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1 •- ■ ■ All liijihlf vemvieil. • "J^'^r^, ; , ii' .III Pi I" '■1^' i-s ,4 »«i,. ' .JV' ^1 't- •'^fV til"'".'' ' ' ''lii u I ■'i l;"| l^'"''ljlr -"15? f i.,.'r;.iv '•n..;5r(.,?' :^?i:»-. ^ •Sr" St' ■M' •f^l' ^Uf ;^ ^'r. "'•«;;••' -SvW; ■'''^ ■■' ^ .r';^ wi :^- .■!■,:, ill ii-'i.tir'i 'xm m\ :;3:iJj^ 'Ill ym m ■ V % HiiC" t 1.1 (iLil'MlN OlIARLOTTK ISLANDS A NAIIKATIVK i»K DISCOVKIIY AM) ADVKXTUUK IN T II i: \ () in II i> A (M K I (\ FRANCIS POOLE. ( .K Knniu liv JOHN W. LYNDON Al'TllOU OF NINKTV-TIIHKU, OK III I'. STOIIV OK THIi FIIKNCII II I VOLITION . I.OO-IIOUSIt, BURNAIIV ISI.ANf). LONDON III RST AX!) P.LA(M\V7rT, PriUJ^IlK RS. i:!, (ilJKAT MAliLBOKOUCill STRMHT. 1872. T All liii/hh reiKrcei'. EDITOR'S PREFACE. Two groups of Islands have been called axlr'' the Queen-Consort of King George the Third. The first group is in the South Pacific '^Jjean. It was discoveicd in the year 1767, by Captain Car- teret, li.N., but has since proved to be of compara- tively little significance. The second and larger group lies in the North Pacific Ocean (lat. 52° to 54° N., long. 132° to 134° W.), and will supply the chief subject-matter of the following pages. Captain Cook, R.N., was the first white man who is known to have set foot upon those islands of the North Pacific. He landed in the year 1776 on their northernmost shore, and near a spot which now appears in the map as Cook's Inlet. The famous navigator minutely describes the incidents of this discovery, in the Admiralty edition of liis Voyage Vlll EDITOR S PREFACE. to the Pacific Ocean (Vol. ii. pp. 416 et seq.), but conjectures that certain Russians had visited the place before him. He was doubtless aware also of land having been sighted, two years previously, in the same direction, by Captain Juan Perez, a navigator, whom the Spanish Government had sent out with a commission to search for the long-desired North- West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Cap- tain Cook, however, could not tell whether the newly-discovered land was an island or merely part of the American continent. And, in view probably of the insufficient knowledge at his command, he forbore to name the country or to claim it, as other- wise he would have done, on behalf of the British Crown. Eleven years afterwards, that is, in the year 1787, Captain Dixon ascertained Cook's discovery to con- sist of an extensive insular group ; and, no civilized people disputing the right of the English nation to it, he took formal possession in the name of King George, and christened the acquisition Queen Char- lotte Islands. That the Islands form together a healthy, pic- turesque territory, rich in natural resources and well adapted to colonization, this volume will show. editor's preface. IX Nevertheless, for the space of nearly a century, diirmg which they have belonged to England, no serious attempt has been made to colonize them. Even the Admiralty survey is still wanting. There they lie, waste and fallow, yet marvellously productive, and awaiting nothing but Anglo- Saxon capital, enterprise, and skill to return manilbld profit to those who will embark in the venture. The only educated Englishman who has ever lived on Queen Charlotte Islands is Mr. Francis Poole, Civil and Mining Engineer. The best portion of two years he spent, either in actual residence in that outlying dependency, or in laborious work closely connected with it. Unfortunately, some years back, a severe illness, the evident result of former exertion and exposure, prostrated and much enfeebled him. This has prevented a detailed account of his dis- coveries and adventures, already communicated to a large circle of private friends, being sooner given to the English public. At length, fearing lest such an experience in the North Pacific should be wholly lost, Mr. Poole placed his Diary and other manuscripts in my hands, for publication. h X EDITORS PRKFACE. It IS from these papers, written by him with pains- taking exactness in the very midst of liis adventurous career, that I have faithfully, and I trust agreeably, prepared the narrative which follows. eT. W. L. lonflo7i, Nooemhar, 1871. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO — INTO THE " STATES" — PINE AND COAL LAND — THE "CITV OP ROME" — DOWN THE HUDSON R.'VER — " PATRICK" ON HIS TRAVELS — THE " EMPIRE CITY " . fAOB CHAPTER II. HOUND FOR "ASPINWALL" — AMERICAN COASTING —-THE GULF STREAM — SAN SALVADOR — MARIGUANA — THE " QUEEN OF THE ANTILLES " — J.VMAICA — THE " WINDWARD PASSAGE " — ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN SEA — PHOSPHORESCENT WATERS 13 CHAPTER in. ASPINWALL OR COLON ? — AT COLON — ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA — F:HST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN — LAUNCHED ON THE PACIFIC FOR SAN FRANCISCO — THE MEXICAN COAST, WEST- WARD — ACAPULCO — MANZANILLA BAY — CALIFORNIA . 25 CHAPTER VI. ANTECEDENTS OP CALIFORNI.V — ORIGIN OF SAN FRANCISCO — INTO FRISCO BY THE "GOLDEN GATE"— STKEET-RUFFIANISM — FIRE- BRKiADES IN PORTSMOUTH SQUARE — VIEW OF THE CITY FROM TELKGRAfH HILL— PUBLIC RESORTS — THE " CHINA TOWN "— FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO -40 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. BOUND FOR VANCOUVER ISLAND — DISCOMFORT OF THE VOYAGE — FIRST SIGHT OF VANCOUVER — UARBOURS OF VANCOUVER — ESQUIMALT — VICTORIA — THREK MONTHS IN THE CASCADE AND BLUE MOUNTAINS — COri'LR ON QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — FORMATION OF THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE MINING COMPANY — CHIEF KITGUEN, OR KLUE . CHAPTER VI. BOUND FORQUKEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — THE " OUTSIbii PASSAGE" — KITGUEN — COAST OF VANCOUVER, WESTWARD — WHALES — SUN- DOWN, AND THE NORTH PACIFIC WATERS — INDIAN WOMEN — SPOONDRIFT — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS SIGHTED — CAPE ST. JAMES — WHALES AND PORPOISES — HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY . FAQB 53 70 H ? 'S!' CHAPTER VII. OFF SKINCUTTLE ISLAND— SITUATION OF THE ISLETS — FIRST LOOK- ROUND — FIRST RESIDENT ENGLISHMAN ON QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — NOMENCLATURE OF THE GROUP — SITE TO ENCAMP— RATE OF WAGES TO WORKMEN — CARIBOO — BEARS AND EAGLES — MOUNTAIN GOATS CHAPTER Vlli. 91 SHORT EXCURSION — LONG EXCURSION — LASKEEK HARUOUR — PAINTED INDIANS — "PROTECTION NOTE*'— CHIEF SKIDDAN — HIS FRAME- HOUSE — CUM-SHL»WAS HARBOUR — KLUE's HOUSE — SLEEPING UNDER SCALP'— SEABATH — THE ISLANDERS NO SWIMMERS — P ' CK TO SKINCUTTLE 103 CHAPTER IX. COPPER — NEW SHAFT — ATTACK BY INDIANS — RUSHING IN AMONGST THKM — THE BONE OF CONTENTION — CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES — THE " KECKWALLY TYHEE"— SKID-A-GA-TEES DRAWS OFF — THE CUM- SHE-WAS — A CUISIS— REMOVAL TO BURNABY ISLAND — THE RAFT 118 I CHAPTER X. MISS SKID-A-GA-TEES AND UK II PAPA — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDERS FAR IN ADVANCE OF MR. DARAVIN — SKlD-A-GA-TEES AGAIN — PRO- PITIATORY SACRIFICE TO HIM — ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP — WINTIOR IN CAMP- STolilliS BY THE CAMP FIKKMDE- NORTH LATITUDE STORMS — TOWAUDS THE INTERIOR — PANCAKES .... k 131 CONTENTS. XUl CHAPTER XI. PLOTTING INDIANS — THE GUNBOAT " HECATE "—SHELLING — OriNIONS ON THE " SMOK.E-SHIP" — KLUE ON BOAllD THE " HECATE" — THE "HEBECCa" HEAVES IX SIGHT — PIUIXG SKINCL'TTLE — PKOSrECT- ING — COPPER-MINE ON BURNABY ISLAND — BACK TO VICTORIA BY THE "OUTSIDE PASSAGE" — KEPOBT TO THE MINING COMPANY . 151 CHAPTER XII. BOUND FOR QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS AGAIN— UP THE "INSIDE passage" in the " LEONIDE" — THE GULF OF GEORGIA — COAST ON EITHER fIDE — RUN AGROUND— THE NORTH AND SOUTH I5EN- TINCK ARMS — NEW ABERDEEN — BELLA-COOLA RIVER — TAYLOR's KANCIIE — GETTING OUT TO SEA — THE BELLA-BELLAS — ACROSS TO QUEEN CUAKLOTTE 107 CHAPTER XIII. WHERE ARE WE? — STORMS — WORKMEN, IN BRITISH COLUMBIA — POWERLESSNESS OF A LEADER BEYOND THE HAUNTS OF CIVILIZED LIFE — MUTINY — TO WORK AGAIN — MINING OPERATIONS— CHRIST- MAS DAY AT THE LOG-HOUSE — KLUE AND HIS CHIEFS — HOW TO CIVILIZE INDIANS IS'J CHAPTER XIV. SEABOARD OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — STORM-TOSSED SEAS — AliORTlVE BEAR-HUNT — INDIANS NEITHER BRAVE MEN NOR CRACK SHOTS — HUNTING HEARS— STORMY PETRELS — TIDE-POLE — AN AQUATIC SKEDADDLE — RIFLE-PRACTICE ON BURNABY ISLAND — TWO STUNNING STORMS ao'j CHAPTER XV. SUMMER-LIKE WEATHER — "TRIBUTE AND TUT-WORK" — RIVAL TRIBES — RUNNING SHORT OF PROVISIONS — THE " NANAIMO PACKET" ARRIVES — MISTAKE ABOUT STORES — KLUE AND HIS TRI15E HAVE A DEBAUCH — WICKEDNESS AND SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF SUPPLYING THE INDIANS WITH WHISKY — REMEDY FOR THE EVIL — MINING PROGRESS— THE SKID-A-GATES — MINERAL DEPOSITS OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS 22{) '^W XIV CONTENTS. CHAPIER XVI, DISOUGANIZA.TION — IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONTROLLING THE MEN — A SALIENT EXAMPLE — GLARING TIIEVTS BY INDIANS — CONSULTATION WITH KLUE AND SKID-A-GA-TEES— DETERMINATION TO RETURN TO VICTORIA — DIFFICULTY OF THE VOYAGE — LAST CHANCE TO THE MEN—HARRIET HARBOUR CriAPTEli XVII. PARLEY WITH THE MEN — FAREWELL TO THE BEVUTIFUL ISLES — KLUE's GRAND CANOE — ACROSS TO THE MAINLAND— PARTING COMPANY — MISSING THE WAY — SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN — THE SKID-A-GATES WELCOMED BACK PAGB 244 '205 CIIAPTEIl XVIII. THE RUPERT INDIANS — FRAY WITH THE ACOLTAS— OVER THE TIDAL WAVE — NANAIMO COAL-MINES — THE COWITCUENS — A GENERAL BATHE AND DRESS-UP — ARRIVAL AT VICTORIA .... 283 CHAPTER XIX. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — CLIMATE — HARBOURS — INLAND WATERS — ROCKS — LAND — TREES — FRUITS — VEGETABLES — FISH — GAME — FUR — NATIVE TRIBES — THE MEN — THE WOMEN — COLOUR — FOOD — MEDICINE — GAMBLING — RELIGION — FEASTS — MUSIC — CAPABILI- TIES AND PROSPECTS OF THE ISLANDS 299 CHAPTER XX. VIEW OF VICTORIA — HOMEWARD-BOUND— SAN FRANCISCO — COPPERO- POLIS — STOCKTON — THE "KING OF TREES " — MANZANILLA — ARISTOCRATIC THIEVES — MEXICAN LIFE — ACAPULCO — BLACK SWIMMING-BOYS — TEMPERATURE — SUNSETS — TAIL OF A HURRI- CANE — PANAMA CITY — BACK ACROSS THE ISTHMUS — FROM COLON TO NEW YORK — CANADIAN HEAD-QUARTERS — ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND 326 FAGB 2'M 2iJ5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 283 I. Harriet IIarcouk, C^ueen Charlottk Islands Fronti.ynere. II. LoG-iiousE, BuRNABY IsLAND Vignette. III. Map of Queen Charlotte Islands Paje 95 IV. An Indian Raid J21 V. Map of Queen Charlotte Copper-mines . . . „ in;5 VI. Over the Tidal Wave 2!)1 » QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. CHAPTER I. ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO — INTO TUE " STATES" — PINE AND COAL LAND — THE "CITY OF ROME" — DO.VN THE HUDSON RIVER — "PATRICK." ON HIS TRAVELS — THE " EMPIRE CITY." I HAD been engaged for some twenty months up anil down Canada West, now the province of Ontario, in a successful course of " prospecting," and in other work bearing on mines, when I was induced to undertake a journey and voyage to the British posses- sions which lie along the western seaboard of the North American continent. Encouramn": informa- tion having reached me, I wished to extend the sphere of my surveying and mining operations. It was in the month of April, 1862, that I set out upon my long and toilsome journey, my starting- point being Kingston, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. in the summer and autumn it is customary to cross the Canadian lakes by steamboat. But, at that B ■w 2 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. :l season, the ice still remained sufficiently in possession to render travelling by ice-stage a necessity of the journey, despite the danger resulting from the thin- ness of the top-ice on the upper lakes in April. Shortly after midday of the 2nd, the guard or conductor cried — " All aboard for Cape Vincent !" with a sharp nasal twang, and, in a few minutes, the passengers had taken their seats inside the ice-stage, which was advertised to get to the American side of the lake in precise time to catch the " cars " due in New York the same evening. The ice-stage is a square-built conveyance, in form resembling a colossal packing-box, only that the sides are composed of wind and waterproof curtains, in- stead of wood-work. It slides over the ice upon wooden runners shod with steel. Our team consisted of two diminutive horses. These belonged to the Lower Canadian breed, and were wretched objects to look at; for all which, they really could do a deal of work, and tripped along before us with a lightsome and easy step. Already the snow, though three feet deep, was giving signs of approaching dissolution under solar influence, whilst the sun itself began to shine out brilliantly, and the April air to feel mild and pleasant, ACROSS LAKE ONTARIO. 3 I I # as if j^rognosticating a lovely springtide. Thereupon, our driver thought fit slightly to redeem his native surliness by cracking his whip in a cheery manner; and, as the Canadian shore receded, I tried to console myself for the many dear friends left behind by observing that the first prospects of my journey were at least not dispiriting. Ere long, however, this source of consolation proved to be somewhat premature. The driver was an American, and the conductor a Canadian; but both seemed to have sunk their nationalities in a conspiracy to make as much as possible out of their freight of trusting passengers. Owing to the top-ice frequently breaking, the jolting soon became so severe and wearing that it was a positive relief when the conductor " invited " the male portion of his charge to come and assist in pushing the stage back towards the smooth ice. Every now and then, too, we were enabled to heighten the pleasures of this employment by putting our feet right through to the lower ice, and having to hold on to the sides of the stage, till another safe footing could be obtained. At length, after fourteen miles of such forced labour, we touched the limits of the ice-region, and were thence rowed in more comfort over the last mile b2 iir !; I ■i ! 'I 'Mi 4 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. of our passage across to the American main- land — that is, if comfort can, by any stretch of fancy, be said to associate itself with boots full of water. Surely so valuable a co-operation might, at any rate, have met with its reward in an honest fulfilment of their advertised contract on the part of the ice-stage people. Our reward, as we neared the land, was to see the " cars " moving off without us, an hotel keeper at Cape Vincent having bribed the stage-conductor to defer our arrival with a view to the hospitalities of his house, which he fondly trusted must needs follow. The American landlord and the Canadian conductor, however, had alike neglected to count the cost of failure. For we forthwith proceeded to pass our enforced stay in the one hotel of all which we deemed the most unlikely to have cultivated the art of bribery. Meantime, the superior claims of honesty over " smartness " were being practically asserted on the person of our late conductor. At home in England, an appeal would have lain to the owners of the public conveyance, or possibly to a court of law, for damag.^s through delays on the road. But the transatlantic mode of redress is quite as instructive, less expensive, and much quicker. When it appeared INTO THE "states." certain that there was no going on that niglit, one of my fellow-passengers coolly walked up to the con- ductor, and, seizing him by the collar, in the twii)k- ling of an eye put his head " in chancery," and served hhn out in the presence of an admiring public. We started again next morning, under a genial sky, and were speedily flying, with all pressure on, behind two great " cow-catcher " railway engines of the country. The part of the United States through which the Xew York road from Cape Vincent runs is flattii'h and unsightly, till Albany and the Hudson R v^er are reached. But the English traveller, with his inborn taste for observation, never lacks subjects of interest in America. Passing through the townlet of Brownville, I noticed some tall and handsome pine-trees. Now it is generally assumed in England that, where pine- trees are grown, the soil must of necessity be barren. From this opinion I altogether dissent, for I have seen the very best description of soil underl3'ing large woods of pine, both in Canada and in Bedford- shire in England. This fact, it is true, does not tell so much on the North American continent, where generally the pine-tree root run along the ground !! I I ill I 1 ! 6 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. within a few inches of its surface, as it does in England, where the roots frequently penetrate fifteen feet into the earth. None the less it seems to me to furnish ample evidence in disproof of the assump- tion that, because pines prevail in the northernmost districts of the States, the soil there must necessarily be unproductive. A singular property of British North American timber is its brittleness. Nothing is commoner in the Canadian bush than to see huge pieces of forest- wood blown down in all directions by squalls of wind. I well recollect one of those light squalls, so peculiar to Canada, overtaking me when riding once through the bush. In order to save my life I was obliged to urge on my horse at full speed : for I could hear and see the trees toppling over, here, there, and every- where around me. As one travels south, the timber becomes more consistent. But Nature, not being a respecter of national boundaries, carries its Canadian singularities a long way into the States. In the forests beyond Brownville, quantities of trees, evidently not cut, but snapped and broken off, lay strewn about, right and left. Many of these were beeches of a very fine growth, and such as had apparently intended to TREES, COAL, AND IRON. 7 develop themselves into stately forest trees. Those of their companions which had survived supplied a refreshing change to the eye, after the everlasting pines of Canada. In America, when a beech plan- tation flourishes, it is universally received as th^ surest indication of a fertile subsoil. The country through which we passed was not so flat but that railway-cuttings were sometimes requi- site. I observed a stratum of blue or shale limestone in the cuttings — proof of the near neighbourhood of coal, although, from aught I could ascertain, none had so far been discovered. I cannot doubt, either, the existence of iron in that particular district. Several of the railway-stations, or " depots,'' a? the natives queerly call them, were built of deep red- coloured brick, showing iron to form a constituent part of the clay soil, which abounds here. Up to the present year (1871), the source of wealth latent in that iron-ore remains entirely untouched, the double cause being, doubtless, want of capital and workmen. We now were steering eastward, and gradually getting into a milder climate. The snow had imper- ceptibly decreased from three feet to about four inches. But there was scarce anything to attract 8 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. l! I i' I attention along the route, save the intense sameness arising from uncultivated lands, stunted woods, and miles upon miles of arid desolation. We would rush on for fifteen or twenty miles without more than an odd farmhouse or two varying the landscape, or without the trace of any living soul inhabiting the country, unless it could be discerned in the sign- boards which are stuck up where the farmers' roads intersect the railroad, and which warn wayfarers in the wilderness that, when they "hear the bell ring," they are to " look out for the locomotive." On ever}'- American engine there is a large bell, which the stoker takes care to ring whenever the " cars " come to a crossing or have to go through a town. If the engine should require wood or water, a loud stear^- whis<^le is sounded, very unlike similar instruments in England, but which repeats the sounds w-o-o-edd^ w-a-tt-a, as plainly as I here spell the words, and usually a mile before arriving at the station : so that the porters, or employe^, according to their Yankee designation, have good time to get ready. We hurried thus through not a few strair<;lin2 villages, all aspirants to the status of "cities." But none were of the slightest importance, until at last we sighted the " City of Rome." THE " CITY OF ROME." 4 In my capacity as a traveller from Europe, I natu- rally felt curious to see what sort of place neio Rome could be. We just stopped to take water "on board." But, in that short time, I had time enough to note that the borrowed title was not such an absolute misnomer as I had expected. My American fellow- travellers said they were proud of this rising town, and with reason. When I saw " Rome " it had only seen ten years of life itself. Yet it already contained 12,000 inhabitants, and a considerable number of substantial, nay even imposing, buildings. It made quite a grand appearance from the station. And who can tell whether it may not be destined, in ages yet to come, to wield some undreamt-of power in the West? Neither ancient nor modern Rome has its destinies limited to a day. Albany was the only town of consequence after- wards. Our "cars" did not enter it, as it lies on the opposite side of the Hudson River, which we had now readied. But, to judge by outside looks and by the manifest advantage of its position, it assuredly has a splendid future before it. Here we enjoyed the sensation, not known to travellers in Europe, of re- entering the haunts of civilization. A more delight- ful ride than that down the banks of the Hudson 1 s I' i II!! T I i i'l 1 llli i'l I li i 10 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. can hardly be desired. The scenery nowhere par- takes of grandeur. What are called the Highlands of the Hudson are mere hillocks compared with the real mountain-ranges of America. They do not even approach the Rhineland for precipitate height and picturesqueness. Still, there is a breadth com- bined with a winding beauty proper to the Hudson, which is not to be found united on the same scale, in any river that I know of, throughout the Euro- pean continent. The views as we neared New York differed con- siderably from those of the Upper Hudson. It is a thousand pities that a bridge has not been con- structed at some point about ten miles above the *' Empire City." For there the far-famed Hudson opens up an expanse capable of holding vast fleets ; and it cannot be doubted that a suitable bridge would materially add both to the interests and the beauty of the river. An amusing incident happened " on board " the *' cars," just previous to our arrival at New York. The conductor, in the performance of his duty as ticket-collector, having applied to a passenger fresh from the Emerald Isle to give up his ticket, the folio wins: conversation ensued : — "PATRICK" ON HIS TRAVELS. 11 I u " Conductor. " Your ticket, sir." Patrick. "Ah, dhin, what d'ye want it for?" Conductor. " I want to see it." Patrick. "Do ye, now? And, faith, and ye won't Conductor. " In that case, you must pay your fare over again." Patrick. " Would ye raly like to see it, now ?" Conductor. " I must have either the ticket or the money." Patrick. " Bedad, and ye wont have the ticket — divil a bit of it." Here Patrick pays the fare. Conductor. " Why couldn't you have said at once, that you had no ticket?" Patrick (winking at the passengers). "Arrah, be aisy, conductor. Maybe, ye'd like to see it now f " Here the Emeralder pulls the ticket out of his stocking, and, showing it to the conductor, slips it quickly again into its hiding-place, with the self- satisfied air of a man who has got the best of the argument. It was a matter of lively speculation in the " car •" as to how long Patrick would be likely to rts de i m the great go-ahead country before he underwent the process of having his wits sharpened. ff : III!! i! ; I it ■ 12 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Darkness had fully set in when we were deposited at the railway "depot," in Thirty- seventh Street, New YorV. As to give a just appreciation of the "Empire City " would take more materials than a transitory visit could have afforded me, I shall here simply pass through it, so to speak, on the way to my outward- bound vessel. 13 CHAPTER II. BOUND FOR " ASPINWALl" — AMERICAN COASTING— THE GULF STREAM — SAX SALVADOR — MARIGUANA — THE " QUEEN OF THE ANTILLES** — JAMAICA — THE "WINLWAED PASSAGE" — ACROSS THE CARIBBEAN SEA — PUOS- PIIORESCENT WATERS. Just at that period hosts of gold-hunters were rushing out of the United States to Cariboo, British Columbia. I chanced into their very midst. It was not without considerable difficulty, there- fore, that I succeeded in obtaining a berth, by paying a high price for it, on board the Northern Light — a ship of fifteen hundred tons burden, bound from New York to Colon, or Aspinwall, as the Yankees affect to call it. Under British laws such a vessel would not have been allowed to carry more than eight hundred souls in all. I made one, however, of 1694 passengers, besides the crew and the usual quantum of " stow- aways." A more motley collection of human beings, and of absolute nondescripts, mortal eyes never beheld. 14 ,1' i !i QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. That April afternoon was bright, with a warm southerly wind, as I got my traps finally conveyed to the vessel, and before dusk we had steamed along under the heights of Staten Island, through the Narrows, by Sandy Hook, and out into the broad Atlantic. The sun dipped down gloriously behind Long Island, and there seemed every prognostic of a pleasurable if not a rapid passage. Three o'clock the next morning discovered us off the Delaware coast, with the mainsail flapping in a gentle breeze. The beautiful sunset over-night had been followed by a moonlight equally beautiful, and so shiningly clear that I was enabled to read and ;iote my diary while sitting on deck. We were soon, however, to experience the varieties of American coasting ; for, as the day dawned, large numbers of porpoises began to tumble about near the ship's sides, whilst flights of sea-gulls added a still surer presage of the coming storm. In a short time "white horses" were cresting the waves, the vessel took to pitching and rolling, the cordage rattled, the planks creaked, and we saw we were in for a regular gale. Suddenly the thermometer fell to near freezing-point. 1 lay in my berth, not sick — I wish I had h*^en — but in that perfectly wretched state of existence which OFF CAPE HATTERAS. 15 I would as lief accept death as life, for some measure of release from the punishment. If there be any consolation in knowing that others are suffering contemporaneously with oneself, I had it in abun- dance. From my accommodation-berth, five feet long by one and a half wide, I could hear and feel that scores of the crowded passengers were as prone on their backs as I was, the men cursing and the women screaming, and both lamenting in piteous terms their folly in venturing upon the treacherous ocean. "Where are we?" I asked of the Captain, as I descried him passing my cabin door. " Off Cape Hatteras," was the curt reply. " Do you think there's any danger, Capt'n ?" half- shrieked a middle-aged dame, in the next cabin to me. "Danger, mum? Not the slightest. Just a cap- ful of wind." " That's the worst of them navy men," I heard the middle-aged dame's husband remark, as soon as our Captain had disappeared up the gangway. " When the waves is a-runnin' mountains, they says it's ' rayther fresh,' and when it's a-blowin' of great guns, they tells us it's ' jist smartish sea-going,' they does. Where's the comfort o' that ?" There seemed a good deal of truth in my next 16 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. neighbour's homely criticism, supposing that the Captain s duty docs include comforting liis passengers. The practical difficulty would probably lie in the Steamship Company having to provide a duplicate of the Captain and his ship's officers. Within twenty-four hours the storm had abated, and determining now to try my " sea-legs," the first object I caught sight of on gaining the deck was an immense shoal of sea-weed, which, the boatswain informed me, was proof positive that we had entered the Gulf Stream. Here, too, I saw for the first time some of the cetacean mammals of the deep, together with flying fish in vast quantities, sporting a few feet off our ship's bows. On the fifth day, we sighted San Salvador, or Cat Island, the name by which the first land seen by Columbus (Oct. 8, 1492) has since been desecrated. Our course was S.S.W., with a strong easterly wind and a long ground-swell ; and, on the following morn- ing, we passed Mariguana Island, two miles on the starboard bow, the ship now steering W.S.W., in order to make what is known as the Windward Pas- sage, or the road leading from the Atlantic Ocean, between the islands of Cuba and San Domingo, into the Caribbean Sea. MARIGUANA ISLANDS. 17 The Island of Muriguana has a type of its own, and quite different characteristics from the West Indian islands in general. As a whole it is as flat as it is possible to imagine land to be. The northern parts, however, are covered with thick and rich- looking woods, whilst the southern, for many miles in- land, present the appearance of a wild, uninhabited common — very much, in fact, what the pristine navi- gators of these seas must have originally found it. Tiie Bar, M'hich lies out almost two miles seaward, offers an insuperable obstacle to IVlariguana ever subserving the interests of commerce to any great extent. While hove-to and waiting our pilot, I had an opportunity of observing the bay. From the deck of our vessel it certainly did look very pretty, with its still, pale-green Avaters, contrasting with the deep-blue sea outside the Bar, and its pipeclay-coloured shore banks, which strike down abruptly and are topped with luxuriant verdure. Numerous flocks of sea-hens were enjoying themselves over the placid surface of this ocean-lake, and demonstrating by their evident tameness that the jMariguanians are no sportsmen. The shores of all the island, I heard, have a deep deposit of white sand. The shore itself, not the sand, emits a sulphureous smell. Once or c [ ! N IS QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. twice I thoufrht a whifF of it reached out to the i? sliip. Those who know the pleasures of volcanic eruptions will scarce be thankful if fate should cast them upon Mariguana. The place just looks as though, some day or other, it might go down bodily into the depths of the ocean. Far otherwise is the aspect of Cuba, which island was hailed, not long after, by our look-out man from the main-top. Columbus landed in Cuba, at the end of the same month that he took possession of San Salvador. It is 800 miles long, and 125 broad, and lies on the verge of the Bahamas coral-beds. The Spaniards have surnamed it " The Queen of the Antilles," and well does Cuba deserve the title. As we steamed fast towards it, full in view lay this richest jewel in the crown of Si)ain, its mountain-peaks towering majes- tically to the sky, and its rich vegetation stretching out of sight to the furthermost horizon. On the left were the lofty peaks of San DoiaJngo, splendidly flanked on the left again by the island of Porto Rico, and on the right by that of Jamaica, as, before making the Windward Passage, we could dimly perceive them in the remote distance. In all nature it were hard to conceive a scene more redolent of THE TROPICAL FIRMAMENT. 19 delights. The Antilles, looked at from without, well realize the mediiuval fable of the " Enchanted Islands." What a strange and rapid vicissitude! Hardly five days ago we had been watching sportive whales and enduring a cruel cold, and now we were launched into a climate so fearfully hot that an awning of bliinketingwas obliged to be rigged on the hurricane- deck before any one could attempt to sit there. Fortunately the water had become smooth as a pond, so that our lately bedridden passengers could crawl up from their berths, and, packing themselves to- gether in a dense crowd, inhale a few breaths of fresh air, and feast their eyes on the magnificent diorama revolving before them. In this region, the voyager from the North gazes wonderstruck upon a firmament hitherto unknown to him. As night comes on, he cannot fail to remark that the moon gives out a radiance much stronger and more lucid than in higher latitudes. Even when there is " no moon," the planet Venus and the ]\Iilky Way are so extraordinarily brilliant as, in a measure, to supply the want of the light which is reflected on our own planet through the medium of the moon. Then, the disclosure of entirely novel constellations, c3 TP I'll 20 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. the grouping together of stars sublime in their mng- nitude, the nebulae scattered broadcast over the pro- digious space above, combine to invest with new-born interest the first view of a nocturnal sky in the tropics. The great Humboldt describes himself as having been deeply affected when he beheld it. As we pressed onward, past Jamaica, and across the Caribbean Sea, I noticed that the water was pecu- liarly phosphorescent at night. Before starting on my journey I had been prepared for this pheno- menon, and had heard scientific men attribute it to the animal life which, they said, causes it in the Pacific. A subterranean communication, it is asserted, exists under the Isthmus of Panama, between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans; and, the Pacific being confidently believed to have a higlier water- mark than the Atlantic, whatever phenomena are produced in the one will be reproduced in the other. 1 too believe both in the subterranean passage and in the superior altitude of the Pacific ; but I explain the phosphoric appearances in either ocean very difi'erently. A species of asphalte (chapote) is found to bubble up from the bottom of some fresli-wacer lakes in Mexic:o, and to wash back ui)oii their borders. It has a pungent smell, similar to that SEA-PIIOSPIIORUS. 21 1 I of asphaltic bitumen, and possesses many of its qualities. Now it is a salient fact that a phos- phorous night-light, akin to that seen in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific, also sparkles out of those Mexican lakes. But the ebullition, effluvium, and phosphorus which belong to them have been geologically traced to a volcanic origin. Wherefore, assuming the axiom that like effects proceed from like causes, one surely cannot err in accounting for the phosphorescence of the Mexican Gulf and Carib- bean Sea on the hypothesis of semi-extinct volca- noes lying sunken underneath their waters. I am strengthened in this opinion by a test which I had a subsequent opportunity of applying to the falseness of an assumption conunoniy allowed in support of the contrary opinion. It is assumed that the phos- phorescent light confines itself to the water-surface. Having tenacious doubts on this point as well, I hired a canoe, months afterwards, when on the Pacific coast between Vancouver Island and Russian America, and, tak'ng a crew of Indians, I made them row me, one mild but very dark night, about half a mile out from the shore. Fastening the canoe to some kelp — kelp is often 80 or 90 iii(5t long in the Pacific — I first got my Indians to splash or stir up 22 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. the water with their broad paddles. The immediate result was that I could see plainly to read a news- paper. I then attached five fathoms of cord to a large piece of iron shaped like a spoon, and, on sinking the spoon, I saw with the utmost clearness the track of light it left as it went down the five fathoms. T had already convinced myself that sea- phosphorus is not the product of animal life : but now I returned to land satisfied that the deep sea — most probably to the very bottom — contains phos- phorus no less than the surface does, thus adding strong corroborative testimony to my theory of vol- canic agency being the cause of this salt-water phos- phorescence.* But, amid all these disquisitions on natural history and the science of the globe, how fared lo on board the Northern Lightj which introduced us to them ? If I say of our ship that she was seaworthy, I shall have praised her sufficiently. The Captain proved to be crassly ignorant, careless, and coarse. What I 4 * Trustworthy information Las been received in England this year (1871) that the Government of the United States of North America are making preparations on a large scale, under the direction of their Superm- terdcnt of Coast Surveys, for a complete investigation of the deep-sea bottom of the Gulf Stream. CANADIANS AND AMERICANS. 23 provisions we had were of the roughest kind, such as would hardly have been tolerated in the forecastle of a Newcastle coal- brig. If the vessel had been properly freighted, the accommodation would per- chance have sufficed ; but, with a double complement of passengers, it was execrable. In England there is a preventive remedy against all these evils. In Yankeedom neither law nor moral sense provides the seafaring traveller with the means of redress, pro- snec'' . or retrospective. A i.iip-load of that sort, coming straight from the United States, naturally furnished studies of character and habit in every variety. A few seemed to be travelling, like myself, in search of health and know- ledge, or in pursuit of some professional avocation. The great majority, however, braved the perils of the deep, and suffered the hardships of the passage, solely with tV?o hope of amassing wealth in the gold- fields of C it ''•• or British Columbia. At least four hundred of m^ ..''^ 'nates were Canadians; and very interesting it was to mark the difference between their behaviour and that of the American pascongcrs. These appeared to be utterly bereft of the kindly feelings air:^ social tendencies which help to make life endurable, f! .r^ was hardly a day, or an hour in 24 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. the day, that they did not contrive to get up some dispute or other about the veriest trifles: whereas the Canadians made themselves agreeable through- out, retaining withal a respectful language and de- meanour towards every person on board, after the manner of men who know how to consider other people's rights, not less than their own. The 20th was Easter Sunday. When day broke, vi' perceived that we were rapidly approaching the i. .med Isthmus which slenderly links together the two continents of North and South America; and by eight o'clock that morning the Northern Light was safely moored along- side the jetty at Aspinwall, having made the passage from New York in eight days and 19| hours, ex- actly — that is, a distance of 2338 sea-miles, at the average speed of somewhat over eleven knots an hour. 25 CHAPTER III. ASriNWALL OP COLON ? — AT COLON — ACROSS TUB ISTUMUS OF PANAMA — FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN — LAUNCHED ON THE PACIFIC FOR SAN FRANCISCO — THE MEXICAN COAST, WESTWARD — ACAPULCO — MANZA- NILLA BAY — CALIFORNIA. The appellation by which the world at large will ultimately recognise the northern port on the Isthmus of Panama is still a matter of uncertainty and con- tention. Speculators from the United States have dubbed it Aspinwall, after one Mr. W. H. Aspinwall, a New York mercliant, who was the chief originator of the Panama railroad, and therefore, to some degree, of this seaport town. But the natives, and indeed all South Americans, insist on the place re- taining its ancient name of Colon, the Spanish form of Columbus. It must be confessed the natives have both taste and right on their side. That a locality should be handed down to posterity in connexion with the greatest maritime discoverer that ever lived is an honour which even a Yankee trader of the 26 QUEEN CKARLOTTE ISLANDS. iPi J^ nineteenth century could scarcely hope to cap. As to right, what should we English think if a party of Frenchmen were to take possession of some harbour on our coasts, and pretend to substitute Lafitte or Clicquot for some time-honoured name prominent in our history? The trading interest of the North American States will probably succeed in imposing its nomenclature upon Panama. If right were to prevail, it would not be so. On board ship, we talked of our destination as Aspinwall. But, once landed, I feel I ought to refer to it as Colon. It is situated on the island of Manzanilla, in Limon or Navy Bay. There had been a village there originally, when, in 1850, a larger settlement was begun, for the purpose of surveying the Isthmus, with a view to a raihvay. Since then Colon has grown into a town of real importance, and at present contains some 200 houses, in which about 2000 in- habitants permanently reside. Its trade depends exclusively on the railroad, nearly the whole of the male population being either labourers or officials employed by the Company. A small ileet of steamers — engaged for the most part in the Chilian, Peruvian, and Californian trades — may generally be seen riding .9 THE ISTHMIAN RAILROAD. 