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ON October 30 we visited a
camp of Hoonas at the mouth of a salmon-chuck. We had seen some of them
before, and they received us kindly. Here we learned that peace reigned in
Chilcat. The reports that we had previously heard were, as usual in such
cases, wildly exaggerated. The little camp hut of these Indians was crowded
with the food-supplies they had gathered — chiefly salmon, dried and tied in
bunches of convenient size for handling and transporting to their villages,
bags of salmon-roe, boxes of fish-oil, a lot of mountain-goat mutton, and a
few porcupines. They presented us with some dried salmon and potatoes, for
which we gave them tobacco and rice. About 3 we reached their village, and
in the best house, that of a chief, we found the family busily engaged in
making whiskey. The still and mash were speedily removed and hidden away
with apparent shame as soon as we came in sight. When we entered and passed
the regular greetings, the usual apologies as to being unable to furnish
Boston food for us and inquiries whether we could eat Indian food were
gravely made. Toward six or seven o'clock Mr. Young explained the object of
his visit and held a short service. The chief replied with grave
deliberation, saying that he would be heartily glad to have a teacher sent
to his poor ignorant people, upon whom he now hoped the light of a better
day was beginning to break. Hereafter he would gladly do whatever the white
teachers told him to do and would have no will of his own. This under the
whiskey circumstances seemed too good to be quite true. He thanked us over
and over again for coming so far to see him, and complained that Port
Simpson Indians, sent out on a missionary tour by Mr. Crosby, after making a
good-luck board for him and nailing it over his door, now wanted to take it
away. Mr. Young promised to make him a new one, should this threat be
executed, and remarked that since he had offered to do his bidding he hoped
he would make no more whiskey. To this the chief replied with fresh
complaints concerning the threatened loss of his precious board, saying that
he thought the Port Simpson Indians were very mean in seeking to take it
away, but that now he would tell them to take it as soon as they liked for
he was going to get a better one at Wrangell. But no effort of the
missionary could bring him to notice or discuss the whiskey business. The
luck board nailed over the door was about two feet long and had the
following inscription: "The Lord will bless those who do his will. When you
rise in the morning, and when you retire at night, give him thanks. Heccla
Hockla Popla."
This chief promised to pray
like a white man every morning, and to bury the dead as the whites do. "I
often wondered," he said, "where the dead went to. Now I am glad to know";
and at last acknowledged the whiskey, saying he was sorry to have been
caught making the bad stuff. The behavior of all, even the little ones
circled around the fire, was very good. There was no laughter when the
strange singing commenced. They only gazed like curious, intelligent
animals. A little daughter of the chief with the glow of the firelight on
her eyes made an interesting picture, head held aslant. Another in the
group, with upturned eyes, seeming to half understand the strange words
about God, might have passed for one of Raphael's angels.
The chief's house was about
forty feet square, of the ordinary fort kind, but better built and cleaner
than usual. The side-room doors were neatly paneled, though all the lumber
had been nibbled into shape with a small, narrow Indian adze. We had our
tent pitched on a grassy spot near the beach, being afraid of wee beasties;
which greatly offended Kadachan and old Toyatte, who said, "If this is the
way you are to do up at Chilcat, we will be ashamed of you." We promised
them to eat Indian food and in every way behave like good Chilcats.
We set out direct for Chilcat
in the morning against a brisk head wind. By keeping close inshore and
working hard, we made about ten miles by two or three o'clock, when, the
tide having turned against us, we could make scarce any headway, and
therefore landed in a sheltered cove a few miles up the west side of Lynn
Canal. Here I discovered a fine growth of yellow cedar, but none of the
trees were very large, the tallest only seventy-five to one hundred feet
high. The flat, drooping, plume-like branchlets hang edgewise, giving the
trees a thin, open, airy look. Nearly every tree that I saw in a long walk
was more or less marked by the knives and axes of the Indians, who use the
bark for matting, for covering house-roofs, and making temporary portable
huts. For this last purpose sections five or six feet long and two or three
wide are pressed flat and secured from warping or splitting by binding them
with thin strips of wood at the end. These they carry about with them in
their canoes, and in a few minutes they can be put together against slim
poles and made into a rainproof hut. Every paddle that I have seen along the
coast is made of the light, tough, handsome yellow wood of this tree. It is
a tree of moderately rapid growth and usually chooses ground that is rather
boggy and mossy. Whether its network of roots makes the bog or not, I am
unable as yet to say.
