As I was busy at work at the time of the attack, I was without my coat, and what with the coldness of the weather, my feebleness from loss of blood, the pain of my wound, and the extreme agitation and terror that I still felt, I shook like a leaf, which the king observing, went into the cabin, and, bringing up a greatcoat that belonged to the captain, threw it over my shoulders, telling me to drink some rum from a bottle which he handed me, at the same time giving me to understand that it would be good for me, and keep me from trembling as I did. I took a draught of it, after which, taking me by the hand, he led me to the quarter-deck, where the most horrid sight presented itself that ever my eyes witnessed. The heads of our unfortunate captain and his crew, to the number of twenty-five, were all arranged in a line,[41] and Maquina, ordering one of his people to bring a head, asked me whose it was: I answered, the captain's. In like manner the others were showed me, and I told him the names, excepting a few that were so horribly mangled that I was not able to recognise them.
I now discovered that all our unfortunate crew had been massacred, and learned that, after getting possession of the ship, the savages had broke open the arm-chest and magazine, and, supplying themselves with ammunition and arms, sent a party on shore to attack our men, who had gone thither to fish, and, being joined by numbers from the village, without difficulty overpowered and murdered them, and, cutting off their heads, brought them on board, after throwing their bodies into the sea. On looking upon the deck, I saw it entirely covered with the blood of my poor comrades, whose throats had been cut with their own jack-knives, the savages having seized the opportunity, while they were busy in hoisting in the boat, to grapple with them, and overpower them by their numbers; in the scuffle the captain was thrown overboard, and despatched by those in the canoes, who immediately cut off his head. What I felt on this occasion, may be more readily conceived than expressed.
After I had answered his questions, Maquina took my silk handkerchief from my neck and bound it around my head, placing over the wound a leaf of tobacco, of which we had a quantity on board. This was done at my desire, as I had often found, from personal experience, the benefit of this application to cuts.
Maquina then ordered me to get the ship under weigh for Friendly Cove. This I did by cutting the cables, and sending some of the natives aloft to loose the sails, which they performed in a very bungling manner. But they succeeded so far in loosing the jib and top-sails, that, with the advantage of fair wind, I succeeded in getting the ship into the Cove, where, by order of the king, I ran her ashore on a sandy beach, at eight o'clock at night.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] By "Nootka," Friendly Cove, or "Yucuaht," is meant; there is no special place of that name; the word, indeed, is unknown to the natives. Woody Point, or Cape Cook, is in lat. 50° 6' 31" N.
[37] The white pine (Pinus monticola). This is employed for making blankets trimmed with sea-otter fur, but the mats used in their canoes are made of cedar bark (Thuja gigantea).
[38] This is still true. Many years ago, when there was a threat of Indian trouble at Victoria, Sir James Douglas, famous as the first governor of British Columbia, and still more celebrated as a factor of the Hudson Bay Company, immediately allayed the rising storm by ordering a keg of treacle and a box of biscuit to be opened. Instantly the knives and muskets were tossed aside, and the irate savages fell to these homely dainties with the best of goodwill to all concerned. "Dear me! dear me! there is nothing like a little molasses," was the sage governor's remark. At the Alberni saw-mills, on the West coast, the invariable midday meal of the Indians loading lumber was coarse ship's biscuit dipped in a tin basin of the cheapest treacle, around which the mollified tribesmen squatted.
[39] Tomahawks (little hatchets) in more familiar language.
[40] Pesh-shuak, Wikoo, or Chuuk is also used in the same sense, but the first word is most frequently employed.