GUEMES ISLAND AND CHANNEL, in the northwestern part of Skagit County. The Spanish explorer Eliza, 1791, named it "Isla de Gueme" in honor of the Viceroy of Mexico, under whose orders he had sailed to the Northwest. The Viceroy's full name was Sefior Don Juan Vicente de Guemes Pacheco y Padilla Orcasitees y Aguayo, Conde de Revilla Gigedo. (Pacific Railroad Reports, Volume XII, Part I, page 302.) Parts of the long name are in use for geographical names. Vancouver did not attempt to name the island in 1792, but in that year the Spaniards, Galiano and Valdez, repeated Eliza's name as "Isla de Guemes." The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, undertook to change the name to "Lawrence Island" in honor of the famous American naval hero, James Lawrence. To intensify the honor, Wilkes gave the name "Hornet Harbor" to what is now known as Guemes Channel after the vessel Lawrence commanded when he captured the English vessel Penguin in the War of 1812, and to the north of the island he charted "Penguin Harbor," which name has disappeared, being considered a part of the present Bellingham Channel. In 1847, Captain Kellett restored the name Guemes Island on the British Admiralty Chart 1911. That name has been retained on the United States Government charts, which have also added the names of Guemes Channel and Bellingham Channel.