Tales of the First White Men along the Coast
Nekahni Mountain and Tallapus--Quootshoi and Toulux--Original Beauty
of Clatsop Plains--The Story Told by Celiast and Cultee--Casting of
the "Thing" upon the Beach--The Pop-corn--Burning of the
Ship--Konapee, the Iron-worker--Franchere's Account of Soto--The
Treasure Ship on the Beach at Nekahni Mountain--The Black Spook and
Mysterious Chest--The Inscription Still Found on the Rock--The Beeswax
Ship--Quiaculliby.
We have told something of the mountains, rivers, and lakes which make up
the framework of our Pacific North-west. We have also tried to see the
land through the eyes of the native red men, and have called back a few of
the grotesque, fantastic, sometimes heroic, sometimes pathetic legends
which they associated with every phase of their country.
Now the very centre of Indian lore, the Parnassus, the Delphi, the Dodona,
of the lower Columbia River Indians, is the stretch of mingled bluff,
plain, lake, sand-dune, and mountain, marvellously diversified, from the
south shore of the Columbia's mouth to the sacred Nekahni Mountain. It is
a wonderously picturesque region. From it came Tallapus, the Hermes
Trismegistus of the Oregon Indians. Its forests were haunted by the
Skookums and Cheatcos. From the volcanic pinnacles of Swallallochast, now
known as Saddle Mountain, the thunder bird went forth on its daily quest
of a whale, while at the mountain's foot Quootshoi and Toulux produced the
first men from the monstrous eggs of that same great bird. In short, that
region was rich in legend, as it was, and still is, in scenic beauty.
It is said by the Indians that a hundred years or more ago it was much
finer than now, for the entire breadth of Clatsop Plains was sodded with
deep green grass and bright with flowers almost the whole year through.
This bright-hued plain lay open to the sea, and across its southern end
flowed three tide streams, having the aboriginal names of Nekanikum,
Ohanna, and Neahcoxie.
It was a veritable paradise for the Indians. The forests were filled with
elk (moosmoos) and deer (mowitch), while fish of almost every variety
thronged the waters, from that king of all fish now known as the royal
chinook of the Columbia down to such smaller fry as the smelt and the
herring, which even now sometimes so throng the lesser streams that the
receding tide leaves them by the thousands on the muddy flats. On the
beach were infinite numbers of clams; and as an evidence of their
abundance we can now see shell mounds by the acre, in such quantity,
indeed, that some of the modern roads have been paved with shells.
This favoured region was the home of the Clatsops. There, too, according
to the legends, the first white men landed. The story of the first
appearance of the white men has reached our own times in various forms,
but the most coherent account is through the word of Celiast, an Indian
woman who died many years ago, but who became the wife of one of the
earliest white settlers and the mother of Silas Smith, now dead, but known
in his time as one of the best authorities on Indian history. Celiast was
the daughter of Kobaiway, a chieftain whose sway extended over the land of
the Clatsops in the time of the Astor Company a century ago. Celiast was
in fact the best authority for many of the Indian legends. But she is not
alone in the knowledge of this appearance of the white men, for a number
of other Indians tell the substance of the same tale. Among others an old
Indian of Bay Centre, Washington, by the name of Charlie Cultee, related
the story to Dr. Franz Boas, whose work in the Smithsonian Institute is
known as among the best on the native races. This is the story, a
composite of that of Celiast and that of Cultee.
It appears that an old woman living near the ancient Indian village of
Ne-Ahkstow, about two miles south of the mouth of the Great River (the
Columbia) had lost her son. "She wailed for a whole year, and then she
stopped." One day, after her usual custom, she went to the seaside, and
walked along the shore towards Clatsop. While on the way she saw something
very strange. At first it seemed like a whale, but, when the old woman
came close, she saw that it had two trees standing upright in it. She
said, "This is no whale; it is a monster." The outside was all covered
over with something bright, which they afterwards found was copper. Ropes
were tied all over the two trees, and the inside of the Thing was full of
iron.
While the old woman gazed in silent wonder, a being that looked like a
bear, but had a human face, though with long hair all over it, came out of
the Thing that lay there. Then the old woman hastened home in great fear.
She thought this bearlike creature must be the spirit of her son, and that
the Thing was that about which they had heard in the Ekanum tales.
The people, when they had heard the strange story, hastened with bows and
arrows to the spot. There, sure enough, lay the Thing upon the shore, just
as the old woman had said. Only instead of one bear there were two
standing on the Thing. These two creatures,--whether bears or people the
Indians were not sure,--were just at the point of going down the Thing
(which they now began to understand was an immense canoe with two trees
driven into it) to the beach, with kettles in their hands.
