Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/305



LOG OF THE COLUMBIA 293

The Natives made us frequent visits, and brought a good supply of fish and some Sea Otter Skins, and by keeping a small boat down sound, with 4 of our Seamen we procured a constant supply of wild Geese, Ducks and Teal. The Geese and Teal resembled those at home, but the Ducks were exactly of the same Species, with the tame of our Country. 87 We see none of any other kind. Now and then we shot a wild turkey. 66 The Natives appear'd to be highly pleased with the different works going on at the Cove. They sometimes brought us Venison and supplied us with as many boards as we wanted. They was all caeder, and appear'd to have been split with wedges, from the Log.

October 7. An alarm was given by the Centry at the Block house, that there was Canoes in the Cove. Finding they was discover'd they soon went off. 89

13. The frame of the Sloop was up complete, and this day brought the Garboard streak of Plank to her bottom. This is what I call dispatch. Wickananish, high Chief, came on board, with severall of the Royal family. He inform'd that his winter village 90 was a great way off, which occasion'd his visiting us so seldom. He went on shore, and astonishment was conspicu- ous in his countenance at the work going on there. The Natives was very much puzzled to know how we shou'd get the Sloop off when finish'd, as she was 75 foot back from high water mark. Wickananish is the most powerful chief 91 we

87 The mallard which is the parent of our ordinary tame duck.

88 As there were no wild turkeys in that region, Professor Meany has suggested that it may have been a large grouse. Mr. F. Kermode, the Curator of the Provincial Museum of British Columbia, however, thinks that it was a sand- hill crane. He points out that some persons to his knowledge have mistaken it for a wild turkey. Haswell records, under date of ajrd May, 1792, that at Portland Canal he "had the good fortune to shoot a turkey."

89 Haswell gives a totally different version. "But wonderful to tell," he says, "these mighty war equipped savages turned out to be none other than some rocks, which the tide ebbing low had left dry." He adds that he did not chide the sentinels for their error, preferring that they should report the least suspicious

90 Haswell in his first Log says: "Their winter village Oakakinah (is) far up a fresh water river where they have plenty of silmon." Hoskins calls it Okerminnah. It was so far, the Indians told him, from Adventure Cove that it took them the greater part of two days to paddle the distance. It was likely on the Bear River, which flows into Bedwell Sound, and is the village which was attacked by Maquinna while Jewitt was a captive. See Jewitt's Adventures, 168 ft ttq, Edinburgh 1824.

91 The first white person to see Wickananish has fortunately left us a manu- script account of him. She says: "A day or two after sailing from King George's Sound we visited a large sound in latitude 49 -20 north, which Captain Barkley named Wickananish's Sound, the name given it being that of a chief who seemed to be quite as powerful a potentate as Maquilla at King George's Sound. Wick- ananish has great authority and this part of the coast proved a rich harvest of fur for us. This is an extract from Mrs. Barkley's diary which is in th Archive* of British Columbia. This was in 1787.