The Adventures of John Jewitt Part 14

When everything belonging to the s.h.i.+p had been restored, Maquina was permitted to return in his canoe, which had been sent for him, with a present of what skins he had collected, which were about sixty, for the captain, in acknowledgment of his having spared his life, and allowed him to depart unhurt.

Such was also the transport he felt when Captain Hill came into the cabin, and told him that he was at liberty to go, that he threw off his mantle, which consisted of four of the very best skins, and gave it to him as a mark of his grat.i.tude; in return for which the captain presented him with a new greatcoat and hat, with which he appeared much delighted. The captain then desired me to inform him that he should return to that part of the coast in November, and that he wished him to keep what skins he should get, which he would buy of him. This Maquina promised, saying to me at the same time, "John, you know I shall be then at Tashees, but when you come, make _pow_," which means, fire a gun, "to let me know, and I will come down." When he came to the side of the brig, he shook me cordially by the hand, and told me that he hoped I would come to see him again in a big s.h.i.+p, and bring much plenty of blankets, biscuit, mola.s.ses, and rum, for him and his son, who loved me a great deal; and that he would keep all the furs he got for me, observing at the same time, that he should never more take a letter of recommendation from any one, or ever trust himself on board a vessel unless I was there. Then, grasping both my hands with much emotion, while the tears trickled down his cheeks, he bade me farewell, and stept into the canoe, which immediately paddled him on sh.o.r.e.

Notwithstanding my joy at my deliverance, and the pleasing antic.i.p.ation I felt of once more beholding a civilised country, and again being permitted to offer up my devotions in a Christian church, I could not avoid experiencing a painful sensation on parting with the savage chief, who had preserved my life, and in general treated me with kindness, and, considering their ideas and manners, much better than could have been expected.

My pleasure was also greatly damped by an unfortunate accident that occurred to Toowinnakinnish. That interesting young chief had come on board in the first canoe in the morning, anxious to see and comfort his king. He was received with much kindness by Captain Hill, from the favourable account I gave of him, and invited to remain on board. As the muskets were delivered, he was in the cabin with Maquina, where was also the captain, who, on receiving them, snapped a number in order to try the locks; unluckily one of them happened to be loaded with swan shot, and, going off, discharged its contents into the body of poor Toowinnakinnish, who was sitting opposite. On hearing the report, I instantly ran into the cabin, where I found him weltering in his blood, with the captain, who was greatly shocked at the accident, endeavouring to a.s.sist him.

We raised him up, and did everything in our power to aid and comfort him, telling him that we felt much grieved at his misfortune, and that it was wholly unintentional; this he told me he was perfectly satisfied of, and while we dressed and bound up his wounds, in the best manner we could, he bore the pain with great calmness, and, bidding me farewell, was put on board one of the canoes and taken on sh.o.r.e, where, after languis.h.i.+ng a few days, he expired. To me his misfortune was a source of much affliction, as he had no share in the ma.s.sacre of our crew, was of a most amiable character, and had always treated me with the greatest kindness and hospitality.

The brig being under weigh, immediately on Maquina's quitting us, we proceeded to the northward, constantly keeping the sh.o.r.e in sight, and touching at various places for the purpose of trading.

Having already exceeded the bounds I had prescribed myself, I shall not attempt any account of our voyage upon the coast, or a description of the various nations we met with in the course of it, among whom were a people of a very singular appearance, called by the sailors the _Wooden-lips_.[138] They have many skins, and the trade is princ.i.p.ally managed by their women, who are not only expert in making a bargain, but as dexterous in the management of their canoes as the men are elsewhere.

After a period of nearly four months from our leaving Nootka, we returned from the northward to Columbia River, for the purpose of procuring masts, etc., for our brig, which had suffered considerably in her spars during a gale of wind. We proceeded about ten miles up the river to a small Indian village, where we heard from the inhabitants that Captains Clark and Lewis, from the United States of America, had been there about a fortnight before, on their journey overland, and had left several medals with them, which they showed us.[139] The river at this place is of considerable breadth, and both sides of it from its entrance covered with forests of the very finest pine timber, fir, and spruce, interspersed with Indian settlements.

