Menaies' Journal. 



Nootka. 



Ill 



Officers receivd us at the door, & conducted us with great 

 attention & civiHty up Stairs to the Great Hall. Here we 

 should have been much at a loss for conversation as none 

 of us could speak the Spanish language, had this deficiency 

 not been amply supplied by a Mr. Tho^ Dobson a Gentlemen 

 who came / out as one of the Mates of the Docdalus, & 

 who could speak the Spanish Language fluently & on this 

 occasion was so obliging as to act as our Interpreter. After 

 some general conversation concerning our Voyage & the 

 route we had hitherto pursued, the Governor with great 

 frankness offerd us every refreshment & accommodation 

 which the Settlement could afford during our stay at 

 Nootka — He begged that the Commanders & Officers might 

 consider his House as their Home & that the oftener they 

 came to it the more pleasure he should enjoy, & indeed his 

 conduct sufficiently proved that this was by no means a 

 ceremonious invitation, for his table was daily crouded with 

 the Officers of the dififerent Vessels that occasionally visited 

 the Cove, & his Hospitality seemd to have no other bound 

 then the limited sphere of supply to which his present situa- 

 tion confind him. After leaving the Governor's we took a 

 walk round the place & found several other Houses erected 

 here by the Spaniards as Barracks, Store Houses & an 

 Hospital on the Scite of the Old Village formerly occupied 

 by Maquinna the Chief of the District & his Tribe, there 

 were also several spots fenced in, well cropped with the 

 different European Garden stuffs, which grew here very 

 luxuriantly, particularly in the places formerly occupied by 

 the Habitations of the Natives, which by that means had 

 been well Manured & notwithstanding the advantage & great 

 utility that were thus derived from Horticulture in this 

 Country, it seems not one of the Natives had yet followed 

 so laudable an example, tho' they were very fond of the 

 productions of these Gardens, especially / the different kinds 

 of Roots when they were brought to the Table, yet they 

 were too indolent to be at the trouble of rearing them. 



There was a well-stockd poultry yard, & Goats Sheep & 

 Black Cattle were feeding round the Village. Blacksmiths 

 were seen busily engagd in one place & Carpenters in 

 another, so that the different occupations of Building & 

 repairing Vessels & Houses were at once going forward. 

 In short the Spaniards seem to go on here with greater 



1792. 

 Aug. 28tb. 



Beoccupied and 

 fortifi2d by 

 Spaniards on 

 Apr.. 1790. 

 Jewitt found 

 turnips, etc., 

 liere in 1803. 



