1778.] COOK SAILS FROM NOOTKA. 153 



Indian tribes, who either have immediate communication with 

 European settlements upon the continent, or receive it, perhaps, 

 through several intermediate nations : the same might be said of 

 the brass and copper found amongst them." The iron and brass, 

 he conceived, might have been brought from Canada, or Hudson's 

 Bay, and the silver spoons from Mexico ; and he imputed the indif- 

 ference of the natives, respecting the ships, " to their natural indo- 

 lence of temper and want of curiosity." 



On his arrival in this bay, Cook " honored it with the name of 

 King George's Sound ; " but he " afterwards found that it was called 

 Nootka, by the natives," and it has, accordingly, ever since been 

 known as Nootka Sound. No word has, however, been since found 

 in the language of the people of this country more nearly resembling 

 Nootka than Yuquatl, the name applied by them to Friendly Cove. 

 The bay is situated on the south-west side of the large Island of 

 Vancouver and Quadra, which was, until 1790, supposed to be a 

 part of the American continent; and it communicates with the 

 Pacific by two openings, the southernmost of which, the only one 

 affording a passage for large vessels, lies under the parallel of 49 

 degrees 33 minutes. This southern entrance is, undoubtedly, the 

 Port San Lorenzo, in which the Spanish navigator Perez lay 

 with his ship, the Santiago, on the 10th of August, 1774 ; and from 

 that vessel, most probably, were stolen the two silver spoons of 

 Spanish manufacture, which Cook saw at Nootka, in the possession 

 of one of the natives. The place possesses many advantages, which 

 will render it important, whenever that part of America shall be 

 occupied, as it certainly will be, by an enterprising and industrious 

 people. 



It was Cook's intention, on leaving Nootka Sound, to proceed, 

 as speedily as possible, to the part of the coast under the 65th 

 degree of latitude, from which he was to commence his search for 

 a passage to the Atlantic. The violence of the wind prevented 

 him from approaching the land for some days, and he thus, to his 

 regret, left unseen the place, near the 53d parallel, " where geog- 

 raphers had placed the pretended Strait of Fonte. For my own 

 part," he continues, " I gave no credit to such vague and improb- 

 able stories, that carry their own confutation along with them ; 

 nevertheless, I was very desirous of keeping the American coast 

 aboard, in order to clear up this point beyond dispute." At length, 

 on the 1st of May, he saw the land, about the 55th parallel ; and, 

 on the following day, he passed near the beautiful conical mountain, 

 20 



