A short time before this he had lost a daughter of about fifteen years of age, which afflicted him greatly, and whether his insanity, a disorder very uncommon amongst these savages, no instance of the kind having occurred within the memory of the oldest man amongst them, proceeded from this cause, or that it was the special interposition of an all-merciful God in our favour, who by this means thought proper to induce these barbarians still further to respect our lives, or that, for hidden purposes, the Supreme Disposer of events sometimes permits the spirits of the dead to revisit the world, and haunt the murderer, I know not, but his mind, from this period until his death, which took place but a few weeks after that of his son, was incessantly occupied with the images of the men whom he had killed.
This circumstance made much impression upon the tribe, particularly the chiefs, whose uniform opposition to putting us to death, at the various councils that were held on our account, I could not but in part attribute to this cause; and Maquina used frequently, in speaking of Tootoosch's sickness, to express much satisfaction that his hands had not been stained with the blood of any of our men.
When Maquina was first informed by his sister of the strange conduct of her husband, he immediately went to his house, taking us with him; suspecting that his disease had been caused by us, and that the ghosts of our countrymen had been called thither by us, to torment him. We found him raving about Hall and Wood, saying that they were _peshak_, that is, bad.
Maquina then placed some provision before him, to see if he would eat. On perceiving it, he put forth his hand to take some, but instantly withdrew it with signs of horror, saying that Hall and Wood were there, and would not let him eat. Maquina then, pointing to us, asked if it was not John and Thompson who troubled him.
"_Wik_,"[114] he replied,--that is, no; "_John klushish--Thompson klushish_"--John and Thompson are both good; then, turning to me, and patting me on the shoulder, he made signs to me to eat. I tried to persuade him that Hall and Wood were not there, and that none were near him but ourselves; he said, "I know very well you do not see them, but I do."