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Jun

WILD TRIBES IN VANCOUVER.

The general belief prevalent among travellers,
scientific men, fvnd the pioneers of civilisation
everywhere is, that savage races are gradually-
disappearing, not only under tlie influence of the
vices and diseases introduced among them by white
men, and, in shamefully frequent instances, the
craelty perpetrated upon them in the interests of
civilisation and commerce, but by a natural law,
inexplicable indeed, but indisputably evident in
its action. The study of their condition acquires,
from this fact, an additional interest, and is invested
with a poetical charm for the imagination, which
exceeds the practical attraction of learning their
condition with a view to improving it, and assimi-
lating their notions of life and the best means of
its enjoyment with those of the civilised intruders
on their territory. People who do not know or
care anything about tlie matter pronounce, in an
off-hand manner, all savages to be alike ; but those
who read the various experiences of travellers and
explorers, know that an infinite variety in national
characteristics, in habits, in intellectual potenti-
alities, in belief, in barbarism, and in physical
features, may be found within the two extremes
of savage life, as depicted by Cooper and Sir
Samuel Baker — between tlie Delaware and the
Gytcli tribes, and will readily believe that the
celebrated novelist, who elevated the former into
a noble race, was not much more, though more
humanely prejudiced in favour of the savage, than
the distinguished traveller, who denies to the latter
the privileges of humanity, and proclaims his
inferiority to the brute.

Of one species of this great variety, Mr Sproat,*
who, in 18C0, took possession, in the name of her
Majesty, of Alberni, en the western coast of Van-
couver's Island, gives a curious and interesting
account. This is the Alit race, hitherto almost as
little known as the Andaman islanders, and pos-
sessing certain striking traits of character and
national history curious to contemplate, considering
the utter isolation of their lives. It is pleasant to
know that these simple, harmless, intelligent people
were not cruelly treated by the English settlers.
Their land was not forcibly taken from them ; tlusy

* ySVcJlM (ir<l Studies of Savage Life. By Gilbert
Malcuhn Hproat. London ; Smith, Elder, & Co.

tlr*-

.CU

Cbsmbm'i Jounwl,
Juna]7, isea]

WILD TEIBES IN VANCOUVER.

405

(&-

were only obliged to sell it, notwithstanding their
mild and reasonable protest. There is something
pathetic in the story of Mr Sproat's interview with
the chiefs of the Seshahts, when he went to
announce the inevitable arrival of the King-George-
men (for these unlearned people hold 'King-
George ' a synonym for all English royalty), and
the old man answered liis greeting thus : ' " Our
families are well, our people have plenty of food ;
but how long this will last we know not. Wc see
your ships, and hear things which make our hearts
grow faint. They say that more King-George-men
will soon be here ; and will take our land, our
firewood, our fishing-ground ; that we shall be
placed on a little spot, and shall have to do every-
thing according to the fancies of the King-George-
men." I answered : " It is true that more King-
George-men are coming — they will soon be here ;
but your land will be bought at a fair price." " We
don't wish to sell the land, or the water ; let your
friends stay in their own country." To whicli I
rejoined : " My great chief, the high chief of the
King-George-men, seeing that you do not want
your land, orders that you shall sell it. It is of no
use to you. The trees you do not need ; you will
fisli and hunt as yoii do now, and collect firewood,
planks for your houses, and cedar for your canoes.
The white men will give you work, and buy your
fish and oil." " Ah, but we don't care to do as the
white men wish." " Whether or not," said I, " the
white men will come. All your people know that
they are your superiors ; they make the things
which you value. You cannot make muskets,
blankets, or bread. The white men will teach your
cliildren to read printing, and to be like them-
selves." "We do not want the white man. He
steals what we have. We wish to live as we are." '
Coniplaint and remonstrance were vain. The
King-George-men came, and a civilised settlement
was formed in the midst of the Seshahts almost
immediately ; the poor r ' ' /es looking on, help-
less and unadmiring, at buildings, wharfs, steam-
engines, ploughs, oxen, horses, and pigs, all equally
unknown to them. Tlie scene of the new settle-
ment, from which the Indians quietly moved away,
but to only a short distance, abounds in natural
beauties. The localities inhabited by the Alit tribes
are the three large sounds on the west coast of
Vancouver's Island, whose names are Nitinaht,
Klah-oh-quaht, and Nootka. Nitinaht includes the
Alherni settlement. The sounds throw out arms
in various directions inland ; and into these arms,
coming from mountain-lakes known to a few
Indians only, shallow rivers flow, which are
diversified by falls and rapids, and deepen here
and there when pent up between mountains which
approach each other closely. Mr Sproat thus de-
scribes the scenery, with which the natives harmo-
nise as little, perhaps, as the African savages with
their beautiful tropical land, though they are de-
cidedly not degraded, considered as savages : ' The
broad sui'i'ace of tlic sounds is studded with rocky
islets of various sizes, covered with liendock, cedar,
and pine trees, which also, the pine predominating,
clothe the rugged sides of the hills, that rise

