During the summers of 1792-94, George Vancouver and the crew of the British naval ships Discovery and Chatham mapped the northwest coast of North America from Baja California to Alaska. Vancouver's voyage was the last, and longest, of the great Pacific voyages of the late eighteenth century. Taking the art and technique of distant voyaging to a new level, Vancouver eliminated the possibility of a northwest passage and his remarkably precise surveys completed the outline of the Pacific.

But to map an area is to appropriate it - to begin to bring it under control - and Vancouver's charts of the northwest coast were part of a process of economic exploitation and cultural disruption. Although he and the other great navigators of his age exercised no control over the ideas and enterprises spawned by their voyages, their names have come to symbolize the consequences of European expansion - good or bad.

From Maps to Metaphors grew out of the Vancouver Conference on Exploration and Discovery, held to observe the bicentennial of Vancouver's arrival on the Pacific northwest coast. It brings to light much of the new research on the discovery of the Pacific and illuminates the European and Native experience. The chapters are written from a variety of perspectives and provide new insights on many aspects of Vancouver's voyages - from the technology employed to the complex political and power relationships among European explorers and the Native leadership.

While it is no longer possible to "celebrate" the arrival to the northwest coast of explorers such as Vancouver, their achievements cannot be overlooked. The charts, log books, journals, and specimens from these voyages are important sources of information and essential for the reconstruction of an image of the Pacific region and its people in the eighteenth century.

Now available in paperback for the first time, From Maps to Metaphors, the classic on Vancouver's voyage, illuminates the European and Indigenous experience of the "discovery" of the Pacific coast.

About the Author

Robin Fisher is a historian and the former provost and vice president academic of Mount Royal University. He previously served as the dean of the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia. He is the author of Vancouver's Voyage (1992); Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890 (UBC Press 1974, 1992); and Duff Pattullo of British Columbia (1991), among other books. Hugh J.M. Johnston is an historian affiliated with Simon Fraser University. He is the author of several books including Jewels of the Qila: The Remarkable Story of an Indo-Canadian Family (UBC Press, 2011) and The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to Canada's Colour Bar (UBC Press, 1989).

Reviews
A successful edited collection is more than the sum of its chapters; as well as a set of fine separate discussions of disparate topics, From Maps to Metaphors is a model of contemporary scholarship, with its foregrounded, self-conscious awareness of the location of scholars and their sources in time and place, as well as in personal and cultural experiences. -- Margaret Anderson, University of Northern British Columbia Book Corner
We are indebted to the editors and UBC Press for publishing these excellent papers from the Vancouver conference for the conference brought together superlative scholars on Vancouver which attracted conference participants from all over the world. It must have been difficult to choose the papers that make up this volume. -- Maurice Hodgson * B.C. Historical News *
This is a solid work, and none of its chapters should be dismissed. The authors of From Maps to Metaphors succeed in their attempts to illustrate multiple perspectives regarding the onset of the colonial presence in the Pacific. -- Douglas Deur * Annals of the Association of American Geographers *



Book Information
ISBN 9780774828154
Author Robin Fisher
Format Paperback
Page Count 362
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 580g