The furs which Cook's sailors obtained from the natives of Nootka, in exchange for knives, buttons and other trifles, were sold at Canton, China, for more than ten thousand dollars. This was the beginning of a trade between Nootka and Canton, which, during the next decade, was the means of bringing many British vessels to the North-west Coast. It is instructive to remember that, at the very time when the American colonies were throwing off their allegiance, Cook was quietly exploring the North-west Coast, in the interests of peaceful expansion, which, in the end, was to inure to the benefit of those colonies. FOOTNOTES [1] CONQUEST OF CANADA was the result of the Seven Years' War in Europe. Nearly all the powers were involved in it. When peace was made, all that France held east of the Mississippi River, under the names Louisiana or Canada, except New Orleans, was given up to England. New Orleans, with all that France claimed west of the Mississippi, had already (1762) been privately ceded by France to Spain. [2] JAMES COOK entered the navy as a cabin boy. He stood at the head of English navigators since Drake. The government kept his discoveries secret till after the close of the war. To their honor, all the belligerents gave orders that he should not be molested by their forces. [3] HER CLAIM TO SOVEREIGNTY. It was known in England, before Cook sailed, that Spanish navigators were again working their way up the coast. (See voyages of Juan Perez 1774, Bruno Hector and Bodega 1775, in Bancroft.) The Spaniards knew the value of the fur seal in commerce. [4] SANDWICH ISLANDS, so named for the Earl of Sandwich, then first lord of the Admiralty. [5] CAPE FLATTERY, on the mainland, at the south entrance to the Straits of Fuca, and landmark of those straits.