of the next day they boarded Otter at a considerable distance from land. One account states that as many as 20 convicts escaped from the penal colony in Port Jackson aboard Otter. Three of the convicts were left on Nomuka Island in Haʻapai, Tonga on 15 March 1796. Otter subsequently landed at Pukapuka on 3 April 1796. Pierre François Péron, first mate on board Otter and chronicler of the voyage, gave the island the name "Isles de la Loutre" (Isles of the Otter) . The following day, Péron and a small party landed and some trading took place near the ship as adzes, mats and other artifacts were exchanged for knives and European goods. Some accounts state that many months later Otter was wrecked when she struck a chain of sunken rocks near Nootka Sound, on the west coast of North America. These accounts report that every person on board perished except Mr. Muir and two sailors. However other reliable sources state that Otter continued north to Bucareli Bay, on the west of Prince of Wales Island and cruised the Northwest Coast acquiring sea otter pelts. Whether Muir went with her, or remained for a space at Nootka, or was transferred to some other ship. First hand accounts (by Péron) omits to say. Péron makes no further mention of Muir until, on 31 October 1796, he reached Monterey going south, where he states that Muir had preceded him. At the time the Spanish settlement at Nootka Sound, protected by Fort San Miguel, had been abandoned for less than a year, by the terms of the third Nootka Convention. The buildings and gardens remained for years afterwards. Entry into the port of Monterey Spanish accounts note that Otter is said to have been the first United States vessel to arrive at Monterey, California, in 1796. Otter was described as a United States man-of-war. She carried six cannon and a crew of twenty-six men. Entering the port of Monterey, her captain was supplied with wood and water. When ready to sail he asked permission of Governor Borica to land eleven English sailors who had secretly boarded his vessel at Botany Bay, Australia. The Governor refused his consent. It was a violation of Spanish law to land any foreigners. The shrewd Yankee captain, however, that night forced the sailors at the point of a pistol to go ashore. He then speedily put to