No. 63.
Extract from the Instructions to Commander George Vancouver, by the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain and Ireland, &c.
[Vancouver’s Voyage, I. Introduction, page XXII.]
The particular course of the survey must depend on the difterent cir cumstances which may arise in the execution of a service of this nature; it is, however, proper that you should, and you are therefore hereby required and directed to pay a particular attention to the examination of the supposed Straits of Juan de Fuca, said to be situated between 48° and 49° north latitude, and *to lead an opening through which the sloop Washington is reported to have passed in 1789, and to have come out again to the northward of Nootka. The discovery of a near communication between any such sea or strait, and any river running into or from the lake of the Woods, would be particularly useful.Vanconver followed the lead of Americans. His instructions.[102]
If you should fail of discovering any such inlet, as is above mentioned, to the southward of Cook’s river, there is the greatest probability that it will be found that the said river rises in some of the lakes already known to the Canadian traders, and to the servants of the Hudson’s bay company; which point it would, in that case, be material to ascertain; and you are, therefore, to endeavor to ascertain accordingly, with as much precision as the circumstances existing at the time may allow; but the discovery of any similar communication more to the southward (should any such exist) would be much more advantageous for the purposes of commerce, and should, therefore, be preferably attended to, and you are, therefore, to give it a preferable attention accordingly.