USA > California > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 24
USA > Oregon > The history of Oregon and California & the other territories of the northwest coast of North America > Part 24
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It may here be observed, that no notice whatsoever of a claim, on the part of British subjects, to lands or buildings on the north- west coast of America, appears either in the king's message to Parliament, communicating the fact of the seizures at Nootka, or
212
NOOTKA CONVENTION BEFORE PARLIAMENT. [1790.
in the debates in Parliament on that message, or in the official correspondence between the two governments on the subject, so far as published ; and the only evidence of such acquisition of lands or erection of buildings to be found among the documents annexed to the Memorial presented by Meares to the ministry, is contained in the information of William Graham, a seaman of the Felice, which was taken in London five days after the date of the Memorial. " The statement of actual and probable losses," for which the memo- rialists prayed to be indemnified, to the amount of six hundred and fifty thou and dollars, is, moreover, confined entirely to losses con- sequent upon the seizure of the vessels and cargoes at Nootka. This silence, with regard to lands and buildings, in all the docu- ments brought from China by Meares, certainly authorizes the suspicion that the idea of advancing a claim on those points may have occurred to that gentleman, or may have been suggested to him after his arrival in England, and even after his first commu- nications with the ministers.
With respect to the rights of navigation and fishery in the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and of settlement on their unoccupied coasts, it was insisted by Fox, Grey, the marquis of Lansdowne, and other eminent members of the opposition in Parliament, that nothing had been gained, but, on the contrary, much had been surrendered, by the convention. " Our right, before the convention," said Mr. Fox, -" whether admitted or denied by Spain was of no consequence, - was to settle in any part of South or North-West America, not for- tified against us by previous occupancy ; and we were now restrict- ed to settle in certain places only, and under certain conditions. Our rights of fishing extended to the whole ocean ; and now it was limited, and not to be exercised within certain distances of the Spanish settlements. Our right of making settlements was not, as now, a right to build huts, but to plant colonies, if we thought proper. In renouncing all right to make settlements in South America, we had given to Spain what she considered as inestima- ble, and had, in return, been contented with dross." "In every place in which we might settle," said Grey, " access was left for the Spaniards. Where we might form a settlement on one hill, they might erect a fort on another ; and a merchant must run all the risks of a discovery, and all the expenses of an establishment, for a property which was liable to be the subject of continual dispute, and could never be placed upon a permanent footing."
213
REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION.
1790.]
As to the utility of the convention in preventing disputes in future between the two nations, Mr. Fox was wholly incredulous ; and he predicted that difficulties would soon arise (as they did) from the impossibility of devising and enforcing any measures on the part of Great Britain, which could be considered "effectual," in checking illicit trade between British subjects and the Spanish set- tlements in America. " This treaty," says he, in conclusion, " re- minds me of a lawyer's will, drawn by himself, with a note in the margin of a particular clause -' This will afford room for an excel- lent disquisition in the Court of Chancery.' With equal propriety, and full as much truth, might those who had extolled the late nego- tiation, for the occasion it had given to show the vigor and prompt- itude of the national resources, write in the margin of most of the articles of the convention -' This will afford an admirable oppor- tunity for a future display of the power and energy of Great Britain.' "
To all these objections the ministers and their friends gave only short, general, and evasive answers. Their great majorities in both houses enabled them to dispense with arguments, and to evade the calls for information or papers relating to the transaction ; and, having triumphantly carried their vote of thanks to the sovereign, they were left at liberty to execute the new engagements, according to their own construction, for which they had certainly provided themselves with ample space.
As the convention of October, 1790, was the first diplomatic ar- rangement between the governments of civilized nations with regard to the north-west coast of North America, its conclusion forms an important era in the history of that part of the world. On exam- ining its stipulations, we shall see that they were calculated to produce very few and slight changes in any way, and that those changes were not, upon the whole, disadvantageous to the real interests of Spain. The exclusive navigation of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, and the sovereignty of the vacant territories of America bordering upon them, were claimed by Spain, only with the object of preventing other nations from intercourse with her settlements ; as her government foresaw that such intercourse, par- ticularly with the British, who had for more than two centuries been striving to establish it, would be fatal to the subsistence of Spanish supremacy over those dominions. By the convention, both parties were admitted, equally, to navigate and fish in the above-
214
REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION.
