with the natives mentioned.
[237] When Captain Vancouver rejoined the party he reviewed the work
of his lieutenants and wrote upon his chart in honor of the quality of
that work the well known name of "Puget's Sound." Puget had gone on one
side and he, himself, had gone on another side of a large body of land
which he called Vashon Island, in honor of Captain James Vashon of the
British navy.
[238] On that shore there now stands the beautiful and prosperous City
of Everett.
[239] Just south of Semiahmoo Bay on which stands the City of Blaine.
[240] During this cruise Whidby had found a narrow passage connecting
with Port Gardner. Vancouver called it Deception Pass and he gave
Whidby's name to the large island thus made known.
[241] Vancouver's boat expedition had traversed much of the waterway
between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The Spaniards reported the
probability of a large river. Vancouver declared it impossible. Later
the Fraser River was discovered from the land side and traced to its
mouth where the Spaniards had thought it to be.
[242] William Robert Broughton was associated with Vancouver as
commander of the armed tender Chatham on which consort this journal
written.
[243] Reference is here made to the red fir, which has been called by
many names from the first time the trees were seen to the present time.
[244] From sketches published by Vancouver, the present editor was able
to locate the site of this house or fort in 1803 and several fragments
of Spanish tile-like bricks were found where the foundation corners had
rested.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE INDIAN HISTORY OF THE MODOC WAR AND THE CAUSES THAT LED TO IT.
By Jeff C. Riddle, the Son of Winema, the Heroine of the Modoc War.
(Klamath Falls, Oregon, D. L. Moses, 1914. Pp. 295. $2.74.)
At the time of the advent of the white man, the Klamath Lake country,
an elevated plateau in southeastern Oregon interspersed with numerous
lakes and extending across the boundary into California, was occupied
by a number of bands of Indians commonly regarded as being of a
single stock, but having little intercourse with one another and
that not always friendly. But one characteristic they had in common,
the suspicion and dislike of the white man and the pertinacity and
fierceness with which they resisted his attempts to occupy their
country. When Ewing Young and his party, as early as 1837, brought the
first herd of cattle from California to Oregon, he was attacked by
Indians in this region, and from that time forward hardly a year passed
without depredations on one side or the other, until the close of the
Modoc war in 1873. The Indian who felt himself wronged by a white man
revenged himself according to Indian custom upon the first white man
that fell in his way. In like manner, if a white man was robbed or
murdered, his associates or neighbors were but too apt to avenge him
by attacking the first party of Indians they might encounter. It thus
happened that oftener than otherwise the punishment for undoubted
outrages fell upon those who were entirely guiltless, and in this way,
too, every act of aggression became the source of an additional feud.
The usual consequences followed, of constantly increasing bitterness
between the races, and of reprisals that were simply ferocious in
their cruelty. Nor were these by any means confined to the side of the
Indians.
One of the smallest of the bands inhabiting the region mentioned was
the Modocs, who dwelt along the shores of Rhett Lake, better known
locally as Tule Lake, on both sides of the boundary between Oregon
and California. There were different bands of these, under different
chiefs, but we are here more particularly concerned with what is known
as Capt. Jack's band. These were even more turbulent and warlike than
the neighboring tribes, and from the earliest appearance of the whites
in that region had been in frequent collision with them.
The government, in the beginning of 1870, succeeded in getting them to
settle on a part of the reservation which was assigned to them with the
consent of the Klamaths, but they got along no better with the Klamaths
than with the whites, though it appears quite certain that the fault
was altogether with the latter Indians.
Various attempts were made to compose their troubles without success,
and the Modocs after a short time abandoned the reservation and
returned to their former home. The authorities ignored this action
until, about two years later, complaints began to be made by the white
settlers that the Indians had become menacing and were committing
frequent depredations. These complaints resulted in an order from the
head of the Indian department in September, 1872, to the Superintendent
of Indian Affairs in Oregon, to return the Modocs to the reservation
"peaceably if you can, forcibly if you must." The Indians, on being
informed of the order, flatly refused compliance. Thereupon Mr.
Odeneal, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, applied to the military
authorities in command at Fort Klamath, to compel obedience. Maj.
