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.)
[106] This was probably Don Estevan Martinez, who, on the 6th of May
1789, arrived in the corvette _Princesa_, to take possession of the
country for his sovereign. He it was who landed materials and artillery,
and began to erect a fort on a small island at the entrance to Friendly
Cove. He seems to have been a most high-handed kind of Don, for he
seized the British vessels _Iphigenia_, _North-West America_,
_Argonaut_, and _Princess Royal_, then trading under the Portuguese
flag, and acted in so arbitrary a manner to the officers and crew, that
it was easy to believe he was not over scrupulous in his dealings with
the Indians. It was during his stay in Nootka Sound that Callicum, a
relation of Maquina's, and next to him in rank, was barbarously murdered
by an officer on board one of the Spanish ships, and his father refused
permission to dive for the body until he had handed over a number of
skins to the white savage.
[107] Captain James Hanna was the second European to enter Nootka Sound
after Captain Cook had left it. The _Sea Otter_, a vessel under 70 tons,
was fitted out in China, and reached Nootka in August 1785; when
Maquina, presuming upon the inferior size of the craft and the small
number of the crew, made a desperate attack upon her. This was repulsed
by the courage of the ship's company, after which business proceeded on
such friendly terms that he procured five hundred and eighty-five
sea-otter skins in five weeks, which were sold in Canton for 20,600
dollars. It was Hanna who discovered Fitzhugh Sound, Lance Island, Sea
Otter Harbour, and other now well-known spots on the North-West coast of
America. The incident related by Maquina is not to be found in the
records of the expedition which have descended to us. He made another
voyage in 1786, solely for commercial purposes.
[108] _Gaultheria Shallon_ (see p. 137).
[109] These observances are well worth noting in connection with the
others which attach to the bear among nearly all savage races.
[110] These traps are still in common use.
[111] _Quawteaht_, the supreme being of all the tribes speaking the
"Aht" language.
[112] This seems the bracken fern root, which is eaten. But the name
usually applied to it is _Sheetla_.
CHAPTER XI
RETURN TO NOOTKA (FRIENDLY COVE)--DEATH OF MAQUINA'S NEPHEW--INSANITY OF
TOOTOOSCH--AN INDIAN MOUNTEBANK
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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