The Adventures of John Jewitt: Only Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston During a Captivity of Nearly Three Years Among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver IslandJewitt, John Rodgers
History
The Adventures of John Jewitt: Only Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston During a Captivity of Nearly Three Years Among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island
Jewitt, John Rodgers
Indian captivities; Nootka Indians; Nootka Sound (B.C.)
The You-clul-ahts of Ucluelt Inlet, ruled by Ia-pou-noul, a wealthy man
in blankets and other Indian wealth, numbered about one hundred. The
chief of the Toquahts in Pipestem Inlet was Sow-wa-wenes, a middle-aged
man, who had an easy task, as his lieges numbered only eleven, so that
they were thirty years ago on the eve of extinction. The Ohyahts of
Grappler Creek were estimated in 1863 to be about one hundred and
seventy-five in fighting strength--which, multiplied by four for women
and children, would make them, for that region, an unusually strong
community. These figures are probably correct, since the man who made
the statement was, after living for years amongst them, eventually
murdered by the savages,[21] whom he had trusted too implicitly.
Kleesheens, a notorious scoundrel, was their chief. In Clayoquat Sound
were the Klahoquahts, Kellsmahts, Ahousahts, Heshquahts, and
Mamosahts--the last a little tribe numbering only five men. Indeed, with
the exception of the Klahoquahts (who numbered one hundred and sixty
men) and the Ahousahts (who claimed two hundred and fifty), these little
septs, all devoured by mutual hatred, and frequently at war with each
other, were even then dwindling to nothingness. But the Opetsahts,
though marked on the Admiralty Chart[22] as a separate tribe, are--or
were--only a village of the Ahousahts.
In Nootka Sound, the Muchlahts and Mooachahts lived. In Esperanza
Inlet were the villages of two tribes--the Noochahlahts and Ayattisahts,
numbering forty and twenty-two men respectively, and chiefed at that
time by two worthies of the names of Mala-koi-Kennis, and
Quak-ate-Komisa, whom we left in the delectable condition of each
expecting the other round to cut his and his tribesmen's throats.
North of this inlet were Ky-yoh-quahts, of the Sound of that name
(Kaioquat), numbering two hundred and fifty men. To us they were
exceedingly friendly, though a trader whom we met had a different tale
to tell of their treatment of him. Kanemat, a young man of about
twenty-two, was their chief, though the tribe was virtually governed by
his mother, a notable lady named Shipally, and at times by his pretty
squaw, Wick-anes, and his lively son and heir, Klahe-ek-enes. The
Chaykisahts, the Klahosahts, and the Neshahts of Woody Point are the
other Aht tribes, though the latter is not included among them by Mr.
Sproat. But they speak their language, of which their chief village is
its most northern limit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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