Part 29 (1/2)

[265] _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 32-4, 53-4; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 367, 274-5.

[266] _Vancouver's Voy._, vol. ii., pp. 385-9.

[267] _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, pp. 109-10, 116; _Anderson_, in _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 242.

[268] At about 52 40', between the Fraser River and the Pacific, Mackenzie observed the treatment of a man with a bad ulcer on his back.

They blew on him and whistled, pressed their fingers on his stomach, put their fists into his mouth, and spouted water into his face. Then he was carried into the woods, laid down in a clear spot, and a fire was built against his back while the doctor scarified the ulcer with a blunt instrument. _Voy._, pp. 331-33; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 258, 284; _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, pp. 316-18; _Duncan_, in _Mayne's B. C._, 289-91; _Reed's Nar._, in _Olympia Wash. Stand._, _May 16, 1868_.

[269] At Boca de Quadra, Vancouver found 'a box about three feet square, and a foot and a half deep, in which were the remains of a human skeleton, which appeared from the confused situation of the bones, either to have been cut to pieces, or thrust with great violence into this small s.p.a.ce.' ... 'I was inclined to suppose that this mode of depositing their dead is practised only in respect to certain persons of their society.' _Voy._, vol. ii., p. 351. At Cape Northumberland, in 54 45', 'was a kind of vault formed partly by the natural cavity of the rocks, and partly by the rude artists of the country. It was lined with boards, and contained some fragments of warlike implements, lying near a square box covered with mats and very curiously corded down.' _Id._, p.

370; _Cornwallis' New El Dorado_, pp. 106-7. On Queen Charlotte Islands, 'Ces monumens sont de deux especes: les premiers et les plus simples ne sont composes que d'un seul pilier d'environ dix pieds d'elevation et d'un pied de diametre, sur le sommet duquel sont fixees des planches formant un plateau; et dans quelques-uns ce plateau est supporte par deux piliers. Le corps, depose sur cette plate-forme, est recouvert de mousse et de grosses pierres' ... 'Les mausolees de la seconde espece sont plus composes: quatre poteaux plantes en terre, et eleves de deux pieds seulement au-dessus du sol portent un sarcophage travaille avec art, et hermetiquement clos.' _Marchand_, _Voy._, tom. ii., pp. 135-6.

'According to another account it appeared that they actually bury their dead; and when another of the family dies, the remains of the person who was last interred, are taken from the grave and burned.' _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. 308. See also pp. 374, 295-98; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, vol. i., pp. 203-4; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 272, 276, 280; _Mayne's B. C._, pp. 272, 293; _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 235; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 440-41; _Dall's Alaska_, p. 417.

[270] On the coast, at 52 12', Vancouver found them 'civil, good-humoured and friendly.' At Cascade Ca.n.a.l, about 52 24', 'in traffic they proved themselves to be keen traders, but acted with the strictest honesty;' at Point Hopkins 'they all behaved very civilly and honestly;' while further north, at Observatory Inlet, 'in their countenances was expressed a degree of savage ferocity infinitely surpa.s.sing any thing of the sort I had before observed,' presents being scornfully rejected. _Voy._, vol. ii., pp. 281, 269, 303, 337. The Kitswinscolds on Skeena River 'are represented as a very superior race, industrious, sober, cleanly, and peaceable.' _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1869, p.

533. The Chimsyans are fiercer and more uncivilized than the Indians of the South. _Sproat's Scenes_, p. 317. 'Finer and fiercer men than the Indians of the South.' _Mayne's B. C._, p. 250. 'They appear to be of a friendly disposition, but they are subject to sudden gusts of pa.s.sion, which are as quickly composed; and the transition is instantaneous, from violent irritation to the most tranquil demeanor. Of the many tribes ...

whom I have seen, these appear to be the most susceptible of civilization.' _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. 375, 322. At Stewart's Lake the natives, whenever there is any advantage to be gained are just as readily tempted to betray each other as to deceive the colonists.

_Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 466-68, 458-59; _Lord's Nat._, vol. i., p.

174. A Kygarnie chief being asked to go to America or England, refused to go where even chiefs were slaves--that is, had duties to perform--while he at home was served by slaves and wives. The Seba.s.sas 'are more active and enterprising than the Milbank tribes, but the greatest thieves and robbers on the coast.' _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 287, 273. 'All these visitors of Fort Simpson are turbulent and fierce. Their broils, which are invariably attended with bloodshed, generally arise from the most trivial causes.' _Simpson's Overland Journ._, vol. i., p.

206. The Kygarnies 'are very cleanly, fierce and daring.' The islanders, 'when they visit the mainland, they are bold and treacherous, and always ready for mischief.' _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 219. The Kygarnies 'are a very fierce, treacherous race, and have not been improved by the rum and fire-arms sold to them.' _Dall's Alaska_, p. 411. Queen Charlotte Islanders look upon white men as superior beings, but conceal the conviction. The Skidagates are the most intelligent race upon the islands. Wonderfully acute in reading character, yet clumsy in their own dissimulation.... 'Not revengeful or blood-thirsty, except when smarting under injury or seeking to avert an imaginary wrong.' ... 'I never met with a really brave man among them.'

