"Working with Commander Porcher's manuscript journal, now in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection of Yale University, as well as other documents of the time, editor Smith has conjured an era through the unique voice of one of its standard bearers. Porcher's journal reveals a man who strived to do his duty by the lights of the British Empire, then at full bloom but - caught between vulnerable Russian America to the north, and the rambunctious and expanding United States to the south, and the French virtually everywhere - in slightly precarious position on North America's Pacific coast

Armed Forces Officers, British Columbia, British Columbia Description and travel, British Columbia Pacific Coast, British Columbia Vancouver Island, Capitaines de navire Grande-Bretagne Journaux intimes, Colombie-Britannique (Canada) Descriptions et voyages 19e siècle, Colombie-Britannique Descriptions et voyages, Diaries, Grande-Bretagne. Royal N