MARLOWE MANN'S NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Besides the Narrative of Lewis and Clarke, which was used in the school as
a reader, Mr. Mann made use of another book in his teaching which greatly
delighted his pupils and often awakened their sympathies. It was called
"John E. Jewett and Thompson." It presented a picture of life on the coast
early in the century. The strange story was much as follows:
_THE ROBINSON CRUSOE OF VANCOUVER._
About the year 1802 the ship Boston, from Boston, Mass., went to Hull,
England, to secure a cargo of goods to carry to the Indians on the
Northwest coast of America to trade for furs. She was a general
trading-vessel, such as roamed the seas of the world adventurously at that
time, and often made fortunes for the merchants of New York, Boston, and
other Atlantic port cities.
She was commanded by Captain John Salter, a clever man and a natural
story-teller, whose engaging pictures of travel were sure to fascinate the
young.
While in England this man met a lad by the name of John Rogers Jewett, who
listened eagerly to his romantic adventures, and who desired to embark
with him for America, and was allowed by his parents to make the voyage.
The ship sailed around Cape Horn to Nootka Island, one of the islands on
the west coast of Vancouver Island between the forty-ninth and fiftieth
parallel. Here the whole crew, with the exception of young Jewett and a
man by the name of Thompson, were massacred by the Indians, and the
strange and tragic narrative of the survivors was an American and English
wonder-tale seventy years ago. Mr. Jewett published the account of his
capture and sufferings, under the title of "John R. Jewett and Thompson,"
or, to copy the title of the quaint old book before me, "A Narrative of
the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewett, only Survivor of the Crew
of the Ship Boston, during a Captivity of nearly Three Years among the
Savages of Nootka Sound." The book was issued from London, England, and
from Middletown, Conn. After Robinson Crusoe, perhaps no book was more
eagerly read by our grandfathers in their boyhood than this.
The Indian king of Nootka was Maquina. He used to visit the ship,
sometimes wearing a wooden mask over his face representing some wild
beast. Such masks are still to be found among the Indians of Vancouver.
Maquina was at first very friendly to Captain Salter, but one day the
latter offended him, and he resolved to have his revenge by killing him
and the crew, and destroying the ship. Accordingly, one morning, after he
had been capering on deck and blowing a rude whistle, he said to the
captain:
"When do you intend to sail?"
"To-morrow," replied the captain.
"You love salmon--much in Friendly Cove; go, then, and catch some," said
the chief.
The captain thought it very desirable to have a large supply of fish on
board, so he assented to the chief's proposal, and, after dinner with the
latter, he sent away a jolly-boat or yawl with nine men to fish in
Friendly Cove.
A series of tragedies followed. "I went down to my vise-bench in the
steerage," says Mr. Jewett, in his Narrative, "where I was employed in
cleaning muskets. I had not been there more than an hour, when I heard a
great bustle and confusion on deck. I ran up the steerage stairs, but
scarcely was my head above deck when I was caught by the hair by one of
the savages. My hair was short, and I fell from his hold into the
steerage. As I was falling, he struck me with an axe and cut a deep gash
in my forehead. I remained in a state of suspense for some time, when
Maquina himself appeared at the hatch and ordered me to come up. What a
terrific spectacle met my eyes! Six naked savages stood in a circle around
me, covered with the blood of my murdered comrades! I thought that my last
moment had come, and commended my soul to my Maker.
"'John,' said the chief, 'I speak--you no say no; you say no--daggers
come. Will you become my slave and fight for me?' I answered, 'Yes.' Then
he told me that he would spare my life.
"Taking me by the hand, he led me to the quarter-deck, where the most
horrid sight presented itself; the heads of our unfortunate captain and
his crew, to the number of twenty-five, were arranged in a line.
"Maquina then ordered me to get the ship under way for Friendly Cove. We
were there received by the inhabitants of the village with loud shouts of
joy and a horrible drumming of sticks upon the roofs and sides of their
houses. Maquina took me on shore to his house."