As the bewildered people watched them they started a fire and put corn
into the kettles. Very soon it began to pop and fly with great rapidity up
and down in the kettles. The pop-corn (the nature of which the Clatsops
did not then understand) struck them with more surprise than anything
else,--and this is the one part of the story preserved in every version.
Then the corn-popping strangers made signs that they wanted water. The
chief sent men to supply them with all their needs, and in the meantime he
made a careful examination of the strangers. Finding that their hands were
the same as his own, he became satisfied that they were indeed men. One of
the Indians ran and climbed up and entered the Thing. Looking into the
interior, he found it full of boxes. There were also many strings of
buttons half a fathom long. He went out to call in his relatives, but,
before he could return, the ship had been set on fire. Or, in the
language of Charlie Cultee, "It burnt just like fat." As a result of the
burning of the ship, the Clatsops got possession of the iron, copper, and
brass.
Now the news of this strange event became noised abroad, and the Indians
from all the region thronged to Clatsop to see and feel of these strange
men with hands and feet just like ordinary men, yet with long beards and
with such peculiar garb as to seem in no sense men. There arose great
strife as to who should receive and care for the strange men. Each tribe
or village was very anxious to have them, or at least one of them. The
Quienaults, the Chehales, and the Willapas, from the beach on the north
side, came to press their claims. From up the river came the Cowlitz, the
Cascades, and even the Far-off Klickitat. The different tribes almost had
a battle for possession, but, according to one account, it was finally
settled that one of the strange visitors should stay with the Clatsop
chief, and that one should go with the Willapas on the north side of the
Great River. According to another, they both stayed at Clatsop.
From this first arrival of white men, the Indians called them all
"Tlehonnipts," that is, "Of those who drift ashore." One of the men
possessed the magical art of taking pieces of iron and making knives and
hatchets. It was indeed to the poor Indians a marvellous gift of Tallapus,
their god, that they should have a man among them that could perform that
priceless labour, for the possession of iron knives and hatchets meant the
indefinite multiplying of canoes, huts, bows and arrows, weapons, and
implements of every sort. The iron-maker's name was Konapee. The Indians
kept close watch of him for many days and made him work incessantly. But,
as the tokens of his skill became numerous, his captors held him in great
favour and allowed him more liberty. Being permitted to select a site for
a house, he chose a spot on the Columbia which became known to the
Indians, even down to the white occupancy of the region, as "Konapee."
Among other possessions, Konapee had a large number of pieces of money,
which, from the description, must have been Chinese "cash." From this some
have inferred that Konapee must have been a Chinaman, and the wrecked ship
a Chinese or Japanese junk. This does not, however, follow. For the
Spaniards had become entirely familiar with China, and any Spanish vessel
returning from the Philippine Islands or from China would have been likely
to have a supply of Chinese money on board.
There is an interesting bit of testimony which seems to belong to this
same story of Konapee. It is found in the book by Gabriel Franchere in
regard to the founding of Astoria, the book which was the chief authority
of Irving in his fascinating narrative entitled _Astoria_. Franchere
describes meeting an old man, eighty years old, in 1811, at the Cascades,
whose name was Soto, and who said that his father was one of four
Spaniards wrecked on Clatsop beach many years before. His father had tried
to reach the land of the sunrise by going eastward, but having reached the
Cascades was prevented from going farther and had there married an Indian
woman, Soto's mother. It is thought likely that the father of Soto was
Konapee. The two stories seem to fit quite well. If this be true, it is
likely that Konapee's landing was as early as 1725. If all the details of
Konapee's life could be known, what a romance might be made of it! There
is no reason to suppose that he ever saw other white men or ever got away
from the region where the fortune of shipwreck had cast him. Yet he was in
possession of one of the greatest geographical secrets of that country,
for the hope of the discovery of some great "River of the West," the
elusive stream which many believed to be a pure fabrication of Aguilar and
other old navigators, had enticed many a "marinere" from many a far
"countree."
In any event it is probable that the Columbia River Indians had got a
general knowledge of the whites and their arts from Konapee long before
the authentic discovery of the river was made. Especially it seems that
from him they got a knowledge of iron and implements fashioned from it.
