Not long after Vancouver left Hawaii, Kendrick also sailed to the Pacific Northwest coast. He found the situation at Nootka Sound bleak. Chief Maquinna's people had suffered a hard winter and famine. The conflict with Wickaninnish was ongoing. Maquinna wanted to move his people closer to the Spanish fort at Friendly Cove, but the new commandant, Ramón Saavedra Guiráldez y Ordónez, refused. Kendrick soon sailed north, seeking sea otter skins, which had become scarce at Nootka and Clayoquot. He cruised the Alexander Archipelago, acquiring furs. At the Tlingit settlement that would later become Sitka he disposed all his remaining trade goods, including some molasses his men had made in Kauai. Then he headed back to Nootka Sound.