Editing George Vancouver (section)

===Indigenous peoples===
Vancouver generally established a rapport with both Indigenous peoples and European trappers. Historical records show Vancouver enjoyed good relations with native leaders both in Hawaii – with King [[Kamehameha I]] as well as the Pacific Northwest and California.<ref name=Pynn529>Pynn, Larry "Peaceful Encounters" (29 May 2007), ''The [[Vancouver Sun]]'', p. B3</ref> Vancouver's journals exhibit a high degree of sensitivity to the indigenous populations he encountered. He wrote of meeting the [[Chumash people]],<ref name="nps.gov"/> and of his exploration of a small island on the Californian coast on which an important burial site was marked by a sepulchre of "peculiar character" lined with boards and fragments of military instruments lying near a square box covered with mats.<ref name=Pynn529/> Vancouver states:

{{blockquote|This we naturally conjectured contained the remains of some person of consequence, and it much excited the curiosity of some of our party; but as further examination could not possibly have served any useful purpose, and might have given umbrage and pain to the friends of the deceased, should it be their custom to visit the repositories of their dead, I did not think it right that it should be disturbed.<ref name=Pynn529/> }}

Vancouver also displayed contempt in his journals towards unscrupulous western traders who provided guns to natives, writing:

{{blockquote|I am extremely concerned to be compelled to state here, that many of the traders from the civilised world have not only pursued a line of conduct, diametrically opposite to the true principles of justice in their commercial dealings, but have fomented discords, and stirred up contentions, between the different tribes, in order to increase the demand for these destructive engines... They have been likewise eager to instruct the natives in the use of European arms of all descriptions; and have shewn by their own example, that they consider gain as the only object of pursuit; and whether this be acquired by fair and honourable means, or otherwise, so long as the advantage is secured, the manner how it is obtained seems to have been, with too many of them, but a very secondary consideration.<ref name=Pynn529/>}}

Robin Fisher notes that Vancouver's "relationships with aboriginal groups were generally peaceful; indeed, his detailed survey would not have been possible if they had been hostile."<ref name=Pynn529/> While there were hostile incidents at the end of Vancouver's last season – the most serious of which involved a clash with the [[Tlingit|Tlingit people]] at [[Behm Canal]] in southeast Alaska in 1794 – these were the exceptions to Vancouver's exploration of the US and Canadian Northwest coast.<ref name=Pynn529/>

Despite a long history of warfare between Britain and Spain, Vancouver maintained excellent relations with his Spanish counterparts and even fêted a Spanish sea captain aboard his ship {{HMS|Discovery|1789|2}} during his 1792 trip to the Vancouver region.<ref name=pynn530/>