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_. Both Americans were
surprised to learn that half a dozen navigators had already gone as far
north as Nootka Sound. Perez, Heceta, Quadra--all had coasted
Vancouver Island for Spain from 1774 to 1779, and so had La Perouse,
the French explorer, in 1787. Hanna had come out from China for furs
in 1785. 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.

[Illustration: The launch of the _North-West America_ at Nootka Sound,
1788. From Meares's _Voyages_.]

The winter was passed in trading with the Indians, and spring saw Gray
far up the Strait of Juan de Fuca. By May 1 the ships were loaded with
furs and were about to sail. {59} Meanwhile, what had the Spanish
viceroy been doing? Strange that the Spaniards should look on
complaisantly while English traders from China--Meares and Hanna and
Barkley and Douglas--were taking possession of Nootka. The answer came
unexpectedly. Just as the 'Bostonnais' were sailing out for a last run
up the coast, there glided into Nootka Sound a proud ship--all sails
set, twenty cannon pointed, Spanish colours spread to the breeze. The
captain of this vessel, Don Joseph Martinez, took a look at the English
fortifications and another at the Americans. The Americans were
enemies of England. Therefore the pompous don treated them royally,
presented them with spices and wines, and allowed them to depart
unmolested. When the Americans returned from the run up coast, they
found the English fort dismantled, a Spanish fort erected on Hog Island
at the entrance of the sound, and Douglas's ship--the companion of
Meares's vessel--held captive by the Spaniard. Gray and Kendrick now
exchanged ships, and sailed for China to dispose of their cargoes of
furs and receive in exchange cargoes of tea for Boston. The whole city
of Boston welcomed the _Columbia_ home in the autumn of 1790. Fifty
thousand {60} miles she had ploughed through the seas in three years.

In June 1791 Gray was out again on