The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-08-08
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By Roger Pocock
Copyright by Bobbs- Merrill Company
THE WHITE MANS COMING

1t Is our plain duty here to take up
the story of Vancouver, an English
merchant seaman from before the
mast, who rose to a captaincy in the
royal navy, and was sent to explore
the British Columbian coast. He was
to find "the Straits of Anian leading
through Meta mcognita to the Allan
tic" the famous Northwest passage
for which so many hundreds of ex-
plorers gave their lives. His careful
Survey proved there was no such
strait.
OF course 1t Is our duty to follow
Vancouyers dull and pompous log
book, and show what savage tribes he
met with in the wilds. But it will be
much more fun to give the other side,
the story of Vancouver's visit as told
by the Indians whose awful fate 1t
was to be discovered" by the white
man with his measles, his liquor and
his smallpox.
In the winter of 18S7-8 was travel
ing on snowshoes down the Skeena
valley from Gaat-a-maksk to Gaet-
wan-gak, which must be railway sta
tions now on the Grand Trunk Pa
cific. My packer was Willie-the-Bear,
SO named because grizzly had eaten
off half his face, the side of his face,
In fact, which had to be covered with
black veil. We were crossing some
low hills when l asked him about the
coming of the white men. Promptly
he told me of the first ship-a Span
lard; the second-Vancouvers and
the third-an American, all in correct
order after a hundred years. Who
told him? His mother. And who told
her? Her mother, of course.
So, living as l was among the In
dams, and seeing no white mans face
for months on end, 1 gathered up the
various memories of the people.
At Massett, on the north coast of
the Queen Charlotte islands, the Hal
das, those nearly white Indians, were
amazed by great bird which came
to rest In 'front.' of the village When
she had folded her wings a lot of lit
tie birds shot out from under her,
which came to the beach and turned
out to be full of men. They were as
fair of color as the Haidas, some even
more so, and some red as the meat
of salmon. The people went out In
their dugOuts to board the bird, which
was a vast canoe. All of them got
presents, but there was one, a person
of no account, who got the finest gift,
better than anything received by the
highest chiefs, a castiron cooking-pot.
In those days the food was put with
water into wooden trough and red.
hot stones thrown In until it boiled.
The people had copper, but that was
worth many times the present price
of gold, not to be wasted on mere
cooking pots. So the man with the
iron pot, in his joy called all the PEG,
pie to a feast, and gave away the
whole of his property, which of course
was the right thing to do. The chiefs
were in rage at his new Importance,
but they came, as did every one else.
And at the feast the man of no account
climbed the tall pole in front of his
house, the totem pole carved with the
arms of his ancestors, passing a rope
over the top by which he hauled up
the iron pot so that 1t might be seen
by the whole tribe. "See," he said,
what the great chief has given me,
the Big Spirit whose people have tails
stiff as a beaver tail behind their
heads, whose canoe Is loaded with
thunder and lightning, the mother of
all canoes, with six young canoes
growing up, whose medicine Is so
strong that one dose makes you sick
for three days, whose warriors are
so brave that one got two black eyes
and did not run away, who have a
little dog which scratches and says
meaou!
"This great chief has given us pres
ents according to our rank, little no
account presents to the common peo-
ple: but when | came he knew / was
his brother, his equal, and to me, to
me alone, he gave this pot which sits
upon the fire and does not burn, this
pot which boils the water, and will
not break ~
But as the man Dragged he kept
twitching the rope, and down fell the
pot, smash on the ground, and broke
all to pieces.
Now as to the first white man who
came up Skeena river:
A very old man of Kitzelash remem-
bered that when he was boy he
stood ON the banks of the canyon and
there came a canoe with white man,
a big chief called Manson, Spaniard,
and black man, all searching for
gold. He remembered that first one
man sang queer song and then they
all took 1t up and sang. laughing to-
gether.
A middle-aged man of Gaet-wan-
gak remembered that In his childhood
a canoe came up the river full of In
dams, and with two white men. No
body had ever seen the like, and they
took the strangers for ghosts, so that
the women ran away and hid. The
ghosts gave them bread, but they spat
it out because 1t was ghost food and
had no taste They offered tea, but
the people spat 1t out, because 1t was