali. It is difficult to account for M. Eyries' mistake, unless it
originated in an imperfect acquaintance with the Spanish language, as the
statement by the author of the Introduction is by no means obscure. Gali's
voyage was thus a private mercantile enterprise, and not an expedition
authorised and directed by the Government of New Spain, which the account
of M. Eyries might lead his reader to suppose. It has acquired,
accidentally, rather more importance of late than it substantially
deserves, from the circumstance of its having been cited in support of the
Spanish title to the north-west coast of America; it has consequently been
thought to merit a fuller examination on the present occasion, as to its
true limits northward, which clearly fall short of those attained by the
Spaniards under Ferrelo, and very far short of those reached by the
British under Drake.
The next authentic expeditions on these coasts were those conducted by
Sebastian Viscaino. The growing rumours of the discovery of the passage
between the Atlantic and Pacific by the Straits of Anian, and the
necessity of providing accurate charts for the vessels engaged in the
trade between New Spain and the Philippine islands, induced Philip II. to
direct an expedition to be dispatched from Acapulco in 1596, to survey the
coasts. Nothing however of importance was accomplished on this occasion,
but on the succession of Philip III. in 1598, fresh orders were despatched
to carry into execution the intentions of his predecessor. Thirty-two
charts, according to Humboldt, prepared by Henri Martinez, a celebrated
engineer, prove that Viscaino surveyed these coasts with unprecedented
care and intelligence. "The sickness, however, of his crew, the want of
provisions, and the extreme severity of the season, prevented his
advancing further north than a headland in the 42d parallel, to which he
gave the name of Cape Sebastian." The smallest of his three vessels,
however, conducted by Martin d'Aguilar and Antonio Florez, doubled Cape
Mendocino, and reached the 43d parallel, where they found the mouth of a
river which Cabrillo has been supposed by some to have previously
discovered in 1543, and which was for some time considered to be the
western extremity of the long-sought Straits of Anian. The subsequent
report of the captain of a Manilla ship, in 1620, according to Mr.
Greenhow, led the world to adopt a different view, and to suppose that it
was the mouth of a passage into the northern extremity of the Gulf of
California; and accordingly, in maps of the later half of the seventeenth
century, California was represented to be an island, of which Cape Blanco
was the northernmost headland. After this error had been corrected by the
researches of the Jesuit Kuhn, in 1709, we find in the maps of the
eighteenth century, such as that of Guillaume de Lisle, published in Paris
in 1722, California a peninsula, Cape Blanco a headland in 45 deg., and near
it marked "Entree decouverte par d'Aguilar."
With Gali and Viscaino terminates the brilliant period of Spanish
discoveries along the north-west coast of America. The governors of New
Spain during the remainder of the seventeenth century and the greater part
of the eighteenth, confined their attention to securing the shores of the
peninsula of California against the armed vessels of hostile Powers,
which, after the discovery of the passage round Cape Horn in 1616, by the
Dutch navigators Lemaire and Van Schouten, carried on their depredations
in the Pacific with increasing frequency. The country itself of
California, was in 1697 subjected, by a royal warrant, to an experimental
process of civilisation at the hands of the Jesuits, which their success
in Paraguay emboldened them to undertake. In about sixty years a chain of
missions was established along the whole eastern side of California, and
the followers of Loyola may be considered to have ruled the country, till
the decree issued by Charles III. in 1767, for the immediate banishment of
the society from the Spanish dominions, led to their expulsion from the
New World. During this long period, the only expedition of discovery that
ventured into these seas was that which Behring and Tchiricoff led forth
in 1741 from the shores of Kamtchatka, under the Russian flag. Behring's
own voyage southward is not supposed to have extended beyond the 60th
parallel of north latitude, where he discovered a stupendous mountain,
visible at the distance of more than eighty miles, to which he gave the
name of Mount St. Elias, which it still bears. The account is derived from
the journal of Steller, the naturalist of Behring's ship, which Professor
Pallas first published in 1795, as Behring himself died on his voyage
home, in one of the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago, between 54-1/2
and 55-1/2 degrees north latitude. Here his vessel had been wrecked, and
the island still bears the name of the Russian navigator. Tchiricoff, on
the other hand, advanced further eastward, and the Russians themselves
maintain that he pushed his discoveries as far south as the 49th parallel
of north latitude, (Letter from the Chevalier de Poletica, Russian
Minister, to the Secretary of State at Washington, February 28, 1822, in
British and Foreign State Papers, 1821-22, p. 483;) but this has been
disputed. Mr. Greenhow considers, from the description of the latitude and
bearings of the land discovered by him, that it must have been one of the
islands of the Prince of Wales's Archipelago, in about 56 deg.
