RETURN TO NOOTKA (FRIENDLY COVE)—DEATH OF MAQUINA'S NEPHEW—INSANITY OF TOOTOOSCH—AN INDIAN MOUNTEBANK

About the beginning of February, Maquina gave a great feast, at which were present not only all the inhabitants, but one hundred persons from Ai-tiz-zart, and a number from Wickinninish who had been invited to attend it. It is customary with them to give an annual entertainment of this kind, and it is astonishing to see what a quantity of provision is expended, or rather wasted, on such an occasion, when they always eat to the greatest excess. It was at this feast that I saw upwards of an hundred salmon cooked in one tub. The whole residence at Cooptee presents an almost uninterrupted succession of feasting and gormandising, and it would seem as if the principal object of these people was to consume their whole stock of provision before leaving it, trusting entirely to their success in fishing and whaling, for a supply at Nootka.

On the 25th of February we quitted Cooptee, and returned to Nootka. With much joy did Thompson and myself again find ourselves in a place where, notwithstanding the melancholy recollections which it excited, we hoped before long to see some vessel arrive to our relief, and for this we became the more solicitous, as of late we had become much more apprehensive of our safety, in consequence of information brought Maquina a few days before we left Cooptee, by some of the Cayuquets, that there were twenty ships at the northward, preparing to come against him, with an intent of destroying him and his whole tribe, for cutting off the Boston.

This story, which was wholly without foundation, and discovered afterwards to have been invented by these people, for the purpose of disquieting him, threw him into great alarm, and, notwithstanding all I could say to convince him that it was an unfounded report, so great was his jealousy of us, especially after it had been confirmed to him by some others of the same nation, that he treated us with much harshness, and kept a very suspicious eye upon us.

Nothing, indeed, could be more unpleasant than our present situation, when I reflected that our lives were altogether dependent on the will of a savage, on whose caprice and suspicions no rational calculation could be made.

Not long after our return, a son of Maquina's sister, a boy of eleven years old, who had been for some time declining, died. Immediately on his death, which was about midnight, all the men and women in the house set up loud cries and shrieks, which, awakening Thompson and myself, so disturbed us that we left the house. This lamentation was kept up during the remainder of the night. In the morning, a great fire was kindled, in which Maquina burned, in honour of the deceased, ten fathoms of cloth, and buried with him ten fathoms more, eight of Ife-whaw, four prime sea-otter skins, and two small trunks, containing our unfortunate captain's clothes and watch.

This boy was considered as a Tyee, or chief, being the only son of Tootoosch, one of their principal chiefs, who had married Maquina's sister, whence arose this ceremony on his interment: it being an established custom with these people, that whenever a chief dies, his most valuable property is burned or buried with him; it is, however, wholly confined to the chiefs, and appears to be a mark of honour appropriate to them.[113] In this instance, Maquina furnished the articles, in order that his nephew might have the proper honours rendered him.

Tootoosch, his father, was esteemed the first warrior of the tribe, and was one who had been particularly active in the destruction of our ship, having killed two of our poor comrades, who were ashore, whose names were Hall and Wood. About the time of our removal to Tashees, while in the enjoyment of the highest health, he was suddenly seized with a fit of delirium, in which he fancied that he saw the ghosts of those two men constantly standing by him, and threatening him, so that he would take no food, except what was forced into his mouth.

A short time before this he had lost a daughter of about fifteen years of age, which afflicted him greatly, and whether his insanity, a disorder very uncommon amongst these savages, no instance of the kind having occurred within the memory of the oldest man amongst them, proceeded from this cause, or that it was the special interposition of an all-merciful God in our favour, who by this means thought proper to induce these barbarians still further to respect our lives, or that, for hidden purposes, the Supreme Disposer of events sometimes permits the spirits of the dead to revisit the world, and haunt the murderer, I know not, but his mind, from this period until his death, which took place but a few weeks after that of his son, was incessantly occupied with the images of the men whom he had killed.

This circumstance made much impression upon the tribe, particularly the chiefs, whose uniform opposition to putting us to death, at the various councils that were held on our account, I could not but in part attribute to this cause; and Maquina used frequently, in speaking of Tootoosch's sickness, to express much satisfaction that his hands had not been stained with the blood of any of our men.

When Maquina was first informed by his sister of the strange conduct of her husband, he immediately went to his house, taking us with him; suspecting that his disease had been caused by us, and that the ghosts of our countrymen had been called thither by us, to torment him. We found him raving about Hall and Wood, saying that they were peshak, that is, bad.

Maquina then placed some provision before him, to see if he would eat. On perceiving it, he put forth his hand to take some, but instantly withdrew it with signs of horror, saying that Hall and Wood were there, and would not let him eat. Maquina then, pointing to us, asked if it was not John and Thompson who troubled him.