Jackson with a detachment of some thirty-five men marched to Captain
Jack's camp and after a parley asked the Indians to lay down their
arms. The Indians, on Capt. Jack's advice and following his example,
were doing so when an affray arose between Lieut. Boutelle and the
Indian known as Scar-face Charley, who each at the same moment fired
at the other. A general fight ensued, in which some twenty whites,
soldiers and citizens, were killed or wounded, but, as is claimed, no
Indians except a squaw and her baby.
Lying around the southern end of Tule Lake is a region known as the
"Lava Beds," a vast field of congealed lava intersected in every
direction with a labyrinth of fissures and caves and abrupt walls of
rock. The place is a natural fastness of such extraordinary defensive
strength that a handful of resolute men could hold it against an army
so long as provisions and ammunition held out. To this place the
Indians fled, numbering, with those who afterwards joined them of
fifty-three men with their families. And here took place during the
next year the most remarkable defense of which the annals of Indian
warfare afford any account, and the most unparalleled act of treachery,
the murder of Gen. Canby and Dr. Thomas, and the attempted murder of
Mr. Meacham and Mr. Dyer, who as commissioners had met the Indians
under a flag of truce to negotiate a treaty of peace.
The volume before us is a narrative of the events of this war and a
sketch of the history of the tribe during the preceding quarter of a
century. The author is the son of a Modoc mother and a white father.
His father and mother acted as interpreters in the negotiations
between the Indians and the peace commissioners, and had and deserved
the confidence of the best informed on both sides. The mother was a
woman of remarkable character, and is in fact the most heroic Indian
figure of the Modoc war. With such an ancestry it is not surprising
that the author should exhibit strong sympathy for the Indians. In
fact, he avows, as a reason for his book that "the Indian side has
never been given to the public yet." To the credit of his fairness it
must be said that his account of actual occurrences is hardly more
favorable to the Indians than that of others who witnessed and have
written of them. If fault can be found anywhere it is in an occasional
lack of details where details would lend a darker color to the facts
given.
The author modestly says of himself and his book:
"I have one drawback, I have no education, but I have tried to write
as plain as I could. I use no fine language in my writing, for I lack
education."
The book itself fully sustains this statement. But at times the very
lack of art and skill betrayed lends a certain pathos to the story.
The volume can hardly be called a valuable contribution to the history
of the war. Its chief interest will be to the pioneer of the locality
who will turn to it as he would to a newspaper of the time, or an old
letter written from the midst of the scenes it describes, and thus live
over again the scenes of this stirring period.
JULIUS A. STRATTON.
* * * * *
TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED. By Hudson Stuck, D. D., F. R. G.
S., Archdeacon of the Yukon. (N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914.
$3.50.)
This is a most interesting narrative of winter journeys with dog team
into many remote corners of the Yukon basin in Alaska from 1905 to
1913, connected primarily with the administration of the extensive
mission work of the Episcopal church among the natives of interior
Alaska.
It is the work of a man of trained mind who describes clearly and
entertainingly his own experiences from day to day in traveling through
drifting snow, over frozen rivers and lakes and across mountain ranges,
in temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero, making camps in the
open plains, on mountain sides, in log huts, and with Eskimos in their
igloos, and cooking his meals for himself and his helpers, and for his
dogs as well, under all the trying conditions of a subarctic climate in
mid-winter. Thousands of Alaskans go through similar experiences every
winter, but few have the ability to tell their experiences so clearly
and faithfully as Archdeacon Stuck has done.
The special value of this work, aside from its popular interest as a
narrative of winter travels in the interior of a new territory about to
be opened to development by the building of government railroads, is
threefold:
First--He calls attention very forcefully to the bad effects on the
natives of contact with a class of whites whom he calls "the low
down whites." He compares the good results of the mission work in
settlements remote from army posts and saloons, and the discouraging
results of the same kind of work in settlements where the natives are
preyed upon by immoral whites with bad whiskey as their principal
agency. He does not overdraw the facts. His words burn, but they are
true.
