Friday, July 29, 2005

Tramp to the Klondike part 6

May 24- 12 midnight – Boat Mexico leaves Seattle for Alaska. Left Tacoma at 4:30 pm.


 


May 25- Boat going nicely, everyone delighted, scenery simply grand: not out of sight of land yet


 


May 26- still nice weather; no storms; some sick. A dangerous route. Saw the remains of several boats that were wrecked. We are in the steerage with the rest of the hogs and cattle. Dirt will not tell it. I had to feed fish with the rest. (My note: this is a nice way of saying he got sick) It was very rough in the night; the old boat pitched and rolled quite a lively.


 


May 27- Very rainy. We are off the main ocean on the pass. Very smooth; quite different to what it was last night. Several of the passengers saw three whales; did not see them. I was in bed. Had a scrap on board between a sailor and a passenger. The passenger came out second. Both Irish.


 


May 28- Bad weather today. Yet the water is calm and smooth. We stopped at an Indian village by the name of Metlahkatla. They have a white man for a leader. He has educated the; they think the world of him. They don’t allow only two or three other white men on the island. One of them has a white wife. They have salmon canning factory, run by the Indians. They talk good English. On board we have 24 head of cattle, 50 head of sheep, and 10 head of hogs. They are quite close to our dining room. You can imagine the rest. None of the stalls have been cleaned since we left shore. We rather envy the cattle; they are better cared for then we are in every respect.


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