Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/36



Cook's men discover the world's best fur market. The voyage of Captain Cook had one resuh which neither he nor his government had foreseen. At several points along the northwest coast and the Alaska coast, particularly at Nootka Sound and at Cook's Inlet, the natives crowded around the ships to exchange sea-otter skins and other furs for such baubles as the sailors cared to part with. The white men wanted the skins for clothing and bedding, to make their voyage more comfortable, no one suspecting that their value was more than nominal. But when the exploring squadron touched at Canton, on the south coast of China, merchants came on board to bargain for these furs. The prices offered went up day by day until at last the men were selling the remains of their otter-skin garments and a few unused furs for sums that seemed ahnost fabulous. "Skins which did not cost the purchaser sixpence sterling," writes one of the men, "sold for one hundred dollars." The excitement on shipboard was intense. The crew wished to return at once, secure a cargo of furs on the northwest coast, and make their fortunes. When the officers refused, they