168 THE SEA. 



hailed from Boston. This lingo has no grammar, and a very few hundred words satisfies 

 all its requirements. Young ladies, daughters of Hudson's Bay Company's employes 

 in Victoria, rattle it off as though it were their mother-tongue. " Ikte mika tikkee ? " 

 (" What do you want ? ") is probably the first query to an Indian who arrives, and has 

 something to sell. " Nika tikkee tabac et la biscuit " (" I want some tobacco and biscuit "} . 

 " Cleush ; mika potlatch salmon ? " (" Good ; will you give me a salmon ? ") . " Na- 

 witka, Se-am " (" Yes, sir ") ; and for a small piece of black cake-tobacco and two or three 

 biscuits (sailors' " hard bread " or " hard tack ") he will exchange a thirty-pound or so 

 salmon. 



The Chinook jargon, in skilful hands, is susceptible of much. But it is not adapted 

 for sentiment or poetry, although a naval officer, once stationed on the Pacific eide, did 

 evolve an effusion, which the sailor is almost sure to hear there. It needed, however, a fair 

 amount of English to make it read pleasantly. Old residents and visitors will recognise 

 some of its stanzas : 



"Oh! be not quass of nika; 

 Thy seahoose turn on me; 

 For thou must but hyas cunitux, 

 That I hyas tikkee thee! 

 Nika potlatch hyu ictas ; 

 Nika makook sappalell 

 Of persicees and la biscuit, 

 I will give thee all thy fill ! " 



which, addressed to a " sweet Klootchman/' a " forest maiden/' means, that loving her so 

 much, all that he had was hers. Much greater absurdities have been put in plain English. 



A bishop of British Columbia was, however, hardly so successful; not being himself 

 a student of Chinook, the entire vocabulary of which would have taken him rather less time 

 to learn than the barest elements of Latin, he engaged an interpreter, through whom to 

 address the Indians. The latter was perfectly competent to say all that can be said in 

 Chinook, but was rather nonplussed when his lordship commenced his address by " Children 

 of the forest ! " He scratched his head and looked at the bishop, who, however, was 

 determined, and commenced once more, " Children of the forest ! " The interpreter knew 

 that it must make nonsense, but he was cornered, and had to do it. And this is what he 

 said : " Tenass man copa stick ! " literally, " Little men among the stumps " (or trunks 

 of trees). The writer will not comment upon the subject here, more than to say that 

 Chinook is not adapted for the translation of Milton or Shakespeare; while the simplest 

 story or parable of the Scriptures must be unintelligible, or worse, when attempted in that 

 jargon. 



The only other settlement on Vancouver Island which has any direct interest to the 

 Royal Navy, is Nanaimo, the coal-mines of which yield a large amount of the fuel used 

 by the steamships when in that neighbourhood and about all that is used on the island ; a 

 quantity is also shipped to San Francisco. The mines are worked by English companies, 

 and are so near the coast that, by means of a few tramways and locomotives, the coal 

 is conveyed to the wharves, where it can be at once put on board. It is a pleasant 



