The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-17

ON PACIFIC
The Historic Wild West
Coast Of Vancouver
Island.

Thirty-six hours ride by rail and
steamer from this city will land a
Portlander in the heart of the widest
| the Mississippi River, says the Port
land Oregonian. The west coast OF
Vancouver Island is this untamed spot,
| where time has stood still tor more
than one hundred years and where,
owing to the topography of the coun-
| try, there will be little or no advance
ment in the ensuing hundred years
Vancouver. Quadra, Gray and Captain
Cook all sailed along this coast and
visited the numerous little harbors
that make indentations in the forbid
| ding shore line. They warped and
towed their comparatively small craft
around numerous islands and up cam
ais and inlets reaching far into the
interior of the island and in their wake
came the fleets of the traders who
bought fish and fur from the Indians.
Those were the two great staples OF
more than one hundred years ago and
they are still in the lead, in fact are
the only resources on which the de-
generate remnants of the once power
full tribe depend for a livelihood
White men are scarce along the west
coast, about the only representatives
being the storekeepers at the Indian
villages. To supply the wants of these
few white traders and to carry the
mail, the Canadian Pacific dispatches
a small steamer every seven days. For
the past year the Queen City, Capt
Townsend, has been covering the route,
and a round trip voyage on this craft
is one of the most interesting trips that
can be made in the same length Of
time anywhere in the West. More
than half of the voyage is spent in
cruising well inland on bays and in
let's that run back from Barclay, Ky
oquot, Nootka, Clayoquot, Quatsino
and other sounds which lead out to
the open sea. The steamer usually
makes her first stop out of Victoria at
San Juan and then at Carmanah Point
and Cape Beale.
The most important landing place in
Barclay Sound is the new cable station
at Bamffeld Creek. This is where the
Australian cable leaves the shores of
North America, and there are about
twenty men employed here, some OF
them being fortunate enough to have
their wives with them. After leaving
Banlf1eld Creek, the Queen City steams
up the Alberni Canal far inland to the
old town of Alberni, where the ships
from England loaded timber fifty
years ago. The ruins of the old mill
are still in evidence, but it has been
many day since a deep water lum-
Der carrier sailed up this beautiful in
let. The west coast of Vancouver Is
land is rich in historic lore, and there
is much tragedy mixed with the his
tory. In Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound.
the Northwest America, the first ves-
sci built on the Pacific Coast, was
launched by Capt. Meares in Septem-
Der, 1855. the American ship Columbia,
Capt. cray, being in the harbor at
the time of the launching. Fifteen
years later, in the same cove, almost
the entire crew of the American ship
Boston was massacred by the In
dams.
AT ClayoQuot Sound the red devils
murdered almost the entire crew of the
Tonquin, which had gone north from
Astoria to trade. Then there were
tragedies of the sea almost without
number, and in the early days the sur
vivors Of ships wrecked on the west
coast frequently met death on shore
worse than drowning.
And over all this forbidding coast
there rests glamor of historic in
terest that will never be dispelIed. The
names of Gray, Vancouver, Meares,
Quadra, Cook and a number of others
will be remembered until the end OF
time, and it was from the bleak west
coast that they set forth to explore
what is now known as Oregon, Wash |
ington and British Columbia. The |
names which these leaders of civiliza- !
ton in a new world gave to our rivers, |
bays, sounds and mountains (Rainier /
excepted are still in use and always !
will be. For this reason alone the ,
west coast. will always remain a local /
lty of absorbing interest to both Cana |
dams and Americans in the Pacific |
Northwest.
The graveyard of the North Pacific"
IS the sombre but expressive name that
was bestowed on the west coast OF
Vancouver Island so many years ago
that the identity of the man who nam
ed it has been lost. Time has not
changed the significance of that name, |
md the harvest of death and destruc-
ion Of property still goes on Big square
iggers. schooners, barkentines, steam
ers and even men of war have ali
ound a common grave on the shores OF
his wild stretch of coast line. A few
Il these wrecks were of sealing schoon-
,rs which We're driven ashore in