John R. Jewitt
John R. Jewitt | |
---|---|
Born | Hartford, Connecticut , United States | 21 May 1783
Occupation(s) | Blacksmith, armourer |
John Rodgers Jewitt (21 May 1783 – 7 January 1821) was an English
Early life and voyage
Jewitt's father was a
Jewitt read the voyages of explorers such as
Ten weeks after passing Cape Horn, Boston reached Woody Point in
On 22 March 1803, the day before Boston intended to set sail, many Nootka came aboard to trade and were given dinner. At a signal, the Nootka attacked, and all but two of the white men were killed. Jewitt suffered a serious head injury but his life was saved by Maquinna, who saw how useful it would be to have an armourer to repair weapons. (One other man—the Boston's sailmaker, John Thompson—was in hiding until the next day, when Jewitt pretended to be his son and begged Maquinna to spare his "father".) Maquinna asked Jewitt if he would be his slave and Jewitt assented under duress, as the alternative was immediate death (p. 31). This was the beginning of his three years among the Nootka.
Life with the Nootka
Enslavement
Jewitt remained a captive of Maquinna until 1805, during which time he became immersed in the Nootka culture and was forced to marry. Through the years, Jewitt and Macquinna became very close, like brothers. The distinction between
Slaves were the Nootkas' most valuable property (p. 88), and might be killed if they tried to run away. Jewitt says that slaves ate with the family, the same food in different dishes (p. 71), and were generally well-treated but had to work hard (p. 88); often the king's household would run short of food, so he would beg elsewhere (p. 59). Maquinna allowed Jewitt to undertake other work when not employed by him, and he used this privilege to make bracelets, fish-hooks, and so on, to trade with the chiefs of the village and other visitors. Other chiefs or kings, including the king
Their Christian beliefs were a source of strength to Jewitt and Thompson. They were permitted to keep the Sabbath, by withdrawing on Sundays to bathe, read and pray. The men even made an effort to cook and eat a special Christmas dinner and often gave thanks for their continued existence.
The women, including Maquinna's nine wives, expressed compassion towards Jewitt, but the 500 warriors wanted him to be killed (p. 34). Maquinna repeatedly protected him and refused to allow his death. Jewitt adopted a conciliatory approach and made an effort to learn the language.
Descriptions of the natives' lives
Jewitt describes in some detail the physical appearance, clothing and hats, jewellery, and face and body painting of the Nootka. He explains the household implements (baskets, bags), simple furniture (wooden boxes, tubs, trays) and food, describing it as constantly either feasting or fasting. Herring spawn, dried fish, clams, oysters, sea mammal blubber and "train oil" (whale oil) were staples of the diet (the oil was even added to strawberries). Venison and bear meat were eaten fresh, but fish was often fermented; a delicacy was salmon roe. Jewitt had metal cooking pots from the ship, but was forbidden from preparing his own food—Maquinna insisted that his captives lived and ate as the Nootka did (p. 51), i.e. boiling and steaming their food (p. 69). The Nootka did not eat salted food or add salt to anything, and Maquinna forbade his captives to make salt (p. 51). Jewitt found a box of chocolate and a case of port wine (p. 47) from the ship's stores, which gave him much comfort, as the Nootka did not like these delicacies, although they did appreciate molasses, rum, and other spirits. The men became completely intoxicated when they had access to alcohol, but the women drank only water (p. 48), and Jewitt feared for his safety when his captors were drunk.
Pages of the memoir are devoted to descriptions of activities such as music, dance, and song (which was used to keep time in their ocean paddling); hospitality and gift-giving (the famous
Geography and historical background
Jewitt gives a thorough description of the village of Nootka in
Jewitt spent the spring and summer at that village, the autumn (beginning of September to end of December) at
Jewitt counted the Nootka people (only those in the town of Yuquot) at about 1500 inhabitants, of whom 500 were warriors.
Compulsion
Jewitt wrote in the Narrative that he was ordered to participate in a night-time raid on a village identified as A-y-chart. He said he took four captives, which Maquinna allowed him to keep as his own "as a favour", while Thompson killed seven (p. 150). All of the inhabitants were either killed or enslaved. However, some doubt Jewitt and Thompson really participated in any such attack. While the story appears in the Narrative, there is no mention of any such occurrence in the original diary and no mention of the four slaves. Contemporary maritime historical accounts [citation needed] support the possibility that Jewitt was recounting the story of a Wickaninnish attack that he heard about; this may be because he wished to dramatize his story for his readers.