27 at anchor in the bay. But the bay itself, though deep enough to float the largest vessels almost close up to the shore, lies so exposed that ro ship is perfectly secure in it. The construction of a break- water has been long intended, and will no doubt eventually be accomplished. Until the promotes of the railroad arrived in Panama, the country, as far as the eye could reach from the bay, was one forest of nangrove, mahogany, and manzanilla — a medicinal plant from which the island derives its name. But now, the low level of the waste land, the marshy character of the uncovered ground, the decayed vegetation, the deposit of birds, the refuse of fish, the heat of the atmosphere, and the superabundant rainfall, have all united in creating a dangerous and clinging miasmatic fever, justly dreaded by un- acclimatized strangers. The line from Colon to Panama City cost, it is said, the life of one man for every foot of its construction. Two miles outside Colon is the burial-place of that forlorn-hope of railway navvies. They came in crowds, enticed by the wages (100 dollars a month, that is, 20/.) ; but very few lived the month out. In short, the wide world does not con- tain a spot, Sierra Leone perhaps excepted, more iJi! ,|il l';i 28 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. uri desirable as a residence than Colon and its neighbourhood. However, for those who are simply passing through, the malignant fevers have now almost ceased. And fortunate it is thus, because a voyage to the Pacific Ocean comprises nothing so interesting as the railway journey across the Isthmus of Panama. The housing at Colon may be dismissed with the remark that it consists principally of wood-built shan- ties, having zinc roofs and brick floors. They are hotels, warehouses, railway offices, or labourers' cots. That which struck me most, on landing, was the vitality of the vegetable and animal creation. Nature, as seen on the Isthmus, cannot be fitly portrayed. She appeared to have decked herself out with extravagant luxuriance, to bid us wayfarers from the bleak North a festive welcome. There is an inexpressible loveliness in the deep-green pendants of the palm and cocoa-nut trees, as the eye, unused to a southern clime, first lights upon them. Pine-apples sold at twopence each, and prodigies they were too. A plentiful supply of delicious dates, bananas, oranges, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables proper to the tropics, met one at every turn, and at fabulously low prices. I I THE INSECT FAUNA. 29 Turkey-buzzards seemed to be hopping and flying about as common as crows in England; and the monkey-tribe had evidently become domesticated, for a representative monkey sat squatting at the entrance to each store, inn, or private house, just as cats and dogs do "Nvith us. But the truly surprising and amusing characteristic was the tnsicct faima kingdom. Not to mention Brob- dingnag beetles, taking their " constitutional " down the main street in broad day, I was shown a Norfolk- Howard, which had only been born three weeks before, and had yet attained to the dimensions of a young turtle. A little black boy was phiying with it on the footpath, much in the same way that little white boys play with rabbits. He had got a string tied to the hind leg of his Norfolk -Howard, and I stood by while he urged on his ungaiidy playfellow with a stick. The distance from Colon to Panama City is forty- seven miles. In the afternoon of the day of our arrival we all left together by a tremendously long train. It was here, more than anywhere, that the marvel of the contrast between a temperate and a torrid zone really revealed itself. As our train rolled slowly along, we took in reaches of the surrounding country. i;|! 30 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. No sign of habitation, or even of soil, was visible in either lowland or highland. Mountain rose up mag- nificently behind mountain, every one clothed to its summit with flowers, fruits, and foliaceous life. I saw clusters of dazzling white lilies, bowers of the broad-leafed plantain, thickets of tall geraniums, groves of palms and rival fern-trees, stacks of verdant sugar-canes, and, above them again, enormous trunks of the sycamore and the mango, interwoven with Virginian creepers and a still virgin brushwood. All these stretched out, like the marshalled forces of some giant army, for miles and miles athwart the land- scape. Gazing from my carriage-seat over this panorama of wondrous floriage and foliage, basking in a daily recurrent sun-sheen, I could not avoid the thought that possibly Panama-land had once been part of Eden. Nearer to Panama, the mountain-ranges decreasing in size, we caught a cursory view of the great Picacho, which rears its 7200 feet far off to the westward. Keaching almost up to Mount Picacho is the famous Sierra de Quarequa, It was from its crest that, on September the 29 th, 1513, Nunez de Balboa sighted the Western Ocean. Irrespective of the glory attaching to such a discovery, the rapture THE BAY OF PANAMA. 31 witli which he and his followers, first of all Europeans, are said to have surveyed that glistening sea and the grove-covered islets studding it, can easily be credited by any one who has looked upon the Bay of Panamk There are few scenes, viewed at a distance, more suggestive of an earthly paradise, ac- cording to the old-fashioned notion of it. Happy were it if a closer inspection carried out the illusion. By the banks of a meandering stream, and in among beautiful groups of hillocks, green as only Panama grass can make them, our train kept saunter- ing on until, after a journey of about two hours and a half, it finally landed us safely at Panama City. The town occupies a promontory which juts out some good way into the sea. As a place of transit it has now become all-important. I would fain have stayed there awhile; but necessity compelled me to defer my examination of it till my return. A short half-hour more, and two tenders might have been seen steaming away to the ofiing, with the whole of us cargo of passengers from the Northern Light on board, and another hundred, who had come straight from England by the Southampton steamer, superadded. All told, we counted nearly eighteen hundred. The Californian packet, which was awaiting I 4 ! 32 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. our arrival, had hardly room enough to accom- modate a tliird of that number comfortablv. Her name was the Golden Age, an American-built four-decker, and, if she had not been so shockin^fly overcrowded, on the whole as goodly a ship, both inside and out, as one could wish to sail in. At ten o'clock the same evening she weighed anchor, and bore away for Point ]\Ialn, the soutli- western headland in the Bay of Panama, and thence, after two points further in a south-westerly course, due north-west for her voyage to San Francisco. That was on the Sunday. By noon on the follow- ing Tuesday we had made a run of 36G miles, having steamed between the mainland and Quibo Island, and hugged the shores of Costa Rica, till we could discern with our glasses the broad entrance to the river Estrella. The water of the ocean looked as smooth and limpid as though we were merely crossing a lakelet in Canada. And when we sat down to our meals in the large saloon, without any more disturbance from the elements than we should have had in an hotel on terra firma, I could not help recalling the three months of uninterrupted calm weather experienced by Magelhaens, when he first doubled Cape Horn, A DELINQUENT PUNISHED. 33 and which induced him to christen these seas the Pacific Ocean. At this stage of our Californian voyage, the food they gave us in the Golden Age was infinitely superior to that provided in the Northern Light. We had delicious coff^ee, fresh butter, juicy beef, and biscuits of the very best American flour. But what pleased me most was the dish of huge Californian potatoes which always garnished the dinner-table. In shape and measurement the smallest of these potatoes re- sembled a large-sized cocoa-nut ; and to get through half a one was quite as much as any of the diners uld satisfactorily accomplish. iiy degrees we veered off from the coastway, and as the ocean maintained an unruffled surface, the monotony came to be temporarily relieved by an incident extremely characteristic of the lands of the Far West. A berth forward having been found less its blanket, the missing article was discovered, after a persistent search, in the possession of one of the steerage pas- sengers. Whereupon his messmates determined to clinch the matter by taking the law into their own hands. Some were for stringing him up summarily to the yard-arm, others proposed to crop his hair and 'II ill 1; 34 QUFEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. brand him P.P. (i e. Provincial Penitentiary), whilst a third party thcjght a good ducking under the pump would be the right thing. But milder counsels at length prevailed. So, stripping the delinquent of his coat, they pinned a card behind him, with the word Thief in bold letters on it, and then marched him in that unenviable attire up and down the deck for a couple of hours. When we turned in that night, we were opposite Cape Blanco, keeping well in the open, and still in a dead calm. But before the next morning a strong land-breeze sprang up, and by ten o'clock, though we had run 339 miles, we found ourselves in the midst of a hurricane, the sea raging terrifically, our ship pitching and rolling in a fearful manner, and all hands lying out on the yards to double-reef the sails, or securing the mainmast with extra bracings to keep it from going by the board. This exceedingly unpacific state of the Pacific Ocean continued with little diversity for several days, during which I, and about a dozen other passengers, were the only persons amongst our eighteen hun- dred who could stand the deck. Of all the ills that flesh is heir to, none can compare with sea-sickness. But its horrors are enhanced tenfold when you feel THE MEXICAN COAST. 35 that every dip of the ship into the deep, and every assault of the sickness itself, is simply p'-iit of the process by which you are being tor/i from your native land, and from the home where you have left your dearest friends. In this part of the Pacific it takes no time, so to speak, to get up a storm. The reaction, on the con- trary, is extraordinarily slow. Hence, though that gale duly subsided, we did not again enjoy the same smooth waters as at first. To enumera+o all our points and distances would be tedious. Suffice then to say that we ploughed on our way bravely enough, oftener standing out to sea, yet occasionally running right under the coast, and twice putting into harbour. For beauty and sublimity nothing in Europe can equal the scenery on the western coast of Mexico. As seen from ship-board, it appeared to consist, for hundreds of miles, first, of countless hillocks, clothed with a verdure of rich and varied shades, and, further inland, of high mountain-ranges, whicii likewise looked one mass of green to their topmost crowns. The sing alar slant of the lower hill-country points, in the clearest way possible, to this portion of the globe havir^ been transformed — presumably at some D 2 !i M I 36 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. remote period, history being silent about it — by a volcanic eruption which operated across no conside- rable width, but along a surprisingly disproportionate length of territory. The unquestionable fact of snch a convulsion seems all the more curious because, now and again, the higher mountains infringe upon the elongated continuity of the lower, pushing spurs down to the seaboard, and even precipitate promon- tories out into the sea. Viewed together, those Mexican coast-scenes make up a description of land- scape such as would repay many of our first-class artists the trouble of a voyage, provided always that they escaped the deadly coast-fever. However, with so much beneficence in nature, it was sad to think we were viewing it from the point where " dis- tance lends enchantment to the view." For not only do those grand mountain-ranges abound in gloomy caverns and repulsive ravines, filled with everything most horrifying in the brute creation; but, as we were trustworthily informed, the passes which lead over them are, and probably will long be, the abode of merciless banditti, wlio have subjected Western Mexico to a reign of terror, and have rendered existence there an insupportable burden. One morning we ran into the harbour of Aca- ACAPCLCO. 37 ,hing we lead 3ode item ered Aca- pulco, our object being to deliver a hundred tons of freight, and to ship as much more in export stores. This town, if viewed through European spectacles, is a conglomeration of poverty and untold misery. Yet the people had a satisfied look, reminding one forcibly, as they lounged in front of their houses or under the trees on the plaza, of the lazzaroni vegetating on the Chiaja at Naples. If the rest of their provisions "r2 as clieap as what they brought off to the Golden Age, they must certainly have enough to eat, without any great labour. Oranges were selling at a halfpenny, bananas at a shilling for a bunch of fifty, cocoa-nuts at a penny, and six large cakes of molasses at a shilling. We had green parrots offered to us at two shillinciH each. The harbour is sufficiently deep to float lar":e-sized men-of-war. We saw here the flas- ship of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Maitland, and saluted it as we left. Three other English ships of war, and a French one, were also at Acapulco : an unpleasant station, I fancy. Another morning we again diverged from our course, to enter Manzanilla Bay, for the purpose of shipping a cargo of silver from the mines of Colima. There was the same familiar reach of country : but it impressed one as uncultivated, almost waste in fact, 38 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. m and only too fit a background to the tumble-down port of Salagna at the bottom of the bay. The heat of the sun had been dreadful. But now, each turn of our screw withdrawing us gradually from its worst effects, I soon began to recover. A tropical sun, wiiile it lasts, is a wicked master. I can best describe the sensation it causes as resembling the pain that would be produced if any one were to seize a handful of your hair, and use his utmost elforts to pull it all out by the roots. European travel- lers to the South invariably fall into the error of wearing light and airy head-gear. But, in a hot climate, there is no defence like a thick, stout cap. The same for the feet. The action of a tropical sun is absolutely perpendicular, not leaving any room for shadows. Whenever it exerts its power, and nowhere more so than when bearing down upon the deck of a ship, thick soles to one's shoes are essential. After Manzanilla we kept to windward of the coast, never sighting land for a week, even once: till, on Sunday the 4th of May, we steered in again towards the shore, and before evening saw the tall, snow-clad mountains of Upper California, which overhang the lovely Bay of Monterey. At daybreak next day the firing of two small SAN FRANCISCO HARBOUR. 30 guns from our bows imparted the welcome intelli- gence to the wayworn passengers that we had reached the entrance to the land-locked harbour of San Francisco, and that we should land at that city in time for breakfast. The last act of us English on board the Golden Age was to sign a protest to the Captain against the provisions we had been served with. Our two days' feasting had turned out "a mockery, a delusion, and a snare." During the rest of the voyage nothing could have been coarser, dirtier, or more wholly repellent than our saloon-table — not even that of the Northern Light. But, of course, our protest went for waste paper. The passage from Panama to San Francisco occupied exactly thirteen days and eighteen hours, deducting twelve hours for delays at Acapulco and Manzanilla; thus making 3500 miles at the average rate of ten and three-quarter knots an hour. A fair speed, considering the gale. \l'U ii I ! 40 CHAPTER V. ANTECEDENTS OP CALIFORNIA—ORIGIN OF SAN FRANCISCO — INTO FRISCO BT THE " GOLDEN GATE " — STREET RUFFIANISM — FIRE-BRIGADES IN PORTS- MOUTH SQUARE — VIEW OF THE CITY FROM TELEGRAPH HILL — PUBLIC RESORTS — THE " CHINA TOWN " — FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO. That part of California which, in the form of a peninsula, runs down the western coast of North America, was originally discovered by the Spaniards ; but they did not at first colonize it, and they hardly named it. For quite a century afterwards it was known to Englishmen as New Albion, Sir Francis Drake having so named it when, in 1579, he touched there during one of his buccaneering expeditions. As soon, however, as the Spanish Government began to make settlements on the peninsula, they restored its old Indian name of California. The discovery of Upper California dates much later. Indeed, it was only in the year 1770 that the first ship sailed into the Bay of San Francisco. The pioneers of this great commercial mart of the nine- POSITION OF SAN FRANCISCO. 41 teenth century were certain Franciscan friars, who, in 1776, founded a mission station on the spot, with a view to civilizing the savages of the interior. It is from them that the name of San Francisco has been derived. In a purely trade point of view the City of San Francisco is splendidly placed. It lies at the north- east corner of a strip of land which serves to divide and protect a deep and roomy bay from the Pacific Ocean. But as we rounded the headland and ap- proached the town, it was depressing and almost appalling to see the completeness of the desolation encircling it on every side. There are high hills, some twentv miles off; and between the hills and the town not ten arable acres exist, or could be made to exist, and no trees whatsoever. Since the time I am writing about, the Pacific Railroad has been brought to San Francisco. Even now, however, only one road leads out of the city, none other being likely to be wanted for many a long year to come : and the traveller by that road literally does not reach a single place of shelter from the burning rays of the sun, to say nothing of a pleasant landscape, until he has traversed the sandy plain for twelve miles. Up to 1834 the missionary friars had retained ff? i: II I Hi lull 42 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. complete control, secular as well as religious, of the settlement in this bay. In that year the Mexican Government secularized all the missions of California ; and thenceforward they rapidly decayed. Although the first houses of a new colony were erected in 1835, it advanced so slowly that a census taken in 1847 only showed a population of 459 persons. But in 1848 the first Californian gold was discovered, and two years afterwards there were more than 30,000 people living in San Francisco, under the govern- ment of the United States, which had annexed the colony. No such rapidity of growth had ever been witnessed in any town in the world. In 1860 the population had increased to 56,805; and since then the increase has steadily gone on, at the rate of about 10,000 a year. I had been conning these facts over in my berth long before we made the Bay of San Francisco ; and they had quite prepared me to see in California order and disorder, grandeur and squalidness, and all the heterogeneous elements which constitute society in the abstract, jumbled up into a concrete of most extraordinary admixture. And I was by no means disappointed. Hardly had I arrived at my hotel when two STREET-RUFFIANISM. 48 respectably-dressed men, engaged in hot dispute, rushed out of it. The case was the interminable one of North against South. Taking it for no more than an usual American " difficulty," I turned to enter the hotel ; but chancing to look again, I saw that the Northerner was about to add violence to his slanderous and abusive language. Already he had drawn a revolver from his pocket. The Southerner, however, was a match for him. Quick as an eagle, he drew his own revolver, and shot the rowdy through the heart, in presence of all the people. Arrest, it is true, followed — or rather, the killer gave himself up ; but he was soon released, the Southerners being still predominant in California. This may have been an improvement on the state of affairs which existed in the earlier days of San Francisco, when crime, under the forms of incendiarism, robbery, and murder, reached such an alarming hei":ht that the towns- people became persuaded of the total inefficiency or corruption of their law-courts, and, forming a vigi- lance-committee, seized the prisoners in the gaols and hanged them in the open street ; but that homicide should continue to be committed, in broad day and in the public highway, with impunity, and even with approval, seemed to me to demonstrate beyond a I mm i'li 44 QUEEN CIIAULOTTE ISLANDS. doubt how little the San Franciscans could yet pre- tend to civilization. As a contrast to street-ruffianism we were regaled, the same evening, with a really striking sight in Portsmouth Square. It happened to be the anni- versary of the formation of the first fire-brigade, and the firemen celebrated their day by a pro- cession about the town. Incendiarism and the fragile build of many of the older houses in San Francisco, and indeed all over the United States, have com- bined to make the fire-brigade in that part of the globe an institution of far greater importance than in any other country. The immense number of engines did not surprise me, therefore. But their handsome brass and plated mountings, their tasty decoration with flags and flowers, the glittering uni- forms of the men, and the general arrangements of the procession, formed so odd a counterpart to the unpunished crime of the morning, that seeing such a display could alone have made me believe in what it suggested. So long as a people preserve to an ap- preciable degree the instinct of order, even though it show itself in nothing more important than a pro- cession, real prosperity may always be prognosticated for them. VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO. 45 ^lany of the passengers by the Golden Age^ who had left England and America with the intention of emigrating to British Columbia, unexpectedly dropped into good situations at San Francisco, their wages averaging four to six dollars a day, besides board and lodging. I myself received two offers immediately on landing, one at 100 and the other at 170 dollars a month, the latter equal to 510/. a year, and both places excellent in their way. But I de- clined them, in anticipation of a better opening further on. Having only a few days for San Francisco, I bethought me to make the most of my time by inspecting the city from every point of view, inside and out. In my opinion one should always begin with the outside of cities. It gives shape to preconceived ideas, and begets a plan of inspection better than much unguided wandering within. The finest view of San Francisco, or Frisco, as the citizens love to call their city, is obtainable from Telegraph Hill, an eminence in the north-eastern corner of it. From the top of this hill, in a north- westerly direction, is to be seen the famous Golden Gate, or sea-entrance to the Californian El Dorado^ against the rock-bound portals of which the white 46 QUEEN CHARLOTTK ISLANDS. waves are for ever dashing, and into which the ocean breeze sweeps daily with its cliilling but purifying mists. Turning round to the south-east, I could discern, nearly forty miles away, the conical peak of Monte Diablo, 4000 feet high, and looking like some giant sentinel who for untold agcshad stood guard over these waters, whilst their broad surface re-echoed no human sound save the paddle-splash of some Indian in his frail canoe. Due south, and as beneath my feet, lay the city, which it is easy to see will at no very distant date become the great capital of the United States in the Pacific. The settled portion of the town appeared to cover an area of about ten miles. From my position on the hill I observed that what had been told me concerning the denseness of the buildings was not exaggerated. The original streets lie together in a sort of amphitheatre formed by three hills. Telegraph Hill being one. These streets are built in rectangular blocks, and with but a narrow roadway. Of late years they have been used solely as the business quarter. Beyond these the streets become much wider, with houses standing back in gardens at con- siderable intervals, or in terraces having rows of trees in front. The quays make an admirable QUAYS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 47 appearance. The position they occupy was orif^inally a chaos of loose sands and mud-hills, furrowed by the refuse-water of centuries. In 1854, •<■. series of gigantic operations, such as are only known in America, entirely reclaimed the chaos, so that, while the largest vessels can now ride in safety alongside the quays or piers, the heaviest waggons are able to convey with facility all kinds of merchandise down to the very ship-board. Excepting New York, there is no finer array of wharves on the American continent. The quays of San Francisco are, in point of openness and accessibility, even superior to those of New York. I3y-and-by, when both have consolidated their pr(.''en+ woodwork into stone, they perhaps may begin to rival Liverpool, with its six miles of splendid masonry. The shipping in the bay was numerous, and included craft of every tonnage, from schooners of thirty tons to a fifty-gun English frigate, with its pennant streaming from the main, and "the flag that braved a thousand years " flying from the mizen- yard. By the aid of my glass I could make out a red-coated marine pacing the flush-deck aft. Amid so much to admire in the future capital of the West, it was grateful to reflect that, as yet, our Empire of the Seas showed no inclination to decay. i,'l r''' 1 iilli ! m. I .nil 48 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. On descending from my survey-post, I walked through twelve bran-new squares. Most of them were, so far, either covered with brushwood or com- pletely in the rough. Only one, Portsmouth Square, gave me the impression of being civilized. It is tastefully laid out in grass plots, marble fountains, and the beginnings of oliady walks. The City Hall, an ugly gazabo of a building, flan] 3 one side of it, and private houses rfui along the three other sides. The most remr.rkable public resort, after this square, is Montgomery Street. I will only say that it irre- sistibly reminded me of Broadway in New York, or rather of what Broadway probably looked like before its trees were removed. The housing in the squares and principal streets is of a yellowish sandstone, nearly identical in look and substance witli the stone used for building purposes throughout our own Northamptonshire. But a very large number of the original houses still remain, some having brick frontages, the miijority, however, being wooden con- structions, and, in not a few instances, the merest shed-work. Montgomery Street, and one or two others, are tolerably mcU paved; but the geiierul system is phinkwork, as in Canada and in so many cities of the United States ; oidy that at San Fnmci^jo SAN FRANCISCO CUSTOM-HOUSE. 49 con- lerest two iiierui [many plaiA's have been adopted for tlie roadway as well as tlie footpatli. In the absence of granite or lime- stone, planking is doubtless the handiest method of road-making, particularly where virgin-forests are still within reach; but every one can see tiiat in a city existing by traffic it is not a system to last long. If the San Franciscans should find it too expensive to imitate the New Yorkers, who imported Aberdeen granite to pave their Broadway, they will probably before many years substitute asphalte or some cognate composition for their prGS(3nt road-planking. Though as a matter of course tramways were in opera- tion, they seemed less in favour here than in any American city I had seen, whilst omnibuses and other hackney conveyances were proportionately more numerous. The 11 nest building in the town is, without doubt, the Custom-house. It stands upon ground over which the waters of the bay formerly flowed. Its foundation is j)ile-work, the piles having been driven thi'ty feet down, through soft clay, in order to get at a hard and solid bottom. A substantial and really imposing edifice having been afterwards erected upon this, the establishment of the Custom-house is justly considered as a feat of engineering skill. The entire K I ll ^ ^ 50 f i QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. structure, I was told, cost 800,000 dollars, or 160,000/., which I can well believe. The " American " Theatre (so called in contra- distinction to the "Cliinese" Theatre) is, externally, as handsome a public edifice as the United States can boast. The interior appeared to me almost an exact copy of the M'lsic Hall in New York. I v^ent one evening to see the performances. These ^TOre the Colleen Baton and the Silent Wornaii. The coarse and undisguised immorality of the latter piece so utterly disgusted me that I left the theatre abruptly. The house was a full one. and quite half composed of respectabl^'-dressed females ; but not another soul in it stirred. Where the passions are thus played with indiserirninately, it is no wonder they should often take the direction of nmrder, that the most hideous crimes should be easily condoned, an ' that the general tone of morality should have descended to the very depths, as I was given to understand is the sad case at San Francisco. No visitor to Frisco omits to see its " China-town." But there is really much less to see in it than one is led to expect. In 18(50 it was calculated there were about 100,000 Chinese in all California, of whom some 10,000 lived at San Francisco. Their quarter SAX FRANCISCO " CHINA-TOWN." 51 consists of from fifteen to twenty narrow streets, all of wood, and wallowing in a most iniquitous state of filth. It presented the usual Oriental features, with wliich every eye is familiar — open bazars, striped av;nings, and an unassorted collection of nondescript goods. For all that, there was an evident spirit of thrift and activity amongst those Chinese emigrants, separating them widely from genuine Orientalism as we imagine it. In passing through the thronged streets I did not come upon one idle man. The inhabitants were described to me as sober, orderly, and peaceful, and as excelling all other classes in these respects. And yet they have invariably be- longed to the lowest stratum of society in their native countrv, whilst the verv faces of the neater number, particularly of the women, betrayed an ingrained demoralization shocking to behold. As my infor- mation precisely coincided with what I saw, this is a proof that vice may permeate whcjle com- nmnities without any of the concomitant mani- festations of it to which we are accustomed in Europe. Thus I took a four days' glance at the city of San Francisco. My conception of it, on leaving, was that years will £ 2 52 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. elapse before its throes of premature civilization are altogether over, but that its present flourishing condition is none the less as certain a fact as its future mercantile mastery in the Pacific Ocean is an assured consequence. I I 53 CHAPTER V. BOUXn FOR VANCOUVER ISLAND — DISCOMFORT OF THE VOYAGE, — FIRST SlfiUT OF VANCOUVER — HARHOUUS OF VANCOUVER — ESQUIMALT — VICTORIA — THREE MONTHS IN THE CASCADE AND BLUE MOUNTAINS — COPPER UN QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS — FORMATION OF THE QUEEN CUARLOTTS MINING COMPANY — CHIEF KITGUEN OK KLUE. It was a Thursday afternoon, May the 8th, wlien agam I coinniitted myself to the pathless ocean, this time in a small steam-vessel called the Pacijic. Al)out three hundred passengers would have made a respectahle freight for her. Nobody seemed to know how many we luid on board ; but I guessed twelve luiiulred to be near the mark. I shall give this part of my narrative in the words of my Diary : — " /V/Wrtfy, ^^a]/ dfh. — Awoke this morning in a miserable state. Two English gentlemen and my- self iiad slept on deck all night, having contrived to rig some canvas to protect us from the driving rain. We might certainly have got wetter without it.'' ^^ Saturdai/, May 10/A. — Steamer making little IT 54 QUEEN CHAHLOTTE ISLANDS. progress. Nothing but rain, rain, rain. Wind very high, a real nor'-wester, with thick fogs, which render the voyage extremely dull and uninteresting, not to mention the awful misery of such a crowded and unprovided ship. An English friend of mine, who has also come out from Canada, begins to curse his fate in leaving that land of comfort for the prospect of gold in tlie mines of British Columbia. There are a good many more who share his opinion. For my part I feel perfectly sure that tl»e hardships at the mines cannot equal those we are subject to on board this steamer. Horses, mules, sheep, pigs, oxen, hud- dled together. All hours of the day and night, hundreds of the passengers, in various stages of sea- sickness, may be seen clinging to the rigging, with the hope of imbibing a moutliful of air. Food is almost an illusion ; and oftentimes I would sooner go with- out a meal, such as it is, than risk losing some hole or corner where the crush is less, and where one has a better chance of escaping the hoofs of the Mexican mules — a kick from wliom might soon enough send one ' down among the dead men.' It is reported that several passengers were lost overboard, in both the Northern Light and the Golden Age, without being missed till the end of each voyage. I can well A MISERABLE VOYAGE. 55 credit it: for it appears to me a hundred people might tumble over the sides during the night, and their surviving comrades not be any the wiser, or the Captain and crew be at the least pains to save the lost ones. Close astern of the figure-head is the place I usually aim at The wind blows fiercely there. However, one does not encounter so much dirt forward as aft. It is consequently healthier, thou^^h, like every other available spot, choke-full of pas- sengers. »» '•''Sunday, Maij llth, 10 r.M. — A wet dreary night before us, and still nowhere to lay my head. This comes of travelling by Yankee ships. Tiiank heaven, I shall soon be a^jain under the Gjood Union Jack of Old England, where the rights of the hum- blest passengers are respected, to say nothing of those who pay large sums as their fare. Commend me to British vessels for sterling loyalty to whatever ar- rangements they make." ^''Monday, May 12th, — Cramped and sore from havinfr ventured to take a stretch on the wet dock when tired out with standing. Tried to dry and warm myself against the steamer's funnel. Strong easterly gale now blowing, heavy sea running, ship straining fearfully, as with double-reefed topsails she 56 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. rises out of it, and lunges over to windward, and again pitches headlong into the ugly sea-trough. " 6 A.M. — Was quite half an hour in reaching the heel of the ship's bowsprit, the throng of people and cattle on deck being so great. Horizon clearing at last on the weather-bow. Gives us a sight of Cape Hancock, at the mouth of the Columbia river. This river divides the State of Oregon from that of Washington. There is a bar which lies about two miles westward of the mouth of the river, and pre- vents large vessels from entering. This is a fortunate circumstance for British Columbia, as it necessitates the United States' traders seeking a harbour within the limits of our territory. " 4 r.M. — Weather clear. A beautiful sky in the west promises a fine day for to-morrow. Rapidly nearing the Strait of San Juan de Fuca." To the best of my recollection, I had just finished making the last of the above entries in mv Diary, and had fought a way to the forecastle, with the hope of catching the first glimpse of British soil, when one of my fellow-passengers, an Enirlishman I believe, suddenly cried " Vancouver Island !" Thrice welcome sound it was, indeed. For there, well in front of us, like some transformation scene STRAITS OF SAN JUAN DE FUCA. 57 emerging from the great repertory of nature, lay the craggy shore and high land of Vancouver. At first it appeared as the veriest outline in the dim distance. But the rough sea of the morning had been gradu- ally calming, and we made such rapid headway that within half an hour the coast began to stand out in bold form, and to reflect gloriously the rays of the declining sun. It seems necessary to journey long away from the sheltering ajgis of British institutions in order fully to know the joy of again hailing the land wlicre the pri- vilege of being plundered and otherwise injured by one's neighbour, whenever he listeth, is at least limited. Soon we were alive from stem to stern : ducks and hens clucking, cattle lowing, sheep bleating, mules restive, and every human passenger intent on gather- ing his or her belongings together — all certain indica- tions that the end of our four days' misery was not far off. Before sunset, in fact, the Pacific steam- veisel had weathered Cape Flattery, and was going ahead in delightfull}' smooth water up the Strait of San Juan, which constitutes the line of demarcation between British and American territory. The pace was too rapid, however, to allow us to see, on either shore, more than a moving panorama of steep red- 58 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. coloured cliffs, those on the American side running back into a ranji;c of higli and rugged peaks, grandilo- quently styled the Olympian Range by its owners. I may here say a word, parenthetically, about anchorage. It is a common mistake of writers who casually mention British Columbia to talk of Van- couver Island as possessing numerous safe and com- modious harbours. They confound a part with the whole. Many excellent harbours certainly do exist on the mainland, although but few of them are as yet in general use. Owing to the powerful tides and currents, and to the contrary winds so prevalent on the coast, those harbours are and must remain prac- tically closed, unless to steamers of high pressure. I knew a clipper-schooner which took two weeks to do the Inside Passage, a distance of only three hun- dred miles. Besides, I can speak from pcrsonul experience, having sailed several times up and down the Passage in sloops, as well as once in a schooner, and paddled it on another occasion in a canoo manned by Indians. And I testify that, notwith- standing the pleasant and generally safe character of the Passage, steam is what alone can ever turn the harbours of the mainland to practical account in the interests of commerce. IIAUBOUUS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 59 The first of the miiinUmd hiirhours is that known iw the North lientinck Arm, whieh I shall afterwards notice. The second is New Westminster. Of both these it is especially true that they never can serve as anything more than ports ot entry for steamers. At New Westminster, the current of the Fraser river is iiiiU'vellonsly strong. No sailing-vessel has a ehatice against it. Kven high-i)ressure steam-vessels find it an absolute impossibility to make the harbour without putting on an unlimited (juantum of extra pounds to tlie inch. In Vancouver Island proper, however, there are three fine harbours. The first of these is Ks(pii- nialt, situated three miles west from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, and its seat of Govern- ment. The formation of Esipiimalt hurl)our is an irregular circle, some two miles in width by three in lenglli. It averages about seven fathoms of water. In facility of ingress and egress it surpasses all other I)orts in British Columbia. Excepting a few patches of rich loamy soil, the ground round about this harbour is very ro(;ky ; but on that account perhaps it ada[)ts itself all the more readily to thepurp(jse of a huiding- place for the heavy wares likely to be wanted in a prospective commercial country. Hence not less by reason of its extraordinarily good anchorage than 60 QUEEN CnAnLOTTE ISLANDS. because combining close proximity to the capital with the easiest access to the ocean-highway, Escpii- malt Harbour appears the great natural port of entry to Vancouver Island, and indeed, for many a year yet, to the whole of British Columbia. It lies exactly nine miles from the Race Rocks, in the Straits of San .luan de Fuca. On the western point at entrance, a white tower-lighthouse, called the Fisgard Light, from an English frigate of that name employed in this service on the coast, has been constructed. The lighthouse stands low, but is nevertheless so admi- rably placed as to be visible at every point of approach towards the harbour. Ships of any size can ride here at anchor, in all security. Escpiimalt is chiefly used as a naval station, the Admiral's flag-ship being usually anchored inside : but, the large steamers belonging to the Pacific Steam Navigation Compari}^, which ply between Vancouver Island and San Francisco, putting into Portland on the Columbia river, also use it as their ter- minus. Nootka Sound is the second of the Vancouver har- bours. The Admiralty reports well of it ; but when the I )lace has been colonized and its harboiir submitted to probation, it will be safer to criticize the official ESQUIMALT HARBOUR. 61 report. The third is Victoria itself. When I last saw it there was a bar or spit running right across the entrance, a short way to the leeward of Ogden and IMaclaughlin Points. The bar has since been thoroughly dredged; and now Victoria Harbour affords sufficient ancliorage for a few larger vessels, and for a considerable number of smaller craft. Despite which a grave error is unanimously admitted to have been committed in choosing the site of Victoria for the capital. The reason alleged was the quantity of good land in its immediate vicinity. But port advantages rank among the primoy requi. sites in a new country, and with such a port as Esquimau close at hand, lying quite near enough to the good land, how its superior claims could have been overlooked appears inconceivable. The truth is, therefore, that, although British Columbia does possess many harbours, only three of them are likely to serve as commercial ports, one, however, Esqui- mau, having pre-eminent capabilities. Upon the lovely spring morning of May 13th, then, and at the begiiming of an equally lovely summer, we all landed — English, Canadians, Ameri- cans, in a heap and a jumble — on the wharf in that harbour of Esquimalt. 62 QUEEN CHARLOTTE I«iLANDS. li '■!?!;;!!:; I !h M A siuldon influx of 1400 people would have taxed the si]p[)lies in an ordinary civilized town. Conse- quently, the eapitul of i^ritish Columbia, which at ti-at date counted only about GOOO fixed residents, witli a fiuatinL', population of miners and stray Indians was hardly the |)lace to find acconunodation for an inva'^ing army like us. Hr-w the majority fared, I know not. But fortunate were those who had brought any kind of housing with vliem. As for me, J was able, in partnership witli some of my English travelliiig-coMpaiii.'