The modern discovery of that inlet is due to Captain Barclay, an Englishman, commanding the Imperial Eagle, a vessel owned by British merchants, but which was equipped at, and took its departure from Ostend, and which sailed under the flag of the Austrian East India Company. The British Government, which has objected to the American claim derived from Captain Gray's discovery of the mouth of the river Columbia, on the ground that he was a private individual, and that his vessel was not a public ship, cannot certainly claim anything in virtue of a discovery by a private Englishman, sailing under Austrian colors. In that case, and rejecting Fuca's voyage, neither the United States nor England can lay any claim on account of the discovery of the straits. Subsequently, the Englishman, Meares, sailing under the Portuguese flag, penetrated, in 1768, about ten miles into the inlet, and the American, Gray, in 1789, about fifty miles. The pretended voyage of the sloop Washington throughout the straits, under the command of either Gray or Kendrick, has no other foundation than an assertion of Meares, on which no reliance can be placed. In the year 1790 (1791 according to Vancouver) the Spaniards, Elisa and Quimper, explored the straits more than one hundred miles, discovering the Port Discovery, the entrance of Admiralty Inlet, the Deception Passage, and the Canal de Haro. In 1792 Vancouver explored and surveyed the straits throughout, together with their various bays and harbors. Even there he had been preceded in part by the Sutil and Mexicano; and he expresses his regret that they had advanced before him as far as the Canal del Rosario. Under all the circumstances of the case, it cannot be doubted that the United States must admit that the discovery of the straits, and the various inferences which may be drawn from it, are doubtful and debatable questions.