Bracelet

This bracelet carved of mountain goat horn was part of the earliest encounter between First Nations and Europeans at the site of Vancouver. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver sailed into what is now known as Burrard Inlet. Vancouver had journeyed to the Pacific to search for the Northwest Passage and to establish British rights of access to the northwest coast of America. This bracelet was collected from local First Nations that year by Thomas Dobson, a midshipman on Captain Vancouver’s ship, HMS Discovery. Dobson served as Spanish interpreter during Vancouver’s negotiations with Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra at Friendly Cove on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The bracelet is incised with a swirling relief decoration. It is carved at both ends to form a catch.