166 b 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Decrease in 

 population. 



Dixon's 

 account. 



population and ruin of the town. One intelligent man told me that he 1 

 could remember a time — which by his age could not have been more- 

 than thirty years ago — when there was not room to launch all the- 

 canoes of the village in a single row the whole length of the beach,, 

 when the people set out on one of their periodical trading expeditions 

 to Port Simpson. The beach is about half a mile long, and there must 

 have been from .five to eight persons in each canoe. It is not improb- 

 able that this is a somewhat exaggerated statement, but it serves to 

 show the idea of the natives themselves as to the extent of the 

 diminution they have suffered. 



Dixon cruised northwai'd along the east coast of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands about as far as Skidegate, in July, 1787, whence he turned 

 southward for Nootka. He did not come to an anchor, but gives the 

 following particulars, probably relating to the people of this place* : — 



" Early in the afternoon (July 29th) we- saw several canoes coming 

 from shore, and by three o'clock we had no less than eighteen along- 

 side, containing more than 200 people, chiefly men ; this was not only 

 the greatest concourse of traders we had seen, but what rendered the 

 circumstance additionally pleasing was the quantity of excellent furs 

 they brought us, our trade now being equal, if not superior to what 

 we had met with in Cloak Bay, both in the number of skins, and the* 

 facility with which the natives traded, so that all of us were busily 

 employed, and our articles of traffic exhibited in the greatest variety ;. 

 toes, hatchets, howels, tin kettles, pewter basons, brass pans, buckles, 

 knives, rings, &c, being preferred by turns, according to the fancy of 

 our numerous visitants. Amongst these traders was the old chief,. 

 whom we had seen on the other side of the islands, and who now 

 appearing to be a person of the first consequence, Captain Dixon per- 

 mitted him to come on board. f *■.*■:,* On our pointing 

 to the eastward and asking the old man whether we should meet with, 

 any furs there, he gave us to understand that it was a different nation 

 from his, and that he did not even understand the language, but was 

 always at war with them; that he had killed great numbers and had 

 many of them in his possession. 



" The old fellow seemed to take particular pleasure in relating these 

 circumstances, and took uncommon pains to make us comprehend his 

 meaning ; he closed his relation with advising us not to come near 

 that part of the coast, for that the inhabitants would certainly destroy 

 us. I endeavoured to learn how they disposed of the bodies of their 



* Possibly to those of Cumshewa Inlet. His latitudes for the southern part of the islands. 

 are inexact^as Vancouver remarks. 



t This man may have been the Skidegate chief, and was probably only on a visit when seen, 

 on the west coast. He had no skins to sell at that time. 



