TALES OF MASSACRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 January 1933, Page 2

TALES OF MASSACRE

CLASHES WITH INDIANS. Although we have a fairly authentic account of the events of the history of the North-west in which white men took part we have had to depend for knowledge of Indian history on word-of-mouth chronicles handed down from one generation to the next, along this coast where Cook sailed on his voyage of discovery in 1778, and where two centuries earlier, Juan de Fuca navigated the straits bearing his name (writes the Vancouver correspondent of the “Evening Post”). Outstanding in the history of the Coast Indians, perhaps the fiercest denizens of the North American continent, are two tragedies. Each concerns the saga of King Maquinna, the most notorious of the native rulers on the Pacific Coast. Maquinna’s exploits synchronised with the voyages of the English, American, and Spanish navigators, who were making Nootka known to the world. He caused the destruction of the ship Boston and the massacre of her crew in 1803. He had been friendly with the white men until, prior to the Boston’s arrival, white traders raided his villages, laid hands on Indian women, and departed without paying for their furs. In addition, Captain John Satter, of the Boston, had insulted him, and he had left the ship on which he had been dining. From the massacre next day only one, a young man named John Jewett, was spared, as King Maquinna wanted him to marry , into the tribe and live with them. Jewett claimed as his father the ship’s carpenter, who was later found unscathed. After two years of slavery the pair escaped.

STORY OF THE TONQUIN.

Eight years after, the Tonquin, carrying six guns, put into Friendly Cove, having come round the Horn from St. Louis, commanded by a tyrant, Captain Thorn, who had singled out one of his officers, a Mr Lewis as a target for his abuse. A flotilla of war canoes, piled with rich pelts, came from the village, commanded by two chiefs wearing in their hair the white down of peace. Thorn kicked the chief off the ship because they refused his ridiculously low price. Next day they appeared again and traded their furs for knives, which Thorn gave them, against the warning of his interpreter. In the ensuing slaughter Thorn fell after a desperate struggle and was flung into the sea, where squaws in some of the canoes beat him to death with their paddles. Lewis, badly wounded, crawled he low and hid from sight. Next day the braves swarmed over the ship, when suddenly there was a terrific explosion. The interpreter alone escaped, and months after reached the mouth of the Columbia with news that Lewis, true to his traditions nad wreaked a terrible vengeance for the death of his captain. Among these Indian chronicles is the romantic story of a white cap'ain’s jealousy of his chief officer and a beautiful young woman, “with a cloak of hair like the sun.” His offer of mar riage rejected, the captain, in a fit of rage, cast them adrift in a small beat, with scant food and water, hoping to send them to a living death. But wind and tide favoured them, and the Indians welcomed them. The woman became a legend among them. She died 'when her child was born. Many years afterwards an Indian casket, containing the bones of a young woman and an infant, was unearthed anc shown to some white men. About tae bones was wound fine golden hair.