Murray C. Morgan
William Combe: Writer describes things not seen

William Combe: Writer Describes Things Not Seen

William Combe, whose ghostly activities as amanuensis for books of travel in North West America was a master of a prose style well suited to describing action.
Although the writer was circumscribed by the rules of debtor's prison to a narrow area bordering the King's Bench Jail in London, his mind roamed the world and conjured memorable detail in scenes he had not actually witnessed.
Listen to this elegant, albeit bankrupt, Estonian as he describes for John Meares the launch of The North West America, the first vessel to go down the ways in the Pacific Northwest. The year was 1789, the place Friendly Cove on Nootka Sound.

"The presence of the Americans, Robert Gray and the crew of the Lady Washington ought to be considered when we are describing this important crisis which, from the labor that produced it, the scene that surrounded it, the spectators that beheld it, and the commercial advantages, as well ad civilizing ideas, connected with it, will attach some little consequence to its proceeding, in the mind of the philosopher, as well as in the view of the politician.

"Our suspense was not of long duration.On the firing of a gun the vessel started from the waves like a shot. Indeed she went off with so much velocity, that she nearly made her way out of the harbor; for the fact was that not being very much accustomed to this business, we had forgotten to place an anchor and cable on board to bring her up. The boats, however, soon towed her to her intended station.

"Tianna (a six foot five inch Hawaiian prince who Meares was taking back to the island from China) was on board the vessel at the time of her being launched; he not only saw but may be said to have felt the operation as it if had been the work of enchantment, and expressed astonishment by capering about, clapping his hands and exclaiming, "myty, myty," the word most expressive in the language of the Sandwich Islands to convey wonder, approbation and delight.

"The Chinese carpenters who had helped assemble the vessel were in almost equal degree of astonishment. Nor were the natives of the Sound, who were present at the ceremony less impressed by a series of operations, the simplest of which was far above their comprehension. In short, this business did not fail to raise us still higher in their good opinion, and to afford them better and more correct notions than they hitherto possessed of the superiority of civilized over savage life."

Combe's racial attitudes, of course, were those of Georgian England. They show up again in a passage from his other famous work on the Northwest, "Mackenzies Voyages," in which he describes a wild run down a tributary of the Fraser on June 13, 1793.

"We accordingly pushed off, and had proceeded but a very short way when the canoe struck, and notwithstanding all our exertions, the violence of the current was so great as to drive her sideways down the river, and break her by the first bar.

"We had hardly regained our situation when we drove against a rock which shattered the stern of the canoe in such a manner that it held only by the gunwales, so that the steersman could no longer keep his place. The violence of this stroke drove us to the opposite side of the river which is but narrow, when the bow met the same fate as the stern.

"At this moment the foreman seized on some branches of a small tree in the hope of bringing up the canoe, but such was their elasticity that in a manner not easily described, he was jerked on shore in an instance, and with a degree of violence that threatened his destruction.

"We had no time to turn from our won situation to inquire what had befallen him; for in a few moments we came across a cascade which broke several large holes in the bottom of the canoe and started up all the bars, except one behind the scooping seat.

"If this accident, however, had not happened, the vessel must have been irretrievably overset. The wreck becoming flat on the water, we all jumped out, while the steersman who had not recovered from his fright called out to his companions to save themselves.

"My commands superseded the effects of his fear, and they all held fast to the wreck; to which fortunate resolutely we owed our safety, as we should otherwise have been dashed against the rocks by the force of the water, or driven over the cascades.

"We were forced several hundred yards, ever hard on the verge of destruction, but at length arrived in shallow water and a small eddy, where we were enabled to make a stand. This alarming scene with all its terrors and dangers occupied only a few minutes, and in the present suspension of it, we called to the people on shore to come to our assistance.

"The foreman had escaped unhurt from the extraordinary jerk with which he was thrown out of the boat, and just as we were beginning to take our effects out of the water he appeared to give his assistance. The Indians, when they saw our deplorable situation, instead of making the least effort to help us, sat down and gave vent to their tears."