Second--He shows, from familiarity with the native languages, that
the Indians of the upper Yukon valley, above the mouth of the Tanana,
and of the entire Tanana valley, are Athabascans, speaking the same
language and having the same traditions as the Indians of the Mackenzie
river, while the Indians of the lower Yukon as far as Nulato, and of
the upper Kuskokwim, are of a wholly different primal stock, speaking
a language in no way related to that of the Athabascans. The Eskimos
along the coast, in the interior, and in the lower Kuskokwim, he
describes as all of one race with the Eskimos of the Arctic ocean
clear to the east of Greenland. He speaks highly of the Eskimos,
describing them as superior in character and in possibilities of mental
development to any of the tribes of American Indians.
Third--The different breeds of dogs, so invaluable to Alaska as the
universal friend and helper of prospectors and travelers in every part
of the territory, are described in a manner that will help to clear up
many of the long standing myths among Alaskans as to the origin of the
"Malamute," the "Huskie," and the "Siwash." The "Malamute," he shows,
is the typical Eskimo dog, the same in Alaska as in northern Labrador
and in Greenland. The "Huskie" is not a cross with a wolf, he avers,
contrary to the belief of many Alaskans, but was originally a cross
between hardy dogs like the Scotch collie and others with the Malamute
itself. The "Siwash" is simply one of the many kinds of native Indian
dogs, pure or mixed with other stocks.
It would have been better for Archdeacon Stuck if he had stopped with
telling what he knows from long experience among the natives, and had
not devoted a chapter in opposition to the building of government
railroads in Alaska. Here he prognosticates. He urges the building of
a system of wagon roads instead, which, in this twentieth century, is
strange advice from a man of his keen powers of observation in other
respects. Of course, not ten men in all Alaska will agree with him on
this point. His argument against railroads in Alaska is the same as
that advanced for many years by the big trading companies, which desire
above all things to prevent Alaskan development for their own good.
In dealing with the agricultural possibilities, which he minimizes,
he omits mention altogether of the great Susitna valley, which all
Alaskans know to be the best in Alaska from an agricultural standpoint.
It is very clear that Archdeacon Stuck is not an authority on
agriculture in any of its branches, and that he never lived a day on a
farm.
Aside from his opposition to government railroads in Alaska and his
doubts as to agricultural possibilities there, on which subjects a
minister of the gospel is not necessarily good authority, his book is
one of the best of the many recent popular works on Alaska.
JOHN E. BALLAINE.
* * * * *
THE COMING HAWAII. By Joseph King Goodrich. (Chicago, McClurg, 1914.
Pp. 329. $1.50.)
Like the author's earlier books on China, Mexico and Canada, The Coming
Hawaii is based partly on the writer's own experience and partly on
other authorities, which he cites in footnotes throughout the book.
Like his earlier works, also, it is written in a popular style and is
intended for the reader whose interest in Hawaii is a general one.
Mr. Goodrich made his first visit to Hawaii in 1866. A second and
longer one was made after the government there had become republican.
His residence in Japan as professor in the Imperial Government College
at Kyoto has enabled him to speak authoritatively on the attitude of
that country toward Hawaii.
In The Coming Hawaii, Mr. Goodrich sketches the history of the islands,
surveys present conditions and considers the relation of Hawaii, in the
future, to other countries.
The historical outline includes some notice of the myths and legends
which are interwoven with the early history of the Hawaiians, the rule
of native monarchs, the transition to American control, and the present
administration of the islands by the United States.
The discussion of present conditions is sufficiently broad in its
scope as to include almost everything of general interest. Among the
subjects presented are the origin of the Hawaiian race, the Hawaiians
as laborers, native arts, manners and customs, social life, natural
resources, volcanoes, the missionary movement, literature, and
immigration.
A most interesting chapter is the one on Agriculture in the Islands.
Mr. Goodrich commends the government for the interest it has taken in
this pursuit, as shown by valuable experiments with soils and crops,
and by its efforts to induce a desirable farming class to settle in
the islands. He believes that upon the development of its agriculture,
more than upon anything else, depends the economic future of Hawaii. It
is of special interest to us that Hawaii turns to the United States,
particularly to the Pacific states, to find a market for her products.