from the shore into peaks or serrated ridges

I found the best time to linger in a canoe on these
wide bays was just about the twilight, when the
harsh, sharp lines of the surrounding scenery were
softened, and the shadows of islet and mountain
lengthened over the singularly clear water. Among
the islands, and on the sliore of the sounds, there

is an endless number and variety of passages,
creeks, bays, and harbours, of all sliapes and sizes,
which can be discovered only on a near approach.
Many of these marine nooks are deep enough to
float the largest ship, and far down through the
pellucid water, never moved by storms, gardens of
zoophytes are visible at the bottom.'

1 he ocean-coast outside has different features, and
the large waves of the North Pacific break upon it,
even in calm weather, with a fierce grandeur, and
roar sullenly among the caverns. The coast is not
considered dangerous, but in the winter, storms are
prevalent. ' The line of the raging surf on the
beach extends for miles to some rocky cape, over
which the waves foam, the spray being borne
upwards, and flung through the air. Wild black
clouds approach the earth, and are hurried along
by the blast. There is nowhere any sign of life
now ; the Indians crowd together in their houses,
and the birds huddle behind the sheltering rocks.'
The interior of the Aht country is pine-forest,
dense, boundless, undulating, diversified by lakes,
which are in fact * tarns,' wonderfully fine, gloomy,
and impressive, such forests and such lakes as
naturally associate themselves with our most
romantic notions of the wild Indian life. The
intensity of the solitude of these hidden places —
solitude so unendurable to the civilised man, so
dear to the savage, sullenly tracking his prey — is
deeply impressive. All is silence, but for the
melancholy cry of the loon, or the breaking of a
decayed branch in the woods. In the night, the
traveller, resting under a cedar-tree, sees the
lightning - flash illumine the shaggy mountain
before him, and when the blazing glare comes
again, marks the long line through the trees made
by the avalanche in rolling down for thousands of
feet into the lake. He watches the draperies of
mist moving upwards from the gloomy falls, and
that cataract, just seen hanging like a silver thread
to the cap of clouds on the far summit, which
strikes the eye again, expanded into a torrent, a
thousand feet lov.ijr at the exposed turn of some
ravine, and then is heard rusliing into the narrow
lake. Among these forests, so dense that not one
tree iu fifty struggles successfully for its share
of sunshine, live the strange people, Avho, in a
space of time brief, when measured by the lapses
of history, will in all probability have ceased to
exist, will have disappeared, alnaost unchronicled,
leaving no monuments, not even ruins, to tes-
tify to their liaving existed. The Ahts are a
better - looking race than savages generally, and
the men have well-formed limbs. Corpulence is
unknown amongst them, and any physical deform-
ity is very lare. They are wonderfully dexterous
and indefatigable oarsmen ; and their powers of
endurance, iu any work to which they are accus-
tomed, are very great. Mr Sproat has had men
with him from sunrise to sunset, whilst exploring
new districts, where the walking tried his powers
to the utmost, and they scarcely seemed to feel the
exertion ; and could also bear the want of food for
a long time without becoming exhausted.

