MASSACRE CHECKED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 133, 18 March 1931, Page 8

MASSACRE CHECKED

SMALL BOY'S COURAGE.

STORY OF LONG AGO. The passing of Mrs John Manson at Royal Oak, Vancouver Island, recently, at the age of 92 years, breaks the last link of the old fur trading days of the 'forties and 'fifties and the foundation of the first British settlement on these shores, whose territories included what is now British Columbia, and the States of Washington and Oregon (says a Vancouver correspondent). It recalls, too, the massacre of the whites by the Indians at Waiilatpu, which was halted by a small boy, John Alanson, in the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mrs Manson was the last survivor of the family of James Murray Yals, Chief Factor of the Company at Fort Langley. . An epidemic of measles among the Indians was blamed Try them on 'the whites, as a design to destroy them, and give their land to the traders and the voyageurs. They massacred their best friend, the Rev. Dr. Whitman, Presbyterian missionary, and slew .his wife, as she went to his assistance, and all the adults in the settlement. The children were huddled in the attic. They were ordered down by the Indians. A N chief climbed the stairs and saw the trapdoor open a little way, the muzzle of a gun protruding. "I am the Hudson's Bay Company; we shall not come down," piped a childish voice. The Indians parleyed for a moment before replying. "If you do not come down, we will burn the* house, and there will be no one left to tell the Hudson's Bay Company." The boy. gaining confidence from tlw Indian's hesitation, showed himself at the door. "You can hide nothing from the Company," he said. "My father is Donald Manson, a great trader. He will avenge my death and the death of these children, until there is no Indian left in New Caledonia." After another parley, the Indians agreed to spare the children. When the boy grew up he married the daughter of Mr Yale, thereby uniting two famous families of pioneers and traders. A salute of seven gum; was fired from the fort. The young couple "overlanded" 800 miles to thennew post at Fort Eraser, where the bridegroom was appointed Factor. Another member of the Manson family, "Michael, no wthe father of the British Columbia Legislature, prevented a massacre by the Indians in the North, when as a last source, after they had plundered his store, seizing iall the guns and ammunition, he produced his life insurance policy. Pointing to the flamboyant red seal at its foot he said: "That is the mark of the Great White Queen, Victoria. If you kill us. she will send thousands of 'red-coats who will destroy all the Indians."