This tape is part of the Salt Spring Island Historical Society Collection and comprises an address to its members.
Captain Cameron outlines the voyages of the early Spanish explorers to the Pacific Northwest and the international disputes involved.
Accession Number | 989.031.066 | Interviewer | |
Date | October 9, 1984 | Location | Cassette tapes box File #24 to File #48 Shelf 8C |
Media | cassette tape | Audio CD | |
ID | 58 | Topic |
58_Capt-Cameron-Keith_Spanish-Explorers.mp3
otter.ai
21.01.2023
no
Unknown Speaker 0:02
I'm sure that you all sympathize with that time in my life. When I was told that I would have to go to Ottawa and spend the rest of my naval career there. And, of course, they don't have many ships, as you know. And I think I made the right move to leave the Navy at that time. Really, the euro cents have been the happiest that we've had. And we've had many happy years. Now, I owe you an apology this morning, because I find that the bloody lamb in this thing won't work. And it was brand new, I put it in, in the machine at home this morning and tried it out. And whether the vibration on the ferry or whether it's simply temperamental, I don't know. But for the moment, it's not working, and one of your members has kindly gone down to his shop somewhere to try and find replacement. Now in the meantime, I will continue with my talk, if you don't mind. And if he's successful, we can catch up on the slides a little later. As Mr. Brown said, I do want to speak to Spanish exploration on the coast. Many people know about the voyage of the subtle and the Mexico and their meeting with cook. But there were many earlier voyages. And it's those that I want to talk to you about. I understand that. Sometime in the future, the king of Spain intends to visit the area. And perhaps you can think about some of these things if you're fortunate enough to see or median. Now until Captain Cook came our way some 200 years ago, the northwest coast stretching from Oregon to Alaska, was the last great sea frontier of the world to be explored. Bearing a Dane in the service of the Russian Navy had reached Alaska in 1741. But the details of his voyage were kept secret. The Russians like the Spaniards kept everything secret. In the vast area of the Pacific Northwest continued to remain a blank on the maps of the of the world. But the rumors surrounding a fable, Northwest Passage persisted. And of course, a tremendous prize the way to the nation that could find and claim that fable shortcut from Europe to the riches of cafe. Now one might have thought that the Spaniards who were already well established in South America, Central America and Mexico might have ventured north out of curiosity if nothing else. But they were still trying to cope with the problems of imperial expansion in areas already conquered with settlement and administration, and how to recreate Spanish society in the new world. Spain felt that if she could keep her her keep the Pacific sealed off at the southern end, the Straits of Magellan then her Pacific Empire would remain reasonably secure, except of course for Russian incursions from the north. And it was this general concern about Russia, rather than curiosity over the northwest passage that eventually prompted her to send an expedition nor rumors of Russian expeditions from Siberia into Alaska, reached Madrid in the 1760s in Spain reacted by building a naval base at sound blog in 1767, from which expeditions could be launched nor and at the same time, she occupied San Diego in Monterey in California. Now, San Blas is situated just north of Acapulco, which, at that time in the 1760s, was a town of about 20,000. And of course, the Spanish sailors sailors would have preferred to have their base at Aqua poco with all its attractions, but Acapulco had no trees and San Blas did so sand law one out. Six years later, in 1773, the Spanish ambassador to Russia learned about new Russian expeditions planned for the Pacific coast. Alarmed Spain instructed her viceroy in Mexico To send an expedition north to determine the extent of Russian penetration to the south, and to recommend measures appropriate to the situation, and viceroy Lucarelli sent Juan Perez, the most senior pilot available at sound blog to lead the expedition. His second in command was Jose Martinez, an important figure in later activities on this coast. They were told to see how far south the Russians had come and to keep an eye open for signs of metal deposits, and other resources, including such esoteric commodities as peppers, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Because they all thought that the north the fabled Northwest Passage ran through a tropical paradise. They were also instructed to establish the best possible relationships with any Indians encountered along the way. And they sailed in January 7017 74, arriving off the northern Queen Charlotte's in July. And unfortunately, their ship wasn't designed for inshore work, and worried about shows and meeting with fog. Perez decided to play it safe. Still, they got close enough to exchange greetings with the hightest who surrounded