The discoveries of the Russians, of which vague rumours had found their
way into Europe, and of which a detailed account was given to the Academy
of Sciences at Paris, in 1750, by J. N. de l'Isle, the astronomer, on his
return from St. Petersburg, revived the attention of Spain to the
importance of securing her possessions in the New World against the
encroachments of other Powers. It was determined that the vacant coasts
and islands adjacent to the settled provinces of New Spain should be
occupied, so as to protect them against casual expeditions, and that the
more distant shores should be explored, so as to secure to the crown of
Spain a title to them, on the grounds of first discovery. With this object
"the Marine Department of San Blas" was organised, and was charged with
the superintendence of all operations by sea. Its activity was evinced by
the establishment of eight "Presidios" along the coast in Upper
California, in the interval of the ten years immediately preceding 1779.
Of these San Diego, in 32 deg. 39' 30", was the most southerly; San Francisco,
in 38 deg. 48' 30", the most northerly. During the same period, three
expeditions of discovery were dispatched from San Blas. The earliest of
these sailed forth in January, 1774, under the command of Juan Perez, but
its results were not made known before 1802, when the narrative of the
expedition of the Sutil and Mexicana was published, as already stated.
According to this account, Perez, having touched at San Diego and
Monterey, steered out boldly into the open sea, and made the coast of
America again in 53 deg. 53' north. In the latitude of 55 deg. he discovered a
headland, to which he gave the name of Santa Margarita, at the northern
extremity of Queen Charlotte's Island. The strait which separates this
island from that of the Prince of Wales, is henceforward marked in Spanish
maps as the Entrada de Perez. A scanty supply of water, however, soon
compelled him to steer southward, and he cast anchor in the Bay of San
Lorenzo in 49 deg. 30', in the month of August, and for a short time engaged
in trade with the natives. Spanish writers identify the bay of San Lorenzo
with that to which Captain Cook, four years afterwards, gave the name of
Nootka Sound. Perez was prevented from landing on this coast by the stormy
state of the weather, and his vessel was obliged to cut her cables, and
put to sea with the loss of her anchors. He is supposed, in coasting
southward, to have caught sight of Mount Olympus in 47 deg. 47'. Having
determined the true latitude of C. Mendocino, he returned to San Blas,
after about eight months' absence. Unfortunately for the fame of Perez,
the claim now maintained for him to the discovery of Nootka Sound, was
kept secret by the Spaniards till after general consent had assigned it to
Captain Cook. The Spaniards have likewise advanced a claim to the
discovery of the Straits of Fuca, upon the authority of Don Esteban Jose
Martinez, the pilot of the Santiago, Perez' vessel; who, according to Mr.
Greenhow, announced many years afterwards that he remembered to have
observed a wide opening in the land between 48 deg. and 49 deg.: and they have
consequently marked in their charts the headland at the entrance of the
straits as Cape Martinez. No allusion, however, is made to this claim in
the Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana, nor in
Humboldt's New Spain.