Three glaciers on the
opposite side of the canal were in sight, descending nearly to sea-level,
and many smaller ones that melt a little below timber-line. While I was
sketching these, a canoe hove in sight, coming on at a flying rate of speed
before the wind. The owners, eager for news, paid us a visit. They proved to
be Hoonas, a man, his wife, and four children, on their way home from
Chilcat. The man was sitting in the stern steering and holding a sleeping
child in his arms. Another lay asleep at his feet. He told us that Sitka
Jack had gone up to the main Chilcat village the day before he left,
intending to hold a grand feast and potlatch, and that whiskey up there was
flowing like water. The news was rather depressing to Mr. Young and myself,
for we feared the effect of the poison on Toyatte's old enemies. At 8.30
P.M. we set out again on the turn of the tide, though the crew did not
relish this night work. Naturally enough, they liked to stay in camp when
wind and tide were against us, but didn't care to make up lost time after
dark however wooingly wind and tide might flow and blow. Kadachan, John, and
Charley rowed, and Toyatte steered and paddled, assisted now and then by me.
The wind moderated and almost died away, so that we made about, fifteen
miles in six hours, when the tide turned and snow began to fall. We ran into
a bay nearly opposite Berner's Bay, where three or four families of Chilcats
were camped, who shouted when they heard us landing and demanded our names.
Our men ran to the huts for news before making camp. The Indians proved to
be hunters, who said there were plenty of wild sheep on the mountains back a
few miles from the head of the bay. This interview was held at three o'clock
in the morning, a rather early hour. But Indians never resent any such
disturbance provided there is anything worth while to be said or done. By
four o'clock we had our tents set, a fire made and some coffee, while the
snow was falling fast. Toyatte was out of humor with this night business. He
wanted to land an hour or two before we did, and then, when the snow began
to fall and we all wanted to find a camping-ground as soon as possible, he
steered out into the middle of the canal, saying grimly that the tide was
good. He turned, however, at our orders, but read us a lecture at the first
opportunity, telling us to start early if we were in a hurry, but not to
travel in the night like thieves.
After a few hours' sleep, we
set off again, with the wind still against us and the sea rough. We were all
tired after making only about twelve miles, and camped in a rocky nook where
we found a family of Hoonas in their bark hut beside their canoe. They
presented us with potatoes and salmon and a big bucketful of berries,
salmon-roe, and grease of some sort, probably fish-oil, which the crew
consumed with wonderful relish.
A fine breeze was blowing
next morning from the south, which would take us to Chilcat in a few hours,
but unluckily the day was Sunday and the good wind was refused. Sunday, it
seemed to me, could be kept as well by sitting in the canoe and letting the
Lord's wind waft us quietly on our way. The day was rainy and the clouds
hung low. The trees here are remarkably well developed, tall and straight. I
observed three or four hemlocks which had been struck by lightning, — the
first I noticed in Alaska. Some of the species on windy out-jutting rocks
become very picturesque, almost as much so as old oaks, the foliage becoming
dense and the branchlets tufted in heavy, plume-shaped horizontal masses.
Monday was a fine clear day,
but the wind was dead ahead, making hard, dull work with paddles and oars.
We passed a long stretch of beautiful marble cliffs enlivened with small
merry waterfalls, and toward noon came in sight of the front of the famous
Chilcat or Davidson Glacier, a broad white flood reaching out two or three
miles into the canal with wonderful effect. I wanted to camp beside it but
the head wind tired us out before we got within six or eight miles of it. We
camped on the west side of a small rocky island in a narrow cove. When I was
looking among the rocks and bushes for a smooth spot for a bed, I found a
human skeleton. My Indians seemed not in the least shocked or surprised,
explaining that it was only the remains of a Chilcat slave. Indians never
bury or burn the bodies of slaves, but just cast them away anywhere. Kind
Nature was covering the poor bones with moss and leaves, and I helped in the
pitiful work.