-ns, to pitch a tent for the time, on a slight eminence off the S«/uijtnaU road (tl;c Yankee corruption of the euphonistie Esquimalt)^ commanding a viow of Victoria. Fancy arriving in Knuland after a fjur davs' journey from Southern Europe, and being condemned to go a-gi[)sying on Hampstead lUsith — glud too of the chance, I do aver we felt uncommonly 1>ohemian. A\''e formed a sort of camp — ai least those did who had tentage. Numbers, howev( r. found themselves completely with- out shelter, and ^ad it was to sec ♦hem wandering for many days, in couples, or by families, about the crude Victorian streets. Eventually, thougli very gradual !y, they all disappeared, being jd)sorbed, in virtue of some occult process of nature^ into the body colonial, enti <: on 10 icu a itaj'e. Ith- THE BLUE AND CASCADE MOUNTAINS. 63 in(^4ly over to the luainlaiid, whieh subtends the lolaiid of V^incouver. I shall here skip some three months, or accouat for them in general only. My professional acquirements enabled me, sooner than many of my fellow-emigrants, to obtain an ciifMirement. What an emi^jrrant looks to, on land- ing, is to be employed in any maimer. For although he may have to endure great hardshij) from the unwonted nature of the employment offered him, he kjiows that if he will but keep steadily at it he is certain to get on. Sometimes, no doubt, he aets with unwise i)reci[)itancy ; but the stimulus to active txeriion is none the less, even after a disappointment at sta''ting. It is so disposed, ])erhaps providentially, eliiig of this kind led me, in the first instance, to a prospecting enfer[»rise on the mainland. My idian experience had inured me to venturesome ations in the open air, from which I rashly rred that I could stand their e(piivalent in JJritish uml)ia. lUit for all my eagerness to earn a status in colony, could I have foreseen one tithe of the '.ri- iuns before me I should have shrunk back appalled, ciiig wishful to take my reader on to (^ueen lotte Islands, which is the chief object of A il J (lUl aiit open infei Coh tl le vati liar l< 64 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. this narrative, I shall sum up what I underwent during the three months after my arrival by sayiri;; that the ex[)loring expedition I joined included in its operations forcing our way across the Blue and Cas- cade Mountains, here climbing up half-perpendicular hill-sides, there springing from rock to rock, then down again by precipitous tracks, where one false step would have flung me into an unfathomable abyss, at one time up to the middle in soft alkiili mud, at another breasting swift mountain-torrents, scrambling over roots and fallen trees, or battling with the densest brushwood. More than once it occurred to our party to find ourselves benighted amidst a superabundant vegetation, reminding me of Panama, with a temjierature of 98° in the shade, and with myriads of the customary hot climate accessories in the shape of mosquitoes, sand-flies, black-flies, and a species of ant as lai'ge as the connnon English fly, besetting us in every direction, each little fellow l\aving obvi(msly embarked his energies in a concen- trated eflbrt to excel our otlier persecutors in the quantity of blood he could extract from us victims; whereas the next day about noon we might have been seen, had anybody watched our i)rogress, in the midst of the snow, shivering on a mountain-top, LIKELIHOOD OF COPPER. 65 16,000 feet al)ove the sea-level, and therefore higher tlian Mont Blanc or the Jiingfrau ; but again, the very same evening perhaps, clown once more into the hot plain or valley. If to such reckless pulls on one's constitution it be added that for five or six days we were in hourly dread of attack from hostile savages whose country we were prospecting, tluit our food consisted principally of the bark of trees, and that, tliough we left a sorrowful trail of blood behind us, nay, the body even of one of our companions, wc had no trail to guide our path save our pocket-compasses, some idea may be formed of the pluck which was necessary to ca * y ns through with the expedition, and some palliation be .accepted for the hopeless failure in which it resulted. Never did means prove more inadequate to the end. But it served to start me in British Columbia. It was under tliese circum- stances that for the second time I arrived at Victoria, on this occasion without a penny in my pocket, ami without a friend or relative nearer than 0000 miles. However, after a fortni^jht's rest and i^ood livini; I began to recover rhe use of my feet, and to feel that my constitution was not altogether destroyed. As soon as I liad strength sutficient to get about, I stated publicly my conviction tliat, from observations F Ni Id m^ GG QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. and calculations I had made on the maiidand, almost opposite Queen Charlotte Islands, there was copper to be found in the group of islands which lie out from the coast to the north of Vancouver. This opinion happened to receive a singula *' confirmation from the fact of a native of those islands having, some months previous, brought down a samjjle of copper- ore to Victoria undtir the impression that it was gold. In a marvellously short time the nucleus of a Company was got together and entitled the Queen Ciiarlotte Alining Comi)any, wliich so inspired mo with hope and confidence that I offered to go up and sink the re(piisite shafts. As mining engineers are not a commodity which is landed every day in iJritish Columbia, the directors were only too happy to accept my offer. Before closing the bargain f thought an interview with the Governor, Sir James Douglas, would be both proper and j)n)fitable. The long service of Sir James Douglas to the Hudson's Bay Company, his iiitimate acquaintance with the various tribes of natives, and his knowledge of the requirements for developing the resources of this the most important colony of Eng- land in the Pacific, rendered )iim at that epoch enii- OOVEUNOR DOUGLAS. 67 nently qualified to fulfil the duties of Governor of our North-West American possessions. I have no object in bepraising him other than a desire to re- cord n.y humble sense of his eminent merits, lint sucii I know to be the verdict of all unbiassed men who had the advantage of living under his wise and able administration. In my case he rer"etted that he could not take upon hinsself the respc.isibili»y of giving me the more substantial protection of a gunl)oat and a detachment of marines. The hostility attributed to the natives of Queen Charlotte Islands the Governor declared to be well founded. Tlie risk ;uk1 expense would be too great, he said, for the Government to incur in a private undertaking; but he ended some valuable advice by reconnnending me strongly to supply myself with plenty of arms and annnunitit>n. It did not look very encouraging. I was bent upon making the venture, however. As it chanced, Kitgnen, who elaiin«Ml the; head chieftainship of the islands, was then at V'ictoria; so I took iiini before the Governor, to whom he promised that his tribe sliould not molest us, and that he would bring ills influence or power to bear iii our bihallshouhl any ctlicr tribe seem disposed to contest our landing or interfere with our c.xptorations. In fact, we took F 2 •\ fPffr 1 1 ill 'I ! ' 1 68 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. the bull by the horns, and with capital cfFect. The Governor spoke to Kitguen in his own language, which he interpreted as an honour and deference intended to be 8ho^vn to his chiefdom. Of this impres- sion he gave unmistakeable evidence when he after- wards returned to his tribe, they and the other tribes consequently regarding him in the light of a chief who had attained to an influential position with the chief of the white men. Fully alive, therefore, to the daring character of the attempt, I took up my appointment from the Queen Charlotte Minirg Company. In another day or two we had chartered the Bebecca schooner of twenty tons, and proceeded forthwith to load lier with provisions and iiuplements necessary for rough mine work. Kitguen being anxious to go back to his island-home, T gave him a free passage, and, having likewise sliippcd some men as helpers in my operations, I was to be seen, one summer eve, standing on the beach of Victoria, surrounded by newspaper reporters and a number ol the leading men of the town, who had come down to wish me success and a pleasant voyage. I have always considered it a real pity that Vancouver po&scsaKid, in those days, but a small ENTERPRi?l5 AT VICTORIA. 69 number of men of spirit. Had there been as many in it then as there were subsequently, I have no hesitation in saying that British Columbia would ere this have got far ahead of any State in North America, not excepting California. That is the opinion of everybody that knew the colony when the mercantile and emigration world was giving its splendid chances the go-by. " Tliere is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, takeu at the rtood, leads ou to fortune : Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is hound in shallows aud iii miseries." As of men so of countries ; though I heartily hope that many more tides in the affairs of British Coiumbia will lead on to fortune. Backed only by a handful of individuals, like all originators in Vancouver at the time, I had sinii)ly tt) do my best to make the concern worthy of tlie enter- prise and energy of those who had embarked in it. V pr 70 CHAPTER VI. 1::; BOUND FOR QUEEN CIIAULOTTB ISLANDS— THE "OUTSIDE I'ASSAdE"— KITCUEN — COAST OK VANf'OUVEH WESTWARD — WIIAl-ES— SUNDOWN, AND THE NORTH PACIFIC WATERS— INDIAN WOMEN — Sl'OO.VDRIFT — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLAJJDS SIGHTED- CAPE ST. JAMES — WHALES AND POR- POISES — Hudson's hay company. IjY sundown on the evening of August the 4th I had got everything on board. Ctiptain Macalniond liaving then east away Ids shore lines, we hauled otl' from the jetty, and with the aid of tlie ebbing tide the pretty little clipper-schooner Rebecca glided gently out of Victoria harbour. Her ultimate destination was the Stickeen River gold-mines; but we had [)artially chartered her to deliver myself, my nien, and my freight, on her way up there, on Queen Charlotte Islands. Opposite Ogden Point we anchored for an hour, to trim ship and await the captain's wife. At 10 P.M. we cleared the harbour, a 'id proceeded to take the Inside Passage towards the Gulf ut Georgia. The weather being calm and foggy, how- INSIDE OR OUTSIDE PASSAGE. 71 (> ever, and as from my recent experience I already knew the difficulties of that route, I strongly advise.s/<," which hcing intei'[)ivted means "M) (jotxiy He 6^ ^, .<' "% iL"^ ;-i:^/. -« iiiSr 1^4 _ THE GROUP DESCRIBED. 95 The group known as Queen Charlotte Islands* consists of two large islands, called Graham and Moresby, measuring together with two others smaller, cjilled North and Prevost Islands, 180 English miles, uy 60 miles at its greatest width. There are number- less islets besides, lying about the coast in various directions, but principally around Moresby Island. Amongst these Skincuttle holds a prominent posi- tion; and it was here that, upon due inquiry, I determined to fix my head-quarters. The day after we arrived, the Rebecca^ having first discharged our portion of her cargo, set sail again for the Stickeen River gold mines, with a fair but stiffish breeze. The whole morning the rain came down in torrents, at which I mightily exulted, knowing that the Indians would be sure to connect my arrival with whatever natural phenomena it happened to coincide in point of time. Their spring and summer had been so extraordinarily dry as almost to amount to a drought. This, then, being their first rainfall for many months, the honour and benefit of it was im- * AH the principal islands, points, straits, rivers, and inlets on the North Pacific coast which have not retained their Indian nomenclature, are called after the different English navigators who discovered or explored them, or after the private friends of those explorers, or after the celebrities of the day in England, or after the date of discovery. 96 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. iiiiiii''i puted to me. Without precisely pleading guilty to the soft impeachment, I thought it would have been folly to attempt to enlighten them at that stage of the intercourse. Their happy augury as to the landing of the English mining-party on Skincuttle was therefore thankfully accepted. Afterwards I learnt, partly too by my own ex- perience, that a prolonged dearth of rain is by no means uncommon in these islands, which seems the more singular if the prodigious quantity of timber they contain be considered. The departure of the little schooner brought home to my men, though more particularly to myself, that we were now destined to settle on a comparatively desert island. Bar the solitude, and our life was to be a mild edition of Robinson Crusoe's. But as none of the men were in any degree desirable com- panions for me, I soon perceived that, in a great measure, I should have to endure the solitude also. My first care and duty was to decide on a site to encamp. This, however, I could not do until I had ascertained where the copper ore lay, supposing such to exist in any available quantities on Skincuttle. Consequently, as soon as the rain would let me, I proceeded north from the little harbour, or rather WAGES TO MINEllS. 97 canoe-entrancc, and had scarcely gone a hundred yards, when, by the help of a quick eye and my geological hammer, I hit upon evidences of a fine underlying lode. I got the men up at once, and gave directions for the construction of the necessary huts, and for adequate preparations towards the sinking of a shaft. Meanwhile, those of the Indians whose homes were in this neighbourhood made off to their friends, to distribute the diversified stock of presents or pur- chases, from a button to a revolver, which they had brought with them. Judging by the demented condition of not a few among the natives, on that first evening of ours, whisky, I should say, figured copiously in the distributions. My agreement with the Queen Charlotte Mining Company was that the miners we employed should be paid at the rate of fifty to sixty dollars a month — that is, in round numbers, twelve pounds, besides their board. Such a rate sounds high, but the field was new and experimental ; while the gold-diggings at Cariboo created too constant and attr.:xctive a demand in the Victorian market not to make labourers in- dependent. It is certain that anybody who does not mind the nm'\ * I 98 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. risk, labour, and exposure of the Cariboo district, under the grim shadow of the Rocky Mountains, can speedily amass a fortune there, provided he has capital — say, at least lOOZ. to start with. If he should try it on less than that, he is equally certain to return with nothing, or, in plain Enghsh, ruined. With 1001. a farm might be bought, or an interest secured in one of the successful gold-claims which are always in the market. I know no place in the world, however, where more wit is required, or, better, where a larger amount of small cunning is the si?ie qua non for getting on in life, than Cariboo. If 3'our seller should be a Yankee, it will run hard with him if he does not have the best of the bar- gain. The Yankee axiom in the sales at Cariboo is that, the higher the sum wanted for the gold-claim, the greater the proof of its value. I have known Cariboo claims offered, ay and sold too, for as nmch us 100,000 dollars, when they vrere not worth five dollars, or would not pay the cost of developing. On the other hand, I once had a claim there myself, for which I asked 3000 dollars, a fair price in the English sense of the term; but the claim was summarily condemned, because of my low valuation of it; whereas, if I had been unprincipled enough to put ■'■^;'^;..^ COPPER-FINDS. 99 it up at 20,000, it would have assuredly found a ready purchaser. In other words. Cariboo is one immense gambling-table, upon which any man may chance to win a competence in a day, but yet to which labour, at enormous wages, comes necessarily in aid. With such a rivalry at our elbow, therefore, it will cause no surprise that we were well content to be able to retain eight able-bodied men, despite the price they asked. While the men worked away, I went off in a canoe, accompanied only by my gun, my hammer, and one assistant, to explore some of the islets which lie between Skincuttle and Cape St James. The very first we landed on was a mere ledge of rocks, and so wholly destitute of vegetation that I had little difficulty in prosecuting my search. And soon, in fact, I discovered a rich spur of variegated copper running E.S.E., with other cupriferous in- dications up and down the islet's surface. The variegated copper lay in a vein of beautiful stalactitic spar, averaging two feet in width, by thirty feet in length, on the out-crop. I named the ledge Rock Island. Thence we paddled across to what seemed the mainland, but what proved to be surrounded by u2 100 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. water. This I named Burnaby Island. All these islets have extremely rocky and precipitate shores, though of course in miniature. Groping along Burnaby's rock-bound shore, I was fortunate in making further discoveries of copper. I then gathered my specimens into the canoe, and, leaving them in charge of my assistant, I scrambled into the bush with my gun, but could not light upon any game. It was late when I returned, without any result, except a strong conviction that St. Patrick must have paid an occult visit to these regions, for no toad, reptile, or creeping thing of any sort could I perceive. Not long afterwards I noted down some experiences of the brute creation on Queen Charlotte Islands, in my Diary, as follows : — " The only dangerous animals or birds here are the bears and the eagles. The black bear family {ursus amencanus) is the most numerous, though the eagle tribe bids fair to compete with it. Boih bears and eagles, however, studiously avoid man. I have passed many a pleasant afternoon watching the eagles at their game of fish-catching. Their practice is to perch them- selves on a high tree close to the sea-shore, and in- v ;riably on the verge of some promontory. From EAGLES AND GULLS. 101 these elevated positions they come down ' in one fell swoop ' upon the unsuspecting fish, devouring them then and there if they are hungry, but otherwise carrying them * away to the mountain's brow ' as food for their young. Sometimes the sea-gull will try the same manoeuvre, though of course on a very limited scale. Upon that, the ever-watchful eagle, uttering a ferocious shriek, darts instantly after him in pur- suit. But even before the eagle can reach him, the terrified gull has dropped his little fish, '.vhich his pursuer catches again before it touches the water. There are here two species of eagles, the common grey and the bald or white-headed. The latter, known to science as the haliaetus hucocephalusj may be seen in every part of these Islands, and is the one of all the genus which has made itself the most famous, or rather infamous, by leading a life of robbery. It was this propensity which made Franklin enter his strong protest against adopting the white- headed eagle as the type of the nationality of the United States, urging, as his reason for objecting, that it was ' a bird of bad moral character, who did not get his living honestly.' " I often listened to animals crying wildly, par- ticularly at night, on the tops of the hills. To my i m I* 102 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. ear the cry resembled that of the mountain goat (aplocerus monfanus), so plentiful on the mainland of British Columbia. It was never possible to me to get near enouo^h to see. But I consider it probable that they are mountain goats, as Poinc Rose, the north- easternmost promontory of Graham Island, is so near some other islands lying close in upon the American continent as to afford an easy refuge to the goats, in case of their being pursued by their relentless energies the wolves. 103 CHAPTER VIII. SHORT EXCURSION — LONG EXCURSION — LASKEEK. HARBOUR — 'PAINTED INDIANS — " PROTECTION NOTE*'— CHIEF SKIDDAN — HIS FRAME-HOUSE — CUM-SHE-WAS HARBOUR — KLUE's HOUSE — SLEEPING UNDER SCALPS — SEA-BATH — THE ISLANDERS NO SWIMMERS — BACK TO SKINCUTTL3. About a week after my arrival at Skin cuttle, leaving three of the men to construct a shed or covering over the copper-shaft, and three others to go on sink- ing the shaft itself, I proceeded up the east coast in a canoe I had bought from the Indians, taking with me my two remaining men, who, with the Chiefs Klue and Skid-a-ga-tees, and two sons of the latter, made seven persons in all. We landed on an islet, and, while my men looked to the provisions and cooking, I took a careful survey and searched for minerals, finding several veins of iron pyrites, traces of coal in the form of lignite, and lastly, though not least, an extensively defined vein of silver, as I thought, on the strength of which I ventured to name our landing-place Silver Island. There was no means of testing this on the spot. i :*i* i !!k| 104 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. I ' Seriously believing it to be silver, however, I had as iriuch taken down to the canoe as it could safely carry, and, after a frugal picnic in high spirits on the rocks, ordered a speedy paddle back to Skincuttle. Imagine my disgust, on applying a test, to discover that, though a rare vein, it was only a vein of metallic arsenide. This sudden return to head-quarters so completely disarranged my previous plans, that I now decided upon a lengthy expedition instead of a short one. I gave orders for storing the canoe with a month's provisions; and meantime I thought to try whether Kock Island was as barren of sport as of grass. To my surprise I beat up a large flock in no time, and blazing right into them, killed thirty-four brace in one single shot. These were large birds, and of the species known on Vancouver as Wilson's snipe {galUnago Wilsonii). It was pleasant to feel 1 could enjoy a day's sport, any time, at a moment's notice, whenever the fancy took me. By tnis time I had become good friends with several of the Indian chiefs, a friendly word spoken in my behalf by Kitguen, or Klue,* having smoothed * I ■ ^t here explain that Kitguen, my first and fast friend among the Qu Charlotte Islanders, and Chief Klue, are one and the same LASKEEK HARBOUR. 105 the way very considerably. It is a mistake to suppose that frankness and plain-spokenness have not their due effect on savages, as well as on ordinary mortals. The savage, no doubt, generally entertains a lurking suspicion of your motives ; but if he does afterwards turn upon you — unless of course a greed for gain should prompt his treachery — it will always prove to be that he considers you are not acting up to your professions. One bright morning, therefore, we started in my canoe for Chief Klue's settlement, at a place which the Indians called Laskeek, on the eastern coast. I took two others of my men with me. The chief was accompanied by two of his Siwash or petty chiefs, who rejoiced respectively in the style and title of Shilly-gutts and Laugh-goon-us. A fair wind gracing our expedition we crowded on every stitch of canvas we could muster, and all of us paddling lustily together, the canoe reached Laskeek Harbour in about twelve hours. Now mine had been the only canoe down at Skincuttle, and, I need scarce add, the electric telegraph is still an person. Kitguen was bis former name, and is still bis familiar name ; but on succeeding to tbe Head Chieftainship of Laskeek, bis own section of tbe Hydah tribe, by tbe deatb of bis eldc. brother in a figbt, he assumed for public use the title bis brother had held before bim. 106 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. institution of the future for Queen Charlotte Islands. And yet, although my visit to Klue's settlement had not been arranged till the previous day, by some in- comprehensible means peculiarly Indian, accurate news of my intention to come had preceded us to Laskeek. In consequence, there was a general turn- out, even to the papoose in arms, to see me land. The sun not having set as yet, I was enabled to take a comprehensive survey of my expectant hosts, as far as concerned their external presentment. There was not a clean face to be seen amongst them, nor a decent pair of hands. The faces and hands of men, women, and children, were so thickly beslimed and befouled with the blackest of black paint, that no one feature could be discerned in its natural form. Hardly did I recognise human beings in the creatures who crowded around me on the strand. Klue promised, however, that they should all be washed the next morning, which was certainly considerate of him, as, by putting on a beautiful black polish, the poor things had intended to pay me the highest mark of respect. It is their full-dress uniform, in fact. The harbour of Laskeek is situated in lat. 52° 50' N., long. 131° 28' W. The morning after my arrival, the Klue chiefs, ? 'gh A "protection-note." 107 and petty, taking advantage of my presence at Las- keek, held an extra-parliamentary session. They had heard that an English gunboat or two might shortly be expected from Esquimalt, and they requested me to give them — the chiefs assembled in Council — a re- ference or protection note. I presented my new allies with the following certificate, first making a copy of it for the amusement of friends in England : — " This is to certify that the undermentioned Chiefs are good men, and well disposed towards the whites. At least they say so ; and you must take their word for what it is worth. I encamped amongst them last night while prospecting for minerals in this section, and found them honest during my short visit. "F. Poole, " Engineer to the Queen Charlotte Mininj Compani/. " Chiefs, Skish-gills. Stash. Sklash-Hagan. Ki-ush. Naw-way. Kiss-a-gura (Sen.) Lamma. Gundless. Tong-law. Ich-gum. Link-is-tus. Skutch-a. Ga-lla. Skid-a-ga-tees. Sah-qua. Hotten. King-a-Kona. Hy-ass. Hous-te. Got-quance. Kad-da-ga-cow. Co-a-delly. Kiss-a-gura (Jun.) Skilte-killong." w WW. > J • 108 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. li In the afternoon of the same day, Klue invited me to go with him to the home of the Skiddan Indians, a tribe with whom he was on friendly terms, and who also dwelt on the sea-shore, but further up the coast. Klue's people are a branch or section of the Hydah tribe, all the various chiefs of which seemed to consider themselves as a sort of vassals to the great chief of the Skiddan tribe. How this reconciled itself with Klue's claim to the Head Chieftainship of the whole islands, I never could quite make out. As I afterwards took down my adventures and impressions during this by-expedition with Klue, I shall here transcribe them literally : — " The high and mighty chief Skiddan sat in state, that is, at Skiddan Harbour, somewhat to the north- ward of Laskeek. He did not rise when I entered, but continued sitting on a rough kind of platform, with his legs crossed like a tailor's. I was invited to stand on his right, however, whilst my cook, who did duty as my aide-de-camp and private secretary, had a place assigned him to the left. The whole of the tribe then squatted down, also cross-legged, on some low benches or logs. " Skiddan himself delivered a grand speech, the CHIEF SKIDDAN. 109 general purport of which I gathered to be an advice and solemn injunction to his people to afford me every protection and assistance. They listened atten- tively, now and then interrupting Skiddan's harangue with a queer uplifting of arms and murmurs of approbation, or with a sudden outburst of compli- mentary grunts directed at me. As soon as the chief had ended, I took up the thread of the pro- ceedings, by assuring, the tribe through Klue, of my ' sentiments of the highest consideration,' meaning under the circumstances not much more than a Frenchman means when he sticks those absurd words at the bottom of a letter. "The first part of the ceremony being over, I oiF(?red a pipeful of tobacco to each of the petty chiefs. " This is a present which they always expect from a stranger. But greatly as the gift of tobacco pleases an Indian, it does not approximate in his eyes to the value of ' a testimonial,' or ' a paper,' as they term it. Fortunate it is that this \\ray to their good graces comes cheap ; for they set quite as great a value on an old invoice or a receipt as upon a genuine certifi- cate. So long as the paper contains writing, it matters nothing what the writing is. I have already WJ no QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. had abundant proof of it. For on several occasions Indians have brought me bundles of waste paj)or, in the firm belief that they were, every one, so many bona-fide references. They had received these as testimonials of good behaviour, or more probably begged them from some merchant or other at Vic- toria. Of course it was not only lawful but well to leave those Indians in the delusion that their * papers were hyass-closli^ that is, very good. I saw no reason for undeceiving even the great Skiddan. Give the Indians a small piece of tobacco, or a few fishing- hooks, and they are not merely satisfied, but they will make large returns in fish or game, and some- times in really valuable fur-skins. After all, the true valuation of these things is relative, according to the want and mind of the purchaser. Lately I bought two fine skins of the black bear for twenty-five cents, or one shilling apiece. In Europe they would cer- tainly fetch 12/. each. They are a drug in the home- market of the North Pacific Indian. " Having, upon urgent request, distributed a few bits of paper, the Skiddan made me a formal present of a minz or mink skin, together with a couple of uncommon duck-footed birds, whilst from one of the Indian women I received a very singular kind of skiddan's house. Ill crab (echinocerus cibarhis), which I believe is only found on the coasts of the North Pacific, and rurcly even there. "The building in which I was thus glorified con- sisted of very large frame-house. Its sliape was nearly a square, its dimensions being some fifty feet by fifty, quite ten feet of which were dug out of the earth, so as to make the real height from the ground forty feet. It had been substantially constructed, and it readily accommodated the seven hundred Indians who met me under that roof. " However, my glorification did not in the least deceive me. That a White should have been so received there, was solely referable to the report of the gunboats coming up. Skiddan has the character of being the most selfish and blood- thirsty savage on the coast. He has always been treated better than any of the other chiefs by the English government, and yet he is ever giving us trouble. "The sun was fast sinking as at last we pushed off in Klue's canoe. On looking over our effects, I was glad to find that only a few tin spoons had been stolen. But I was still more pleased to think that every stroke of our paddles took us further from m^ I i! i:j!|'w™ijiTffl (I 112 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Skiddan's harbour; for my friends at. Victoria had well warned me never to trust my skin to him after dark. " At 10 P.M. we paddled into Cum-she-was Har- bour, a place about fifteen miles more to the north, and there we encamped for the night. The next morning the Cum-she-was Indians held a meeting of their tribe. They received me in a " great house' not unlike that of the Skiddans, and with a ceremo- nial which almost exactly repeated the scene of the day before, including however a dash more of sincerity. What astonished me was to see the whole of the walls inside their building hung with linen, fine, white, and clean. This formed a very unex- pected feature in my reception. I should have been sorely puzzled to account for it, had not Klue whispered to me that, many years ago, a large trading vessel of some sort put into Cum-she-was, the crew of which were murdered and its stores pillaged. The linen was part of the pillage — not a doubt about it. " I saw nothing of interest to detain me among the Cum-she-was ; and considering that I had gone far enough north for this one trip, I turned the canoe's head towards Laskeek, just calling on our KLUE S HOUSE. 113 way at Skiddan Harbour, and scattering there a few more presents, in the shape of pins, needles, and shirt- buttons. " We did not get back to Laskeek till 1 1 p.m., and, as it was too late to pitch my tent according to custom, I accepted Klue's invitation to sleep at his patrimonial mansion. " I have some reason to remember my first night under the roof of Chief Klue. " His house was a largish one, built in the usual Indian way, of wood laid horizontally in light logs, and slightly elevated above the ground upon a plat- form. Despite the sheen of the moon, I looked in vain for the entrance, and was beginning to think there must be some Indian dodge in its concealment, with a view probably to providing against sudden attacks, when a Klootchman young lady came trip- ping along to my assistance. Approaching a big hole, three feet in circumference, and three feet from the platform's base in the front of the house, she, very unceremoniously, thrust first one leg through, evidently without touching the bottom on the other side, secondly her head and arms, and finally, by means of a dexterous jerk, dragged the rest of her hody after her. This was the door, then, through l?'! 114 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. which the inmates, both male and female, had to scramble whenever they felt disposed to retire to the domestic hearth. The manoeuvres required to accomplish the feat in question were assuredly any- thing but graceful, especially for a lady: and yet the ladies performed it in the most satisfactory manner, Avithout ever doubling up in a heap on the floor inside. Perforce, I tried the same method myself, and, though unsuccessful at the first attempt, J did succeed at the second, greatly to the delight of the pretty Klootchman, who turned out to be Klue's daughter-in-law, and my chambermaid for that night. *' Inside the house these was little to be seen, either by day or by night, owing chiefly to the smouldering fire, which, having no outlet, filled the one large room with its smoke. There were no windows, the Indians despising such a convenience. The only rays of light, from sun or moon, came through i lie big hole in the wall, alias the door. But on my getting in, being conducted to the central fire, I found cedar-bark mats spread over the hard ground, und upon these we all lay down together, with our feet firewards, and with our heads outwards, like the spokes of a wheel. No little nerve was SLEEPING UNDER SCALPS. 115 requisite, I must acknowledge, to make up one's mind to sleep in such an atmosphere ; but, as they would have been terribly offended had I refused, I made a virtue of necessity, and took to it kindly. " Other horrors besides the atmosphere now awaited me, for I was assigned the place of honour in the family-couch, namely, under the same blanket- ing with the chief and his daughter, a very interest- ing young girl, and to lie between them. " Having be^ n paddling away all day, as hard as any Indian, J ••<; . ally felt anxious to restore my strengt^ with sound refreshing sleep. Some in- definable sensation, however, seemed to be keeping me awake. I tossed about nearly all night, not much to the comfort of my bedfellows, I should fancy. As the small hours of the morning advanced, I found my head inconveniently knocking against an upright pole. Surely a niost extraordinary position for a pole, since it ur; 'c ;i/i'^dly served no architec- tural or ornamental purpcs By degrees this pole gained complete possession jf my thoughts, and the more I went on thinking, the more persuaded did I become that it had something hideous connected with it. An impulse then seized n:e to get up and examine it; but, as ih •. :onld have looked like a i2 '' ''i'^ it i'b i 116 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. betrayal of fear — a consummation always to be avoided in the presence of savages — I lay still. Presently, an accidental kick from one of the Indians caused the fire to flare. The flare lasted only two or three seconds, yet quite long enough to reveal to my horrified senses at least a hundred scalps fastened round the top of the pole, right above me. Fancy my feelings ! Despite Klue's professed friendship, and the place of honour I was occ nying in the family couch, I instihctively put my hanv. my own poll, and was not without a throb of thankfulness to fin] it so far safe. Need it be added that I made my escape as soon as I could prudently do so? " The excuse I gave for such early rising was my anxiety to get the benefit of a sea-bath, in which 1 and my two men forthwith indulged, our clothes being meanwhile hung up to air on a tree, to the infinite diversion of a crowd of spectators. " But nothing appeared to tickle the fancy of the Indians so much as our swimming. It supplied the crowd with a perfect fund of amusement, and was, 1 believe, wholly new to them. 1 aave never seen any of the North Pacific Indians swim, unless previously taught by me. In this they difi*er from all other coloured races, who are mostly good swimmers. And BACK TO SKINCUTTLx.. 117 yet the Queen Charlotte Indians of every tribe live continually on the water." Having prospected Laskeek Harbour, without ob- taining anything out of it to repay me for the trouble, I returned in another day or two to Skincuttle, Klue and my other companions coming back also. 118 CHAPTER IX. I ' COPPEK — NEW SHAFT — ATTACK BY INDIANS— RUSHING IN AMONGST THEM— THE BONE OF CONTENTION — CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES — THE " KECKWAILY TYHEE" — SKID-A-GA-TBES DRAWS OFF — THE CUM-SUE-WAS — A CRISIS- REMOVAL TO BURNABY ISLAND — THE BAFT. I NOW spent a considerable time in superintending the working of our copper-shaft at Skincuttle, and in erecting a comfortable log-house to serve as our habi- tation. About the middle of October I had my first taste of annoyance from the Indians. One day I stood leaning against the walls of our wild home, trying to converse with Klue in his own language, when somebody near us raised a cry of surprise. Instantl}^ numberless eyes were directed towards the offing of our little bay, and, on looking myself, I observed several canoes full of strange Indians, who soon after landed. What on earth did they want? I said to Klue, who answered at once, that, whatever the new-comers might pretend, they AN INVASION. 119 were his mortal enemies, and that their real object certainly was to find out whether we explorers could not be plundered. Sure enough, though they began by aifecting an anxiety to trade with us, it was evident, from their not having brought down any article of traffic, that they had very different intentions. If I had once allowed them to commence trading, they would have expected to enter the log-house for that purpose. I therefore firmly resisted their specious overtures, and, in spite of repeated entreaties from them during the afternoon, continued obdurate to every blandishment, simply ordering my men to look well to our fire- arms. The following morning our suspicions were con- firmed by the arrival of additional canoes-full. Upon which Klue, thinking it was getting too hot for us, suddenly vanished off in one of those odd flights so common in Indian life, but so incompre- hensible, as regards the method of it, to civilized minds. Our invaders quickly divined that he had gone to collect reinforcements amongst his tribe. At the same time strong signs showed themselves of an approaching change in the weather, very dangerous 120 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. to the safety of the canoe-flotilla. Impelled by either of these causes, or perhaps by both, the hostile In- dians unconsciously agreed with FalstafF that " the better part of valour is discretion ;" for hardly had Klue disappeared ere they likewise took their de- parture. The drama was not half over, however. I extract from my Diary the record I made of the next scene, thus : — " I set my men, and two of Klue's Indians, who had just come (the day after the invasion) to work at chopping wood, in order to lay in a stock for the winter. While they were so employed, I stepped into my canoe and paddled over towards Prevost Island. *'I intended to take a south-westerly course, in the direction of Cape St. James, and then return by N.N.W. to Skincuttle Island. I started early in the forenoon : but the distance being greater than antici- pated, it was late in the afternoon before my one companion and myself reached the point proposed. Some miles to the south-west of Skincuttle I dis- covered a magnificent harbour, which I named Harriet Harbour, but had no time then to enter and prospect it. ' either Lie In- t " the ily had eir de- jx tract , scene, 3, who ) work 'or the tepped Vevost [•se, m irn by in the antici- r one 30sed. I dis- lamed r and AN ATTACK. 