[1790.
named seas ; but the British were, at the same time, specially pro- hibited from approaching the territories under the actual authority of Spain, and were thus debarred from the exercise of a privilege advantageous to themselves and most annoying to Spain, which they previously possessed in virtue of their maritime superiority. Both parties were by the convention equally excluded from settling on the vacant coasts of South America, and from exercising that jurisdiction which is essential to political sovereignty, over any spot north of the most northern Spanish settlement on the Pacific : but the British and the Russians were the only nations who would be likely to occupy any of those territories, and the British would not, probably, concede to the Russians any rights greater than those which they themselves possessed ; and any establishment which either of those powers might form in the north, under circumstances so disadvantageous, would be separated from the settled provinces of Spain by a region of mountains, forests, and deserts, of more than a thousand miles in extent. The convention, in fine, estab- lished new bases for the navigation and fishery of the respective parties, and their trade with the natives on the unoccupied coasts of America ; but it determined nothing regarding the rights of either to the sovereignty of any portion of America, except so far as it may imply an abrogation, or rather a suspension, of all such claims, on both sides, to any of those coasts.
It is, however, probable that the convention published, as the result of this negotiation, did not contain all the engagements contracted by Great Britain and Spain towards each other on that occasion. It was generally believed in Europe that a secret treaty of alliance was at the same time signed, by which the two nations were bound, under certain contingencies, to act together against France, with the understanding that the stipulations of the conven- tion published should remain inoperative ; and this supposition is strengthened by the third article of the treaty of alliance between those powers, concluded on the 25th of May, 1793, setting forth that, " Their majesties having perceived just grounds of jealousy and uneasiness for the safety of their respective dominions, and for the maintenance of the general system of Europe, in the measures which have been for some time past adopted by France, they had already agreed to establish between them an intimate and entire con- cert, upon the means of opposing a sufficient barrier to those dan- gerous views of aggression and aggrandizement," &c. It was even
215
REVIEW OF THE NOOTKA CONVENTION.
1790.]
supposed, and insinuations to that effect were thrown out in the debates in Parliament on the convention, that the dispute with Spain was prolonged by Mr. Pitt in order to have a pretext for assem- bling a large force, which might serve to overawe the revolutionary party in France, and also to suppress tendencies of the same nature in England. The preparations for war cost three millions of pounds sterling ; but the result proved that this sum was wisely bestowed ; for the fleets thus armed in 1790 did " yeoman's ser- vice " under Howe four years afterwards.
216
CHAPTER X.
1790 TO 1792.
Vancouver sent by the British Government to explore the Coasts of America, and receive Possession of Lands and Buildings agreeably to the Convention with Spain - Passage of the Washington, under Kendrick, through the Strait of Fuca, in 1789 - Nootka reoccupied by the Spaniards- Voyages of Fidalgo, Quimper, Elisa, Billings, Marchand, and Malaspina - Voyages of the American Fur Tra- ders Gray, Ingraham, and Kendrick - Discovery of the Washington Islands by Ingraham.
IN execution of the first and second articles of the conven- tion of October, 1790, between Spain and Great Britain, com- missioners were appointed on each side, who were to meet at Nootka Sound, and there to determine what lands and buildings were to be restored to the British claimants, or what amount of indemnification was to be made to them by Spain. The British government at first selected Captain Trowbridge as its agent for this purpose ; but the business was afterwards committed to Captain George Vancouver, who was then about to sail on a voyage of ex- ploration to the Pacific.
Vancouver was instructed to examine and survey the whole shores of the American continent on the Pacific, from the 35th to the 60th parallels of latitude ; to ascertain particularly the number, situation, and extent of the settlements of civilized nations within these limits ; and especially to acquire information as to the nature and direction of any water-passage, which might serve as a channel for commercial intercourse between that side of America and the territories on the Atlantic side occupied by British subjects. For this last-mentioned object, he was particularly to " examine the sup- posed Strait of Juan de Fuca, said to be situated between the 48th and the 49th degrees of north latitude, and to lead to an opening through which the sloop Washington is reported to have passed in 1789, and to have come out again to the northward of Nootka."*
* Introduction to Vancouver's narrative of his voyage.
