JOHN KENDRICK AND His SONS 285
life and returned to Macao with Captain Douglas but that the third was at Oahu. 16
Kendrick reached Macao Roads, China, on 26th Janu- ary 1790, about a month previous to the departure of the Columbia. 11 The correspondence between the two captains, so far as it has been preserved, has been already published in volume XII, Washington Historical Quar- terly. Nowhere does it contain a suggestion that the Columbia should be returned to his command. Though he speaks therein of the sale of his furs and asks advice, it yet appears from both Boit and Hoskins that up to the fall of 1791 Kendrick had made no returns to his own- ers. 18 From all presently available sources it seems that from the time that the Columbia sailed from China in February 1790 until the day of his death Kendrick han- dled the Washington as though the vessel were his own property. Further investigations may however throw light on this part of the subject.
Ever since the departure from Boston Kendrick had dreamed of transforming the sloop Washington into a brigantine. If Haswell is to be believed, he commenced to make the alterations at Nootka Sound in the fall of 1788, even though lacking the necessary blocks, ropes, and canvas. 19 Now he had his opportunity. The three years buffetings had so frayed and worn the sails and rigging that all must be replaced. His letters speak of the sloop as "now entirely destitute of sails and rigging" and enquire "whether sail cloth and rigging is to be pro- cured at Canton." 20 He spent a year and two months an unconscionable time in disposing of his cargo and in effecting the alteration in the rig of the Washington. His friend Hoskins says that immediately upon his ar-
16 Ingraham's Journal MS., May 23, 1791; Hawaiian Historical So- ciety Reprints (No. 3), p. 10.
17 Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. XII, p. 265.
18 Boit's Log of the Columbia, in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXII, p. 289; and Hoskins' letter cited in note on same page.
19 Haswell's first Log of the Columbia MS., 26th October, 1788.
20 Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. XII, p. 268.
