The ships would rendezvous in Nootka Sound or, failing that, Hawaii. Meares, Douglas, and their partners had planned for Meares to sail Felice to Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island, while Douglas sailed Iphigenia to the Aleutian Islands and down the coast of North America to Nootka Sound, collecting furs along the way. Wynee became ill shortly after the ships left Macau. Kaiana, Wynee, and Comekela were aboard Felice. There was also a Nuu-chah-nulth-a native of Vancouver Island-called Comekela. The ships also carried two natives of Maui, a boy and a man who Douglas referred to as Tawnee. Also sailing with Meares and Douglas were a number of Native Hawaiians and Native Americans, including Tianna ( Kaʻiana – also spelled Tyaana & Tyanna), a chief of Kauai, who Meares had brought from Hawaii to Macau, and Wynee (or Winee), a Hawaiian girl who Charles William Barkley had brought to Macau in 1787. They became the first Chinese known to have visited the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. To assist with building and running the posts 50 Chinese men were hired and sailed with the expedition. Felice carried materials for constructing a house and a schooner, both to be built at Nootka Sound. Meares intended to establish permanent fur trading posts on the Pacific Northwest coast. įelice and Iphigenia sailed from Macau on 22 January 1788. This tactic of sailing under false colors was not uncommon at the time and was used by other British maritime fur traders such as Charles William Barkley. They sailed under the titular Portuguese command of Francisco José Viana, who pretended to be the captain of Iphigenia, while Meares pretended to be the supercargo of Felice. The ships were registered in Macau under a Portuguese merchant named João Carvalho. In order to avoid the cost of acquiring licenses from the East India Company and South Sea Company-required for British merchant ships trading across the Pacific Ocean-and to evade the high port costs China demanded of foreign ships other than those of Portugal, Meares and his partners had Felice and Iphigenia sail under the Portuguese flag. Meares described them as having bottoms sheathed with copper. įelice Adventurer was of 230 tons burthen ( bm) and Iphigenia Nubiana of 200 tons (bm). He made Douglas captain of Iphigenia and second in command of the expedition, noting in his later account that Douglas "was well acquainted with the coast of America". In 1788, in Macau, China, Meares formed a partnership of several merchants and captains, and purchased two new vessels, the snows Felice Adventurer and Iphigenia Nubiana-generally called Felice and Iphigenia. In 1791 he partnered with Captain John Kendrick in an attempt to open trade with Japan.Ĭaptain of Iphigenia Trading voyages of 1788 ĭouglas was an officer on Nootka during Meares's first fur trading voyage to the Pacific Northwest coast from 1786 to 1787. A few years later he was captain of the American ship Grace. He was involved in the Nootka Crisis of 1789, which brought Britain and Spain to the brink of war. He worked with the British trader and Captain John Meares, commanding the ship Iphigenia Nubiana. William Douglas (died 1791) was a Scottish ship captain and an oceanographer maritime fur trader during the late 18th century.
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