John Jewitt

The Adventures of John Jewitt, only Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston during a Captivity of Nearly Three Years among the Indians of Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island By John Jewitt. Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Brown, Ph. D. In 1803, the American ship Boston was attacked, seized, and burned by Nootka Indians while anchored off the Pacific Northwest Coast of what is now Canada. This journal-written by one of only two survivors of the massacre, provides a fascinating insight into the author's 28 months as a slave of the Indians, one of the few white men to endure such a lengthy ordeal and live to tell the tale. Jewitt's life was spared by the Indian chief Maquina, who realized that it was useful to have an armorer slave who could repair the European weapons which had fallen into Indian hands. Slaves were the Indians' most valuable property, and each Indian tribe kept hundreds of them. Jewitt began keeping a journal, carefully recording everyday details about the Indians, their lifestyle, customs, and traditions. His descriptions provided anthropologists with a unique insight into early Amerindian society, while the story of his exploits and eventual escape make for a riveting adventure story.

John R. Jewitt's story of being captured and enslaved by Maquinna, the great chief of the Mowachaht people, is both an adventure tale of survival and an unusual perspective on the First Nations of the northwest coast of Vancouver Island. On March 22, 1803, while anchored in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Boston was attacked by a group of Mowachaht warriors. Twenty-five of her 27 crewmen were massacred, their heads "arranged in a line" for survivor John R. Jewitt to identify. Jewitt and another survivor, John Thompson, became 2 of some 50 slaves owned by the chief known as Maquinna. Among other duties, they were forced to carry wood for three miles and fight for Maquinna when he slaughtered a neighbouring tribe. But their worst fear came from knowing that slaves could be killed whenever their master chose. Since most of the Mowachaht wanted the two whites dead, they never knew what would come first--freedom or death. After Jewitt was rescued, following 28 months in captivity, he wrote a book of his experiences. It appeared in 1815 and became known as Jewitt's Narrative. It proved so popular that it is still being reprinted today.