The natives now began to take the herring and sprat in immense quantities, with some salmon, and there was nothing but feasting from morning till night.
The following is the method they employ to take the herring. A stick of about seven feet long, two inches broad, and half an inch thick, is formed from some hard wood, one side of which is set with sharp teeth, made from whalebone, at about half an inch apart. Provided with this instrument, the fisherman seats himself in the prow of a canoe, which is paddled by another, and whenever he comes to a shoal of herrings, which cover the water in great quantities, he strikes it with both hands upon them, and at the same moment, turning it up, brings it over the side of the canoe, into which he lets those that are taken drop. It is astonishing to see how many are caught by those who are dexterous at this kind of fishing, as they seldom fail, when the shoals are numerous, of taking as many as ten or twelve at a stroke, and in a very short time will fill a canoe with them. Sprats are likewise caught in a similar manner.
FOOTNOTES:
[106] This was probably Don Estevan Martinez, who, on the 6th of May 1789, arrived in the corvette Princesa, to take possession of the country for his sovereign. He it was who landed materials and artillery, and began to erect a fort on a small island at the entrance to Friendly Cove. He seems to have been a most high-handed kind of Don, for he seized the British vessels Iphigenia, North-West America, Argonaut, and Princess Royal, then trading under the Portuguese flag, and acted in so arbitrary a manner to the officers and crew, that it was easy to believe he was not over scrupulous in his dealings with the Indians. It was during his stay in Nootka Sound that Callicum, a relation of Maquina's, and next to him in rank, was barbarously murdered by an officer on board one of the Spanish ships, and his father refused permission to dive for the body until he had handed over a number of skins to the white savage.
[107] Captain James Hanna was the second European to enter Nootka Sound after Captain Cook had left it. The Sea Otter, a vessel under 70 tons, was fitted out in China, and reached Nootka in August 1785; when Maquina, presuming upon the inferior size of the craft and the small number of the crew, made a desperate attack upon her. This was repulsed by the courage of the ship's company, after which business proceeded on such friendly terms that he procured five hundred and eighty-five sea-otter skins in five weeks, which were sold in Canton for 20,600 dollars. It was Hanna who discovered Fitzhugh Sound, Lance Island, Sea Otter Harbour, and other now well-known spots on the North-West coast of America. The incident related by Maquina is not to be found in the records of the expedition which have descended to us. He made another voyage in 1786, solely for commercial purposes.
[108] Gaultheria Shallon (see p. 137).
[109] These observances are well worth noting in connection with the others which attach to the bear among nearly all savage races.
[110] These traps are still in common use.
[111] Quawteaht, the supreme being of all the tribes speaking the "Aht" language.
[112] This seems the bracken fern root, which is eaten. But the name usually applied to it is Sheetla.