In the following year (1775) a second expedition sailed from San Blas
under the orders of Don Bruno Heceta, Don Juan de Ayala, and Don Juan de
la Bodega y Quadra. The Spanish government observed their usual prudent
silence as to the results of this expedition, but the journal of Antonio
Maurelle, "the second pilot of the fleet," who acted as pilot in the
Senora, which Bodega commanded, fell into the hands of the Hon. Daines
Barrington, who published an English translation of it in his
Miscellanies, in 1781. There are four other accounts in MS. amongst the
archives at Madrid. From one of these, the journal of Heceta himself, a
valuable extract is given in Mr. Greenhow's Appendix. Their first
discovery north of C. Mendocino, was a small port in 41 deg. 7', to which they
gave the name of La Trinidad, and where they fixed up a cross, which
Vancouver found still remaining in 1793. They then quitted the coast, and
did not make the land again till they reached 48 deg. 26', whence they
examined the shore in vain towards the south for the supposed Strait of
Fuca, which was placed in Bellin's fanciful chart, constructed in 1766,
between 47 deg. and 48 deg. Having had seven of the Senora's men massacred by the
natives in the latitude of 47 deg. 20', where twelve years later a portion of
the crew of the Imperial Eagle were surprised and murdered, they resumed
their voyage northward, though Heceta, owing to the sickness of his crew,
was anxious to return. A storm soon afterwards separated the two vessels,
and Heceta returned southward. On his voyage homewards he first made the
land on the 10th of August, in 49 deg. 30', on the south-west side of the
great island now known as Vancouver's Island, and passing the part which
Perez had visited, came upon the main land below the entrance of the
Straits of Fuca. On the 17th of August, as he was sailing along the coast
between 46 deg. 40' and 46 deg. 4', according to Heceta's own report, or in 46 deg. 9'
according to the Introduction to the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana,
Heceta discovered a great bay, the head of which he could no where
recognise. So strong, however, were the currents and eddies of the water,
that he believed it to be "the mouth of some great river, or passage to
another sea." He was disposed, according to his own statement, to conceive
it to be the same with the Straits of Fuca, as he was satisfied no such
straits existed between 47 deg. and 48 deg., where they were laid down in the
charts. He did not, however, venture to cast anchor; and the force of the
currents, during the night, swept him too far to leeward to allow him to
examine it any further. Heceta named the northern headland of the bay, C.
San Roque; and the southern headland, C. Frondoso; and to the bay itself
he gave the name of the Assumption, though, in the Spanish charts,
according to Humboldt, it is termed "l'Ensenada de Ezeta," Heceta's Inlet.
Heceta likewise gave the name of C. Falcon to a headland in 45 deg. 43', known
since as C. Lookout; and continuing his course to the southward along the
coast, reached Monterey on August 30th.
De la Bodega, in the mean time, had stretched out to 56 deg., when he
unexpectedly made the coast, 135 leagues more to the westward than
Bellin's chart had led him to expect. He soon afterwards discovered the
lofty conical mountain in King George III.'s Archipelago, to which he gave
the name of San Jacinto, and which Cook subsequently called Mount
Edgecumb, and having reached the 58th parallel, turned back to examine
that portion of the coast, where the Rio de los Reyes was placed in the
story of the adventures of Admiral Fonte. Having looked for this fabulous
stream in vain, they landed and took possession of the shores of an
extensive bay, in 55 deg. 30', in the Prince of Wales' Archipelago, which they
named Port Bucareli, in honour of the Viceroy. Proceeding southward, they
observed the Entrada de Perez, north of Queen Charlotte's Island; but,
though coasting from 49 deg. within a mile of the shore, according to
Maurelle's account, they overlooked the entrance of Fuca's Straits. A
little below 47 deg. unfavourable winds drove them off the coast, which they
made once more in 45 deg. 27'; from which parallel they searched in vain to
42 deg. for the river of Martin d'Aguilar. In the latitude of 38 deg. 18' they
reached a spacious and sheltered bay, which they had imagined to be Port
San Francisco; but it proved to be a distinct bay, not yet laid down in
any chart, so De la Bodega bestowed his own name upon it, having noted in
his journal that it was here that Sir Francis Drake careened his ship.