217
KENDRICK'S PASSAGE THROUGH FUCA'S STRAIT.
1791.]
With these orders, Vancouver sailed from England in January, 1791, in the ship Discovery, accompanied by the brig Chatham, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Broughton. The instruc- tions for his conduct as commissioner were afterwards despatched to him in the store-ship Dædalus.
The account of the passage of the Washington through the Strait of Fuca, mentioned in the instructions to Vancouver, had appeared in the " Observations on the probable Existence of a North-West Passage," prefixed by Meares to the narrative of his voyages, which had then been recently published at London. Meares there says, " The Washington entered the Straits of John de Fuca, the knowl- edge of which she had received from us ; and, penetrating up them, entered into an extensive sea, where she steered to the northward and eastward, and had communications with the various tribes who inhabit the shores of the numerous islands that are situated at the back of Nootka Sound, and speak, with some little variation, the language of the Nootkan people. The track of this vessel is marked on the map, and is of great moment, as it is now completely ascer- tained that Nootka Sound and the parts adjacent are islands, and comprehended within the great northern archipelago. The sea also which is seen to the east is of great extent, and it is from this sta- tionary point, and the most westerly parts of Hudson's Bay, that we are to form an estimate of the distance between them. The most easterly direction of the Washington's course is to the longitude of 237 degrees east of Greenwich. It is probable, however, that the master of that vessel did not make any astronomical observations, to give a just idea of that station ; but, as we have those made by Cap- tain Cook at Nootka Sound, we may be able to form a conjecture, somewhat approaching the truth, concerning the distance between Nootka and the easternmost station of the Washington in the north- ern archipelago; and consequently this station may be presumed to be in the longitude, or thereabout, of 237 degrees east of Green- wich." In another place, Meares speaks of the proofs brought by the Washington, " which sailed through a sea extending upwards of eight degrees of latitude," in support of his opinion, that the north- western portion of America was a collection of islands : and in the chart annexed, " the sketch of the track of the American sloop Wash- ington in the autumn of 1789," is represented by those words run- ning in a semi-oval line from the southern entrance of the Strait of Fuca, at Cape Flattery, eastward, to the longitude of 237 degrees, then north-westward, to the 55th parallel of latitude, then west-
28
218
KENDRICK'S PASSAGE THROUGH FUCA'S STRAIT. [1789.
ward, through the passage north of Queen Charlotte's Island, to the Pacific. The sea through which the track extends is represented as unlimited in the east, and communicating, in the west, with the Pacific by channels between islands : no pretension to accuracy is, however, made in this part of the chart, the object being merely to show that the Washington sailed from the southern entrance of the strait eastward to the longitude of 237 degrees, and northward to the latitude of 55 degrees.
The name of the person under whose command the passage was said to have been effected is not given ; but, Gray being frequently mentioned by Meares, in his narrative and accompanying papers, as the captain of the Washington, it was naturally supposed that, if that sloop did pass through the strait, she must have done so under the command of Gray ; and when Vancouver, who met Gray near Nootka in 1792, as will be hereafter related, was assured by him that he had entered the opening, but had only advanced fifty miles within it, the entire erroneousness of the account given by Meares was regarded as established.
However, about the time of Vancouver's departure from England, an angry discussion was carried on through the medium of pam- phlets, between Meares, and Dixon the captain of the ship Queen Charlotte, (one of the vessels sent to the Pacific by the King George's Sound Company of London,) in consequence of the se- vere remarks made by Meares, in his work, on the character of Dixon, and on many parts of his journal, which had been pub- lished in 1789. Dixon, in his first pamphlet,* particularly attacked and ridiculed the account given by his opponent of the passage of the Washington, and sneeringly summoned him to "inform the public from what authority he had introduced the track of that ves- sel into his chart." To this Meares, in his Answer, t says, " Mr. Neville, a gentleman of the most respectable character, who came home in the Chesterfield, a ship in the service of the East India Company, made that communication to me which I have communi- cated to the public. Mr. Kendrick, who commanded the Wash- ington, arrived at China, with a very valuable cargo of furs, previ- ous to the departure of the Chesterfield ; and Mr. Neville, who was
* Remarks on the Voyages of John Meares, in a Letter to that Gentleman, by George Dixon, late Commander of the Queen Charlotte in a Voyage around the World. London, 1790.
t An Answer to Mr. George Dixon, &c., by John Meares ; in which the Remarks of Mr. Dixon are fully considered and refuted. London, 1791.