121 " As we steered homeward along the other islets, what was my dismay to see our own little harbour absolutely rammed full of canoes? Each canoe had in it a large crew of Indians, bedaubed from head to foot with war-paint, and otherwise martially arrayed: whilst the clearance round our log-house was crowded with a herd of their fellow-savages, yelling and dancing lustily. " My companion and I lifted our paddles an instant, to contemplate the rather appalling sight ; and not perceiving any of my other men about, I came to the conclusion that they had been every one murdered, and that the Indians were now awaiting our advent to serve us in the same manner. They had posses- sion of the islet as clear as noonday. The impossi- bility of our escape seemed equally certain. I con- sequently resolved to put a bold front on the matter, and venture into the midst of them. " Saying a few inspiriting words to the man with me, and especially cautioning him not to betray the least sign of fear, I headed direct for the .landing, and, dipping our paddles deep into the water, in another moment we were ashore, and in amongst our enemies, who had swarmed down to the beach for the purpose of intimidation. Finding I was not to be brow- 122 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. beaten, and seeing my revolvers ready in my hands, they made no resistance, while I dashed through them right to the log-house. It was completely in their possession, but, thank goodness, all my men were safe. I had arrived just in the nick of time to prevent a massacre. This measure, no doubt, they had decided on carrying out; but knowing full well that, before they could accomplish it, many of them would 'bite the dust,' they evidently lacked the courage to begin. *' The fact was, unseen eyes had vratched me out to sea, whence the cowardly villains, concluding that my outing would last as long as the previous one, had judged the time to be favourable for a renewed descent upon Skincuttle. My unexpected return caused the hostilities to be suspended, and straight- way a great wah-wah (talkee) took place between the leading Indians and myself. " A bone of contention, not wholly unreasonable, lay at the bottom of all this trouble. Shortly after our first landing in August, the brother-in-law of Ninstence, chief of a tribe inhabiting the southern- most portions of Moresby Island, had declared himself the proprietor of the land we were then settling on, and, to keep friendly with the savage, CHIEF SKID-A-GA-TEES. 123 we had paid him down fifty ' two-and-a-half point'* blankets. " His chieftain-relative, however, having violently appropriated the blankets to his own use, the rest of the head-chiefs all over Queen Charlotte Islands, especially Skiddan and Skid-a-ga-tces, were seized with a fit of jealousy. ' Why should Ninstence have fifty bran-new blankets, and his brother chiefs have none?' was the practical form which the question now assumed. There seemed to be only two ways of solving it. They might attack Ninstence, but then he was strong, whilst even a victory over him would n ^t necessarily give each of the rival chiefs any ve otable share in the fifty blankets. Or, we whites might be distrained for another fifty. This latter plan commending itself to the statesman- like views of Chief Skid-a-ga-tees, the treacherous wretch, whom I had taken with me in my coast expedition, and whom I had included in my good- conduct certificate, determined to make a raid upon us. His tribe being the most numerous, combative, and powerful of all the tribes in the * The staple trade of the Hudson's Bay Company with the North Pacific Indians was in blanketing. The size and quality of each blanket used to be marked on it by means of short lines or " points" and " half-points," the meaning of which the Indians had learnt perfectly to understand. Si I i : ■ I ,md 124 QUEEN CHAxXOTTE ISLANDS. islands, there could be little difficulty in executing the plan, ho thought. So the other Indians of the day before having failed in their trading stratagem, down had come Skid-a-ga-tees with his whole body of warriors, during my absence, and had impudently demanded fifty more blankets. In fact we, as the supposed weaker party, although entirely unoffending, were to suffer for the intertribal jealousies of the chiefs. A truly Indian mode of settling the difficulty, and yet one not altogether without its counterpart amongst natives professedly civilized. My people very wisely and courageously refused to deliver up the blankets, whereupon Skid-d-ga-tees, who was not accustomed to be thwarted, tried tc bully them, and threatened to burr down our log-house, carry off all our stores, and slaughter my companions to the last man. " I have little doubt he would have done it, but for my turning up in time to assert my authority and use my influence. " The abject submission of an Indian to his own chief is notorious and proverbial. It may not, however, be so well known that they extend the same respect to those whom they see placed in analogous positions amongst foreigners, especially INJUDICIOUS FAMILIARITY. 125 if these are English. As I, then, am the acknow- ledged chief of our little party, the Queen Charlotte Indians usually treat me with marked deference, always referring to my chieftainship for justice in any quarrel which may arise between my workmen and themselves — that is, so long as we do not give them any grievous cause of offence; for in such a case I mvself should be the first attacked. " In this particular instance I imagine that, if the men had been massacred, I should have been seized nnd detained in eonfinemen , as a prisoner of war. " From the first a great deal too much familiarity has unfortunately prevailed at Skincuttle. Seeing how I make friends with the chiefs, my men think they cannot do better than be ' hail-fellow-well-met' with the other natives. It is hard persuading them that I have judicious reasons, which their private position does not suggest. The circumstances are just of the kind to nullify argument, and to invite temptation, notwithstanding the many warnings we have had. For example, the Indians have hurig about our log-house so perpetually and continuously, that of late it has often been close on daybreak before wc could get rid of them, without wounding their touchy natures. It was soon coming to such a pass 126 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. that "vvc might as well have set up a regular joint- stock establishment, if one of my men, an eccentric Californian, had not conceived the brilliant idea of mixing red pepper with newlj^-ground coffee, and dropping the mixture on to the red-hot stove. The effect was instantaneous. They thought it must be the Keckwally Tyhee (Chief of the Deep) coming up out of the fire, I caused this to be repeated for several nights at eight o'clock sharp, and it was highly ai:;using to see them watch the clock till the hand pointed nearly to the hour, and then make a rush together out of the door, which we quietly locked inside, and afterwards scrambled up in peace to our sleeping bunks. My men, however, required a more forcible lesson than being merely bored. 1 fancy they have now received it. " Skid-a-ga-tees's raid met with no more success than the strategic tactics of his predecessors. I assured him that I should willingly have made him a present of some blankets if he had asked me for them civilly, but that the claim he asserted was pre- posterous. I had honestly paid the proprietor of the soil, and should pay nobody else. The wah-wah ended, therefore, in my resolutely declining to have anything to do with him till he desisted from his PREPARING FOR DEFENCE. 127 threats and drew off his warriors. I forthwith ordered the Indians out of our log-house, and motioning them to keep beyond the clearance- ground, if they did not want to be shot, I retired to prepare for defence in the event of things still coining to the worst. " Of course Skid-a-ga-tees was unconvincible. We had a restless night consequently, taking it turn- about to walk round the house, lest the Indians should attempt to set fire to it. In one of my turns as watchman, I spied a Cape St. James Indian in the very act of drawing his revolver, with his pair of gleaming eyes fixed upon me. I had previously suspected the fellow, having observed him skulking for some time among the trees. On my complaining to his chief, who happened to be near at hand on the island, I had been coolly told that he was a little ' foolish.' Wise or foolish, he had killed a white down at Victoria. As, then, such a man could not be left at large armed, I just went and put a stopper on his villany by taking his revolver from him, and punch- ing him well in the ribs. " Thus our position was one of no small danger. But we had counted on these emcr^^encies in cominjr : and, after all, they were not really greater than what li! 128 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. commonly fall to the lot of the pioneers of civiliza- tion. " The next day we found that Skid-a-ga-tees, though he would not leave, had drawn off most of his fighting men. This was to some extent a triumph. In the afternoon, while calculating our chances, we had the pleasure to see two huge canoes, choke-full of Indians of the Cum-she-was tribe, paddle swiftly into the bay. Union Jacks were flying at the bows of each canoe, in order to intimate to us the approach of our friends. The Cum-she-was had heard that the Skid-a-ga-tees had come down to massacre us. So they made all haste to our assistance. And right welcome it proved. " The new arrivals were decked out in tip-top war style: that is to say, both males and females — a goodly number of the latter being in the company to do the screeching business — had their bodies painted a shiny black, and their hair thoroughly greased and well sprinkled over with the fine breast-feathers of the goose. " However, no attack on the Skid-a-ga-tees was intended. The Cum-she-was, seeing how matters stood with us, simply wished to demonstrate what they could and would do in case of need. So they CHIEF CUM-SHE-WAS. 129 landed, and treated me to a war serenade, females as well as males dancing frantically to wild music. I made them a few presents, after which they paddled off again, round Burnaby Head to Silver Island, to meet their chief, for a distribution of the blankets and tobacco which had been recently sent him from one of the old Hudson's Bay Forts, ir barter for furs. " Naturally enough this interchange of compliments did not by any means please our enemies, the Skid-a-ga-tees ; and the following day, some of their warriors having returned, they were about to give us unmistakeable proof of their vexation, when suddenly Cum-she-was himself, accompanied by a host of his people, cfime paddling like mad round the headland. Fierce were the looks of Skid-a-ga-tees when he beheld me feasting Cum-she-was and his pretty papoose (daughter) upon biscuits, slap-jacks (pancakes), and sweet molasses. ' This is coming it rather strong,' seemed to be his reflection, if not iu these identical terras, at least in their Indiu-- !jynoii3ins. It was our crisis with Skid-a-ga-tees. Finding the bullying and robbery speculation not to answer, or possibly remembering that, but for his treacherous misconduct, he too would have been included in the (east, he very prudently took time to 130 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. consider his position, the consequence being a gradual relapse on both sides into our former amicable relations. "But I must digress a moment to cull from my Diary another incident, which also well-nif,^h brought all my explorations to ^ premature end. " Fortified by the presence of Uie Cum-she-was, I resumed work as before. Crossing over to Burnaby Island, I began to trace up the course of the main copper-lode, and to my surprise found it outcropping extensively and well defined. Upon the strength of this, and likewise for the sake of convenience and eco- nomy, the 'lay* of the land rendering Burnaby Island much more approachable than Skincuttle, I resolved to choose Burnaby as the site of our main shaft, chief works, and head residence. The men, then, having been transferred from one islet to the other, wen soon engaged in building a new and larger log-house, workshops, and adjuncts. But the transfer of our provisions, implements, and the rest, had still to be effected. This job, with merely what help my cook, a little Frenchman, could aflPord me, I took entirely on myself. So, paddling together across to Skincuttle, we first of all collected timber sufficient to construct a raft, upon which we then piled up everything be- A RAFT-ADVENTURE. 131 longing to us. Attaching the raft by a rope to our canoe, we essayed to recross t^e strait. Now I know from experience that rafting in the rapids of the river St. Lawrence, though often attended with danger to the raft, is rarely dangerous to the raftsman, who, in the event of his raft going to pieces, will generally jump on to a single spar and land himself safe on either shore. It becomes a totally different affair, however, in a strait closely communicating with the ocean, whither a strong current threatens every instant to carry you out, whilst only one shore protects you, and broken islets on the other serve but to intensify the strength of the current. Such was the fix in which the cook and myself found ourselves. Never shall I forget that fearful day's work. First I tried a series of indeterminate noises, hoping to be heard above the wind on Burnaby Island. Then, I am sorry to say, I waxed wroth and swore. Our situation not improving, I shouted through my hands with all my might. But again, as truth obliges me to record, I indulged worse than ever in oaths and curses, adding a slight dash of blasphemy. All was vain and vexatious. Meanwhile, both the paddling and the steering devolved upon me alone, the French- man showing hardly any strength, and less snese. e2 I m 132 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. In the middle of the whole thing, what should we see on Burnaby but our companions gathered together in an agony of despair, down by the water side? And well might they be agonized, for they had no canoe to aid us, and on the raft was every atom of our provisions. Away we went, drifting with the current. Ojie solitary chance remained, namely, to try by a supreme effort to gain Rock Island, the ledge of rocks already mentioned, lying nearly midway be- tween Skincuttle and Burnaby, and covered over at high tide. Fortunately, it was now low tide. Wherefore, summoning our last energies to the task, we paddled towards the ledge, nervously and deftly, till, after a prolonged struggle, I was enabled to scramble on to the rocks, and to hold the raft, whilst my Frenchman got into our light canoe and made the best of his way to Burnaby, in order to bring off some men to my relief. It so chanced that all the Indians on Burnaby Island had gone in the morning on a predatory excursion; otherwise our companions would have borrowed one of their canoes, and have fetched us sooner. Under the circumstances, thank- ful indeed were we to reach our destination at length, though it had cost us seven hours of terrible mental anguish, and of the severest bodily exertion that I TRANSFER TO BURNABY ISLAND. 133 ever went through in my life, or that probably any other human being ever encountered either." This, however, completed our transfer to a locality which promised to be much more effective as a basis of operations, and also a more permanent home. 'I 134 CHAPTER X. MISS SKID-A-GA-TEES AND HER PAPA — QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDERS FAR IN ADVANCE OF MR. DARWIN— SKID-A-GA-TEES AGAIN — PRO- PITIATORY SACRIFICE TO HIM — ETERNAL FRIENDSUIP— WINTER IN CAMP — STORIES BY THE CAMP FIRESIDE — NORTH LATITUDE STORMS— TOWARDS THE INTERIOR— PANCAKES. I THINK it was the very day after our sea adventure, that the daughter of Skid-a-ga-tees and my friend on board the Rebecca^ walked up to where we were all working at the new log-house, and reported that her papa had built his ranche (house) within a mile of ours, and had now come to reside there. A pleasant neighbour, in good sooth. The pride of the Skid-a-ga-tees tribe was too great to endure self-humiliation. But the present announce- ment signified that their chief wished to make friends. *' He would have sent men to help in the building," said the dusky young lady, magniloquently, " if it had not been for a promontory which so effectually separated our encampment from his as to have kept him, till just then, in a state of utter ignorance as to our transmigration to Burnaby Island." MISS SKID-A-GA-TEES. 135 At this my Californian workman developed an extraordinary capacity for winking, the French cookie tittered and giggled himself into convulsions, whilst a sarcastic Englishman of our party suggested that the murderous old chief might turn out to be sweetly innocent after all. To me the story certainly sounded "very like a whale:" but I nevertheless considered the more prudent course would be to keep my own counsel from the wily Miss Skid-aga- tees. " It was the chief's intention," she officiall}- declared, "to pay me a visit the same evening;" and meantime, in token of friendliness, she "begged leave to caution us against a bear which had been seen sniffing about the island." Immediately I took my Enfield rifle, and sallied forth in search of the animal. I remember it oc- curred to me that there was positively little choice between the society of human savages and the proximity of wild beasts. If anything, the latter are preferable : for a bear at least does not pretend to be your friend whilst in reality your foe. As I could not come upon this individual wild buast, I concluded that his bearship had reconsidered his project of hunting without a licence, and had probably taken himself off to one of the surrounding t . ■ f m.m 136 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. islets. But noticing a superannuated bear-track, I followed it up and discovered an Indian trap for bears, of such ingenious contrivance that I stopped and sketched it. In another respect, too, my bear- chase was not time wasted, inasmuch as it led me to stumble upon a new vein of copper, which I carefully marked and mapped out. My rifle being still loaded, I emptied it on the way back, and brought down a splendid specimen of the native crow {corvus caurinus)^ called klail-hda-kulla by the Indians. The Queen Charlotte Indians hold views, on the sub- ject of their aboriginal ancestry, decidedly in advance of the Darwinian theory ; for their descent from the crows is quite gravely affirmed and steadfastly main- tained. Hence they never will kill one, and are always annoyed, not to say angry, should we whites, driven to desperation by the crow-nests on every side of us, attempt to destroy them. This idea like- wise accounts for the coats of black paint with which young and old in all those tribes constantly besmear themselves. The crow- like colour affectionately reminds the Indians of their reputed forefathers, and thus preserves the national tradition. Mr. Darwin and his disciples are scarcely so consistent or devo- tional. U V, THE CHIEF AND THE COOK. 137 T found my men collected round the log-house door, in a state of excitement. Skid-a-ga-tees, having duly arrived to pay me the promised visit of re- conciliation, had seated himself very independently on one of the lower bunks. Our cook had been foolish enough to resent this as a liberty, and had told my visitor somewhat sharply to stand aside. Upon which the latter, instead of obeying, had mounted on to the bunk and begun an indignant wah-Lcah. The cook had then lost his temper, pulled the chief down, and like a madman kicked him in the chest. But the chief had struck back at his antagonist so cleverly with a long knife, that, but for a prompt parry from the Californian, the blow must hr.e proved fatal to the Frenchman. However, the wrath of old Skid-a-ga-tees had now been fairly aroused. And yet to have contended against those overwhelming odds would have exposed him to certain defeat. He had therefore darted out of the house and away to his camp, in order to raise his whole tribe and avenge the insult. Such was the agreeable prospect which greeted me on my return from my abortive bear-hunt. I saw at a glance, that we had not a moment to lose. Our sole hope lay in his accepting the apology :*i,j!W:.i-,y 138 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. which^ as his clear right, I at once resolved to make him. But the procedure was not so easy, considering my total ignorance of his peculiar dialect. When then I went over alone to his camp, I hardly dare to think what might have befallen me if Miss Skid-a- ga-tees had not compassionately undertaken to in- terpret. As I expected, the old chief wasi in a towering passion, and, the instant he caught sight of nic entering liis log-licuse, he brandished the same long knife in my face, and urged his fellows to go down to our camp and slaughter us, one and all. So the daughter told me. I waited in patience until he liad calmed sufficiently to listen to my explanation. But "why could 1 not interfere, now at least?" he argued. I replied tliat, even " if my man had killed him, I was powerless to punish the criminal myself, such matters, according to the laws of the whites, being dealt Avith only at Victoria." Hearing tluit, he laughed contemptuously, and said he could nov understand it. No doubt it did seem unaccountable to him that I, although a chief amongst my men, should not possess the power of life and dcnth o\ er them. But ultimate!}', on my pledging my word to send the cook back to Victoria in the first prov ision- WINTER EVENINGS. 139 vessel that came to us, and have him there adequately punished, he vouchsafed to be mollified. I then offered a propitiatory sacrifice in the like- ness of a plug of tobacco, whereupon the redoubtable Skid-a-ga-tees and I once more vowed eternal friend- ship; and in testimony thereof he sent me down next day a large halibut weighing over a hundred pounds. My narrative has now reached a point when sum- marizing becomes a necessity. We were on the verge of AVinter. But two Winters on Queen Char- lotte Islands being before me, I shall only say of this one, that the Indians ceased for the present to molest us, and that, having partly received from Victoria and partly laid in ourselves a fair stock of provisions, Avo kept to work with a will at the copper-shaft whieli we had sunk near our log-house on Burnaby Island. it' it liad not been for the hardworking spirit of my men, winter-lime would have hung with awful heaviness upon our hands. Occasionally we varied the week's labour by means of a day's shooting, or, when the snow covered the ground, by anattem[>t ut a bear-liunt, but never, in either case, vdtli any noteworthy success. We had no greater alleviation than to sit together, after the burden of the day I '!'! 140 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. was over, round the log-liouse fire, whilst one maii cleaned our guns and revolvers, another sharpened our tools, a third washed our clothes, a fourth set our little pantry to rights, and each took his turn in spin- ning yarns of his adventures and hair-breadth escapes. One man, who had before been my travelling-com- panion through Canada, was a host in himsel;, as regards this kind of story-telling. Many an hour of a darksome evening? did he thus be^juile for us. Sdme of his stories equalled those of the immortal Baron MUnchhausen. With a view of showing how we pioneers contrived to get through the long Winter hours, when we could do no outdoor work, I shall here give a sample or two of tales he used to tell around our blazing camp-fire : — " When I was working at getting out timber, near Hudson's Bay," he began, one evening, " I thought, having an idle day, that I would go to a small lake about two miles distant, and have a shot at some ducks. I took my rifle and a few bullets, for 1 never use small shot, and down I crept as quietly as a mouse, till I got within fifty yards of the bank. Seeing several hundred ducks on the opposite side, I raised my rifle to my shoulder, but found 1 could not shape the range enough in line to knock A CAMP STORY. 141 off the heads of more than five or six. I therefore ' conchided' to try a favourite plan of mine, which would enable me to bag perhaps half the whole number. So back I went to the shanty, to leave my ritle, and to fetch ray bag-net. In a few moments I had fastened the net round my waist, and was swim- ming across the lake to where the ducks were. Coming sufficiently near, I dived; but, instead of rising again to the surface, I dodged about a bit under water. Pre- sently, what should I see, just overhead, but a pair of yellow legs ? I pulled the legs down and stowed their owner comfortably away in my net. Finding I was in the right place, I swam about here and there, in the same manner, till I had filled the net with the owners of at least a dozen pair of yellow legs. Then I thought I would make for the surface. But, uufortunately, on my getting to the top of the water, the net turned out to be only half full, which gave tiie ducks plenty of room to spread their wings and fiy up into tlie air. This I had not calculated on ; and when I had got a mile air-high, it struck me very forcibly that I was rather out of my latitude. So I drew my jack-knife across the net, and away flew the ducks, whilst I tumbled into the lake again, though somewhat more swiftly than I had mounted a. .1 142 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. up. Such indeed was the velocity with which I now descendedj that I went slap down to the bottom of the lake, a xnile deep in that particular spot, and sank to my chin in a bed of tough clay, where I stuck hard and fast, in spite of most desperate eiForts to regain my liberty." "Snakes and alligators!" burst in our Californian, " I gu jss that's not trew, or yer wouldn't be here to tell tae tale." " Let me finish," rejoined my imperturbable Cana- dian friend. " The fact was," he continued, " that, not relishing my position, I at last went back to the shanty, brought down a shovel, and dug myself out." Roars of laughter followed, after which he of California said the Canadian's story " flogged creation, that it did." There could be little doubt about it. On another occasion, we were treated to this : — "I was once 'trapping' in the Red River Settle- ment," said my Canadian, " when it occurred to mo that I might as well improve the occasion by trapping eels also, and upon a patent principle of my own invention. I had a square box made, which I divided into two compartments. These I caused to communicate one with the other by metal tubes, ANOTHER CAMP STORY. 143 each a size smaller than the average eel, the tubes, too, having sharpened edges. The box was open at one end, and of such a measurement that it exactly fitted into one of those ' shuts ' which carry off the surplus waters where the lakes are dammed up. Well, this is the way it acted. The eels would come through the ' shuts,' and into the first compartment, and, perceiving the tube-holes, would dart through them into the second, leaving their skins behind. Large quantities of valuable eel-skins were thus placed at my disposal every week. But when the season was over, I left my box still there; and returning next year, I found the first compartment full of beautiful skins, and the second full of eels, which had passed through the tubes, but each eel with a new skin. It was a profitable investment, was my patent box, I do assure you." " Darn my skroikes !" exclaimed our Californianj thumping the bench with his fist, whilst a gurgle of approval passed round the convivial circle. Not being conversant with the Californian language, I am unable to explain in wliat the process of daniing mos skroikes precisely consists. But it may be taken to denote some high degree of eulogium, for im- mediately two other Americans vociferated for an s ' 144 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. extra glass of grog to toast the Canadian, in which sentiment I licartily concurred. I revert to my Diary : — " March 18^/i, 1863. — A few mosquitoes have put in an appearance. Hence we know to a cer- tainty that summer is nigh. These islands are freer than most woody countries from the mosquito- plague, the reason being the comparative absence of swampy soil. Swamps, combined with heat, not only nouri.sh mosquitoes, but develop them daily into life from decomposed vegetation." " 20th. — Tills morning I paid a visit to old Skid-a- ga-tees. By great care I have managed to keep friends with him all the Winter through. The principal object of my visit to-day was to see a sick Indian, who lay dangerously ill with an ulcerated throat. I gave the man doses of ice, to use as a gargle, and made hiui stick to it for six hours. Before I left last niirht, he was as well as ever." " 28^/i. — I have just returned from an excursion, a comfortless though not altogether a useless one, and my first this year. " In defiance of a high sea, I ventured out in my canoe to try to finish the prospecting, which I had commenced last fall (Autumn), in Sockalec A NIGHT IN THE OPEN AIR. 145 Harbour, at the mouth of the Burnaby Straits, almost due north of our camp. I took with me two expert Indians. But this canoe is small, only five feet by four inches — in fact, no larger than an ancient British coracle. I had in view to discover some cross-veins of copper, if possible. Such however was the state of the sea that we soon drifted off to westward, and were glad enough to be able to make for the nearest shore. It was on the other side of our Western Headland, and although the beautiful little harbour or cove where we now landed, lay within two mik'S of us, I had never been into it before. I spied a blue jay flying about near the beach, and, as this was the first bird of the species I had seen on Queen Charlotte Islands, I named the place Blue Jay Harbour. Evidently it would have been impossible, in such a sea, to weather the headland towards home. I therefore made up my mind to encamp under a huge cedar-tree; but having forgotten to bring matches, I sent an Indian into the bush to procure the requisite tinder (dead rotten wood), by means of which we quickly kindled a brisk fire, roasted our potatoes, and toasted some dried fish we had with us. " It will ever remind me of this benign climate, 14fi QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. I * i to think how, on a night m March, even while stormy winds raged, I was not merely induced to take my night's rest in the open air, as I did beneath the out- s[>read branches of that cedar, but was able next morning to rise from sleep, as unharmed and re- freshed as if I had been in bed. "And yet the depredations of the storm were wonderful to look at. During the night hundreds of trees had been blown down, and now were strewn high and dry along the beach. " To a solitary civilized being, the storms in these northern latitudes always have a peculiar grandeur. A solitude seems to reign here, and even at Victoria, which goes home to the heart of the stranger from Europe, and fills iiim with deso- hition. Not that a pioneer's life is dull, for there are subjects in plenty to engage his attention ; but that every now and again a feeling of loneliness creeps over him, such as no pen or tongue can portray. It makes him mark and clin^ to the glories of nature with tenfold ardour. But hence, too, he views with tenfold sensitiveness the sight of those glories battling furiously together. " After breakfast we set off in the direction of a high mountain, situated in the interior of the INTO THE INTERIOR. 147 island, intending, if possible, to ascend to the summit, and secure one of the many hundreds of eagles' nests which I could plainly discern through my field-glass. Though the distance to the base of the mountain was only about three miles, so dense a bush separated us from it, that we found it absolutely impracticable to proceed more than two. Indeed, the last half-mile I performed alone, my Indians having given it up as "unco uncanny," to borrow a phrase fronj yonside the Tweed. They aver that I penetrated into the interior further than any Indian has ever gone. This does not surprise me, considering their natural dislike to exertion of any kind. They plead in excuse that the game is too scarce, and the under-bush too obstructive and dangerous, to offer them sufficient inducement. As I was forced to go back myself, I must admit their plea to be a reasonable one. "About noon, the sea having calmed a little, we resumed our voyage of discovery in the tiny canoe. In an hour or so we put into another pretty harbour, where I made out a vein of crystallized limestone, the only pure limestone I had seen in this geological section. The vein was four feet wide, and traceable for a distance of 150 feet, from W.N.W. to E.S.E. L 2 I 4 148 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Paddling then around the land, I found it was an island, not much less than twelve miles in circum- ference. I bestowed the name of " Malcolm" upon it, in honour of a friend in Canada. Observing smoke to proceed from an adjacent island, we paddled over to it, a distance of some four miles. Time failed me to examine the interior, even if the chaos and tangle had allowed me; but by the smoke and the strong smell of sulphur prevailing, I judged that Volcanic Island would not be a misnomer to give it. " During the last two days we three explorers have consumed quite sixty pounds weight of flour, besides other provisions. These Indians think nothin^ of devouring their ten pounds each at a meal, particu- larly if the flour be made up in the form of pan- cakes. Catering for Indians comes expensive." I may here note that the commissariat difliculty referred to in my Diary was shortly after obviated by another smart notion, for which we were again indebted to the genius of our Californian. Amongst the stores we had a large cask of tallow, 4 such as is used in rolling cartridges, or in greasing tools. I took a quantity of this with me, when I next went out to explore, and fried the pancakes in it instead of in butter. Of course I took care to PANCAKES. 149 cook the first pancake without tallow, slipping in a piece of butter on the sly for myself. The Indians g()l)bleJ up their tallowed pancakes with infinite gusto. But ever after one pancake apiece amply sufficed to them. And rare fun it was to see their amazement and vexation at not being able to accom- modate more than that at a time, in spite of their undiminished appetites. After this brief exploration the copper-works on Burnaby Island kept me too closely occupied to allow of another absence for some while to come. All went on much as usual till the latter end of August, when our camp and that of our ally Skid- u-ga-tees were thrown into commotion by the report of an invasion to be expected from a neighbouring tribe, booty being their undisguised motive. Though we quickly put ourselves into a state of defence, it is hard to say what might have been the result but for the most opportune arrival of tlie little schooner Rebecca, the mere sight of which ludicrously changed our would-be foes into pretended friends. Tlie Rebecca was on her way back from the Stiekeen River in Russian America, and had on board an old Canadian friend of mine, a Mr Car- michacl, who also was returning from the gold-mines I .1 ~ i V' T'T ;m! ±1 \\n 150 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. in those parts, having lost all his money, and likewise his health, not to mention a narrow escape with hi;* life from hostile Indians. As the nephew of Mr. 1 Ionian, proprietor of the famed St. Lawrence Hall Hotel, in I^Iontreal, my friend had gone out influen- tially recommended, fully stocked, and well in funds. Few men, therefore, could be better qualified to pass an opinion on the prospect afforded by the Stickeen River. It is here enough to recount that he had left the gold-mines with the determination of never going back to them. Fearing that, as soon as the Hehecca departed, I should again have trouble from the Indians, I osten- tatiously despatched a letter to the Governor oi" British Columbia, requesting the presence of a gun- boat. The mere fact of this request served to pro- tect us for the nonce. 151 CHAPTER XI. PLOTTING INDIANS— THE GUNBOAT " nECATE" — SlIELLINO — OPINIONS ON TIIE"SM0KE-SI1II'" — KLUEON HOARD THE" HECATE" — THE " KEHErCA" HEAVES IN SIGHT — FIllINO SKINCUTTLE — PllOSPECTING— COPPER-MINE ON UUIIXABY ISLAND — BACK T»J VICTORIA BV THli " OUTSIDE PAS- SAGE" — KEPOaT TO THE MINING COMPANY. Nearly a month elapsed before I received tiiiy answer to my request. Meantime, our pugnacious neighbours, emboldened by the delay, sent a small "army of observation" over to Burnaby Island to watch us, and, if occasion offered, to threaten us. Very early in the morning of September 19tli. I noticed a great stir in their camp ; and ere long those who had been plotting our total destruction came up to the log-house, laden with skins, furs, and fish, and loudly proclaiming their amicable senti- ments towards the white man. Nothing in the Indian character used to astonish me so much as its shallowness. The Indians are wonderfully acute in reading other people's actions ; and hence one would expect them to be less clumsy M I'll I ^vr .S'Vrl 152 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. in dissimulation. Here they were, liowevcr, palpably false and hostile to the backbone, and yet thinking to make me believe in their professions of friendship and truthfulness by means of a few transparent overtures. But does not a like trait eharacterize tlie savages one meets with now and then at home? I could not T'jstruin a laugh at the blatant impos- ture, especially as, happening to look through my glass across to the enemy's cam[), I saw they were actually breaking up and beginning to move. Upon which the members of the deputation laughed too. Ail this assured me that some external cause must be operating in our behalf. My men and I >v'ere still balancing probabilities, whe'i suddenly the sound of heavy guns in tiie fur distarice solved every doubt; and at tiie sanu T taent a friendly Siwasii (one of the Skid-a-ga-tees tribe) anno ruiuiing over the j)romont<.*ry to an- no\mce that a '^ f-moke-vessel" was in sight. Our doubhsfaeed enei;il'_s had been observing it from early dawn. Without loss of time I mounted to an eminencf above our camp, and there, plain enough in th.. oiling, was an English nmn-of-war. I imuiediately put off to her hi a cauoc. She proved to be VISIT OF THE " HECATE." 153 II.M s giiiil)oat IJecate^ and by nine o'clock a.m. I liiid the .satisfjiction of piloting the welcome gunhoat into a safe anchorage opposite our mi ics, and not more than a quarter of a mile from our log-house. The following is in my Diary : — ''^September VJth. — Took the obstreperous chiefs before the commanding officer of the llccate^ who giive them clearly to understand, through an inter- preter, tliat if they annoyed us again in any way whatsoever he would at once return and burn them out of home and hearth, and that they nuist deliver ii|) all the articles they had stolen from us. Tins action on the part of the Governor will do an incal- ciilaltle amount of good. It makes us feel a deeper j)n;le in oiu* country, and revives tlie patriotism which too long absence fi*om home is apt to enfeel)le. Tlie olUeers very obliging, offering to supjdy any- thing we might recjuire. I was glad of tw(j dozen eliiy pipes, and a bundle of Knglisli newspapers." Exa(!tly at five o'clock tliat afternoon the I/rcdtc <^ot up her steiuu again and de[)arted, after having fnvd a good many shells dui'ing the day from her largest gun, as a i-alutary waining to the natives. lor (juite a week afterwards Indians of all tribes , I 154 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. continued to loaf about near our log-liouse, holding lively conversations with us in reference to the gun- boat. The general opinion amongst thoin was that it would be easy to destroy her by " setting fire to her powder-magazine ;" but when pressed as to some practical plan for getting at the magazine, they were no more able to answer than were tlie respected nurses of our infant years when we used to question tliem as to the best mi^thod of putting salt on a bird's tail. What most of all puzzled the Indians was to understand how on earth " the same gun could fire two shots at once," by which they meant the report on the shell being discharged, and the bursting of the shell a few moments after on the ground. Candour obliges me to state that, notwithstanding his friendliness in the main, Klue turned out more or less of a rascal in the potty larceny line. For this I had him up on board the Ifentte, when he promised her commander to restore a lot of implements he had stolen, or had allowed to be stolen, from our stores. lie never fulfilled his promise, which, judging by \m subsequent manner in the Hecate^ I expected would bo the case. Klue, I remember, came on deck in a nice stew; but as soon as he found that it was to be all talk, and KLUE ON BOARD THE " HECATE." 155 110 hanging or shooting, he phicked up courage and followed me about the ship wherever I went. Ob- serving two young ladies aft, he inquired their names. Not knowing them myself at the time, I replied that they were the daughters of some English gentleman of rank, upon which he instantly proposed to pur- chase one, offering "two hundred blankets" down. I informed him that English ladies were not exchange- able for " goods." He was greatly surprised to hear it, and terribly vexed when, later, I explained our custom in this matter more fully. " Why, then, do youi" white men come and buy our daughters?" he iiulignimtly exclain. n1. And, it must be owned, I was as terribly at a loss how to answer him. Th" Indian custoui is to take a woman to wife for a month on trial, the usual price asked for a chief's (liiughter being three blankets. In the event of the damsel not proving a desirable accpiisition, she may be sent back within the month. Her relations then return the blankets. It is sad to know that this degrading traffic has been taken advantage of, to an unlimited extent, by the Californiari traders who frequent the shores of the North I*acific. I did not wonder, therefore, at Klue's indignation on his dis- f'ovcring the true bearings of their practice. I never I V ■■ M . \ i ' fcji iii f I P a s 156 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. heard of his particular tribe having any such appli- cations while I resided on Queen Charlotte I ilands. But 1 strongly suspect that, should a Californian ever again seek a wife among them, Klue will insist on his price of two hundred blankets, if he does not give his unsuspecting aj)i)licant the length of his knife. Although the Hecate stayed but one day, she left a most wholesome impression. For a long time after her visit, whenever the Indians showed a dis- position to be sauey, we had only to glance with u smile towards the north-west (the direction in which the gunboat steamed off), and their bodies would quake from head to foot, whilst they rolled their eye- oalls wildly. On the Saturday following the Decate's visit, the schooner Rebecca hove in sight. As the rain descended in torrents all that day and the next, I advised her lying-to in Harriet Harbour, which she did till Monday, the 29th of September, wlieii, the weather having cleared, she unloaded our shipment of stores, and sailed the same evening for Stickau River, with orders to call again on her return, in order to convey me down to Victoria. I make note here of a melancholy accident which happened in the Rebecca^ on lier way up from the A SEA-MISADVENTURE. 