Maquinna

Maquinna was the name of several chiefs of the Moachat group of Nuu-chah-nulth living in present-day Nootka Sound. It is possible that the unnamed chief who welcomed Captain James Cook to the region in 1778 was Maquinna, but the name only appears in accounts of the 1780s. In 1788 Britain captain John Meares first met Maquinna on 16 May 1788 and described him as a man about thirty years old, of average height, and "possessing a countenance formed to interest all who saw him"(1790:113).

Callicum and Muquinna, from a French edition of John Meares' Voyages to China

Meares' account refers to "Maquilla" as a "chief," a "sovereign," and a "king"(Meares 1790:108, 109, 122). His house in the village is described as "the king's house" (111). Meares first sees  him in the centre of a great canoe, returning from a visit to Wikinanish, recognizable because of "a high cap, pointed at the crown, and ornamented at top with a small tuft of feathers" (112).
       According to Meares, one of Maquinna's most prized possessions was "a brass mortar, left by Captain Cook, which was held in the highest degree of estimation by the Nootka Chief. This piece of culinary furniture was elevated from a state of servile use, to become a symbol of royal magnificence. It was kept extremely bright, and, in visits, or meetings of ceremony, it was borne before Maquilla, to aid the splendor of the regal character" (121).
      Meares generally uses the title "chief" to refer to Maquinna; "king" appears when Meares wishes to underline Maquinna's position as greatest chief (122).
      According to Robin Fisher, it was another Maquinna who orchestrated the attack on the Boston, a merchant vessel from Massachusetts, on 22 March 1803.  One of the two crewmembers who survived the fighting and a subsequent period of captivity at Nootka Sound, John R. Jewitt, later published two accounts of his experiences. In the first, his Journal, Kept at Nootka Sound (1807), Maquinna is throughout described as a chief. A second, expanded account of 1815, consistently refers to Maquinna as a king.


Fisher, Robin A. "Muquinna (fl. 1786–1817)." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2574

Fisher, Robin A. "Muquinna (d. 1795)." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2084

Jewitt, John R. A Journal, Kept at Nootka Sound.  Boston: N.p., 1807.
Early Canadiana Online, CIHM no. 9003

Jewitt, John R. A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt.  Middletown: Loomis and Richards, 1816.
archive.org/details/cihm_29581

Jewitt, John. 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. Edited by Robert Brown. London: Clement Wilson, 1896.
archive.org/details/cihm_16364.

Meares, John. Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789 from China to the North West Coast of America. London: Logographic Press, 1790. Facsimile edition, New York: Da Capo Press; Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1967.
archive.org/details/voyagesmadeinthe002783mbp

Meares, John. Voyages de la Chine à la côte nord-ouest d'Amérique, faits dans les années 1788 et 1789. Trans. J. B. L. J. Billecocq. 3 vols. Paris: F. Buisson, 1794.
archive.org/details/voyagesdelachine01mear
archive.org/details/voyagesdelachine02mear
archive.org/details/voyagesdelachine03mear