"Wik,"[114] he replied,—that is, no; "John klushish—Thompson klushish"—John and Thompson are both good; then, turning to me, and patting me on the shoulder, he made signs to me to eat. I tried to persuade him that Hall and Wood were not there, and that none were near him but ourselves; he said, "I know very well you do not see them, but I do."

At first Maquina endeavoured to convince him that he saw nothing, and to laugh him out of his belief, but, finding that all was to no purpose, he at length became serious, and asked me if I had ever seen anyone affected in this manner, and what was the matter with him. I gave him to understand, pointing to his head, that his brain was injured, and that he did not see things as formerly.

Being convinced by Tootoosch's conduct that we had no agency in his indisposition, on our return home Maquina asked me what was done in my country in similar cases.

I told him that such persons were closely confined, and sometimes tied up and whipped, in order to make them better.[115]

After pondering for some time, he said that he should be glad to do anything to relieve him, and that he should be whipped, and immediately gave orders to some of his men to go to Tootoosch's house, bind him, and bring him to his, in order to undergo the operation.

Thompson was the person selected to administer this remedy, which he undertook very readily, and for that purpose provided himself with a good number of spruce branches, with which he whipped him most severely, laying it on with the best will imaginable, while Tootoosch displayed the greatest rage, kicking, spitting, and attempting to bite all who came near him. This was too much for Maquina, who at length, unable to endure it longer, ordered Thompson to desist and Tootoosch to be carried back, saying that if there was no other way of curing him but by whipping, he must remain mad.

The application of the whip produced no beneficial effect on Tootoosch, for he afterwards became still more deranged; in his fits of fury sometimes seizing a club and beating his slaves in a most dreadful manner, and striking and spitting at all who came near him, till at length his wife, no longer daring to remain in the house with him, came with her son to Maquina's.

The whaling season now commenced, and Maquina was out almost every day in his canoe in pursuit of them, but for a considerable time with no success, one day breaking the staff of his harpoon, another after having been a long time fast to a whale, the weapon drawing, owing to the breaking of the shell which formed its point, with several such like accidents, arising from the imperfection of the instrument.

At these times he always returned very morose and out of temper, upbraiding his men with having violated their obligation to continence preparatory to whaling. In this state of ill-humour he would give us very little to eat, which, added to the women not cooking when the men are away, reduced us to a very low fare.

In consequence of the repeated occurrence of similar accidents, I proposed to Maquina to make him a harpoon or foreganger of steel, which would be less liable to fail him. The idea pleased him, and in a short time I completed one for him, with which he was much delighted, and the very next day went out to make a trial of it.

He succeeded with it in taking a whale. Great was the joy throughout the village as soon as it was known that the king had secured the whale, by notice from a person stationed at the headland in the offing. All the canoes were immediately launched, and, furnished with harpoons and sealskin floats, hastened to assist in buoying it up and towing it in.

The bringing in of this fish exhibited a scene of universal festivity. As soon as the canoes appeared at the mouth of the Cove, those on board of them singing a triumph to a slow air, to which they kept time with their paddles, all who were on shore, men, women, and children, mounted the roofs of their houses to congratulate the king on his success, drumming most furiously on the planks, and exclaiming Wocash—wocash, Tyee!

The whale, on being drawn on shore, was immediately cut up, and a great feast of the blubber given at Maquina's house, to which all the village were invited, who indemnified themselves for their Lent by eating as usual to excess. I was highly praised for the goodness of my harpoon, and a quantity of blubber given me, which I was permitted to cook as I pleased; this I boiled in salt water with some young nettles and other greens for Thompson and myself, and in this way we found it tolerable food.

Their method of procuring the oil, is to skim it from the water in which the blubber is boiled, and when cool, put it up into whale bladders for use; and of these I have seen them so large as, when filled, would require no less than five or six men to carry. Several of the chiefs, among whom were Maquina's brothers, who, after the king has caught the first whale, are privileged to take them also, were very desirous, on discovering the superiority of my harpoon, that I should make some for them, but this Maquina would not permit, reserving for himself this improved weapon. He, however, gave me directions to make a number more for himself, which I executed, and also made him several lances, with which he was greatly pleased.

As these people have some very singular observances preparatory to whaling, an account of them will, I presume, not prove uninteresting, especially as it may serve to give a better idea of their manners. A short time before leaving Tashees, the king makes a point of passing a day alone on the mountain, whither he goes very privately early in the morning, and does not return till late in the evening.[116] This is done, as I afterwards learned, for the purpose of singing and praying to his God for success in whaling the ensuing season. At Cooptee the same ceremony is performed, and at Nootka after the return thither, with still greater solemnity, as for the next two days he appears very thoughtful and gloomy, scarcely speaking to any one, and observes a most rigid fast. On these occasions he has always a broad red fillet made of bark bound around his head, in token of humiliation, with a large branch of green spruce on the top, and his great rattle in his hand.

