The Terror of the Coast. Chris Arnett
vessels.” 56
Knowing that the suspect was from the village of Clemclemalits, Douglas sent a message ashore by canoe, inviting the Cowichan si’em on board the Beaver “to a conference in which I hope to be able to prevail upon them to surrender the murderer quietly and without a recourse to violent measures, which I consider justifiable only as a last resource.” 57 The bearer of this message may have been Tomo Antoine, who was enlisted in the Voltigeurs as an interpreter. Fluent in English, French and Hul’qumi’num dialects, Antoine may also have been instrumental in obtaining the co-operation of certain Cowichan si’em to resolve the dispute, possibly by the distribution of gifts. 58 The messengers returned to the vessels in the evening “with the intelligence that the chiefs of the Camegins [Cowichans] agreed to hold a conference near the mouth of the river; when they will meet us tomorrow morning, instead of coming on board the boat which they fear to do.” 59
Early the next morning, Friday, January 7, the British troops landed and marched past the village of Comiaken where they were greeted by Tsosieten before taking up position on the rocky knoll behind the village (Comiaken Hill) where the ancestors of the place came down from the sky in the distant past. 60 Douglas records what transpired that morning:
The tent was immediately pitched, a fire lighted, on a pretty rising oak ground and at the suggestion of “Soseiah” [Tsosieten] the Camegin chief … the sailors and marines were thrown a little back from the river in order to conceal their numbers, as he expressed a fear that the Camegins would be afraid to come if they saw so large a force. These arrangements being completed and the ground occupied, we prepared to receive the Indians as they arrived. 61
In the course of two hours the Indians began to drop down the River in their war canoes, and landed a little above the position we occupied; and last of all arrived two large canoes crowded with the relatives and friends of the murderer, hideously painted, and evidently prepared to defend him to the last extremity; the criminal himself being among the number. On landing they made a furious dash towards the point I occupied, a little in advance of the Force and their demeanour was altogether so hostile that the marines were with little difficulty restrained from opening fire upon them. When the first excitement had a little abated, the murderer was brought into my presence and I succeeded after a good deal of trouble, in taking him into custody; and sent him a close prisoner on board the steam vessel. 62
The “good deal of trouble” mentioned by Douglas was not a physical struggle but protracted speeches on both sides with Tomo Antoine as interpreter. Moresby, the gunnery lieutenant of the Thetis, records that Douglas threatened the Cowichan with violence if the wanted man was not given up. According to Moresby, Douglas raised his hand and said: “Hearken, O Chiefs! I am sent by King George who is your friend, and who desires right only between your tribes and his men. If his men kill an Indian, they are punished. If your men do likewise, they must also suffer. Give up the murderer, and let there be peace between the peoples, or I will burn your lodges and trample out your tribes.” 63
According to Douglas, the Cowichan man alleged to have been the warrior who shot Brown “was produced by his friends armed cap a pie [head to foot] and was heard in his defence, which went to declare that he was innocent of the crime laid to his charge. I listened to all that was alleged in his defence, and promised to give him a fair hearing at Nanaimo. He was on those terms surrendered.” 64
What Douglas may or may not have known was that the man surrendered to him that day was not the warrior who killed Brown, but a slave (skwuyuth) offered instead as compensation. 65 According to Hwulmuhw law it would be inappropriate to hand over a man of high rank to atone for the death of a person of low rank which Brown, in the Hudson’s Bay hierarchy, clearly was. Possibly Douglas was aware of what was going on but agreed to the exchange as a way to avoid hostilities with the Cowichan who were recognized as the most militarily capable threat against the infant colony. In doing so he resolved the dispute between the Hwunitum and the Clemclemalits according to Hwulmuhw law.
With the slave in custody, Douglas “remained on the ground for several hours,” addressed the two hundred assembled Cowichan and distributed gifts signifying to the si’em that a peaceful balance between the Fort Victoria Hwunitum and the Cowichan was restored. 66 How much of the following speech by Douglas, given its content, was correctly translated by Tomo Antoine is not known:
I afterwards addressed the Indians who were there assembled, on the subject of their relations with the Colony and the Crown. I informed them that the whole of their country was a possession of the British crown, and that Her Majesty the Queen had given me a special charge, to treat them with justice and humanity and to protect them against violence of all foreign nations which might attempt to molest them, so long as they remained at peace with the settlements. I told them to apply to me for redress, if they met with any injury or injustice at the hands of the Colonists and not to retaliate and above all things, I undertook to impress upon the minds of the chiefs that they must respect Her Majesty’s warrant, and surrender any criminal belonging to their respective tribes, on demand of the Court Magistrate and that resistance to the Civil power, would expose them to be considered enemies. I also told them that being satisfied with their conduct in the present conference, peace was restored and they might resume their trade with Fort Victoria. The distribution of a little tobacco and some speechifying on the part of the Indians, expressions of their regard and friendship for the whites closed the proceedings and the conference broke up. 67
Two days later the expedition continued towards Nanaimo in search of Siamasit, the other man involved in Peter Brown’s death. Siamasit was the son of a si’em of Tiwulhuw on the Nanaimo River, and “was regarded as the Hero of the Tribe.” 68 Siamasit’s relations, according to Hwulmuhw law, offered furs in compensation for the death of the low ranking Hudson’s Bay employee, but Douglas was not prepared to negotiate. He regarded the Nanaimo as posing little threat to Hwunitum interests “not having the reputation of being so numerous or warlike in their habits as the Cowegin [Cowichan] Tribe.” 69 Douglas seized Siamasit’s father and “another influential Indian” as hostages. After some difficulty, including a bloodless assault by marines and colonial militia on Kwulsiwul, the furthest downstream village on the Nanaimo River, Douglas marched on the village of Tiwulhuw and informed the people “that they should be treated as enemies, and their villages destroyed, if they continued longer to protect the murderer.” 70 Siamasit was soon tracked down at his place of refuge on the Chase River where he was captured by Basil Botineau of the Victoria Voltigeurs:
A few inches of snow had fallen and his footmarks were traced, he was chased in fact, to a river (since named from this incident, Chase River); here the scout Basil Botineau found himself at fault, and, as it was getting dark, would have abandoned the search had not the Indian, who was hiding under the driftwood, snapped his flint-lock musket at him, but the priming and charge were damp and neither exploded. The scout followed the direction of the sound, but in the dusk could not see the Indian, who tried a second shot at him when the priming only exploded, but the flash exposing his hiding place, he was immediately discovered, knocked down and handcuffed. 71
On the cold morning of January 17, 1853, there was a brief trial on the quarterdeck of the Beaver, where a jury of naval officers found their prisoners guilty of the murder of Peter Brown. Siamasit and the slave shared “the melancholy distinction of being the first persons in British Columbia to be condemned by a jury and sentenced to death.” 72 Siamasit’s mother begged the British to hang her husband instead as “he was old and could not live long … and one for one was Indian law.” 73 In a deliberate move to intimidate the local population, the men were executed at the south end of Protection Island, across from the site of the first coal shaft sunk on Nanaimo Harbour in the “presence of the whole Nanaimo Tribe, the scene appearing to make a deep impression on their minds.” 74
Douglas was pleased at the outcome of the brief campaign, particularly the encounter with the Cowichan. In a letter to the Colonial Office, Douglas wrote:
I am happy to report that I found both the Cowegin and Nanaimo Tribes more amenable to reason than was supposed; the objects of the Expedition having,