70 Mr Scolder's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 



fused to grow the seeds that were offered them, while their pride 

 urged, as an apology for their indolence, that it was the work of 

 slaves to cultivate the ground. 



We now continued our voyage to the south, intending to visit 

 Nootka and De Fuca's Straits previous to our return to the Co- 

 lumbia. And, on the evening of the 30th, a Nootkan canoe came 

 off to us, entreating us to visit their harbour ; but, as the night 

 was approaching, we gave them some presents, informing them 

 we would return next morning. Although the merit of making 

 this part of the north-west coast known to Europeans undoubt- 

 edly belongs to Captain Cook, it had been visited before his 

 time by a Spanish navigator named Juan Perez ; but as this 

 circumstance was unknown to Captain Cook and to the public, 

 he is entitled to all the honour of the discovery. Perez, after leav- 

 ing the coast of California, discovered Queen Charlotte's Island ; 

 and, on the 9th August 1774, he landed at Nootka, which he 

 called Port San Lorenzo. The name of Nootka, imposed by 

 Captain Cook, has no affinity to any word employed by the na- 

 tives ; and the Spanish naturalist Mozino, who remained a con- 

 siderable time at this place along with Quadra, says, that the 

 native name is Yucualt, which, I think, is in all probability 

 the true name ; for the natives of the eastern side of Quadra and 

 Vancouver's Island gave their part of the island the name of 

 Yucualtatch. We had scarcely come to anchor in Friendly 

 Cove when old Macuinna came on board with two of his sons, 

 and we received with pleasure perhaps the only chief alive who 

 remembers Captain Cook. He behaved in a friendly manner, 

 and gave us a present of those beautiful shells which the north- 

 west Indians value so much as an ornament. The natives call 

 them hyaquass, and they are not only the jewels, but the cur- 

 rency of the country ; and with a sufficient supply of these 

 shells we may purchase any thing the country affords. The 

 method of ascertaining their value is to string forty of them on 

 a thread, and to measure off a fathom, and the number of shells 

 that remain over this measurement fixes the value of the hya- 

 quass. Macuinna was a stout old man, clothed in a robe made 

 of racoon skins, and his hair had lost none of its original black- 

 ness. His sons were young men of much more pleasing fea- 

 tures than himself. The oldest, about twenty years of age, bore 



