"Ye mariners of England!"—Campbell.
England's conquest of Canada[1] (1763) put a wholly new face upon the situation in America. She was now, beyond dispute, the foremost power of this continent.
Hardly had the echoes of this conflict died away, when a new power arose to contend with England for what she had just torn from the grasp of France. This was her own American colonies, whose people had now been driven to take up arms (1775) against the mother country, in defence of their dearest political rights. So England gained Canada, but lost her own colonies. She wrested power from France, only to see it snatched from her own grasp in the moment of victory, though, after all, it was no less a victory for the English-speaking race over all her Latin-speaking rivals. It must be seen that events like these would have far-reaching effects in shaping our history.
Yet while the conflict with her colonies was going on, and both parties were in the thick of the actual fighting, England was putting forth efforts to control the commerce of the North-west Coast.
For this purpose it would be essential to have accurate surveys of all important harbors and sounds, in order to select sites for future settlements, and above all of any navigable rivers flowing from the east out upon the coast, that might afford a practicable route into the interior, and so connect this coast with the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company.
With this end in view, two discovery ships were sent out (1776), in command of Captain James Cook,[2] with orders to search the coast of New Albion for any navigable river north of the forty-fifth parallel. England clearly meant to re-assert her claim to sovereignty,[3] set up so long ago in her behalf by Sir Francis Drake.
On board Cook's ship were two persons with whom our story will have to deal. One was Midshipman Vancouver, the other Corporal Ledyard of the marines.
Cook first discovered and named the Sandwich Islands.[4] Shaping his course thence for the American coast, he fell in with (1778) and named Cape Flattery.[5] Steering now northward with the coast always in sight, Cook at length found a broad basin, which the Indians called Nootka, and which has since been known as Nootka Sound.[6] The ships lay here all the month of April, refitting, and getting ready for the coming cruise in the arctic seas, which Cook was instructed to explore for the wished-for passage into Hudson's Bay.
Except for their propensity to steal, which nothing could control, Cook found the natives of Nootka a friendly people, though they were no longer abashed in the presence of white men, or afraid of their loud-roaring cannon, as in the time of Drake. Many wore brass or silver trinkets. Most of them had tools of iron which they had made for themselves, and could use with skill. Passing ships would therefore seem to have brought these tribes into unfrequent communication with Europeans, so that Cook's coming neither surprised nor intimidated them; while the articles in their possession acquainted him with the fact that other navigators had passed that way before him, perhaps with views similar to his own.
Upon again setting sail, Cook was blown off the coast by contrary winds. When he again saw it, he was far to the north of Nootka. He saw and named Mt. Edgecumbe as he sailed; then Mt. St. Elias rose in solitary grandeur before them, giving Cook notice that he was now crossing the track of the Russian discoverers.
The ships continued to skirt the coast until its westward trend forced them to put about, and steer south-west, along the shores of the Alaskan peninsula. Cook had missed both the Columbia River and the Straits of Fuca, thus losing his one chance for making known to the world the great water systems of the north Pacific.
Getting clear of Alaska, Cook came to Oonalaska, of the Aleutian group, which he doubled. Then, finding the coast beyond him to bend in the desired direction, again he sailed on through Behring's Straits into the Arctic Ocean as far as Icy Cape (70° 29´), at which point his ships were stopped by ice. Finding he could go no farther, he put about and returned to Oonalaska, where, in October, he anchored.
From this anchorage Corporal Ledyard was sent on shore in search of the Russian traders, then known to be living on the island, whom he found, and brought back with him to the ships. Getting little from these people, for want of interpreters, Cook sailed back to the Sandwich Islands, where the natives of Owyhee treacherously killed him while he was on shore.
The furs which Cook's sailors obtained from the natives of Nootka, in exchange for knives, buttons and other trifles, were sold at Canton, China, for more than ten thousand dollars. This was the beginning of a trade between Nootka and Canton, which, during the next decade, was the means of bringing many British vessels to the North-west Coast.
It is instructive to remember that, at the very time when the American colonies were throwing off their allegiance, Cook was quietly exploring the North-west Coast, in the interests of peaceful expansion, which, in the end, was to inure to the benefit of those colonies.
[1] Conquest of Canada was the result of the Seven Years' War in Europe. Nearly all the powers were involved in it. When peace was made, all that France held east of the Mississippi River, under the names Louisiana or Canada, except New Orleans, was given up to England. New Orleans, with all that France claimed west of the Mississippi, had already (1762) been privately ceded by France to Spain.
[2] James Cook entered the navy as a cabin boy. He stood at the head of English navigators since Drake. The government kept his discoveries secret till after the close of the war. To their honor, all the belligerents gave orders that he should not be molested by their forces.
[3] Her Claim to Sovereignty. It was known in England, before Cook sailed, that Spanish navigators were again working their way up the coast. (See voyages of Juan Perez 1774, Bruno Hector and Bodega 1775, in Bancroft.) The Spaniards knew the value of the fur seal in commerce.
[4] Sandwich Islands, so named for the Earl of Sandwich, then first lord of the Admiralty.
[5] Cape Flattery, on the mainland, at the south entrance to the Straits of Fuca, and landmark of those straits.
[6] Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. Taken possession of by Spain, 1789. The English navigators Cook, Meares and Vancouver, being unable to find another good harbor between Cape Mendocino and Cape Flattery, hit upon Nootka as possessing the requirements of a port for their nation. Upon this a quarrel arose with Spain, which claimed Nootka in virtue of prior discovery. In the end Spain was obliged to relinquish Nootka to England. Vancouver, who gave his name to the large island to which Nootka Sound belongs, reached the coast April, 1792, near Cape Mendocino, but strangely missed the Columbia River, though he carefully looked for any opening in the coast line, which he declared to be unbroken from Mendocino to Cape Flattery. Vancouver's surveys were to fill the gap left open by Cook when he was blown off the coast. His passage through the Straits of Fuca had been anticipated by Captain Kendrick, of the American sloop "Washington," in 1790, thus first verifying the long-disputed fact of the existence of those straits.