157 capital. On board of her was a certain Mr. "Wigham, a native of London, and for }'ears a speculator in Chilian and Peruvian mines. Our company had aprioiiited him to come and assist me in working out my discoveries. The Rebecca having made the hiside Passage on this occasion, she was off the North Beiitinck Arm, above Queen Charlotte Sound, when, one stormy niglit, Mr. Wigham tried to take an observation of tbe Polar Star. While enjja^xed in doing this, tlie schooner's boom swung round heavily, and, striking him on the head, sent him overboard. Ill such weather, at night, his body could not of course be recovered. Now the schooner had left Victoria a week previous to 'Jie gunboat; and as the gunboat was ordered to call at our place before proceeding to Sti(!keen River, its commaridcr had kindly given Mr. Wigbinn's daughters their passage. These were the young English ladies who had fxcited x\w Indian chief's curiosity in the gun-room of the Ifcciite. \\\it the Misses Wigham, finding the Ui'hccca had not y brought things to a head. Several died, one of whom was a liandy fellow, called " Indian George" by my men, and anotlier, a [jrctty little Kh)otchnian girl. Seeing these two were dying, the Indians strangled them, and immediately after struck their filtln camp on Skincuttle, making off in a body, and leaving us to bury their dead, if we chose to pcrfonn that office. This we did, to prevent the further s})rcad of the small-i)ox. My foreman and I then set fire to the Indian but* and to the bushwood, and a ticici f:l J m ■ SKINCUTTLK EVACUATED. 159 gale of wind beginning to blow at the same moment, the whole of Skincuttle Island was soon one sheet of flame. Not a stick would have been 1' ft on any part of it, if a dense cumulus of water, which we per- CL'ived to be gathering overhead, had not burst open of a sudden, and poured down such a flood as I never beheld, before or since, in my life- time. The rain lasted without the slightest intermis- sion or diminution for thirty-four hours, almost to a minute. Thus, by the action of two powerful elements, did poor Skincuttle receive its purifi- cation. These incidents finally disgusted me with our nristine settlement, and calculating that there was notlii'ig furtlier of interest to detain us on the islet, 1 ordered its total evacuation. 1 liad lately been extensively engaged in prospect- ing,' liurnaby Island; and my researches havirig resukcd in the discovery of wliat I believed to be the " lead" of the copper-ore, close down by the shore, I had set a number of men to work u[)on it. The storm interrupted their operations; but wlien, on tlic weather clearing, we arrived with our be- longings from Skincuttle, the first siglit wbiv^li rewarded me for my venture was the "foot »nd %-»'-^ m 1 '■• 1 1^:1 L 160 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. hanging wall" of the vein splendidly defined. It had just been opened. Early in the day of October 14th, the Itehecca once more made her expected appearance. As I had now important news for the shareholders of our Company, I resolved to return to Victoria in the schooner ; and accordingly, putting my foreman in charge, I went on board in the afternoon, upon which Captain Macabnond weighed anchor at once. He agreed, veiy sensibly, to take the Outside Passage, hoping to get down with fair winds in about three days. In this, however, we were disappointed. After clearing Cape St. James, a smart breeze sprung up. The Rebecca then crowded on all sail, which sent her cutting through the water at the rate of eleven knots an hour. But it seemed too good to last. By sunrise next morning she was scudding before the wind with bare poles, whilst the sea dashed incessantly over her bows. Towards evening another change came on. The wind fell, but not the sea, which continued to roll in huge volumes, pitcliing and tossing our dapper little schooner about li' e a shuttlecock, the " dead reckoninfj" sliowin": that she made only half a knot to the hour. Who can descrihe the mortification which is the lot of the pioneer IN THE TROUGH OF THE SEA. 161 when, after a prolonged absence amongst savages, lie approaches the haven and yet cannot feel sure of ever reaching it? As we lay tumbling in the trough of this wide sea, I could not but recall the fate of poor Mr. Wigham, hardly a month previous. What if our frail craft were to capsize, and to consign us all to make food for the fishes? Would anybody be one whit the wiser, until weeks, or almost months, after our friends began to miss us? To know this feeling fully, one Miust have found oneself within a day's stcjun of such a capital as Victoria, and yet have had to take one's chance of wind and waves, sometimes by the help of the tide making a few knots, but oftener losing sea-way to double the distance. The sole comfort derivable from our position was that, for two days, we could see no less than four other trading vessels labouring under tlie same difficulties as ourselves. Still not i)recisely the same; for, our craft being small and our Captain export, we generally contrived to ground well in- .•>hore, and hauling ofl' with the returning tide, so gain a few miles in advance of the other sliips. At length, on Sunday morning, October the 19th, wc sailed with a fair wind up the Straits of San ?r:, 162 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Juan de Fuca, and, rounding the Headland, dropped anchor in Victoria Harbour. My arrival formed (juite an event in the capital, not only btcausc most of the leading merchants had now taken a pecuniary interest in my expedition, but because T was the first white man who had dared to go and live amongst the hostile Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands, or the Great Northern Indians, as some call them. I need perhaps scarcely say that the primary con- sideration for me was a change of clothing, a civilize d wsish, and a " square meal." Nobody who has not ex- perienced what it is to be deprived of the refinements of life can rightly conceive the joy of regaining tliein. When these invigorating tonics had been applied to my system I placed myself at the disposition of nume- rous old friends, and as many new ones, to answer their perplexing questions about the Indians, aluait the aspect and capabilities of Queen Charlotte Islands, and j)articularly al)out the promise of the countiy in mineral [)roducts. It required no little patience to satisfy such denumds on my time and tenq)er, to say riothiiig of the bodily constitution recpiisite to stand all the *' brnndy smashes" and bottles of ch.'inii'n^nio of which I had perforce to partake in my own honour. Iropped ital, not uid now on, but Isired U) " Queen iiins, as ary con- civiliz((l i not ex- inenieiits nf ninue- ) answer IS, abdllt Islands, untry in ;it'nce to r, to ?ay to stand aniiin<;ne honour. m. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 laiiji 1112.5 iiiin j 5 b J.^ |||I|Z2 i^ 2.0 1.8 U IIIIII.6 w 7 '^. w Jo 7 s Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WfST MAJN STREET WEBSTl'i<,N.Y. 14580 (716, »''2-45n3 4i? 1 v^ .^ f^-j ^ ,/ V a ^vjaa Ji; RECEPTION AT VICTORIA. 163 By dint of a studied personal restraint, however, I got through my allotted task ; so that, having devoted some few days to a most necessary rest, and employed the remainder in purchasing provisions, clothes, medicine, and ammunition, I was ready, before a week had elapsed, to charter another vessel to take me back to Burnaby Island. Here I cannot do better than insert the official Report which, on occasion of this visit to the capital, I addressed to our Company :* — " To the Directors of the Queen Charlotte Mining Company. " Victoria, Vancouver Island, Oct. 22, 1863. " Gentlemen, " The copper-mines are situated on several islands, the approximate position being in about lat. 52° 18' 00" North, long. 131° 07' 00" West. Though the time occupied by me in prospecting these islands has been very limited, I have come to the conclusion that the copper on Burnaby Island is the most promising hitherto discovered. There is a bluff of rock rising to the height of about 150 feet on the eastern extremity of Burnaby Island. Com- * The above Report is quoted by Mr. Macfie, iu his work (p. 152) . M 2 ;!i. ^ J \tl 164 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. mencing at the N.E. point of this bluff, at low-water mark, copper shows itself about one inch and a half in thickness. One half inch runs parallel with the level of the water for a distance of nine feet, mixed with a little spar, when it runs out. The remaining one inch then rises on an angle of 25° for the same distance, when it takes a horizontal course two feet above high-water mark towards the S.W., the strike being S. 35° W., with a dip W.N.W. 72°. Leaving these two threads and joining the main vein, as seen here, the copper gradually widens in the direction of the mainland. The length of this vein on the out- croppings is 200 feet, with an average thickness of sixteen inches on the surface or out-crop. The con- stituent (matrix or gangue) is composed of shorl, hornblend, garnets, and spar, presenting good gossan indications and two well-defined walls, the ' foot- walls ' being slate overlaid with a very hard dark green rock, the 'hanging-walls' proving the existence of a regular and defined vein of copper-ore. " The classes of ore to be looked for here are the yellow and grey sulphurates of copper, with the blue and green carbonates of copper, holding muriates and sulphurates of silver, with the purple and other classes of copper-ores. MINING REPORT. 165 " It is needless for me to enter into a long state- ment as to the probability of finding workable copper on Skincuttle Island. There are many serious ob- jections to such a theory. The only use this island will be to us is to assist in determining the course of the ' Champion Lead,' which must be towards the mainland, as the latter island is too far north, which the formation plainly shows. For this reason I con- sidered it a duty to the Company and myself to cease sinking the shaft on Skincuttle Island, for which I luiJ bound myself by contract. " I have directed a set of men to cut a drift in the most promising situation yet discovered, which is on Burnaby Island, and with a few more men I shall be in a position to extract copper for the market next Spring. I have no hesitation in recommending the working of this vein, believing, as I do, that, in a com- mercial point of view, the result will be most satis- factory to all parties interested therein. The regu- larity of the formation of this vein, its extent, and promising character, as well as its very convenient proximity to water (it lies within eighty feet of deep water, at a point suitable for landing a shipment or anything required), will satisfy the most anxious. " From experience in mining for the last twelve '.' -1 I ■ iii ^i: 166 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. years, I am confident that success will attend the working of this mine, provided it is carried on with energy and prudence. The mine so clearly possesses in itself all the elements of success, besides its con- venience of situation, that no doubt can be entertained but that its working will prove a sound satisfaction to every one concerned. " I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, " Yours faithfully, "Francis Poole, *' Engineer to the Queen Charlotte Mining Company" m 167 :rf CHAPTER XII. BOUND FOE QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS AGAIN — UP THE " INSIDE PAS- SAGE " IN THE " LEONIDE" — THE GULF OF GEP'IGIA — COAST ON EITHER SIDE — RUN AGROUND — THE NORTH AND SOUTH BENTINCK ARMS- NEW ABERDEEN — BELLA-COOLA RIVER — TAYLOR's RANCUE — GETTING OUT TO SEA— THE BELLA-BELLAS — ACROSS TO QUEEN CHARLOTTE. It was not at all easy to procure a vessel for the purpose of conveying myself and two of my men, together with a suitable supply of provisions, back to the copper-mines. At length, however, a sloop named the Leonide^ which had been advertised to sail to the North Beu- tinck Arm on the mainland, failing to obtain more than half her cargo, I chartered her to extend her trip across to our islands. The last moment had almost come, and the bargain was struck in a hurry. When, then, I went down to inspect the sloop, it rather staggered me to find her only twenty tons burden, twelve tons of which were already on board, whilst fifteen tons additional of our Company's stores had yet to be shipped, con- 'I I fi?^ lt> ikid.. ^^ TTsl 168 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. I II stituting a total of twenty-seven tons, to say nothing of the crew, passengers, and luggage. But we had to make the best of the bargain : for otherwise my men at the mines Avould have been wholly destitute of provisions. On the 24th of October, therefore, about nine o'clock P.M., we left Victoria Harbour, with quite seven tons weight more in the Leonides hold than she had any right to carry, and a very dangerous voyage be- fore us. It was no wonder that, upon anchoring in Nanaimo Harbour, opposite the well-known coal- mines,* we found our sloop nearly waterlogged, showing fully a foot of water on her main-deck, even in smooth w^ater — a fair sample of trading appliances in a new country. The Leonide being bound in the first instance to the North Bentinck Arm, the Inside Passage was an imperative necessity. At the outset some idea may be formed of the vast difference between the two Passages, when I state that it took us three days and four nights to reach Nanaimo, whereas, in a good ship, the same period of time, by the Outside Passage, would have landed us at Queen Charlotte. * The Nanaimo mines yielded 40,833 tons of coal in the year 1869. THE GULF OF GEORGIA. 169 In order to make clear how amply the facts bear out my comparison, I shall describe this voyage somewhat in detail. Despite our extraordinary over-freight, I had really no cause to disparage the sailing capacities of the Leonide. What we wanted was wind to drive us ahead against the vexatious tides, currents, and eddies which so markedly characterize the Inside Passage. Exactly at sunset of the 28th, a stiff but favourable breeze springing up, we weighed anchor and set sail from Nanaimo into the Gulf of Georgia. This gulf, owing to its strong currents and ever-varying winds, is the terror of all British Columbian naviga- tors.* By dint of good steering, however, we were fortunate enough to reach the head of the gulf by the evening of the 29th. Here a high promontory, known as Cape Mudge, juts out from the land on the ' * The experience of Commander Mayne It.N., on the subject of the Inside Passage, is exactly mine. In his valuable work Four Years in British Columbia, he says (p. 17G) that the Gulf of Georgia " forms a kind of playground for the waters, in which they frolic, utterly regardless of all tidal rules. This is caused by the collision of streams. The tide-rips are excessively dangerous to boats, and great care has to be exercised. A boat is almost certain tc be swamped, and eveu a ship is so twisted and twirled about as to run considerable risk." 170 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Vancouver side; and, observing a sheltered little harbour lying well under its lee, we decided to take shelter here for the night. The morning's dawn disclosed to us smoke in the bush, from which we inferred that an Indian ranche must exist in the neighbourhood, which, on examination, we found was the fact. We accordingly paid the natives a flying visit, purchasing from them five splendid salmon for the sum of two shillings sterling. Johnstone Straits, which divide Vancouver from the largest-sized island in the Passage, was our next venture. It looks smooth work enough on the map. In reality, it is always the toughest tug of the voyage. At daybreak on November the 1st we might have been seen, still in the trough of a rough sea, off Cape Mudge. We had then been beating about for two nights and a day, in a vain struggle to enter Johnstone Straits. Indeed, it was not till after three days, alternately advancing and retreating at the mercy of changing tides and coquetting winds, that, having taken to our oars as a last resource, we finally succeeded in clearing the long, ugly strait itself. Some thirty miles distance beyond the north OFF THE SALMON RIVER. 171 entrance to the straits, a fine river discharges its waters with fearful velocity into this arm of the sea. It is called the Salmon River, from the multitude of fish of that species which swarm in it. We made several ineffectual efforts to cross the river's mouth. Our final attempt was not successful until the sloop had all but capsized, the sea making a clean sweep of the decks, and washing our live fowls and several casks of prime mess-pork overboard. Before we got completely across, a stiff breeze from the S.E., while working us up against a stubborn head-tide, swung the sloop's boom round from the port-side. Our cook, who chanced to be standing by the taffrail, was knocked into the water, but, catching fortunately at a sail which dragged along after us, he was hauled a-board again. I had the narrowest escape possible from a v/atery mishap of the same kind. Seeing the boom coming, I bent my head to avoid it, when the boom-sail lifted me neatly over to starboard. Scrambling into the rigging, I let myself down by a rope into the cabin, thankful to have come off without even a ducking. This was a roughish introduction to the fair wind and comparatively smooth water which commenced immediately after we had passed the Salmon River, ■r V n • -.m III III 1 '■tl' IW^^|i! 172 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. and held on till we entered the little bay where stands the fort erected by the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. This is close to Queen Charlotte Sound, and at the extreme north-west end of the Inside Passage. All along our route we could discern northwards the dim outline of a high mountain-range, as yet unnamed and unexplored by civilized man, but which is doubtless a spur of the Cascade Mountains. The Vancouver shore opposite lies low for a very con- siderable distance inland. It here consists of a rich loamy soil, likely to turn out extreinely productive at some future period. For the present brushwood prevails exclusively. The high timberage of these regions begins again as one approaches Fort Rupert. In the low levels, the residents at the fort told us, the atmosphere is generally clear, dry, and genial; but we could distinctly see heavy snow falling on the mountain- tops far away. Until within a few miles of Fort Rupert this part of Vancouver presents an aspect of the dreariest monotony. Near that point, however, the wild and grand scenery of its other parts is resumed. During the entire voyage up the Inside Passage, our best day's sail was twenty-five miles. Allow- ance should of course be made for our over-laden TWENTY THOUSAND ISLETS. 173 craft. But the Leomdc, if fiiirly treated, almost rivalled the saucy Rebecca. Balancing computations, tlierefore, this sailing would not give more than an average of twenty miles a day at the highest; whereas the Inside Passage is quite two hundred and seventy miles long. In other words it seems clear that not less than fourteen days arc required to accomplish it. Surely there cannot be stronger proof that the Outside Passage, which never takes above six days, is vastly more expeditious ; not to mention its evident superiority in respect of sea-room and general safeness. Only those who have navigated the tortuous seas between Vancouver and the mainland of British Columbia can conceive the freaks which wind and tide are capable of indulging in. It is a standing puzzle to the Indian. But the white man perfectly accounts for it on looking to the innumerable small islands with which nature has fringed the whole of the British Columbian coast. If ever these islets come to be named, I much doubt whether any nomenclature will be found sufficiently rich to in- clude them all. The simplest plan would be to number them like the streets of New York. Com- mencing at San Juan de Fuca, and ending with Fort HI I I ^1 ':} \t ■liiii 'I'M': 174 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Simpson, a distance of five hundred miles by an average of ten miles wide, the highest number, I feel sure, would then exceed 20,000. Such a quantity of islands, grouped together in so confined a space, does not exist in any other portion of the globe. Well, as the unsophisticated navigator pursues the tenor of his way along this little-known route, he is surprised by the wind suddenly describing a circle round one of these islets, then bowling down a funnel-like channel straight at him, and, after having literally turned a corner, sweeping madly up another gullet or ravine, from which again it descends upon him with quadruple force. The utmost care is conse- quently indispensably requisite in this navigation. Not unfrequently the morning dawn would reveal to us that, instead of having advanced, we had been drifting back all night. The contending winds seemed legionary. We usually managed, it is true, to have one or other of them in our favour ; but the most powerful wind was invariably adverse to us. This shows, too, that the wji? passage is more tedious than the down. There were very few days, or nights either, on which we had not to use our long oars, passengers and all, like so many Thames bargemen, sometimes for hours together. In short, 1 can ■,l,,l!ll,i|.IMIW A-GROUND ON A REEF. 175 imagine no navigation attended with greater tedium, danger, and hardship. Steam alone is able to reduce it to submission. It was now getting on in November. During the last week the cold had set in, and we had sleety rain and snow almost continuously. We sheered out of Queen Charlotte Sound, however, and, hugging the mainland, steered within a point or two of due north, towards Edmund Point and the Bentinck Arms. Though now clear of the currents and peculiar winds of the Inside Passage, we had yet to expe- rience another of the perils indigenous to this imper- fectly known highway of the sea. Whilst the slant sleet and borean blast were at their worst, the Leonide went a-ground on a sunken rock or reef. Our slow rate of progression neces- sarily weakened the sloop's impetus; else the danger, witii such a cargo on board, off that wilderness of a coast, would have been extreme. As it was, a couple of hours' hard labour enabled us to haul the vessel back into deep water, and thus to save her not only from destruction, but from any serious damage. This occurred early one morning. We had then arrived within a day's sail of our first destination. The captain now consenting, I took the sloop's '1 :'1 lit Hi'; h'Jl m mi t \\ 176 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. canoe, and, with one of my own men to steer, paddled forward to the North Bentinck Arm, which I reached just three hours in advance of the Leonide. Well do I recollect that 22nd of November, a dull, dreary, wintry day. It was a Saturday evening ; but we had time to discharge a large portion of the freight, I acting as stevedore and supercargo. It is strange what a man can do when he is put to it. I speak from personal observation and expe- rience when I say that anybody, with ordinary in- telligence and a fair amount of bodily health, may push himself along in a new country. At the date of my leaving England, what did I know of industrial work beyond the sphere of my peculiar profession? Yet I may point tv^ my own case, and I trust without being suspected of vanity, as a prac- tical instance. For there I was at the North Bentinck Arm, acting as ship's clerk and superintending the unloading of a vessel, having previously piloted it up the Inside Passage from Vancouver, in place of a " professed pilot," who, though purposely shipped at Victoria, had shown himself as incapable of managing a sloop on the high seas as any Highlander in his bonnet and breeks. About latitude 52°, longitude 128°, and exactly THE BENTINCK ARMS. 177 bpposite Cape St. James of Queen Charlotte Islands, a large estuary occurs in the British Columbian mainland. This estuary is splendidly sheltered from the ocean by an island, measuring twenty miles in length, and called after its discoverer, one Captain Maclaughlin, a Scotchman. But the estuary itself leads up thirty miles into the interior by a broad and deep channel. It there divides into two channels, which have been named respectively the North and South Bentinck Arms, and which lead again, the one by a still scarcely explored route over the last range of the Rocky Mountains into Canada, the other into the heart of the Blue and Cascade Mountains. A little above the conjunction of the two Arms, in the North Channel, a small colony had been formed, partly as a standpoint for barter with the Indians, partly with a view to the provisioning and accom- modation of those who, like myself, were rash enough to probe the recesses of the famous Cascades, in search of gold or other minerals. I do not entertain the least doubt that, when capital is brought to bear upon this upper portion of British Columbia, the route thence into the interior, and so into Canada West, will be fully explored and speedily established. The scheme will meet with opposition j but, as it is N 1 'I li! Midi dii li :'■■ mm H^^t 178 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. sure to succeed eventually, all who know anything of our possessions in the North Pacific foresee an immense change in the mercantile state of this colony by the certain diversion of perhaps half its traffic from Victoria in Vancouver Island to the towns yet to be formed on the North Bentinck Arm. Scotchmen have so far been the main projectors of this enterprise. Hence the aforesaid little settle- ment, for years known familiarly at Victoria as " The Arm," had assumed at last the style and title of New Aberdeen. One Wallace it was who kept the ranche or hotel there, a thrifty and thriving speculator, well de- serving of permanent success. I had twice pre- viously spent some useful and joUy days under his roof, when engaged in my bootless Cascade expedi- tion, and now it became my pleasing task to lend a helping hand in revictualling his store, and otherwise doing him a good turn. Those are the reciprocal services in which pioneers specially rejoice. In fact, with shame must it be acknowledged that, the more sparse the population in a given radius, the less selfish and the more genial, hearty, and obliging do we lords of the creation become in our dealings with JIM THE INDIAN. 179 our fellow-creatures. No tyro in colonization but will draw that inference. While hob-nobbing with Pioneer Wallace, however, I had serious doubts of being able to cultivate friendly relations with the rest of mankind at New Aberdeen. I learnt that the small-pox had carried off hundreds of Indians since my first visit there ; and as the party 1 then headed was the unfortunate means of introducing the fell disease amongst them, I began to fear lest the natives should oppose my lauding. But I was soon undeceived. Remarking a fine specimen of Young India (North Pacific section) gazing at me, not with eyes indi- cating intense hatred, as I had expected, but with an expression of sorrow, I sympathizingly inquired the cause. He was one of those whom the small-pox hud spared, but had nevertheless so deeply marked that I did not recognise his face in the least. But the moment he spoke I knew him to be my old Indian friend Jim, our guide on the Benanck Trail over the Blue Mountain. But ft . Jim none of that party of ours would be alive at this day. He answered my query by saying ruefully, but in very good English, "Do you not remember me, sir?" Of course I at once went and shook him warmly by the hand, which n2 -^ ir'fe'i iiiiiil iii iin 180 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. mark of my remembrance and sympathy so overcame the poor fellow that he had much to do to keep down his feeling; and yet the feat was indispensably necessary, if he would retain his character as an Indian brave. I never took so kindly to any Indian. Jim was in my opinion an excellent example of the real stuff that lies behind the dross and disfigure- ment with which Europeans are now only too fami- liarized in the Indian character. Had my position and circumstances allowed it, I should certainly have adopted him, as I felt sure he possessed a warm and generous disposition, besides great intelligence, which a few years of civilized life and training would have brought out in noble relief. We made but a short stay on the North Bentinck, not longer in fact than was necessary to clear out the sloop and right her for the rest of the voyage. While this was being accomplished, I set off in com- pany with Mr. Taylor, another courageous pioneer of these regions, on an excursion up the Bella Coola, or Belcoula River. The country here may be described in a summary way as hilly, the hills sometimes rising to mountains with a rich loam for a soil, the river-banks, however, displaying a subsoil of gravel some twenty feet under- TAYLORS RANCHE. 181 iieatli the surface. Nothing appears wanting but the axe, the spade, and the plough to render such a land as productive as any in the British Empire. At the period of my visit it was one wild forest, save the v/igwams of the Indians in the bush, and Mr. Taylor's ranche about three miles upward. On our way thither we passed by two Indian settle- ments, or bivouacs rather. They were almost deserted, the small-pox having during the previous year reduced the tribes there from 4000 to a few dozens. I noticed that the river had an enormous stock of salmon. They tumbled over each other like sprats in the water, reminding one of some plant or vegetable run to seed. Mr. Taylor's ranche presented nothing new. It was the same log-house-in-the-backwoods kind of scene to which British Columbia has a way of accustoming every emigrant. The spirit that could induce an educated man to brave the loneliness and discomforts of a quasi-permanent residence in such a desert calls for admiration. At the same time, when the tremendous risk of life and the distant hope of profit are considered, it seems hardly possible to look upon isolated undertakings of this description as other than foolhardy. :| ill iil:i Ji 182 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Mr. Taylor kindly gave me a fine buck-hound pup, which afterwards did me good service. I called him Cato. By-and-by he grew to be a very powerful animal, standing over two feet, and holding his own against any dozen of the curs with which the Indian wigwams on Queen Charlotte Islands are infested. Many a watch did my dog Cato keep for me. The Indians had a wholesome dread of him. He would think nothing of seizing them by the bare legs ; and as, by some instinct or other, he used to pick out those whom we knew to be our worst enemies, the Indians often threatened to kill him. Whenever they said this in my presence, I always vowed to them, with both hands on my revolvers, that it would be the worse for them if they tried to execute their threats. Poor Cato, he had a hard time of it. By constant vigilance, however, and by making him stay indoors after dark, I kept him in safety the whole of my subsequent residence at the mines. On leaving, I gave the faithful animal away to a white- man friend. Returning to New Aberdeen, I found the Leonide in nice trim for the second part of our voyage to Queen Charlotte Islands. "We had just got the anchor on board, and were dropping down the Arm, :.;:.ri| m ii '■ r. LIEUTENANT EISIIER. 183 when an Indian of the Bella-Bella tribe came along- side in his canoe, and, speaking in very fair English, informed us that Lieutenant Fisher of the Royal Engineers had been barbarously murdered by the Chilicooten Indians. He was engaged at the time in surveying the route from the North Bentinck Arm to Cariboo, which, in the previous year, I had roughly mapped out for the information of the Colonial Government. It seems ae strayed away from his camp. No sooner was he out of sight of his own men than some Indians, who had been tracking his party for several days before, pounced upon him, stabbed him to death with their knives, and then stripped the body naked. We hove-to, in order to give me the opportunity of getting at all the facts concerning poor Mr. Fisher's fate. These I collected and despatched to Victoria, to the editor of the Colonist newspaper, in the hope that, by this means, whatever friends he had in England and his brother- officers might hear of his untimely end. On the whole. New Aberdeen left sad impressions. For three irksome days we did our utmost to clear the particular nest of islands which lie grouped between the Bentinck Arms and the North Pacific Ocean; but, owing to the usual cause, fickle winds 184 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. and vicious currents, wc made but slow head- way. As at length we began to steer to the southward, with a view of taking the sloop round the south of Maclaughlin Island, we were passed by the Labouchere steamer, belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. We signalled in the customary manner, but she pre- ferred not to acknowledge our compliments. The reason of such exceptionally strange behaviour on the high seas we soon discovered. When failing to double Edmund Point, the Leonide had next day to put into the little harbour of a new Indian settlement about fifty miles further down the coast. The natives in the settlement were simply mad-drunk, the Labouchere having, on her way up, supplied them with an immense quantity of whisky, in barter for fur- skins. This was the Bella-Bella tribe. We heard they had recently deserted their old camping-grounds up the Arm, and had come down here in consequence of the fearful gaps and ravages caused by the small- pox. Many mournful hours of reflection did it give me when I came face to face with the enormous sacrifice of life I had unwittingly brought about, through my unfortunate exploring party to tne BELLA-BELLAS AND BELLA-COOLAS. 185 Cascades introducing that pest in the neighbourhood of the Arm. The Bella-Bella tribe, though not to be despised, were formerly by no means a match for their born foes the Bella-Coolas, who used always to cut off a ffreat number of the Bella- Bellas whenever these ventured beyond their own territory. But now the Bella-Bellas, though deplorably reduced in their own tribe, found themselves in numbers and force far ahead of the Bella-Coolas, and were accordingly preparing, might and main, to administer condign punishment to their ancient enemies. Thus does one evil produce another. The few men at this settle- ment who had remained sober told us that the tribe intended to go off very soon on the war-trail, and kill every single man of the hostile tribe, out of revenge for the past. It is true they could not quite accom- plish their sanguinary purpose. But there was terrible bloodshed none the less. I prophesy that, before the year 1880, the Indians of British Columbia and Vancouver will be numbered by as many dozens as they counted thousands when I originally saw them. The cause of this is twofold : first, the natural antagonism existing between savage nations, resulting there in frightful internecine 186 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. struggles; which spirit, secondly, has hcen lamentably increased by the intoxicating drinks the Indians have of late 3^ears so easily procured from the unprincipled traders who frequent the coast. I tried to trade with the Bella-Bellas, but could not induce them to come to terms unless I consented to barter in whisky. This, neither I nor the skipper would do, under any circumstances. The surprise of the Indians at our refusal told its own tale. During the night numbers of them came alongside the sloop in a shocking state of intoxication, openly proclaiming that the Hudson's Bay Company regularly sent liquor round to the different tribes. The chief, who was sober, offered in barter a large ship's telescope, but would take nothing in exchange except fire-water. Within a week afterwards we discovered that the glass in question had been stolen, only a few days before, from our skipper's own brother. It was perhaps as well we did not know this at the time, or there might have been a fatal row with the Bella-Bellas, if indeed the temptation to redeem his brother's property by the sole means of a barter in fire-water, might not have proved too strong for our little captain. Having filled our water-casks, and fearing GETTING OUT TO SEA. 187 treachery from these besotted Indians, we stole away (juietly at daybreak. But it was only to return with ignominy; for, although now in sight of the open sea, each time that we hauled clear of the shore, the wind perversely " died down," and we had actually to row the Leonide back to the Bella-Bella settlement. This went on for two whole days, amidst the derisive yells of groups of Indians on the beach. Tired at last, I succeeded in persuading the skipper and the ignorant pilot to risk it, by rowing out to sea, instead of running in for shelter every moment, as though we were a set of home-sick girls. " Nothing venture, nothing gain," I thought; and at this junc- ture I certainly did not err. So we rowed out at 10 a.m. one sunny morning, and at sundown the same evening. Day Point, on Maclaughlin Island, was twenty miles astern, with a breeze nearly dead aft pushing us steadily through the water. On the morning of the second day we drojjped anchor somewhere off Queen Charlotte Islands, having taken just forty-eight hours to do our fifty miles across from Day Point — that is, about a mile an hour — and eight whole days to come the distance from New Aberdeen. w It :' ^ (':i 5.1 iH 188 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. A steamer might readily have performed the service, there and back, four times over ; whilst an Atlantic Cunard might have, meantime, accomplished its run from Liverpool to New York with ease. And yet it was less than half our voyage from Victoria, Vancouver Island. L^w' ■.■;,;>• 189 CHAPTER XIII. WHERE ARE WE? — STORMS — WORKMEN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. — POWER- LESSNESS OF A LEADER BEYOND THE HAUNTS OF CIVILIZED LIFE — MUTINY — TO WORK AGAIN — MINING OPERATIONS — CURISTIZAS DAY AT THE LOG-HOUSE — KLUE AND HIS CHIEFS — HOW TO CIVILIZE INDIANS. Well, at last we had made Queen Charlotte. But whereabouts exactly were we in the Islands? That was the next question. And a very pretty puzzler it proved, too, with a lubberly pilot in charge of us, and not a single instrument on board to take the sun's altitude. Fancy what it would be to anchor off Siart Point in South Devon, with a kind of misty doubt in one's mind that the land on the lee bow of the ship was possibly Flamborough Head. Our guesses had hardly begun, however, when down came a squall upon us, sharper and much more sudden than any Mediterranean hurrasca. Luckily we had reefed sails ; for the squall did not give us five minutes' warning. With awful fury it uprooted trees in all directions, loosening huge boulders on the m I .. ;.m Mm s i 190 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. ■.•.,,: ; 'I mountain-tops, and tumbling them into the sea like foot-balls, whilst the wind shrieked again througli the sea-caverns, bounding up from rock to rock, and down again to the lower levels, till the islands seemed shaken to their very foundations. Presently, and with the same marvellous suddenness, the roar of the elements ceased, a death-like calm immediately supervening. Upon this we examined our position, and con- gratulated one another heartily on having crossed Queen Charlotte Sound within a few minutes of the time required to save ourselves. We lay there all night, thinking wisely that in- action was the best policy when a wrong movement might precipitate our ruin, particularly in the irk. Next morning our pilot declared his certain con- viction that we were north of the Copper Islands. But as I knew every stone for sixty miles northward of that position, and yet did not recognise this coast, it followed, according to the pilot's " convictions," that we ought to sail south. We did so, and before noon a long string of rocky islets came in view, stretching right across our bows. Observing them with a glass, I pronounced them at once to be Cape St. James and its satellite rocks, which form the mi TWO GALES. 191 most easterly point of the Queen Charlotte group of islands. Happily, we had already gone so far west. If we had been only five miles more to the east, we might easily have passed Cape St. James, and sailed out, goodness knows whither, into the boundless Pacific Ocean. Without more ado, therefore, we bouted ship, and shaped our course due north for the Copper Islands, feeling sure by this time where we were going to. Alas, we once more laid the flattering unction to our souls too soon. Tacking against a dead head- wind, we had barely gained ten miles on our right course when another gale, a hundred times worse than the one before, dro 'e us like a piece of cork into our last night's anchorage. Glad we were, indeed, to get that much shelter. But every instant I expected we should be driven out to sea; and then we should have turned a few marine somer- saults, and have victualled the North Pacific fishes for the whole Winter. It was a little bay, and up and down it we went, dragging our two anchors after us as if they were two pins. Twice, another two yards would have put us outside. On the last occasion, thinking it was all over with us, I stripped fur a swim to the shore, two hundred yards distant. wm t '' I, ; i I w ^ '41 192 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. i»:;i'i III'!'