The Name "Mt. Rainier!' 91 



the friendly relations between him and the Spaniards, 

 who generously gave him tracings of their earlier sur- 

 veys ; and he accepted names given by the fur traders. 



These men were exploring unknown regions inhabited 

 by uncivilized peoples, whose language they had neither 

 the time nor opportunity to learn. To give definition to 

 their narratives and charts, they were compelled to adopt 

 names for given objects of which they had first deter- 

 mined the geographic position, and made known to the 

 civilized world. 



No man has ever done more or better work than was 

 done by Vancouver and his officers and men on this 

 Northwest Coast, executed with dull sailing ships, and 

 with instruments that would not be used to-day. 



He did not come upon "this coast for the purpose of 

 securing it for English dominion" {Out West, page 368). 

 His voyage was "undertaken by His Majesty's com- 

 mand, principally with the view to ascertam the existence 

 of any navigable communication between the North 

 Pacific and North Atlantic oceans." For this purpose, he 

 was directed to delineate the "Continental Shore"; and 

 he completed a survey of discovery and exploration that 

 is unique in the published history of geography. 



The assertion on page 368 of Out West, that "neither 

 this coast nor this country is in his [Vancouver's] debt," 

 is not warranted by the facts. There is no inlet on the 

 Northwest Coast south of the Peninsula of Alaska, to 

 the head of which his boats did not penetrate. His 

 latitudes are remarkably close to the best determinations 

 of to-day. We have observed at many places where he 

 did, and never found an error in the latitude exceeding 

 two geographic miles. 



In the conventions of 1822 to 1825 between Russia and 

 the United States, and Russia and Great Britain, the 

 only charts available for that long diplomatic controversy 

 were those of Vancouver ; by the decisions of those con- 

 ventions Russia held all the Archipelago Alexander; and 

 in 1867 the United States purchased from Russia the 



