1792.] NEGOTIATIONS AT NOOTKA. 241 



unexplored ; and the world would, probably, never have received 

 any detailed report of their operations.* 



Before the arrival of these vessels at Nootka Sound, Captain 

 Caamano returned from his search for the Rio de Reyes of Ad- 

 miral Fonte, in which he had spent two months. During this 

 period, he entered many of the openings in the coasts north and 

 north-east of Queen Charlotte's Island, between the 53d and the 

 56th parallels of latitude ; some of which were found to be the 

 mouths of bays, or of inlets running far inland, and others to be 

 channels separating islands. He appears to have displayed much 

 skill and industry in his examinations, as Vancouver indirectly 

 testifies in his narrative : but he effected no discoveries calculated 

 to throw much light on the geography of that part of the coast ; 

 and his labors were productive of advantage only in so far as they 

 served to facilitate the movements of the English navigator, to 

 whom his charts and journals were exhibited at Nootka. 



At Nootka, Vancouver found the store-ship Daedalus, which 

 brought the instructions from the British government for his con- 

 duct as commissioner. She left England in the autumn of 1791, 

 under the command of Lieutenant Hergest ; and, passing around 

 Cape Horn, she, in the latter part of March, 1792, fell in with the 



* The voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana was the last made by the Spaniards in 

 the North Pacific Ocean, for the purposes of discovery ; and the only one, since that 

 of Vizcaino, of which an authentic account has been given to the world, with the 

 sanction of the Spanish government. The Journal of Galiano and Valdes was pub- 

 lished at Madrid in 1302, by order of the king, with an Introduction, often cited in 

 the preceding pages, including a historical sketch of the exploring voyages of the 

 Spaniards on the coasts of America, north-west of Mexico. This Introduction is the 

 only valuable part of the work ; the meagre and uninteresting details of the Journal 

 having been superseded by the full and luminous descriptions of Vancouver: it 

 was intended — as a defence of the rights of Spain to the north-west portion of 

 America, which were supposed to be endangered since the cession of Louisiana to 

 France — as a vindication of the claims of Spanish navigators to the merit of dis- 

 covering those regions, which the British were endeavoring to monopolize — and as a 

 reply to the charges, insinuations, and sarcasms, against the intelligence, liberality, 

 and good faith, of the Spanish government and nation, brought forward by Fleurieu. 

 It was compiled chiefly from the original journals and other documents, in the 

 archives of the Council of the Indies, relative to the exploration of the North Pacific 

 coasts ; and, in this manner, many curious if not important facts were communi- 

 cated, which might otherwise have remained forever buried. It is, however, to be 

 regretted that the author should have disfigured his work — as he has in every part in 

 which the honor or interests of Spain are concerned — by gross and palpable misstate- 

 ments of circumstances, respecting which he undoubtedly possessed the means of 

 arriving at the truth. It may, perhaps, be considered a sufficient apology for him, 

 that his book was published by the Spanish government, at Madrid, in 1802, as we 

 know not what changes may have been made in it by insertions, suppressions, and 

 alterations, after it left his hands. 



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