The moral deformities imputed to them by the
Abbe Domenech are as fabulous as the physical,
and their defects are rather negative than positive.
The notion of the coast Indians being deficient in
muscular power in their legs, arose, Mr Sproat
believes, from their legs being always seen \\n-
covered — a severe ordeal for any people. ' If the
men wore blankets,' he asks, ' how many presentable

:^g?

^■.

406

CHAMBEES'S JOUENAL.

[Jautr, li

legs ■would there be in an ordinary crowd of
Englishmen?' Imagine a sculptor and a critic
questioned, like Mrs Todgers, in presence of a
sans-culotte House of Commons ! The complexion
of the Aht people is a dull brown, no duller and
no browner than that of the English people would
be, if they were perpetually exposed to weather,
and if they lived exclusively on oil, blubber, and
fish. They swim well, are unrivalled as divers,
and bathe every day in the sea, which, though the
climate of Vancouver's Island is, on the whole,
milder than that of England, is colder than on any
part of the shores of Great Britain. The Ahts are
much less dirtv in their habits than many civilised
people ; it clashes with one's notions of wild people
to find daily ablutions de rigueur, and to learn that
the women wash themselves, and arrange their
hair, after their day's work, like our oavii house-
maids, only more thoroughly. The men wear
blankets, since they have been introduced to them ;
a single garment of bear-skin was the primitive
dress : the women wear a kind of shift in addition
to the blanket. The head and feet are uncovered,
except on canoe-journeys, when hats and capes
made of grass are worn. The men are beardless and
whiskerless, except at Nootka Sound, where some,
supposed to have Spanish blood in them, have
large moustaches and whiskers. They are a gentle
race, and Mr Sproat observes : ' It is a characteristic
of these natives that men sometimes saunter along
holding each other's hand in a friendly way ; a
habit never to be observed in civilised life, except
amongst boys, or sailors when intoxicated.'

The natives wear their hair, which is a dark, dull
brown, long, and either tied in a bunch on the
crown, or hanging loosely under Avreaths of grass or
feathered bird-skin. The women are careful of
their hair, and have little boxes in which they keep
combs and looking-glasses. The men are singularly
disdainful of ornaments, and such toys as readily
tempt the negro, have no charms for the sober-
minded Ahts. "The women are more like their
sex everywhere ; they are seldom seen without
rings, bracelets, and anklets of beads and brass ;
their blankets are beautifully ornamented with
beads ; and a brilliant bit of cockle-shell, or horse-
shoe-shaped piece of brass, often adorns their well-
formed noses. The teeth of the natives are regular,
but stumpy, and deficient in enamel, in conse-
quence of the large seasoning of sand to the dried
salmon to which they are accustomed. Tattooing
is not practised among the Ahts, and the head-
flattening process has fallen much into disuse.
'The traveller,' says Mr Sproat, 'leaves on this
side of Cape Scott a people with fine broad, though
slightly flattened, foreheatis, and heads well set
on, and soon finds himself on the north side of
the cape, among the Quoquotth nation, a people
with disfigured heads, and who speak a different
language. The sudden change from vigour to
decrepitude, from maturity to age, in these people
is very remarkable. As in some climes there is no
perceptible twilight, so in their lives there is no
intermediate stage in their existence be ' '.veen full
manhood and the first steps into age.'

