No. 12.
Extract from Vancouver’s “Voyage,” vol. 1, page 312.
“As we were rowing, on Friday morning, [June 22, 1792,] for Point Grey, * * * we discovered two vessels at anchor under the land. * * * These vessels proved to be a detachment from the commission of Señor Melaspina, who was himself employed in the Philippine Islands; that Señor Melaspina had, the pre ceding year, visited the coast; and that these vessels, His Cath*olic Majesty’s brig the Sutil, under the command of Señor Don D. Galiano, with the schooner Mexicana, commanded by Señor Don [Page 27] C. Valdes, both captains of frigates in the Spanish navy, had sailed from Acapulco on the 8th of March, in order to prosecute discoveries on this coast. Señor Galiano, who spoke a little English, informed me that they had arrived at Nootka on the 11th of April, from whence they had sailed on the 5th of this month, 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.Spanish explorers preceded Vancouver. [14]
“I cannot avoid acknowledging that, on this occasion, I experienced no small degree of mortification in finding the external shores of the gulph had been visited and already examined a few miles beyond where my researches during the excursion had extended.” * * * *