He was allegedly ordered to marry, because the council of chiefs thought that a wife and family would reconcile him to staying with the Nootka for life. He was reportedly given a choice between forced marriage for himself and capital punishment for both him and his "father". "Reduced to this sad extremity, with death on the one side, and matrimony on the other, I thought proper to choose what appeared to me the least of the two evils" (p. 154). However, Jewitt's story of forced marriage has also been questioned. Both Captain Barclay and a later British ethnologist in the mid-19th century reported meeting older witnesses who said Jewitt had been involved in a very passionate love affair with the daughter of a neighbouring chief. It has been speculated [who?] that Jewitt created the "forced marriage" story in accordance with the mores of the time. Jewitt's account does confirm he married the seventeen-year-old daughter of a neighbouring chief.
Maquinna took him to a neighbouring village and paid a bride price for Jewitt's selection, who was indeed the young daughter of the chief. Jewitt then set up his own home in Maquinna's longhouse, building beds so as to not sleep on the dirt floor, and insisting on cleanliness for both his wife and Maquinna's twelve-year-old son, who chose to live with them. Jewitt viewed the marriage as a chain binding him to "this savage land" (p. 161).
Maquinna and the chiefs then decided that Jewitt must now be "considered one of them, and conform to their customs", especially the wearing of Nootka clothing (p. 161). Jewitt resented the imposition of this dress code, finding the loose, untailored garments very cold, and attributed to them a subsequent illness of which he almost died. He was not allowed to cut his hair, and had to paint his face and body as a Nootka would.
Jewitt was asked to file the teeth of the king's elder brother. He did so without understanding why, but found out it was to enable the chief to bite off the nose of a new wife who refused to sleep with him. Jewitt unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade him from carrying out this traditional punishment (p. 207).
Rescue and return journey
On 19 July 1805, the
When Jewitt got on board the Lydia he looked very wild, painted red and black, wrapped in a bear skin and with green leaves through his topknot. Nonetheless, the captain welcomed him as a Christian and asked his advice about what to do with Maquinna. When he heard what exactly had happened to the Boston, he was inclined to execute him, but Jewitt persuaded him of the impolicy of this, because it would lead to further attacks on other ships visiting. Jewitt negotiated for the return of what property remained of the Boston: its cannons, anchors, and remnants of its cargo, and especially the ship's papers, which he had secured in a chest all those years ago. Once these were on board the Lydia, Maquinna was released, and the brig immediately weighed anchor and left Nootka Sound.
Jewitt was not able to return home quickly. The Lydia traded along the Pacific coast for four months, eventually going to the
Over a year after his release from slavery, Jewitt left the coast on 11 August 1806. The Lydia took four months to reach China, trading at Macau and Canton, where he met an old acquaintance from Hull who had also taken to the sea. The Lydia left China in February 1807 and 114 days later was in Boston, USA, to Jewitt's huge relief, where he found a letter from his stepmother congratulating him on his escape.
Later life
In 1807, Jewitt published his Journal Kept at Nootka Sound. The interest generated by this journal prompted Richard Alsop to interview him extensively. This material, combined with his earlier and more terse Journal, culminated in the 1815 publication of A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt, only survivor of the crew of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound: with an account of the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives. Very little of the Journal is left out of the Narrative—e.g. the episode (28 March 1804) of an accidental fatal shooting by a father of his children. The main difference is that in the former Jewitt refers to Maquinna as a chief, and in the latter as a king.
Jewitt spent the later part of his life in
Bibliography
- The Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt : Captive of Maquinna by Hilary Stewart (1987)
References
- ^ "$30 in 1800 → 2020 | Inflation Calculator". www.officialdata.org. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
Further reading
- Alsop, Richard. (2007) The Captive of Nootka or the Adventures of John R. Jewett (1841) [sic], Kessinger Publishing ISBN 978-0-548-74823-7
- An abbreviated version of Jewitt's account was published in Captured by the Indians: 15 Firsthand Accounts, 1750–1870, edited by Frederick Drimmer, Dover Press ISBN 0-486-24901-8
- For some commentary about Jewitt, see 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 (1896) reprint with notes and a 30-page introduction by the journalist, explorer and botanist Robert Brown at Internet Archive.
External links
- Entry for Jewitt in the Canadian Encyclopedia
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Works by John R. Jewitt at Project Gutenberg
- Works by John R. Jewitt at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about John R. Jewitt at Internet Archive
- Digitized version of A journal kept at Nootka Sound
- Digitized version of the Narrative