RUN ACROSS THE GULF OF GEORGIA. 155 
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chief, it seems, had loved the wife of his predecessor, ~ 
and was willing to pay any ransom for his lost 
darling. After a long ‘wa-wa’ (talk), the captain 
consented to effect a purchase, if possible, and 
bring back, on our return, the lost one to the 
arms of her sable lover. 
We had a pleasant run across the Gulf of 
Georgia, and anchored at 10 p.m. in Billings’ 
Harbour (much like a small duck-pond), im 
Faveda Island. The next morning, again under 
weigh at 6 A.M., raining, as the captain said, 
‘marlinespikes,’ we steamed past a group of 
islands, behind which is Malospina Strait. From 
this strait, Jarvis’s Inlet runs like an immense 
canal for a distance (I believe) of fifty miles 
inland. 
Here the gulf widens out like the open sea, 
and little can be seen of the land until the ex- 
treme south-east point of Valdes Island is reached, 
known as Point Mudge, betwixt which and Van- 
couver Island is a narrow channel, not more 
than a mile in width, called Discovery Passage. 
About a mile from its entrance, we passed a 
large Indian village, the home of the Tah-cul-tas, 
a powerful band, of most predatory habits, and 
generally at war with the different tribes north 
and south of them; they own a large fleet of 