1789.]
KENDRICK'S PASSAGE THROUGH THE STRAIT OF FUCA. 219
continually with him during that interval, and received the particu- lars of the track from him, was so obliging as to state it to me."
Thus it appears that the passage of the Washington through the strait, as reported by Meares, took place under Kendrick, after Gray had quitted the command of that sloop. This explanation was published in London subsequent to the departure of Vancouver for the Pacific ; and, the discussion between Meares and Dixon being on matters in which the public could have taken little or no interest, it was doubtless forgotten, and their pamphlets were out of circu- lation, long before the return of the navigator to England.
With regard to the truth or falsehood of the account, no infor- mation has been obtained, in addition to that afforded by Meares ; and, although little dependence can be placed on his statements, when unsupported by other evidence, yet they should not be rejected in this case, because - first, he had no interest in ascribing any thing meritorious to citizens of the United States, whom he uniformly mentions with contempt or dislike in his work, and accuses of taking part with the Spaniards against his vessels ; - secondly, the subject was one with which he was perfectly con- versant, and on which he would not probably have been deceived, or have committed any error of judgment ; and, - lastly, the geog- raphy of that part of the American coasts corresponds exactly with the descriptions given by Kendrick of what he had seen, though the inferences drawn from them by Meares are incorrect. Thus the easternmost part of the Strait of Fuca is now known to be in the meridian of 2372 degrees east from Greenwich, and under the parallel of 483 degrees, from the intersection of which lines the coast of the continent runs north-westward, through ten degrees of latitude, penetrated by numerous inlets, and bordered by thousands of islands ; so that a navigator, sailing along this coast, without tracing to their terminations all these channels and inlets, might well have supposed himself in a sea extending far on either side, and filled with islands.
Under these circumstances, Kendrick is to be considered as the first person, belonging to a civilized nation, who sailed through the Strait of Fuca, after its discovery by the Greek pilot, in 1592.
Vancouver did not reach the north-west coasts of America until March, 1792. In the mean time, the Spaniards had resumed their position at Nootka Sound, and formed another establishment in its vicinity ; and several voyages of discovery had been made by their navigators along those coasts. The Spanish government was,
220
VOYAGE OF FIDALGO.
[1790
indeed, then seriously directing its attention to the discovery and occupation of the territories north of its settlements in California, agreeably to the plan devised in 1765, and with the same object of preventing those territories from falling into the possession of other nations ; and, for these purposes, the viceroy of Mexico was directed to employ every means at his disposal. Martinez was, indeed, deprived of his command, immediately on his arrival in San Blas, in December, 1789: but his vessels, including the Princess Royal, which had been taken from the English in the preceding summer, were sent back to Nootka Sound, under Cap- tain Francisco Elisa, in the spring of 1790; and preparations were immediately begun for a permanent establishment on Friendly Cove.
As soon as the first arrangements for this purpose were completed, Elisa despatched Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, in the schooner San Carlos, to examine the coasts occupied by the Russians, and inquire into the proceedings of that nation in America. Fidalgo accord- ingly sailed for Prince William's Sound, in which, and in Cook's River, he spent nearly three months, engaged in surveying and in visiting the Russian establishments; his provisions being then exhausted, he took his departure for San Blas, where he arrived on the 14th of November. The geographical information obtained by him was scanty; and the only news which he brought back, respecting the proceedings of the Russians, was, that they had formed an establishment on Prince William's Sound, and that a ship had passed that bay from Kamtchatka, on an exploring expe- dition towards the east .*
The Russian ship, thus mentioned by Fidalgo, was one of those which had been begun at Ochotsk in 1785, by order of the empress , Catharine, for a + " secret astronomical and geographical expedition, to navigate the Frozen Ocean, and describe its coasts, and to ascertain the situation of the islands in the sea between the conti- nents of Asia and America." For this expedition, a number of officers and men of science, from various parts of Europe, were engaged ; and the command was intrusted to Joseph Billings, an Englishman, who had accompanied Cook, in his last expedition, as assistant astronomer : but the preparations proceeded so slowly, in consequence of the want of every thing requisite for the purpose at
* Manuscript journal of the voyage of Fidalgo, among the documents obtained from the hydrographical department of Madrid.
t Narrative of the Russian expedition under Billings, by Martin Sauer.
