1791.] kendrick's passage through fuca's strait. 217 



With these orders, Vancouver sailed from England in January, 

 1791, in the ship Discovery, accompanied by the brig Chatham, 

 under the command of Lieutenant Robert Broughton. The instruc- 

 tions for his conduct as commissioner were afterwards despatched 

 to him in the store-ship Daedalus. 



The account of the passage of the Washington through the Strait 

 of Fuca, mentioned in the instructions to Vancouver, had appeared 

 in the " Observations on the probable Existence of a North-West 

 Passage" prefixed by Meares to the narrative of his voyages, which 

 had then been recently published at London. Meares there says, 

 " The Washington entered the Straits of John de Fuca, the knowl- 

 edge of which she had received from us ; and, penetrating up them, 

 entered into an extensive sea, where she steered to the northward 

 and eastward, and had communications with the various tribes who 

 inhabit the shores of the numerous islands that are situated at the 

 back of Nootka Sound, and speak, with some little variation, the 

 language of the Nootkan people. The track of this vessel is marked 

 on the map, and is of great moment, as it is now completely ascer- 

 tained that Nootka Sound and the parts adjacent are islands, and 

 comprehended within the great northern archipelago. The sea also 

 which is seen to the east is of great extent, and it is from this sta- 

 tionary point, and the most westerly parts of Hudson's Bay, that we 

 are to form an estimate of the distance between them. The most 

 easterly direction of the Washington's course is to the longitude of 

 237 degrees east of Greenwich. It is probable, however, that the 

 master of that vessel did not make any astronomical observations, to 

 give a just idea of that station ; but, as we have those made by Cap- 

 tain Cook at Nootka Sound, we may be able to form a conjecture, 

 somewhat approaching the truth, concerning the distance between 

 Nootka and the easternmost station of the Washington in the north- 

 ern archipelago ; and consequently this station may be presumed to 

 be in the longitude, or thereabout, of 237 degrees east of Green- 

 wich." In another place, Meares speaks of the proofs brought by 

 the Washington, " which sailed through a sea extending upwards of 

 eight degrees of latitude," in support of his opinion, that the north- 

 western portion of America was a collection of islands : and in the 

 chart annexed, " the sketch of the track of the American sloop Wash- 

 ington in the autumn of 1789," is represented by those words run- 

 ning in a semi-oval line from the southern entrance of the Strait of 

 Fuca, at Cape Flattery, eastward, to the longitude of 237 degrees, 

 then north-westward, to the 55th parallel of latitude, then west- 

 28 