The wind was fair and joyful
in the morning, and away we glided to the famous glacier. In an hour or so
we were directly in front of it and beheld it in all its crystal glory
descending from its white mountain fountains and spreading out in an immense
fan three or four miles wide against its tree-fringed terminal moraine. But,
large as it is, it long ago ceased to discharge bergs.
The Chilcats are the most
influential of all the Thlinkit tribes. Whenever on our journey I spoke of
the interesting characteristics of other tribes we had visited, my crew
would invariably say, "Oh, yes, these are pretty good Indians, but wait till
you have seen the Chilcats." We were now only five or six miles distant from
their lower village, and my crew requested time to prepare themselves to
meet their great rivals. Going ashore on the moraine with their boxes that
had not been opened since we left Fort Wrangell, they sat on boulders and
cut each other's hair, carefully washed and perfumed themselves and made a
complete change in their clothing, even to white shirts, new boots, new
hats, and bright neckties. Meanwhile, I scrambled across the broad, brushy,
forested moraine, and on my return scarcely recognized my crew in their
dress suits. Mr. Young also made some changes in his clothing, while I,
having nothing dressy in my bag, adorned my cap with an eagle's feather I
found on the moraine, and thus arrayed we set forth to meet the noble
Thlinkits.
We were discovered while we
were several miles from the village, and as we entered the mouth of the
river we were hailed by a messenger from the chief, sent to find out who we
were and the objects of our extraordinary visit.
"Who are you?" he shouted in
a heavy, far-reaching voice. "What are your names? What do you want? What
have you come for?"
On receiving replies, he
shouted the information to another messenger, who was posted on the
river-bank at a distance of a quarter of a mile or so, and he to another and
another in succession, and by this living telephone the news was delivered
to the chief as he sat by his fireside. A salute was then fired to welcome
us, and a swarm of musket-bullets, flying scarce high enough for comfort,
pinged over our heads. As soon as we reached the landing at the village, a
dignified young man stepped forward and thus addressed us:
"My chief sent me to meet
you, and to ask if you would do him the honor to lodge in his house during
your stay in our village?"
We replied, of course, that
we would consider it a great honor to be entertained by so distinguished a
chief.
The messenger then ordered a
number of slaves, who stood behind him, to draw our canoe out of the water,
carry our provisions and bedding into the chief's house, and then carry the
canoe back from the river where it would be beyond the reach of floating
ice. While we waited, a lot of boys and girls were playing on a meadow near
the landing -- running races, shooting arrows, and wading in the icy river
without showing any knowledge of our presence beyond quick stolen glances.
After all was made secure, he conducted us to the house, where we found
seats of honor prepared for us.
The old chief sat barefooted
by the fireside, clad in a calico shirt and blanket, looking down, and
though we shook hands as we passed him he did not look up. After we were
seated, he still gazed into the fire without taking the slightest notice of
us for about ten or fifteen minutes. The various members of the chief's
family, also, — men, women, and children, - went about their usual
employment and play as if entirely unconscious that strangers were in the
house, it being considered impolite to look at visitors or speak to them
before time had been allowed them to collect their thoughts and prepare any
message they might have to deliver.
At length, after the
politeness period had passed, the chief slowly raised his head and glanced
at his visitors, looked down again, and at last said, through our
interpreter:
"I am troubled. It is
customary when strangers visit us to offer them food in case they might be
hungry, and I was about to do so, when I remembered that the food of you
honorable white chiefs is so much better than mine that I am ashamed to
offer it."
We, of course, replied that
we would consider it a great honor to enjoy the hospitality of so
distinguished a chief as he was.
Hearing this, he looked up,
saying, "I feel relieved"; or, in John the interpreter's words, "He feels
good now, he says he feels good."
He then ordered one of his
family to see that the visitors were fed. The young man who was to act as
steward took up his position in a corner of the house commanding a view of
all that was going on, and ordered the slaves to make haste to prepare a
good meal; one to bring a lot of the best potatoes from the cellar and wash
them well; another to go out and pick a basketful of fresh berries; another
to broil a salmon; while others made a suitable fire, pouring oil on the wet
wood to make it blaze. Speedily the feast was prepared and passed around.
