Page:The Northwest Coast; Or, Three Years' Residence In Washington Territory.djvu/37

 near the shoals, in order to discover if there was any channel, but the weather was so cloudy, and. altogether had so unsettled an appearance, that we were discouraged from executing such a design. Nothing, therefore, was left to us but to coast it along the shore and endeavor to find some place where the ship might be brought to a secure anchorage.

" On the morning of the sixth, the wind blew from the north, with a strong, heavy sea. At half past ten, being within three leagues of Cape Shoal-water, we had a perfect view of it, and with the glasses we traced the line of coast to the southward, which presented no opening that promised any thing like a harbor. A high, bluff promontory bore off us southeast at the distance of only four leagues, for which we steered to double, with the hope that between it and Cape Shoal-water we should find some sort of a harbor.

" We gave the name of Cape Disappointment to the promontory."

Meares having failed to discover the Columbia, or, as it was then called by Heceta, the San Roque, steered for the north, and entered Fuca Straits, and being anxious to procure some farther information and knowledge of the people of Shoal-water Bay, he fitted out his long- boat, and manned her with thirteen of his men, with provisions for one month, intending to send her down to the Bay ; but the boat was attacked while in the strait by the Indians, and the project abandoned.

Vancouver writes that in 1792, "after leaving Cape Disappointment, we made Cape Shoal-water, and endeavored to enter Shoal-water Bay ; but considering, from the appearance of the breakers, that the harbor was inaccessible to the ship, and having a fair wind, we sailed on to the northward."

Although Shoal-water Bay is laid down on the charts