spective Governments, and to await further instructions; Nootka 192. being, in the mean time, considered as a Spanish port. Vancouver accordingly despatched one of his lieutenants to England with accounts of the transactions; and in the early part of October Oct. 12. he sailed towards the south, with three vessels-the Discovery; his own ship, the Chatham, commanded by Lieutenant Broughton; and the Daedalus, which had recently joined him under Lieutenant Whidbey. About the same time Captain Quadra departed for Monterey, leaving the settlement at Nootka under the charge of Fidalgo; and the American ship Columbia and brig Hope directed their course homeward by way of Canton. Vancouver quitted Nootka on the 13th of October, taking with Oct. 13. him charts and descriptions of the harbor and river discovered by Gray in the preceding April, of which he had received copies from the Spanish commissioner, Quadra. On the 18th he reached the entrance of Bulfinch's Harbor, to explore which he detached Lieutenant Whidbey in the Dedalus, while he himself proceeded with the other vessels to the mouth of the Columbia. Into that river the Chatham, with great difficulty, penetrated on the 20th. The Discovery was unable to cross the bar, and Vancouver, being convinced from his observations that the stream was inaccessible to large ships, "except in very fine weather, with moderate winds and a smooth sea," he sailed to the bay of San Francisco, where he had ordered the other officers to join him in case of separation. In December following the whole squadron was reunited at Monterey, where Whidbey and Broughton presented the reports of their observations. Whidbey's account of Bulfinch's Harbor was less favorable than than of Gray. From the statements of both, however, it appears that the place possesses advantages which must render it important, whenever the surrounding region becomes settled. It affords a safe retreat for small vessels, and there are several spots on its shore where boats may land without difficulty; moreover, it is the only harbor on the coast, between Cape Mendocino and the Strait of Fuca, except the mouth of the Columbia; and under such circumstances, labor and ingenuity will certainly be employed to correct and improve what nature has offered. It has been already remarked, that the place is generally distinguished on British, and even on American maps, as Whidbey's Harbor, although Vancouver himself has not pretended to withhold from Gray the merit of discovering it. Broughton, as before mentioned, entered the Columbia with Oct. 20. the Chatham on the 20th of October; and he there, to his surprise, found lying at anchor the brig Jenny, from Bristol, which had sailed from Nootka Sound a few days previous. Scarcely had the Chatham effected an entrance, ere she ran aground; and the channel proved to be so intricate, that Broughton determined to leave his vessel about four miles from the mouth, and to pro- Oct. 24. ceed up the stream in his cutter. A few words will suffice with regard to his survey, of which a long and detailed account is given in the second volume of Vancouver's Journal. The portion of the Columbia near the sea was found by the 1792. explorers to be about seven miles in width; its depth varied from Oct. 24. two fathoms to eight; and it was crossed in every direction by shoals, which must always render the navigation difficult, even Oct. 26. by small vessels. Higher up, the stream became narrower, and at the distance of twenty-five miles its breadth did not exceed a thousand yards. These circumstances were considered by Broughton and Vancouver as authorizing them to assume that the true entrance of the river was at the last-mentioned point, and that the waters between it and the ocean constituted an inlet or sound. From the extremity of this inlet, the party rowed eightyfour miles up the river, in a south west course, to a bend, where Oct. 30. the current being so rapid as to prevent them from advancing without great labor, they abandoned the survey and returned to Nov. 5. their vessel. The angle of land around which the river flowed, and where their progress was arrested, received the appellation of Point Vancouver; the part of the inlet where the ship Columbia lay at anchor during her visit, was called Gray's Bay; and that immediately within Cape Disappointment was named Baker's Bay, in compliment to the captain of the Jenny. On the 10th of November the Chatham quitted the Columbia, in comNov. 23. pany with the Jenny, and arrived at the Bay of San Francisco before the end of the month. 