CHAPTER VII.

VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN COOK-RIVAL CLAIMS TO THE NORTHWEST COAST.

During the last quarter of the eighteenth century Great Britain, with other European powers, began to take a deeper interest in the work of exploring and developing the northwest coast. Recognizing the claims of Spain in California, and Russia in Alaska, she was anxious to secure a footing between the two, partly because the fur trade was becoming valuable, and partly that she might have an outlet to the Pacific for her Canadian possessions, and that, if possible, she might retain control of the whole of North America, north of the United States, Alaska excepted, and might offset her loss of the American colonies, in some degree, by securing territory on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. She furthermore proposed to set up a claim to ownership of some portion of this coast by right of discovery, though that discovery had been made two hundred years before by a buccaneer, Sir Francis Drake, whose voyages were those of a pirate, and whose depredations and discoveries were alike unauthorized by the British national authorities. It suited her purpose at this time, however, to put forward this claim, and in furtherance of her schemes she sent out her greatest navigator and most experienced sailor and geographer, Captain James Cook, who had already achieved distinction in voyages of discovery in the South Seas and the Indian Ocean. He was given command of two staunch and well equipped ships, the Resolution and the Discovery. As far as was known to the world at large at that time, there remained on the northwest coast, between the fortysecond and the fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, an unexplored and unsettled region open to all comers, and the purpose of England was to make the New Albion of Sir Francis Drake cover as much as possible of that region, supplementing Drake's discovery by further exploration and by settlement in desirable locations, if such should be found. Captain Cook was directed to proceed by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, thence to New Zealand and Otaheite, and, having touched at those points and refitted his ships, to sail for the Pacific Coast of North America. Among other things his instructions said: "You are to fall in with the coast of New Albion, in latitude forty-five degrees north. You are to put into the first convenient port to recruit your wood and water, and then to proceed northward along the coast as far as to the latitude of sixty-five degrees north or further, if not obstructed by land or ice, taking care not to lose any time in exploring the rivers or inlets or upon any other account until you can get into the before mentioned latitude sixty-five degrees north, where we could wish you to arrive in the month of June." On his way hither (to New Albion), "Not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominion on the western continent of America, unless driven

to it by some unavoidable accident, in which case he was to stay no longer than was absolutely necessary, and to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offense to any of the inhabitants of his Catholic majesty (Spain), and if in his further progress northward he should find any subjects of any European prince or state, upon any part of the coast which he might think proper to visit, he was not to disturb them, or to give them any cause of offense, but on the contrary to treat them with civility and friendship." His instructions continued: "You are also, with the consent of the natives, to take possession, in the name of the King of Great Britain, of convenient situations in such countries as you may discover, that have not already been discovered or visited by any other European power, and to distribute among the inhabitants. such things as will remain as traces and testimonies of your having been there." Captain Cook sailed on this memorable voyage from Plymouth, England, on the 12th day of July, 1776, in the ship Resolution. His consort, the Discovery, was commanded by Captain Clerke. As a midshipman on board the Resolution was George Vancouver, who was subsequently identified with these regions as the first accurate explorer of the Puget Sound country. In . consequence of delays in his voyage he did not reach Owyhee until January, 1778. This group of islands he named after the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, but, since coming into the possession of the United States, they are known as the Hawaiian Islands. Thence he sailed on the 18th of January, 1778, in a northeasterly direction, and on the 7th of March, 1778, he came in sight of the northwest coast, in latitude forty-four degrees and one minute. Head winds and foggy weather made his progress to the north slow, and prevented him from taking accurate observations of the land; but he saw and named Cape Foulweather, forty-four degrees and fifty-five minutes north, and Cape Flattery, forty-eight degrees and fifteen minutes, which names are still retained. The latter he named Flattery because it had given him some promise of a harbor which was never realized. On the evening of the 22d of March he was near this point of land, but during the night a storm came ap which drove his little fleet out to sea, and when he made land again it was in Nootka Sound on the 22d of March. To this bay Captain Cook gave the name of King George's Sound, but the native name has been preserved. Having missed, in this way, the entrance of the Straits of Fuca, and being anxious to proceed northward, in accordance with his instructions, he sailed in that direction on the 26th of April, having obtained supplies of water, wood, fish, grass and spruce beer, and done some trading with the natives. During the remainder of the season he made a careful and accurate examination of the coast of Alaska, both sides of Behring Straits, and penetrated north as far as latitude seventy degrees and forty-four minutes. He made a minute investigation of the Arctic Sea, sailing both in an easterly and in a westerly

direction, until his further progress was interrupted by ice. As the English government had previously offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds to the officers and crew of any ship discovering a passage to the Atlantic, north of fifty-two degrees, every effort was made by Captain Cook and his associates to earn the reward, but without success. During the same season the British Admiralty had sent out Lieutenant Young in the brig Lion to explore the western coast of Baffin's Bay on the Atlantic side, and find, if possible, a passage to the westward which might lead to the Pacific Ocean. It was hoped that he and Captain Cook might meet at some point on the northern coast of North America, but in this they were disappointed.

Late in the season Captain Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands, intending there to refit his ships and obtain a supply of fresh provisions for another season's work, but, unfortunately, this great maritime adventurer canie to the end of his career, being murdered by the natives of those islands on the 14th of January, 1779.

In the role of illustrious navigators and geographers Captain Cook occupies a very high place. It was very well said of him, "No other navigator extended the bounds of geographical knowledge so widely as he did." "His surveys and determinations of latitude and longitude," says Elwood Evans, "are extremely accurate. He introduced and practiced a system of sanitary regulations for preserving the health of the crews, and thereafter removed the dread which had till that time attached to long voyages. Along the northwest coast of America he effected more in one season than the Spanish had accomplished in two centuries. Besides rectifying many mistakes of former explorers, he ascertained the breadth of the strait which separates Asia from the new world, a point which Behring had left unsettled. He forever exploded the theory of the Strait of Anian, or the existence of any northwest passage across the northern part of the continent of North America. His labors created a new era in geographic science. Not content with discovering new continents, islands and seas, he delineated the figure of their coasts and determined their latitude and longitude, with an accuracy which appliances of modern discovery and improvement have only verified."

After the death of Captain Cook the command of the expedition devolved upon Captain Clerke, who sailed again in the following March for the Arctic regions to continue the exploration of these northern coasts. Passing through Behring Straits he reached sixty-nine degrees and twenty minutes north, but, his further progress being obstructed by floating ice, he turned back and sailed for Kamchatka on the 27th of July, returning through Behring Straits on the 30th. On the 23d of August, two days before arriving at Petropaulovski, Captain Clerke died, and Lieutenant Gore, a native of Virginia, succeeded to the command of the ships. They sailed for Canton, China, with