Scenes and studies of savage life

Front matter

**

Y1EW OTLAR SPROATS LAKE

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

CHAPTER II. Right of Savages to the Soil

The Right of Civilized Men to occupy Savage Countries — Duty of Intruders — Plots of the Ahts to attack us — Arrival of H.M. gunboat Grappler — The Indian's notion of an English Bishop, and of the Crews of English Ships of War G

CHAPTER III. Localities

Localities of the Aht Nation — Topographical Features of the District —The large Sounds : the outside Coast : the Mountain Lakes : the Pine-Forests : the Climate — Native Population on the West Coast of Vancouver Island — Several Characteristics of Tribes — Tribal Names originally bestowed by Quawteaht— Subdivision of Tribes ]0 vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. Physical Appearance

PAGE

Physical Appearance of the Natives — Their Stature, Strength, Weight, Complexion — Their Teeth, Hair, Dress, Ornaments — Abbe Domenech's Book — Fish-eating Indians not weak in the Legs — Bathing common ; Skill of the Ahts in Diving — Vapour-Bath unknown — Water colder than in England — Traces of old Spanish Settlement — Painting Paces— Custom of Moulding the Head — Appearance of the Natives in Infancy and Youth — Rapid Decay of Manly Strength — The Paces of the Ahts expressive of Settled Character 21

CHAPTER VIII. Domestic Manners

Winter the time for Feasts— Domestic Manners ; Fondness for Jokes and Gossip— Rarity of Serious Quarrels ; Ignorance of Fisticuffs —Unwillingness to labour— Appetite, Meals, Food and Drinks, Cooking ; Gathering Gammass Roots ; Cutting down Crab-apple Trees in Despair— Hospitality to Friendly Unexpected Visitors —Observance of Formalities in Social Intercourse 50

CONTENTS. vii

CHAPTER IX. Feasts

PAGE

Feasts and Feasting — -Description of a great Whale Feast — After-dinner Oratory : Skill in Public Speaking— Seta-Kanim "on his Legs " — Vocal Peculiarities — Indian's reply to Governor Kennedy — Singing : Blind Minstrel from Klah-oh-quaht ; Translation of one of his Songs — Amusements of Adults and Children — Dances and Plays ; Description of five different Dances 59

CHAPTER X. An Attempt at an Inquest

Depredations of the Indians — An Indian shot with Peas — English Staff: Surgeon — Soft-hearted Yorkshireman — Absurd Verdicts of the Jury 72

CHAPTER XI. Acquisition and Use of Property

Acquisition of Property — Sharpness in Bargaining — Restrictions upon Trade — Land considered as Tribal Property — Description of various kinds of Personal Property : Muskets, Bows and Arrows, Canoes, Hand-adze, Bone Gimlet, Elkhorn Chisel, Stone Hammer, Household Utensils, Mats, Clothing — Method of Making and Managing Canoes — Prevalence of Slavery and Slave-Dealing — Condition and Treatment of Slaves , 78

CHAPTER XII. Condition of Women

Condition of the Aht Women — Unmarried and Married — their Betrothal — Marriage — Divorce — Widowhood — Polygamy — Polyandry 93

CHAPTER XIH.

Escape from the Toquahts.

Respect for Rank — Visit to the Toquahts — Dangerous Encampment —

Indians circumvented 103 viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV. Tribal Ranks

PAGE

Use made of an Accumulation of Personal Chattels— Custom of Distributing Property — Object of such Distribution — Degrees of Tribal Ranks— Position of Hereditary Chiefs ; of Minor Chiefs ; War Chief s, and Military Officers — Rank bestowed on Women Ill

CHAPTER XV. Intellectual Capacity and Language

Intellectual Capacities — Mode of Numeration— Division of Time — Language ; its Imperfect Structure ; Formation of New Words — Remarks on some Peculiarities of the Language — Nitinaht Variations—Cook's List of Words — Little Change in the Language since Cook's Time — The Aht Language probably Allied to the Real Chinook—Tribal Names 119

CHAPTER XVI. A Great Deer Hunt

The Waw-win — a great Deer Hunt 144

CHAPTER XVII. Moral Dispositions

The Savage Character — Vindictiveness — Coldbloodedness — Attack on the Elkwhahts — Murder of a Girl — Human Sacrifice — Custom of the Min-okey-ak — Notions about Stealing — Affection for Children — Habitual Suspicion — Want of Foresight — Absence of Faith — Ingratitude— Sincerity of the Indian's Declarations 150

Usages in Burial.

