The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-04-27
Written for the Independent
10! THE POOR INDIAN.
The British Government and the Kin.
s1uit Indians.
INTERESTING COMMENTS ON UNCLE
SANS QUAKER POLICY.

AN ACCOUNT Vi Ile recent summary
proceedings of the English govern
ment in bringing to justice four of
the Kinsquit Indians, for the simple
massacre in cold blood of the ship
wrecked and defenceless crew and
passengers of the Wright, has led us
to moralize a trife.
This tribe once inhabited village
near Bella Bella, on the coast of Brit
ish Columbia.
Undeniable evidence of their guilt
having been obtained, a gun-boat was,
at once, dispatched to that vicinity,
and peremptory demand made for the
surrender of the arch fends, which
was refused. Whereupon, without
one sympathetic word-no kindly
message of regret-without the distri
button Of so much as a refreshing,
spiritually invigorating ''tract," or, a
single volume Of 'Baxter's call to the
Unconverted"-not even All illus
trated copy of the latest 'Patent Of
fee Report" or, any other rare pro-
duction of pious tone, calculated to
cheer q sinner in his dying hour
with no manifest regard for the well
fare of the poor savages-no inquiry,
even, into the matter Of a proper in
surance upon their precious lives and
wigwams-neglecting, l say, all these
eminently wise and tender precau-
tions, a destructive fire was opened
and that doomed village leveled to
the ground.
Of course, this closed the ''Indian
question" in that immediate locality:
of course, the punishment was none
too severe, was richly merited and, all
that: Of course, too, it was the
most speedy and eifectual method Of
dispensing justice under the circum
stances-the only way, in fact, Of Sc
curing to innocent voyagers and set
tiers the inestimable privilege OF
drawing a comparatively easy breath,
yet, after all, wasn't the action
trife too prompt-too energetic, some
how-too-too strong minded? We
are almost led to say inhuman, when
the sublime policy of our own Gov
ernment is viewed in comparison by
the light of past experience! You
will observe no such questionable
alacrity there-no indecent haste
no such jealous regard for the rea-
sonable protection of the life and
property of the enlightened white
man at the expense of the possible
conversion Of the blood thirsty, thiev-
ing red-man. After all, what was
the need of such precipttate action,
even admitting it to have been war
ranted by the surroundings? The
lamented passengers and crew were
all dead-a little becoming delay
couldn't have caused them the slight
est Observation-Disclosures the bru-
tai savages seemed to have recovered,
in a great degree, from the shock of
their own horrid crime, and, there
was far prospect of their getting
on quite comfortably for many years
without a repetition of the ghastly
amusement, if unmolested and, hu-
namely stimulated with whiskey, and
otherwise encouraged.
Surely, there was ample time for
deliberation--to bring the "Quaker
guns" to bear upon the question:
time to search carefully for six or
seven needy Peace Commissioners in
the East, cautiously avoiding all men
OF an independent way of thinking,
who manifested the least evidence OF
force of character or, the slightest
acquaintance with the Indian, except
such as had been gathered from
cursorv pcrusal of Coopcrss Novels