the Spanish ship seeking to trade. And Martin has noticed bits of iron and lead and copper in the Indian jewelry, and saw half a day in it and part of a sword which had been fashioned into weapons. And he concluded from this, that the metal probably came from a boat lost from the very next tradition when it was off North America. Now, Mark NASS was very impressed with the hightest, whom he described as robust, and white is the best Spaniard and he was also taken with the timber resources of the region. And he envisaged a strong Spanish colony with an economy based on shipbuilding. A dream neither his successors nor his superiors were to share with him. But neither he nor Perez noted anything significant about the abundance of sea otter first offered by the Indians in trade and fearful of a trap and with no other vessel to support him in case of trouble. Perez chose not to land to claim the Spain the coast officially for Spain. Instead, he turned south and made land once more in the mouth of Nootka sound. And here while he traded again with the natives, he failed to land. And when the weather took a turn for the worse, he returned home to sound law. That was the first Spanish expedition. Now viceroy Lucarelli wasn't very happy with the expeditions results, and he ordered a second expedition for the following year. That one had two ships with a chap called his Sita in command of one and the man we know is quadrate in command of the other. They sailed in Mark 75 and reached the Washington Post in mid July. And when they closed the land and anchored, Quadra sent an armed party ashore for water and firewood. As the men struggled in the serve, a large group of Indians attacked and killed his Spaniards, and Quadra was horrified but there was nothing he could do. He fired his ships guns at the Indians, but they were out of range. And the other ship, San Diego was anchored too far out to even witness the tragedy. Now this was all his eaten needed to convince him that he should return to sound law. But Quadra refused to join him. And all his shift was a poor sailor, and his men were scurvy ready. He headed north and reached Alaska, in the vicinity of present day sick. And the the sound that that he arrived at he named Bucherer le sound after his viceroy. And here he landed to claim the post for Spain before returning home. Now these two expeditions convinced the Spaniards that the Russians presented no threat to the settlements in California. But soon word was received of preparations for a third voyage of discovery to be undertaken by Captain Cook, a British voyage of discovery. This concern the Spaniards greatly because cooks brilliance is a seaman navigator and it's Flora could not be taken lightly.
Unknown Speaker 10:04
And Madrid ordered a third Spanish expedition to the North for 1777. However, Viceroy Lucarelli had his own list of priorities for the resources under his command. And the 77 expedition was not launched until two years later. And by then cook had come and gone, and his journals were on the way to the publisher. Now had Spain broken with her policy of secrecy, and published the journals of Martin as Perez Zita and quadra, she would have been in a better position to fight Britain's territorial claim to this coast, which had been based on Cook's third voyage. But lacking published journals, she was forced to rely on an observation made in cooks journal, which I shall describe in a moment. Now cook, a cooks principal mission is you know, is to find the Northwest Passage if one existed, but he was also to determine the extent of Russian and Spanish settlements on the northwest coast. Because British explorers were already pushing westward across the Canadian Prairies and Northland. And the last thing Britain wanted to find when they reached the Pacific as they knew they would eventually was a Spanish or Russian presence there. Also, the Americans were threatening a move towards independence. And if that came to pass, which it did in the year, their cook began his third voyage, the Americans would surely begin to press westward and northward, claiming anything that wasn't nailed down is their territory. Now, Cook had been almost two years out of England, when he reached our coast in 1778. Adding colonies to Britain's Empire as he crossed the vast Pacific from New Zealand. His passage from Hawaii had been fairly fast with fair winds and fine weather. But when he made his landfall off Cape fall weather in Oregon, his two ships were caught in a series of gales and they were swept up and down the coast for about three weeks. And when the storm abated, he closed the land and worked his vessels into the first likely looking sound. This was Sunday March, the 29th. And the sound he named a new word he heard repeatedly from the natives, who shouted and sang to him in friendly welcome. And it was as well that they were friendly. Because Cook was a mariner in some distress. He needed water for his men and fuel for their cooking plots. His masks and spires had rotted. He needed replacements and replace your shore to build a Fords so that you could fashion new iron