aswell, Coolidge, and the sailor plunged into the
water. To make matters worse, the sailor fainted from loss of blood,
and the pursuers threw themselves into the water with a whoop. Hauling
the wounded man in the boat, the whites rowed for dear life. The
Indians then launched their canoes to pursue, but by this time Gray had
the cannon of the _Lady Washington_ trained ashore, and three shots
drove the hostiles scampering. For two days tide and wind and a
thundering surf imprisoned Gray in Murderers' Harbor, where he had
hoped to find the River of the West, but met only danger. All night
the savages kept up their howling; but on the third day the wind
veered. All sails set, the sloop scudded for the offing, glad to keep
some distance between herself and such a dangerous coast.

The advantage of a small boat now became apparent. In the same
quarter, Cook was compelled to keep out from the coast, and so reported
there were no Straits of Fuca. By August 21 the sloop was again close
enough to the rocky shore to sight the snowy, opal {223} ranges of the
Olympus Mountains. By August 26 they had passed the wave-lashed rocks
of Cape Flattery, and the mate records; "I am of opinion that the
Straits of Fuca exist; for in the very latitude they are said to lie,
the coast takes a bend, probably the entrance."

[Illustration: Building the first American Ship on the Pacific Coast.
Photographed by courtesy of Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly, a descendant
of Gray.]

By September, after frequent stops to trade with the Indians, they were
well abreast of Nootka, where Cook had been ten years before. A
terrible ground-swell of surf and back-wash raged over projecting
reefs. The Indians, here, knew English words enough to tell Gray that
Nootka lay farther east, and that a Captain Meares was there with two
vessels. A strange sail appeared inside the harbor. Gray thought it
was the belated _Columbia_ under Kendrick; but a rowboat came out
bearing Captain Meares himself, who breakfasted with the Americans on
September 17, and had his long-boats tow the _Lady Washington_ inside
Nootka, where Gray was surprised to see two English snows under
Portuguese colors, with a cannon-mounted garrison on shore, and a
schooner of thirty tons, the _Northwest-America_, all ready to be
launched. This was the first ship built on the northwest coast. Gray
himself later built the second. Amid salvos of cannon from the _Lady
Washington_, the new f