570 LATE DISCOVERIES, 



will, I trust, remove every doubt, and set aside every opinion of a 

 north-west passage, or any water communication navigable for ship- 

 ping, existing between the North Pacific and the interior of the 

 American continent, within the limit of our researches." 



This coast, with very little deviation, has the appearance of one 

 continued forest, being covered with pines of different species, in- 

 termixed with alder, birch, and other trees. The natives of the north- 

 ern parts are in general short in stature, with faces flat and round, 

 high cheek-bones, and fiat noses* They have some very peculiar 

 customs of mutilating or disfiguring their persons, probably by way 

 of ornament, though to us they appear disgusting and even hideous. 

 At port Trinidada, in latitude 41 degrees north, the custom, says 

 captain Vancouver, " was particularly singular, and must be attended 

 with much pain in the first instance, and great inconvenience ever 

 alter. All the teeth of both sexes were, by some process, ground 

 uniformly down, horizontally to the gums ; the women especially, 

 carrying the fashion to an extreme, had their, teeth reduced even be- 

 low this level ; and ornamented the lower lip with three perpendicu- 

 lar rows of puncturation, one from each corner of the mouth, and 

 one in the middle, occupying three-fifths of the lip and chin." On 

 other parts of this coast tne women make a horizontal incision in the 

 under lip, extending from one corner of the mouth to the other, en- 

 tirely through the flesh, which orifice is by degrees sufficiently 

 stretched to admit an ornament made of wood, which is» confined 

 close to the gums of the lower jaw, with the external surface pro- 

 jecting horizontally. These wooden ornaments are oval, and resem- 

 ble a small oval platter or dish, made concave on both sides ; they 

 are of various sizes ; some ol them above three inches in length, and 

 an inch and a half broad. The chief object of civilized nations in na- 

 vigating this coast, hitherto, has been to traffic with the natives for 

 furs, which they give in exchange for pieces of iron, nails, beads, 

 pen-knives, and other trifling trinkets. These furs are carried to 

 China, and disposed of at a great profit. The skins obtained are 

 those of the sea-otter, racoon, pine-martin, land-beaver, and earless 

 marmot. Ginseng, copper, oil, and some other commodities, might 

 also be procured. 



In 1788, some English merchants, engaged in this trade, formed a 

 settlement in King George's Sound, since called Nootka Sound, from 

 the name by which it is called by the natives. The Spaniards, how- 

 ever, being jealous of the intrusion of the English into a part of the 

 world which they long regarded as their exclusive property, sent a 

 frigate from Mexico, which captured two English vessels, and took 

 possession of the settlement. The British ministry, on receiving in- 

 telligence of this transaction, fitted out a powerful armament to give 

 weight to their demand of reparation ; but the affair was amicably ter- 

 minated by a convention in 1790. 



Nootka Sound is situate in latitude 49° 33' north, longitude 126° 48' 

 west, on an island about 300 miles in length and 80 in breadth, named 

 by captain Vancouver, in 1792, Quadra and Vancouver's Island, in 

 compliment to seignior Quadra, the Spanish commandant at Nootka. 