work. You need a grass for the goats and sheep that had managed to survive this ship so the trip so far. But above all, he needed it needed to say thank reach where his man could rest and forget the recent hardships. Gather fish, wild garlic, and nettles for their cooking pot and make wooden vats for the brewing screw spirit. That was the sailors a lexer to help cure scurvy and gonorrhea and it acted as a laxative, and it flushed out the bladder and kidneys wonderfully. Now the Indians supplied all his needs, at first for a price. But when trading goods ran out, just for the simple acknowledgement that they had been good hosts to share what was clearly in their minds their property. When cooked visited their settlements, they noticed that the natives possessed ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a horseshoe, which they were at their noses and several chisel irons affixed to irons to handles. And from this, he concluded that they had either been visited before by some civilized nation, or had connections with other tribes who had communications with the Europeans. And later during his steak, Cook was approached by a new group of Indians who indicated they had come from the southeast beyond nuclear Bay. And they appeared to be even more plentiful supplied with iron. But what surprised cook most was that one of them or two silver spoons around his neck is a kind of ornament and cook bikinis and from their shape took To be of Spanish manufacture, a conclusion he noted in his journal. And this is the evidence that the Spaniards were later to use as proof of their prior presence on the coast. Now in February 1779, a year after Cook had left our coast, the long plan third Spanish expedition finally set off, led by a lieutenant Ortega and with Quadra in command of a second vessel, and they followed Cuadras previous route to the Sitka area where they remained for a month charting and studying the native population. There are tiga bought several Indian children, which were apparently for sale, with the intention of training them as translators for future voyages. And finally, after sailing as far north as Prince William Sound in Alaska, which Cook had already visited and playing for Britain, Ortega and Quadra returned to their home port of San Blas. And again, their journals were kept secret. No further nine years were to pass before the Spaniards again sailed north, it seems inconceivable that they could have remained ignorant during that long period of the lucrative for trade that had sprung up around nuclear not only cooks journals, which had been read around the world, not only his journals gave an indication of the money to be made from sea otter furs, but the early traders Hannah Dix and Mears that also published accounts of their fur trading wages. Now Dixon and Maris had been members of ships club ships company during his third voyage here. But soon everyone was in the business, London merchants, Bombay traders, Chinese entrepreneurs and Americans from Boston and New York. But still, the Spaniards remained inactive. And it wasn't until the French explorer law perutz. Sent by France in 1785, to emulate Cook's voyage. Not until the law perused reported that the Russians were trading as far south as did the Spanish government order New Voyages, and then only to prevent the Russians from spreading southward to California. Now in March 1788 Jose Martinez are visionary friend from the first voyage set sail for Alaska with two ships under his command heading directly for the Russian settlements known to be there. Now history teaches us that nations who fear one another's territorial aggressiveness in regions of mutual interests often enter into compacts. The theory being that it is sometimes better to join the enemy than fight them, especially with respect to far distant regions difficult to defend. This was what Britain did with Japan before the First World War so that she could somehow keep a handle on her interest in China. Spain had followed this practice with Russia, having entered into an agreement, which allowed Russian ships to freely visit Spanish courts and vice versa. And consequently, the Spaniards were warmly welcomed by the Russians on the occasion of their visit to Alaska, and during the socializing that followed, the Russians volunteered the information that they would occupy Nuka the following year, after suitable ships that arrived from Siberia, their claim to Nootka and the northwest coast was to be based on bearings voyage of discovery. With this information, Martin has made haste per sound blog. And once they are recommended to his viceroy, that a colonizing expedition be mounted to arrive at Nootka no later than May at nine, so the Russians could be beaten to the punch. And the viceroy was shocked at this turn of events, especially when Martin has added the Russian news that the Americans were trading at Nootka and also exploring in the Pacific. This could only mean that the Americans intended to secure settlements on the Pacific coast. And that made them even more dangerous than the Russians as far as Spanish interests were concerned.
