ion in the waters of the north Pacific ocean, and his name was once
linked with that of the English Commander on the island now bearing the
name of Vancouver. Quadra came from the Mexican port of San Blas, and
after many thrilling adventures and grievous hardships he sailed into a
broad bay and dropped anchor. There was a mountain, of which he says:
"Of the most regular and beautiful form I had ever seen. It was also
quite detached from the great ridge of mountains. Its top was covered
with snow, under which appeared some gullies, which continue till about
the middle of the mountain, and from thence to the bottom are trees of
the same kind as those at Trinity."

[Illustration: Mount Edgecumbe.]

He named the mountain _San Jacinthus_, and the point of the island
that extends out toward the sea, Cape _del Engano_. No one who has
looked upon the slopes of the mountain which stands to the seaward from
Sitka can mistake the description. He anchored in what is now known as
Krestof Bay, about six miles northwest from Sitka, and he called it Port
_Guadalupe_.

Captain Cook, on his Third Voyage of Exploration, in 1778, with the
ships "Resolution" and "Discovery," passed along the coast and noted the
bay, of which he says: "An arm of this bay, in the northern part of it,
seemed to extend in toward the north, behind a round elevated mountain I
called Mount Edgecumbe, and the point of land that shoots out from it
Cape Edgecumbe." This name supplanted the one given by the Spaniard and
the beautiful cone is yet known by the title he bestowed.

The early Russians called the mountain St. Lazaria, assuming that it was
the peak seen by Chirikof on his ill fated voyage of discovery and so
named by him. The small island at the south is still known as San
Lazaria Island.

Captain Dixon, of H. M. S. "Queen Charlotte," came during the summer of
1787, on a fur trading voyage. Dixon had just departed from the harbor
when Captain Portlock, of the English ship "King George," which was
lying in Portlock Harbor, to the northward in Chichagoff Island, sent
his ship's boat through the passage behind Kruzof Island to about the
present site of Sitka, and made the discovery for the civilized world
that Mount Edgecumbe is on an island.

CHAPTER II

SETTLEMENT

The sea-otter, a marine animal about four feet in length when fully
grown, with soft, long black pelage of silky texture, is one of the most
valued of the fur-bearers. It was foun