"She will make a good prize," was his sententious remark to Gray about the English ship.
Rounding northward, Gray met the companion ship of the Spanish commander. It will be remembered Cook missed proving that the west coast was a chain of islands. Since Cook's time, Barclay, an Englishman, and Meares had been in the Straits of Fuca. Dixon had discovered Queen Charlotte Island; but { 228} the cruising of the little sloop, _Lady Washington_, covered a greater area than Meares's, Barclay's and Dixon's ships together. First it rounded the north end of Vancouver, proving this was island, not continent. These northern waters Gray called Derby Sound, after the outfitter. He then passed up between Queen Charlotte Island and the continent for two hundred miles, calling this island Washington. It was northward of Portland Canal, somewhere near what is now Wrangel, that the brave little sloop was caught in a terrific gale that raged over her for two hours, damaging masts and timbers so that Gray was compelled to turn back from what he called Distress Cove, for repairs at Nootka. At one point off Prince of Wales Island, the Indians willingly traded two hundred otter skins, worth eight thousand dollars, for an old iron chisel.
In the second week of June the sloop was back at Nootka, where Gray was not a little surprised to find the Spanish had erected a fort on Hog Island, seized Douglas's vessel, and only released her on condition that the little fur trader _Northwest-America_ should become Spanish property on entering Nootka.
Gray and Kendrick now exchanged ships, Gray, who had proved himself the swifter navigator, going on the _Columbia_, taking Haswell with him as mate. In return for one hundred otter skins, Gray was to carry the captured crew of the _Northwest-America_ to China for the Spaniards. On July 30, 1789, he left Vancouver Island. Stop was made at Hawaii for { 229} provisions, and Atto, the son of a chief, boarded the _Columbia_ to visit America. On December 6 the _Columbia_ delivered her cargo of furs to Shaw & Randall of Canton, receiving in exchange tea for Samuel Parkman, of Boston. It was February, 1790, before the Columbia was ready to sail for Boston, and dropping down the river she passed the _Lady Washington_, under Kendrick, in a cove where the gale hid her from Gray.
