23$ Mr Scolder's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 



saw any of them a canoe arrived from Squastin and his allies 

 to warn us against the insidious Indians we would soon see. 

 This only convinced us of the inveterate enmity that subsisted 

 between the different tribes, and of course the advice was little 

 regarded, and the plausible story they invented, that these In- 

 dians were preparing to attack the vessel, wasequally unsuccessful. 



20th. — These Indians arrived to day, and we were on friend- 

 ly terms with them, notwithstanding the tales which had been 

 told us to their disadvantage. They belonged to the allied 

 tribes of the Cowitchen and Yucualtah. The name last mention- 

 ed bears a strong affinity to the Indian name of Nootka. The 

 chief Chassia came on board ; he behaved in a very friendly 

 manner, and informed us that he had once seen white men in 

 the interior, and in the canoe of this chief we saw a man deep- 

 ly marked with the small pox, the only Indian we had seen on 

 the north-west coast with marks of this disease. The rarity 

 of such an occurrence proves how fatal this disease must have 

 been among them. This disorder broke out among the 

 tribes in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, and spread in every di- 

 rection among the Indians, depopulating the country in its 

 progress. Even the Indians behind the rocky mountains were 

 not secure from its entrance ; and its ravages were only ar- 

 rested at the shores of the Pacific. The natives of the Colum- 

 bia remember it with terror ; and the name of the disease has 

 been sufficient to deter hostile tribes from plundering the 

 traders. The disease must have been extremely fatal among 

 the Indians ; and it accounts for the depopulated state of the 

 coast, which did not escape the acuteness of Captain Vancouver. 

 He found in several places great quantities of bones, and many 

 canoes containing five or six skeletons, which were no doubt in- 

 terred at that unfortunate period. 



26tn. — While near Point Roberts, I made several excur- 

 sions, and as we were under no apprehension from the Indians, 

 we did not hesitate to venture among them, and to employ 

 one of them in carrying my box, an office which they were eag- 

 er to do, as they always expected some little present to reward 

 their diligence. As our business in the Gulf of Georgia was 

 now completed, we left the Yucualthas and anchored in the 

 afternoon near the village of our old friends the Summus. We 



