234 gray's account of his discoveries. [1792. 



person who had formerly commanded the sloop Washington, I 

 desired he would bring to, and sent Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies on 

 board, to acquire such information as might be serviceable in our 

 future operations. On the return of the boat, we found our con- 

 jectures had not been ill grounded ; that this was the same gentle- 

 man who had commanded the sloop Washington, at the time, we 

 are informed, she had made a very singular voyage behind Nootka. 

 It was not a little remarkable, that, on our approach to the entrance 

 of this inland sea, we should fall in with the identical person who, 

 it was said, had sailed through it. His relation, however, differed 

 very materially from that published in England. It is not possible 

 to conceive any one to be more astonished than was Mr. Gray, on 

 his being made acquainted that his authority had been quoted, and 

 the track pointed out that he had been said to have made in the 

 sloop Washington ; in contradiction to which, he assured the of- 

 ficers that he had penetrated only fifty miles into the straits in 

 question, in an east-south-east direction ; that he found the passage 

 five leagues wide, and that he understood from the natives that the 

 opening extended a considerable distance to the northward ; that 

 this was all the information he had acquired respecting this inland 

 sea, and that he returned into the ocean by the same way he had 

 entered at. The inlet he supposed to be the same that De Fuca 

 had discovered, which opinion seemed to be universally received by 

 all the modern visitors. He likewise informed them of his having 

 been off the mouth of a river, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 

 minutes, where the outset or reflux was so strong as to prevent his 

 entering for nine days. This was probably the opening passed by 

 us on the forenoon of the 27th, and was s apparently inaccessible, 

 not from the current, but from the breakers that extended across it. 

 He had also entered another inlet to the northward, in latitude of 

 54J degrees, in which he had sailed to the latitude of 56 degrees, 

 without discovering its termination. The south point of entrance 

 into De Fuca's Straits he stated to be in 48 degrees 24 minutes ; 

 and he conceived our distance from it to be about eight leagues. 

 The last winter he had spent in Port Cox, or, as the natives call it, 

 Clyoquot, from whence he had sailed but a few days," &c. 



The part of this account relating to the Strait of Fuca appears 

 to have been received with much satisfaction by Vancouver, as it 

 seemed to assure him that he had not been anticipated in the 

 exploration of that passage ; to Gray's statement of his discoverv of 

 a river emptying into the Pacific, in the latitude of 46 degrees 10 