In considering the future of the Islands, Mr. Goodrich does not
overlook the opportunities they offer all for pleasure, to which
the scenery, the equable climate and the fine beaches, especially,
contribute.
The reader's enjoyment of the book is increased by the reproductions
of attractive photographs. It contains also a good bibliography and an
index.
MARY HUBBARD.
* * * * *
TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION, 1765-1865; TOGETHER WITH A LIST OF COUNTY
HISTORIES, ATLASES, AND BIOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS AND A LIST OF
TERRITORIAL AND STATE LAWS. By Solon J. Buck. (Springfield, Ill.
Illinois State Historical Library, 1914. Pp. 514.)
This book, published as volume nine of the Illinois Historical
Collections, is a product of the Historical Survey conducted by the
University of Illinois. It forms the first part of a comprehensive
bibliography of Illinois history, which is being prepared by Solon J.
Buck. An attempt is here made to list all works of travel covering
any part of the territory of Illinois during the period 1765-1865.
Full items of imprint and collation are given, followed by annotations
and references to notices and reviews. Such a thoroughgoing piece of
bibliography covering description and travel in America becomes of
general interest to all students of the Western Movement.
* * * * *
GUIDE TO THE MATERIALS IN LONDON ARCHIVES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES SINCE 1783. By Charles O. Paulin and Frederic L. Paxson.
(Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914. Pp. 642.)
This is the third volume to be issued by the Department of Historical
Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in the series of
Guides relating to the London Archives. The two previous volumes relate
to the History of the United States preceding 1783. The present volume
covers the period from 1783 to 1860. It therefore becomes of great
interest and value to students of Pacific Northwest History from the
time of the Nootka Sound Embroglio to the Acquisition of the Oregon
Territory. A glance at the index reveals more than sixty references to
Oregon with nearly as many to the Hudson's Bay Company and a goodly
number to Washington Territory.
* * * * *
ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,
1912-1913. (Los Angeles, J. B. Walters, 1914. Pp. 158.)
This volume marks the thirtieth anniversary of the organization of the
Historical Society of Southern California. In addition to articles
of direct bearing upon the local field are several papers of a more
general interest. Among the latter may be noted: "Events leading
to the Chinese exclusion act"; "Drake on the Pacific Coast"; and
"Anti-Japanese legislation in California."
* * * * *
Other Books Received
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Annual Report, 1913. (Chicago, The Society,
1914. Pp. 173.)
DOUGHTY, ARTHUR G., and MCARTHUR, DUNCAN A. Documents Relating to the
Constitutional History of Canada, 1791-1818. (Ottawa, Government, 1914.
Pp. 576.)
FAXON, FREDERICK W., _editor_. Annual magazine subject-index, 1913.
(Boston, Boston Book Company, 1914. Pp. 278.)
MICHIGAN HISTORICAL COMMISSION. First Annual Report, 1913. (Lansing,
Public Printer, 1914. Pp. 63.)
NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION. North Carolina Manual, 1913.
(Raleigh, Public Printer, 1913. Pp. 1053.)
PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY. Yearbook, 1914. (New York, The Pennsylvania
Society, 1914. Pp. 256.)
TREXLER, HARRISON A. Slavery in Missouri, 1804-1865. (Baltimore, The
Johns Hopkins Press, 1914. Pp. 259.)
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Professor Turner in the Northwest
All those in the Pacific Northwest who are interested in history have
received inspiration and uplift by the presence and work of Professor
Frederick Jackson Turner, formerly of the University of Wisconsin and
now of the faculty of Harvard University. He gave the Commencement
address at the University of Washington and continued at work there
with two courses of lectures during the first half of the Eleventh
Summer Session. He will later serve the University of Oregon in a like
capacity at the Summer Session of that institution. Professor Turner
has achieved an elevated and abiding position among the historical
scholars of America by his work on the influence and meaning of the
expanding West. His students are now scattered all over the country
transmitting the impulse received in his classes.
Researcher in Northwestern History
Victor J. Farrar has arrived from the University of Wisconsin to take
up his new work as Research Assistant in the University of Washington.
