Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/34

 the chance of finding the passage would be doubled by searching from both oceans simultaneously.

Captain Cook was commissioned to make the attempt from the west. His instructions were issued July 6 and he sailed on July 12, 1776.

Cook's instructions. After making certain researches in the South Pacific, his orders were to run to the coast of "New Albion" in about latitude 45°, thence to proceed northward to 65°, and endeavour to find a way from Bering's Strait into the Atlantic.

Cook discovers the Sandwich Islands. After spending eighteen months in southern waters, Cook sailed northward and in January, 1778, discovered a group of islands on which he bestowed the name of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich.

Two months later he came in sight of the Oregon coast in about latitude 44°. He first ran a couple of degrees southward and then up the coast to about 47° where he began a careful search for a strait which maritime tradition declared had once been found in that latitude by a Greek pilot named Juan de Fuca. Cook convinced himself that the story of Juan de Fuca's voyage from the Pacific to the Atlantic was a myth, like so many other sailors' tales.

Limits of Cook's discoveries. About latitude 49° Cook entered the harbour named San Lorenzo by Perez — Nootka Sound. There the Indians crowded about