! <■ 'mf' I believe, too, I should have actually plunged into the angry flood, stemmed it with a heart of con- troversy, and have swum to yonder point, but that, seeing my mates so willing, I turned to lend them a last hand, as I imagined. Jumping into the boat, we hauled out the third anchor. Then, rowing Hke lunatics, we dropped it in the centre of the bay, just as the sloop was about to launch out wildly into the deep. It was a veritable snatch from the jawL of death. But it taught us a seaman's lesson likewise. We, therefore, continued buiFeting the storm with lusty sinews for full six hours. As fast as our sloop dragged her two anchors, we carried a third further up the bay, and then half pulled and half rowed her in. Not a soul amongst us but contributed his quantum to this crucial test of man- liness. We even forgave the pilot his lubberliness, in consideration of his expending himself at the helm and capstan. Every man on board fought for our joint-stock of life as for his own. I may here state that my observations on Queen Charlotte Islands go to prove the duration of storm- weather in those latitudes to be almost invariably six hours. Thus, should the weather be calm, say from noon to six p.m., after six o'clock it will change AT THE COPPER-MINES. 193 to rough, at miclniglit it will double its force, at six A.M. it will begin to die off, until, by noon ao^ain, the wind and the water have become as still as a lakelet in England in Summer. Not that Queen Charlotte weather is always changeable, but that, when it does change, these are tlie rules of its changes, I see good reason for attributing this action to tbe tides, although the tiding there acts with no great regularity. We had a quiet night's rest after the travail of that anxious day. Early in the morning, a canoe full of Elydah Indians paddled into the bay. I engaged them to take me to the copper-mines, and to return with one of my workmen, who would pilot the sloop in. It was three o'clock on that day when I reached the long-wished-for destination, and found my men all hut out of provisions, and murmuring not a little. Of the murmurs I took no notice, beyond frankly explaining the cause of our detention. It is human nature, the world over, to feel disgusted at being kept waiting, no matter how right the reason. But wlien the rag-tag-and-bobtail of society vent their humour in irrational grumbling, wise men should remain silent. ^ i Mm 194 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Before night, tlie Leonide came to anchor within a couple of hundred yards of our old log-house on Burnaby Island. The voyage from Victoria to the Copper Islands had thus consumed no less than thirty-six days. Now I did the same distance by the Outside Passage in four days, on board the Rebecca^ and eventually, by the Inside Passage in twenty-one days, in an open canoe. Making, then, every allowance for our troublesome diversion to the Arm, this, I hold, constitutes irrefragable evidence that, from the Straits of San Juan de Fuca to Cape Scott of Van- couver Island, the inner British Columbian waters offer no facilities to sailing-vessels. I have recounted above the shocking havoc of the small-pox amongst our Queen Charlotte Indians, likewise the summary measures I adopted to stamp it out of Skincuttle. Prior to that, it had been my already-mentioned misfortune to carry the plague to the tribes along the North and South Bentinck Arms of the mainland. And now a similar fatality seemed to be pursuing me. At New Aberdeen we had compassionately taken a European on board as a passenger via Queen Charlotte to Victoria. As ill-luck would have it, MUTINOUS SYMPTOMS. 195 what should he do but fall sick of small-pox, some days before we arrived at the copper-mines? I en- tered a vehement protest against his being put on shore, knowing only too well the certain consequences. The little skipper insisted, however, and then weighed anchor without him. AVe whites, it is true, were not attacked; but scarce had the sick man landed when the Indians again caught it; and in a very short space of time some of our best friends of the Ninstence or Cape St. James tribe — to my sorrow, seeing how few genuine friends we counted in any of the tribes — had disappeared for ever from the scene. It was long before health could be restored to the surroundings of our little colony. December the 1st was the day of my re-arrival. The Indian Summer had almost waned ; and my first thoughts, therefore, were given to preparing for the approach of Winter, and for visits from some of our Indian friends, in reality our secret foes. But neither of these preparations could now be satisfactorily made; for the mutinous disposition of my own working party became more apparent every hour. In fact, m^ forced absence of two months and upwards had quite demoralized them, which did not o2 I \ ■ J % >^tll. #1 1 ' A If 196 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. wholly surprise me, I must own, considering the rifF- rafF one so often has to engage with in colonies, the small personal interest these men could be ex- pected to take in an enterprise of this nature, and my legal powerlessness to uphold the law. It is extremely difficult to obtain the services of really good workmen towards any undertaking in British Columbia. The majority of the labourers for hire there are not English, but the scum of America. And as the scum of Europe rush to the United States, it may well be supposed what it is the United States send further west to us. On ap- plying for an engagement, they say they can do any- thing. This cannot be disproved till they are actually seen at work. Wherefore, if workmen you want, take these random applicants you must. After you have defrayed their expenses to your field of labour — and that is always expensive in the North Pacific — they turn out, as often as not, to be completely worthless. Should a chance occur to send them back, even at the los3 of paying the return-passage, their employer may think himself a lucky man. The ordinary mischance, however, is to have them hanging about one's premises, eating up provisions, drinking all they can grab, utterly idle themselves, i'l AN ANOMALOUS POSITION. 197 and interfering with the honest work of others. Now a Captain on the deck of his ship possesses ample legal authority to deal with 3uch cases. But he who heads a party of colonists on land, be his location ever so far removed from the haunts of civilization, is without a remedy, legally speaking. No wonder that, in a former row. Chief Skid-a-ga- tecs could by no means understand the laws of the white-men. For truly my position in that respect was an anomaly. I cannot see, indeed, why the leader of a residentiary enterprise like mine, en- couraged and otherwise supported by Government, should not be invested wnth plenary magisterial jurisdiction within his circumscribed sphere of work. It would be unusual, no doubt ; but a two years' residence in an almost unknown and totally un- colonized part of the world is not usual either. And nevertheless, if our countries in the Far West are to be peopled, those exceptional undertakings Avill grow into a sort of rule, for which the Colonial Govern- ment ought to legislate. I do not shrink from say- ing that, had a magistrate's commission for Queen Charlotte Islands been conferred upon me, our ex- penditure would have been immeasurably less than it was, inasmuch as I might have prevented or arrested IS 198 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. ' ,j :i« the demoralization of the men, whilst the beneficial results to civilized life of my residence there would have correspondingly increased. The real cause for the men's discontent was their unwillingness to bend to my yoke, mild as I made it. They had been their own masters for two months — why should they knock under to me now? Their pretext was the food. Upon which I vainly reasoned " that luxuries could not be expected in the backwoods of America, but that, as for substantial food, they were better off than many a gang of labourers thrice their value, in civilized Europe." To show the incalculable difficulty of humouring a crew of this description, in a place where humour- ing only will do, I shall enumerate in the gross the stock of provisions which I had taken up with me in the Leonide : first, plenty of second-class bacon, a large supply of excellent prime beef and pork, countless ducks and geese ; secondly, potatoes, beans, first-class tea, coffee, sugar, and butter, raisins, rice, golden syrup, and biscuits; thirdly, a fair relay of spirits for grog. All this abundant store I carefully looked after myself, always presiding at the daily distribution of rations. " What do you want more ?" I used to say to my eleven companions, " unless you TO WORK AGAIN. 199 wish to knock off altogether, and live like fine gentlemen ?" But, though often silenced, they were never satisfied. " Why should you distribute the food? It is ours as much as yours," some grumbler would soon begin again; and so on indefinitely through the Winter. Once a drunken fellow, who had taken a double ration of rum, actually levelled a rifle at me outside our log-houst door. The others thought this measure rather too violent, and disarmed him. In the state we were, however, it certainly did make me invoke lynch-law on the murderous villain's head ; while the fear that I miglit really carry my menace into execution had the effect of damping the mutinous spirit of all the party for some time to come. It proved what might have been done had the law assisted me, instead of its abeyance impeding me at every step, during this second year of residence. However, as soon as I could in any degree per- suade the men to work on with me, we set to at repairing our canoe, cleaning and '* fixing" our fire-arms, erecting a regular blacksmith's forge, and enlarging our log-house, so as to make it hold our mining implements and stores more conveniently. The alterations took long, owing to the want of r' 200 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 'iliM^ ^m; m-r carpenters' tools. Our blacksmith, I remember, forged a large knife out of a spade. The knife was eighteen inches in length and six inches wide. With this I managed to split the shingles requisite for the roof, whilst another man did his best with a hatchet at carpentering some trees into logs for the walls. When the roof was on, we put up an empty powder- keg, to serve in the novel capacity of a chimney-pot, and a ticklish business we had of it, too. Before the keg got naturalized, it caught fire twice, and well- nigh put the house in a blaze. Fortunately our powder was all stacked at the other end of the log- house; but the twenty powder-kegs which we now had to keep in the proximity of possible fire, did not form the pleasantest reflection for the inhabi- tants of that log-house. To anybody whose experience is bounded by Europe, exposing our lives thus wantonly must appear the height of suicidal folly. It was that, I do believe. In fact, on the other side of the Atlantic nothing is half so marvellous as the reckless faiiijliarities with gunpowder, steam, or other explosives, in which every one indulges. But somehow, among Trans- atlantics you get used to it. I next had both log-houses thoroughly cleansed, MINING OPERATIONS. 201 and all the chinks in the walls filled up with oakum ; and when the dangerous trees near had been cut down, in order not to afford them an opportunity of falling and crushing us outright in a January storm, as they nearly did the year before, I began to feel snug and comfortable, from a material point of view, for the approaching Winter. Then came the mining operations. I re-prospected all my old prospects, and reviewed the shaft-work, frequently going down our main- sliaft at Burnaby, pushing onward into the lode, or instructing and stimulating the men. Much their laziness wanted it. Quite as I expected, next to nothing had been done. Whilst I was absent, spending myself and risking my life to forage for them, the good-for-nothing fellows had been playing and idling away their time, foreman included. No resource remained to me, however, but to grin and bear the loss, and otherwise make the best of a bad job, by affecting to laugh it off, and trying to inspirit them to work. Had I not smothered my feelings, the scoundrels would have turned utterly rasty, left me in the lurch, seized the stores, and, fraternizing with the too-willing Indians, have perhaps ended by murdering me, and have f ii: ; I i 202 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. im bM :i la afterwards escaped themselves to the mahiland. Those are some of the chances a gentleman has to run when he stoops to associate with those beneath him, whatever be his ulterior object, in a land beyond the pale of civilization. Except, then, that I kept a jealous guard over the stores and provisions, and that I continued, atleastnomi- nally, to direct everything, thus retaining my ascen- dancy, I pretended to take it all as a matter of course. Such was the manner in which I tided over the Winter; although, by Christmastime, it had become pretty clear to me that, from these causes, our Com- pany could never hope for success on the present system of operations. As may be supposed, my Christmas was a dull one. The unsettled weather added to the discomfort. In that respect Queen Charlotte Islands, as well as the rest of British Columbia, seem closely to copy Old England. When the Indian Summer is over, you do not get your Winter at once. Quite a month ensues of muggy, sleety, and sloughy weather. You are often well into January before the real frost and snow arrive. Rain at Christmas tide is unpleasant enough in all countries. What must It have been in that outlandish settlement, under a roof not rain-prool? Ill CHRISTMAS-DAY. 203 Despite all our efforts, the shingles with which the roof was covered would split open, sometimes quite suddenly, or the knot-holes would unaccountably grow larger. None of these defects could we remedy, for want of proper felting, then an unpurchasable article in the colony. I think I never shall forget that unique roof of ours. My bunk was nearly under the barrel which did duty as cliimney-top Many a fine night have I lain there, prone on my back, intently watching the Plough as it curved beneath the Polar Star, or other of the sidereal groups as they appeared to career through the heavens, until hidden from my vision by the arc of our telescopic barrel chimney-top. But when it rained I had to muiiagc as I could. That Christmas-day our cook served us up roast goose, with a dish which he insisted on calling plum- pudding. Seated across the edge of my. bunk, I was in the act of doing justice to the unwise but savoury bird, when a rising storm made the cranks of our log-house creak, [»nd before we had time to take warniniT, a douche of rain-water came tumblinfj aslant from the chimney on to my plate. I confess I was very near profaning the sacredness of the day by a few hearty curses ; until, chancing to remember % '\ .J|:i|| i J 204 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. a similar mishap in a civilized house near London, where the whole contents of a Christmas dinner- table were instantaneously destroyed through the ceiling falling upon it, I thought I might have fared worse ; and so I bore with the loud guffaw of my men as they coarsely chaffed me over losing my Christmas dinner. This was the wisest policy — nay, the only one, with a set of men to whom I had in a measure committed myself for the time being. All through those Winter evenings, mine and thi ir principal resource lay in sitting round a good fire in our log-house, mending clothes, cleaning guns and tools, talking of homes and friends, and wondering what those friends were doing at that particular moment — not without a hope that they were thinking of us forerunners of civilization, inaccessioie as a rule by any description of boat or small sailing-vessel during quite three months of the year. The experience of the preceding twelve months made me very chary of admitting the Indians to our log-house at night. Before them I always took care to a\oid any appearance of disunion amongst our- selves ; and when they saw that we spent so much of our time shut up together it created a mysterious air of strength, which undoubtedly was of service. EST n'" ^'Mlians associate with tiiat king's uaiuc every Ki' hman they havv , xu. since. -At. I IS (i ( ^ 206 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Yet for all our wisdom and power, or Klue's friendly reverence for those qualities of ours, I imagine, when the telegraph does come to Queen Charlotte, he will be the first to clip just one little bit of the wire, which crime, if not punished on the instant, will, I foresee, lead to a general robbery — capswallo — of the telegraphic apparatus. The Indians will be sure to want to c'::t the wire all up, to make fish-hooks, fasten / id rings for their own ears or their women's noses .jid under-lips. That which astounded them most, however, was my account of the substance, movements, and rela- tive positions of the sun, moon, and stars. As the white man was so long mastering this branch of science, it is certainly no marvel that poor Blacky should manifest incredulity on having the j)lanetary system first explained to him. The Queen Charlotte Islanders, I perceived, did connect the sun and the moon, in some misty kind of way, with the Great Spirit. But they seemed not to possess the faintest notion of the earth being likewise a planet; whilst the stars, in their idea, consisted of mere sparks, which the sun had probably left behind him at bed-time. When I enlightened them on these points, and particularly when I declared that the planets were HOW TO REFORM THE INDIANS. 207 probably peopled worlds like ours, and that the earth went round the sun, instead of the sun round the earth, Chief Klue shook his head in a comically doleful manner, as much as to say "It is all gammon, Tyhee Poole; and I am only sorry you should turn out such a liar." But presently, after some moments' apparent reflection, he looked up again and asked eagerly, "How know? how know?" And as then, by means of homely proofs, I unfolded to him and his brother-chiefs the Copernican revelation, convic- tion appeared to strike upon their minds much more quickly than it did upon the minds of the Grand Inquisitors who imprisoned Galileo. In order to efl'ect a solid and permanent reform in these savages, it is absolutely necessary to enlist the sympathies of the heart as well as the head. I do not mean this as a truism. Heart and head must of course w^ork in concert, wherever good is to be effected. But to reform the Queen Charlotte Indians, supposing they escape the portending fate of the other tribes in the North Pacific, will, it strikes me, be a work involving prolonged time, formidable labour, sound judgment, and tried patience. You can easily get them to imitate you : but that, I have seen, avails nothing, as it leaves them in the end r, n,*: 5 , 208 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. worse than they were in the beginning. Tlie ways and employments of civilized peoples should be very cautiously introduced, the temptations attendant on such novelties being anything but beneficial to cer- tain weak places in the Indian character, namely, the tendency to theft and lying of every conceivable sort, the animal cunning which so soon shapes an Indian into an apt cheat, his total inappreciation of the virtue of forbearance ; above all, his insatiable lust for drink, and the brutish violence he invariably gives himself up to when under its influence. Only isolated settlements will serve the purpose. The Queen Charlotte Islander needs conversion, if ever savage needed it; but, to use a maxim of the great Lord Strafford, "less than thorough will not do it" for him. He must be continuously guided, watched, and controlled, that too by exceptional teaching and legislation; and, to our eternal disgrace, chiefest of all the requisite precautionary measures, is the necessity of keeping him from contamination with the average run of traders in the North Pacific, the majority of whom have a lower moral status than the veriest unconverted sava^re. ir 209 CHAPTER XIV. SEABOARD OF QUEEN CHAIILOTTE ISLANDS— STORM-TOSSED SEAS — ABOR- TIVE BEARIIUNT — INDIANS NEITHER BKAVE MEN NOR CRACK SHOTS— HUNTING BEARS— STORMY PETRELS — TIDE-POLE— AN AQUATIC SREDADHLE — lUFLE-rRACUCE ON BURNABY ISLAND — TWO STUNNING STORMS. The seaboard all round Queen Charlotte Islands, but especially its more southerly portion, is remark- able for the bold and rocky front it presents to the Pacific Ocean. As along the coast of British Columbia itself, so here, a cordon of black and beetling cliffs seems to forbid ocean aggression. The clusters of islets with which the larger islands are surrounded at intervals, give the notion of their Wmu: advanced out into the sea as scouts and ■edettes. Those spots of insulated rock, even under the influence of Summer scth. — The petrels are trustworthy, and no mistake. For this week past it has been storm-weather in earnest, the worst this season — so unbearably boisterous, in truth, as to have compelled all the Indians o.a Burnaby Island to quit their wigwam encampments, and to migrate, each tribe back to its own home, where, they tell me, the natural shelter and their housings are much more efficient. " I have never visited Skid-a-ga-tees in his ancestral domain : but if, as he says, he is better housed there than Skiddan is in his frame-house up north (query), what does he and half the Skid-a-ga-tees tribe mean by coming down here and encamping in the Winter- time, unless it is with the hope of getting something in the general scramble for our goods and chattels ? Perhaps they 'cutely foresee that crisis to be not so very distant. '' There is no doubt that, if they had not gone off quickly as the storm began to rise, their large canoes would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks roimd Burnaby and Skiucuttle. It was as much as we could do yesterday to save our small canoe. ^ have yet to traverse the Bay of Biscay; but assuredly I never btiheld a sea more truly mountainous than what our eye-range can now take in, from east to !i I 1 I 'm>.y\ :li! 222 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. west, opposite our log-house door. The wind lias been ii Nor-wester throughout. "To-day, the storm having somewhat abated, I kilkd a fuic crow (corvus caurhms) with my Entield rifle, as he was perched on the top of a tall pine-tree, at a distance of 750 yards." This last Diary note reminds me to say that,weatljer permitting, we used to have splendid rifle-practice at Burnaby. We could sit outside the log- house, and pop away at whales, porpoises, seals, grelies, or divers, any of which were as plentiful as salmon in the river Tay. The loons 1 found the most difficult to kill, as, the very instant you drew the trigger, down went their heads into the water. Either they must see the shot, or else their coating of feathers must be so close that shot will not pene- trate it. I should attribute it to a combination of bolli causes, for I have oftentimes hit a loon* when it was swinuning from me, and yet not killed, or apparently even wounded, the creature. There was a long table * It seems difficult to account for the term "loou" being used to ex- press "a sorry fellow," as I see the dictionaries put it; unless, indeed, "loon" he a corruption from some other word. For my part, I cannot imagine a more wide-awake piece of goods than the loou of Queen Charlotte Islands. Its name may come from the noise it makes, yet hardljf. LOON-SIIOOTING. 223 of rock which shelved at an angle of 45° nearly down to the water-side. This- slielf, being breast-high, made such convenient cover tliat my rifle could barely be seen above it. I would frequently repair thither, to fire at the loons for an hour at a time, occasionally taking a companion to witness whether I really sent the sliot home. But often, on his declaring that I did, the struck loon would just dip its head into the water, shake itself as though it had only been pep- pered with mud, and then quietly swim away out of gun-shot. Nevertheless, the shock, too, from the bullet must have been considerable. I remember also going out for a stroll along the shore, after that January storm, and firing at two large eagles — haliaeti hacocephali — with the same kind of shot. It had signally failed just before upon a tough little beggar of a loon; but one single shot sufficed to knock over both eagles. They "were always a puzzle to us, were those loons. I recur to my Diary: — ''''January 25th. — Paddling yesterday afternoon to an islet a mile off, in a line towards Harriet Har- bour, what should I come upon, inside a sheltered cove, but my tide-pole? It had been carried away two miles in the late storm, and landed high and dry W' ^n i! M4Ai U-M 224 QUEEN CIIAKLOTTE ISLANDS. b}'^ the tide on a pebbly beach. Much trouble I have had to-day in refixing it, the slippery rocks render- ing a foothold hardly obtainable. ' But, as more trouble was required to make the pole, I am right glad to recover it. " Also, near Harriet Harbour, I picked up a live oyster seven inches in diameter, besides several smaller ones, all excellent eating. This find is important, as it proves beyond doubt the existence of oyster-beds close at hand. They lie probably in deep water : for the oysters I found yesterday lay high on the rocks, having evidently been washed up by a recent tide." ^''January 2Sth. — AVe a-gatea unauimously described their country to me as flat, " good R }! i 242 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. iP I ':*■! :V'- > ■ I believed tlicm, that a vein ei^^ht feet wide, and over two liundred yards in length, hud been tracked in their country. They presented me with sonie s[)lendid samples, which quite corroborated their statement. The chief earnestly pressing me to return with hiiri and prospect the find, again I was obliged to reply that the time failed me. ilere I should not omit to mention an extremely promising vein which I dis- covered in Sockalee Harbour, during the course of the foregoing Summer, as well as numbers of lesser veins, which I duly nuirked during a subsequent excursion, but never had opportunity to develop, around the shores of Harriet Harbour.* To sum up on the subject of copper. The geo- logical formation of the strata and my prospecting for growing potatoes," that is, for agricultural purposes, aud full of excellent harbours. It strikes me as the most likely locality for the capital when civilization shall have reached the islands. * Mr. Dowaie, who, four years previous to the events here related, stopped a short time in Skid-a-gate Channel, reported that they found "trap and hornblende blocks, with a few jioor scams of quartz" to the southward of the Channel. Northward, they found " coal, talcose slate, quartz, and red earth." All these were only in inappreciable quantities. From the samples of coal I saw at Victoria, however, I feel convinced that, for furnace purposes, the Queen Charlotte anthracite will eventually quite equal the famous Pcnnsylvanian. But, again, a paid-up capital of not less than 100,000/. would be required to put any coal-mine on the Islands into working order. As regards slate, the Skid-a-gate Indians brought nic down a magnificent block of slate, as good as the finest Welsh slate. I secured a piece to carry home as a specimen. :'l-^ iBll MINERAL DEPOSITS. 243 combine to prove that Queen Charlotte Islands Jo contain immense mineral deposits. Gold is said to be there; but in re^^ard to the existence of extensive copper-fields, no doubt whatever now remains. Only, in my judgment, although we struck a matrix on Burnaby, the islands possess in other parts more ample fields, where a much larger profit will one day reward some enterprising speculators. I see every probability likewise of coal and slate being found on the islands in highly remunerative (juantities. hi' i B 2 244 CIIAPTErv XVI. i>iS0K(iANIZAT10N — IMI'OSSIJULITY OF (;O.NTllOl,LlN(i THE MKN — A SALIENT KXaMI'LK— OLARKVG T11KKT8 BY INDIANS — CONSVLTATION WITH KLVJE AND SKID-A-OA-T£f:S — UKTKK.MINATION TO UKTb'HN TO VICTORIA — UlVHCl'I.TT OK rJIK VOVAtili- KLUK's lillANU CiNOE — L.»,ST CUANCE TO TIIK MKN-- KAUIUKT II.VUnoL'll. My iittie colony on !iurnu])y Lslaiid nov/ began to evince such signs of i'isorganization that the time of its dissolution, I phiinly saw, must be fast ap- [) roach ing. It became an a])solute im|)ossibiliiy to control the men, and unfortunately they knew H. Tilk aiul per^suasion may do for a short time; but I can think of no state of society in which the power of enforcing the law is nut tlie first of necessities. P'xcept tiie isolation ai'd our unsLttled condition, my men liad not a rational ground of omj/iaint. Thev were fairly housetl, suflicientK fed, and spiouilidiy paid. Vet the mere fact of our Company's interests being placed so manifestly in tlicii* hands, instead of giving some zest to th.* work, seemed to suggest to the FREQUENT QUARRELLING. 245 scoundrols to take every mean and dastardly ad- vantage. It will doubtless excite surpiise that men who had to earn their bread should misconduct themselves as tlieae did, considering the assured means of .subs;stence they \vere thus dragging from und from my writing, T saw a surly Klue Indian, with a musket ovur his shoulder, and a Klootchman woman standing behind with a large box under her arm. At a sign {'rum him of the nuisket the Klootehinan advanced into the house, saying that one of my workmen had told her to come and take up her residence there, and that her box of things was to go underneath his bunk. I could not of course mis- take the meaning of that. The proceeding was in- admissible for every moral and sanitary reason, but, besides, 1 miglit as well have relin(pii.shed the idea and object of my exploratory e.\i)edition alto- gether, ir I was not to ri'main master, even in the log-house, there would be an end to .dl order and work in no time. I consecpiently made; rjuick and tierce objection, upon which the Klootchman bride retired alfrighted, but not until her escort had fired oil' his gun in front of the logdiouse and then deliantly })resented it at me, as much as to im[)ly that I owed my life to his magnanimity. Possibly it was so, Or the next day we were sinqjly inundated witli natives, who seemed not to have the slightest notion of leaving me sole master of our chosen premises. Never having seen any of their faces till then, I ct)uld not at fu'st conceive where they liad all come from. I soon ■ I I II- f •l il *■ ill J! fri i V ■'■•;! 1 1 't 1 il 1 i 1 1 i h 248 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. learnt, however, tliat they fonncd a reiiiforccinent of Cape St. James TndiaTis, wlio liad arrived in two large canoes during the night. Tt was easy to see, by tjjeir abandoned manner and the tricks they commenced playing, that they had been well primed beforeliajid as to the state of the case in the white men's camp, and deliberately intended to be troublesome to me. 1 counted a hundred and twenty-two of them. Not content with a mere visit, they encamped close to the log-lK»usc, regularly blockading it, threatening to burn it down, and tlien alternately singing, bigging, dancing, stealing, so as to keej) us idle for two or tlwec (lays, and our minds, day and night, in such ferment and suspense that sleep was entirely out of tlie (pies- tion. It ouglit to have taught my men a good lesson, for, had a massacre ensued, tliey would certaiidy have been included. Ibit, insteud of reco^rnisiiifjf in it the fruits of tlieir stupid insubordination, hardly had this bullying ceased, or drawn off rather, than the fools went fraternizing again with the late arrivals as well as with the Klue Indiana. From this time forth, loose living on the part of tlie men, and thieving on the side of the Indians, was the order of the day. I lind these entries in my T>iary: — J:),!. I I A CLEVER THEFT. 219 ^^ March lith. — Last night, while the clay-sliift men w«.'re asleep, with the door ami wiiulow of the lo;i^-huiise left oj)en for the sake of air, some Indians entered and took all the musket-powder we had left and all the bread we had haked. I )iapi)encd to be down at the shaft myself, never coneeiving it possible that my men would be such dolts as to allow themselves to be o/erreached in that manner. It was a shan) stroke of business for the Klue Indians. They were aetually brnzen and clever enough to abstract a powder flask and belt and a box of musket-caps from under the bliicksmith's pillow without disturbing him or any one of the sleepers. At the moment that this crime was being pei'^K'tratcd, a canoe l)elonging to Chief Skid-a-ga-tees, with two Indians half concealed in it, floated leisurely up a!id down in front of the shaft. This was a ruse to attnut the attention of the slial'tmen, and to make it appear afterwards as though old Skid-a-ga-teos himself bud been inijilicated in the r()l)bcry. The Klue Indians had borrowed his 'imoe yesterday afternoon upiiU some pretence or otlier." "IAM. — A second glaring theft. As the shaft- inen were away at diimer, a lot of Indians went down the shaft and walked off with all the candles. I ll i 250 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. ...i t ■-■ ! il I \ 1 1 believe tlie principal thieves are still the Kluo tribe; but they have accomplices, I fancy. I did hope my men would have profited by the raid of two nights ago. It is exactly the reverse — they do not seem to care one straw; for to-day the guard refused to stay at the shaft during dinner- time. Of course the ever wide-awake Indians seized their opportunity. It begins to look like collusion, though I am loth to thii'k it. "16/A. — Last evening, again, I was myself going towards the shaft, while the night-shift had their supi)er, when I espied a certain Klue Indian whom we call Buckshot, darting away from near the works. I made after him, and found nothing; but for all that, on my examining the mining-nmnition, u dozen large candles, a can-full of blasting powder, and our best sledge-hanuner were seen to be missing." In conseijuence of these barefaced thefts, I held a long consultation with Klue and old Skid-a-ga-tees, as the only chiefs who, in our then position of affairs, would be liki'ly to listen to reason. I told Skid-a-gii- tees that, on the whole, I had little or no cause to find fault with his tribe since their hostile demon- stration soon after my /iist landing, and that, as fur as 1 knew, they were giiiltless in the recent robberies. FRIENDLY CHIEFS. 251 II Kluo candklly confessed the (leliiiquencics of liis tribe, but assured me lie had done what he could to correct their thieving proi)ensities, and so far without result; he would try to oljtain the restoration of tlie stolen articles, and would continue to set his face against all thefts,* but I was not to suppose he had unlimited power. When I looked back to my own powerless- ness, and also bore in mind Klue's persistent friend- ship, I could not refuse this explanation. I informed the chiefs, however, that, unless matters took some unex[)ected turn, it would not be possible for me to carry out my original intention of living long amongst them, and of establishing a white man's colony on Queen Charlotte Islands. Both chiefs seemed truly grieved to hear this decision. Yet jis its wisdom could not be disputed, they said they fciired we must part. The consultation ended And heartil icably. ily ^'J' it testilied to the "difficulty " having proceeded on either side from the subordinates, not from the Laders. IJy this time, nevertheless, I had made up my • When subsc(|iu'iitly I got Klue down to Victoria, I had him up before the (iovonior, Mr. Doiij,'las (now Sir James Uinij.'las), who spoke like h tftllier to him. Klue expressed such contrition for the errors of his subjects, tiiat I trust hu has of his owu uccord iuduccd them to Oicud their wu^s, I ' i 11 ■ ^'i I i i I m y ill 'I I S{'W i:i ■...-■* 1 ? -/f P^i ■''■■■} 252 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. mind that our exploration could not be pursued furtlicr on tlic present system. I determined, therefore, to go back to Victoria, give a full report of my discoveries, and chen resign my position as Engineer to the Queen Charlotte Mining Company. However, the standing obstacle to every movement along the North Pacific coastways met me at once. AMiere was I to find a conveyance? One morning Skid-a-ga-tees came over to tell me that a fellow of his just arrived from Grahani Island had seen a ship up north eight days before, making towards Stickeen River in the Russian settlements. When I state that I took seriously to calculating whether this vessel might ncjt perchance call at our copper-mines on her return voyage to the capital, the anxious predicament in which real isolation sometimes places a man may be to some extent apprehended. At length the splendid weather suggested to me to risk the voyage in a canoe. No such a venture hud ever before been made in that part of the world. 1 sounded Klue on the subject, and he looked aghast. But Indians only want a proper lead to be venture- some themselves. On my arguing the point with him he finally yielded, and a bargain was then and BARGAIN WITH KLUE. 253 there concluded between us, he agreeing to take me down to Victoria in liis largest canoe, and I covenant- ing to pay him at the same rate as if it were a schooner without provisions. Tlie bargain had this limitation, that it was to be void if, within another month's time, iny workmen should show satisfying symptoms of im])rovement. 1 knew they would not. Meanwliile, Klue was to make the necessary preparations, being careful to keep it a solemn secret until I gave him the word to speak. The poor savage kissed my hand in token of his fidelity, and I am not ashamed to own I experienced myself a kindred sensation about the region of the heart. We were in the first week of April. The past month, as regards mining work, had hvvn an idle one; but the men, guessing probably wlwit I was cogitating, here threw ofi' the mask. Fore- casting that I should be obliged to pay them, work or no work, they delii)erately left tlie shaft to its fate and made themselves comfortable. We had not reached the middle of Ai)ril before the whole eight of them were to be seen lounging in and out of the loir-house at all hours, their hands stuck significantlv into their pockets, and their countenances thrusting I ,. i! li'^'' 254 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. defiance at me. When not cnirasrcd in this cx- ■o"n^ em[)lary pursuit, they would go to sleep in the sun, like hogs, or, what was worse, saunter through any Indian camp that admitted them, till they got in- volved in a quarrel or other trouble. Tlieir sole plea was that the supplies of maple-sugar* and grog * Sugiir is as much a necessary as salt to the pioneer. Whether Qurrn Charlotte Islands will ever grow maplr.-ti'gar remains to be seen. Hut it irt a staple with the Canadian farmers of the backwoods. What tliry will do there when all the maple-trees are cut down, it is hard to foresee. Even now, owing to the quantity of xt/jiph/// trees which have of late vears been felled, a sui^ar-famine would have already overtaken the country if it had not been for the prudent prevision of the Government of Canada, which opened a special commerce with the West Indies in ISCG. Other- wise, the sugar would necessarily have had to come to Canada r/Vf England, and a requisite household article have been placed beyond the means of the poor settler. As maple-sapping is likely soon to become extinct, it may not be un- interesting to note the present process of manufacture in Canada. At the first genuine touch of Spring, when the sun burns hotly during the day, but while the snow is still on the ground and the nights arc cold and frosty, the " sap begins to rise freely." On some Spring day, in the first week of Miuch generally, the tallest and straightest trees are singled out, all around, and marked as soutid for operation. Each of these trees is then bored to the inner bark with a gimlet, a loose spile or chip being inserted, which leaves a few inches rrojeeting outside, for the sap to drop clear of the trunk into troughs or hollowed logs. The trees are allowed to run thus until the third day, about a pail-full having by that time exuded from each tree. .\ stout plug is then inserted in place of the loose chip, while the farm-boys carry oft' the contents of the troughs to a large boiler, which they find suspended from a horizontal pole, and which, again, canny hands have propped up with five forked sticks. Uiulcr the boiler roars a fire, ir a continual state of red heat, till the end of the operation. To purify the sap, and give the maple a crystalline appearance, the farmers add a little lime and charcoal. As soon as the whole has been boiled to a proper consistency, it ■ iiii THE MUTINEERS. 255 had failed. T felt extremely sorry for the sugar, but naturally enough not for the grog; and I said so openly. As neither defect could be then remedied, however, the revolt was not a simple strike. It was mutiny to all intents and purposes. Nothing indeed seemed wanted to complete the flagrant delict, uidess, according to a hint I gave them, they liked to bind me hand and foot in the orthodox fashion. That experiment they declined, perhaps deeming it too dangerous. It struck me that, my authority being entirely gone, there might yet be a chance of these mis- guided louts coming round, if I were to withdraw somewhat from their society. I therefore resolved to profit by the time which remained to me to make an excursion or two, and while still at Burnaby to take my meals alone, to sleep out of doors when practicable, and to keep to myself as much as pos- sible. I only insisted on directing the distribution of the rations, which they did not oppose, partly is ladled out into moulds, and left to cool .ind harden before being sent oil to market, whore it mostly fetches V. to Orf. the pound. The same maple- trees arc sapi)ed every year runnini^, tor yivcn years, more or less. At the end of that period, the farmers kn w f!