Second Voyage of the Columbia We have already wrote you by two opportunitys, the one via Lisbon the other Bristol, requesting you to send the Ship Columbia's Grand Chop to Canton, as soon as possible, because it will be a saving of a great part of the duties, which are very high there.— The Gentlemen Officers are well & desire there best respects to you & the other Gentlemen, with whom join, Sir, your & their most devoted and much obliged humble Servants Robert Gray John Hoskins Sir : will you be so good as to let my mother know I am hearty & well ! Yrs J. Hoskins Joseph Barrell Esq r . Ship Columbia N W Coast of America Lattitude 55° 0' North 15 August 1791 Sir We arrived safe on this Coast the 4th June last. We have done every thing that was possible for the Concern'd. This night at 12 o'Clock we spoke the Brig Hancock Capt Crowell from Boston and were much disappointed at receiving no letters from you. 7 Mr Hatch the chief mate has promis'd to deliver this. We three days ago met with an unfortunate accident, our second mate Joshua Caswell of Maiden, and two of our seamen were massacreed by the natives of this place (the seamen's names were Jo. Burns & John Folger) at a short distance from the Ship in the Jolly boat. 8 We got the boat and the body of Mr 7 See Boit's Journal in xxii Oregon Historical Quarterly, p. 286. In his Narrative Hoskins also records his disappointment, especially as the Hancock had sailed from Boston a month or six weeks later than the Columbia. , , . . n . , T , . s The details of this massacre are to be found in Boits Journal in volume xxii of this Quarterly, pp. 284-5.
