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Of course the fair Nootka was beside them, for was not Oolalik one of the players? She would have scorned the insinuation that that was the reason. Nevertheless there is reason to believe that that had something to do with her presence. Our friend Adolay, however, was not there.
It was northward of Portland Canal, somewhere near what is now Wrangel, that the brave little sloop was caught in a terrific gale that raged over her for two hours, damaging masts and timbers so that Gray was compelled to turn back from what he called Distress Cove, for repairs at Nootka.
The clothing of the people of Nootka Sound consisted of a dress of flax, fringed with fur, and reaching to the feet; and over it a cloak of the same substance, with a hole cut in it, through which the head was thrust, and which hung down over the shoulders and arms as low as the waist.
To the king in league with privilege he was implacably opposed. To the king divested of that complicity he was a convinced and ardent friend. The opportunity of proving his faith was supplied by Captain Cook. In his last voyage the navigator visited the island since named after his lieutenant Vancouver, and sailed into Nootka Sound, to which, in his report, he drew the attention of the Government.
In 1787 Portlock and Dixon had secured almost two thousand sea-otter skins as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands. These were things Meares did not tell the Americans. It would have been to acknowledge that an abundance of furs was there to draw so many trading-ships. But during the winter at Nootka the men from Boston learned these facts from the Indians.
He had conceived, and now began to endeavour to execute, the grand project of a trading voyage to Nootka; for this purpose he went to New York and Philadelphia, and, after addressing himself to various individuals, he prevailed at last on the Honourable Robert Morris to promise him a ship. The projected voyage, however, was ultimately abandoned.
In the year 1790, a dispute arose between Britain and Spain, respecting Nootka Sound: on the adjustment of this dispute, the British government determined to send out an officer to secure possession of the settlement, and also to determine the question respecting the existence of a navigable passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Perhaps a touch of national pride had something to do with this preference of the Indian craft. Nootka, who had made several trials of the canoe, was judged sufficiently expert to wield the bow paddle.
The American gave the Englishman provisions to reach China, and the Englishman repaired the American's ship. Meares declared that he had bought all Nootka from the Indians. He did not relate that he had paid only two pocket-pistols and some copper for it. Towards the end of September came Kendrick on the belated Columbia.
He sailed from England with a sloop and brig on the 1st of April, 1791. He began his examination of the west coast of America, in latitude 39° 27' north, and continued it as far as Nootka: finding that the Spaniards raised difficulties to the restoration of this settlement, he proceeded to carry into execution the other objects of this voyage.
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