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Morning of Fire

Page 26

by Scott Ridley


  He proposed that he “continue in the employ as usual or I will take the Brig on my own account from the 16th of April 1790 and abide by all losses and gains from that date; for which I will allow you the sum of fourteen thousand dollars with an interest of 12 percent from that date until payment is made …” He still held out hope that his old friend would reinstate him as commander and proposed to retake the Columbia from Gray: “In case I am continued in the employ (as Captain and Super Cargo) and am to proceed as usual, according to our first agreement when I left Boston, I shall consider the Columbia as consigned to me, and shall expect a commission on the sales, and purchases of her cargoes of this her second voyage to the North West Coast of America.”

  Kendrick believed he was making a good offer, but there was little that Barrell and his partners could do. An exchange of letters would take six months each way. Whatever course they chose would have to wait another year or more before being settled. “I am now fitting out the Brig for another voyage to the North West Coast, where it is my intention to winter,” Kendrick concluded, “consequently shall not be in China again until the month of November 1793.” By then, he hoped the trading relationships he had in place on the Northwest Coast and in the Sandwich Islands would deliver a prosperous windfall similar to what Douglas received, or at least enough profit to bring him back to breakeven.

  Kendrick entrusted the letter to young Ebenezer Dorr, who had come out with Ingraham in the Hope and was now Boston-bound on the Fairy. Robert Davis Coolidge was returning homeward too, as was the furrier Jonathan Treat. Not long after they left, plans began tochange. Kendrick once again fell ill during the cold rains and dampness of the Macao winter. Ingraham told Hoskins that when he departed Macao on April 1, Kendrick was near death.

  WHILE KENDRICK LAY MORTALLY ILL at Dirty Butter Bay, George Vancouver was reaching the coast of America. It was April 1792. He stalled for time as he awaited his detailed instructions on the Daedalus, and did not sail to Nootka but instead went directly to the coastline along present-day Oregon. There in the region of “New Albion” Vancouver began his survey and mapping, using sketches of the shoreline and logs from Meares, Barkley, and other traders, as well as information gleaned from Spanish maps. Heavy surf broke all along the coast on the trip northward, and on April 27 his ships passed an opening in the shoreline with large waves breaking in shoalwater. The naturalist Archibald Menzies noted that the muddy discoloration of the ocean indicated a sizable river. However, Meares had explored and dismissed this area, and so did Vancouver. “Not considering this opening worthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the N.W., being desirous to embrace the advantages of the now prevailing breeze and pleasant weather …” This was the entrance of “Rio de San Roque,” named by Bruno Hezeta in 1774 but considered fictional by Meares and others. Ignoring the entrance of what would become known as the Columbia River, Vancouver lost a major discovery, but his attention was elsewhere. Maps that Meares and others had published showed the river Oregon—the mythical “river of the west"—entering into a sound (present-day Puget Sound) at the southeastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

  Continuing along the coast, he approached the entrance of the strait with great excitement. His instructions were to explore the strait, duplicating the Lady Washington’s track around the island described by Meares. If he located any passage to the east, Vancouver was to purchase land and establish an outpost and fort capable of withstandingan attack by Indians, Americans, or other foreign powers. The primary aim was to gain control of “those parts which lie at the back of Canada and Hudson’s Bay, as well as the navigation by such lakes as are already known [Lake of the Woods] or may hereafter be discovered.”

  On Saturday, April 28, offshore from the cliffs and stony beaches near the mouth of the strait, Vancouver noted that the East India Company hydrographer Alexander Dalrymple had passed along an allegation “that the Spaniards have recently found an entrance in the latitude of 47 degrees 45 minutes North, which in twenty-seven days course brought them to the vicinity of Hudson’s Bay; this latitude exactly corresponds to the ancient relation of Juan de Fuca, the Greek pilot, in 1592.” Vancouver excitedly noted, “This inlet could be now only ten miles from us.”

