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[Page 3]
with their spears & would certainly have massacred every man in the boat had the Launch who was in company & at this time a little astern, not arrived time enough to prevent the impending catastrophe, by a volley of Musketry which killed several of the Natives & soon dispersed the rest.
As we were then upwards of a hundred miles from the Vessels it was a fortunate circumstance for the wounded men that I happened to be in the Launch myself to give them timely assistance by which they have since happily recovered.
After we came out to sea in the Vessels we traced the coast in our way to the Southward on the out side of Queen Charlotte's Isles and touched at Nootka where the Spaniards still keep possession & have it stronger guarded than any settlement we have yet seen in California - from thence after a stay only of three days we came to the Southward and entered the Port of San Francisco on the 20th of October where we were put under such restrictions with respect to our communications with the shore that we made but a short stay, when we left it, & came to Monterrey, where the Governor general of the Province resides, & where some letter passed on the subject between him, & Capt Vancouver by which, we were given to understand, that we could not refit, & carry on our operations in any Port in this country, but under such restrictions as could not be accepted of with any degree of satisfaction; we therefore left Monterrey abruptly & continued our survey of the coast to this place, where we arrived on the 27th Novr with expectations of finding some despatches from England