James Gilchrist Swan (1818 –1900) was an American Indian agent in what is now Washington state, U.S.A., who is known for his work collecting artifacts and for writing the first ethnography of the Makah tribal group, among whom he lived.
The object of the author of this book,is to give a general and concise account of that portion of the northwest coast lying between the Straits of Yreca and the Columbia River, a region which has never otherwise attracted the explorers and navigators, since the times of Meares and Vancouver, sufficiently for them to give more than a passing remark. A great merit in the author, and one which gives additional value to his work is, that so far as possible, he relates only such circumstances as came under his own immediate observation. He lived With the Cherooks, Chehalis, and two other tribes of Indians, and what he relates of their manners and customs, will be read, as indeed most of the work, with interest.
The three years of Mr. Swan's residence in Washington, terminated in 1855. This Territory, numbering in 1857 a population of only about fifteen thousand, is, by nature, one of the finest countries in the world; its climate is far milder than that of the same latitude east of the Mountains; though mountainous to a great extent, it has an abundance of prairies and valleys, with a soil of inexhaustible fertility; its forests are the noblest in the world; its mineral resources are rich and varied; its harbors are the safest on the Pacific coast; its navigable Bays and Rivers are numerous, and stocked with every variety of fish; and the best whaling “grounds” in the Pacific are off its coast. The two or three concluding chapters of the volume, on the conduct of our Government in treating with the Indians, and on the history, character and policy of the Hudson Bay Company, are specially valuable. A considerable part of the volume is taken up with an account of the frontier life of the author, fishing, hunting, traveling, &c, and mostly in the neighborhood of Shoal-Water Bay; and with the incidents of his experience in that new country. The author, however, is better at telling a story, than in playing the philosopher; and he ought to have known that the theories of Nott, and Gliddon, and Agassiz, on the origin of the Indian races, are as foreign to Science and Reason as they are to Revelation. But the book is both readable and valuable.
This book originally published in 1857 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
The object of the author of this book,is to give a general and concise account of that portion of the northwest coast lying between the Straits of Yreca and the Columbia River, a region which has never otherwise attracted the explorers and navigators, since the times of Meares and Vancouver, sufficiently for them to give more than a passing remark. A great merit in the author, and one which gives additional value to his work is, that so far as possible, he relates only such circumstances as came under his own immediate observation. He lived With the Cherooks, Chehalis, and two other tribes of Indians, and what he relates of their manners and customs, will be read, as indeed most of the work, with interest.
The three years of Mr. Swan's residence in Washington, terminated in 1855. This Territory, numbering in 1857 a population of only about fifteen thousand, is, by nature, one of the finest countries in the world; its climate is far milder than that of the same latitude east of the Mountains; though mountainous to a great extent, it has an abundance of prairies and valleys, with a soil of inexhaustible fertility; its forests are the noblest in the world; its mineral resources are rich and varied; its harbors are the safest on the Pacific coast; its navigable Bays and Rivers are numerous, and stocked with every variety of fish; and the best whaling “grounds” in the Pacific are off its coast. The two or three concluding chapters of the volume, on the conduct of our Government in treating with the Indians, and on the history, character and policy of the Hudson Bay Company, are specially valuable. A considerable part of the volume is taken up with an account of the frontier life of the author, fishing, hunting, traveling, &c, and mostly in the neighborhood of Shoal-Water Bay; and with the incidents of his experience in that new country. The author, however, is better at telling a story, than in playing the philosopher; and he ought to have known that the theories of Nott, and Gliddon, and Agassiz, on the origin of the Indian races, are as foreign to Science and Reason as they are to Revelation. But the book is both readable and valuable.
This book originally published in 1857 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
