220 VOYAGE OF FIDALGO. [1790 



indeed, then seriously directing its attention to the discovery and 

 occupation of the territories north of its settlements in California, 

 agreeably to the plan devised in 1765, and with the same object 

 of preventing those territories from falling into the possession of 

 other nations ; and, for these purposes, the viceroy of Mexico was 

 directed to employ every means at his disposal. Martinez was, 

 indeed, deprived of his command, immediately on his arrival in 

 San Bias, in December^ 1789 : but his vessels, including the 

 Princess Royal, which had been taken from the English in the 

 preceding summer, were sent back to Nootka Sound, under Cap- 

 tain Francisco Elisa, in the spring of 1790 ; and preparations were 

 immediately begun for a permanent establishment on Friendly 

 Cove. 



As soon as the first arrangements for this purpose were completed, 

 Elisa despatched Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, in the schooner San 

 Carlos, to examine the coasts occupied by the Russians, and inquire 

 into the proceedings of that nation in America. Fidalgo accord- 

 ingly sailed for Prince William's Sound, in which, and in Cook's 

 River, he spent nearly three months, engaged in surveying and 

 in visiting the Russian establishments ; his provisions being then 

 exhausted, he took his departure for San Bias, where he arrived on 

 the 14th of November. The geographical information obtained by 

 him was scanty ; and the only news which he brought back, 

 respecting the proceedings of the Russians, was, that they had 

 formed an establishment on Prince William's Sound, and that a 

 ship had passed that bay from Kamtchatka, on an exploring expe- 

 dition towards the east.* 



The Russian ship, thus mentioned by Fidalgo, was one of those 

 which had been begun at Ochotsk in 1785, by order of the empress 

 Catharine, for af " secret astronomical and geographical expedition, 

 to navigate the Frozen Ocean, and describe its coasts, and to 

 ascertain the situation of the islands in the sea between the conti- 

 nents of Asia and America." For this expedition, a number of 

 officers and men of science, from various parts of Europe, were 

 engaged ; and the command was intrusted to Joseph Billings, an 

 Englishman, who had accompanied Cook, in his last expedition, as 

 assistant astronomer : but the preparations proceeded so slowly, in 

 consequence of the want of every thing requisite for the purpose at 



* Manuscript journal of the voyage of Fidalgo, among the documents obtained from 

 the hydrographical department of Madrid. 



t Narrative of the Russian expedition under Billings, by Martin Sauer. 



