1787,^ MAQUINNA, KING OF NOOTKA. 167 



1775: Cook had, in 1778, seen the portions about Nootka Sound 

 and Mount San Jacinto, or Edgecumb, leaving unexplored the inter- 

 mediate shores, which were represented — as expressed on the charts 

 attached to his journal — according to the accounts of the Spanish 

 navigators; and those coasts had also been seen by La Perouse, 

 who seems to have been the first to suspect their separation from 

 the continent, though he took no measures to ascertain the fact, by 

 penetrating any of the numerous openings which he observed when 

 passing them in 1786. The coasts south of Nootka Sound, to 

 Cape Mendocino, were not visited by the people of any civilized 

 nation between the period of Cook's voyage and 1787 ; and the 

 best charts of them were those of the Spaniards, founded on the 

 observations of Heceta and Bodega. The parts respecting which 

 the most accurate information had been obtained were those west- 

 ward from Mount St. Elias, to the Aleutian Islands : that division 

 of the coast was, indeed, so thoroughly examined by Cook, in 1778, 

 that very little was left for subsequent navigators, except to verify 

 his statements and conclusions. 



The principal places of resort for the fur traders on the American 

 coasts were, Nootka or King George's Sound, — Norfolk Sound, the 

 Port Guadelupe of the Spaniards, near their Mount San Jacinto, — ■ 

 Prince William's Sound, and Cook's River. The two last-mentioned 

 places, having been, in 1788, occupied by the Russians, under 

 Schelikof, were seldom visited afterwards by the vessels of other 

 nations ; and, as the country about Nootka was well supplied with 

 wood fit for ship-building, and had a more agreeable climate than 

 could be found farther north, it was generally selected as the point 

 of destination, rendezvous, and departure, by the traders. The 

 people there, as already mentioned, exhibited, at first, great oppo- 

 sition to the foreigners ; but they soon acquired a taste for knives, 

 blankets, and other such articles of luxury or use, to gratify which 

 they were ready not only to traffic, but even to engage in labor with 

 some show of assiduity. Their king was named Maquinna : his 

 relations, Wicanish and Tatoochseatticus, ruled over the tribes 

 farther south-westward, inhabiting the shores of two large bays, 

 called Clyoquot and Nittinat. Maquinna, whose name will fre- 

 quently appear in the following pages, possessed in a high degree 

 the cunning, ferocity, and vindictiveness, characteristic of his race ; 

 for, though he occasionally exhibited evidences of better qualities, 

 yet, like the other chiefs, he seldom lost an opportunity for the 