  The next morning at 4 a.m., “a sail was discovered to the westward standing in shore. This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel but our consort, during the last eight months.” The ship hoisted American colors. To Vancouver’s astonishment she turned out to be the Columbia, captained by Robert Gray, the very man he believed to have been in command of the Lady Washington in the fall of 1789 when the ship made her cruise up the inland sea. He saw it as an incredibly propitious event and dispatched two officers—Menzies and Peter Puget—who were on board the American vessel by 7 a.m.

  Gray was surprised and perplexed by their questions about his circumnavigation of the island. He told the men that he had penetrated the strait only fifty miles, though he understood from the natives that the opening extended a considerable distance northward. He also said he had entered another entrance far to the north of Nootka—the Straits of Admiral de Fonte—and sailed more than a hundred miles to 56° north latitude without discovering a termination. Gray shared his charts, and John Boit, one of Gray’s junior officers, noted that “we gave them all the information in our power, especially as respected the Straits of Juan de Fuca, which place they was in search of.”

  Along with this news, Menzies and Puget came back with information that Gray had just been off a river to the south at 46°10’ north latitude where the current was so strong it prevented his entering despite repeated attempts over nine days. Vancouver dismissed this as the entrance they had passed on April 27, and believed that if a river were to be found there, it “must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to vessels of our burthen, owing to the reefs and broken water.”

  If Gray mentioned that John Kendrick had been in command of the Washington in the fall when the circumnavigation through the inland sea supposedly took place, Vancouver made no note of it. He was elated that Gray denied circumnavigating the island and at the prospect that no one had sailed the inland sea. Vancouver immediately took his ships up the Strait of Juan de Fuca, finding an uninterrupted horizon to the east. On April 30, he noted, “We had now advanced further up this inlet than Mr. Gray, or (to our knowledge) any other person from the civilized world.” Eager to achieve something of note, the young British commander entered a labyrinth where he had a dramatic surprise coming.

  During the next month he explored eastward into the area where Meares’s maps showed the Oregon River and entered a series of channels running southward. He found no river, but on June 4, the anniversary of King George’s birthday, he declared that he had “long since designed to take formal possession of all the countries we had lately been employed in exploring.” He went ashore at what he christened “Possession Sound” (near present-day Everett, Washington) and, discharging a royal salute from the vessels, “took possession accordingly of the coast, from that part of New Albion, in the latitude of 39 degrees 26 minutes North, and longitude 236 degrees 26 minutes East, to the entrance of this inlet to the sea, said to be the supposed Straits of Juan de Fuca, as likewise all the coast, islands, & c. within said straits, as well as on the northern and southern shores; together with those situated in the interior sea we had discovered extended from said straits in various directions … which interior sea I have honored with the name ‘The Gulph of Georgia,’ in honor of His present Majesty.”

  Vancouver’s intent was clear, but the ceremony stood in stark contradiction to Britain’s assertions to Spain during the Nootka Crisis that symbolic acts carried out on a tract of land did not constitute a valid claim, and possession was only acceptable if land were occupied and improved. Ironically, a few days earlier a Spanish ship had performed an overlapping act of possession at Neah Bay, just inside the strait’s entrance, where her men were about to build the first European fort in the strait. The new fort mark
ed only part of Spain’s expanding presence.

  On the morning of June 22, near the Fraser River, well north on the inland sea, Vancouver’s launch, which was ahead of the ships, approached the shore to have breakfast. Vancouver noted that not far off “we discovered two vessels at anchor under the land.” He thought at first they were his own ships that had come up during the night, but as they drew closer, he discovered they were Spanish vessels of war—the Sutil and the Mexicana. The commander of the Sutil, Dionisio Galiano, spoke a little English and told Vancouver they had left Nootka two weeks before on June 5. They were continuing the survey of the previous two years and had already mapped an area four leagues beyond this point.

  Vancouver’s notion of being the first European commander in these waters was shattered. Although one British Columbia historian characterized the meeting as the symbolic beginning of the decline of the Spanish Empire and the rise of Britain, it was anything but that at the time. Vancouver wrote in frank humility: “I cannot avoid acknowledging that, on this occasion, I experienced no small degree of mortification in finding the external shore of the gulf had been visited, and already examined a few miles beyond where my researches … had extended.” In fact, many of the channels and bays he thought he was naming for the first time had already been given Spanish names.

