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248

KLATSASSAN.

Take it from him,” was the stern command. Instantly
two stout Californians came forward to seize the chief.
He shook them off him, and rushing aside, drew the knife
and dashed it on the floor. Next, at the captain’s orders.
irons were brought and their hands and ancles fettered.
With no slight astonishment and disgust did these Red
Indians, all their lives free as the wind, now find them-
selves manacled and fast bound in misery and iron. They
had fancied (as afterwards transpired) that they would be
allowed to retain their liberty, and come and go about
the camp as they pleased, until the chief arrived who was
to try them. They soon found out what a terrible mis-
take they had made! Klatsassan seemed to feel his
downfall more than the others. He was plunged in misery.
He tried to lay violent hands on himself. Foiled in this
attempt, by the vigilance of his guard, he next sought to
bribe the captain. He offered him two thousand dollars’
worth of furs if he would let him go. He promised him
his daughter, if he would restore him his liberty. Her at-
tractions,as he explained to the Captain, were of no common
order, and she wouldbe no unsuitable matefor even so great
a warrior. She was very tall, he stated, and graceful as a
deer. She had hands and feet of a surprising smallness
and beauty. Her accomplishments were many and rare.
She could run with a wondrous swiftness. She could
‘eviscerate salmon with twice the celerity of any other
woman.

But no! Justice was not to be seduced, even by such
fascinating attributes. The chief was told he must
remain a prisoner, and be taken to the white man’s town
on the Sitatqua, namely Quesnelmouth on the Fraser
River, and there remain till the arrival of the great judge,
before whom he and his compeers must be brought.
Then Klatsassan resigned himself to his fate, and became
quite peaceable. By degrees he found his bondage
less irksome than at first. There was much to excite his
interest and curiosity in the ways and manners of the
whites, to him so novel. Then, the fare of the camp
was any thing but ungrateful toa man who had been
living for the last two months on dried berries, or roots,
or even sometimes on the bark of trees.

And here a word on the food of these Indians may be
not without its interest. The hunting Indians—and
Katsassan’s tribe belonged to this division—were very
different from the fishing Indians of the coast in many
respects, amongst others in their food; for as those subsist
mainly on fish, these have considerably greater variety
in their fare. In the winter months there were different
kinds of game. Deer abounded in all parts of the
country. There was also, in the Chilcoaten district, the
Cariboo, the British Columbian reindeer, often met with
on his way from the woods which cover the slopes of the
Rocky Mountains to the valleys near the sea, or on his
return journey. Or again, there were plenty of mountain
sheep or mountain goats, occupying the high lands, not
only near the Rocky Mountains, but in their spurs, which
jut off westward towards the coast. Then there was the
bear, grizzly (more rarely met with), black, or brown,
which would furnish an excellent steak (of which the
present writer can vouch that there might be worse fare
fora hungry man). These and other quarry would reward
the cunning huntsman. The Indians are naturally indo-
lent, and when all their supplies are exhausted, it takes
a day or two of starvation to move them to go forth on the
chase. They are also somewhat voracious, and when the

‘other principal berries are the sallal, the huckle-berry

hunter has returned with his deer or sheep, they often eat
thereof more than is seemly.

Falling on the half-cooked venison or mutton, the
huntsmen, with their squaws and papooses, devour it incon-
tinently ; when they have had enough they sleep, and on
waking, seek it yet again, until all is consumed. The
more prudent or less gluttonous, dry and preserve what
is not required for immediate use. The next article of
Indian consumption are the roots, which are very abun-
dant in that country. The squaws dig them up with
long pointed sticks. In April come the salmon, which
till September continue to ascend the streams. They
come school upon school, of varying degrees of excellence,
Those that appear in June are the finest. They area
good size, averaging from twenty to thirty-five pounds;
some have been caught much heavier, sometimes reaching
the extraordinary weight of seventy pounds.

By the Fraser and other rivers, and their tributaries,
these creatures pass up into the interior all over
the country, in search of their spawning ground, which
they find sometimes only in the streams which rise in
the Rocky Mountains, after a weary journey of well nigha
thousand miles. Some idea of the rate at which they
travel may be formed from the fact that in the year 1862,
a school appeared off Lillooet, ten days after they had
been seen at the mouth of the river, 250 miles distant.
They come in such crowds that they crush one another to
death, and thousands are seen dead along the river's
bank. The Indians catch them in large numbers; one
way is by spearing them, a picturesque sight. In the
bow of the canoe is the flaring pitch-pine, which both
attracts the fish and gives light for their capture. The
Indian stands with his two-headed spear ready to impale
his victim, which flashes to and fro in the dark stream
beneath. Around are the grand old rocks. No sound is
heard save the ceaseless roar of the not distant rapids, or
the gentle plash of the paddle, as the Indian in the stern
keeps the tiny craft in her place.

The Indians smoke and dry the salmon (at least the
more provident of them do), and stow them away in
caches for winter use. Yet in a severe winter, the
supply will sometimes fall short, and then they have
nothing left to live on (unless, indeed, there chance
to be a white settlement near where they can beg or
pilfer flour) save and except their stock of dried fruits or
berries. These grow in great profusion and variety.
They are vastly superior to the wild fruits of Europe,
often attaining a size and flavour such as only cultivation
can impart in England. The most serviceable of these
berries is the “service-berry,” perhaps so called for this
reason. It is twice the size of a black currant. The

or blue-berry, the wortle-berry, salmon-berry, cranberry,
raspberry, strawberry, Oregon grape, gooseberry, and
currant.

More need not be said to show that, in ordinary times,
the active Indian hunter need never be at a loss for
means of life, particularly if his squaw do her part in the
matter of roots and berries, and in drying the salmon
and the venison her lord brings home. But of late our
friend Klatsassan had been on very short commons.
Indeed, ever since the whites’ occupation of his country,
he and his people had been half-starved. Their cAches
and fishing-gear in the lakes and streams had’ been |
destroyed, and they hardly dared to fire a shot, for fear

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