98 WHALING 



it in. The bringing in of this fish exhibited a scene of universal 

 festivity. As soon as the canoes appeared at the mouth of the 

 cove, those on board of them singing a song of triumph to a 

 slow air, to which they kept time with their paddles, all who 

 were on shore, men, women, and children, mounted the roofs 

 of their houses, to congratulate the king on his success, drum- 

 ming most furiously on the planks, and exclaiming Wocash — 

 wocash Tyee. 



"The whale, on being drawn on shore, was immediately cut 

 up, and a great feast of the blubber given at Maquina's house 

 to which all the village were invited, who indemnified themselves 

 for their lent, by eating as usual to excess. I was highly praised 

 for the goodness of my harpoon, and a quantity of blubber given 

 me, which I was permitted to cook as I pleased, this I boiled 

 in salt water with some young nettles and other greens for 

 Thompson and myself, and in this way we found it tolerable 

 food. 



"Their method of procuring the oil, is to skim it from the 

 water in which the blubber is boiled, and when cool, put it up 

 with whole bladders for use, and of these I have seen them so 

 large as, when filled, would require no less than five or six men 

 to carry. Several of the chiefs, among whom were Maquina's 

 brothers, who after the king has caught the first whale, are 

 privileged to take them also, were very desirous, on discovering 

 the superiority of my harpoon, that I should make some for 

 them, but this Maquina would not permit, reserving for himself 

 this improved weapon. He, however, gave me directions to 

 make a number more for himself which I executed, and also 

 made him several lances, with which he was greatly pleased." 



All this, remember, was going on in the wild and remote re- 

 gions of the Northwest Coast when the wars of Napoleon were 

 shaking Europe, when the whalemen of little New England were 

 teetering up and down in fluctuating prosperity, helpless before 

 economic forces to which they bent as best they could, and 

 when our own naval war with Britain was growing every day 

 more certain. 