  Galiano might well have wondered what Vancouver was doing there. The Spanish pilot told Vancouver that “Senior Quadra, the commandant in chief of the Spanish marine at Saint Blas and at California,was, with three frigates and a brig, waiting my arrival at Nootka in order to negotiate the restoration of those territories to the crown of Great Britain.”

  Quadra had arrived at Nootka in April, the month prearranged by the British and Spanish courts to carry out the terms of the Nootka Convention. However, it made little difference to Vancouver that Quadra had been waiting six weeks. Given the Spanish presence there, and the fact that they were ahead of him in this exploration, it was urgent for Vancouver to press ahead to find something of value in the labyrinth that he could claim.

  Recognizing that Galiano and Valdes possessed invaluable charts from excursions into the strait in 1790 and 1791, Vancouver proposed that they collaborate on the immense task of surveying and mapping. The two Spanish officers were reluctant to work with Vancouver’s men, but their general instructions were to cooperate with the British. For three weeks, the combined group worked its way northward. They were not proceeding blindly. There were villages along the shore, and Vancouver noted that Valdes “spoke the Indian language very fluently and understood from the natives that this inlet did communicate with the ocean to the northward, where they had seen ships.” The native men there had many muskets, and offered sea otter skins for powder. Vancouver found that they were ruled by Maquinna.

  On July 13, Vancouver’s boats discovered a channel northward that was said to run to the sea. It is not clear what Vancouver told Galiano and Valdes about this. On July 17, the British parted with the Spanish ships and followed officer James Johnstone through the narrow channels of what became known as Discovery Passage and the Johnstone Strait. Thomas Manby, master’s mate of the Chatham, noted that they came upon a large village, where the natives had muskets, “pistols and cutlasses which an American vessel belonging to Boston had supplied them with in barter.” After probing the mainland shore and a series of islands, they entered Queen Charlotte Sound on August 10. Vancouver became the first European captain to document a journey through theinland passage. He made his way to open ocean and headed south, four months late for his meeting with Quadra.

  VANCOUVER FIRED A THIRTEEN-GUN SALUTE when he entered Nootka Sound on August 29. The guns from Fort San Miguel answered. Vancouver’s spirits and expectations were high. Although he had found no Northwest Passage branching from the inland sea, he claimed that his expedition was the first to circumnavigate the immense island. In reality, the honor of the first circumnavigation fell to the Sutil and Mexicana. Vancouver had started from the mouth of the strait and had not completed the circuit; the Spanish ships had sailed from Nootka. Valdes and Galiano soon found their way through the channels and arrived in the sound three days after Vancouver. The haughty British captain ignored the fact of their achievement and was eager to get on with business. He had performed his act of possession for lands to the south, ranging from New Albion through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Now he would try to combine those claims with Meares’s reputed territories north of Juan de Fuca, thus opening the whole coast north of San Francisco to British subjects.

  The Daedalus was waiting for Vancouver in Friendly Cove. She had come there after missing him at the Sandwich Islands and had been waiting since July 4. On board were the additional orders, which included a letter from Floridablanca dated May 12, 1791. The letter was addressed to “The governor or commander of the port at Saint Lawrence,” instructing him to receive the bearer as Britain’s emissary to carry out the terms of the Nootka Convention.

  Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra lined the shore with his troops and offered Vancouver a formal military welcome. Quadra was a career officer, fifteen years older than Vancouver, part native Peruvian, strikingly handsome, subtle, and socially adept. He presented a sophisticated contrast to Vancouver’s blustery and wary demeanor. Not only was he the new commander at San Blas, but by the king’s appointment,he was the leader of the Expedition of Limits, charged with setting the boundaries of Spain’s empire in the Northwest. While he had waited for Vancouver to arrive, Quadra had developed a careful understanding of the situation and made additional improvements in Nootka’s wilderness port.