Usages in Burial — Appearance of the Aht Burying Grounds — Burial

of a Chief 258

CHAPTER XXVI. Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous — Giving Names to Persons — Description of a Feast where a Name was Given — Indians have some Standard of Correct Speech — Aht Names for Different Winds — Few Memorials of an Older Time— Rock Carving on the side of Sproat's Lake — Impcrfectness of Indian Traditions — Pipes — Secret Fraternity among the Tribes on the Coast 264 x CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVII. Effects upon Savages of Intercourse with Civilized Men

PAGE

Effects of Intercourse between Civilized and Uncivilized Races — Real Meaning of Colonization as regards Aborigines — Want of Definiteness in the English Colonial Policy — Moral and Physical Agencies Concerned in Disappearance of Native Races — Decay of Tribes in their Isolated State — Evidence from my own Experience and Observations — Inconsiderateness of Untravelled Writers — Aborigines, as a rule, not Harshly Treated by English Colonists — What are the Diseases and Vices of Civilization ? — Course of Operation of the Destructive Agencies following Intercourse with the Whites 272

CHAPTER XXVIII. Concluding Chapter

Can Nothing be Done to Save the Native People ? — My View of the Case — the Home Government Primarily Responsible — Practical Suggestion as to the Means of Improving Isolated Tribes — Results of Missionary Work hitherto 287

Vocabulary of the Aht Language, with a List of the Numerals 295

Preface

I did not intend, originally, to publish these observations, and have made no attempt, now, at literary ornament in producing them. Any value found in these pages will consist, I think, in their freshness and minuteness of detail, as well as in the more special consideration of social feelings, moral and intellectual characteristics and religious notions — matters which travellers among savages, ordinarily, have not full opportunity to do justice to. My private and official business on the west coast of Vancouver Island gave me an advantageous position for studying the natives themselves, and also the effect upon them of intercourse with civilized intruders. I lived among the people and had a long acquaintanceship with them; I did not merely pass through the country. The information which I give concerning their language, manners, customs, and ways of life, is not from memory, but from memoranda, written with a pencil on the spot — in the hut, in the canoe, or in the deep forest ; and afterwards verified xii PREFACE.

or amended by my own further researches, or from the observations of my friends. Among these, I am especially indebted to the late George Beid, of Alberni, and to the well-known traveller and naturalist, Mr. Eobert Brown, F.B.G.S., whose knowledge of the North- West American Indians is extensive and accurate.

During this singular episode in my early career, I was for five years a colonial magistrate, and also a proprietor of the settlement at Alberni in Nitinaht (or Barclay) Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island — the only civilized settlement on the west coast. The condition of the native tribes on that coast has, hitherto, been quite unknown.

I have stated in the two concluding chapters the opinions which I have formed from my observation and experience of these savages. Some, perhaps, will read these chapters, who have not time to read the whole book.

Mr. F. Whymper has kindly given me the sketch for the frontispiece.

G. M. S.

London, January 1, 1868.

SCENES AND STUDIES

OF

SAVAGE LIFE,

Chapter I. Occupation Of District

Occupation of Alberni — Interview with the Natives — Threatened Hostilities — Progress of the Settlement — Cook, Meares, and Jewitt's Accounts of several of these Indian Tribes.

He took great content, exceeding delight, in that his voyage. — Burton. I pr'ythee now, lead the way without any more talking. — Shakspeare.

