1785.] VOYAGE OF HANNA. 165 



expeditions, for trade or fishery, by way of Cape Horn or Magel- 

 lan's Straits, to any part of the west coast of America, or the seas 

 and islands within three hundred leagues of it: while no British 

 subjects, not employed or licensed by the East India Company, 

 could proceed, for either of those purposes, around the Cape of 

 Good Hope, to any seas or lands east of that point, between it 

 and Magellan's Straits ; with the provision, however, that the privi- 

 leges conferred on the East India Company should not be considered 

 as interfering with those previously granted to the other association. 

 All British vessels, found trading or fishing contrary to the acts by 

 which these privileges were conferred, became liable to confiscation, 

 and the persons directing such expeditions to heavy penalties. 



Thus the East India Company could carry on the direct trade 

 between the north-west coasts of America and China, at the risk of 

 a dispute with the South Sea Company, as to the extent of the 

 interference with the privileges of the latter ; while those privileges 

 were rendered entirely useless to the South Sea Company, for the 

 purposes of that trade, by the exclusion of its vessels from the 

 Chinese ports, which offered the principal, if not the only, profitable 

 market for furs. Accordingly, some of the earliest commercial 

 expeditions of the British to the north-west coasts were made under 

 the flag of the East India Company ; while other subjects of that 

 nation eluded the regulations of both companies, by engaging in 

 the fur trade, under the flag of Portugal, or with licenses granted 

 by the Portuguese authorities at Macao, near Canton. 



The earliest of these expeditions appears to have been that of 

 James Hanna, an Englishman, who sailed from Macao, in a small 

 vessel under Portuguese colors, in April, 1785,* and arrived at 

 Nootka Sound in August following. The natives of that country 

 at first refused to have any dealings with him, and endeavored to 

 seize his vessel, and murder his crew ; but they were foiled in the 

 attempt, and, after some combats between the parties, a trade was 

 established, the result of which was, that Hanna brought back to 



* The following account of the movements of the fur traders in the North Pacific, 

 between 1785 and 1789, is derived principally from the Narrative of the Voyage 

 of the Ship Queen Charlotte, by her captain, John Dixon, or rather, by her super- 

 cargo, Beresford — the Narrative of the Voyage of the Ship King George, by her 

 captain, Nathaniel Portlock — the Narrative of the Voyages of Captain John Meares, 

 to which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Probability of a Northern Passage between 

 the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the memorial and documents in proof, presented 

 by Captain Meares to the British parliament in May, 1790. Many notable differences 

 will be shown to exist between the statements of Meares in his narrative and his 

 memorial. 



