THEPACIFICOCEAN. 397- 



dern moft reputable charts, we had reafon to expecfl. This '778- 



June. 



made the txirtence of a paflage into Baffin's or Hudfon's 

 Bays lefs probable ; or; at leait, fhewed it to be of greater 

 extent. It was a fatisfa(5tion to me, however, to reflect:, 

 that, if I 'had not examined this very conliderable inlet, 

 it would have been afTumed, by fpeculative fabricators of 

 geography, as a fa6t, that it communicated with the fea to 

 the North, or with Baffin's or Hudfons Bay to the Eafl; and 

 been marked, perhaps, on future maps of the world, with 

 greater precifion, and more certain figns of reality, than 

 the invifible, becaufe imaginary, Straits of de Fuca, an4 de 

 Fonte. 



In the afternoon, I fent Mr. King again, with two armed 

 boats, with orders to land, on the Northern point of the 

 low land, on the South Kaft fide of the river ; there to dif- 

 play the flag ; to take poffeffion of the country and river, in 

 his Majefty's name ; and to bury in the ground a bottle, 

 containing fome pieces of Englifli coin, of the year 1772, 

 and a paper, on which was infcribed the names of our fhips, 

 and the date of our difcovery. In the mean time, the fhips 

 were got under fail, in order to proceed down the river. The 

 wind ftill blue frefli, Eafterly ; but a calm enfued, not long 

 after we were under way ; and the flood-tide meeting us off 

 the point where Mr. King landed (and which thence got the 

 name of Point Pojpjftrn), we were obliged to drop anchor in 

 fix fathoms water,, with the point bearing South, two miles 

 diftant. 



When Mr. King returned, he informed me, that as. he ap- 

 proached the fhore, about twenty of the natives made their 

 appearance, with their arms extended ; probably, to exprefs' 

 thus their peaceable difpofition, and to fhew that they were- 

 4, without' 



