![]() ![]() Using Nootka Sound as a base of operations he spent the summer trading for furs along the coasts of present-day British Columbia and Washington down to after having sailed as far south as Cape Lookout, having missed the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment. They sailed from China on 22 January 1788 and arrived at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island in May. The names are spelled in various ways, such as Feliz Aventureira and Efigenia Nubiana. The ships sailed under the Portuguese flag and were given Portuguese names: the Felice Adventurero, captained by Meares, and the Iphigenia Nubiana, under William Douglas. In 1788, and in total violation of what he had told Dixon, Meares started a new expedition with two vessels and more false papers. The launch of the North West America at Nootka Sound, 1788 Showing no gratitude to Dixon, Meares proceeded to sue him for allegedly overcharging him for the supplies that saved his life. Meares gave Dixon his bond never to trade in the Northwest again, and returned to China by way of the Sandwich Islands. Twenty-three of his men died of scurvy and the remaining ten were saved only by the timely arrival of Captain George Dixon, a British trader with proper licences, in the Queen Charlotte. He spent the winter of 1786–1787 in Prince William Sound with poor provisions his men suffered from the weather and scurvy. He sailed from Calcutta on 12 March 1786, in the Nootka, a vessel of 200 tons ( bm), with which he explored part of the coast of Alaska. ![]() Non-British ships were not required to have licences from the East India Company. Meares registered his ships in Macau, a Portuguese colony in China. Meares did not license his ships with the East India Company and instead tried to conceal the illegal activity by using the flag of Portugal. The East India Company held a monopoly on British trade in the Pacific and required all British traders to be licensed with the company and pay duties. In 1783 he joined the merchant service and in 1785, based in India, formed the Northwest America Company for collecting sea otter furs by trade with the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and selling them in China. In 1771, Meares joined the Royal Navy as a captain's servant and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1778. ![]() Meares' father was Charles Meares, "formerly an attorney of great eminence, and for several years pursuivant of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer in Dublin". 1756 – 1809) was an English navigator, explorer, and maritime fur trader, best known for his role in the Nootka Crisis, which brought Britain and Spain to the brink of war. Among those who followed was George VANCOUVER, who had sailed with Cook on his second and third voyages.John Meares (c. He was killed in the Sandwich Islands in an altercation with the local people.Ĭook was not the first to explore the NORTHWEST COAST, but he and his men were the first to reveal its attractions, particularly the FUR TRADE. He departed 26 April 1778 and sailed into Bering Strait in search of the passage, retreating in the face of a wall of ice. His men repaired his ships and carried on a lucrative trade with the Nootka for otter pelts. He sailed east across the Pacific and anchored in NOOTKA SOUND, on Vancouver Island (29 March 1778). In July 1776 he began a third voyage, to search for a NORTHWEST PASSAGE. He was a painstaking surveyor, and was chiefly responsible 1763-67 for mapping the intricate and treacherous coast of Newfoundland, which England acquired at the end of the war he had charted part of its east shore in 1762, including St John's harbour.Ĭook revolutionized Europe's knowledge of the South Pacific in his great circumnavigations 1768-75. He charted part of Gaspé and helped prepare the map that enabled James WOLFE's armada to navigate the St Lawrence River. The greatest navigator of his era, he served as master of the Pembroke at the siege of LOUISBOURG (1758) during the SEVEN YEARS' WAR. James Cook, explorer (b near Marton, Eng d at Kealakekua Bay, Sandwich Is ).
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