The Terror of the Coast. Chris Arnett
name, as by the effect of intimidation. The surrender of a criminal, as in the case of the Cowegin murderer, without bloodshed, by the most numerous and warlike of the Native Tribes on Vancouver’s Island, at the demand of the Civil powers may be considered, as an epoch, in the history of our Indian relations, which augers well for the future peace and prosperity of the Colony. That object however could not have been effected without the exhibition of a powerful force. 75
Douglas also informed the Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters in London that the recent expedition succeeded in allaying the fears of Hwunitum colonists and impressing upon Hwulmuhw factions the efficacy of British military power: “War was carried to their door last winter and they are sensible that at any moment we can repeat the experiment.” 76
The 1853 expedition to the Cowichan River and Wentuhuysen Inlet also established the pattern of British exploitation of interfamily rivalry to achieve results that were, it appears, mutually beneficial to the parties involved. Blankets and other gifts were used to enlist co-operation. While seen as bribery by British standards, from a Hwulmuhw point of view the exchange of gifts was a solemn recognition of alliance between Hwulmuhw and Hwunitum interests for common purpose. One of the single largest expenditures of the entire expedition was fourteen pounds, six shillings “for secret service by Indians at Cowegin and Nanaimo.” 77 Where “bribery” failed, the British resorted to hostage-taking and threats of deadly force to achieve their ends.
The British strategy of “divide and conquer” was crucial to their success in a land where they were vastly outnumbered by Hwulmuhw populations. A comparison of population figures compiled from the 1853 and 1854 census illustrates the disparity in numbers between the Hwunitum of the Colony of Vancouver Island and Hul’qumi’num First Nations inhabiting the east coast of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Of a total Hwunitum population of 774, half of whom were under the age of twenty, 232 lived at Fort Victoria, 151 at Nanaimo, with the balance distributed amongst outlying farms in the ceded territories. 78 By comparison, the following excerpt of a census entitled “Original Indian Population of Vancouver Island 1853” from Douglas’ private papers, reveals the populations of various Hul’qumi’num First Nations south of Nanaimo. 79 According to these figures, several villages alone outnumbered the entire Hwunitum population of the Colony.
| FAMILY PLACE OF HABITATION | MEN WITH BEARDS | WOMEN | BOYS | GIRLS |
| Komiaken [Comiaken] | 100 | 120 | 87 | 113 |
| Thlimthim Comiaken Valley | 160 | 160 | 153 | 162 |
| Quamichan | 430 | 450 | 400 | 450 |
| Sawmina [Somenos] | 80 | 75 | 63 | 80 |
| Tataka Comiaken Gap | 160 | 162 | 160 | 165 |
| Penalahats [Penelakut] | 200 | 219 | 205 | 195 |
| Chemanis [Chemainus] | 200 | 203 | 264 | 283 |
| Sumlumalcha [Lamalcha] | 20 | 22 | 36 | 44 |
While the British exerted their power and influence over various groups of Hul’qumi’num First Nations people, there were similar shifts of power amongst the people themselves. Shortly after the Hwulmuhw census of 1853, Tzouhalem, who was listed in Douglas’ census as the highest ranking si’em at Quamichan, was killed at Lamalcha on Kuper Island by Shelm-tum when Tzouhalem raided the village in an attempt to kidnap Shelm-tum’s wife, Tsae-Mea-Lae.
It was like this. Over on Kuper Island there was a Indian village where the Lamalchas lived. Now, one of the Lamalchas was a man named Shelm-Tum and he had a big, fine-looking wife called Tsae-Mea-Lae. For many months Tzouhalem had wanted that woman, and at last he made up his mind to go and take her. One day he started off with his second brother a man named Squa-Lem … Well, away they went, and when they got to Lamalcha, Tzouhalem ran to the house where Tsae-Mea-Lae lived and began singing and dancing, for the great Tzouhalem to take away.
