IPHEGENIA at Cloak Bay, Langara Island, 1789

Watercolor 14" x 21"


The waters around Langara Island were particularly rich in sea otters and the anchorages in Parry Passage became an important destination for traders. There were three Haida villages and at the time of contact the largest was Dadens, [called Tartanee by Captain Douglas] which was situated on the south side of Langara Island facing Lucy Island. The town chief was Gao, called Cow or Kow by the first European traders. Opposite Dadens on Graham Island was Kiusta, which because of the currents in Parry Passage was visited less often by traders and was seldom mentioned in their journals. About one and a half miles west of Kiusta was another small village, Yaku, which in early accounts was grouped with Kiusta. An influential territorial chief, Gunia [called Coneehaw or Cunneaw by the Europeans] lived in a house on Lucy Island, and was often mentioned in the journals.

George Dixon in the QUEEN CHARLOTTE was the first to anchor in Cloak Bay in 1787 , although Pérez in the SANTIAGO had been visited by Haida canoes from one of the three native villages in 1774. Before IPHIGENIA was seized by the Spanish she was trading in the Queen Charlottes and she anchored in Cloak Bay on June 20th, 1789.

“At five o’clock they dropped the bower anchor in twenty-five fathoms....two miles from a small barren, rocky island which happened to prove the residence of a chief, named Blakaw Coneehaw whom Douglas had seen on the coast in his last voyage. He came immediately on board, and welcomed the arrival of the ship with a song, to which two hundred of his people formed a chorus of the most pleasing melody. When the voices ceased, he paid Douglas the compliment of exchanging names with him.”

The name Douglas that Gunia received from him was passed on to Albert Edward Edenshaw who became one of the most powerful chiefs in the region in the nineteenth century. Douglas bestowed the name of his ship to the prominent point on the southwest corner of Langara Island.