Spanish and Russian America’ Io!

Fournal of Francisco Antonio Maurelle which was published
in 1781. Meares’ account of his Voyages came out in 1790,
and on 13 May of that year he presented his memorial to
the British Parliament in which he recited his case against
Spain, claiming the restitution of his ship, his lands and
buildings, valued by him at $650,000. He eventually received
$210,000. What particularly interested Mackenzie was the
account Meares gave of the voyage of the Washington
through an immense inland sea east of Vancouver Island,
which at that time had not been circumnavigated. This
account is prefixed to Meares’ narrative of his voyages
under the title “Observations on the Probable Existence
of a North-West Passage.” Some of the statements made
therein caused a wordy war which was waged in a series
of pamphlets between Captain Dixon and Captain Meares.
The former’s journal had been published in 1789, and he
took issue with Meares on his extravagant statements. This
controversy was familiar to Mackenzie as he refers to it
in a note.

Vancouver sailed from London in January 1791 for
Nootka as one of the commissaries appointed to carry out
the terms of the Convention.

It may be taken for granted that Mackenzie availed
himself of all the material published up to that date relating
to the North-West Coast. Although he nowhere mentions
the fact, he was probably aware that Heceta claimed to have
discovered the Rio de San Roque, in latitude 46° 20’ north.

Mackenzie’s knowledge of the trade between the North-
West Coast and China made it clear to him that it was just
as easy to send furs to China direct from the Pacific coast
as it was to send them to England from Montreal—in fact,

1 Meares asserts that the Washington “sailed through a sea extend-
ing upwards of eight degrees of latitude” east of Vancouver Island.