Robert Gray (sea Captain) - Return To Pacific Northwest Coast, 1790-1793

Return To Pacific Northwest Coast, 1790-1793

Gray set sail for the northwest coast again in the Columbia on September 28, 1790, reaching his destination in 1792. Gray and Kendrick rejoined each other for a time, after Gray's return to the region. On this voyage Gray, though he was still a private merchant, was sailing under papers of the United States of America signed by President George Washington. Gray put in at Nootka Sound on June 5, 1791, and wintered at a stockade they built and named Fort Defiance. Over this winter the crew built a 45-ton sloop named Adventure, which was launched in the spring with Gray’s first mate, Robert Haswell, in charge. He sailed as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands during this voyage.

Once April came Gray and the Columbia sailed south while the Adventure sailed north. After wintering on Vancouver Island, Gray set sail again on April 2, 1792 when he left the trading post of Clayoquot. As he departed Gray ordered the destruction of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) village of Opitsitah (Opitsaht). The attack was a retaliation for insults he thought he had endured and in response to rumors of a plot against his men conceived by some local natives and a Sandwich Islander of his own crew. The plot may have been real, but might have been a misunderstanding. The village of Opitsaht which consisted of about 200 houses with much carved work—a "fine village, the Work of Ages", according to Gray's officer John Boit, which was "in a short time totally destroy'd". Fortunately, it was deserted at the time. John Boit, the keeper of his own ship's log wrote that Gray had let his passions go too far. In 2005, descendants of Gray formally apologized for the destruction of Opitsaht. Gray ordered several other attacks during the 1792 voyage. In May 1792 Gray ordered an attack on a Chicklisaht Nuu-chah-nulth village in Esperanza Inlet or Nasparti Inlet north of Nootka Sound, killing seven and seizing the natives' sea otter furs. The Chicklisaht took their wounded to the Spanish post at Nootka Sound and asked the commandant, Bodega y Quadra, to punish Gray. This attack came after a breakdown in trading negotiations. The price of sea otter furs had increased dramatically since the late 1780s. Gray was one of a number of captains who decided to use force to acquire furs. Later in 1792, in Grays Harbor, Captain Gray fired on a group of Chinooks, killing twenty. Still later, in Clayoquot Sound again, Gray killed or wounded at least 25 natives who were approaching his ship in a war canoe during the night. He battled a group of Kwakiutls in late 1792.

During his 1792 journey aboard the Columbia Rediviva Gray noticed muddy waters flowing from shore and decided to investigate whether he might have encountered the "Great River of the West." While waiting for favorable weather, on April 29 Gray spotted a ship and exchanged greetings with her. This ship was the HMS Discovery commanded by British Naval officer Captain George Vancouver. The two captains met and discussed the geography of the coastlines: Gray told Vancouver about the large river he had attempted to enter in 1788, but Vancouver doubted there was a large river at that latitude. So Gray continued south, leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca on April 30, 1792, trading for more pelts as the ship sailed. On May 7, he took the Columbia into the estuarine bay of Grays Harbor, Washington. (Gray himself actually named this Bullfinch Harbor, but Vancouver's after-the-fact choice was the name that stuck.)