The first course was potatoes, the second fish-oil and salmon, next berries
and rose-hips; then the steward shouted the important news, in a loud voice
like a herald addressing an army, "That's all!" and left his post.
Then followed all sorts of
questions from the old chief. He wanted to know what Professor Davidson had
been trying to do a year or two ago on a mountain-top back of the village,
with many strange things looking at the sun when it grew dark in the
daytime; and we had to try to explain eclipses. He asked us if we could tell
him what made the water rise and fall twice a day, and we tried to explain
that the sun and moon attracted the sea by showing how a magnet attracted
iron.
Mr. Young, as usual,
explained the object of his visit and requested that the people might be
called together in the evening to hear his message. Accordingly all were
told to wash, put on their best clothing, and come at a certain hour. There
was an audience of about two hundred and fifty, to whom Mr. Young preached.
Toyatte led in prayer, while Kadachan and John joined in the singing of
several hymns. At the conclusion of the religious exercises the chief made a
short address of thanks, and finished with a request for the message of the
other chief. I again tried in vain to avoid a speech by telling the
interpreter to explain that I was only traveling to see the country, the
glaciers, and mountains and forests, etc., but these subjects, strange to
say, seemed to be about as interesting as the gospel, and I had to deliver a
sort of lecture on the fine foodful country God had given them and the
brotherhood of man, along the same general lines I had followed at other
villages. Some five similar meetings were held here, two of them in the
daytime, and we began to feel quite at home in the big block-house with our
hospitable and warlike friends.
At the last meeting an old
white-haired shaman of grave and venerable aspect, with a high wrinkled
forehead, big, strong Roman nose and light-colored skin, slowly and with
great dignity arose and spoke for the first time.
"I am an old man," he said,
"but I am glad to listen to those strange things you tell, and they may well
be true, for what is more wonderful than the flight of birds in the air? I
remember the first white man I ever saw. Since that long, long-ago time I
have seen many, but never until now have I ever truly known and felt a white
man's heart. All the white men I have heretofore met wanted to get something
from us. They wanted furs and they wished to pay for them as small a price
as possible. They all seemed to be seeking their own good --- not our good.
I might say that through all my long life I have never until now heard a
white man speak. It has always seemed to me while trying to speak to traders
and those seeking gold-mines that it was like speaking to a person across a
broad stream that was running fast over stones and making so loud a noise
that scarce a single word could be heard. But now, for the first time, the
Indian and the white man are on the same side of the river, eye to eye,
heart to heart. I have always loved my people. I have taught them and
ministered to them as well as I could. Hereafter, I will keep silent and
listen to the good words of the missionaries, who know God and the places we
go to when we die so much better than I do."
At the close of the
exercises, after the last sermon had been preached and the last speech of
the Indian chief and headmen had been made, a number of the sub-chiefs were
talking informally together. Mr. Young, anxious to know what impression he
had made on the tribe with reference to mission work, requested John to
listen and tell him what was being said.
"They are talking about Mr.
Muir's speech," he reported. "They say he knows how to talk and beats the
preacher far." Toyatte also, with a teasing smile, said: "Mr. Young, mika
tillicum hi yu tola wawa" (your friend leads you far in speaking).
Later, when the sending of a
missionary and teacher was being considered, the chief said they wanted me,
and, as an inducement, promised that if I would come to them they would
always do as I directed, follow my counsels, give me as many wives as I
liked, build a church and school, and pick all the stones out of the paths
and make them smooth for my feet.
They were about to set out on
an expedition' to the Hootsenoos to collect blankets as indemnity or
blood-money for the death of a Chilcat woman from drinking whiskey furnished
by one of the Hootsenoo tribe. In case of their refusal to pay, there would
be fighting, and one of the chiefs begged that we would pray them good luck,
so that no one would be killed. This he asked as a favor, after begging that
we would grant permission to go on this expedition, promising that they
would avoid bloodshed if possible. He spoke in a very natural and easy tone
and manner, always serene and so much of a polished diplomat that all polish
was hidden. The younger chief stood while speaking, the elder sat on the
floor. None of the congregation had a word to say, though they gave
approving nods and shrugs.
