During the summers of 1792-4 George Vancouver and the crew of
the British naval ships Discovery and Chatham mapped the northwest
coast of North America from Baja California to Alaska. Vancouver's
voyage was the last, and the longest, of the great Pacific voyages
of the late eighteenth century. Taking the art and technique of
distant voyaging to a new level, Vancouver eliminated the
possibility of a northwest passage, and his remarkably precise
surveys completed the outline of the Pacific.
But to map an area is to appropriate it - to begin to bring it
under control - and Vancouver's charts of the northwest coast were
part of a process of economic exploitation and cultural disruption.
Although he and the other great navigators of his age exercised no
control over the ideas and enterprises spawned by their voyages,
their names have come to symbolize the consequences of European
expansion - good or bad.
"From Maps to Metaphors" grew out of the Vancouver Conference on
Exploration and Discovery, held to observe the bicentennial of
Vancouver's arrival on teh Pacific northwest coast. Its aim is to
bring to light much of the new research on the discovery of the
Pacific, as well as to illuminate the European and Native
experience. The chapters are written from a variety of perspective,
and provide new insights on many aspects of Vancouver's voyage -
from the technology Vancouver employed to the complex political and
power relationships among European explorers and the Native
leadership.
While it is no longer possible to 'celebrate' the coming of the
European explorers like Vancouver to the northwest coast, their
achievements cannot be overlooked. The charts, log books, journals,
and specimens from the voyages of Vancouver and his contemporaries
are important sources of information essential for the
reconstruction of an image of the Pacific region and its peoples in
the eighteenth century.
Robin Fisher is a historian and the former provost and vice
president academic of Mount Royal University. He is the author of
Vancouver's Voyage (1992); Contact and Conflict: Indian-European
Relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890 (UBC Press 1974, 1992);
and Duff Pattullo of British Columbia (1991), among other books.
Hugh J. M. Johnston is an historian affiliated with Simon Fraser
University. He is the author of several books including Jewels of
the Qila: The Remarkable Story of an Indo-Canadian Family (UBC
Press, 2011) and The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh
Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar (UBC Press, 1989).
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