Vancouver, however, considered the bay of Sir Francis Drake to be distinct
from this bay of Bodega, as well as from that of San Francisco.
Expeditions had been, in the mean time, made by direction of the Hudson's
Bay Company, across the northern regions of North America, to determine,
if possible, the existence of the supposed northern passage between
Hudson's Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Samuel Hearne, one of the
Company's agents, in 1771, in the course of one of these journeys,
succeeded in tracing a river, since known as the Coppermine River, to a
sea, where the flux and reflux of the tide was observed. Hearne calculated
the mouth of this river to be in about 72 deg. north latitude; and he had
assured himself, by his own observations, that no channel connecting the
two seas extended across the country which he had traversed. It appears
that a parliamentary grant of 20,000_l._ had been voted, in 1745, by the
House of Commons, for the discovery of a north-west passage, through
Hudson's Bay, by ships belonging to his Britannic Majesty's subjects; and
in 1776, this reward was further extended to the ships of his Majesty,
which might succeed in discovering a northern passage between the two
oceans, in any direction or under any parallel north of 52 deg. The Lords of
the British Admiralty, in pursuance of Hearne's report, determined on
sending out an expedition to explore the north-easternmost coast of the
Pacific; and Captain James Cook, who had just returned from an expedition
in the southern hemisphere, was ordered, in 1776, to proceed round the
Cape of Good Hope to the coast of New Albion, in 45 degrees. He was
besides directed to avoid all interference with the establishments of
European Powers: to explore the coast northward, after reaching New
Albion, up to 65 deg.; and there to commence a search for a river or inlet
which might communicate with Hudson's Bay. He was further directed to take
possession, in the name of his sovereign, of any countries which he might
discover to be uninhabited; and if there should be inhabitants in any
parts not yet discovered by other European powers, to take possession of
them, with the consent of the natives. No authentic details of any
discoveries had been made public by the Spaniards since the expedition of
Viscaino, in 1602, though rumours of certain voyages along the north-west
coast of America, made by order of the viceroy of New Spain, in the two
preceding years, had reached England shortly before Cook sailed; but the
information was too vague to afford Cook any safe directions.
The expedition reached the shores of New Albion in 44 deg. north, and thence
coasted at some distance off up to 48 deg. Cook arrived at the same
conclusion which Heceta had adopted, that between 47 deg. and 48 deg. north there
were no Straits of Fuca, as alleged. He seems to have passed unobserved
the arm of the sea a little further northward, having most probably struck
across to the coast of Vancouver's Island, which trends north-westward.
Having now reached the parallel of 49 deg. 30', he cast anchor in a spacious
bay, to which he gave the name of King George's Sound; but the name of
Nootka, borrowed from the natives, has since prevailed. It has been
supposed, as already stated, that Nootka Sound was the bay in which Perez
cast anchor, and which he named Port San Lorenzo; and that the implements
of European manufacture, which Captain Cook, to his great surprise, found
in the possession of one of the natives, were obtained on that occasion
from the Spaniards. The first notification, however, of the existence of
this important harbour, dates from this visit of Captain Cook, who
continued his voyage northward up to the 59th parallel, and from that
point commenced his survey of the coast, in the hope of discovering a
passage into the Atlantic. It is unnecessary to trace his course onward.
Although Spanish navigators claim to have seen portions of the coast of
North America between the limits of 43 deg. and 55 deg. prior to his visit, yet
their discoveries had not been made public, and their observations had
been too cursory and vague to lead to any practical result. Captain Cook
is entitled, beyond dispute, to the credit of having first dispelled the
popular errors respecting the extent of the continents of America and
Asia, and their respective proximity: and as Drake, according to Fletcher,
changed the name of the land south of Magellan's Straits from Terra
Incognita to Terra nunc bene Cognita, so Cook was assuredly entitled to
change the name of the North Pacific Sea from "Mare Incognitum" to "Mare
nunc bene Cognitum."