The Ahts have extraordinary strength in their
hands, and are fleet of foot, and their skill in
managing their canoes cannot be surpassed ; but
Mr Sproat has seen a crew of Indians beaten by a
trained crew of white men in a long canoe-race on
the sea. Their method of encampment is very
curious and interesting. Their movements follow

those of the salmoi., which forms their chief sus-
tenance. Following the lordly fish as they swim
up the rivers and inlets, the natives place their
summer encampments at some distance from the
seaboard, towards which they return for the winter
season, about the end of October, with a stock of
dried fish. By this arrangement, being near the
sea-shore, they can get shell-fish if their supply of
salmon runs short, and can also catch the first fish
that approach the shore in the early spring. When
the purveying-work is done at each place, the camp
is broken up, and the putrid heaps of refuse are
left to the scavenger services of the elements and
the birds. The following description of the method
of removing from an encampment makes one regard
these wild tribes with wondering admiration.
' Two large canoes are placed about six feet apart,
and connected by planks — the sides and roots of
the houses laid transversely upon each other, so ;ia
to form a wide deck the whole length of the canoe,
space enough for one man being reserved at the
bow and stern. On this deck are baskets full of
preparations of salmon-roe, dried salmon, and other
fish, together with wooden boxes, containing
blankets and household articles. The women and
children sit in a small space purposely left for
them. Each canoe is managed by two men, who,
with the women and children, raise a cheery song
as they float down the stream. The principal men
send slaves or others to prepare their quarters ; and
among the common people, it is understood before-
hand who shall live together at the new encamp-
ment. A willing, handy poor man sometimes is
invited to live for the winter with a richer family,
for whom he works for a small remuneration.'
The houses of the natives, at their camping-
grounds, are large and strongly constructed, built
of cedar-wood, ' far superior to the hovels of Con-
naught, or the mud-cabins in the west of Suther-
land,' and very often beautifully situated ; not that
the native" have any sense of, ov feeUug for, the
beauties of nui ^re ; in that respect, they are on a par
with all other savages; but that the encampment
is arranged with regard to the vicinity of firewood
and water, and to getting the advantage of the
frequently found fantastic masses of rock which
keep off the wind. The picture of these rude
houses is not unattractive. The tribes assemble
like families, great respect being shewn to the
chiefs — for these people have the strictest notions
on rank and precedence — and pass the winter
evenings in gossiping and dancing. They are
given to laughter and joking, and their quarrels
are neither many nor virulent ; the active form of
them being confined to pulling one another's hair.
The Ahts are excessively polite, and have an
etiquette by which the receiving of guests and
visitors, to whom they are most hospitable, is
regulated. ' Compared with the manners of
Ti^ngUsh rustics or mechanics,' says Mr Sproat,
' their manners are simple and rather dignified. In
meeting out of doors, they have no gesture of
salutation ; in their houses, it consists of a
polite motioning towards a couch.'

Great feasts take place in the winter, of which
the whale-feasts are the favourite. An Indian who
thinks anything of hunself, never gets a deer or a
seal, or even a quantity of flour, without inviting
his friends to a feast ; but the captor of a whale is
an Amphitryon of note. The festivities are carried
on with much form and dignity, and not only is
a plentiful portion assigned to each guest, but the

■^

Chftmbm't Jonmftlt
June 37, 1808.1

BLONDEL PAEVA.

407

■■^

■^ fc

remains are gathered up by the host's servants,
and distributed at the houses of all the company.
These leasts conclude, after true Homeric fashion,
with bardic recitals of achievements in war and
hunting. The cooking of the unci ous mual is
singular. ' Hot stones are put, by means of
wooden tongs, into large wooden boxes, containing
a small quantity of water. When the water boils,
the blubber of the whale, cut into pieces about an
inch thick, is thrown into these boxes, and hot
stones are added r.ntil the food is cooked. This
imperfect boiling does not extract half the oil
from the blubber, but whatever appears is skimmed
off, and preserved in bladders to be eaten, as a
delicacy, with dried salmon, or with potatoes and
other roots.' Silence while eating is considered a
mark of politeners ; and the host and one of his
servants walk round uui'ing the meal to see that
every one has got his due allowance of blubber,
according to his rank. The women are excluded
from these feasts, but they do not seem to be in
any way ill-treated among the Ahts. As hunting
and fishing are their occupations, their outdoor
amusements are limited to swimming and some
perfectly good-humoiired competitive trials of
strength. They have some plaintive and some
joyous native music, and a grotesque war-dance ;
also a dramatic performance, called the Nook
dance, which is very interesting and characteristic.
They are large eaters, like the Mongols, but also,
like them, have great power of abstaining from
food. Fish of all kinds, ducks, geese, and deer,
are their food ; and Mr Sproat found out that
when, either by the improvidence natural to the
savage, or from real inability to calculate their
probable wants, it happens that they are in straits
for want of food, and they become weak and thin,
they blacken their faces, to hide their altered looks.
Surely there is a touch of nobility in this.

