180 



VOYAGES OF THE COLUBIBIA AND WASHINGTON. 



[1783. 



direction of the expedition ; and her mate was Joseph Ingraharn, 

 whose name will often appear in the following pages. The 

 master of the Washington was Robert Gray. They were provided 

 with sea letters issued by the federal government, agreeably to a 

 resolution of Congress, and with passports from the state of Massa- 

 chusetts ; and they received letters from the Spanish minister 

 plenipotentiary in the United States, recommending them to the 

 attention of the authorities of his nation on the Pacific coasts. 

 They, moreover, carried out, for distribution at such places as they 

 might visit, a number of small copper coins, then recently issued 

 by the state of Massachusetts,* and likewise medals of copper, 

 struck expressly for the purpose, of one of which a representation is 

 here given. 



The two vessels sailed together from Boston on the 30th of 

 September, 1787 : thence they proceeded to the Cape Verd Islands, 

 and thence to the Falkland Islands, in each of which places they 

 procured refreshments; and, in January, 1788, they doubled Cape 

 Horn, immediately after which they were separated, during a violent 

 gale. The Washington, continuing her course through the Pacific, 

 made the north-west coast in August, 1788, near the 46th degree 

 of latitude, where she was in danger of destruction, having grounded 

 while attempting to enter an opening, which was, most probably, 

 the mouth of the great river afterwards named by Gray the 

 Columbia. She was also attacked there by the savages, who killed 

 one of her men, and wounded the mate ; but she escaped without 

 further injury, and, on the 17th of September, reached Nootka 



* Alexander Mackenzie, in July, 1793, found, in the possession of a native of the 

 country east of the Strait of Fuca, a "halfpenny of the state of Massachusetts Bay, 

 coined in 1787," which was doubtless one of those taken out by Kendrick and 

 Gray. 



