Why did Captain George Vancouver come to the Pacific Northwest?
• To meet with the Spanish commissioner Bodega y Quadra at Nootka on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Spain and Britain had been involved in a territorial dispute that resulted in the Nootka Convention, signed by both countries in the fall of 1790. Vancouver was to settle the damage claims from that agreement. • To make a detailed survey of the coast from California to Alaska. Captain Cooks voyage in 1778 had resulted in scanty surveying and thus inadequate charts. • To determine whether there was a Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. Why is George Vancouver famous? Most people know of George Vancouver because of the city and island named after him. But Vancouver is more famous for the charts he produced of the Pacific Northwest. These detailed charts were the result of an astonishing survey of much of the 27,000 km of coastline in British Columbia. This coastline is an intricate and complex network of inlets and islets, much of it too dangerous for Vancouvers
