1897-8- Transactions. 39 



the king's subjects." In 1791 His Majesty's subjects thus 

 referred to were preparing to separate, Upper from Lower Can- 

 ada, and to hold their first Legislative Assemblies. They 

 were not troubling themselves very much about the passage 

 to China or about a way across the continent by means of 

 water-stretches. They had to hew down the forest, hunt up 

 sweethearts, prepare homes for them and work out the pro- 

 blem of life under many discouragements. But no doubt in 

 many a home in the back-woods as well as in such centres of 

 population as Montreal, (population 20,000,) Quebec and Hal- 

 ifax there were those who waited eagerly for news of the 

 Vancouver expedition round the world. However that may 

 be, Capt. Vancouver sailed out of Falmouth, England, on the 

 ist. April, 1 791, in the "Discovery" accompanied by Lieut. 

 Broughton in the " Chatham." He decided to go by way of 

 the Cape of Good Hope and see what Capetown, then a Dutch 

 Colony, was like and whether it was worth annexing to Great 

 Britain (accomplished four years afterwards.) From the Cape 

 he stretched across the wide sheet of ocean and reached Cape 

 Chatham on 27th September, remaining on the Australian 

 Coast to examine George Third's Sound. Thence they sailed 

 to Van Dieman Land and New Zealand, leaving on the 22nd. 

 November for the Society Islands where they remained till 

 the approach of March gave promise of a kindly reception in 

 the North West Coast. This coast was sighted on i8th. April 

 1792 after a month's run. On the 29th. April Vancouver 

 reached Cape Flattery naming it "Claffet" thinking for the 

 moment that was the name Cook had given it, and passed up 

 the Straits of Fuca coming to anchor in a small bay now 

 known as Neah's Bay, just round the corner from Cape Flat- 

 tery. 



His first place-name was not an attempt to supplant 

 Captain Cook, and some time after, when he learned that 

 " Flattery " was Cook's name for the promontory, he dropped 

 his own and took Cook's place-name. The next day the sharp 

 eyes of his third Lieutenant (Baker) saw a mountain tower- 

 ing high and covered with snow, and Vancouver at once 

 named it " Mount Baker." Where the vessels anchored for 

 the night the lay of the land reminded Vancouver of the look 

 of Dungeness in the British Channel and accordingly he 

 named the anchorage " New Dungeness." 



The next day the yawl, the launch and the cutter started 

 off with their occupants to explore the shores. They discovered 



