September with its gales had arrived, the last of the sea-otter
hunters, except Captain John and family, we had met beyond North
Island, leaving the coast for the winter; our rations were getting
short, everything induced me to push forward as rapidly as possible,
and after lying for several hours on Frederick Island waiting for the
sea to run down, I decided to advance. When we had rounded the first
point and were fairly into the midst of the great rollers--"turn
back! turn back!" exclaimed one of my men, which refusing to do he
added; "My God! See the distance we must go." We had already on two
or three occasions encountered sufficiently rough seas to give me
great confidence in the seaworthiness of my canoe, which, though I had
ribbed and decked fore and aft, every Indian who saw it thought unfit
for the expedition, being, they said, too small, weak and cranky. I
wished they could have seen her ride the great seas which come rolling
in like mountains, before we reached land again. Ben Melin, a sailor
of thirteen years experience on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, says
he never saw so small a boat out-live such a sea. "We will all be
drowned," said Bill, a young Hydah Indian, at the same time stripping
off his clothing as I turned the prow of our little ship towards the
shore. And yet we had not taken aboard two buckets full of water,
which swept over the covered prow and would have swamped us, but for
the decking. But everywhere along the shore we were nearing, and which
had been described to me by Chief Edensaw as affording a good camping
place, the sea was breaking with a loud roar. Surveying it carefully
we discovered a narrow opening between two great rocks, where the
interval between the breakers was thought to be sufficiently long to
enable us by skillful management to pass through it. I had steered
thus far with my left hand--my right hand being entirely useless--by
strapping the paddle to the side of the canoe near the stern, and
after directing my men to assist me with their oars upon a given
signal, decided to go through. First, with the assistance of Bill
removing my heavy boots and rubber coat, just after a great sea had
broken "Pull both oars, heavy, right oars, now both oars, with all
your might!" were the orders as we rode through in splendid style, on
the crest of a great wave; but when we supposed we were beyond their
reach, a heavy cross breaker rolling in unobserved, struck the canoe
broad-sides and dashed it violently against a sharp rock. Bill being
nearest the prow, and almost naked, was the first to jump overboard,
myself following, and both placing ourselves between the canoe and the
rock, clinging to the former, saved it from destruction by the two
succeeding breakers, which swept us so near land, that by great effort
we were able to lighten the canoe by throwing things ashore and then
haul her on the rocks. A split about three feet in length, above water
line, was the only injury it sustained.
_Camping in a Cave, we are driven out double quick at midnight by a
very high tide._
We had sought refuge from a storm in a little rock-bound cove on the
south shore of an inlet called by the Indians Athlow, where we built a
fire and spread our blankets in a big cave washed out by the sea. As
night approached the more prudent suggested that the storm might cause
a high tide to rise over us while sleeping; though the opinion
prevailed that only the full moon tides in conjunction with severe
northwesters ever reached so high, and why take the trouble to pitch a
tent, when our ready made house of stone afforded us so much better
protection from the rain and wind. And so while we lay unconscious
the storm increased, the tide rose higher and higher, until at
midnight the sound of the waves dashing against the mouth of the cave
awakened me. Arousing my men, who were still sleeping soundly, with
all possible despatch, nearly cracking our skulls against the sides of
the cave in the darkness, by clambering over the rocks at the base of
a high precipice between the breakers we succeeded in removing all our
supplies and camp equippage to a place of safety.
A HYDAH MOTHER'S REJOICING OVER THE RETURN OF HER SON, SUPPOSED TO BE
LOST.
A hard pull up the swift rapids which extend for about two miles
across the divide where tides of Skidegate Channel meet those of
Skidegate Inlet, brought us into the waters of the latter, in which we
soon passed several parties of Indians camping at, and _en route_ to
salmon streams for their winter supply of dog salmon. Bill having
heard that his mother was with one of these parties, asked permission
to land and see her. When the old woman saw her son approaching, she
ran down the beach to meet him, and falling on her knees, uttered a
wild strain of joyful exclamations over his safe return.