TRADITIONS OF VANCOUVER’S APPEARANCE
Jacobs, Big John, William Kitsap and others were among the leading or
head men of the tribes on the upper Sound when the whites came. They
were given christian names by the early settlers and before their deaths
commanded the respect of the whites, who not only learned their simple
tongue, but were often regaled with the traditions and history of their
tribes. From these men were gleaned the account of the arrival on the
upper Sound of the first ship. Before any of these existing Indians were
born, so their fathers had imparted to them, during the early part of
a “warm sun” (summer time) just after sunset while the Indians were in
camp at Beans point, near what are now known as Blakeley rocks, the camp
was thrown into great excitement and they ran about the beach uttering
exclamations of wonder and astonishment. There upon the bosom of the
placid Sound was the first white man’s ship with wings outspread. Never
had Indian eyes looked upon anything so wonderful. “Uch-i-dah uch-i-dah”
wonderful, wonderful. “Ik-tch-o-coke; Ik-tch-o-coke!” what is that, what
is that. Then the astonished natives took to the woods, fearing the
greatest evil and disaster as they heard for the first time the noise of
firing cannon. The more superstitious conceived it a message from the
Great Spirit and were filled with the greatest alarm. Old Chief Kitsap
was there and the brave old fellow stood his ground and by his demeanor
allayed the fears of the more timorous, as well as by pronouncing it a
big canoe. It is believed that Kitsap had, on some of his migrations to
the lower Sound waters and straits, come in contact with some of the
earlier Spanish cruisers. This was the belief of the older Indians at the
time of the first white occupation of this country. Both Kitsap and old
Chief Sealth had made voyages at that time as far north as what is now
Victoria harbor.
The next day following the appearance of the strange visitors, old Kitsap
with a few of his sub-chiefs were persuaded to go on board the vessel and
were filled with unbounded astonishment at what they saw. It was with an
evident relish and much interest that the old Indians above named related
through the interpreter Alfred, the story of the visit aboard the first
ship, as it was related to them by their fathers and grandsires. Iron,
metal goods, knives, forks, chains, firearms and hard bread and other
goods were brought out for their inspection. They were offered the hard
bread and molasses to eat. The Indians called the latter Ta-gum, which in
Chinook means pitch, but after persuasion tasted it and were well pleased
and partook of both bread and molasses. Old Kitsap soon made himself at
home on board the vessel and the strange white creatures that flitted
about her decks were, after the first visit or two, without fear for the
sturdy old native. The Indian account, meager as it is, tallies well with
Vancouver’s record of the same when, for instance, he says it was on
the 16th of May, 1792, that he anchored off an island which they named
Bainbridge and near a ledge of rocks they called Blakeley rocks.
The Indians’ account of Vancouver’s movements while anchored off and in
view of what is now Seattle harbor or Elliott bay, corresponds with his
own. Kitsap piloted Vancouver up the Sound to what is now Olympia. While
on this cruise with row-boats they visited the celebrated Old-Man-House
at North bay, an Indian rendesvous already mentioned. After an exploring
expedition of ten or twelve days up the Sound, old Chief Kitsap as pilot
went with Vancouver on a cruise down inside the Whidby island channel to
Bellingham bay. Vancouver’s ship remained at anchor nearly two moons at
Blakeley rocks and the Indians secured of him the first instruments made
of iron with which they executed fine carving, after the fashion of the
totem posts at the Old-Man-House.
[Illustration]