The house was packed at every
meeting, two a day. Some climbed on the roof to listen around the smoke
opening. ' I tried in vain to avoid speechmaking, but, as usual, I had to
say something at every meeting. I made five speeches here, all of which
seemed to be gladly heard, particularly what I said on the different kinds
of white men and their motives, and their own kindness and good manners in
making strangers feel at home in their houses.
The chief had a slave, a
young and good-looking girl, who waited on him, cooked his food, lighted his
pipe for him, etc. Her servitude seemed by no means galling. In the morning,
just before we left on the return trip, interpreter John overheard him
telling her that after the teacher came from Wrangell, he was going to dress
her well and send her to school and use her in every way as if she were his
own daughter. Slaves are still owned by the richest of the Thlinkits.
Formerly, many of them were sacrificed on great occasions, such as the
opening of a new house or the erection of a totem pole. Kadachan ordered
John to take a pair of white blankets out of his trunk and wrap them about
the chief's shoulders, as he sat by the fire. This gift was presented
without ceremony or saying a single word. The chief scarcely noticed the
blankets, only taking a corner in his hand, as if testing the quality of the
wool. Toyatte had been an inveterate enemy and fighter of the Chilcats, but
now, having joined the church, he wished to forget the past and bury all the
hard feuds and be universally friendly and peaceful. It was evident,
however, that he mistrusted the proud and warlike Chilcats and doubted the
acceptance of his friendly advances, and as we approached their village
became more and more thoughtful.
"My wife said that my old
enemies would be sure to kill me. Well, never mind. I am an old man and may
as well die as not." He was troubled with palpitation, and oftentimes, while
he suffered, he put his hand over his heart and said, "I hope the Chilcats
will shoot me here."
Before venturing up the river
to the principal village, located some ten miles up the river, we sent Sitka
Charley and one of the young Chilcats as messengers to announce our arrival
and inquire whether we would be welcome to visit them, informing the chief
that both Kadachan and Toyatte were Mr. Young's friends and mine, that we
were "all one meat" and any harm done them would also be done to us.
While our messengers were
away, I climbed a pure-white, dome-crowned mountain about fifty-five hundred
feet high and gained noble, telling views to the northward of the main
Chilcat glaciers and the multitude of mighty peaks from which they draw
their sources. At a height of three thousand feet I found a mountain
hemlock, considerably dwarfed, in company with Sitka spruce and the common
hemlock, the tallest about twenty feet high, sixteen inches in diameter. A
few stragglers grew considerably higher, say at about four thousand feet.
Birch and two-leaf pine were common.
The messengers returned next
day, bringing back word that we would all be heartily welcomed excepting
Toyatte; that the guns were loaded and ready to be fired to welcome us, but
that Toyatte, having insulted a Chilcat chief not long ago in Wrangell, must
not come. They also informed us in their message that they were very busy
merrymaking with other visitors, Sitka Jack and his friends, but that if we
could get up to the village through the running ice on the river, they would
all be glad to see us; they had been drinking and Kadachan's father, one of
the principal chiefs, said plainly that he had just waked up out of a ten
days' sleep. We were anxious to make this visit, but, taking the
difficulties and untoward circumstances into account, the danger of being
frozen in at so late a time, while Kadachan would not be able to walk back
on account of a shot in his foot, the danger also from whiskey, the
awakening of old feuds on account of Toyatte's presence, etc., we
reluctantly concluded to start back on the home journey at once. This was on
Friday and a fair wind was blowing, but our crew, who loved dearly to rest
and eat in these big hospitable houses, all said that Monday would be hyas
Nosh for the starting-day. I insisted, however, on starting Saturday
morning, and succeeded in getting away from our friends at ten o'clock. Just
as we were leaving, the chief who had entertained us so handsomely requested
a written document to show that he had not killed us, so in case we were
lost on the way home he could not be held accountable in any way for our
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