connived at the whole deception, permission to navigate under the Portuguese flag, and thereby to evade the excessive port charges demanded, by the Chinese authorities, from vessels of all other European nations; and that Messrs. Meares and Douglas were really the commanders of the vessels in which they respectively sailed, instead of the Portuguese subjects, who figure as such in all the papers. Some of these assertions may have been true; yet the documents annexed to the Memorial conclusively prove that all these deceptive appearances were kept up at Nootka Sound, where there were no Chinese authorities; though, in the narrative of the voyage, published by Mr. Meares, with the Memorial and documents, no hint is given that either of the vessels were, or ever seemed to be, other than British.

The instructions, of which an English copy or version - dated China, December 24th, 1787, and signed The Merchant Proprietors

is appended to the Memorial, contain general directions for the conduct of the voyage, but no allusion whatsoever to the acquisition of lands, the erection of buildings, or the formation of settlements or establishments of any kind, in America or elsewhere. The Felice was to go to Nootka Sound, from which she was to make trips northward and southward, for the purposes of trade and explora'tion; the Iphigenia was to sail first to Cook's River, and thence to trade along the coasts, southward, to Nootka, where she was expected to arrive in September: all the furs collected were then to be placed in one of the vessels, and brought to Macao, the other vessel remaining, until the spring, either on the American coast or at the Sandwich Islands. These instructions conclude with the following remarkable order to the commanders of the vessels:"Should you, in the course of your voyage, meet with any Russian, English, or Spanish vessels, you will treat them with civility and friendship, and allow them, if authorized, to examine your papers; but you must, at the same time, guard against surprise. Should they attempt to seize you, or even to carry you out of your way, you will prevent it by every means in your power, and repel force by force. You will, on your arrival in the first port, protest, before a proper officer, against such illegal procedure, and ascertain, as nearly as you can, the value of your vessel and cargo, sending your protest, with a full account of the transaction, to us at China. Should you, in such a conflict, have the superiority, you will take possession of the vessel that attacked you, and bring both, with the

officers and crew, to China, that they may be condemned as legal prizes, and the crews punished as pirates."

The latter part of these instructions, independently of numerous other circumstances connected with the expedition, is sufficient, alone, to show that the owners of the Felice and Iphigenia meant to represent them as Portuguese vessels. As British vessels, they could not legally navigate the North Pacific Ocean, being unprovided with licenses or authority from the South Sea or the East India Company: if found so doing, they would be subject to seizure, and their officers and crew to punishment; and it was, doubtless, in order to evade such penalties, to which they might have been subjected by coming in contact with the vessels of the King George's Sound Company, that their commanders were directed to take, and bring to a Portuguese port, for trial before Portuguese courts, any English vessels which should attempt to arrest them in their voyages.

From Macao the Iphigenia went to Cook's River, at which place, and others farther south-east, she passed the summer in trading. The Felice sailed direct to Nootka Sound, where her crew immediately began the construction of a small vessel, on the shore of Friendly Cove, near which was situated the village of Maquinna, the king of the surrounding country. Meares, being desirous, whilst this work was in progress, to take a voyage along the coast to the south, made arrangements with Maquinna, who, as related in the narrative of the expedition, "most readily consented to grant us a spot of ground in his territory, whereon an house might be built, for the accommodation of the people we intended to leave behind, and also promised us his assistance and protection for the party who were destined to remain at Nootka during our absence. In return for this kindness, and to insure the continuance of it, the chief was presented with a pair of pistols, which he had regarded with an eye of solicitation ever since our arrival. Upon this spot a house, sufficiently capacious to contain all the party intended to be left at the sound, was erected; a strong breastwork was thrown up around it, enclosing a considerable area of ground, which, with one piece of cannon, placed in such a manner as to command the cove and village of Nootka, formed a fortification sufficient to secure the party from any intrusion."

That this spot of ground was granted by Maquinna, and was to be occupied by Meares, only for temporary purposes, is clear from

the above statement; and Meares nowhere in his narrative pretends that he acquired permanent possession of it, or of any other land in America. On the contrary, he expressly says that, "as a bribe to secure Maquinna's attachment, he was promised that, when we finally left the coast, he should enter into full possession of the house, and all the goods thereunto belonging." In the Memorial addressed to his government, however, Meares declares that, "immediately on his arrival at Nootka Sound, he purchased from Maquinna, the chief of the district surrounding that place, a spot of ground, whereon he built an house, for his occasional residence, as well as for the more convenient pursuit of his trade among the natives, and hoisted British colors thereon." Of this asserted purchase of land and erection of buildings at Nootka, no evidence or mention whatsoever is to be found among the documents submitted with the Memorial to the British ministry, except in the deposition of William Graham, of Grub Street, a seaman of the Felice, taken in London after the date of the Memorial.