221
VOYAGES OF BILLINGS AND QUIMPER.
1790.]
Ochotsk, that the vessels were not ready for sea until 1789, and then one of them was wrecked immediately after leaving the port. With the other vessel Billings took his departure, on the 2d of May, 1790, and sailed eastward, stopping, in his way, at Unalashka, Kodiak, and Prince William's Sound, as far as Mount St. Elias ; but there his provisions began to fail, and he returned to Petro- pawlowsk, soon after reaching which he abandoned the command of the enterprise. In the following year, the same vessel, with another, which had been built in Kamtchatka, quitted the Bay of Avatscha, under Captains Hall and Sarytscheff, neither of whom advanced beyond Bering's Strait on the north, or Aliaska on the east, or collected any information of value within those limits. A melancholy picture of the sufferings experienced in these vessels has been presented in the narrative of Martin Sauer, a German, who, in an unlucky moment, agreed to act as secretary to the expe- dition : another account, contradicting that of Sauer in many particulars, has been published by Sarytscheff, who attributes the failure of the enterprise to the incapacity of Billings.
In the summer of 1790, an attempt was also made, by the Spaniards, to explore the supposed Strait of Juan de Fuca. For that purpose, Elisa, the commandant of Nootka, detached Lieu- tenant Quimper, in the sloop Princess Royal, who traced the pas- sage in an eastwardly direction, examining both its shores, to the distance of about a hundred miles from its mouth, where it was observed to branch off into a number of smaller passages, towards the south, the east, and the north, some of which were channels between islands, while others appeared to extend far into the interior. Quimper was unable, from want of time, to penetrate any of these passages ; and he could do no more than note the positions of their entrances, and of several harbors, all of which are now well known, though they are generally distinguished by names different from those assigned to them by the Spaniards. Among these passages and harbors were the Canal de Caamano, afterwards named by Vancouver Admiralty Inlet ; the Boca de Flon, or Deception Passage ; the Canal de Guemes, and Canal de Haro, which may still be found under those names in English charts, extending northward from the eastern end of the strait ; Port Quadra, the Port Discovery of Vancouver, said to be one of the best harbors on the Pacific side of America, with Port Quimper, near it on the west ; and Port Nuñez Gaona, called Poverty Cove by the American fur traders, situated a few miles east of Cape
222
VOYAGE OF MALASPINA.
[1791.
Flattery, where the Spaniards attempted, in 1792, to form a settle- ment. Having performed this duty as well as was possible under the circumstances in which he was placed, Quimper returned to Nootka, where he arrived in the beginning of August .*
On the 2d of June, 1791, Captain Alexandro Malaspina, an accomplished Italian navigator in the service of Spain, who was then engaged in an expedition of survey and discovery in the Pacific, arrived on the coast, near Mount San Jacinto, or Edge- cumb, with his two ships, the Descubierta, commanded by himself, and the Atrevida, under Captain Bustamente. The principal object of their visit was to determine the question as to the existence of the Strait of Anian, described in the account of Maldonado's pretended voyage, the credibility of which had been, in the pre- ceding year, affirmed, by the French geographer Buache, in a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences of Paris. With this view, they carefully examined the coast between Prince William's Sound and Mount Fairweather, running nearly in the direction of the 60th parallel, under which Maldonado had placed the entrance of his strait into the Pacific, searching the various bays and inlets which there open to the sea, particularly that called by the English Admiralty Bay, situated at the foot of Mount St. Elias. They found, however, -doubtless to their satisfaction, -no passage leading northward or eastward from the Pacific; and they became convinced that the whole coast thus surveyed was bordered by an unbroken chain of lofty mountains. Want of time prevented them from continuing their examinations farther south ; and they could only, in passing, determine the latitudes and longitudes of a few
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