From this place, after providing ourselves with spars, we sailed for Nootka, where we arrived in the latter part of November.[140] The tribe being absent, the agreed signal was given, by firing a cannon, and in a few hours after a canoe appeared, which landed at the village, and, putting the king on sh.o.r.e, came off to the brig. Inquiry was immediately made by Kinneclimmets, who was one of the three men in the canoe, if John was there, as the king had some skins to sell them if he was. I then went forward and invited them on board, with which they readily complied, telling me that Maquina had a number of skins with him, but that he would not come on board unless I would go on sh.o.r.e for him. This I agreed to, provided they would remain in the brig in the meantime. To this they consented, and the captain, taking them into the cabin, treated them with bread and mola.s.ses. I then went on sh.o.r.e in the canoe, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Thompson and the captain, who, though he wanted the skins, advised me by no means to put myself in Maquina's power; but I a.s.sured him that I had no fear as long as those men were on board.

As I landed, Maquina came up and welcomed me with much joy: on inquiring for the men, I told him that they were to remain till my return. "Ah, John," said he, "I see you are afraid to trust me, but if they had come with you, I should not have hurt you, though I should have taken good care not to let you go on board of another vessel." He then took his chest of skins, and, stepping into the canoe, I paddled him alongside the brig, where he was received and treated by Captain Hill with the greatest cordiality, who bought of him his skins. He left us much pleased with his reception, inquiring of me how many moons it would be before I should come back again to see him and his son; saying that he would keep all his furs for me, and that as soon as my son, who was then about five months old, was of a suitable age to take from his mother, he would send for him, and take care of him as his own.[141]

As soon as Maquina had quitted us, we got under weigh, and stood again to the northward. We continued on the coast until the 11th of August, 1806,[142] when, having completed our trade, we sailed for China, to the great joy of all our crew, and particularly so to me. With a degree of satisfaction that I can ill express, did I quit a coast to which I was resolved nothing should again tempt me to return, and as the tops of the mountains sank in the blue waves of the ocean, I seemed to feel my heart lightened of an oppressive load.

We had a prosperous pa.s.sage to China, arriving at Macao in December, from whence the brig proceeded to Canton. There I had the good fortune to meet a townsman and an old acquaintance in the mate of an English East Indiaman, named John Hill, whose father, a wealthy merchant in Hull in the Baltic trade, was a next-door neighbour to mine. Shortly after our arrival, the captain being on board of an English s.h.i.+p, and mentioning his having had the good fortune to liberate two men of the _Boston's_ crew from the savages, and that one of them was named Jewitt, my former acquaintance immediately came on board the brig to see me.

Words can ill express my feelings on seeing him. Circ.u.mstanced as I was, among persons who were entire strangers to me, to meet thus in a foreign land with one between whom and myself a considerable intimacy had subsisted, was a pleasure that those alone who have been in a similar situation can properly estimate. He appeared on his part no less happy to see me, whom he supposed to be dead, as the account of our capture had been received in England some time before his sailing, and all my friends supposed me to have been murdered. From this young man I received every attention and aid that a feeling heart interested in the fate of another could confer. He supplied me with a new suit of clothes and a hat, a small sum of money for my necessary expenses, and a number of little articles for sea stores on my voyage to America. I also gave him a letter for my father, in which I mentioned my wonderful preservation and escape through the humanity of Captain Hill, with whom I should return to Boston. This letter he enclosed to his father by a s.h.i.+p that was just sailing, in consequence of which it was received much earlier than it otherwise would have been.

We left China in February 1807, and, after a pleasant voyage of one hundred and fourteen days, arrived at Boston. My feelings on once more finding myself in a Christian country, among a people speaking the same language with myself, may be more readily conceived than expressed. In the post office in that place I found a letter for me from my mother, acknowledging the receipt of mine from China, expressing the great joy of my family on hearing of my being alive and well, whom they had for a long time given up for dead, and requesting me to write to them on receiving her letter, which I accordingly did. While in Boston I was treated with much kindness and hospitality by the owners of the s.h.i.+p _Boston_, Messrs. Francis and Thomas Amory of that place, to whom I feel myself under great obligations for their goodness to me, and the a.s.sistance which they so readily afforded a stranger in distress.