The Acoltas have 'given more trouble to the Colonial Government than any other along the coast.' _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, pp. 83, 151-2, 185-6, 208, 214, 233, 235, 245, 257, 271-72, 289, 309, 320-21. 'Of a cruel and treacherous disposition.' _Hale's Ethnog._, in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol.

vi., p. 197. They will stand up and fight Englishmen with their fists.

_Sproat's Scenes_, p. 23. Intellectually superior to the Puget Sound tribes. _Reed's Nar._ 'Mansos y de buena indole.' _Crespi_, in _Doc.

Hist. Mex._, s. iv., vol. vi., p. 646. On Skeena River, 'the worst I have seen in all my travels.' _Downie_, in _B. C. Papers_, vol. iii., p.

73. 'As rogues, where all are rogues,' preeminence is awarded them.

_Anderson_, in _Hist. Mag._, vol. vii., pp. 74-5.

[271] 'On my arrival at this inlet, I had honoured it with the name of King George's Sound; but I afterward found, that it is called Nootka by the natives.' _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 288. 'No Aht Indian of the present day ever heard of such a name as Nootkah, though most of them recognize the other words in Cook's account of their language.'

_Sproat's Scenes_, p. 315. Sproat conjectures that the name may have come from _Noochee! Noochee!_ the Aht word for mountain. A large proportion of geographical names originate in like manner through accident.

[272] For full particulars see TRIBAL BOUNDARIES at end of this chapter.

[273] 'The Newatees, mentioned in many books, are not known on the west coast. Probably the Klah-oh-quahts are meant.' _Sproat's Scenes_, p.

314.

[274] There are no Indians in the interior. _Fitzwilliam's Evidence_, in _Hud. B. Co., Rept. Spec. Com._, 1857, p. 115.

[275] The same name is also applied to one of the _Sound_ nations across the strait in Was.h.i.+ngton.

[276] The t.e.e.t.s or Haitlins are called by the Tacullies, '_Sa-Chinco_'

strangers. _Anderson_, in _Hist. Mag._, vol. vii., pp. 73-4.

[277] Sproat's division into nations, 'almost as distinct as the nations of Europe' is into the Quoquoulth (Quackoll) or Fort Rupert, in the north and north-east; the Kowitchan, or Thongeith, on the east and south; Aht on the west coast; and Komux, a distinct tribe also on the east of Vancouver. 'These tribes of the Ahts are not confederated; and I have no other warrant for calling them a nation than the fact of their occupying adjacent territories, and having the same superst.i.tions and language.' _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 18-19, 311. Mayne makes by language four nations; the first including the Cowitchen in the harbor and valley of the same name north of Victoria, with the Nanaimo and Kwantlum Indians about the mouth of the Fraser River, and the Songhies; the second comprising the Comoux, Nanoose, Nimpkish, Quawguult, etc., on Vancouver, and the Squawmisht, Sechelt, Clahoose, Ucle-tah, Mama-lil-a-culla, etc., on the main, and islands, between Nanaimo and Fort Rupert; the third and fourth groups include the twenty-four west-coast tribes who speak two distinct languages, not named. _Mayne's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 243-51. Grant's division gives four languages on Vancouver, viz., the Quackoll, from Clayoquot Sound north to C. Scott, and thence S. to Johnson's Strait; the Cowitchin, from Johnson's Strait to Sanetch Arm; the Tsclallum, or Clellum, from Sanetch to Soke, and on the opposite American sh.o.r.e; and the Macaw, from Patcheena to Clayoquot Sound. 'These four princ.i.p.al languages ...

are totally distinct from each other, both in sound, formation, and modes of expression.' _Grant_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol.

xxvii., p. 295. Scouler attempts no division into nations or languages. _Lond. Geo. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., pp. 221, 224. Mofras singularly designates them as one nation of 20,000 souls, under the name of _Ouakich_. _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 343. Recent investigations have shown a somewhat different relations.h.i.+p of these languages, which I shall give more particularly in a subsequent volume.

[278] See _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 272-86, on the 'effects upon savages of intercourse with civilized men.' 'Hitherto, (1856) in Vancouver Island, the tribes who have princ.i.p.ally been in intercourse with the white man, have found it for their interest to keep up that intercourse in amity for the purposes of trade, and the white adventurers have been so few in number, that they have not at all interfered with the ordinary pursuits of the natives.' _Grant_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xxvii., p.

303.

[279] 'Muy robustos y bien apersonados.' 'De mediana estatura, excepto los Xefes cuya corpulencia se hace notar.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, pp. 55, 124. 'The young princess was of low stature, very plump.'

_Vancouver's Voy._, vol. i., p. 395. Macquilla, the chief was five feet eight inches, with square shoulders and muscular limbs; his son was five feet nine inches. _Belcher's Voy._, vol. i., pp. 110-12. The seaboard tribes have 'not much physical strength.' _Poole's Q. Char. Isl._, p.

73. 'La gente dicen ser muy robusta.' _Perez_, _Rel. del Viage, MS._, p.

20. 'Leur taille est moyenne.' _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 343.

'In general, robust and well proportioned.' _Meares' Voy._, p. 249.