Unknown Speaker 19:52
So the viceroy ordered Martinez to occupy Nootka as early as possible in the spring of 89. And if the Russians are Right. They were to be treated in a friendly manner, but not allowed to establish a trading post. And then a territorial claims based on bearings voids were to be rejected. On the other hand, if the British were met that Nootka they were to be treated more firmly and told that Spanish claims predated those of the British quoting cooks journal entry, about the silver spoons if an argument ensued. As per the Americans, they were to be expelled from the region with force if necessary. And all were told that Spanish troops, missionaries and settlers would soon arrive to help convert the Indians to Christianity and to Spanish rule. Martin has set sail on this important voyage, the fifth Spanish expedition in February 1789, and arrived and Nootka in early May, only to discover three ships already there, to Americans, and a third ship flying the Portuguese Portuguese flag, but manned by an all British crew. Furthermore, the Indians now had iron rather than bone fishhooks, and the European made rope, chunks of brass and English daggers. And the glass beads and bits of irons offered by the Spaniards were of little interest to the natives. Martin has said about selecting a site for a small fork with a gun platform and interview Chief mokwena and other Indians who remembered him from his first visit 15 years earlier. And clearly, they were not keen on the possibility of their trade, with non Spanish white people being interrupted or denied. The Americans were very cordial with Martinez. They spoke freely to him about the extent of British activities in the area. And they mentioned that the English perpetrator John Mears, had constructed a temporary structure at friendly co previous year. In fact, mirrors with the help of Chinese shipwrights brought out from Canton had built a small shipyard, from which he launched the first ship to be constructed on the northwest coast, named appropriately Northwest America. He used her as a kind of inshore trader, although she was large enough to be sailed to Hawaii for wintering over. So all this put Martinez in a quandary. The Americans who most viceroy said what was the greatest danger appeared the most cooperative and the British were flying the Portuguese flag. Also, the Indian seemed to prefer free trade to Spanish rule. Nevertheless, he had to act and he did so by arresting the Portuguese vessel and allowing the Americans to continue to trade. Now Martin has accused the Englishman of disguising their true origins in order to avoid paying taxes, which was probably true and of lacking a royal license that is a Royal Spanish license to visit Spanish territory. But it was one thing to seize the ship and quite another to feed the prisoners and sail the vessel to sound law because he needed all his men to defend nuclear. So he released the ship after a document had been signed, stating that if the Mexican viceroy considered the seizure legal, then the ship's owners would pay over a sum equal to the value of the ship and its cargo. Then Martin has ordered the ship to sail to Hawaii. But once clear of the harbor, the ship turned northward to trade prefers and eventually when she arrived in town, Tom, their British commander William Douglas, reported the incident to his partner, John mirrors, and mirrors promptly put published a journal condemning the Spaniards and began to press the British government for corrective action. Now, a month or so after this event, Martin Martinez arrested to more British trading vessels upon their separate arrivals at noon. James column it captain of one of these ships, claiming he had ordered from his British British monarch to take possession of the coast, build a post at noon and create a settlement there. And he had 28 Chinese artisans and a great deal of equipment aboard his ship. So his intentions were clear After seizing those two vessels, Martin has sent them to sound law where the crews were imprisoned. During these arrests, the Indians became quite angry and paddled out to the Spanish ships to argue for their British friends. Of course, they didn't want their trade disrupted, and one chief Kelly can refuse Martinez's invitation to come aboard for discussions and continue to show from his canoe that the Spaniard was a bad man and a thief. Martin has finally lost his temper and fired his pistol to frighten the cheap. But unfortunately, one of Martinez's men misunderstood the shot the warning shot and raised his musket and shot Kelly can dead. Now when news of these incidents reached Mears, who was part owner of the sous chefs, he played them to the fool. He published a book again condemning Martinez, and claiming additionally, that he Mears had been granted land that note by Chief mokwena And the chief mokwena had acknowledged pretty sovereignty over all Indian Territory. Now, this was quite untrue, but it was enough to inflame British public opinion and with the public roads, and British seamen and Mexican prisons, the British lion began to roar. Thus began the new to sound controversy, which brought England and Spain to the brink of war. And tensions were only eased after the Spanish government agreed that British property should be restored at Nuka and that Britain should enjoy certain rights on the northwest coast. This was a very broad agreement signed by the two governments, which became known as the Nootka convention. And the details were to be settled by two two commissioners on the site at Nootka. Now Meanwhile, back at Nootka, Martinez was constructing buildings capable of withstanding a winter. And in the evenings, he continued to make plans for a Spanish colony base there. He thought in terms of a monopoly for a trading company, just like the Russians had, and for military posts along the coast, each post with foreign missions has had been done in California. And he was convinced that lumber pitch and other maritime products as well as furs, which sell well in Asia, and Spanish America, never a man to think small, he recommended to his viceroy that the conquest and occupation of the Hawaiian Islands take place. So they could serve as whittling and supply basis. But instead of receiving support for his proposals, Martinez was instructed to abandon friendly cold when winter fell. And he was dumbfounded he thought surely that some mistake had been made. But when October came and no countermanding order was received, be pulled out. Now this was a case of his viceroy playing it safe because he hadn't received Madrid's approval for the look of fortifications in the first place. And now that he was being relieved, he wanted to be seen in the best possible light that you can imagine, Martinez's surprise and chagrin when upon reporting to his new viceroy at sand block, he was told that nuclear would be reoccupied. But this time, it would be Leftenant Eliza, who went north with three Spanish warships and the company of soldiers under the command of Leftenant Colonel Pedro Alberni. Arriving at Nootka in April 1790. Eliza began immediately to build more houses and monk cannon ashore. He tried also to reestablish friendly relationships with the Indians, who had departed Nootka after the telecom incident, vowing never to return. But learning that Martinez was no longer in command, Chief mokwena agreed to give things another try. There were still further incidents, some of them quite serious and resulting in more Indian deaths, but the Indians didn't stay around.
