254 STIKINE RIVER. [1794. 



was found issuing from the continent opposite these islands ; and 

 Vancouver became well satisfied "that the precision with which 

 his survey had been conducted would remove every doubt, and set 

 aside every opinion of a north-west passage, or any water communi- 

 cation navigable for shipping, between the North Pacific and the 

 interior of the American continent, within the limit of his re- 

 searches." The belief thus expressed by the navigator has been 

 completely confirmed. It must, nevertheless, be admitted that, con- 

 sidering the intricacies in the coasts between the 48th and the 58th 

 parallels, many passages, by which vessels could penetrate into the 

 interior of the continent, might have long escaped the notice of the 

 most careful observer; and in evidence of this is the fact, that a 

 river called the Stikine* three miles wide at its mouth, and a mile 

 wide thirty miles higher up, has been, since Vancouver's voyage, 

 found entering the arm of the sea named by him Prince Frederick's 

 Sound, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. Vancouver's 

 failure to discover the mouth of the Columbia should have ren- 

 dered him distrustful of the entire accuracy of his observations in 

 such cases. 



After completing these discoveries, Vancouver took possession of 

 the part of the continent extending north-westward of that around 

 the Strait of Fuca, which he had named New Georgia, as far as 

 the 59th degree of latitude, and of all the adjacent islands, " in 

 the name of his Britannic majesty, his heirs and successors," with 

 the formalities usual on such occasions, including a double allow- 

 ance of grog to the sailors. He also bestowed upon the various 

 territories, straits, bays, &c, names derived almost entirely from 

 the lists of the members of the royal family, the ministry, the Par- 

 liament, the army and the navy of Great Britain ; the importance 



* Vancouver mentions Stikeen as the name of a country or nation on the conti- 

 nental shore of Prince Frederick's Sound ; and he heard, from the natives farther 

 south, of a place in that sound called by them Uon-nass, which word seemed to mean 

 great channel. The first intimation of the existence of the river was probably com- 

 municated to the world by the captain of the ship Atahualpa, of Boston, from whose 

 journal an extract is published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 

 Society for 1804, p. 242. The captain there says, — 



" August 25th, 1802. I had some conversation with Cou (a chief of an island near 

 Queen Charlotte's Sound) respecting the natives who inhabit the country back of 

 Stikeen : he had his information from Cokshoo, the Stikeen chief. * * * Cou 

 also informs me that the place called Nass, or Uon-nass (spoken of by Vancouver) by 

 the natives in Chebassa Strait, (Prince Frederick's Sound,) is the mouth of a river of 

 very considerable extent, but unknown, navigable for vessels or large canoes." Near 

 this place, the Atahualpa was attacked, in January, 1805, and her captain, mate, and 

 six seamen, were killed : the others of her crew succeeded in escaping with the vessel. 



