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A rough survey was made in August of 1996 of the flat area on the top of San Miguel Island at Friendly Cove in an attempt to locate the old Spanish fort there.
Although previous examinations of the island have been made, notably that by Parks Canada in 1966, none had available Salvador Fidalgo's chart, first published by Warren Cook in his book 'Flood Tide of Empire' in 1973.(f.1)
San Miguel Island is the small island furthest out in the cove. It is accessible via the larger San Rafael Island, where the lighthouse stands, though you have to fight your way through dense scrub and inch round a cliff to get there.
In recent years breakwaters have been added between the various islands to provide better protection for the bay, and inside the breakwaters beaches have formed.
But in Spanish times San Miguel would have been only accessible by boat, the larger island being used to keep pigs, and marked on some charts as 'Hog Island'.
San Miguel itself is an uneven rocky island about 30 ft. high at its highest...