Colonial Despatches

Traders such as James Charles Stuart Strange were inspired to form expeditions of their own after Captain King published the report of Captain Cook's third Northwest Coast trading expedition in 1784.1 Strange was tempted by the seemingly effortless and lucrative business, and he enlisted the help of David Scott, an independent merchant in India.2

Strange and Scott fitted two ships, Captain Cook and Experiment, and sailed out of India for the northwest Pacific coast in 1785; their journey was ill-fated.3

They were unable to purchase many of the goods that they had intended to sell, the Experiment was holed and needed to stop for repairs, and many of the crew members came down with scurvy.4 Strange fell far behind schedule, and did not arrive in Nootka Sound until June of 1786.5

Strange had arrived too late in the season to acquire many furs, and he soon realized that he was working with wise and seasoned traders who would not easily part with their pelts.6 The expedition, clearly a financial failure, also failed to contribute much in the way of exploration or knowledge.7

Strange eventually retired to Scotland, where he died in 1840.8

• 1. Robin A. Fisher, Strange, James Charles Stuart, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
• 2. Barry M. Gough, Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809 (Canada: University of British Columbia, 1980), 57.
• 3. Robin A. Fisher, Strange, James Charles Stuart, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.
• 6. Ibid.
• 7. Barry M. Gough, Distant Dominion: Britain and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1579-1809 (Canada: University of British Columbia, 1980), 58.
• 8. Robin A. Fisher, Strange, James Charles Stuart, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.