In addition to this, for a week before commencing their whaling, both himself and the crew of his canoe observe a fast, eating but very little, and going into the water several times in the course of each day to bathe, singing and rubbing their bodies, limbs, and faces with shells and bushes, so that on their return I have seen them look as though they had been severely torn with briers. They are likewise obliged to abstain from any commerce with their women for the like period, the latter restriction being considered as indispensable to their success.

Early in June, Tootoosch,[117] the crazy chief, died. On being acquainted with his death, the whole village, men, women, and children, set up a loud cry, with every testimony of the greatest grief, which they continued for more than three hours. As soon as he was dead, the body, according to their custom, was laid out on a plank, having the head bound round with a red bark fillet, which is with them an emblem of mourning and sorrow. After lying some time in this manner, he was wrapped in an otter-skin robe, and, three fathoms of Ife-whaw being put about his neck, he was placed in a large coffin or box of about three feet deep, which was ornamented on the outside with two rows of the small white shells. In this, the most valuable articles of his property were placed with him, among which were no less than twenty-four prime sea-otter skins.

At night, which is their time for interring the dead, the coffin was borne by eight men with two poles thrust through ropes passed around it, to the place of burial, accompanied by his wife and family, with their hair cut short in token of grief, all the inhabitants joining the procession.

The place of burial was a large cavern on the side of a hill at a little distance from the village, in which, after depositing the coffin carefully, all the attendants repaired to Maquina's house, where a number of articles belonging to the deceased, consisting of blankets, pieces of cloth, etc., were burned by a person appointed by Maquina for that purpose, dressed and painted in the highest style, with his head covered with white down, who, as he put in the several pieces one by one, poured upon them a quantity of oil to increase the flame, in the intervals between making a speech and playing off a variety of buffoon tricks, and the whole closed with a feast, and a dance from Sat-sat-sok-sis, the king's son.

The man who performed the ceremony of burning on this occasion was a very singular character named Kinneclimmets. He was held in high estimation by the king, though only of the common class, probably from his talent for mimicry and buffoonery, and might be considered as a kind of king's jester, or rather, as combining in his person the character of a buffoon with that of master of ceremonies and public orator to his majesty, as he was the one who at feasts always regulated the places of the guests, delivered speeches on receiving or returning visits, besides amusing the company at all their entertainments, with a variety of monkey pranks and antic gestures, which appeared to these savages the height of wit and humour, but would be considered as extremely low by the least polished people.

Almost all the kings or head chiefs of the principal tribes were accompanied by a similar character, who appeared to be attached to their dignity, and are called in their language Climmer-habbee.

This man Kinneclimmets was particularly odious to Thompson, who would never join in the laugh at his tricks, but when he began, would almost always quit the house with a very surly look, and an exclamation of "Cursed fool!" which Maquina, who thought nothing could equal the cleverness of his Climmer-habbee, used to remark with much dissatisfaction, asking me why Thompson never laughed, observing that I must have had a very good-tempered woman indeed for my mother, as my father was so very ill-natured a man.

Among those performances that gained him the greatest applause was his talent of eating to excess, for I have known him devour at one meal no less than seventy-five large herrings; and at another time, when a great feast was given by Maquina, he undertook, after drinking three pints of oil by way of a whet, to eat four dried salmon, and five quarts of spawn, mixed up with a gallon of train-oil, and actually succeeded in swallowing the greater part of this mess, until his stomach became so overloaded as to discharge its contents in the dish. One of his exhibitions, however, had nearly cost him his life; this was on the occasion of Kla-quak-ee-na, one of the chiefs, having bought him a new wife, in celebration of which he ran three times through a large fire, and burned himself in such a manner that he was not able to stir for more than four weeks. These feats of savage skill were much praised by Maquina, who never failed to make him presents of cloth, muskets, etc., on such occasions.

The death of Tootoosch increased still more the disquietude which his delirium had excited among the savages, and all those chiefs who had killed our men became much alarmed lest they should be seized with the same disorder and die like him; more particularly, as I had told Maquina that I believed his insanity was a punishment inflicted on him by Quahootze, for his cruelty in murdering two innocent men who had never injured him.

[113] When an Indian dies, all of his property which has not been given away, is either buried with him, or, in extreme cases, burned, not for the purpose of accompanying him to the Spirit Land, but, so the people have told me, to prevent any temptation to indulge in the bad luck of mentioning his name. The only things that are exempted from this practice are the dead man's best canoes, his house-planks, and fishing and hunting implements, which, with any slaves he may possess, go to his eldest son. I have known the deceased's house and all its contents to be burned; but when this is not the case, then the materials are removed elsewhere, and another building is erected. Around his grave—a box raised from the ground on pillars, often quaintly carved, or a canoe, or a box fixed up a tree—are placed various articles belonging to him (or her). At one time they buried his money with him. But for obvious reasons this custom has fallen into abeyance.