1793. The distinction which Vancouver and Broughton have thu's endeavored to establish between the upper and the lower parts of the Columbia is entirely destitute of foundation, and at variance with the principles upon which our whole geographical nomenclature is formed. Inlets and sounds are arms of the sea, running up into the land; and their waters, being supplied from the sea, are necessarily salt. The waters of the Columbia are, on the contrary, fresh and potable within ten miles of the Pacific; their volume, and the impetuosity of their current, being sufficient to prevent the farther ingress of the ocean billows. The question appears, at first, to be of no consequence; the following extract from Vancouver's Journal will, however, serve to show that the quibble was devised by the British navigators, with the unworthy object of depriving Captain Gray of the merits of his discovery: Previously to his [Broughton's] departure, he formally took possession of the river, and the country in its vicinity, in his Britannic Majesty's name, having every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or State had ever entered this river before. In this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray's sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw, or ever was within five leagues of its entrance." Comments on this passage are needless. From the Bay of San Francisco, Vancouver despatched Lieutenant Broughton to Europe, by way of Mexico, with further communications to his Government respecting the transfer of Nootka; and he then proceeded with his vessels to the Sandwich Islands, the importance of which, as places of resort for obtaining repairs and refreshments, began by that time to be properly estimated. He there succeeded in effecting a peace, and reciprocal recognitions of independence, between Tamahamaha, the celebrated chief of Owyhee, and Titeree, the sovereign of the other islands; 1793. and he also caused the execution of several of the natives, who had been delivered up to him as the murderers of two officers of the Daedalus in the preceding year, but who were afterwards ascertained to have been guiltless of the crime imputed to them.* Having performed these acts of justice, he sailed towards the northwest coast, and arrived at Nootka in May, 1793. The following summer was passed by the British navigators in exploring the passages north and northeast of Queen Charlotte's Islands, which had been partially examined by Caamano in 1792. It would be needless to present the particulars of these researches, which were conducted in the most masterly manner. The results were, the discovery and survey of a number of islands, situated at short distances apart, between the 54th and the 58th parallels of latitude, in a space which had been previously regarded as occupied by a portion of the American continent. The inlet found by Gray, and supposed by him to be the Rio de los Reyes of Fonté, was traced to its termination in the land near the 56th parallel; and whilst a part of the story of that admiral's voyage appeared to be confirmed by the discovery of the Archipelago, the remainder was believed to have been completely disproved, inasmuch as no great river was found entering that part of the Pacific. The islands, straits, bays, and capes thus discovered, were nearly all named in honor of the members of the royal family, the ministry, the peerage, and the other branches of the Government of Great Britain. Thus we find on Vancouver's map of the northwest Archipelago, the islands or groups of King George the Third, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Admiralty, and Pitt; one small group, which had been partially surveyed by Caamano, received the appellation of Rivellagigedo Islands, in compliment to the Viceroy of Mexico. Between these islands run the Duke of Clarence's Strait, Prince Frederick's Sound, Chatham Canal, Grenville Canal, Burke's Canal, and Stephen's Passage; the capes and bays being distributed among the Windhams, Dundases, and other high tory families of that day. It is, however, improbable that any one of these names will ever be employed by the inhabitants of the region in which the places so called are situated. The Russians, who now occupy the whole west coast of America and the adjacent islands north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, appear to have excluded, as far as possible, the appellations bestowed by the subjects of other States. Thus, on their charts of the north Pacific, Cook's Inlet is termed the Bay of Kenay; Prince William's Sound is the Gulf of Tschugatsch; Admiralty Bay is the Bay of Yakutat; and Norfolk Sound, the Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, is the Gulf of Sitca. The territory called by Vancouver King George the Third's Island, *For the particulars of the trial and execution of these unfortunate savages, see Vancouver's Journal, vol. ii, page 204. Captain Broughton, when he visited the Sandwich Islands in 1795, was assured of their entire innocence, as may be seen in his Journal, page 42. 1793 has been since found to be divided by channels into four islands, which are severally distinguished by the names of Chichagof, Baranof, Jacobi, and Krooze. The Prince of Wales's Islands are Tschirikof's Islands; Admiralty Island is Hoosnoof; and Stephen's Passage is the Strait of Acco. 1794 These surveys having been completed, the British ships reFeb. 