because they can carry such freight easier
than can men on hossback. From the
heads and their eyes painted black round
I began to think this must be a war party,
but the arrival of the other canoes with
women and children soon settled that—it
was only a travelling party going home
from Nanaimo or Victoria, and that the
heads had been picked up promiscous-like
by the four advance canoes. Then they
had a loud consultation, and I could see
that they were Eucaltaws, and could pick
up enough to show me that they were now
in doubt about our whereabouts. The new
comers ridiculed the notion of us being
here, and there was a good deal of angry
talk about us being let to give the slip so
easily. 'They must be now past Qualicum,
and you'll never catch them,' an old fellow
said, and as I peeped through the branches,
unseen to them you may be sure, a kind of
cold sweat stood on me when I saw that it
was the old Eucaltaw chief, whom I knew
well, and, what was more, who knew me
well. About that time, somehow or other,
I felt like as if a knife was being drawn
round my neck!

"I was thankful, however, when I saw it
was getting dark. Hitherto they had never
suspected that we were in the neighbourhood,
or that a white man was in the canoe
at all; so that I felt as I hope never to feel
agin when I saw the varmint prepare to
camp close by for the night, and camp they
did, one lot right under the big tree up
which I was. I felt pretty certain that
they couldn't see me, the tree was so thick;
but it was as much as I could do to keep
from chokin' when the thick smoke rose
up among the branches of the tree. Once,
indeed, I did give a bit of a cough, and an
old woman looked and said, ' There's a
'coon in that tree—a 'coon eats well!'
How I felt then! But it wasn't noticed,
and soon they fell to eatin' and drinkin'
—drinkin' whisky; at which I felt both
pleased and yet scared. For I knew if
they took enough they would soon be all
asleep; but if they ketched me afore that,
pity me! By this time it was quite dark,
and I began to feel safe, though sitting
on a branch among broken twigs was
very uncomfortable. For the boys I felt all
right. I know'd they'd look arter
themselves—ketch an Injun for that. Then the
wind changed, and I got clear of the
smoke: but a new danger threatened me.
I thought in their carelessness they would
hev set fire to the tree; and, indeed, the
flame did begin to lick up the trunk, but
the old woman, who was apparently a
slave, put it out with a mat. The old
woman, I noticed, got less whisky than the
others, and was soberer. Then as the stuff
mounted into their heads they got fighting,
and one man ketched up a musket and
let fly at another. Then there was a
hullabaloo in the camp, and knives were out,
and muskets cocked. Then they quieted
down again, and soon were all asleep
—all except the old woman, who was
waitin' on the shot man. Sometimes I
would nod and drop asleep, until I
thought I would have slipped down among
the branches. At other times I thought I
might venture down, and take further into
the woods; but I was afraid of the old
woman givin' the alarm. Beside, I warn't
sure if some of the other camps were all as
drunk as this one. I had my two revolvers
with me, and began to count whether I
should not pop at them, but that thought
was soon run out of my head. I was
gettin' hungry, and would hev liked a bit
of the salmon the Injuns had been eating,
and maybe, too, a drink of their whisky;
but I could never make up my mind to
do it, until it was again daylight, and as
I thought my troubles began to dawn.
Just then, as often happens on that coast,
the wind began to rise with the sun, and
this time from the south. The old woman
now roused up the men, telling them that
the breeze was fair, and it was time to be
off. Some of them were so drunk that they
couldn't rise, and one of them was, I guess,
dead; but they carried them all to the
canoes, and in a quarter of an hour were off.
I fixed myself where I was until they were
out of sight and fairly gone, and then I
descended, stiff as a poker. Lookin' over
to the boys' tree, I saw they were gone,
which was not so pleasant, for I didn't
like the idee of paddlin' the canoe all the
way to Nanaimo myself; but just as I was
liften' it over the logs, first one pair of
black eyes and then another peered at me
through the bushes; and then one small
Injun emerged, more dead than alive, and
then another. We then all got in, and
paddled near about until we came to
Portugee Joe's, in Nanoose, afore we took
anything to eat. Joe's squaw was only in the
house, and from her we got some fixins.
That night we got to Nanaimy, and I guv
my letter to the cap'n of the mail-boat, and
returned. I was mighty glad though that
I didn't require to do it in the canoe, for
the cap'n of a gunboat going north offered
me a pass up, which I took, you bet!"