to make an accurate survey of the coast, and
to collect all possible information. The officer
charged with that expedition was Captain
George Vancouver, a brave and generous
sailor, whose whole life, from his thirteenth
year, was spent in the naval service of his
country, except only one period of fifteen
months and the last three years of shattered
health, during which he compiled the narrative
of his discoveries. He did not live to see
the narrative in print. Vancouver began
service under Captain Cook with a voyage
round the world; he served in Lord Rodney's
fleet in the West Indies, and came from a
West Indian station to perform the service
at Nootka Sound, to which he had been
recommended by his association with the
voyages of Captain Cook and by his
high naval character. He died, a post-
captain, two years before the end of the last
century.

Along a high coast, bordered by detached
rocky islets and sunken rocks, Vancouver
passed, during thick rainy weather, to the
entrance of De Fuca Straits. Thousands of
detached rocks of every shape bordered the
coast. Eight miles within the strait
Vancouver saw upon each side shores moderately
high. On the southern shore beaches of sand
or stones ran under low sandy cliffs, from
whose summit the land still swelled upwards,
covered with pine-forest, until it came to a
range of craggy mountains capped with snow
that rose abruptly from the woodland, and
had but a few trees on their sterile sides. The
northern shore rose by a gentler ascent
towards a compacter range of mountains
infinitely more uniform and much less covered
with snow. The sea was smooth, and the
sky clear, the wind rose and sped the vessel
on. High land rose from the horizon. A
long, low sandy point projected from cliffy
shores into the sea; behind this there
appeared to be a sheltered bay, and at about the
same time a very high and craggy mountain
was seen towering above the clouds. As low
down as they allowed it to be visible it was
covered with snow; and south of it was a long
ridge of very rugged snowy mountains, much
less elevated, stretching away into the
distance. A new region was before the explorers.
It was then that Englishmen first saw the
rocks of the gold country that—with aid of
many advantages in position, climate, and
soil—may rise Vancouver's Island to a first
rank among colonies.

At this stage of his voyage, on a May-day
morning, "of the most delightfully pleasant
weather," a party landed with Captain
Vancouver on an island across the straits, and
nearly opposite the site of our new colonial
capital, where, on ascending its eminence, the
Captain writes: "Our attention was immediately
called to a landscape, almost as enchantingly
beautiful as the most elegantly finished
pleasure-grounds in Europe. The summit of
this island presented nearly a horizontal
surface, interspersed with some inequalities of
ground, which produced a beautiful variety on
an extensive lawn covered with luxuriant
grass, and diversified with an abundance of
flowers. To the north-westward was a coppice
of pine-trees and shrubs of various sorts, that
seemed as if it had been planted for the sole
purpose of protecting from the north-west
winds this delightful meadow, over which
were promiscuously scattered a few clumps of
trees, that would have puzzled a most
ingenious designer of pleasure-grounds to
have arranged more agreeably. While we
stopped to contemplate these several beauties
of nature, in a prospect no less pleasing than
unexpected, we gathered some gooseberries
and roses in a state of considerable
forwardness."

Presently the explorers ascertained that
this island protected "one of the finest
harbours in the world," and that, on the shores
of the harbour was an excellent stream of
fine water. Captain Vancouver's enthusiasm
grew as he proceeded. He was simply
recording his impressions; there was no
thought in his mind of the swarm of industrious
Englishmen that hereafter might settle in
those places. On the day following, fine
weather and a smooth sea again enhanced the
beauty of the scenery. As he could not
conceive that the land had been adorned
by the hand of man, the Captain "could not
possibly believe that any uncultivated country
had ever been discovered exhibiting so rich a
picture." "A picture so pleasing," he adds,
presently, "could not fail to call to our
remembrance certain delightful and beloved
situations in Old England." He found, in
luxuriant growth, strawberries, roses,
sweetbriar, gooseberries, raspberries, and currants.
They pursued their way, exploring inlets, and
discovering more ports. Of man, they saw
trace in two poles on a sandy spit, about
fifteen feet high and rudely carved. On the
top of each was stuck a human head, recently
placed there.

Having explored carefully this part of the
coast of the mainland, Vancouver kept the
king's birthday, the fourth of June, by taking
formal possession of the soil and of the islands
in the strait, giving to the region the name of
New Georgia. Resuming, then, their search,
the English explorers ran up several blind
channels until they found a way into the gulf,
named by them the Gulf of Georgia, which
parts Vancouver's Island from the continent,
and there met with two Spanish schooners,
under Lieutenants Galiano and Valdes, which,
departing from Nootka, had advanced thus
far along the northern shore of the strait, and
had lost no time in exact definition of the
coast line. Neither Englishman nor Spaniards,
therefore, could claim the sole honour of
determining the insular character of the
great district two hundred and seventy-six
miles long, by fifty or sixty broad, to which,
after they had finished the exploration together