>oj may as well cut (hem down for firewood, all the virtue having been , stravlcd, uud the trees having become quite hollow iu the centre. i' \ ; '1 i it .<\S .% o^\^^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) y ^ /> <^ % Qr / i/^ fA 1.0 I.I 1.25 IIIM IIIII15 IIIIIM |||||22 m 12.0 14 ,. mil 1.6 V] <^ / '^^ 'm / / V /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 1% WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NV 14580 l7; ^ > a;2-4503 i\ ,v "^ ^^ \\ A' 4^ %P MP 256 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. !'l^ af- •»■■■• li * '-1, I'.-U because it saved them the bother, partly through fear of my prosecuting them for stealing at some future day, in case they resisted. I then went out in our canoe for a couple of days westward, taking with me two of Klue's best Indians as paddlers. We first landed on a small rock of an island reported by the Indians to have been at one time on fire. I made a hasty examination, my pad- dlers not relishing a long stay from superstitious motives. There were clear traces of a recently ex- tinct volcano. I discovered a large bed of mundic, and also a boiling spring, in which I bathed. This was the islet I had visited in r>assing the year before, and named Volcanic Island. A high wind springing up, we made the best of our way to Silver IslaL ', and, encamping there for the night, paddled back next day to Burnaby. Klue telling me that the spring was considered a cure for all diseases, it occurred to me to return good for evil to one of my refractory comrades, and at the same time to test the curative qualities of the spring- water. Accordingly I advised our blacksmith, who had fallen very ill with rheumatic fever, to take a canoe and try Volcanic Island. The man took the canoe and my advice too; and in a few days he THE SKID-A-GATES. 25 7 rf'appeared at Burnaby, not only fully restored in bodily health, but quite altered in a moral sense also. Devoutly did I wish to souse my other comrades in that miraculous spring. They chose, however, to go on riding the high donkey. So I left them to their asinine amusement. Whilst the blacksmith was away, I one day had a formal wah-wah with the Skid-a-gate tribe. I found their camp clean and orderly beyond the others. In my opinion the Skid-a-gates are much the most intelligent race of any on Queen Charlotte Islands. I think great things might be done for them. But it would require a devoted man like Mr. Duncan, of the Metlakatlah mission, who has completely reformed the tribes in the Fort Simpson section on the main- land.* The Skid-a-gates impressed me so favourably in general that I regretted nothing so much as to have to quit Queen Charlotte Islands without visiting the if li iii * Mr. Duncan's self-denying labours are referred to with just admira- tion by Mr. Maefie, F.R.G.S., in his Vancouver Island and Brithli Columbia (pp. 47G-86), and likewise by Commander Mayne, R.N., who in his Four Years in British Columbia, gives (pp. 279-95 and p. 30,j), interesting extracts from Mr. Duncan's own Journal. The most com- prehensive account, however, of the work of reformation which has been accomplished among the Tsimslieean Indians, is to be fouud in a series of graphic papers, published in Mission Life magazine (vol. for 1S71), and entitled Stranger than Fiction. Never was title truer. S 258 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. tribe in their home. They showed me beautifully wrought articles of their own design and make, and amongst them some flutes manufactured from an unctuous blue slate. I bought one for five dollars. It was well worth the price. The two ends were inlaid with lead, giving the idea of a fine silver- mounting. Two of the keys perfectly represented frogs in a sitting posture, the eyes being picked out with burnished lead. A more admirable sample of native workmanship I never saw. It would have done credit to a European modeller. I now turned to a short excursion which Klue had been planning for me. He said that, before I left, I ought to make a thorough inspection of the place, which already, at a distance, I had named Harriet Harbour; and from all accounts of it I agreed with him. For this excursion I only took Klue himself and his little daughter, six years old ; and, in order to economize our forces, there being but three of us, I selected the chief's own private canoe, the very smallest on all the coast,' and one easily managed along steep or shallow shores alike, up creeks or over rapids. It was scooped out of a solid cedar-trunk, and measured nine feet long, two feet four inches wide, and fifteen inches deep. A TINY CANOE. 259 In this frail skiff we three put off together one morning from Skincuttle for the mainland of Queen Charlotte. Scarce iiad we cleared Skincuttle when up went the little canoe, head to the wind, her tiny bit of canvas flapping with a noise like distant thunder, and to an inexperienced eye seemingly in desperate disorder, until, paying off by degrees on the other tack, the sail filled out stiff; upon which the canoe heeled over to the other side and darted away as swiftly as a swallow, here leaping nimbly across the heavy seas, there staggering so uncomfortably under her canvas as to warrant the conjecture that we should speedily be consigned to a watery grave. But there was no fear of the contingency while I had two such good pilots in charge as Klue, who sat in the bow, and his daughter, who held the helm. Thus we tore along for about an hour through a thick mist which prevented our seeing ten yards fore or aft. At the end of that time the sun burst through the mist, and, rolling it up as if it were a yard or two of mere curtain, disclosed to my relieved eyes that Klue's instinct had guided our barque safely to the right spot, and within the right space of time. For close in front of us lay stretched out a truly s2 260 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. i M-i •:!i-';i' ■ um m splendid bay, more than a mile wide and fully two miles deep. This was Harriet Harbour. Having often viewed it from my canoe in paddling about, or from Burnaby Island with my glasses, I had long wished to be able to come and see it near. But nothing had prepared me for such a scene of beauty. At the mouth of the bay is an islet some two acres in extent, which acts as a breakwi*ter, and very effectively protects the harbour from the only wind (N.E.) that could assail it. The water inside conse- quently enjoys a perpetual calm. All round the other three sides are beautiful highlands, rocky and beachy towards the bottom, but otherwise densely wooded, and forming a superb panorama to our view as we leisurely paddled in. We ran the canoe upon a rocky piece of shore two hundred yards beyond the N.E. point of entrance. I had no sooner stepped out upon the land than my pocket-compass began ticking in a violent manner, by which I knew that the rocks must be one mass of iron ; and so they proved. Purer crystallized mag- netic iron ore I have never anywhere lighted on. My subsequent analysis of this ore gave — HARRIET HARBOUR. 20 1 Protoxide of iron . . . . , . 4*60 Peroxide of iron 82*30 Silica (and carbonate of lime 060) 11"60 Sulphur 85 Water and loss 65 10000 Before evenino* I had surveyed the whole surround- ings. I discovered two ^ood veins of copper, plenty of limestone, and clear evidence of the vicinity of coal; but the iron ore predominated. Timber too was so extraordinarily abundant, even for Queen Charlotte, as to seem to promise to supply genera- tions of future settlers with fuel and charcoal. A broad and clear stream flows from the S.E. into the head of the bay. Klue assured me the stream was a famous place for salmon-catching. The hills rise up from high-water level, at an angle of 75°, to about 700 feet. Taken altogether, a more charming and more useful harbour of the same magnitude does not exist to my knowledge in the North Pacific. From want of a line I did not fathom the water ; but a practised eye sees at a glance that the depths of the water will correspond to the steep heights above it. The bottom is evidently rock or gravel. Hence there never can be any danger of a filling-up, such 262 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. :i ^<^l '.ntlM as must always be the weak point at Victoria. Twenty ships of the line, I do not hesitate to say, could ride there at anchor together, with safety and convenience, to say nothing of other craft. Darkness being near, and Klue not liking to return at that late hour in his frail canoe, we decided to rig a tent with the sail and a blanket, and to stay the night out. Whilst he arranged the tent I rambled about the hills and beach for two hours, to probe the ground and scan the glowing landscape. Rich in quality and inexhaustible in quantity is the store there furnish- ing subsistence for living creatures. Every foot above and down the hill-sides is clad with shrubs, which bend to the earth with the weight of exquisite fruits, little mountain-springs meandering hither and thither through them. These springlets are a cha- racteristic of Queen Charlotte Islands; but I had nowhere observed them in such marvellous abundance as round Harriet Harbour. Unless you watch very closely you are sure to pass them by, so completely does the vegetation bridge them over. As I descended to the grand sweep of gravelly beach which heads the harbour, the land became leveller at each step, but the timber and underwood thicker. flf A FUTURE TOWN. 263 I stood by the beach for fully half an hour, think- ing how difficult it would be to find a sweeter spot in all the world, and how at no distant date that very beach would assuredly give way to the wharves and landing-places of a flourishing commercial town. Harriet Harbour has only to be known in order to be seized upon in the interests of trade and coloniza- tion. Regaining the tent, I squatted down to a picnic supper. Everything was laid out in true Indian style, the two Indians standing up before me to see that I enjoyed my repast. I might have done more justice to their humble yet wholesome fare, if I had not been previously indulging in the delicious berries* which line the harbour-sides. However, my bright-eyed little helmswoman was irresistible. So I ate and relished the supper. Thereupon the Klootchman girl (six j^ears old, mind) proposed that King-George-Tyhee-Poole should go to bed, so as to be up betimes in the morning. Not to hurt their feelings, * These berries, so far without auy name that I know, grow in remark- able quantities all over Queen Charlotte Islands. The plant is a shrub, generally four feet high. The leaves resemble those of our pear-tree, only that they are much smaller. The fruit itself is about the size of a wild gooseberry, and quite preservable by drying in the sun, after the manner of Malaga raisins. It contains a good deal of nourishment, and forms the principal food of the natives during the Winter season. fil i' 264 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 'm 1 submitted to their well-meant kindness, taking off my upper garments and laying myself down in the tent, sub tegmine of a wide-spreading cedar-tree, while six-year-old rolled a blanket round me, and with a winning grace tucked me in all right and tight for the night. I then perceived what they were after; for hardly did I appear to them to settle to sleep, when father and daughter made off in the canoe to catch a few fish for the morrow's breakfast. When they came back an hour later, it was with some fine salmon, which they quickly cut up to be ready for the morning's broil. Lastly, we all three huddled together under the same capacious blanket, the chief on my right and his Klootchie on my left, to court the favour of Morpheus. Next morning I completed my survey of the beautiful harbour, and in the afternoon bagged several kinds of wild duck, as follows: — anas boschas, or mallard, aythia vaUisneria, or canvas-backed duck, bucephala albeola^ or buff^er-headed duck, melanetta velvetina^ or velvet duck ; all which, being good eating, I kept to give to ray recalcitrant crew at the log-house. Chief Klue, Miss Klue, and myself then entrusted our lives once more to the miniature canoe, and by sundown we were on Burnaby Island. 2G5 CHAPTER XVII. PARLEY WITH THE MEN — FiUlEWELL TO THE BEAUTIFUL ISLES — KLUe's GRAND CANOE — ACROSS TO THE MAINLAND — PARTING COMPANY — MISS- ING THE WAY — SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN— THE SKID-A-GATES WELCOMED BACK. Another week at the log-house quite convinced me that to wait any longer with the hope of working the copper-mines would be only waste of time and money. Those of the Indians who had annoyed me kept aloof, it is true ; but my own men continued as in- tractable and dogged as ever. It was plain they wished to tire me out. I therefore summoned them all one day, and, without stooping to bandy words, I told them of my intention to proceed to Victoria forthwith, for the purpose of resigning my post, and that I should be under the necessity of reporting their insubordinate conduct and breach of contract to our Company's agent immediately on my reaching the capital. At first some of the ringleaders, looking out into ■ I ■ >',' .1 266 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. the broad ocean, asked me jeeringly how I meant to go ; whilst others affected to take it seriously, and begged me to intercede in their behalf with His Excellency, lest they should be sentenced and exe- cuted before they could make their wills. There was a total change of sentiment and tone, however, Avhen, about noon that day, Klue's grand state-canoe, which my men had never seen and did not know of, came paddling and sailing like a huge swan round the headland. This proved to them that I both intended what I said, and was in a position to carry it out. I then briefly explained my plaii. I should take back with me my account-books and all my personal effects. They should be left in re- sponsible charge of the mine and implements, and have a supply of ammunition for their own firearms, as well as sufficient provisions to last them until a vessel could arrive with fresh orders or to convey them down. I should pay their wages up to the day of my departure: if they had further claims, they must look to our Company. I think I dealt more fairly and forbearingly with my foolish party of miners than many another leader would have done. As soon as I had finished, one fellow pretended to feel for a small pistol he used to keep about him. F PARLEY WITH THE MEN. 267 whilst the others supported him in a low grumble. Upon that I simply glanced right and left, towards two crowds of Klue and Skid-a-gate Indians, who stood at a little distance ready to defend me. Deeply did I feel the humiliation of having to invoke the aid of an alien race against my fellow white men ; but they had persistently brought it upon themselves. It produced the desired effect, too. The men saw that, if they touched me, they would be cer*;«'nly ovei'whelmed. So in a few moments they sullenly acquiesced. At last liC thing remained but to get my things on board, which, by the help of my new travelling companions, was done during the afternoon. The day was the 6th of April ; and thus more than eighteen months had elapsed since I first landed from the Bebecca schooner on the adjacent island of Skin- cuttle. I had meantime fulfilled my mission, amidst very great difficulties, but not without a success sufficient to compensate for the outlay, if it did not " lead on to fortune " absolutely. The scene, as we pushed off from the beach below the lo2-house, is before me now. The workmen, no longer mine, hung surlih back. 1 1 I " il il 268 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. '•'S, The rocks and woods, however, were filled with Indians, to see Kin^y-George-Tyhee-Poole sail away from amongst them. He was their good friend, they knew. They did not cheer, nor yet weep ; but they moved their arms up and down, with a sort of moan or wail. It would have been strange indeed if I had not reciprocated their feeling. At the same time the heavens were lit up in streaming splendour, while the sun began to sink low to the westward. But ere the red orb of day dipped behind its broken horizon, the eye of man caught a curved line running along the far east, from north to south. Although the distance to that dark- some object exceeded a hundred and twenty miles, the curve was distinguishable as part of the mighty range of the Cascade Mountains. Heaving up their giant ridges into the very clouds, they looked like barriers fit to mark an empire, or as what they are, the boundaries of nature itself. Between us lay, calm and serene, the wide waters of Queen Charlotte Sound, reflecting gloriously the golden hues of the realms above. With one steadfast gaze, then, upon the beautiful Isles of the Sea I was leaving, and one farewell wave of the hand towards Burnaby Island, I turned to KLUES GRAND CANOE. 269 "omiriit myself to the most arduous voyage perhaps ever made in the North Pacific Ocean. Our company consisted of two distinct parties. The first was made up of one of the Skid-a-gate chiefs and six of his tribe, three males and three females. They were in a cedar canoe, fourteen feet in length. It carried those seven persons, with their goods, weighing about half a ton, well; but it ap- peared a mere cock-boat in face of yon out-spanning ocean. Chief Klue, five young Klootchmen, and thirty men, together with myself, constituted the second or leading party. Besides our personal weight, we had shipped two tons of freight, namely, a bundle for each Indian, my goods and chattels, and the rest in copper or other ores. Our canoe was what is known in the Far West as a dug-out. Klue had cut and constructed it, foot by foot, with his own hands, out of cedar-wood {thuja gigaiitea). It carried three jury-masts and a considerable show of canvas, not to mention a main staysail. A proud and truly inspiriting sight was it to view all this canvas spread out to the breeze, and to see thirty-seven human beings all paddling together, with regularity, pre- cision, and force. « it 270 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. iri f> The chief had carefully selected his crew. It was of course a pride to man his state-canoe with picked men ; but at that time of the year it became a strin- gent necessity, April being always a severe season on the North Pacific coast, and its storm-weather lastinjr frequently many days together without intermission. I found them a lively and intelligent body of Indians, both willing to work and able to master the stoutest elements. Pleasant was it in good sooth, after the ungenial behaviour of my miners on Burnaby Island, to pass several weeks in the company of those poor savages, whilst they sang the songs of their country, and kept exact time as they sang, to the dip of their broad paddles. Yet, despite my knowledge of Indian character, their cheerfulness at the outset of so dangerous a voyage rather astonished me; for not only had we winds and rains above us, and waters beneath us, to contend with ; but tribes of bloodthirsty Indians, more than one of which were personally hostile to Klue, would likewise have to be en- countered all along the seaboard of British Columbia and the inner coastway of Vancouver, as we passed down them. In our circumstances the Inside Passage to Victoria presented pecuUar features of danger. Nevertheless, warn THE START. 271 I could not have counselled the Indians to adventure the Outside Passage in a simple canoe, albeit a first- class one. Either they would have been out of sight of land for many days, or they would have had to try the west coast of Vancouver, of which none of us knew anything. The evening of our start, therefore, we hugged the shore to the southward for about two hours, and at 8 P.M. we drew up our canoes in the dark on a pebbly beach, fronting the broad strip of flattish land which stretches round from the mouth of Stewart's Channel near Cape St. James. This is the most southerly part of Queen Charlotte Islands, and our idea was to wait there for a fair wind, before attempting to cross the Sound. We hoped to make due east to the British Columbian mainland early next morning, so as to secure as much daylight as possible; but when morning came, seeing that a storm had partially arisen, the Indians unanimously voted against launching forth. The Klue Indians are reputed to be the most venturesome of all canoe- men in the North Pacific, and I do not wish to defame them, but the contrary. Still, it is always within sight of land. At the thought of trusting themselves to the high seas they quail. On this occasion they I ji 272 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. would have shirked it altogether, only for their con- fidence in my guidance. There can be no doubt that Indians look upon the white men as superior beings, though they endeavour to conceal their conviction till it comes to the test. They were afraid, and manifestly regretted having set out on the ex- pedition. When I praised their skill and judgment, however, they would recover courage, until I chanced every now and again to cast my eyes towards the north-east. Then alarm would be de- picted on each man's countenance, especially on those of the chiefs, who would at once exclaim — Itka mika nanitch ? — what do you see ? Thus we waited forty-eight hours longer, en- camped in an old Indian ranche, which Klue said had been there time out of mind. The third morning we knew was going to be fine, for the storm had rolled off and the waves had smoothed down again. At daybreak, then, we went upon our way, pressing every stitch of canvas, with a smart but not unpleasant S.W. breeze, I cannot picture to myself anything more sublime in nature than tlie retrospective view which I had on bidding a last farewell to Queen Charlotte Islands. It is a land of enchantment. One can A RETROSPECT. 273 hardly feel melancholy living by those beauteous though uninhabited shores. Such varied and mag- nificent landscapes, such matchless timber, such a wealth of vegetation, such verdure and leafage up to the very crests of its highest hills. Its agri- cultural and mineral prospects are undeniable. Where does another climate exist like it, almost uniting the charms of the tropics to the healthiness of temperate zones, and yet remaining free from the evils of either? No rat or reptile has fixed its home on those islands, nor even a noxious insect. The sole annoyance is an occasional mosquito,* which will grow rarer as cultivation advances. Fogs rarely visit there. The storms, if sometimes severe, seem mostly sea-storms, invariably following a law, and never lasting long. The snows on the coldest day in Avinter dissolve soon after touching the ground ; whilst the sun, during much the greater portion of the year, sheds its effulgence and its warmth, but not its glare, the whole l^ the live-long day, down upon that virgin country, as if to cheer its loneliness and to allure to ^t the colonists from afar. ♦ Although the raosquito, by some singular exemption, to a great extent keeps clear of Queen Charlotte Islands, that plaguing insect flourishes in full force on the coast of the mainland, aud in the bush of British Columbia. il ii Ni^!^ i^y 274 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Just such a sunlit morn was it as we laid our- selves out for sea. I could not help sorrowing at the thought that I might never behold those Western Isles again; but I shipped my paddle in order to feast mine eyes once more upon their beauty. I watched their noble forms recede, I saw their peer- less complexion fade, I inhaled the breath of their sweet-scented cedar-wood until I felt it evaporate like some ethereal spirit. At length the Eden of the North Pacific vanished from my sight, and sank down into the deep blue waters of the West. The strength and skill of every man were now given to the arduous task before us. Onward we paddled, assisted by our sails, relays of the crew succeeding each other regularly, and sparing no effort, all day : not without reason either, for the sky lowered ominously, while the wind increased and the rain began to fall. It was getting on for six p.m., when a shout from an Indian in the bow told us that we had sighted the mainland on the other side of the Sound. The news raised our spirits somewhat ; but they were soon damped again, as almost immediately after it came on pitch dark, which caused us to lose the Skid-a-gate canoe out of hail, the wind changing and MISSING THE WAY. 275 the rain descending at the same time in torrents. Nothing daunted, however, on we sped till about midnight, the wail of the land-fowl becoming more distinct with each mile we made. In a couple of hours Klue thought we should be close in-shore, and then we could heave-to and wait for the break of day. Away went tlie thirty-seven paddles ; but upwards of two hours passed and brought no sound of rollers on the beach. Odder still, the cry of the land-fowl had entirely ceased. Suddenly it occurred to me that we were going backwards instead of forwards. On my hinting this to my fellow-paddlers, they only laughed at what they thought was very pardonable ignorance. However, first one man shipped his paddle, then another, and at last, suspecting some- thing wrong, they all got thoroughly frightened. *' Closl nanitch, Tyhee Poole^'' shouted Klue from the helm where he was, meaning, " Do you look after the canoe, Chief Poole." Fortunately I had my best pocket-compass stowed somewhere; so, striking a light with considerable difficulty, owing to the high wind and heavy sea, I found that we actually were going back, as straight as an arrow in its course. Putting a few facts together, I rapidly cplculated our position to be some thirty miles from the shore. t2 ill 276 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. The two hours had been consequently time and labour lost. Upon the word we put the canoe's head about, and having vainly hailed the Skid-a- gates, we gave our hearts to our paddles with a will, and towards five o'clock a.m. had the satis- faction to hear the breakers breaking on the rocks ahead. Shortly afterwards day dawned. The Skid-a-gates were nowhere visible; but our Indians recognised the land we had hit on as the south-east end of Banks's Island, and sure enough, close off the mainland. Observing a small harbour we ran in. It proved to be Calamity Harbour, in lat. 53° 12" N., long. 128° 43" W. The distance from this spot to Vic- toria is perhaps 300 miles as the crow flies, but by the crooked course we intended to take, with a view of dodging the hostile tribes along the road down- Vv'ard, we reckoned on a distance of at least 750 miles. Here we had the good luck to find the beach covered with cockles. We gathered a large quantity, and, stringing them on sticks, half toasted them before the fire, so as to preserve them for food in case our other provisions should fail. The island, too, was alive with a species of sea-fowl, the flesh of which SIX DAYS IN THE RAIN. 277 tastes like goose. I shot some; but the Indians, being very fond of them, prepared torches for a great slaughter at night, in the event of the weather clear- ing. Unhappily the wet continued. It was as much as we could do to prevent our camp fire going out. I did dry my clothes, however; and eventually haul- ing the canoe to a safe place and covering it up with sails, we each contrived to secure a dry spot under some trees where to lay our wearied heads; for the night was again upon us, after thirty-six sleepless hours, during twenty-four of which we had con- tinuously paddled no less than 1 20 miles. Yet that now appears as nothing compared with our subsequent sufferings. Next morning, seeing no improvement in the weather, we set off again in the midst of a most dismal drizzle, which in the course of the day developed into strong rain. At this distance of time it scarcely seems credible to say that, for six days and six nights, we kept on our voyage in that pitiable plight, battling against fearful head-storms, and making barely fifty miles. It is the fact, though. Sleep became impossible, the rain having soaked our clothes and skins through and through. As each morning broke, in vain we strained our aching eyes. If III k! I ml 278 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. to try to spy out something in the shape of a harbour. But it was not till the seventh day that one of our Klootchmen descried an object which on further observation we all pronounced to be a house. Surely a human habitation must bespeak the neigh- bourhood of a harbour of some sort ? Without more parley, then, we steered in-shore, and in another hour we were entering a pretty little cove, headed by a beach which had shell-fish enough on it to supply a whole naval squadron for a week. Above, upon a conspicuous reach of ground, stood the large Indian ranche we had seen from the offing. It had not been recently occupied. Its dilapidated state proved that. But, after such misery as we had just undergone, we hailed it as one migh^ a gorgeous palace, for the shelter, rest, and comfort it was about to afibrd us. "We stayed twenty-four hours at the ranche — not at all too long to recruit. The following afternoon, feeling refreshed and hearty, I strolled by myself a short way into the bush. I was groping through the underwood, when a cry of distress from my party startled me. Making sure that they had been surprised by the Bella- Bella Indians, who claimed that part of the coast as THE WELCOME BACK. 279 their camping-ground, I hastened back to the rescue, and arrived just in time to see a canoe hurrying away from the shore. It was the Skid-a-gates. A turn of the coast had brought our encampment into view, as their party came along, upon which a panic had seized them, and all Klue and his people could do to assure the Skid-a-gates that we were friends only urged them to fly the faster. I ran at once to the harbour's head, and, perching myself on the highest rock, waved my cap at the poor fellows with my utmost energy. They were already a good mile out to sea ; but noticing what I did, and knowing the waving of the hat to be the action of a white man they immediately turned back. Warmly did we welcome our lost companions. A sight to be remembered was it, to see how those savages greeted their old friends and neighbours. There was no kissing, nor embracing, nor shaking -f hands, but a dance of the wildest description, that would have beaten the cancan all to fits, and have done one good to look at besides. Till then I had never remarked a genuine smile or tear on the face of a North Pacific Indian. The savages of both tribes danced in a circle together, the two chiefs capering more madly than any, whilst the air rang I ill 280 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. mi i again with shouts, until I put a stop to it by remind- ing them of the probability of their enemies being near at hand; on which they instantly desisted. The Skid-a-gate story was this. It seemed our canoe had been kept in view much longer than we had been able to discern theirs, its inferior size quite explaining the difference. Like us, they had hardly noticed the change of wind ; but, unlike us, when the critical moment came, instead of unwittingly turning back, they had gone northward, and had paddled away night and day out of sight of land, till at length they had accidentally sighted Fort Simpson, 200 miles above our laading-place on Banks's Island. At that point, after a needful rest and a solemn consultation, they had concluded that it must be right with the big canoe, since there was a white man in ii. They had made all haste down the coast, in hopes of finding us waiting for them somewhere. And thus what we had been considering an awful hardship proved to be their deliverance; for without storm-weather in our part of the coast they would never have got over their part in time to overtake us. Riirht well did our friends merit their welcome. The endurance of the women deserved special praise. A LIFK-STKUGGLE. 281 One and all had paddled for many consecutive days under the most hope-killing of circumstances, yet never losing either hope or courage. It was as desperate a life-struggle as ever I had heard of. Manfully they stood it too, and I told them so. Almost it persuaded me to retract my dictum re- garding Indian bravery. I perhaps should have retracted if the Skid-a-gates had, in this instance, been embarking of themselves in an enterprise. Their feat partook of that kind of heroism which consists in heroically saving your own life and the lives of others. If these poor Skid-a-gates had passed our en- campment without observing us, they certainly could not have reached their destination, for their little store would soon have been consumed. On the other hand, we could have ill spared them; for though we alone formed a stout party, with the Skid-a-n which I, carried fit of this any im- n sprang v.'C been noes full ot have my eye •ed their lore than ;e line of vancing. over the ' OVER THE TIDAL WAVE. 291 do^vn-tide, which again, burying itself beneath the crest of its more powerful opponent, formed an under-current, unimpeded, and yet, in conjunction with the stronger tide, indescribably dangerous. This is not a common occurrence in the Passage, but it does sometimes happen in its narrow parts. If we had met it at night, we should have failed to see the danger in time, and then nothing could have saved us. As things were, here we found ourselves locked into the narrowest reach of Johnstone Strait, with a line of angry surf running from shore to shore, and close ahead of the canoes. Should we survive? Two minutes more would decide. I do acknowledge, however, that my heart rose to my mouth, and that my blood seemed to freeze in my veins, as I looked death straight in the face : an ignoble death, and nobody left to tell the tale. Not a second was to be lost. Chief Klue roared to his men, Hinda, kauit-Iaw, mammock clue anta qulta^ that is, *' Be quick, sit down, and work the canoe with all your strength." Whereupon, dipping our paddles deep into the now rushing, now sinking tides, with four desperate strokes for life we lifted our noble canoe clean out of the water, and shot over the fearful surge. Nervous moments, never to be for- u2 I 292 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. gotten. But our difficulties had only commenced; for no sooner were we clear of this line of surf than one of the contending currents hurled us with electric velocity three-quarters of a mile nearer land. I thought we should have been dashed to bits against the rocks, and was making ready for a spring, when, lo and behold, another current spun our canoe round, and sent us, like a bolt from a bow, to the opposite shore. This was repeated several times in succession, not a soul on board uttering a sound. Each time, however, the canoe gained a little headway. On the last crossing we came to a sudden stop in mid- channel, and describing a circle thrice with most awful rupidity, we seemed to be on the very point of plunging headlong into the abyss. But the crisis had arrived. Up out of the united throats of the Indians such a yell was yelled as appeared to shake the very mountains to their foundations. Klue added the words, Mannoch whatluwan^ that is, " Paddle all together." We obeyed, and cleared the whirlpool at a bound. Thenceforward our task was confined to strong and steady paddling for about half an hour. When we shipped our paddles to rest once more, we looked back, horror-stricken, yet thank- ful, upon that terrible meeting of the waters. AT NANAIMO. 293 ced; than with land. ;ainst vhen, ound, posite ;ssion, time, )n the L mid- most r point crisis of the shake Klue lat is, ed the sk was about to rest thank- I have here narrated the escape of KUie's canoe in particular. Naturally we had no eyes for aught but ourselves. None the less, our poor friends the Skid-a-gates must have incurred a far greater amount of danger. How indeed they got through, with their light craft, we never could comprehend. Two or three days more saw us paddling proudly into Nanaimo Harbour. We had a very cheering reception from the coal- mine people there, Klue's grand canoe and the re- cital of our adventures creating a special sensation ; and further excitement was infused into it by the ar- rival, shortly after ourselves, of the schooner Amelia^ the captain of which reported that a vessel named the Thornton lay at Fort Rupert with only one man on board, the remainder of the crew having been murdered. The Acolta Indians were the murderers. That woful affair was briefly as follows. The Thornton chancing to be becalmed off the Acolta camp- ing-grounds, a number of canoes manned from the tribe went out alongside and demanded whisky. The captain refused for the best of all reasons, because he had none of the noxious drug on board. The savages, not believing him, thereupon fired at the crew, who were engaged in rigging up sail. The volley was so 294 QUEEN CHAKLOTTE ISLANDS. iSi f! fl tremendous that the captain and all the men save one fell dead on the deck. The survivor fled into th^ cabin, and, seizing a revolver, began discharging it through the port-holes, which effectually frightened off the Indians ; for fancying from the rapid firing that there must be more white men concealed in the vessel, they skedaddled to the shore. The Thornton then fortunately drifted into a current, by means of which the saved man was enabled to steer his vessel to Fort Rupert. Had not we of Queen Charlotte Islands good cause to congratulate one another on having come thus far in safety ? At that epoch the Nanaimo settlement was kept perpetually agitated in consequence of reports, which used to arrive nearly every day, of the revolting cruel- ties practised by the Acolta and Cowitchen Indians on the too confiding white population. I remember, as one dreadful instance, the case of the Marks family, who, lately from England, had gone to squat on a plot close to Nanaimo. They were cruelly murdered, every one, the body of Miss Marks being discovered shockingly mutilated on the beach, and the bodies of the others not long afterwards in the bush. The Governor sent down three and one of thunder. Tides stationary only about 30 minutes. Inches. 13l'a 100 100 120 it. in. Maximum rise of tide 15 3 Minimum „ ,i U 10 Hi«h and low water, twice during the 21 hoars. 6 inches of snow fell on the 7th, and 3 inches on the loth, but melted otf same day. The tides vary from one to two knots an hour all round Burnaby Island. This, I take it, is probably true of the other islands as well. Harbours and Inland Waters. — The inlets and arms 302 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. of the sea are countless. Spring- water of the very purest abounds in every part of the coast-land. As it mostly appears to flow from long distances inland, I am disposed to infer the existence of fresh-water lakes embosomed among the mountains of the in- terior, the labour and time required for a thorough exploration of the country having hitherto prevented either white men or black undertaking that duty. I did not see or hear of any river worth the men- tion. But, with such coast-access, rivers would be of no significance. The harbourage is simply magnificent. Stewart's Channel, which reminded me immensely of Spit- head, can accommodate an untold number of ships of the heaviest tonnage, and securely shelter them against storms from whatever quarter. The same, relatively as to size, may be said of Sockalee, Harriet, Laskeek, and Cum-she-was Harbours, on the eastern coast, and no doubt of many another on the western. Bocks. — To take Burnaby Island as an example, in the lower section of that islet considerable deposits of black slate mixed with limestone exist, the lime- stone being much disturbed by greenstone and granitic rockage, and its dense crystalline felspathic traps being grooved and furrowed by glacial action. KOCKS AND VEINS. 