The “Graveyard of the Pacific.

Manawatu Herald, 22 May 1902, Page 2

The “Graveyard of the Pacific.

The discovery of wreckage of the warship Condon on the west coast of Vancouver Island has revived memories of the many wrecks which have taken place on that coast. So evil a reputation does it bear that it has been termed the “ Graveyard of the Pacific.” The fierce storms of winter are responsible for many of these disasters, and some set of the currents may account for the easting upon the rock-bound coast of the scanty remains of vessels lost out at sea. Hundreds of years ago, it is reported, Japanese junks were driven ashore on Vancouver Island, and there is ground for belief that some survivors escaped and lived with the Indians, who in that part of the country are very different in type .of face from the Indians of the plains and the inland tribes. On that coast, also, have been found stones inscribed with Chinese characters, ‘ and when Peking fell into the hands of the allies documents were found,” says a Vancouver correspondent of the Daily Mail, “bearing out the contention which was advanced when these finds were made—namely, that the Chinese discovered the western coast of America long before Columbus landed on* the east,” At one time the survivors from wrecks on this coast met with scant mercy at the hands.of. the Indians. -An Americcan ; crew wereithe last to suffer in this way, and the visit of the avenging warship which was send to shell the village was .marked' by an act of treachery on the part of an India, for which he has only just ■been forgiven. He piloted the warship into the inlet, and the thereupon baifishep hiin.) ,-He wnbw an old - man,, and, 'has ... just been allowed to return that' he may be buried with his people. A ghastly' story is told of a sealing schooner which sailed from Vancouver for the Behring Seaf and never Some Indians, whose tribesmen were employed as hunters bn the vessel were dancing a “sorrow dance,” in which they gash themselves and scratch their bodies*.: when the Nawitties, a neighboring tribe, told of sighting the schooner with skeletons lashed to her rigging. The huts of Indians along the coast have on several occasions have been found to contain portions of vessels whose fate had hitherto been unknown, and - only a few years ago the discovery in a hut of the name-board of a vessel told what had become of a collier which had sailed from Vancouver in the teeth of just such a gale as that in which the Condor perished.