In August, I860, I entered Nitinaht, or Barclay Sound, on the outside, or western, coast of Vancouver Island, with the two armed vessels, Woodpecker and Meg Merrilies, manned by about fifty men, who accompanied me for the purpose of taking possession of the district now called Alberni, a name taken from the Spanish navigator who first discovered the inlet at the head of the Sound Reaching the entrance of this inlet, we sailed for twenty miles up to the end of it — as up a natural canal —

S

2 OCCUPATION OF DISTRICT,

three-quarters of a mile wide and very deep, bordered by rocky mountains, which rose high on both sides almost perpendicularly from the water. The view, as we advanced up this inlet from the sea, was shut in behind and before us, making the prospect like that from a mountain lake. At the end of this singular canal, the rocky sides of which appear to have been smoothed by a continued action of moving ice upon their surface, and which itself gives an idea of having been the furrow of a mighty glacier moving downwards towards the sea, the high land on the right receded from the shore, and a large bay or basin, with a river flowing into it through level wooded land, met our view. The range of hills which opened on one side formed an elbow about ten miles distant from the canal, and crossing in a direction almost at right angles to the course of the inlet, met a continuation of the other range, and thus shut in the district known to all the Indians as the famous berry-land of Somass.

Near a pretty point at one side of the bay, where there was a beach shaded by young trees, the summer encampment of a tribe of natives was to be seen. Our arrival caused a stir, and we saw their flambeaux of gumsticks flickering among the trees during the night.

In the morning I sent a boat for the chief, and explained to him that his tribe must move their encampment, as we had bought all the surrounding land from the Queen of England, and wished to occupy the site of the village for a particular purpose. He replied that the land belonged to themselves, but that they were willing to sell it. The price not being excessive, I paid him what was asked — about twenty pounds' worth of goods — for the sake

THREATENED HOSTILITIES. 3

of peace, on condition that the whole people and buildings should be removed next day. But no movement was then made, and as an excuse it was stated that the children were sick. On the day following the encampment was in commotion ; speeches were made, faces blackened, guns and pikes got out, and barricades formed. Outnumbered as we were, ten to one, by men armed with muskets, and our communications with the sea cut off by the impossibility of sailing steadily down the Alberni Canal (the prevalent breeze blowing up it), there was some cause for alarm had the natives been resolute. But being provided, fortunately, in both vessels with cannon — of which the natives at that time were much afraid — they, after a little show of force on our side, saw that resistance would be inexpedient, and began to move from the spot. The way in which these people move their encampments will be described further on. Two or three days afterwards, when the village had been moved to another place, not far distant, I visited the principal house at the new encampment, with a native interpreter.

" Chiefs of the Seshahts," said I on entering, "are you well ; are your women in health ; are your children hearty ; do your people get plenty of fish and fruits ?"

" Yes," answered an old man, "our families are well, our people have plenty of food ; but how long this will last we know not. We see your ships, and hear things that make our hearts grow faint. They say that more King-George-men will soon be here, and will take our land, our firewood, our fishing grounds ; that we shall be placed on a little spot, and shall have to do everything according to the fancies of the King-George-men."

1—2

4 OCCUPATION OF DISTRICT.

" Do you believe all this ? " I asked.

" We want your information/' said the speaker.

" Then," answered I, "it is true that more King- George-men (as they call the English) are coming : they will soon be here ; but your land will be bought at a fair price."

"We do not wish to sell our land nor our water: let your friends stay in their own country."

To which I rejoined : " My great chief, the high chief of the King-George-men, seeing that you do not work your land, orders that you shall sell it. It is of no use to you. The trees you do not need ; - you will fish and hunt as you do now, and collect firewood, planks for your houses, and cedar for your canoes. The white man will give you work, and buy your fish and oil."

" Ah, but we don't care to do as the white men wish."

" Whether or not," said I, " the white men will come. All your people know that they are your superiors ; they make the things which you value. You cannot make muskets, blankets, or bread. The white men will teach your children to read printing, and to be like themselves."

" We do not want the white man. He steals what we have. We wish to live as we are."

These were the first savages that I had ever seen, and they were probably at that time less known than any aboriginal people under British dominion, not excepting even the Anclamaners.

A civilized settlement was now formed almost immediately in their midst, and the natives stared at the buildings, wharves, steam-engines, ploughs, oxen, horses, sheep, and pigs, which they had never seen before.

J E WITT 8 ACCOUNT. 5

Having myself remained amongst them for a considerable time — since the first occupation of Alberni — I am now able to give an account of their condition and customs, in addition to what has been written concerning several of the Aht tribes dwelling more to the north by Cook, Meares, and Jewitt. Cook's account is the best that has been published ; that of Jewitt, though evidently authentic, has probably suffered in the hands of some professed bookmaker.

