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
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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.)
But to appease the king was not all that was necessary. In consequence
of the insult offered to their prince, the whole tribe held a council,
in which it was unanimously resolved that Thompson should be put to
death in the most cruel manner. I however interceded so strenuously with
Maquina for his life, telling him that if my father was killed, I was
determined not to survive him, that he refused to deliver him up to the
vengeance of his people, saying, that for John's sake they must consent
to let him live. The prince, who, after I had succeeded in calming his
father, gave me an account of what had happened, told me that it was
wholly out of regard to me, as Thompson was my father, that his life had
been spared, for that if any one of the tribe should dare to lift a hand
against him in anger, he would most certainly be put to death.
Yet even this narrow escape produced not much effect on Thompson, or
induced him to restrain the violence of his temper. For, not many weeks
after, he was guilty of a similar indiscretion, in striking the eldest
son of a chief, who was about eighteen years old, and, according to
their custom, was considered as a Tyee, or chief, himself, in
consequence of his having provoked him by calling him a white slave.
This affair caused great commotion in the village, and the tribe was
very clamorous for his death, but Maquina would not consent.
I used frequently to remonstrate with him on the imprudence of his
conduct, and beg him to govern his temper better, telling him that it
was our duty, since our lives were in the power of these savages, to do
nothing to exasperate them. But all I could say on this point availed
little, for so bitter was the hate he felt for them, which he was no way
backward in manifesting both by his looks and actions, that he declared
he never would submit to their insults, and that he had much rather be
killed than be obliged to live among them; adding that he only wished he
had a good vessel and some guns, and he would destroy the whole of the
cursed race; for to a brave sailor like him, who had fought the French
and Spaniards with glory, it was a punishment worse than death to be a
slave to such a poor, ignorant, despicable set of beings.
As for myself, I thought very differently. After returning thanks to
that merciful Being who had in so wonderful a manner softened the hearts
of the savages in my favour, I had determined from the first of my
capture to adopt a conciliating conduct towards them, and conform
myself, as far as was in my power, to their customs and mode of
thinking, trusting that the same divine goodness that had rescued me
from death, would not always suffer me to languish in captivity among
these heathens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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