25. tired on the approach of cold weather to the Sandwich Islands, where Vancouver contrived to obtain from King Tamahamaha the cession of the sovereignty of Owyhee to his Britannic Majesty, with the understanding, however, that the native chief and his officers, as well as the priests, "were to continue to officiate in their respective stations, and that no alteration in those particulars was in any degree thought of or intended." In return for the present, the British navigators built a vessel of war for the King, by the aid of which he soon after brought several other islands of the group under his dominion. Mar. 147 In the spring of 1794 Vancouver sailed from the Sandwich Islands to the bay called Cook's River, which he minutely explored; and having ascertained that no considerable stream emptied into it, as had been previously supposed, he changed its name to Cook's Inlet. Thence he proceeded to Prince William's Sound, which he also examined carefully; and from that place he continued his survey eastwardly, until he reached the Archipelago discovered by him in 1793. Through this Archipelago he again sailed for the purpose of completing his observations; and on the 2d of August he arrived at Nootka, satisfied that "the precision with which his survey of the coast of Northwest America had been conducted, would remove every doubt, and set aside every opinion of a northwest passage, or any water communication navigable for shipping between the north Pacific and the interior of the American continent, within the limits of his researches." We now know that no such communication exists east of Beering's Strait; but when we take into consideration the intricate character of the shores between Mount Saint Elias and the southern part of the Strait of Fuca, it must be admitted that many passages by which vessels could thus penetrate the continent might have long escaped the notice of the most careful navigators. In fact, a river called the Stikine, which is three miles wide at its mouth, and a mile wide at the distance of thirty miles from the sea, has been, within a few years, discovered emptying into the Pacific, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Sept? 2. At Nootka the Spaniards were found still in possession, under the command of Colonel Alava, who had been, moreover, appointed commissioner of his Government, in place of Captain Quadra, lately deceased. No orders had been received from Europe relative to the surrender of the territory, and the British ships accordingly proceeded to Monterey, where the long expected instructions arrived during their stay. The Court of Madrid had agreed to abandon Nootka; and on the part of Great Britain, another *This justly celebrated man died in 1819, having some years previous established his authority over all the islands of the group. commissioner was despatched to the Pacific to receive possession 1794. of the place, if Vancouver should have quitted that ocean. Under these circumstances Vancouver resolved to return to England, 1795. where he arrived in August, 1795. The Journals of Vancouver's voyage were published in 1798, before which period the navigator had sunk into the grave. The work is invaluable, notwithstanding the illiberal spirit which pervades its pages. In none other can be found so much clear and precise information with regard to the northwest coasts of America; and it is only to be lamented that one endowed with such courage, capacity, and professional skill, as the author evidently possessed, should have been so far governed by unworthy prejudices as he evidently was. Towards the Spaniards he appears to have been inclined, generally, to act with justice, or at least with courteousness; but against all citizens of the United States, and their country, he cherished the most bitter animosity, which was in many instances too powerful to be controlled by his sense of honor. Whenever an opportunity presented itself, or could be contrived, for exhibiting the character or conduct of Americans in an unfavorable light, it was eagerly seized by Vancouver; and that which he would have pardoned or commended in an Englishman or a Spaniard, became criminal in his eyes when committed by a citizen of the hated Republic. The observations of Vancouver form the basis of our best maps of the west coast of America, from the 30th degree of latitude to the northern extremity of Cook's Inlet, as also of those of the Sandwich Islands, which he surveyed with care. The maps contained in the atlas annexed to the Journal of the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana, are nearly all copied from those of the British navigator. Whilst these surveys of the Pacific coasts of North America were in progress, Alexander Mackenzie, a Scotchman in the service of the celebrated fur-trading association, called the Northwest Company, was exploring the unknown regions of the continent bordering upon that part of the ocean. The association by which he was employed had been formed in 1787, among the principal fur-merchants of Canada, for the purpose of carrying on the trade between the posts of that country and such of the British territories of the interior as were supposed to be not included in the grant to the Hudson's Bay Company; and within two years afterwards, its establishments had been advanced as far as Lake of the Hills, or Athabaska Lake, near the 59th parallel of latitude, about eight hundred miles beyond Lake Superior. From Fort Chipewyan, the trading-station on this lake, Mackenzie departed on his first journey in June, 1789, and proceeded in a boat down the Slave River, which flows out of the lake, directly northward, into the Great Slave Lake, discovered by Hearne in 1770. Thence he continued northwestward, down another and much larger stream, on which he bestowed his own name, to its termination in a sea near the 69th degree of latitude; and having thus fulfilled the objects of his expedition, he returned to Fort Chipewyan. The mouth of the Mackenzie was situated 1789. |