Going further back in time.......
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/fur_trappers.htm"This emphasis on schooling and scientific advances helped produce some of the first explorers of the North American West. The range of first hand Scottish western adventurers is remarkable. One should probably begin with the story of James Cook. Son of a Scots farm worker who had moved to the Yorkshire town of Marton, Cook rose rapidly in the service of the British navy. Later he entered historical legend as the "Pacific Columbus," for just as Columbus "discovered" America en route to India, Cook "discovered" Hawaii while searching for the elusive Northwest Passage.
On March 29, 1778, Cook’s flagship the Revolution, with a companion vessel, Discovery, sailed into what is now Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island. They remained there almost a month, recording detailed scientific, geographical, and meteorological data of the region. Although Cook was a naval officer, not a businessman, he anticipated that great profits could be made by trading British goods for fur from the Natives. Unfortunately, the most famous Scottish sea captain of his generation died the next year in Hawaii; his crew returned to Britain in 1780.
Six years later, a ship named in his honor, Captain Cook, deposited another Scot in the region, surgeon John Mackay. Mackay had volunteered to spend a year living with the Nootka natives. Supplied with paper, pens, and ink, plus a Native wife, Mackay gradually learned the language and customs of his hosts. Although Mackay’s records eventually proved disappointing, his venture still ranks as the first attempt at serious New World ethnography."
