Jack the Young Canoeman: An Eastern Boy's Voyage in a Chinook Canoe

by George Bird Grinnell

Returning to town, the stores were visited and a number of necessary articles purchased. The party was already well armed, having three rifles, a shot-gun, and several revolvers; but a mess kit had to be bought, a keg for water, all the provisions needed, a tent of some kind, some mosquito net, rope, fine copper wire, saddler's silk or waxed thread, packages of tobacco, fishing tackle, and many small articles which do not take up much room, but which, under special circumstances, may add much to one's comfort. Each of the party also provided himself here with a set of oil-skin clothing. They knew that they were going into a country where much rain falls, and wished to provide against that.

After all their purchases had been made and they had seen them transported to the hotel close to the water's edge, where they were to pass the night, they started out to learn what they could about the town.

The sole industry of Nanaimo at that time was coal mining. Here were great shafts and inclines, worked day and night by a great multitude of miners. Many of them were Canadians, but many, also, were quite newly arrived emigrants from the Old World,—Scotch, Irish, and Welsh. The coal—a good lignite—was in considerable demand along the coast, and it was even said that it was to be imported to Puget Sound points to supply newly built railroads there. The inhabitants of Nanaimo, and indeed those of Vancouver Island, had talked much about a proposed railroad that had been partially surveyed from Victoria up through the middle of the island to Nanaimo. Such a railroad, it was generally thought, would be an enormous benefit to the whole island. Nanaimo was not an attractive place. The coal-dust with which it was everywhere powdered, together with the black smoke sent forth by the chimneys, gave the place an appearance of griminess which seemed to characterize most coal-mining towns. Just why towns devoted to coal and iron mining always used to look so shabby and forlorn and discouraged, it would be hard to say; but most people familiar with such settlements in old times will agree that this was usually the case. It may have been that the laborers and their families were obliged to work so hard that they had neither time nor inclination to devote to adorning, even by simple and inexpensive methods, their dwellings or surroundings; or it may have been that their work in the mines was so fatiguing that it rendered them blind to the town's unattractiveness.

Even then great quantities of coal were mined at Nanaimo. But as there were no railroads on Vancouver Island the coal was transported to its destination wholly by water. The coal deposits were vast, and people believed that in the future this would be a great mining town, and might yet be like some of the great mining centres of Great Britain.

That night, after supper, as they were lounging about the office of the hotel, Jack said to Mr. Fannin:

"You have told me a lot about the canoeing and canoes of these Indians, Mr. Fannin, but I don't think that you have spoken to me about the way they keep their canoes on the beach. Those we saw this afternoon were all covered with mats and blankets, and I can understand how it might be necessary to keep them protected from the weather in that way if they were laid up for a long time; but, as I understand it, the canoes that we saw were being used every day."

"That is true," said Mr. Fannin; "they are in use all the time, but, nevertheless, Indians take the greatest precaution to protect them from the weather. It is easy enough to see why this is, if you consider that the making of a canoe is tremendously laborious, and at best takes many months. Now, as I have already told you, the cedar of which they are made splits very easily indeed, and it might well enough be that exposure to the hot sun for a day or two would start a crack which would constantly grow larger, and ultimately weaken the canoe so that it could not be used. The Indians are far-sighted enough to do everything in their power to protect their canoes. These coast Indians take a great deal better care of their canoes than they do of any other property that they possess. As I have told you, they are all sea travellers, and their very existence depends on the possession of some means of getting about over the water. I do not know anything about it personally, but I understand that the Aleuts of Alaska, and the Eskimo too, are just as careful about their boats as these Indians are. Of course it is natural."

"Of course it is," said Hugh, "and you probably will see the same thing in any class of men. Look at the way our plains' Indians take care of their war horses and their arms and war clothes. Those are the things on which they depend for food and for protection from their enemy; and they cannot afford to take any chances about them. Of course their war clothes often have something of a sacred character; but you will find that if it comes to a pinch an Indian will stick to his fastest running horse and his arms, and will let his war clothing go."

"Well," said Fannin, "all this is just saying that Indians are human beings like the rest of us."

They went to bed pretty early that night, and Fannin had them astir before the day had broken the next morning. On going down to the wharf they found the canoe there, just off the shore, and the two Indians sitting in it, holding the craft in its place by an occasional paddle stroke. It took the men but a short time to bring down all their baggage, provisions, and mess kit to the canoe and stow the load. After a hasty meal at the hotel all stepped aboard and took their various stations. Jack had been surprised to see how large a pile their baggage made before they begun to stow it; and after the canoe had been loaded, he wondered where they had packed it all.