As evidence to some extent of the authenticity of Jewitt's book, I may here record that an old Indian told the late W. E. Banfield, a well-known trader on the coast, that he had been a youthful servitor in the family of the chief Klan-nin-ittle during the bondage of Jewitt and Thompson, and that he often assisted Jewitt in carrying the bows, arrows, and other weapons which Klan-ninittle used in hostile expeditions. He said further that the white slave generally accompanied his owner on visits of courtesy, which in quiet times he frequently paid to the tribes of Ayhuttisaht, Ahousaht, and Klah-oh-quaht. Jewitt, it seems, was a general favourite, owing to his good-humour and lightheadedness, and he often recited and sang in his own language for the amusement of the savages. He was described as a tall, well-made youth, with a mirthful countenance, whose dress, latterly, consisted of nothing but a mantle of cedar-bark. There was a long story also of Jewitt's courting, and, I think, finally abducting the charming daughter of the Ahousaht chief, Waugh-clagh ; with which, however, I shall not trouble the reader.

Chapter II. Right Of Savages To The Soil

The right of civilized Men to occupy sayage Countries — Duty of Intruders — Plots of the Ahts to attack us — Arrival of H.M. gunboat Grappler — The Indian's notion of an English Bishop, and of the Crews of English Ships of War.

/ say, by sorcery he got this isle, From me he got it. — Tempest.

I spent some months very pleasantly directing the first work at the settlement. The vessels discharged their cargoes, and the carpenters worked on shore preparing timber for the houses and buildings. The first house that was built was made of logs, with split wrood for the roof — rather a plain-looking hut, but nevertheless a comfortable house in all weathers. It was the kind of house that woodmen build with the axe alone. By-and-by, we had more ambitious houses of sawn wood. The place the Indians had moved to was about a mile distant, and our conversation naturally was very much about them. In the evenings we sat round the fire discussing their dispositions and probable intentions, and the Indians did the same about us in their new

THE RIGHT TO OCCUPY SAVAGE COUNTRIES. 7

encampment. We often talked about our right as strangers to take possession of the district. The right of bond fide purchase we had, for I had bought the land from the Government, and had purchased it a second time from the natives. Nevertheless, as the Indians disclaimed all knowledge of the colonial authorities at Victoria, and had sold the country to us, perhaps, under the fear of loaded cannon pointed towards the village, it was evident that we had taken forcible possession of the district. The American woodmen, who chiefly formed my party, discussed the whole question with great clearness. Their opinion generally was that our occupation was justifiable, and could not be sternly disputed even by the most scrupulous moralist. They considered that any right in the soil which these natives had as occupiers was partial and imperfect, as, with the exception of hunting animals in the forests, plucking wild fruits, and cutting a few trees to make canoes and houses, the natives did not, in any civilized sense, occupy the land. It would be unreasonable to suppose, the Americans said, that a body of civilized men, under the sanction of their Government, could not rightfully settle in a country needing their labours, and peopled only by a fringe of savages on the coast. Unless such a right were presumed to exist, there would be little progress in the world by means of colonization, — that wonderful agent, which, directed by laws of its own, has changed and is changing the whole surface of the earth. I could not, however, see how this last-named fact strictly could form the groundwork of a right. My own notion is that the particular circumstances which make the deliberate intrusion of a superior people into another country lawful or

3 RIGHT OF SAVAGES TO THE SOIL.

expedient are connected to some extent with the use which the dispossessed or conquered people have made of the soil, and with their general behaviour as a nation. For instance, we might justify our occupation of Vancouver Island by^ the fact of all the land lying waste without prospect of improvement, and our conquest of a peopled and cultivated country like Oude by some such consideration as this — that the State was delinquent before the world, and by its corruption put the welfare of neighbouring and progressive English territories in danger. It would be necessary in all cases to remember that, though the right of the intruders might be justified by some of these considerations, the intruders would be bound to act always with such justice, humanity, and moderation as should vindicate fully those superior pretensions which were the ground of the right of occupying. Any extreme act, such as a general confiscation of cultivated land, or systematic personal ill-treatment of the dispossessed people, would be quite unjustifiable. Probably, no other circumstance than a continued wanton quarrelling with their fate, after the occupation of the country by a superior race, ought to be held as sufficient cause for depriving savage aboriginal inhabitants of their title to a limited and sufficient property, enjoyable under certain conditions. So much they could claim as our fellow-men, and they would also have other obvious claims on the consideration of a Christian nation. The whole question of the right of any people to intrude upon another, and to dispossess them of their country, is one of those questions to which the answer practically is always the same, though differently given by many as a matter of specu-

