George Vancouver, born about the year 1750, accompanied captain Cook
in his second voyage round the world, and, on his return, went out
with him in the Discovery, to the north pole, and arrived again in
England in 1780. In the latter end of the last mentioned year, he was
appointed a lieutenant of the ship Fame, part of lord Rodney’s fleet,
then on its way to the West Indies, where he remained till 1789, being
employed, during the last six years, on the Jamaica station, in the
sloop Europa. On his arrival in England, in 1790, he was made master
and commander of the Discovery; in which ship he was sent out to
ascertain if there existed in North America, between the thirtieth and
sixtieth degrees of latitude, an interior sea, or any canals of
communication between the known gulfs of the Atlantic and the Great
Sea; a point about which Cook and other navigators had been able to
give no satisfactory information.
On the 17th of August, 1791, he reached the southern coast of New
Holland, where he discovered King George the Third’s Sound; and, after
leaving Dusky Bay, in New Zealand, ascertained the situation of some
dangerous rocks and an inhabited island, giving to the former the name
of the Snares, and to the latter that of Oparo. On the 24th of
January, 1792, he set sail from Otaheite; and in the following March,
arrived at Owhyhee, where he was visited by the chiefs of the island.
He then proceeded along the north coast of New Albion to De Fuca’s
Straits, Nootka, and Monterey Bay. Here he passed some days, and
having received an important communication from the Spanish commandant
relative to the cession of Monterey, he forwarded a despatch to
England, by captain Broughton, in the ship Dædalus, together with his
journal of discoveries up to that time.
In February, 1793, he sailed to the Sandwich Islands, where he
endeavored to establish peace between the different chiefs, and
compelled them to execute two islanders, whom he discovered to have
been the murderers of lieutenant Hergest and other seamen of the
Dædalus. In April, he sailed along the American shore as far as Cape
Decision; and, after coasting along the western side of Queen
Charlotte’s Islands to Nootka, proceeded to the Spanish settlements of
New California, and discovered, to the south of Monterey, a double
chain of mountains, and that the one nearest the sea was the least in
height. In January, 1794, in which year he was made a post-captain, he
reached Owhyhee, which was, shortly after his arrival, ceded by the
king Tamaahmæah to the king of England. On leaving Owhyhee, he passed
Trinity Isles, and discovered an island uninhabited and covered with
snow, which he called Tschericow. He then proceeded up Cook’s river,
and after minutely examining several bays, straits, and inlets, and
discovering King George the Third’s Archipelago, he terminated his
operations in Port Conclusion, which he reached on the 22d of August,
where he made the following remarks in his journal:――‘The principal
object which his majesty appears to have had in view, in directing the
undertaking of this voyage, having at length been completed, I trust
the precision with which the survey of the coast of North-West America
has been carried into effect will remove every doubt, and set aside
every opinion of a northwest passage, or any water communication
navigable for shipping, existing between the North Pacific and the
interior of the American continent, within the limits of our
researches.’ On the 6th of July, 1795, he arrived at St. Helena, and
observed that, having made the tour of the world by the east, he had
gained twenty-four hours; it being, according to his estimation,
Monday, instead of Sunday, the 5th of July, as in the island.
He arrived in London in November, 1795, and, in a state of declining
health from the effects of his voyages, devoted himself to the
arrangement of his manuscripts for publication, until within a very
short time of his death, which occurred on the 10th of May, 1798. In
the same year, his work, edited by his brother, was printed at the
expense of government, entitled, ‘A Voyage of Discovery to the North
Pacific Ocean, and round the World, in which the Coast of North West
America has been carefully Examined and accurately Surveyed,
Undertaken by His Majesty’s Command, and Performed in the Years 1790,
1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795:’ and was, shortly after its
appearance, translated into French, German and Swedish.
The world is indebted to Vancouver for ascertaining the precise
knowledge of the North-West American coast, of which he entered parts
never before deemed accessible but to the smallest sea boats, and
traveled in a canoe nearly nine thousand miles among the labyrinth of
isles which border that part of the coast. His maps afford an exact
description of the discoveries, which he determined with great
precision. Zealous, and indefatigable in the pursuit of his object, he
was, at the same time, benevolent and unassuming, and insisted on his
companions sharing in the credit of his undertakings. In his account
he offers some curious notions in reference to the various inhabitants
of the north-west coast, the Russian and Spanish colonies, and the
isles of the Great Sea; which, by their frequent intercourse with
Europeans, had suffered much change in an interval of thirty years.
His narrative, in addition to the information it contains, is also
replete with interest.