They generally remained on the coast and about the adjacent seas, for two years, carrying on as wandering and adventurous a commerce on the water as did the traders and trappers on land.

Their trade extended along the whole coast from California to the high northern latitudes.

They would run in near shore, anchor, and wait for the natives to come off in their canoes with peltries.

The trade exhausted at one place, they would up anchor and off to another.

In this way they would consume the summer, and when autumn came on, would run down to the Sandwich Islands and winter in some friendly and plentiful harbor.