288 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



THE INDIANS OF THE WESTERN SHORES OF 

 VANCOUVER ISLANDS 



IN the autumn of i860, two armed vessels sailed slowly up a 

 deep inlet of the sea on the wild western shores of Vancouver 

 Island, and let go their anchors in front of a savage-looking Indian 

 village at the head of it. On board were a young British merchant 

 and fifty determined backwoodsmen, and their object was to 

 take possession of the land, over which the Indians had roamed 

 from days immemorial, for the Colonial Government had, in lieu 

 of certain dollars, rights, and privileges, granted, with scant con- 

 sideration for the aboriginal lords of the soil, all the region in 

 question for timber cutting, fishing, and fur trading, or whatever 

 else in their good discretion this company of merchants should 

 select, with full power over the natives thereof; and had granted 

 unto " our right trusty and well-beloved cousin Gilbert Malcolm 

 Sproat," the honours, dignities, and emoluments of a justice 

 of the peace over many a hundred league, with full liberty 

 to chastise evildoers (if he could), and to convert them from war 

 dances, and the heathen vanities of Quateaht and Clayher, to the 

 more benign doctrines of holy mother church ! It seemed for 

 a while that this gift was of the nature of the Siamese White 

 Elephant, for Kaloewesh, chief of Opichesah, and the Kekean Lord 

 of all the Seshaahts were inconsiderate enough to look upon things 

 in a totally different light, and drew out their shirtless followers in 

 war muster, and prepared to do battle. Guns were run out, and 

 rifles were much thicker than could be wished on all sides, but 

 gradually peace reigned, and with barges of biscuit, tobacco, ver- 

 milion, and fish hooks, the natives drew off, and in this wise the 

 ethnologist who writes the work, title of which we give below, 

 commenced his first acquaintance with the strange people whose 

 history he commemorates. Soon the woodman's axe rang through 

 the primeval forest — a huge saw-mill sent the smoke of its engines 

 up through the frosty wintry air, a little church spire rose amid the 

 gloomy pines, and so commenced the foundation of an embryo 

 " city," which, in memory of the gallant gentleman of Spain who 



* Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. By Gilbert Malcolm Sproat. Smith, 

 Elder, & Co. 1868. 



