152 Inasmuch 



&quot;There were about six whites, employes of the 

 Hudons Bay Company. Outside the Fort were 

 encamped about a thousand Ouacholls, the most 

 bloodthirsty of all the Indian tribes on the North- 

 West Coast. Plenty of heads and other human 

 remains lay on the beach, one body of a woman 

 fastened to a tree partly in the water and .... 

 eaten away by the fish. A short time before 

 some canoes came in from a war expedition and 

 landed a prisoner, when all the other Indians 

 rushed down in a flock from their houses and ate 

 the poor wretch alive. 



work Near On n ^ s return from his expedition to the North 



Mr. Dowson took up his quarters temporarily 

 in a little dilapidated school-house belonging to 

 the colony, about four miles from Victoria, and 

 made preparations for establishing himself in one 

 of the Indian villages. He tried in vain to find 

 any European who was both able and willing to 

 teach him anything of the native language. As a 

 rule the only means of communication between the 

 Indians and whites was Chinhook a jargon of 

 little use except as a trading language: it con 

 sists nearly altogether of substantives, and has 

 no words to express thoughts except the most 

 material and animal wants. Chinhook acquired, 

 the Missionary began the study of Cowitchin by 

 having a native to live with him. The first he 

 tried, soon went away without notice, and a few 

 days afterwards was glorying in all his original 

 dignity of paint and feathers. A greater 

 discouragement than this was the utter indiffer- 



