Convention. The vessels continued their journey
northward and entered Queen Charlotte Sound in August. Then, steering
into the open sea, Vancouver sailed for Nootka to meet Spain's official
messenger. He had circumnavigated Vancouver Island.

[Illustration: Callicum and Maquinna, Chiefs of Nootka Sound. From
Meares's _Voyages_.]

The Nootka controversy had almost caused a European war. Now it ended
in what has a resemblance to a comic opera. Vancouver found the
Spaniards occupying a fort on an island at the mouth of the harbour.
On the main shore stood the Indian village of Chief Maquinna. A
Spanish pilot guided the English ship to mooring. The Spanish frigates
fairly bristled with cannon. An English officer dressed in regimentals
marched to the Spanish fort and presented Captain Vancouver's
compliments to Don Quadra. Spanish cannon thundered a welcome that
shook the hills, and English guns made answer. A curious fashion, to
waste good powder {69} without taking aim at each other, thought Chief
Maquinna. Don Quadra breakfasted Captain Vancouver. Captain Vancouver
wined and dined Don Quadra; and Maquinna, lord of the wilds, attended
the feast dressed Indian fashion. But when the Spanish don and the
English officer took breath from flow of compliments and wine, they did
not seem to arrive anywhere in their negotiations. Vancouver held that
Spain must relinquish the site of Meares's fort and the territory
surrounding it and Port Cox. Don Quadra held that he had been
instructed to relinquish only the land on which the fort
stood--according to Vancouver, 'but little more than one hundred yards
in extent any way.' No understanding could be arrived at, and Quadra
at the end of September took his departure for Monterey, leaving
Vancouver to follow a few days later.

Vancouver was anxious to be off on further exploration. He was eager
to verify the existence of the river which Gray had reported. He spent
most of October exploring this river. Explorers in that day, as in
this, were not fair judges of each other's feats. Vancouver took
possession of the Columbia river region for England, setting down in
his narrative that {70} 'no other civilized nation or state had ever
entered this river before ... it does not appear that Mr Gray either
saw or was ever within five leagues of the entrance.'

Vancouver then visited the presidio at San Francisco, and thence
proceeded to Monterey, where Quadra awaited him.