personal examination, made "under the most favorable circumstances of wind and weather," to use his own language, that any such great river existed. This attempt on the part of Broughton is the more unmanly, from the fact that he actually entered the mouth of the Columbia with the aid of Gray's chart. I am disposed to acquit Vancouver, in a great degree, from all participation in the odium of this act. The account of the examination of the Columbia by Broughton, contained in "Vancouver's Journal," though in the language of the latter, is, in fact, a report made by Broughton, the commander of the party, as may be seen by reference to the "Journal," Vol. III. p. 85. Vancouver more than once recognizes Gray distinctly as the discoverer of the Columbia. At p. 388, Vol. II., he expresses the hope that he may be able, in his route to the southward, to "reëxamine the coast of New Albion, and particularly a river and a harbor discovered by Mr. Gray, in the Columbia, between the 46th and 47th degrees of north latitude, of which Señor Quadra had favored me with a sketch." At p. 393, same volume, he says he directed that " Mr. Whidbey, taking one of the Discovery's boats, should proceed in the Daedalus to examine Gray's Harbor, said to be situated in latitude 46° 53', whilst the Chatham and Discovery explored the river Mr. Gray had discovered in the latitude of 46° 10."

The explorations of Vancouver, though they resulted in a minute and critical examination of the shores of the Strait of Fuca, led to the discovery of no new territory; and it is a singular fact, that, while this naval officer of Great Britain, himself an accomplished navigator, furnished with all the means of making scientific investigations, was pursuing the examinations which were the great purpose of the expedition, Captain Gray, in a trading vessel, and in the prosecution of commercial objects alone, discovered the only two important openings, the Columbia River and Bulfinch's Harbor, on the northwest coast, from the 40th to the 48th parallel of latitude, where Vancouver, after the most critical survey, had discovered none.

It is indeed an extraordinary circumstance that the existence of all the great inlets in the coast, to which Great Britain now lays claim on the ground of discovery, was strenuously denied by the navigators in her public service, until those inlets were discovered and made known by others. We have seen what Vancouver said in relation to the coast between the 40th and 48th parallels of latitude. On the 22d of March, 1778, Captain Cook was in latitude 48° 15', inspecting the coast. The Promontory of Classet, (or Cape Flattery, as he denominated it,) the southern cape at the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, was in full view, and but a few miles distant. Hear what he says in relation to the strait:

"It is in this very latitude where we now were that geographers have placed the pretended Strait of Juan de Fuca. But we saw nothing like it; nor is there the least probability that any such thing ever existed."-Cook's Third Voyage, Vol. II. p. 263.

Now, however, Great Britain claims the whole strait and the adjoining country by Vancouver's discovery, though he himself admits (as we shall see) that the Spaniards had surveyed and mapped a portion of it before he arrived on the northwest coast.

In the letter of the British plenipotentiary, Mr. Pakenham, of the 29th of July last, the following passage will be found at p. 67, documents accompanying the President's Message:

"In 1792, Vancouver, who had been sent from England to witness the fulfilment of the above-mentioned engagement, [the restitution of buildings, &c. at Nootka, which, as has already been seen, were not to be found,] and to effect a survey of the northwest coast, departing from Nootka Sound entered the Straits of Fuca; and after an accurate survey of the coasts and inlets on both sides, discovered a passage northwards into the Pacific, by which he returned to Nootka, having thus circumnavigated the island which now bears his name. And here we have, as far as relates to Vancouver's Island, as complete a case of discovery, exploration, and settlement, as can well be presented, giving to Great Britain, in any arrangement that may be made with regard to the territory in dispute, the strongest possible claim to the exclusive possession of the island."

To repel this assumption, the grounds of which the distinguished British plenipotentiary appears not to have sufficiently investigated, Mr. Buchanan briefly referred to previous examinations by the Spaniards. I now proceed to show, by Vancouver himself, that the assumption is entirely unsustained by the facts.

In the first place, let me correct an error into which Mr. Pakenham has fallen at the outset, in saying that Vancouver, "departing from Nootka Sound," surveyed the Straits of Fuca, circumnavigated the island which bears his name, and then returned to Nootka. Sir, Vancouver had never seen Nootka Sound when he surveyed the Straits of. Fuca. He entered the straits on the 29th of April, the evening of the day he met Captain Gray, and proceeded immediately to survey them, as may be seen by his "Journal," Vol. II. pp. 40, 52. He arrived at Nootka for the first time on the 28th of August, four months afterwards (p. 334, same volume). This correction is only important as repelling the inference which might have been drawn from the fact, if it had been as stated by Mr. Pakenham, that Vancouver had been previously established at Nootka, and had departed from it, as from a regular station, on a voyage of exploration to the Straits of Fuca.

But there are more important errors to be corrected.

