Every thing being now ready in the morning of the 26th, I intended to have put to sea, but both wind and tide being against us, was obliged to wait till noon, when the S. W. wind was succeeded by a calm; and the tide turning in our favour, we cast off the moorings, and with our boats towed the ships out of the cove. After this, we had variable light airs and calms till four in the afternoon, when a breeze sprung up northerly with very thick, hazy weather. The mercury in the barometer fell unusually low; and we had every other fore-runner of an approaching storm, which we had reason to expect would be from the southward; this made me hesitate a little, as night was at hand, whether I should venture to sail or wait till the next morning. But my anxious impatience to proceed upon the voyage, and the fear of losing this opportunity of getting out of the sound, making a greater impression on my mind than any apprehension of immediate danger, I determined to put to sea at all events.
Our friends, the natives, attended us till we were almost out of the sound, some on board the ships, and others in their canoes. One of their chiefs who had some time before attached himself to me, was amongst the last who left us. Having, before he went, bestowed upon him a small present, I received in return a beaver skin of much greater value. This called upon me to make some addition to my present, which pleased him so much, that he insisted upon my acceptance of the beaver skin cloak which he then wore, and of which I knew he was particularly fond. Struck with this instance of generosity, and desirous that he should be no sufferer by his friendship to me, I presented to him a new broad-sword with a brass hilt, the possession of which made him completely happy. He, and also many others of his countrymen, importuned us much to pay them another visit, and, by way of encouragement, promised to lay in a good stock of skins. I make no doubt, that whoever comes after me to this place, will find the natives prepared accordingly, with no inconsiderably supply of an article of trade, which they could observe we were eager to possess, and which we found could be purchased to great advantage.
Such particulars about the country and its inhabitants as came to our knowledge during our short stay, and have not been mentioned in the course of the narrative, will furnish materials for the two following chapters.
CHAP. II.
THE NAME OF THE SOUND, AND DIRECTIONS FOR SAILING INTO IT.—ACCOUNT OF THE ADJACENT COUNTRY.—WEATHER.—CLIMATE.—TREES.—OTHER VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS.—QUADRUPEDS, WHOSE SKINS WERE BROUGHT FOR SALE.—SEA ANIMALS.—DESCRIPTION OF A SEA OTTER.—BIRDS.—WATER-FOWL.—FISH.—SHELL-FISH, &C.—REPTILES.—INSECTS.—STONES, &C.—PERSONS OF THE INHABITANTS.—THEIR COLOUR.—COMMON DRESS AND ORNAMENTS.—OCCASIONAL DRESSES, AND MONSTROUS DECORATIONS OF WOODEN MASKS.—THEIR GENERAL DISPOSITIONS.—SONGS.—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.—THEIR EAGERNESS TO POSSESS IRON AND OTHER METALS.
On my arrival in this inlet, I had honoured it with the name of King George’s Sound; but I afterward found that it is called Nootka by the natives. The entrance is situated in the E. corner of Hope Bay, in the latitude of 49° 33ʹ N., and in the longitude of 233° 12ʹ E. The E. coast of that bay all the way from Breaker’s Point to the entrance of the sound, is covered by a chain of sunken rocks, that seemed to extend some distance from the shore, and near the Sound, are some islands and rocks above water.
We enter this sound between two rocky points that lie E. S. E., and W. N. W. from each other, distant between three and four miles. Within these points the sound widens considerably, and extends in, to the northward, four leagues at least, exclusive of the several branches toward its bottom, the termination of which we had not an opportunity to ascertain. But, from the circumstance of finding that the water freshened where our boats crossed their entrance, it is probable that they had almost reached its utmost limits. And this probability is increased by the hills that bounded it toward the land being covered with thick snow, when those toward the sea or where we lay, had not a speck remaining on them, though, in general, they were much higher. In the middle of the sound are a number of islands of various sizes; but the chart or sketch of the sound here annexed, though it has no pretensions to accuracy, will, with all its imperfections, convey a better idea of these islands, and of the figure, and the extent of the sound, than any written description. The depth of water in the middle of the sound, and even close home to some parts of its shore, is from forty-seven to ninety fathoms, and perhaps more. The harbours and anchoring-places within its circuit are numerous; but we had no time to survey them. The cove in which our ships lay is on the east side of the sound, and on the east side of the largest of the islands. It is covered from the sea, but has little else to recommend it, being exposed to the south-east winds, which we found to blow with great violence; and the devastation they make sometimes was apparent in many places.
The land bordering upon the sea-coast is of a middling height and level; but within the Sound it rises almost every where into steep hills, which agree in their general formation, ending in round or blunted tops, with some sharp, though not very prominent, ridges on their sides. Some of these hills may be reckoned high, while others of them are of a very moderate height; but even the highest are entirely covered to their tops with the thickest woods, as well as every flat part toward the sea. There are sometimes spots upon the sides of some of the hills which are bare; but they are few in comparison of the whole, though they sufficiently point out the general rocky disposition of these hills. Properly speaking, they have no soil upon them, except a kind of compost, produced from rotten mosses and trees, of the depth of two feet or more. Their foundations are, therefore, to be considered as nothing more than stupendous rocks, of a whitish or grey cast, where they have been exposed to the weather; but, when broken, they appeared to be of a blueish-grey colour, like that universal sort which were found at Kerguelen’s Land. The rocky shores are a continued mass of this; and the little coves in the Sound have breaches composed of fragments of it, with a few other pebbles. All these coves are furnished with a great quantity of fallen wood lying in them, which is carried in by the tide; and with rills of fresh water, sufficient for the use of a ship, which seem to be supplied entirely from the rains and fogs that hover about the tops of the hills. For few springs can be expected in so rocky a country, and the fresh water found farther up the Sound most probably arose from the melting of the snow; there being no room to suspect that any large river falls into the Sound, either from strangers coming down it, or from any other circumstance. The water of these rills is perfectly clear, and dissolves soap easily.
The weather, during our stay, corresponded pretty nearly with that which we had experienced off the coast. That is, when the wind was any where between north and west, the weather was fine and clear; but if to the southward of west, hazy with rain. The climate, as far as we had any experience of it, is infinitely milder than that on the east coast of America, under the same parallel of latitude. The mercury in the thermometer never, even in the night, fell lower than 42°; and very often, in the day, it rose to 60°. No such thing as frost was perceived in any of the low ground; on the contrary, vegetation had made a considerable progress; for I met with grass that was already above a foot long.
The trees which chiefly compose the woods, are the Canadian pine, white cypress, cypressus thyoides, the wild pine, with two or three other sorts of pine less common. The first two make up almost two thirds of the whole; and, at a distance, might be mistaken for the same tree, as they both run up into pointed spire-like tops; but they are easily distinguished on coming nearer, from their colour, the cypress being of a much paler green, or shade, than the other. The trees, in general, grow with great vigour, and are all of a large size.