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 made no doubt, that whoever comes after me to this place,
will find the natives prepared accordingly, with no inconsiderable
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.[2]

[Footnote 2: Captain King, as we shall afterwards find, proposes a
plan for the establishment of a fur-trade with this coast of America.
To this he was incited by the experience of the value of these
articles in the Chinese market. In fact, a settlement for the purpose
of carrying on this trade was commenced in 1786, by an association of
British merchants resident in India. It was soon afterwards seized
on by the Spaniards who pretended a prior right. But they, as we have
already mentioned, vol. xv. p. 157, abandoned all claim to this Sound
in 1790; and in 1795, it was formally taken possession of, in name of
his Britannic Majesty.--E.]

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 sections.

SECTION 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 east corner of Hope Bay, in
the latitude of 49 deg. 33' N., and in the longitude of 233 deg. 12' E.
The east 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 be