te_ of those notes, and of the narrative in these passages,
is amusing.--ED.]]

[Footnote Q: A great village or encampment of Indians, among whom the
Spaniards had sent missionaries under the conduct of Signor Quadra; but
whence the latter were chased by Captain Vancouver, in 1792, as
mentioned in the Introduction.]

Our Indian having finished his discourse, we made him presents
proportioned to the melancholy satisfaction he had given us in
communicating the true history of the sad fate of our former companions,
and to the trouble he had taken in coming to us; so that he returned
apparently well satisfied with our liberality.

According to the narrative of this Indian, Captain Thorn, by his abrupt
manner and passionate temper, was the primary cause of his own death and
that of all on board his vessel. What appears certain at least, is, that
he was guilty of unpardonable negligence and imprudence, in not causing
the boarding netting to be rigged, as is the custom of all the
navigators who frequent this coast, and in suffering (contrary to his
instructions) too great a number of Indians to come on board at once.[R]

[Footnote R: It is equally evident that even at the time when Captain
Thorn was first notified of the dangerous crowd and threatening
appearance of the natives, a display of firearms would have sufficed to
prevent an outbreak. Had he come on deck with Mr. M'Kay and Mr. Lewis,
each armed with a musket, and a couple of pistols at the belt, it is
plain from the timidity the savages afterward displayed, that he might
have cleared the ship, probably without shedding a drop of blood.--ED.]

Captain Smith, of the Albatross, who had seen the wreck of the Tonquin,
in mentioning to us its sad fate, attributed the cause of the disaster
to the rash conduct of a Captain Ayres, of Boston. That navigator had
taken off, as I have mentioned already, ten or a dozen natives of
New-itty, as hunters, with a promise of bringing them back to their
country, which promise he inhumanly broke by leaving them on some desert
islands in Sir Francis Drake's Bay. The countrymen of these
unfortunates, indignant at the conduct of the American captain, had
sworn to avenge themselves on the first white men who appeared among
them. Chance willed it that our vessel was the first to enter that bay,
and the natives but too well executed on our people their project of
vengeance.

Whatever may, have been the first and principal cause of this mis