NOTIONS OF AN ENGLISH BISHOP. 9

lative opinion. The practical answer is given by the determination of intruders under any circumstances to keep what has been obtained ; and this, without discussion, we,. on the west coast of Vancouver Island, were all prepared to do. It can easily be supposed that we spent many anxious nights in our remote, isolated position at Alberni. It was discovered afterwards that various plans of attacking us were at this time entertained by the natives ; and there, of course, were rumours of plots which never had existence. Happily, however, no disturbance took place, with the exception of a few individual brawls, and we gradually gained the confidence and goodwill of the people. On a rumour spreading that we had been attacked in our encampment, Governor Douglas sent the gunboat Grappler, Commander Helby, to our assistance, which remained at anchor for a short time near the settlement. During the stay of this vessel, several interesting and picturesque interviews took place between two neighbouring tribes and Commander Helby, accompanied by his guest the Bishop of Columbia.* The Aht notion of an English bishop is that he is a great medicine man or sorcerer ; and they regard the sailors in her Majesty's ships as belonging to a separate, distinct tribe of whites. Being themselves all fighters, the Ahts cannot understand why the great King- George tribe should leave all their fighting to a few individuals.

* The latter, I believe, sent home an account of one of these interviews, and it was published in some of the missionary newspapers.

( io )

CHAPTEK III.

LOCALITIES.

Localities of the Aht Nation — Topographical Features of the District— The large Sounds : the outside Coast : the Mountain Lakes : the Pine- Forests : the Climate — Native Population on the West Coast of Vancouver Island— Several Characteristics of Tribes— Tribal Names originally bestowed by Quawteaht— Subdivision of Tribes.

Fain would I here have made abode,

But I was quickened by my hour. — Herbert.

I will now give the reader a short description of the wild country in which we were the first settlers. To many this subject may not be very interesting, but perhaps in a few years it may become desirable to possess a record of the state of this portion of the island in its now condition. Dr. Arnold said he always looked for descriptions of places in books of travel, though he seldom found one that gave him any clear notion of a place. I hope to have avoided this condemnation.

The localities inhabited by the Aht tribes are, chiefly, the three large Sounds on the west coast of Vancouver Island, called Nitinaht (or Barclay), Klah-oh-quaht, and Nootkah, the two former of which are native names borne by tribes at these places. In Nitinaht (or Barclay) Sound, is now

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE DISTRICT. 11

the settlement and port of Alberni, the origin of which I have just described ; Klah-oh-quaht was the scene of the destruction of the ship Tonquin, and massacre of her crew, as related in living's Astoria, an occunence which to this day is spoken of among the tribes ; Nootkah gave its name (whatever that may have come from, for there is now no native name resembling it) to a convention in 1790 between England and Spain. As will be seen in the map, these capacious inlets or sounds throwout arms in various directions inland ; and into these arms, coming from mountain lakes known to a few Indians only, shallow rivers flow, which are diversified by falls and rapids, and deepen here and there when pent up between mountains approaching one another closely. The broad surface of the sounds is studded with rocky islets of various sizes — as in the Skar, on the North-west coast of Europe — covered with scrubby, hemlock, cedar, and pine trees. These trees — the pine predominating — also clothe the rugged sides of the hills that rise from the shore into peaks or serrated ridges, in some places almost perpendicularly, at other places with a gradual ascent.

The scenery visible from these great sheets of water, if not beautiful, is at all times interesting, though in broad daylight, the jagged, fissured, rocky islands, the bare-topped trees dwarfed by the sea-breeze, and the hard outline of the mountain-ranges, appear perhaps rather too distinctly defined to make any near view either pleasing or impressive. I found that perhaps the best time to linger in a canoe on these wide bays was just about the twilight, when the harsh sharp lines of the surrounding scenery were softened, and the shadows of islet and mountain lengthened over the singularly clear water. Among the islands, and on the shore of the Sounds, there is an endless number and variety of passages, creeks, bays, and harbours of all shapes and sizes, which can be discovered only on a near approach. Many of these marine nooks, these unexpected 'quiet retreats on this secluded shore, are deep enough to float the largest ship, and far down through the pellucid water, never moved by storms, gardens of zoophytes are visible at the bottom. Such places, on a summer day, strike the imagination of a loiterer like the creations in a happy dream ; they are so small, calm, and remote — so margined by worn, strange-shaped rocks, and by diminutive trees, chiefly cedar and fir, under whose arched roots streamlets flow murmuring into the sea.