There were not many of the Lamalchas in the house, and when they heard Tzouhalem’s voice they ran away and hid, only the brave Tsae-Mea-Lae waited, hiding behind the door. Pretty soon Tzouhalem came to the door, looked in, but could see no one. He turned to go away when, quickly Tsae-Mea-Lae leaned out and putting a thick clam stick around his breast, held him from behind and shouted to her husband to come and kill him.
It did not take Schelm-Tum long to get his axe, and with one blow he cut off Tzouhalem’s head. Later the Lamalchas sent the head back to Quamichan, but they kept the body on Kuper Island. 80
The death of Tzouhalem, the most feared and powerful warrior amongst the Cowichan, gave the people of Lamalcha a certain notoriety despite the small population of the village. Over the next few years, Lamalcha attracted disaffected warriors who, for one reason or another, could not live in their own villages. Although the Lamalcha had killed the one man who posed the greatest military threat to Hwunitum, within a few years another formidable warrior, equally antagonistic towards the Hwunitum, would become associated with the village and lead a small band of warriors against Hwunitum incursions into his people’s territories. His name was Acheewun, a man described by the Hwunitum as “the terror of all the tribes around” and “a perfect fiend”—a man who “seemed likely to assume the mantle of Tzouhalem.” 81
In the wake of the successful campaign against the Nanaimo, Douglas acted quickly to consolidate the Hudson’s Bay Company’s occupation of the coal-bearing deposits on Wentuhuysen Inlet. In January of 1853, the Hudson’s Bay Company, concerned that the coal fields would revert to the Crown’s possession when and if its charter was revoked, instructed Douglas to extinguish the aboriginal title and purchase the land from the Crown. 82 Douglas’ first attempt to arrange a land sale agreement was unsuccessful but he assured the company that he would re-open negotiations “as soon as I think it safe and prudent to renew the question of Indian rights, which always give rise to troublesome excitements, and has on every occasion been productive of serious disturbances.” 83 The late expedition and subsequent executions precluded immediate negotiations and almost two years would pass before Douglas was able to make an agreement with the people who owned the land in question. These people inhabited Saalaquun, the furthest upriver of five villages on the Nanaimo River. They “held aloof from the other four villages and appear to have been the most self-sufficient and dominant group,” controlling the only salmon fish weir on the river. 84
Douglas focused on building a fort by the coal shaft to protect the coal-miners from Hwulmuhw attacks. By June 1853, two company employees, Leon Labine and Jean Baptiste Fortier, with a crew of labourers, built a two-story octagonal bastion of squared timbers armed with two six-pound carronades overlooking the dock facilities, the coal workings and the fledgling Hwunitum settlement. The guns from this two-story bastion were used to intimidate the native population with random displays of gunnery towards Protection Island and Gallows Point. 85
Coal production continued in a haphazard way, with Saalaquun labourers mining coal at open deposits and trading it to the British until November 27, 1854, when twenty-three Hwunitum families recruited from the Brierly Hill Colliery in Staffordshire, England arrived in Colvilletown. 86
Shortly after the arrival of the Staffordshire miners, Douglas was finally able to conclude a treaty with the people who owned the site of the coal mining operation. Just before Christmas in 1854, Douglas met with the Saalaquun si’em, Suquen-esthen, and others to formally purchase the land occupied by the coal mine “from Commercial Inlet 12 miles up Nanaimo River.” 87 The land sale agreement had taken almost two years to negotiate and was the most expensive. It was witnessed and signed by 159 si’em, each of whom received four blankets, twice as many as those given to the Sooke and Clallam si’em, and one more than both the Songees and Saanich si’em received. 88 It was also the only land sale agreement that bears the signature of James Douglas.
As in the previous agreements signed at Fort Victoria, the Nanaimo were misled with regards to the significance of the agreement they signed with the British. What follows is the Saalaquun version of the land sale agreement signed at Colvilletown on December 23, 1854, as recalled by Suquen-es-then’s daughter, Tstass-Aya, and her husband, Quen-es-then, who was present as