Having completed these arrangements, Meares sailed from Nootka in the Felice, leaving a part of his crew employed in building the small vessel, and proceeded to the entrance of the passage supposed to be the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which, as he expressly states in the Dissertation prefixed to his narrative, had been discovered in the preceding year by Berkeley. The following extract from his narrative will serve still further to show what value is to be placed on his testimony in matters in which his own reputation or interests are involved:

"June 29th. At noon the latitude was 48 degrees 39 minutes north, at which time we had a complete view of an inlet, whose entrance appeared very extensive, bearing east-south-east, distant about six leagues. We endeavored to keep up with the shore as much as possible, in order to have a perfect view of the land. This was an object of particular anxiety, as the part of the coast along which we were now sailing had not been seen by Captain Cook, and we knew no other navigator, said to have been this way, except Maurelle; and his chart, which we now had on board, convinced us that he had either never seen this part of the coast, or that he had purposely misrepresented it. By three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at the entrance of the great inlet, which appeared to be twelve or fourteen leagues broad. From the mast head, it was observed to stretch to the east by the north, and a clear and unbounded horizon was seen, in this direction, as far as the eye

could reach. The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait, which we shall call by the name of its original discoverer, John de Fuca."

To examine the passage, of which he thus claims the discovery, after having distinctly assigned the merit of it to another, Meares sent his mate, Duffin, with a party of men, in a boat. In a few days the boat returned, with several of her crew disabled by wounds received in a conflict with the natives on the northern shore. "She had sailed," writes Meares, "near thirty leagues up the strait; and, at that distance from the sea, it was fifteen leagues broad, with a clear horizon stretching to the east for fifteen leagues more." Yet, from Duffin's journal, which is given entire in Mr. Meares's work, it seems that the boat did not advance ten miles within the strait; and we now know that the width of the passage nowhere, within thirty leagues of its mouth, exceeds five leagues.

From the entrance of this passage, which has ever since been distinguished by the name of Strait of Fuca, Meares sailed along the shore of the continent, towards the south. His object was to examine the opening in the coast, laid down on Spanish charts in his possession, near the 46th degree of latitude, under the name Rio de San Roque, or River of Saint Roc, which had been first observed by Heceta, on the 16th of August, 1775, as mentioned in the account of that voyage.* Proceeding in this course, he, on the 5th of July, remarked a headland, in the latitude of 46 degrees 47 minutes, which he named Cape Shoalwater; on the following day, he writes in his journal,

“At half past ten, being within three leagues of Cape Shoalwater, we had a perfect view of it; and, with the glasses, we traced the line of coast to the southward, which presented no opening that promised any thing like an harbor. An high, bluff promontory bore off us south-east, at the distance of only four leagues, for which we steered to double, with the hope that between it and Cape Shoalwater we should find some sort of harbor. We now discovered distant land beyond this promontory, and we pleased ourselves with the expectation of its being Cape St. Roc of the Spaniards, near which they are said to have found a good port. By half past eleven, we doubled this cape, at the distance of three miles, having a clear and perfect view of the shore in every part, on which we did not discern a living creature, or the least trace of habitable life. A prodigious easterly swell rolled on the shore, and

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the soundings gradually decreased from forty to sixteen fathoms, over a hard, sandy bottom. After we had rounded the promontory, a large bay, as we had imagined, opened to our view, that bore a very promising appearance, and into which we steered with every encouraging expectation. The high land that formed the boundaries of the bay was at a great distance, and a flat, level country occupied the intervening space; the bay itself took rather a westerly direction. As we steered in, the water shoaled to nine, eight, and seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck, right ahead, and, from the mast head, they were observed to extend across the bay; we therefore hauled out, and directed our course to the opposite shore, to see if there was any channel, or if we could discover any port. The name of Cape Disappointment was given to the promontory, and the bay obtained the title of Deception Bay. By an indifferent meridian observation, it lies in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes north, and in the computed longitude of 235 degrees 34 minutes east.

"We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. To those of Maurelle we made continual reference, but without deriving any information or assistance from them. We now reached the opposite side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us; and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of shelter for the ship, we bore up for a distant headland, keeping our course within two miles of the shore." This distant headland, in the latitude of 45 degrees 37 minutes, named by Meares Cape Lookout, and probably the same called by the Spaniards Cape Falcon, was the southernmost point seen by him; thence he returned to the Strait of Fuca, without again observing the land, having, as he conceived, "traced every part of the coast, which unfavorable weather had prevented Captain Cook from approaching."

The language of Mr. Meares in the preceding extracts, though somewhat ungrammatical, is yet clear and explicit. He records with satisfaction his conviction, founded on his own observations, that "no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts;" in token of which conviction, he assigns the names of Deception Bay and Cape Disappointment to the places on the American coast, near the latitude of 46 degrees 10 minutes, where the mouth of the river should have been found, according to the Spanish charts. Yet, strange though it may appear, the commissioners, appointed by the British government, in 1826, to treat