Note 64 — Chapter IX
J. V. (Jedediah Vincent) Huntington translation
The strait of Juan de Fuca, separating Washington from Vancouver Island, was named from a Greek navigator, in the Spanish service, who claimed as early as 1592 to have found a large inlet on the Northwest Coast in latitude 49°. The narrative of his voyage was published in England in 1602, but is now discredited by historians. The fact that a great strait was found near this point by the English navigator Barclay (1787), revived the old story of Juan de Fuca’s discovery, and resulted in the latter’s name being attached to the inlet. Gray’s Harbor, upon the coast of Washington, was named by Vancouver in honor of the American Captain Gray (see note 1, ante); this bay must be distinguished from Gray’s Bay, within the mouth of Columbia River.—Ed.