On the ocean coast outside, between the entrances to the great inlets, a different prospect is found : the line of the shore there is broken by low headlands which project from the seaboard, and appear with their shapeless, outlying rocks, not unlike the shattered angles of a fortified work ; between these capes are narrow beaches, backed by a curtain of rock, over which hill upon hill appears, woody and rugged. As the coast lies exposed to the uninterrupted western swell of the North Pacific, the waves are generally large, and even in calm weather they break with a noise on the shore and roar among the caverns. During a storm in winter, those who care for terrible scenes are gratified by the sight of enormous billows rolling in from the ocean and dashing with fury upon the shore. The line of the raging surf on the beach extends before one's eyes for miles to some rocky cape, over which the waves foam, the spray being borne upwards and flung through the air. Wild

THE COAST. 13

black clouds approach the earth, and are hurried along by the blast. There is nowhere any sign of life now ; the Indians crowd together in their houses, and the birds huddle behind the sheltering rocks. Speaking generally, however, navigators, since the publication of the Admiralty charts, do not consider the coast dangerous in average weather ; they find anchorages in the Sounds, and the channels from the ocean are deep — too deep rather — and are free from rocks and rapid currents. The severest gales that I remember occurred in November, but during the whole winter there are heavy storms ; in summer calms and fogs prevail — March and October being considered the foggiest months.*

Of the country along this coast, a short description will suffice. The whole surface, as far inland as I have penetrated, is rocky and mountainous, and is covered with thick pine-forests, without any of the oak-openings that enliven the scenery near Victoria in the southern part of the island. From some of the eminences near Alberni a great expanse of country can be seen on a clear day ; but the view, looking inland, is not varied, consisting for the most part of narrow valleys and steep hills, weathered peaks with bare stony tops ; here and there glimpses of shining lakes or rainpools, and in the distance snow-covered mountains. " The back of the world, brother," with some truth the Gaelic-

* The kelp is one of the most extraordinary marine productions on the coast. It is found in masses which spread over the surface of the sea, and through these great weeds it is difficult for a small vessel to make way unless with a strong breeze. I do not know the greatest length of the stems of this plant, but I have seen it growing in twenty-five fathoms of water, and remember measuring a piece of kelp on the beach near the Ohyaht village, in Nitinaht Sound, that was fifty-five yards in length and an inch and a half in diameter at the thickest part.

woman said in her own expressive words on first seeing this district; " you are bringing me to the back of the world." Owing to the absence of any large tract of level land in the district, and the height of the land near the sea, the rivers are small, shallow, and rapid, and only navigable by canoes for a few miles.

Two days' rain, dissolving a portion of the snow on the hills, or gathering in the innumerable natural reservoirs and channels, will cause a rise of many feet in streams which before were extremely shallow. I know an instance of a fordable river — the Klistachnit at Alberni — which rose twelve feet in less than forty-eight hours. The mountains everywhere approach closely to one another, and form between them deep, thickly-wooded valleys or long narrow lakes. These lakes are a marked feature in Vancouver Island scenery. They have no main feeders, but generally receive their waters from the rain and melted snow, which come down the sides of the steep mountains. In fact they are extensive " tarns," and many of them are the finest and gloomiest of their class. They are most irregular in shape, seldom exceeding a mile or two in width, but extending between mountains for ten or fifteen miles in different directions like the legs on a Manx penny. The whole country — valley and mountain — is covered with pines, which, though rough-looking trees, yet by the deep verdure of their tops, preserve the scenery from the bareness and hardness which, for instance, characterize many of the West of Scotland Lochs. There are lakes, however, in the Aht district which are as deep, dark, and wild, as Loch Corruisken, and solitary beyond conception. I never knew what utter solitude meant till I went among these Vancouver