Movement on the Pacific
The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection includes rare publications from the 18th and 19th centuries that feature maps, illustrations, and narratives recorded in multiple languages.
Although the names of European and American people dominate the colonial histories of this era, their first-hand accounts also document a diversity of early visitors and settlers along the Pacific Northwest Coast, including sailors from Asia, Africa, and Polynesia.
English fur trader John Meares, for instance, documented his journey to Yuquot (also known as Nootka), an important centre for trading and whaling in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory on the west coast of Vancouver Island. When Meares arrived in Yuquot in 1788, his crew included approximately 50 Chinese men from Guangdong (Canton) who worked as smiths and carpenters. The Chinese artisans helped build a fur-trading post and the first non-Indigenous boat on the Northwest Coast, the North West America. On this same journey was Comekela, brother of Chief Maquinna of the Mowachaht people. Comekela was returning home after spending a year in Macau. These stories, among others, shed light on the many cultures that were connected by travel and trade throughout the Pacific Rim.