The entry in Meares' log-book is as follows: "July 6, lat. 46° 10'; long. 235° 24'; northerly; strong gales, a great sea. Passed Cape Disappointment, _into Deception Bay_, and hauled out again, and passed Quicksand Bay, Cape Grenville, and Cape Look-out."
There is, therefore, nothing strange in the view which the British Commissioners really insisted upon, though it is strange that Mr. Greenhow should have misconstrued their statement, particularly as, in a paragraph almost immediately following, which will be referred to in full in its proper place, they readily admit that Mr. Gray, four years afterwards, "was the first to ascertain that this bay formed the outlet of a great river."
The further examination of these coasts by British subjects was suspended for a short time, as already seen, by the interference of the Spanish authorities. After, however, that Spain had definitively abandoned her pretensions to exclusive rights along the entire northwest coast of America, as far as Prince William's Sound, and agreed, by the third article of the Convention of 1790, that occupation should be the test of territorial title, the British Government judged it expedient "to ascertain with as much precision as possible the number, extent, and situation of any settlement which had been made within the limits of 60° and 30° north latitude by any European nation, and the time when such settlement was made. With this object, amongst others more immediately connected with the execution of the first article of the Convention, Captain George Vancouver was despatched from Deptford with two vessels on January 6, 1791, and having wintered at the Sandwich Islands, where he was instructed to wait for further orders in reference to the restoration of the buildings and tracts of land, of which British subjects had been dispossessed at Nootka, he arrived off the coast of America on April 17, 1792, in about 39° 30'. He had received special instructions to ascertain the direction and extent of all such considerable inlets, whether made by arms of the sea, or by the mouths of great rivers, which might be likely to lead to, or facilitate in any considerable degree, an intercourse, for the purposes of commerce, between the northwest coast and the country upon the opposite side of the continent, which are inhabited or occupied by his Majesty's subjects;" but he was expressly required and directed "not to pursue any inlet or river further than it should appear to be navigable by vessels of such burden as might safely navigate the Pacific Ocean." (Introduction to Vancouver's Voyage, p. xix.)