They drink nothing but water, and as a corrective
of the injurious effects of a continued fish and
animal diet, use various plants, in particular the
gammass, which grows only in small quantities
on the west coast; and tnough they complain
bitterly that the encroachment of the whites is
rapidly depriving them of this useful and almost
necessary plant, they have never attempted to
increase the production of it by any kind of
cultivation. 'They dislike salt, and wul not boil
potatoes in salt water, even under the pressure
of hunger. The Ahts are very fond of bartering,
and keen hands at it ; and their intertribal trade-
laws are numerous, minute, and equitable. Pro-
perty is common to the tribe. They possess good
firearms, and make bows and arrows beautifully.
The Nitinahts and the Klah-oh-quahts are famous
for their canoe-making, which is unequalled. All
the tribes excel in basket-making. The institution
of slavery is highly prized, and strictly defined
among these people, who, though they have
unlimited power over their slaves, and might kill
them with complete impunity, rarely treat them
otherwise than well. They entertain much dislike
and contempt for Chinamen and negroes, whom
they believe to be much inferior to themselves.
Their customs of courtship and marriage are
formal, precise, and just. Of course, wives are
purchased after the fashion of savage and civilised
people, and rank is regarded as of paramount
importance; tlius, caste is very strictly maintained.
Their idea of Ijlood-relationsliip, and the duties
and responsibilities which it involves, is so strong,

that Mr Sproat declares it to bo the principal
constituent in the structure of their simple society.
Polygamy is not prohibited, but it is very rarely
practised.

The Ahts are cold-blooded, vindictive, and sus-
picious, and their religious rites are sanguinary.
Their notions of religion are of a vague and
incomprehensible kind, but they have much faith
in the efficacy of ' exerting their hearts,' aa
they call prayer, for obtaining what they desire.
They are very fond of their children, and never
beat them; but they neglect the sick and the
old. They believe in omens and sorcery, and
suffer as much from fear of supernatural evil
as the most debased of the African tribes. An
individual from whom Mr Sproat obtained a good
deal of knowledge of the faith and the superstitions
of the Ahts, gravely asked him if he had ever seen
a soul, and said he had once seen his own, when,
at the close of a severe illness, it was brought to
him by the sorcerer ou a small piece of stick, and
thrown into his head. The traditions of their
origin cherished by the Ahts are merely grotesque.
They are entirely wanting in poetry ; and their
belief in an after-life is vague, dull, and uninspir-
ing. They do not hope for any other or better
kind of existence than that they possess ; they
fear, but do not aspire to the future, and they
cling with melancholy tenacity to life. Hence,
their medicine-men, coarse impostors enough, have
immense power over them. It is impossible to
read about these people, whose life has none of
the terrible conditions which make it a relief to
know that the Esquimaux will soon cease to exist,
and not regret their decay, not wish that wise,
powerful, and organised efforts should be made for
the good of such of them as remain. The progress
of their extinction is strangely rapid. In 1778,
Captain Cook rated the population of Nootka
village, in Vancouver's Island, at two thousand ;
and Ca].'tain Meares, ten years later, confirmed
this estimate, and stated that the population of all
the villages in the sound at Nootka amounted to
between three and four thousand. ' The aggre-
gate of the population of the sound now is barely
six hundred souls, yet the natives have remained
in almost a primitive state, only visited occasion-
ally by a ship-of-war or a trading schooner. They
have had plenty of food and better clothes than
they possessed prior to their knowledge of
blankets ; and their number has not been lessened
by any epidemic, nor by the division or emigration
of any portion of the tribes.'