FOOTNOTES:

[137] This seems another variant of Klaosaht.

[138] These are doubtless the Hydahs and their kindred, the women of whom insert a wooden or ivory trough in their lower lip.

[139] Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of Columbia River on the 15th of November 1805, and wintered at "Fort Clatsop," as they called their dwelling among the then numerous Clatsop Indians, until the 23rd of March 1806, when they began the return journey. The Indians have long ago vanished from the lower Columbia, the remnant of the Clatsops, and the Chinooks on the opposite side, now wearing out the tribal existence in inland Reservations. But it is still possible to come across one of the medals which the explorers distributed amongst them.

[140] It is clear, therefore, from this statement that Lewis and Clark had left Fort Clatsop much more than a fortnight before the vessel in which Jewitt was arrived there; for it is impossible to suppose that the latter took from April to November to get at spars and make the return voyage to Nootka. But the journal of Lewis and Clark was not published until 1814, so that, when Jewitt wrote, he had no ready means of checking the Indians' statement, though neither he nor his editor seems to have troubled books much.

[141] The cavalier manner in which Jewitt abandons his family is quite in the fur-trader's fas.h.i.+on. It does not seem that he even asked to see his Indian "princess!"

[142] If Jewitt's information about the departure of Lewis and Clark from the Columbia River is even approximately accurate, the date must be wrong by a year, and the subsequent one quite as far out of the due reckoning. 1806 may be a misprint for 1807.

APPENDIX

I. THE "BOSTON'S" CREW

Names of the Crew of the s.h.i.+p _Boston_, belonging to Boston in Ma.s.sachusetts, owned by Messrs. F. and T. Amory, Merchants of that place--All of whom, excepting two, were on the 22nd of March, 1803, barbarously murdered by the savages of Nootka.

John Salter, of Boston, Captain.

B. Delouisa, Ditto, Chief Mate.

William Ingraham, of New York, Second Mate.

Edward Thompson, of Blyth (England), Boatswain.

Adam Siddle, of Hull, ditto, Carpenter.

Philip Brown, of Cambridge (Ma.s.s.), Joiner.

John Dorthy, of Situate, ditto, Blacksmith.

Abraham Waters, of Philadelphia, Steward.

Francis Duffield, of Penton (England), Tailor.

John Wilson (blackman), of Virginia, Cook.

William Caldwell, of Boston, Seaman.

Joseph Miner, of Newport, Ditto.

William Robinson, of Leigh[143] (Scotland), Ditto.

Thomas Wilson, of Air,[144] ditto, Ditto.

Andrew Kelly, Ditto, ditto, Ditto.

Robert Burton, of the Isle of Man, Ditto.

James M'Clay, of Dublin, Ditto.

Thomas Platten, of Blackney, Norfolk, Eng. Ditto.

Thomas Newton, of Hull, " Ditto.

Charles Bates, of St. James Deeping, " Ditto.

John Hall, of Newcastle, " Ditto.

Samuel Wood, of Glasgow (Scotland), Ditto.

Peter Alstrom, Norwegian, Ditto.

Francis Marten, Portuguese, Ditto.

Jupiter Senegal (blackman) Ditto.

John Thompson, Philadelphia, Sail Maker, who escaped--since dead.

John R. Jewitt, of Hull (England), Armourer,

the writer of the Journal from whence this Narrative is taken, and who at present, March 1815, resides in Middletown, in the State of Connecticut.

FOOTNOTES:

[143] Leith.

[144] Ayr.

II. WAR-SONG OF THE NOOTKA TRIBE

_Commencing with a Chorus repeated at the end of each line._

Hah-yee hah yar har, he yar hah.

Hah-yah hee yar har--he yar hah.