On the return of the vessels engaged in this expedition to England, where
they arrived in October, 1780, it was thought expedient by the Board of
Admiralty to delay the publication of an authorised account, as Great
Britain was engaged in hostilities with the United States in America, and
with France and Spain in the Old World. The Russians in the mean time
hastened to avail themselves of the information which they had obtained
when Captain King, on his way homewards by China, touched at the harbor of
Petropawlosk, and an association was speedily formed amongst the fur
merchants of Siberia and Kamtchatka to open a trade with the shores of the
American continent. An expedition was in consequence dispatched in 1783,
for the double purpose of trading and exploring, and several trading posts
were established between Aliaska and Prince William's Sound. Mr. Greenhow
(p. 161) assigns to this period the Russian establishment on the island of
Kodiak, near the entrance of the bay called Cook's Bay, but the Russian
authorities refer this settlement to a period as remote as 1763. (Letter
from the Chevalier de Poletica to the Secretary of State at Washington,
28th February, 1822. British and Foreign State Papers, 1821-22, p. 484.)
The Russian establishments seem to have extended themselves in 1787, and
the following year as far as Admiralty Bay, at the foot of Mount Elias.
The publication, however, of the journals of Cook's expedition, which took
place in 1784-5, soon introduced a host of rival traders into these seas.
Private expeditions were dispatched from Macao, under the Portuguese flag,
in 1785 and 1786, and under the flag of the East India Company in 1786. In
the month of June of this latter year, La Perouse, in command of a French
expedition of discovery, arrived off the coast, and cast anchor in a bay
near the foot of Mount Fairweather, in about 59 deg., which he named Port des
Francais. He thence skirted the coast southward past Port Bucareli, the
western shores of Queen Charlotte's Island, and Nootka, and reached
Monterey in September, where having stayed sixteen days, he bade adieu to
the north-west coast of America. La Perouse seems first to have suspected
the separation of Queen Charlotte's Island from the continent, but as no
account of the results of this expedition was published before 1797, other
navigators forestalled him in the description of nearly all the places
which he had visited.
In the August of 1785, in which year La Perouse had sailed, an
association in London, styled the King George's Sound Company, dispatched
two vessels under the command of Captains Dixon and Portlock, to trade
with the natives on the American coast, under the protection of licences
from the South Sea Company, and in correspondence with the East India
Company. They reached Cook's River in July 1786, where they met with
Russian traders, and intended to winter in Nootka Sound, but were driven
off the coast by tempestuous weather to the Sandwich Isles. Returning
northward in the spring of 1787, they found Captain Meares, with his
vessel the Nootka, frozen up in Prince William's Sound. Meares had left
Calcutta in January 1786, whilst his intended consort, the Sea Otter,
commanded by Captain Tipping, had been dispatched to Malacca, with
instructions to proceed to the north-west coast of America; and there
carry on a fur trade in company with the Nootka. Both these vessels sailed
under the flag of the East India Company. Meares, after having with some
difficulty got clear of the Russian establishment at Kodiak, reached
Cook's River soon after Dixon and Portlock had quitted it, and proceeded
to Prince William's Sound, where he expected to meet the Sea Otter; but
Captain Tipping and his vessel were never seen by him again after leaving
Calcutta, though Meares was led by the natives to suppose that his consort
had sailed from Prince William's Sound a few days before his arrival. He
determined, however, to pass the winter here, in preference to sailing to
the Sandwich Isles, lest he should be prevented returning to the coast of
America. Here indeed the severity of the cold, coupled with scurvy,
destroyed more than half of his crew, and the survivors were found in a
state of extreme distress by Dixon and Portlock, on their return to the
coast in the following spring.
