One could argue that Alexander McKay and Captain Thorn represented two competing approaches to the world’s remote coasts on the part of the first European visitors. Thorn performed well within a tightly structured and disciplined system, but was absolutely at a loss when outside clear-cut rules and boundaries, while McKay was a free-form improviser who seemed vastly adaptable to other societies. Neither approach, however, worked out well for them when the Tonquin met the Clayoquot, although it seems McKay almost escaped.