Young Jewett became a favorite of the chief's son, and was made a member
of the tribe. He was compelled to marry an Indian princess, and his search
for his wife is a wonderful romance, and really very poetic, as the
marriage customs of the tribes are associated with a rustic festival
worthy of a painter and poet. The young princess chosen was beautiful, and
served him with the most affectionate devotion, but he could not love her,
because he had been compelled to marry her.
The most remarkable incidents of this strange narrative are associated
with the fate of those who were engaged in the massacre of the officers
and crew of the Boston, and which show that the experience of retribution
is a law common to all peoples and lands.
The principal chief or sub-chief among the warriors was Tootooch. He had
married Maquina's sister. He ranked next to Maquina in all things
pertaining to war, and he had been the foremost leader and the most
merciless of conquerors in the destruction of the Boston. He killed two
men on shore, presumably with his own hand.
Insanity is not common among the Indians. But a terrible mania took
possession of this ambitious warrior. "While in the enjoyment of the
highest health," says Mr. Jewett, "he was suddenly seized with delirium,
in which he fancied that he saw the ghosts of the two men that he had
murdered." The avenging vision followed him wherever he went. He was
filled with terror at all times, and at last refused to eat to sustain his
life. The Indians forced food into his mouth.
Maquina was informed of the terrible state of the warrior's mind by his
sister, Tootooch's wife. He went to the haunted man's house, taking Mr.
Thompson and Mr. Jewett with him. "We found him raving about the two
murdered men, Hall and Wood," says Jewett. "Maquina placed provisions
before him, but he would not eat."
At last the distressed _tyee_, induced by hunger, put forth his hand to
touch the food. But he suddenly drew it back, saying that Hall and Wood
were there.
"They will not let me eat," said he, with a look of despair and terror.
Maquina pointed to Thompson and Jewett.
"Is it they who have bewitched you?" he asked.
"_Wik_ (no); John _klashish_ (is good), Thompson _klashish_ (is good)."
He arose and piteously put his hand on Jewett's shoulder, and, pointing to
the food offered him, he said, "Eat."
"Eat it yourself," replied Mr. Jewett. "Hall and Wood are not there."
"You can not see them," he answered; "I can. I know that you can not see
them."
"What do you do in your own country in such cases as this?" asked Maquina.
"We confine the person and whip him," said Jewett.
The chief ordered that the haunted warrior should be confined and whipped;
but the pain did not relieve the warrior's mind of the terrible vision of
the two men that he had killed. He grew more wild. He would torture his
slaves for diversion. His wife fled from him. The vision continued until
he became completely exhausted, and Death came with a merciful face.
"Early in June," says Mr. Jewett, "Tootooch, the crazy chief, died. The
whole village set up a loud cry. The body was laid on a plank, and the
head bound with a red fillet. It was then wrapped in an otter-skin robe
and placed in a large coffin, which was ornamented with rows of white
shells. It was buried by night in a cavern."
The _tyees_ or chiefs had discussed often the policy of putting Mr. Jewett
and Mr. Thompson to death, and so end all evidence of the destruction of
the Boston in the event of new ships appearing on the coast. But the
spectacle of Tootooch staring at the ghosts of the men that he had killed,
and wasting away amid days and nights of horror, made them fear that the
other warriors engaged in the massacre would become affected in the like
way, and deterred them from any further violence. Jewett was at last
rescued by a trading-ship, and was taken to the Columbia River, where he
arrived shortly after the visit of Lewis and Clarke, of the famous
expedition that bears these names. He finally came to New England and
settled in Middletown, Conn. His history gives a very picturesque view of
the habits and customs of the Indians on the Northwest coast nearly a
century ago. The book can be found in antiquarian libraries, and should be
republished in the interest of American folk-lore. The truth of the
incidents gives the whole narrative a vivid and intense interest; it reads
like De Foe.