  The crude temporary military outpost started by Estevan Martinez was now a settlement of some fifteen or twenty buildings and extensive gardens. Native people casually came and went through the village, and a number of foreign vessels were in port. Using diplomatic skills lacking in previous Spanish commanders, Quadra had succeeded in repairing Martinez’s breach with Maquinna and lured the Mowachaht chief back to his table. Edward Bell, the clerk of the Chatham, observed that Quadra was “too good a man,” treating the Mowachaht “more like companions than people who should be taught subjection.” Quadra had also reopened Nootka to foreign traders, and the harbor was busy that summer. While there had been only two British ships on the coast in 1790 and five in 1791, there were nine now cruising the coastal waters. There were also four ships sailing under Portuguese colors, and five Americans.

  Despite Quadra’s evenhandedness, a strong tension had arisen between American and British traders. William Brown of the British Butterworth expedition had arrived on the coast in July, and led an effort to oust the Americans from Nootka. He swore that when Vancouver’s British warships arrived, the Americans would be forced to depart.

  Brown was stinging from a skirmish at Clayoquot. A few weeks earlier, the natives there had refused to sell skins to him because they were saving them for John Kendrick. Brown became frustrated and sent his sailors to a Clayoquot village to rob the natives. According to Captain James Magee of the Boston trader Margaret, Brown’s men actually cut several skins off natives’ backs. Four men were killed before Wickaninish’s musket-armed warriors turned out and forced the sailors to retreat, killing one and wounding several others. Captain Magee fired a cannon to stop the fighting, and Brown accused him of firing on British vessels. Outside the sound, Brown took vengeance on Clayoquot men fishing from canoes. He hauled nine men on board, whipped them unmercifully, and threw them into the sea. The British trader Jenny, following the Butterworth, fired on them as they swam. According to a complaint Wickaninish made to Quadra, of the nine men missing, four were chiefs, and one of them his brother.

  Magee told Vancouver that Brown should be charged with piracy for his attack at Clayoquot, and Brown complained of Magee and the Americans. Vancouver did nothing. He heard that Kendrick had traded the arms that were used to attack Brown’s men to Wickaninish’s people. A Spanish observer confirmed that Kendrick had “furnished Wickaninish with more than two hundred gun
s, two barrels of powder, and a considerable portion of shot, which [the Indians] have just finished using on the unhappy sailors of Captains Brown and Baker [of the Jenny].”

  Vancouver and his officers feared the natives arming themselves here as they were doing at the Sandwich Islands. The Chatham‘s clerk, Edward Bell, noted that Wickaninish could “turn out four hundred men arm’d with muskets and well found with ammunition … Their former weapons, Bows and Arrows, Spears and Clubs are now thrown aside and forgotten.” At Nootka, Bell said, “it was the same way, everyone had his musket.”

  While Kendrick was regarded as foolish and short-sighted for trading weapons that could be turned on him and other captains, he was much more savvy than that. Kendrick had a stake in this region through his title to harbors and large tracts of land and the alliances he had built. He recognized that muskets were the only way to restrain the power of the Spanish and the British and allow the Mowachaht to protect themselves against hostile traders. His own risk was offset by the trust he had built. Just as Alexander McGillivray had successfully played British, American, and Spanish interests off against oneanother to secure land titles for the Creek nation, Kendrick could only hope that his strategy would work here as events became more volatile. Unlike McGillivray, he was not of mixed blood, and the trust he held could turn fragile.

  Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound by H. Humphries. The Spanish settlement at Yuquot, which pushed out the Mowachat people, began to resemble a frontier village.

  In fact, the situation along the coast was becoming very charged. Skirmishes between traders and native people were far more frequent as more ships arrived on the coast and used violent trading tactics. After Robert Gray had destroyed Opitsat in March, he went on to kill several natives in a skirmish at Gray’s Harbor in April, and then more at the north end of Vancouver Island in June, where after some difficulties, a shore party from the Columbia was attacked and the ship responded with cannon and musket fire. Other captains had similar skirmishes.

 

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