Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/21



THE INDIAN OF THE NORTHWEST 13

thus each deeming [that] the other insulted, a quarrel ensues. As well in civilized as in savage governments, from small causes, great evils spring." Fraser 81 was cautioned that he should not take any village by surprise, or mischance might follow. Cook 62 describes the natives as quick to resent injury. Indians considered that all products of their country belonged to them; both Quadra 63 and Cook came near finding to their sorrow that all products included even water and grass.

There are but five cases of first contact along the coast (none in the interior) in which fatalities resulted. In 1788 Captain Gray 64 was sailing leisurely along the coast of Oregon, trading and provisioning when the wind was unfavorable for progress northward. Above Cape Lookout, probably at Killamook Bay, Indians in canoes brought out berries and boiled crabs which they furnished without payment, thus saving, according to Haswell, the lives of three or four sailors who were in the last stages of scurvy. Then the captain traded for furs, the natives taking whatever was offered without the slightest complaint. Several boat loads of wood and water were also taken aboard, the natives behaving with greatest propriety, but always armed and showing that they were armed. While waiting for a tide Coolidge and Haswell, officers, went ashore for their health. They took seven men ashore with them to get a load of grass and shrubbery for the livestock aboard. The Indians received them in a most friendly manner, invited them to their homes, and entertained them. One of the haymakers was Captain Gray's negro servant, Marcos, a boy from the Cape Verde Islands. He had stuck his cutlass into the ground. A curious or thiev- ing Indian pulled it out and started off with it. The negro boy, in spite of everything his comrades could say to the con- trary, dropped his load of grass, and screaming, pursued the thief. Other Indians soon surrounded him at the end of his chase. Haswell and Coolidge, out digging clams after their entertainment, heard the outcry, and ordered the chiefs to have

6 1 Journal: p. 160.

62 Voyage: II, 309.

63 Expeditions: p. 390.

64 Haswell: pp. 44-47.