Unknown Speaker 29:53
The winter of 7090 91 was a very hard win for the Spaniards. Colonel Alberni had become the coast first gardener during the summer, and a good one at that. growing lettuce, cabbages, onions, turnips, radishes and other crops and the poultry in the livestock for reasonably well, but the sailors in the soldiers did not. They suffered from winter colds, rheumatism, colic, scurvy, and worst of all, bloody dysentery. That was a disease endemic to the Indian population as well. And it promised almost certain depth to anyone who had it. Nine Spaniards died over that winter and 32 had to be evacuated to California in the spring. When the weather turned flare, Eliza and others concentrated on an examination of the Strait of Juan de Fuca hoping that might lead to the Northwest Passage, because remember that cook during his time out here had missed the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it had been covered in fog. During that stormy passage he had the lies a cruise through the Gulf Islands, incited the freshwater outflow from the Fraser River and on the return journey, he followed the American coast, visiting what is now Port Angeles and Neah Bay. That same year, Alexandria malas Spina arrived in our northern coast. Spain thinks of him as their their greatest Explorer. And he had left Spain two years earlier on a Pacific scientific expedition modeled much long, Cook's voyage, but he had been redirected to the northwest coast to look for the Northwest Passage. And he entered yaka today on the northern end of the Alaskan Panhandle a place called port Mulgrave by the British for traders so today, and that was the home of the first Klingon Indian nation who gave the Russians and the Spaniards nothing but trouble during all the years of their interest in our toast. Now the chief had been detained aboard mount a spinner ship after Aveda to prevent unexpected Indian attack upon the ship. And one of the slides that I was hoping to show you shows the Indians only hold holding up a pair of pants that they had stolen from the sailors as a medium of exchange where they're cheap. And their arms are outstretched in the traditional gesture of peace as they faced the ship. And it was malice, malice fino hula before returning to Spain, recommended to the Mexican viceroy that the subtle and the Mexican or too shallow draft schooners should be sent to the Strait of Juan de Fuca with two of his officers Galliano and Valdez in command. That was in 1791, and the following year, represented the apex of Spanish activity on this coast. Fogra, now commander of the naval base at sound blog, was sent north to take charge of North Korea and to conduct negotiations with Catherine Vancouver, already on route from England as the British Commissioner under the terms of the nuclear convention. Now, when Spino had recommended to the Mexican viceroy that the boundary line between the British and the Spanish songs of interest and the coast should be what is really our international boundary today, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the British getting everything north of there, and the Spaniards getting everything so and this was accepted by Spain as their negotiating position. But Quadra was instructed to create a provisional settlement on the southern shore of the strait to reinforce this eventuality. When he arrived at NACA in April 1792, he sent Salvador fidalgo to create such a settlement at Neah Bay. And Fidel Guzman built several huts, the bakery and a blacksmith shop and began to till the fertile land there only to have disaster strike. But the algos pilot had gone hunting with a group of Indians in a nearby forest. And when fidalgo failed Return. Least when his pilot failed to return, Fidel was sent out a search party and of course they discovered the pilots mangled body. fidalgo In retaliation, had his man open fire on two Indian canoes that were filled with people nearby. And only the people were lost except a young, a young boy and a girl. And when news of that incident reached quadrate and father's superiors, Hidalgo was roundly condemned, and a short while later, Quadra withdrew from the settlement at eBay, it was abandoned. Now, there were other Spanish voyages that summer that I would refer to only two and very briefly. In a northern voyage, the Indians of Bucharest sound brought prostitutes to the Spanish ship. Now the Spaniards absolutely for bad sexual contact, but British traders and some other foreigners permitted it. And the inevitable result of course, was the spread of venereal disease amongst the Indian people. The Spanish commander commando noticed other signs of change in Indian attitudes and culture. The very things that the first scene Cook had predicted in his journals. Iron had replaced bone, spears and arrows were giving way to muskets. traditional dress was being discarded in favor of cast off of European clothing, decorated with coins and bobs. As a matter of fact, Commando described one sheep with something like a mule and harness when he walked. Many Indians realized what was happening. And some like the hightest held all the Europeans in low regard as a result. The other expedition I want to touch upon of course is the subtle in Mexico with Galliano and Valdez Galliano, incidentally, was the brother of the minister of the Navy in Spain and