8 B GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Voyage of On the 25th of January, 1*114, Ensign Juan Perez, previously em- 



ployed in the Manilla trade, sailed in the corvette Santiago, from San 

 Bias, touching at Monterey, California, from which he sailed June 6th, on 

 an exploring expedition to the north, accompanied by Pilot Estevan 

 Martinez, and Eev. Fathers Pena and Crespi, chaplains. The first land 

 seen, July 18, 11Y4, was that of the Queen Charlotte Islands, in lati- 

 tude 54°, to the north point of which Perez gave the name of Co. de S. 

 Margarita [North Cape of Vancouver], and to the high mountains, 

 Sierra dc San Cristoval. Finding no anchorage, they turned south- 

 ward without landing, and on the 9th of August anchored in a port 

 stated to be in latitude 49-|°, and probably Nootka Sound. This he 

 called Port San Eorenzo. The authorities for this voyage are the nar- 

 ratives of Perez, observations of Martinez, and the journal of Friar 

 Pena, MSS. copies of which were obtained from the Imperial Archives 

 of Madrid, by the United States Government, in 1840. An account 

 was also published in 1802, in the introduction to the voyages of the 

 Sutil and Mexicana. This was the first voyage actually known to 

 have been made northwards by the Spaniards after 1603. 



M°iu S n ancl Immediately after the return of Perez, Viceroy Bucarelli ordered 



another expedition to examine the coast as far as latitude 65°. Captain 

 Bruno Heceta, in charge of the Santiago, with Perez as ensign, and 

 the schooner Sonora in charge of Juan de Ayola, with Maurelle as 

 pilot, in company with the schooner San Carlos, sailed from San 

 Bias, March 15, 1*715. The captain of the San Carlos became insane 

 before they were out of sight of land, and Ayola was detached to take 

 his place, and stopped at Monterey, while Lieutenant Francisco de la 

 Bodega y Quadra took his place in charge of the Sonora. Most 

 accounts are erroneous in stating that Ayola accompanied the expedi- 

 tion northwards. The schooner was attacked by the natives near 

 .Destruction Island, north of Cape Mendocino ; and being very unwilling 

 to proceed, ITeceta, in the Santiago (with Perez), seized the 

 opportunity to return to Monterey. Bodega and Maurelle, in the 

 schooner Sonora, however, kept on their way. They saw Mount 

 Edgecumbe about the middle of August, and afterwards landed in Port 

 Eemedios (the Bay of Islands of Cook), and, sailing clown the coast, 

 named the strait north of Queen Charlotte Islands, Perez Inlet [now 

 Dixon's Sound], and coasted along the shores of the said islands at a 

 considerable distance, without examining the capes and baj 7 s. They 

 then returned to Monterey, doing a little surveying on the Oregon and 

 Californian coasts by the way. 



c , These expeditions of the Spaniards in the North Pacific were singu- 



larly barren of geographical results. What information was obtained 

 was, moreover, carefully concealed. When Cook, therefore, began the 



