320 THE SEA. 



a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel but our consort during the last eight 

 months. She soon hoisted American colours, and fired a gun to leeward. At six we spoke 

 her. She proved to be the ship Columbia, commanded by Mr. Robert Gray, belonging 

 to Boston, from which port she had been absent nineteen months. Having little doubt of 

 his being the same person who had formerly commanded the sloop Washington, I desired 

 he would bring to, and sent Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies on board to acquire such infor- 

 mation as might be serviceable in our future operations/'' 



On the return of the boat, Vancouver found that his conjectures had not been un- 

 grounded, and that Mr. Gray was the same gentleman who had commanded the sloop Washington 

 at the time she had made a voyage behind the island. It was a little remarkable that 

 on his approach to the entrance of this inland sea or strait, he should fall in with the 

 identical person who, it had been stated, had sailed through it. Mr. Gray assured the 

 officers, however, that he had penetrated only fifty miles into the straits in question in 

 an ESE. direction ; that he found the passage five leagues wide ; and that he understood 

 from the natives that the opening extended a considerable distance to the northward. 

 He then returned to the ocean the same way he had entered it. This inlet he supposed 

 to be the same De Fuca had discovered. The fact, however, remains that Vancouver most 

 thoroughly explored the coasts of the island, and the inlets and shores of Puget Sound, 

 Washington Territory, and British Columbia countries which are slowly but surely taking 

 their proper place in the world's estimation. 



END OF VOLUME III. 