We have now reached a period when many minute and detached discoveries
took place. Prince William's Sound and Nootka appear to have been the two
great stations of the fur trade, and it seems to have been customary, in
most of the trading expeditions of this period, that two vessels should be
dispatched in company, so as to divide the labor of visiting the trading
posts along the coast. Thus, whilst Portlock remained between Prince
William's Sound and Mount St. Elias, Dixon directed his course towards
Nootka, and being convinced on his voyage, from the reports of the
natives, that the land between 52 deg. and 54 deg. was separated from the
continent, as La Perouse had suspected, he did not hesitate to call it
Queen Charlotte's Island, from the name of his vessel, and to give to the
passage to the northward of it, which is marked on Spanish maps as the
Entrada de Perez, the name of Dixon's Entrance. Before Dixon and Portlock
quitted these coasts, in 1787, other vessels had arrived to share in the
profits of the fur trade. Amongst these the Princess Royal and the Prince
of Wales had been despatched from England, by the King George's Sound
Company, under command of Captains Duncan and Colnett; whilst the Imperial
Eagle, under Captain Barclay, an Englishman, displayed in those seas for
the first time the flag of the Austrian East India Company. To a boat's
crew belonging to this latter vessel Captain Meares assigns the discovery
of the straits in 48 deg. 30', to which he himself gave in the following year
the name of Juan de Fuca, from the old Greek pilot, whose curious story
has been preserved in Purchas' Pilgrims. (Introduction to Meares' Voyages,
p. lv.) Meares had succeeded in returning to Macao with the Nootka, in
October, 1787. In the next year he was once more upon the American coast,
as two other vessels, named the Felice and Iphigenia, were despatched from
Macao, under Meares and Captain Douglas respectively, the former being
sent direct to Nootka, the latter being ordered to make for Cook's River,
and thence proceeding southward to join her consort. Meares, in his
Observations on a North-west Passage, states that Captain Douglas
anticipated Captain Duncan, of the Princess Royal, in being the first to
sail through the Channel which separates Queen Charlotte's Island from the
main land, and thereby confirming the suppositions of La Perouse and
Dixon. Captain Duncan, however, appears at all events to have explored
this part of the coast more carefully than Douglas had done, and he first
discovered the group of small islands, which he named the Prince of Wales'
Archipelago. The announcement of this discovery seemed to some persons to
warrant them in giving credit once more to the exploded story of Admiral
Fonte's voyage, and revived the expectation of discovering the river,
which the admiral is described to have ascended near 53 deg. into a lake
communicating with the Atlantic Ocean. It is almost needless to observe,
that these expectations have never been realised.
The names of several vessels have been omitted in this brief summary,
which were engaged in the fur trade subsequently to the year 1785. Two
vessels, however, require notice,--the Washington under Captain Gray, and
the Columbia under Captain Kendrick, which were despatched from Boston,
under the American flag, in August, 1787. Captain Gray reached Nootka
Sound, on Sept. 17, 1788, and found Meares preparing to launch a small
vessel called the North-west America, which he had built there. The
Columbia does not appear to have joined her consort till after the
departure of Meares and his companions. Meares himself set sail in the
Felice for China, on Sept. 23, whilst the Iphigenia proceeded with the
North-west America to the Sandwich Islands, and wintered there. In the
spring of 1789, the two latter vessels returned to Nootka Sound, and found
the Columbia had joined her consort the Washington, and both had wintered
there. The North-west America was despatched forthwith on a trading
expedition northward, whilst the Iphigenia remained at anchor in Nootka
Sound.
Events were now at hand which were attended with very important
consequences in determining the relations of Spain and Great Britain
towards each other in respect to the trade with the natives on their
coasts, and to the right of forming settlements among them. These will
fitly be reserved, as introductory to the Convention of the Escurial,
which will be discussed in a subsequent Chapter.