At Work on Russian Archives
Professor Frank A. Golder of the State College of Washington reports
success at St. Petersburg, where he is at work on the Russian archives
for the Historical Research Department of the Carnegie Institution.
Mountaineers' Lodge
The Mountaineers dedicated on June 21 a log-cabin lodge in the Cascade
Range near the Snoqualmie Pass, probably the most historic pass through
that range. The ceremonies were participated in by Professor Frederick
J. Turner, Major E. S. Ingraham, A. H. Denman, Sidney V. Bryant, Sofie
Hammer and Professor Edmond S. Meany.
History Convention
The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association held a
special meeting at the University of Washington on May 21-23, 1914, as
a part of the Pacific Association of Scientific Societies. The history
programmes were expanded to give representation to the Northwest
Association of Teachers of History, Government and Economics and
the proposed Pacific Coast Branch of the American Political Science
Association.
The programmes were as follows:
Thursday Morning.--Literature of the Northwest, Professor J. B. Homer,
Oregon Agricultural College; Spanish Voyages on the Pacific Coast,
Professor F. J. Teggart, University of California; Fur Trading Posts of
the Columbia River Basin, T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla.
Thursday Afternoon.--Schleiden's Diplomacy in Connection with the
American Civil War, Dr. Ralph H. Lutz, University of Washington;
Spanish-American War and the War of 1812, C. A. Sprague, Assistant
State Superintendent of Washington; The Basis of Interest in History,
Professor Joseph Schafer, University of Oregon; Natural Law and the
American Homestead Act, Professor John P. O'Hara, University of Oregon.
Friday Morning.--History of the Oxford Press, Professor Alice E. Page,
Willamette University; Holbach and the French Revolution, Professor M.
P. Cushing, Reed College; The Fundamental Factor in the Renaissance,
Professor Edward M. Hulme, University of Idaho.
Friday Afternoon.--Direct Government in Oregon, Professor W. F. Ogburn,
Reed College; The Teaching of Latin-American History and Institutions
in American Universities, Professor R. C. Clark, University of Oregon;
Commonwealth Legislatures, Professor L. B. Shippee, State College of
Washington; Law and Opportunity, Professor W. G. Beach, University of
Washington.
Annual Dinner, Friday Evening.--Professor O. H. Richardson, University
of Washington, Toastmaster; Presidential Address, Professor Edmond
S. Meany, University of Washington, President of the Pacific Coast
Branch of the American Historical Association; Professor R. C. Clark;
representing the proposed Pacific Coast Branch of the American
Political Science Association.
Greetings were voiced by the following: Professor Alice E. Page
of Willamette University, Professor W. F. Ogburn of Reed College,
Librarian E. O. S. Scholefield of the Provincial Library of British
Columbia, Assistant State Superintendent C. A. Sprague of Olympia,
Professor William A. Morris of the University of California, T. C.
Elliott of Walla Walla, Professor Young of the University of Utah,
Professor Leroy F. Jackson of the State College of Washington,
President C. J. Bushnell of Pacific University.
Saturday Morning.--Perspective in History, President C. J. Bushnell,
Pacific University; Training for Citizenship--What to Do? How to Do It?
Professor Leroy F. Jackson, State College of Washington; Discussion
opened by Miss Adella M. Parker, Broadway High School, Seattle; What
Shall Be the Treatment of Pacific Coast History in the American History
Course? Principal H. N. Gridley, Daniel Bagley School, Seattle.
Political Science Section.--State Administration of Health, Professor
U. G. Dubach, Oregon Agricultural College; Unemployment, Professor A.
R. Wood, Reed College: Discussion: The Report of the Committee of the
American Political Science Association on Instruction in Political
Science in Colleges and Universities.
The Programme Committee consisted of Professor William A. Morris,
University of California, Secretary-Treasurer of the Pacific Coast
Branch of the American Historical Association; Professor Edward
McMahon, University of Washington; Miss Rose Glass, Franklin High
School, Seattle; Ellis H. Rogers, Stadium High School, Tacoma; Leo
Jones, University of Washington, representing the Proposed Political
Science Branch.