About the middle of December, we left Tashees for Cooptee. As usual at this season, we found the herrings in great plenty, and here the same scene of riotous feasting that I witnessed last year was renewed by our improvident natives, who, in addition to their usual fare, had a plentiful supply of wild geese, which were brought us in great quantities by the Eshquates. These, as Maquina informed me, were caught with nets made from bark in the fresh waters of that country. Those who take them make choice for that purpose of a dark and rainy night, and, with their canoes stuck with lighted torches, proceed with as little noise as possible to the place where the geese are collected, who, dazzled by the light, suffer themselves to be approached very near, when the net is thrown over them, and in this manner from fifty to sixty, or even more, will sometimes be taken at one cast.
On the 15th of January 1805, about midnight, I was thrown into considerable alarm, in consequence of an eclipse of the moon, being awakened from my sleep by a great outcry of the inhabitants. On going to discover the cause of this tumult, I found them all out of their houses, bearing lighted torches, singing and beating upon pieces of plank; and when I asked them the reason of this proceeding, they pointed to the moon, and said that a great cod-fish was endeavouring to swallow her, and that they were driving him away. The origin of this superstition I could not discover.
Though, in some respects, my situation was rendered more comfortable since my marriage, as I lived in a more cleanly manner, and had my food better and more neatly cooked, of which, besides, I had always a plenty, my slaves generally furnishing me, and Upquesta never failing to send me an ample supply by the canoes that came from Ai-tiz-zart; still, from my being obliged at this season of the year to change my accustomed clothing, and to dress like the natives, with only a piece of cloth of about two yards long thrown loosely around me, my European clothes having been for some time entirely worn out, I suffered more than I can express from the cold, especially as I was compelled to perform the laborious task of cutting and bringing the firewood, which was rendered still more oppressive to me, from my comrade, for a considerable part of the winter, not having it in his power to lend me his aid, in consequence of an attack of the rheumatism in one of his knees, with which he suffered for more than four months, two or three weeks of which he was so ill as to be under the necessity to leave the house.
This state of suffering, with the little hope I now had of ever escaping from the savages, began to render my life irksome to me; still, however, I lost not my confidence in the aid of the Supreme Being, to whom, whenever the weather and a suspension from the tasks imposed on me would permit, I never failed regularly on Sundays to retire to the wood to worship, taking Thompson with me when he was able to go.
On the 20th of February, we returned to our summer quarters at Nootka, but on my part, with far different sensations than the last spring, being now almost in despair of any vessel arriving to release us, or our being permitted to depart if there should.
Soon after our return, as preparatory to the whaling season, Maquina ordered me to make a good number of harpoons for himself and his chiefs, several of which I had completed, with some lances, when, on the 16th of March, I was taken very ill with a violent colic, caused, I presume, from having suffered so much from the cold, in going without proper clothing. For a number of hours I was in great pain, and expected to die, and on its leaving me, I was so weak as scarcely to be able to stand, while I had nothing comforting to take, nor anything to drink but cold water.
On the day following, a slave belonging to Maquina died, and was immediately, as is their custom in such cases, tossed unceremoniously out of doors, from whence he was taken by some others and thrown into the water. The treatment of this poor creature made a melancholy impression upon my mind, as I could not but think that such probably would be my fate should I die among these heathens, and so far from receiving a decent burial, that I should not even be allowed the common privilege of having a little earth thrown over my remains.
The feebleness in which the violent attack of my disorder had left me, the dejection I felt at the almost hopelessness of my situation and the want of warm clothing and proper nursing, though my Indian wife, as far as she knew how, was always ready, even solicitous, to do everything for me she could, still kept me very much indisposed, which Maquina perceiving, he finally told me that if I did not like living with my wife, and that was the cause of my being so sad, I might part with her. This proposal I readily accepted, and the next day Maquina sent her back to her father.