282 F. W. HOWAY
the Sandwich Islands and Canton. I informed him that he might do so, but on condition that he always carry an official Spanish passport, as he said he expected to do, and under the further condition that he should buy on my account in Macao two altar ornaments for the mass, and seven pairs of boots for the officers of the San Carlos and of my own ship. However, I believe that none of this will be done." Some may think that the Spanish letter which he carried may account for this immunity; but it must be remembered that Don Bias Gonzales, the Spanish commandante at Juan Fernandez, was dismissed in disgrace for his failure to seize the Columbia there, the ambassador's letter to the contrary notwithstanding. 11 This friendship or good feeling was cemented by the entry of his eldest son John Kendrick Jr. into the Spanish service on the Princesa, as will appear later.
At Clayoquot Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, on 30th July 1789 Kendrick handed over the com- mand of the Columbia to Gray and himself took charge of the sloop Washington.
Why Kendrick exchanged vessels with Gray is not clear. Being the commander of the expedition, the proposition probably emanated from him. No records extant, so far as my search has gone, throw any certain light upon the question, nor afford any really satisfactory assistance in determining whether the transfer was in- tended as a mere temporary expedient or to be, what it afterwards became, a permanent arrangement. Hoskins, his friend, only says that Kendrick "thought best to change and to send Captain Gray on to Canton with the Columbia." He records the views of the officers as being suspicious of Kendrick's intentions, and adds that "on his arrival in China (Kendrick) was deprived of his largest vessel." 12 The expression is ambiguous, not in- dicating whether the deprivation was by Gray's conduct
11 Greenhow's History of Oregon, 1844, pp. 180, 184.
12 Hoskins' Narrative MS., pp. 8, 9.