Captain Cook mentions that when he visited the coast in 1780 the Indians
manifested no surprise at the weapons or implements of iron. In fact even
all whites who supposed themselves to be the first to visit this coast
found the Indians ready to trade and especially eager to get iron. A new
era of trade and business seems to have been inaugurated among these
Clatsops and Chinooks dating from about the supposed time of Konapee. But
he was by no means the only one of his race to be cast upon the Oregon
shore. There is a story of a treasure ship cast upon the beach near
Nekahni Mountain. This mountain, the original home of Tallapus, while on
its summit the great chief god Nekahni himself dwelt, is one of the
noblest pieces of Nature's art all along the shore. Fronting the ocean
with a precipitous rampart of rock five hundred feet high and thence
rising in a wide sweeping park clad in thick turf, and dotted here and
there with beautiful spruce and fir trees, to an elevation of twenty-five
hundred feet, the sacred Nekahni presents as fine a combination of the
beautiful and sublime as can be seen upon a whole thousand miles of coast.
It was a favourite spot with the natives. For lying upon its open and
turfy slopes they could gaze upon many miles of sea, and could no doubt
light up their signal fires which might be seen over a wide expanse of
beach. Very likely there, too, they celebrated the mysterious rites of
Nekahni and Tallapus.
One pleasant afternoon in early summer, a large group of natives assembled
upon the lower part of Nekahni, almost upon the edge of the precipitous
cliff with which it fronts the sea. Gazing into the offing they saw a
great object like a huge bird drawing near from the outer sea. It
approached the shore, and then from it a small boat with a number of men
and a large black box put out to land. Coming to the beach the men took
out the box and also a black man whom the Indians supposed to be a spook
or evil demon. Going a little way up the beach the men dug a hole into
which they lowered the box, and then having struck down the black man they
threw him on top of the box and, covering it up, they returned to the
ship, which soon disappeared from sight. On account of the black man
buried with the box, the superstitious Indians dared not undertake to
exhume the contents of the grave. But the story was handed from one
generation to another, and it came to constitute the story of the
"treasure ship."
In recent times the idea that here some chest, with gold and jewels in
the most approved style of buried fortunes, might be found has caused much
searching. The ground has been dug over for the sight of the regulation
rusty handle which is to lead to the great iron-bound chest with its
doubloons of gold and crucifixes of pearls. Parties have come from the
Eastern States to join the search. One party even secured the guidance of
spirits who professed to locate the treasure. But though the spirit-led
enthusiasts turned over every stone and dug up the sand for many feet
along the beach, they found never an iron-bound chest, and never a sign of
the treasure. There is, however, in plain sight now, on a rock at the foot
of Nekahni Mountain, a character cut in the rock bearing a rude
resemblance to a cross. Some think it looks more like the letters, I.H.S.,
the sacred emblem of the Catholic Church. There is also what seems to be
quite a distinct arrow pointing in a certain direction. But the treasure
remains unfound.
The next legend of the prehistoric white man is that of the "Beeswax
Ship." This, too, has a real confirmation in the presence of large
quantities of beeswax at a point also near Nekahni Mountain, just north of
the mouth of the Nehalem River. Some naturalists claimed at one time that
this substance was simply the natural paraffine produced from the products
of coal or petroleum. But more recently cakes of the substance stamped
with the sacred letters, "I.H.S.," together with tapers, and even one
piece with a bee plainly visible within, may be considered incontestable
proof that this is indeed beeswax, while the letters, "I.H.S." denote
plainly enough the origin of the substance in some Spanish colony. An
interesting point in connection with this is the historical fact that on
June 16, 1769, the ship _San Jose_ left La Paz, Lower California, for San
Diego, and was never heard from again. Some have conjectured that the _San
Jose_ was the "Beeswax Ship," driven far north by some storm or mutiny. As
to the peculiar fact that a ship should have been entirely loaded with
beeswax it has been conjectured that some of the good padres of the
Spanish Missions meant to provide a new station with a large amount of wax
for the sake of providing tapers for their service, the lighted candles
proving then, as they do now, a matter of marvel and wonder to the
natives, and, with other features of ceremonial worship, having a great
effect to bring them into subjection to the Church.
The Indian legend runs on to the effect that several white men were saved
from the wreck of the "Beeswax Ship," and that they lived with them. But
having infringed upon the family rights of the natives, they became
obnoxious, and were all cut off by an attack from them. One story,
however, asserts that there was one man left, a blue-eyed, golden-haired
man, that he took a Nehalem woman, and that from him was descended a
fair-complexioned progeny, of which a certain chieftain who lived at a
beautiful little lake on Clatsop plains, now known as Culliby Lake, was
our Quiaculliby.
Such in brief survey, are some of the stories which preserve the record of
the space betwixt the Indian age of myth and the period of authentic
discovery.