303 very . As tiland, •water he in- 3rough svented aty. le men- Id be of ;tewart's of Spit- ships of r them |he same, Harriet, eastern western, mple, in deposits Ithe lime- lone and felspathic Ll action. This semi-crystalline limestone is studded with small bunches of black scorial slate, furnishing strong evidence of its plutonic age. A system of metalli- ferous quartzose veins having parallel trappean dykes, also permeates that island. These veins con- sist of ragged masses of plutonic, metamorphic, and trappean rock. I prospected likewise a number of spurs and veins of yellow and white quartz, the general run of which lies north and south. Some of these veins are a few inches in width, others as much as six feet, all highly oreiferous. Owing to tlie thick brushwood and the loose soil, composed of the debris of fallen timber and of vegetable matter lying undisturbed for centuries, I found it utterly impracticable to ascertain the extent or even the position of the rocks. Occasionally the trees stand separate; but the weary explorer does not advance twenty paces before he is sure to tumble upon prostrate giants flung one over the other in every conceivable configuration, from the lowest to the highest angles. Sometimes, after having fought his way for hours through de- spairing entanglements, he emerges into an open space seemingly solid. He steps boldly across it towards the next thicket, but, on a sudden, the thin 304 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. slippery crust gives way, and down he goes twenty or thirty feet amongst the rotten roots and the remains of eagles, crows, wild dogs, bears, and innumerable birds and beasts defunct ages ago. The bottom is usually dry; otherwise those frequent mishaps would often be fatal. As it is, such a combination of obstacles cannot fail to prevent the interior being ex- plored, except in a very gradual manner, or unless the exploration should be undertaken on a colossal scale. Land. — No one could pass a week among the islands without becoming convinced of their agricultural capacities. Vancouver Island has plenty of good arable land; but I saw nothing there, either in quality or in quantity, to equal what is to be seen on every side along the shores of Queen Charlotte Islands. The soil fit for farming purposes is not only extensive beyond all present calculation, but rich beyond description, and better still, wholly unappropriated. It seems to be ever crying out to the personifiers of civiliza- tion, " Come and farm me, and I will return you a hundredfold." In short, once colonize those islands with the English farmer-class, and, considering the richness of the i^oil, the excellent harbourage, the easy means of transport, and the markets that are certain to arise on the British Columbian mainland. TREES, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES. 305 ity or mains erable torn 13 would ion of ing ex- less the 1 scale. I islands cultural d arable ality or ery side The soil beyond ription, eems to civiliza- In you a islands Iring the [age, the that are lainland, one might safely predict for them an agricultural prosperity absolutely unrivalled on the face of the globe. TreeSy Frtiit^, and Vegetables. — The principal trees are the pine,* the spruce-pine, the alder, the crab, and the cedar, all in profusion and in first-class con- dition. I have made a calculation by which I am ready to prove that the cedars could be brought to the European market at a profit of eight per cent, which again might be increased to twenty per cent, if the other resources of the islands were included in the transit. Potatoes have already taken kindly to the soil. The natives cultivate them in really large quantities, and convey them across the Sound to the nearest * The largest pine-tree known to exist on Vancouver Island is one near Mr. Richardson's house, Chemainis prairie, and not far from Chemaiuis river. It measures fifty-one feet iu circumference, w'lich gives sixteen in diameter. Its height is one hundred and fifty feet. Orij^inally it was about fifty feet higher ; but the top has been broken off, either by lightning or by wind. Its name is " The Old Guardsman." And certainly it must have stood guard over the " forest primajval " for whole centuries before auc •A its giant neighbours were born. It is common for people " on the trail" to turn aside to visit Mr. Richardson's famous pine. What, then, will be thought when I say, that the Queen Charlotte pine- trees are, as a rule, taller than " The Old Guardsman," and not uufrequently quite double its height and circumference? I measured several which gave over three hundred feet high and sixty feet round. 306 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. white settlements for sale. So far, the potato is the only vegetable on the islands. There are no cereals, wild or cultivated, and none of the tropical fruits, not even wild grapes. But anybody acquainted with the soil, taken with the climate, will recognise in it a fertile field for much of that kind of produce over and above the products of our own farming and kitchen-gardening. Crab-apples are plentiful, likewise strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, and the sweet-tasting berry which the Indians dry and preserve for winter use. Were all this raw material handled with skill, the country would soon be unsurpassed in ordinary fruit-gardening, to say nothing of the vines and wall-fruit of Europe that would be sure speedily to follow. Fish, Game, and Fur. — Salmon of several different species, cod, halibut, sturgeon, haddock, trout, whiting, herring, smelt, rock-bass, and seals of two species, swarm either in the seas of the coastway, or in the creeks and fresh river streams running up from it. As regards shell-fish, having myself eaten native oysters, I cannot question the fact of oyster-beds existing, although no actual beds have ever yet FISn AND GAME. 307 IS the reals, fruits, I with ! in it e over 12 and Derries, ; berry winter d with ised in of the be sure liiferent trout, of two [astway, |ning up native ter-beds rer yet been seen there. The quantity and variety of the inferior sort of shell-fish are truly astonishing.* The larger fish, such as the whale and porpoise, would appear to make Queen Charlotte Sound their playground. They doubtless prefer the warmer water. I have seen scores of them at a time amusing themselves within rifle-range of our log- house on Burnaby Island. The game is snipe, duck, goose, ermine, marten, * Subjoined is a descriptive list of the varieties of shell-fish found on the beach and rocks in front of our log-house : — Diadema granulosum . Secondary Cretaceous Pecten plebeius . . . Tertiary Old Plioc Bulla edwardsii . . . Cain Eoc Voluta luctatrix . j . ditto ditto Fusus regularis . . . ditto ditto Axinus angulatus . . ditto ditto Mytilus antiquarium . . ditto Old Phoc Voluta spinosa (6 varieties) ditto Eoc Sanguinolaria hoUowaysii ditto Eoc Mactra arenata . . . Tertiary Pleist Pileopsis vetusta . . . Primary Ceub Pleurotomaria reticulata Secondary Vol. Murex sex-dentatus . . Cain Upper Eoc Voluta lamberta . . . ditto Old Phoc Astarte elliptica . . . Tertiary Pleist Nautica pachylabrum . Cain Eoc Murex erinaceus . . . Tertiary Pleist Lower Green Sarul Red Crag Brack Woll. Beds Brack ditto Red Crag Woll. Beds London Norwich Crag Ccub Strall Portland Sand Fluv. Marine Coil Crag Cavern Remains Lond. Clay F. and M. Deposits I have verified the above list by Reynolds's British Chart; but I gathered many more varieties, which are not accounted for in Reynolds's work, or, to my knowledge, in any scientific book. Unluckily they were destroyed, together with all my valuable fossil and mineral specimens, in the great Canadian bush-fire of 1865. X 2 308 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. common otter, sea-otter, and bears, besides numerous other birds* ind animals. The stock of game seems a marvel in itself, until one remembers that there has never yet been any serious onslaught upon it. Colonization will, of course, cause a decrease; still for twenty years hence no colonist of the islands need starve, if he possesses a gun and can hit a hay- stack. Fur vvill no doubt also die out, as a traffic; but, again, years must elapse before all the bears, * Tiie following is a list of the birds frequenting the neighbourhood of Buruaby Island :— Night-hawk— ;/«/(70 nocturnus. Sparrow-hawk -ytf/(?o spanerius. Gos-hawk — astur airicapillus. White-headed eagle — haliaetus leucocephalus. Belted kingfisher — alcedo accindus. Western blue-bird — cyanam occidentalis. North Western fish-crow — corvus caurinus. Wilson's snipe — gallinago wihonii, Canadian goose — bernada canadensis. White-chc>;kcd goose — hernacla leucaparsia. Mallard (stock duck) — anas boschas. Canvas-back duck — aythia vallisneria. Golden-eye (whistle-wing duck) — buccphala amcricana. BufQe-h6ad duck — bucephala albeola. Harlequin duck — histrionicus torquatus. Velvet duck — malanetta vehetina. Glaucous'winged duck— /artfs glaucescem. Sucklcy's gull— A/nw suckleyii. Great Northern dx^&c—colymbus torquatus. Ked- necked gxtipc—podicetut gmeryeria. NATIVE TRIBES. 309 seals, ermine, and marten are cleared out. The present breeds, in ray opinion, would supply fur enough to make the fortune?, of half-a-dozen fur companies. Native Tribes. — Here are the tribal names of the principal tribes inhabiting the islands: — Klue, Skid- dan, Ninstence or Cape St. James, Skid-a-gate, Skid- a-ga-tees, Gold-Harbour, Cum-she-was, and four others, whose appellations I never could distinguish. Hydali is the generic name for the whole. All these tribes together amount to a native popu- lation of about five thousand, rather less perhaps. The Queen Charlotte Islanders are justly con- sidered the finest sample of the Indian race in the North Pacific. They will stand comparison witli any Indians in the world. Their faults are the usual Indian ones; but I did not find them to be naturally revengeful or bloodthirsty, except when smarting under the sense of a real and grave injury, or when seeking to avert an imaginary wrong. If honestly and firmly treated, no natives could be better disposed towards the white men. uliief Klue, considering himself as a sort of suzerain to the other chiefs, and believing that he had a right to do what he liked with his own islands, made me a present, in 310 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. the simplicity of his heart, of the whole of Queen Charlotte Islands, on condition that I lived amongst my Indian friends, and induced all my English friends to come and settle chere too. No small gift, con- sidering that the islands are nearly two hundred miles long, by an average of thirty wide. The men are generally tall, and they would be handsome, or at least comely, if it were not for their atrocious custom of bedaubing themselves all over. Their real reason for using paint is that they fancy it improves personal beauty ; and those poor savages of the islands are certainly not singular in hoping to be made " beautiful for ever " by means of paint. But they give as their excuse the necessity of having some protection against the weather. Until they consent to wear clothing, it must be owned, too, that there is something in the excuse. The majority of them, whether male or female, wear only a small- sized blanket, thrown loosely across the shoulders, like a Spanish hidalgo's cloak, and more with a view to warmth than from any sense of decency. Some of the women have exceedingly handsome faces and very symmetrical figures. Their charms, however, are all but neutralized by the usage common amongst them of disfiguring their breasts, arms, ears, THE WOMAN-KIND. 311 and under-lip. One particularly fine woman, a daughter of the petty chief Skilly-gutts, had half her body tattooed with representations of chiefs, fish, birds, and beasts. She told me that a halibut, laid open with the face of the chief of her tribe drawn on the tail, would protect her and her kin from drown- ing at sea. Most of the native females wear rings through their noses. The elder ones may frequently be seen with nose-rings large enough to serve as collars for cats in good condition. Every woman has three or four holes to each ear, one of the holes being generally of sufficient size to admit the little finger up to the second joint. The rings are bone, and their own manufacture ; but sometimes, rather than not decorate their ears, they will insert pieces of stick or strips of cloth into the ear-holes. Brace- lets of the same material are not u >ininon, like- wise anklets, which, however, having usually been put on in youth and retained as fixtures, often cause lameness. My constant topic of conversation with the native women was the custom of our country in regard to females. The most frequent questions used to refer to Tyhee Klootchman and her Papoose^ that is, Queen Victoria and her children ; for example, how they dressed, how much money they had, what ! 312 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. price each of the children fetched in blankets, and their names. The names formed a never-failins: source of amusement. I had to give each woman and papoose a name after some member of the Royal Family, past or present. When I had finished they would go away delighted; but the next morning they would be pretty sure to call upon me again, to beg to have their names told them once more, a function I was wholly unable to discharge, having meanwhile forgotten all about them. Amongst these simple and primitive tribes the institution of marriage is altogether unknown. On the other hand, so is polygamy. They view a woman purely as a thing of purchase, to be had connubially for a month's trial, and then, if not satisfactory, to be returned to her parents, who are thereupon bound to give back whatever she fetched in blankets, trinkets, or the rest. The beautiful bond of attachment ending only in death, and the heroic constancy of aflfection often not ending then, which characterizes the lawful intercourse of the sexes in civilized countries has yet to be introduced into Queen Charlotte Islands. The females in fact cohabit almost promiscuously with their own tribe, though rarely with other tribes. Not only does no dishonour attach to that degrading DISTRIBUTING BOOTY. 313 a ction Lwful jsyet The hvitli Not Idiiig practice, but, if successful in making money, it is highly honoured. I remember one singular case of this. Some Queen Charlotte women went to spend the Winter at Victoria, hoping to " earn blankets." They came back loaded with blankets, trinkets, tobacco, whisky, and other presents, which they pro- ceeded to distribute among their people in the fol- lowing manner. Perching themselves on a rocky platform near the beach, they tore the blankets into long strips of about eight inches wide, and threw them as far as possible into the midst of the crowd, who scrambled for them. When the crowd got tired and the fun flagged, the leader of the women pro- duced a bundle of old revolvers and pitched them one after another into the shallow part of the sea, the men rushing in up to their arm-pits, mad with desire to possess a white man's " six-shooter." It cer- tainly was very diverting, if one had not chanced to recollect whence and why the booty had come here. The really strange part of it all had to come, how- ever; for, on my inquiring what the women meant by giving away their earnings in that way, I was told that they would all be rewarded. And so they were, Klue raising the " husband'' of the principal woman to the rank of chief, and the tribe building her a 314 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. house. Apart from the detestable traffic which enabled that woman to gain such a position in her tribe, I could not help seeing in the public wish to recognise her supposed merit a good forecast of what true civilization may one day do for those poor un- taught islanders. She rose in the estimation of her tillicums (friends), be ause, having earned money — they cared not how — she had shown a good tumtum (heart), in assisting the needy. Not a bad criterion, surely ; or, at least, a policy which not seldom is approved and acted upon amongst our home nations. It is a common error, common throughout the American continent even, to imagine that the abo- rigines of Canada and British Columbia are black. We are called whites to make a distinction ; but in reality, the natural skin which prevails in most of the tribes is nearly as white as ours. The " dusky " Indians of the Canadian prairies stain their skins with the bark of trees, and the " blacks," in our colonies along the North Pacific seaboard, paint themselves with wetted char-wood. Whenever this custom was temporarily relinquished, I was always impressed by the manly beauty and bodily proportions of my islanders. The Ninsteuce tribe, generally known as the Cape St. James Indians, DRIED FISH. 315 appeared to me the handsomest, the Skid-a-gates the most intePigent, and Klue's personal tribe the most daring and trustworthy. Another error concerns the colour of the hair. No doubt it usually is dark ; but the shade differs greatly. I saw a whole family or section of a tribe, on the British Columbian main- land, every one of whom had not only a clean white skin but light silky hair. On Queen Charlotte Islands there were numberless instances of auburn tresses, and a few positively of golden curls, amongst which Klue's little Klootchman daughter was con- spicuous. The chief food of the Queen Charlotte islanders is halibut. This fish amply suffices to support them during the fishing season, the flesh of it being sub- stantial, satisfying, and well-flavoured. At the close of the fishing season they dry the fish. Before eating dried fish they break it into bits, and soak the bits in fish-oil, or rather in fish-grease having the consistency of uncooled jelly, and then devour them, just as boys amongst ourselves are wont to revel in bread i \ treacle.* Fish thus soaked is their Winter- food, * This mode of eating dried fish curiously tallies with the manners of the Queen Charlotte Islanders in the last century, as described by Captain Cook, R.N., in his Voyage to the Facific Ocean. (Vol. ii. p. 424!). 316 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. their only additional relish being the preserved berry already alluded to. Quantities of berries are laid in stock; but, the eaters have such prodigious appetites that frequently whole tribes will be reduced to star- vation before the Winter ends. Were it not for a few bulbs which they dig out of the soil in the early Spring-time, while awaiting the halibut-season, numbers of Indians really would starve to death. They use nets, baits, and a kind of club or flat mallet to fish with. Bears and other animals are caught by means of an ingenious method of trapping ; for, odd as it may seem, the Queen Charlotte Islanders know nothing of spears, and, odder still, nothing of bows and arrows. Hence, until they got muskets from the white men, the game on the islands had a pleasant time of it. Even now the Indians are only able to shoot an occasional seal, or at most a duck or a goose. Bark forms their grand medicinal specific. They have another curative remedy, however, which is apparently original and novel. For a long while I was at a loss to account for the large pools of water which, on returning after dinner, we often used to find lying round the shaft-head. I remember feeling somewhat anxious, as it occurred to me that possibly A WASH INSIDE-OUT. 317 there might have been an overflow from the shaft itself, although I did not understand how such could have happened. But, then, the water never appeared in the night-time, and in the day-time only when the workmen were away. Concluding, therefore, that the Indians had to do with it, I watched behind a rock one day during dinner-time. Presently I saw a chief and two of his women come along. Taking a bucket apiece from the shaft-works, they went down to the sea, and having filled the buckets with sea- water they came quietly back to the works. What in the name of goodness were the perfidious wretches going to do? Perhaps inundate the shaft, and try to spoil our mining operations? Not so. Squatting down on their haunches, each Indian seized a bucket, and at one gulp swallowed every drop of its contents. This extraordinary performance puzzled me more than ever, particularly as the drinkers remained im- movable in their squat position. I could perceive nothing to explain the pools of water. However, after I had waited patiently for fully twenty minutes, I was about to retire, when suddenly all three, rising a little, opened their mammoth jaws, and out rushed half a pail of water from each mouth. They then began twisting and rolling their bodies hither and 318 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. thither, as one might shake up a bottle of physic, and immediately the rest of the water was ejected. The matter-of-fact ease with which thev conducted the entire process made up not the least curious part of it. But the problem of the pools Avas solved. Going up to the Indians, therefore, and unable to smother my laughter, I asked them what they intended by the proceedings I had just witnessed. " They were washing themselves inside-out" was the answer, delivered in a very serious tone of voice, as much as to insinuate that they considered their water-cure to be no joke at all, in which sentiment I certainly, on reflection, coincided ; for to the indiscriminate adoption of this cure, it seems to me, is clearly traceable the fearful mortality among the natives when the small-pox visited them. I never yet met with an Indian who was not a born gambler. On the British Columbian mainland, and on Vancouver Island, professionals travel about from tribe to tribe, trusting entirely to gambling for a livelihood. But the Queen Charlotte Islanders surpass any people that I ever saw in passionate addiction to the all-absorbing vice. I shall give one salient instance. I once stood by while a Queen Charlotte chief gambled away every article he INDIAN GAMBLING. 319 possessed in the world. He continued playing for three days, without eating a mouthful of food, but perpetually losing. By the fourth day he had parted with the very blanket on his back. A woman of his tribe, however, having compassionately lent him her only blanket, he renewed the contest, and recovered not merely what he had previously lost, but all his opponent's property, which happened to be rather considerable in powder and shot, muskets, revolvers, blankets, skins, paints, tobacco, and fish. The game was Odd or Even,* which is played thus. The players spread a mat, made of the inner bark of the yellow cypress, upon the ground, each party being provided with from forty to fifty round pins or pieces of wood, five inches long by one-eighth of an inch thick, painted in black and blue rings, and beautifully polished. One of the players, selecting a number of these pins, covers them up in a heap of * Mr, J. A. St. John, describing the sports and pastimes of the ancient Greeks, has the following : — " To play at Odd or Even was common ; so that we find Plato describing a knot of boys engaged in this game. There was a kind of divination, the bones being hidden under the hand, and the one party guessing whether they were odd or even. The same game was occasionally played with beans, walnuts, or almonds, if we may credit Aristophanes, who describes certain serving-men playing at Odd or Even with golden staters." (Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Vol. I. p. 162.) The Roman game of Morra, still played in Italy by the peasants, is of a similar nature, although the hands only are used in it. 320 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. bark cut into fine fibre-like tow. Under cover of the bark he then divides the pins into two parcels, and, having taken them out, passes them several times from his right hand to his left, or the contrary. While the player shuffles, he repeats the words I-E-Ly-Yah, to a low monotonous chant or moan. The moment he finishes the incantation, his op- ponent, who has been silently watching him, chooses the parcel where he thinks the luck lies for Odd or Even. After which the second player takes his innings, with his own pins and the same ceremonies. This goes on till one or other loses all his pins. That decides the game. The Queen Charlotte Islanders have a vague notion of a Great Spirit. They also share the belief, prevalent among all North American Indians, that, when they die, their spirits will pass to " the happy hunting-grounds," the chase being the type of happi- ness to the Indian mind. But I failed to trace the slightest connexion between these two semi-religious ideas and the current of their lives. They did not appear to 1 '^k upon themselves as in the slightest degree ' ^" to a Supreme Being for their actions. ^sequence they ofi^ered Him no worship. I observed that even their conception of INDIAN FEASTS. 321 er of ircels, Gveral trary. words moan, lis op- hooses Jdd or es his nonies. s pins. vague belief, |s, that, happy happi- Lce the lligious lid not lii^htest their lim no tion of duty towards their fellow-men was extremely Ihnitcd, being in fact regulated solely by the supposed good that would accrue from any particular act to any individual person or tribe in whom or which they were interested. Unless when they followed the impulses of their hearts, gain seemed their sole motive, no inconvenient principles ever standing in the way. On the other hand, though prone to superstition, like all savage nations, they are far less grossly superstitious than other Indians in the North Pacific. Thus such horrible orgies as those enacted by the medicine-men among the Tsimshean Indians near Fort Simpson, one never sees or hears of among the Queen Charlotte Islanders. They keep many feasts or festivals during the course of the year. These do not bear the least on religion, but are purely social gatherings. In pre- paration for a feast the Indians first wash the old black paint clean ofi" their bodies. Then, after liaving besmeared their skins with fish-grease to cause the colours to stick well, they repaint their faces, chests, and arms red, with figures of men, birds, or fish. The black paint is their own preparation ; the red is vermilion, which they purchase from the whites. When this repainting has been accomplished, it may 322 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. be styled their full-dress. And yet they are not deemed presentable at the feast till they have furthermore besprinkled their painted bodies all over with the fine down of the duck or goose. Talk of tarring and feathering being mythical. It is pure and simple reality to them. As soon as the time comes for the feast to commence, the men squat down in large ex- tended circles, and beat a sort of accompaniment b}'' means of double sticks to the dancing of the women. That can scarcely be called a dance, either, which is but a contortion of the head and body into every imaginable shape and position, while the knee-joints, and often the entire legs, remain unmoved. Now and again a woman will throw in a new movement or figure, si)icing it with a witty or slangy v/ord, such as will highly amuse the outer crowd, and en- courage them to redouble the excitement. Here are two of tlu?ir favourite sonr ihe geex- cTit by ^omen. hich is every -joints, Kow venient v/ord, lid en- ic first c, ha. The second is nothing but a repetition of the note B in the key of E\ and the words, like our ri-fol-de- liddle-lol ri'fol-lairy^ having no intrinsic signification, have no translation. They sing this song princi- pally when out canoeing. The notes to the two upper lines are semibreves, those to the under-line crotchets, thus: — Equfil— ah, ah, ah, ah, he, he, he, andante. Equal— ah, ah, ah, ah, he, he, he. crescendo. Equal— f\h, equal~ah, he, h&, he. dccrescendo. These specimens of native music were certainly composed before modern notation was introduced, and probably before the art of music was invented. I have tried to approximate the above rendering to our ideas. But the proper term for tliis kind of music would be Plain Chant Rim Mad., if it were not for a peculiar plaintiveness of tone and a quaint hitch of the voice at the end of each line, wl'icli redeems the so-called singing from the charge of inflicting torture on human ears. As I conclude this narrative of my discoveries and adventures along the North Pacific coast, my thought naturally reverts to the geographical position of the islands where, for the chief part of t) T 1 lived and worked. Y 2 'i 324 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. Everybody who has personal cognizance of Canada and British Columbia feels assured of the day being near when the western boundary of the Canadian Dominion must comprise, not only the Red River and the Saskatchawn territories, but our outlying pos- jses>;ions in the North Pacific. The importaT.ice of so vast an agglomeration will explain itS2lf to those who are strangers to America, by the reflection that the British Columbian colony alone cOiitaii'.s 280,000 square miles, making no less than 179.200,000 acres. Let the political arrangements be once complete, and a Grand Northern Pacific Railway, opening up to colonization and culture immense tracts now waste and unknown, will inevitably follow. Great, how- ever, as tlie acquisition appears at first glance, its j)rimary value by no means comprehends all the advantages that are sure to accrue thence to the British. Empire. For unbroken steam and rail com- munication, under our own control, with the North Pacific Ocean will also give both England and Canada a new outlet for the exports to the western seaboards of the two Americas, and, further on, to Japan, China, and Australasia. But those isles of the Far West which I have been describing anticipated lie directly commerce. in the lii;2:h-road of the ^9^ A SUMMARY. 325 If, therefore, their beneficent climate, and the man-- nitude of their mineral and agricultural resources, be judiciously appraised beforehand, their prosperity is already secured. I close with the earnest hope that such a colonizing scheme will ere long bo devised as may, at one and the same time, utilize so favoured a country to us, and rescue from savagedom the poor benighted tribes who inhabit it. Then I shall think that I have not laboured in vain on behalf of Queen Charlotte Islands. 326 CHAPTER XX. VIEW OF VICTORIA — HOMEWARD-BOUND — SAN FRANCISCO — COPPEnOPOLIS.^ STOCKTON — THE " KING OF TREES" — MANZANILLA — ARISTOCRATIC THIEVES — MEXICAN LIFE — ACAPULCO — BLACK SWIMMING-BOYS — TEM- PERATURE—SUNSETS — TAIL OF A HURRICANE — PANAMA CITY — BACK ACROSS THE ISTHMUS— FROM COLON TO NEW YORK — CANADIAN HEAD- QUARTERS — ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND. The Queen Charlotte Mining Company having upprovetl my Report, provided for the removal of my late workmen, and handsomely acknowledged my services, 1 was free to return to England, or to resume the more regular professional work in Canada, from which I had temporarily severed myself. Before briefly narrating my ret urn- voyage, I shall say a word on the capital of British Columbia. Outside V^ictoria, towards the north, is an excellent racecourse, with some high land in the centre of it called Beacon-hill. I took my stand there, to have a farewell look at the colony. In the North Pacific strangers are said to incline to the use of superlatives while surveying the sconery. Perhaps so; yet, " mo^it magnificent, most glorious," are the expressions that VIEW OF VICTORIA. 327 do rise to one's mind in presence of the perfect natural beauty to be viewed on all sides. The prospect for miles and miles round the capital could not but enlist enthusiastic admiration. What I saw included an intermiriable extent of bold sea- coast, cut up into lovely coves and future bathing- places, that forcibly recalled our Devon and Corn- wall at home. Beyond these came, here the ocean in all its expanded beauty, there the straits and the inland seas I had learnt to know so well, and, beyond the straits again, the long mountain-chains of the Oregon Territory rearing their snow-clad crests in stern splendour. I sat for hours, hardly taking my eyes from off the landscape, rendered doubly beautiful by the clear atmosphere which allowed me to discern objects without a glass ai wondrous distances. It is grand that Englishmen should have such a land to colonize. Other nations, one felt, would spoil it. Looking down, you see Victoria at your feet. It is laid out on rising ground, and promises from its plan to become a fine city. The streets are designedly wide; but it will be years yet before high houses cjin be built in sufficient numbers to make the width and height of the streets more proportionate. Every thoroughfare in the town stands at right angles with 328 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. its neighbours, after the usual colonial fashion. If one adds that the whole place has a genuine colonial air about it, no dispraise is intended. Some day its streets will rival those of Melbourne. I remember particularly, being in an observant and reflective mood on descending from my eminence, that I was struck by the neatness and comfort which seemed to predominate through the town; and that is more than can be said for Yankee beginnings in any given locality. The innnediate vicinity of Victoria looks bare. Amongst the few attractive spots near is Government House. The grounds which surround it are con- siderable and prettily laid out. Of the residence itself, I can only venture to say that it insensibly called to mind the house of an English farmer in easy circumstances. After a pleasing interview with Governor Douglas, and an affectionate leave-taking with Chief Klue and his men, I at last made ready to quit British Columba.* * By the ofBcial returns of the Britisli Columbian Government in 1S70, the white population in the colouy was estimated at 10,4'JO, inclusive of 1917 Chinese. But, of course, many roaming traders, mim-rs, and fislier- men are overlooked. The Indian population is variously ;!stimated at from 30,000 to 50,000. HOMEWARD BOUND. 329 From this point my Diary will serve me to the end of the journey homeward : — ''''May loth. — Wishing many sincere friends good- bye, I mounted this morning into the stage, bag and baggage, and came quickly across from Victoria to Esquimau Harbour. I am now on board the Sierra Nevada steamship, bound for San Francisco." " 18^/i, 8 A.M.— -Just entering the " Golden Gate," within sight of Frisco, after a roughish but pleasant passage from Esquimalt. " 2 P.M. — Have put up at the Tehaina House Hotel, and taken a berth in a small steamer to go and see the great copper-mines near Stockton." " 19//i. — Reached Stockton, by Cornelia steamer, at 3 A.M. to-day. Came along in the stage to Coppero- polis, distant thirty-nine miles, where I arrived at 3 P.M., having passed through enormous ilats of the ricliest prairie land. About one hundred houses in Copperopolis (what a name to give a place, to be sure), nearly all hotels and stables. Went off at once to visit the works. Saw the famous Union mine, which, they say, has a vein sixteen feet thick, extending in one straight line for twenty miles. This mine is worked by three engines, one of six- horse power, and two others of fourteen- horse power 330 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. each. I inspected also the Keystone mine, on the opposite side of the town. Smaller, but better ore. Obtained specimens* from both mines." " 20th, 2 P.M. — Arrived back at Stockton a while ago. Before leaving Copperopolis I hired a swift Mexican mustang (small mule), and rode out to see the *' King of Trees," a few miles from the town, re- turning by another route over a spur of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Only a huge stump now remains of this once great tree. The top partf was cut off and conveyed to our Crystal Palace at Sydenham, some years back. There is a whole grove of gigan- tic trees, the one sent to England having been the largest. At first sight, these trees do not appear so very much larger-sized than those of the surrounding forest. It is only by measurement that one comes to apprehend their immensity. The largest tree now in the grove measures thirty-three feet in diameter, the same diameter, namely, q that of the Thames Tunnel. Another, called the " Grizzly Giant," fell down last year. As it lay on the ground, I took the diameter. It was exactly thirty-three feet. I also * On my return to Englaud I placed these particular specimens in the coUcctiou at Somerset House, London. f This is the Californiaa trunk, which was afterwards burnt in the Crystal Palace Hre in 18G7. THE QUEENS BIRTHDAY. 331 the measured the distance from the root to the first limb, and found it to be ninety feet, the diameter at the limb itself being over six feet." " 2lst. — Got to my hotel at California at 2 a.m., after a disgusting passage of nine hours from Stock- ton. Steamer Henry Hemsley wretched, and full of drunken Yankee rowdies. Ran aground coming up, and had much difficulty in getting the vessel off, in consequence of the disorderly mob on board, repub- lican institutions requinng that everybody, however ignorant, should have a voice in the matter. A never-too-liighly-prized blessing is it, being born under the flag of Old England." " 237'c?., 8 A.M. — It warms one's heart to look out of the hotel windov.'' this morning. For what do I see, amidst all the rowdyism around me, but about forty English ships in the harbour, gaily decorated from stem to stern with flags and streamers? They are keeping the Queen's birthday. This cheery sight reminds me that in two hours I shall have em- barked in the Golden Age steamer, on my way back to civilized life." *'28any will die of starvation instead ? "7 p.^f. — in the harbour of Acapulco, Republic of Guerrero, our vessel having fired a gun as slie entered. '^ This bei:i;]^th'j ninv season, we are fortunate in a deliciousby fine evening, with a uioonlight that makes one lialf ihink it is daytime. "On my outward-l)ound vcyuge, as the English and French Iha^'is *\cre then blockading Acapulco, we Qo\\\(\ oidv ride at anchor a short wliile in the offinnf. I now got such a view of the town and harbour as the bri j,htest imaginable moon could afford. " Tiie town is laiilt on the shore of a landlocked basin. Tresented to my vision the stupendous sweep of a hundred cur- vilinear miles, which the gulf takes on either side. IN RUINS. 343 I :cwer lis of pieihc (•(1 to cur- side. ' " The principal plaza in the city is fronted by a splendid college, left incomplete nearly a century back. It has a portico of red sandstone pillars, once proud and imposing. They are now broken and crumblinr, whilst from the crevices of the pediments spring luxuriant banana creepers, shooting their large leaves through the classic windows, or folding them round the columns of the gateway. Sic iran,sU gloria inundi I thought the remains of the Jesuit church of San Felipe a grand old ruin. ]\Iajestic arches, betraying the mosarabic traditions of the architect, still intersect its long-drawn nave and aisles; but here again an overgrowth of wild vines festoons the spandiils of the arciies and falls like fringe to the floor. The building has been roofless from time innnemorial, yet daylight can scarce steal through tlie embowering foliage. And as the ;gh in silent mockery of the works of man, several bells with a silvery ring may be seen propped up by tottering beams, and stowed away in a dark corner. How many score of years is it since the crafty but devoted brotherliood rang those dulcet bells to call Xh^ faithful to the Ora^'lon ? " Thus Panama. 1" 344 QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. "11 A.M. — I am writing in the train. " Passing with the same slowness through the same gorgeous isthmus-land as two years back, every mile of the road exhibits well-remembered, yet ever new beauties. One misses the sharp-marked hills of the north, all outline of landscape being lost under this deluge of vegetation. Not a trace of soil can be discerned. Lowland and highland seem merged into one mass. A mountain is but a higher swell of the mass of leafy verdure. What shape the country would assume if cleared, who can tell? Meanwhile, your eye wanders over the scene with never-sated pleasure, until your brain aches again. And yet, as when contemplating the ocean, you have an indefinable sense rather than a direct perception of its beauty. " Isthmus railway-guards arc either venil rascals or extremely accommodating to sight-seers — perhaps something of both. We have stopped at two or three villages for no ostensible purpose but to let the villagers scjueeze money out of the travellers. Boys and girls brought us fruits, offering them with pretty Mexican-Indian words, which signify bite, sir. These natives are a mixture of the Indian and A FANDANGO. 345 gh the i back, mbered, marked iing lost I of soil d seem I higher lape the m tell ? ne with i again, ou have rception rascals perhaps two or to let .vellers. im with ttej sir. in and Spanish races. Their skin is black. The boys, how- ever, took care to tell us that, although niggers, they were muchos cahalleros — very much gentlemen. '• 2 P.M. — We are driving on from a town where the Alcalde's daughters gave us a fandango. Fancy a whole train full dropping down at a station on the Londor. and North Western, to take part in a ball, and then off again. " The ladies were dressed in pink and white, with flowers in their hair, and danced upon a green sward to the music of violins and guitars. Senora Cata- lina, a rich widow of pure Andalusian blood, danced charmingly, holding a crimson scarf up over her shoulders, and tossing her little head from side to side in the most inebriating manner. "Travelling across the Isthmus is certainly de- lightful." *' 7M, 10 A.M. — At sea, on board the Ocean Queen^ for New York. Only about a hundred passengers. Great difference between a homeward and outward voyage in that respec^t. " Our ship appears seaworthy. I recognise an improvement in the accommodation since my voyage out, if the other vessels of the line are to be j ndged from :i 34G QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. this one. But can an Englishman ever find liimself at home amongst citizens of the United States?" " 8M, 4 P.M. — I did not think I should so soon have an apt illustration of the foregoing sentiment to enter in my Diary. " News of a desperate row in the forecastle. A smart-looking young Englishman, who was unfor- tunate at the gold-mines, and who joined the ship to work his way home, got into a qujirrel with the boatswain, which has ended in the poor lad having to be put to bed in consequence of a zigzag cut from the right eye down to the neck, and another deep cut eight inches long up his left thigh, just above the knee. I hear the affair was duly reported to the Captain, who talked it over with his friend the chief mate, who laughed it over with his friend the second mate, who slurred it over with his friend the boat- swain. And there it will end, doubtless. "An Englishman deserves to be pitied, indeed, whose necessities oblige him to entrust either life or property to a country where everybody lives so freely that nobody has any rights, except through the in- tervention of a knife or a revolver. *' lAth. — Rounded Sandy Point, in the State of New 1 ON THE WAY TO ENGLAND. 347 himself JS?" so soon mtiment 5tle. A I unfor- sliip to ith the ivhig to it from ^r deep ove the to the le chief second e boat- Jersey, at nine o'clock this morning, after a quick but totally dull voyage of eight days from Aspinwall. Now at my hotel in New York, Broadway." Let it suffice to add that another week found me back at my Canadian head-quarters, in the city of Montreal, and on my way to dear Old England. THE END. indeed, life or ► freely the in- )f New