While Vancouver was surveying the Strait of Fuca, and the extensive inland waters connected with it, Galiano and Valdes, two Spanish officers sent out from Nootka Sound, were engaged in the same service. The two parties met on the 22d of June, about the middle of the strait, near Point Gray, above Frazer's River, and proceeded together northerly, uniting their labors, and surveying its shores to a point near the extremity of the island of Quadra and Vancouver, between the 50th and the 51st degrees of north latitude, where they separated. And here I desire to call the special attention of the Senate to the "Journal" of Vancouver, who states that Señor Galiano, who spoke a little English, in

formed him "that they had arrived at Nootka on the 11th of April, from whence they had sailed on the 5th of this month," (June,) "in order to complete the examination of this inlet, which had, in the preceding year, been partly surveyed by some Spanish officers, whose chart they produced." Observe, sir, the inlet (i. e. the Strait of Fuca), about latitude 50°, partly surveyed and mapped a year before Vancouver came on the coast. Vancouver then continues (Vol. II. p. 210):

"I cannot avoid acknowledging that, on this occasion, I experienced no small degree of mortification in finding the external shores of the gulf had been visited, and already examined a few miles beyond where my researches during the excursion had extended, making the land I had been in doubt about an island; continuing nearly in the same direction about four leagues further than had been seen by us, and by the Spaniards named Favida [Feveda]."

By turning back to p. 204, Vol. II., it will appear that Vancouver's examination terminated at 50° 6' north latitude; so that the Spaniards, before his arrival, by his own *acknowledgment, had examined the Strait of Fuca to a point north of that parallel; and by turning to p. 249, Vol. II., it will be seen that, on parting with Señor Galiano, the latter furnished him with "a copy of his survey and other particulars relative to the inlet of the sea, which contained also that part of the neighboring coast extending northwestward from the Straits of De Fuca, beyond Nootka, to the latitude of 50° 3', longitude 232° 48'."

What, then, becomes of this complete "case of discovery, exploration, and settlement," in respect to Quadra and Vancouver's Island, and the Strait of Fuca? It is proved by Vancouver himself that the Spaniards had partially surveyed and mapped the shores of the strait as high as 50° a year before he arrived on the coast. And if we turn to his "Journal," Vol. II. p. 339, it will be seen that Galiano and Valdes arrived at Nootka on the 1st of September, three days after him, by a "route through Queen Charlotte's Sound," round the northern point of the island, "to the

southward of that which we had navigated," and of course following its shores more closely than he. "The strongest possible claim to the exclusive possession of the island," to use Mr. Pakenham's language, is not, therefore, as he asserts, in Great Britain, but, as shown by Vancouver himself, it was in Spain then, and is in us now.

But, sir, I have a word to say in relation to the whole subject of Vancouver's explorations.

It would seem that the Spaniards, in the autumn of 1793, had become distrustful of Vancouver's objects in the survey of the northwest coast. At the Bay of St. Francisco, although he had everywhere before been treated with a civility by the Spaniards for which his "Journal" abounded in expressions of gratitude, he was subjected to restrictions which he denominates "unexpected, ungracious, and degrading." On his arrival at Monterey on the 1st of November, the Spanish commander, Arrillaga, declined holding any verbal communication with him, but addressed to him questions in writing as to the objects of his voyage; to which Vancouver promptly replied

"That the voyage in which we were engaged was for the general use and benefit of mankind, and that, under these circumstances, we ought rather to be considered as laboring for the good of the world in general than for the advantage of any particular sovereign, and that the Court of Spain would be more early informed, and as much benefited by my labors, as the kingdom of Great Britain."-Vol. IV. p. 309.1

1 The correspondence between Vancouver and Señor Arrillaga, as reported by the former, though too long to be inserted here, is well worth a perusal. On landing, Vancouver called on the Spanish commandant, and was preparing to state his reasons for having entered the ports under his government, when, as he says, "he [Señor Arrillaga] stopped me from proceeding further, and begged that the subject might be referred to a written correspondence, by which mode he conceived matters would be more fully explained." In the afternoon a Spanish officer went on board Vancouver's vessel, and delivered him two letters from the Spanish commandant. "The tenor of these lotters [says Vancouver] being very

different from what my conversation with Señor Arrillaga had given me reason to expect when I visited him at the Presidio, I was reduced to the necessity of sending him the next day (Saturday, the 2d) a full explanation of the objects of our voyage, and of the motives that had induced me to enter the ports under his jurisdiction." The substance of this explanation is given in the extract in the text, denying the intention of laboring "for the advantage of any particular sovereign." And it was so satisfactory that, as Vancouver says, "On Monday, the 4th, I received a letter from Señor Arrillaga in reply to my letter, in which he was pleased to compliment me upon my ingenuousness," &c.