1788.] VOYAGES OF THE COLUMBIA AND WASHINGTON. 181 



Sound, where the Felice and Iphigenia were lying, as already 

 mentioned.* The Columbia did not enter the sound until some 

 days afterwards. She had been seriously injured in the storm 

 which separated her from her consort ; and Kendrick was obliged, 

 in consequence, to put into the harbor of the Island of Juan Fer- 

 nandez, where he was received with great kindness, and aided 

 in refitting his vessel, by Don Bias Gonzales, the commandant of 

 the Spanish garrison. The repairs having been completed, the 

 Columbia continued her voyage, and arrived at Nootka, which 

 had been selected as the place of rendezvous, without further 

 accident, in October. 



Soon aftef the arrival of the Columbia at Nootka, the Iphigenia 

 and North- West America took their departure for the Sandwich 

 Islands, where they remained until the spring of 1789. The two 

 American vessels spent the winter in the sound, where the Columbia 

 also lay during the whole of the following summer, whilst the 

 important events related in the next chapter were in progress. 



* Meares, in his narrative, gives the following account of the arrival of the 

 Washington at Nootka Sound: — ■ 



" September 17th, 1788. — A sail was seen in the offing. The long-boat was imme- 

 diately sent to her assistance, which, instead of the British vessel we expected, 

 conveyed into the sound a sloop named the Washington, from Boston, in New 

 England, of about one hundred tons' burthen. Mr. Gray, the master, informed us 

 that he had sailed, in company with his consort, the Columbia, a ship of three hundred 

 tons, in the month of August, 1787, being equipped, under the patronage of Congress, 

 to examine the coast of America, and to open a fur trade between New England and 

 this part of the American continent, in order to provide funds for their China ships, 

 to enable them to return home teas and China goods. The vessels were separated in 

 a heavy gale of wind, in the latitude of 59 south, and had not seen each other since 

 the period of their separation ; but, as King George's Sound was the place of ren- 

 dezvous appointed for them, the Columbia, if she was safe, was every day expected 

 to join her consort at Nootka. Mr. Gray informed me that he had put into an harbor 

 on the coast of New Albion, where he got on shore, and was in danger of being lost 

 on the bar; he was also attacked by the natives, had one man killed, and one of his 

 officers wounded, and thought himself fortunate in having been able to make his 

 escape. This harbor could only admit vessels of small size, and must lie somewhere 

 near the cape to which we had given the name of Cape Lookout." 



That this harbor was the mouth of the great river since called the Columbia, is most 

 probable from its situation, and because there is no evidence or reason to suppose that 

 Gray visited that part of the coast on any other occasion prior to his meeting with 

 Vancouver, on the 29th of April, 1792, as will be related in the eleventh chapter. 



