But the Viceroy was not impressed with the value of the old man’s report, and paid him nothing for it. Disgusted with the government and all belonging to it, he worked his way back to the Mediterranean, and we next meet with him as a pilot on the Adriatic.
Master Locke at once wrote to Sir Walter Raleigh, Master Hakluyt, and to Lord Cecil, asking for 100_l._ to bring over the mariner who possessed such a knowledge of the north-west coast. All thought the information invaluable, but no one felt disposed to pay the money. Time wore on; the old storm-worn pilot, growing feeble, left for his native island. Locke again and again urged his request. At last the long-coveted means came, but too late, the old sailor was no more.
This strange story was current in England long after he who told it was dead and forgotten. A few believed it, but the many thought it an entire fabrication.
In 1776, Captain Cook missed the entrance to the Straits, and, mistaking the west side of Vancouver Island for the mainland, reported the story to be a fiction as told by the old sailor. It will suffice for explanation to skip a crowd of events, and take up the narrative of the discovery of the island in 1792, when Captain Vancouver was sent to Nootka Sound, for what purpose does not matter now. Coasting southwards, he entered the Straits, and eventually came out at Queen Charlotte Sound: which settled the question. The Island bears the name of its discoverer (Vancouver Island), the Straits that of the old sailor (Juan de Fuca).
By the treaty of Washington, the 49th pl. of lat. N. was to be the recognised _Boundary Line_, the course through the sea to be the centre of the Gulf of Georgia, and thence southward through the _Channel_ which separates the continent from Vancouver Island, to the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
The duties of our Commission were to mark the Boundary line from the coast to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains.
Victoria—The Salmon: its haunts and habits 36
The Round-fish, Herrings, and Viviparous Fish 97
Sticklebacks and their Nests—The Bullhead—The Rock-cod—The Chirus—Flatfish 121
Halibut Fishing—Dogfish—A Trip to Fort Rupert—Ransoming a Slave—A Promenade with a Redskin—Bagging a Chief’s Head—Queen Charlotte’s Islanders at Nanaimo 142