eventually became Admiral of the, of the Spanish fleet. And of course, they met in that well known unexpected meeting of the present day city of Vancouver. After that, the four ships traveled north together to the vicinity of desolation sound, where they parted, each taking a different route to circumnavigate Vancouver Island the first time it had been circumnavigated and one can only wonder if you know what goes water those waters at all, at the courage and skill of these men as they navigated the treacherous channels of our inland waters. At his meeting with Quadra in friendly cold, Vancouver wouldn't agree to a demarcation line through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He pressed for a line through San Francisco instead, and quadro said he couldn't agree to that. So after discussing the matter for some time in a friendly manner, both men agreed to disagree and they refer the matter back to their respective governments for resolution and, and in the two year Twilight period that followed before a solution was reached in London, and Madrid. The Spanish Garrison remained that friendly cold, confined to that isolated island, and a climate they hated. Finally, at the end of March 1795, a small group of Spaniards met with a young British Lieutenant at the site of the mayor's property in friendly code. The Spanish flag was lowered and the Union flag was raised. The settlement was torn down, and both sides departed, leaving friendly code in the hands of its original owners. And today in the middle church at friendly call our two stained glass windows which were presented to the people of British Columbia, by the Spanish government in 1971. A one depicts Quadra and Vancouver at Nootka have been there no gay they're in negotiations and the other administration's of the priests to the Indians.
Unknown Speaker 39:56
And though the doors are UNLOCKED those Windows have remained somehow undamaged since then. And they're a fitting reminder to an important part of our provinces maritime heritage. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 40:19
have any luck with Oh, thanks very much protected. Yes, well I just wanted to say that I came over here to buy your music and I can go on and I'm myself with the Secretary of the galleon historical and cultural society which is essentially trying to build the suit to the next few years very much, we've brought over another specialist together from last time really the only other thing is finding the stuff in the in the Maritime Museum that you've designed and
Unknown Speaker 41:13
I, one of my slides shows the model now it's been a ship out provider that was presented to the museum by the naval Museum in Madrid. Now, the Spanish ships were essentially all the same. They had that that gilded stern with the with the stern windows and the high arch and quite a camber to their deck. As you probably know. His ship was 109 feet in length more than twice as long as several are mexicana. He carried a crew of 104 plus seven officers, which works out to about one foot per person. If you're thinking in terms of the length of vessel settle in Mexico I believe 50 feet overall 46 feet at the waterline 13 feet in the beam six feet draft very hard to
Unknown Speaker 42:31
measure Jack Henry is writing a history of explorations of the
Unknown Speaker 42:40
well, at point i was simply trying to make was that these were very small vessels could be sailing any distance you know, and he's man had about four and a half feet of headroom down the road
Unknown Speaker 43:00
well, there were two officers and 17 men. And most of the Spanish crews they they carried a surgeon who wasn't considered of officer status. And they also carried a blood letter in their crew, kind of a specialist trade of the day.
Unknown Speaker 43:24
there any other questions? Then to the strengths or one if you have another one? Well, he was a he was a trap, who, who actually became a pilot for the Spaniards in the Acapulco area in the 1500s. And he claimed to have sailed north and 1592 and to have discovered the Northwest Passage. And if you read his journal, he describes that Jewish rock at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca perfectly and he claimed that he he sailed up the street, and then up the Strait of Georgia, and finally out through Johnson straight into Queen Charlotte sound where he didn't give names to those places. And the Spaniards believe, as did many of the British explorers, that in fact, he had made that voyage. But when you get into it, there's lots of evidence that it was a fabrication. And I know in trucks journalists, he kept an open mind about it, but certainly George Vancouver. felt it was a fabrication and the Spaniards never really did use that possible voyage as any kind of proof A patient of more than their share to his post. But that's an American called Barkley who actually discovered the street named after one two. Perhaps some of you have read that wonderful story by Barclays wife about her time on this coast. The first English or or white woman who spent any time here she sailed with her husband is a bride at 17 and it's a very interesting book. Yes I'm not sure but I think Ruth Green are finishing rice
Unknown Speaker 45:51
grass is great. The Spanish didn't see this trains the country
Unknown Speaker 46:06
it might have been