32 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



sent out two vessels, the "Columbia," Captain Kendrick, and the 

 "Lady Washington," Captain Gray. They were instructed to 

 stay on the coast two seasons, or longer if they thought best, and 

 to send the sloop to Canton at the end of each season with part 

 of the skins collected.^' The "Lady Washington" reached the 

 Northwest Coast in the summer of 1788 after touching at various 

 points on the coast, and at Nootka found the English Captains 

 Meares and Douglas. Here on September twenty-second the 

 "Columbia" joined her, and here the two ships passed the winter. 

 The spring and summer of 1789 were spent in trading along the 

 coast, and at the close of the season all the furs were put on 

 board the "Columbia," which then proceeded under Gray to 

 Canton, sold its skins, took on a cargo of China goods, and 

 returned to Boston by way of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving 

 August, 1790, the first American vessel to circumnavigate the 

 globe.^^ The adventurers were received wnth great ovations,^^ 

 and although the profits did not come up to expectations,-" the 

 "Columbia" was again sent out. On this second voyage she 

 made the discovery of the river that bears her name,^^ an event 

 the full significance of which did not become apparent until the rise 

 of the Oregon question in the next century. Captain Kendrick 

 had meanwhile made two trips to China, in 1789" and in 1791 or 



and California and the other Territories on the Northwest Coast of North 

 America, Boston, 1844, p. 179, seems to think there was some causal 

 connection between this and the earlier King George's Sound Company 

 of London (the one which sent out Portlock and Dixon), but presents no 

 evidence to substantiate it. 



" Letter of Instruction of Joseph Barrell to the expedition, MS. in the 

 Bureau of Rolls and Library, Department of State. It ended with the 

 admonition, "We depend you will suffer insult and injury from none 

 without showing that spirit which ever becomes a free and independent 

 American." 



^* Bancroft, Hist, of N. W. Coast, i : 185-209, gives an account of the 

 voyage. Up to June 14, 1789, he follows the diary of Robert Haswell, 

 the best source for the voyage that he was able to find. (p. 186.) 



^^ Meany, Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound, p. 34. 



"'' Letter of Charles Bulfinch to William Cushing, Dec. i, 1816. 



"' This was in May, 1792. Bancroft, Hist, of N. W. Coast, i : 260. He 

 cites her manuscript log for this date. 



"" Ibid., I : 209. 



