_Charge of the Chief Justice._

REGINA v SEBASSA AND THRACKET

REGINA v NEESKA AND SIMON JOHNSON

"Many years ago there were some poor white men on the sea. Men on the
sea are always in danger from the wind and the waves, but these men
trusted in God, who rules the winds and waves, and they were not
afraid. Neither were they afraid of the men whom they might meet, for
they did not intend to hurt anybody, and they were ready to do good.
And, indeed, if the white men intended to do harm to the Indians, the
whites could destroy them off the face of the earth. The whites could
send up one man-of-war, which could easily, and without landing a man,
destroy all their houses and canoes and property, and drive them naked
and helpless into the woods to starve. No canoe could venture to go
fishing. In one year the white men could destroy all the Indians on the
coast without losing a man. One of our cannon could swallow up all the
muskets of your tribe.

"Now these poor white men on the sea met with some Indians. The
Indians said they were hungry, and the white men gave them bread. Was
that the act of a friend or an enemy? Then, when the Indians saw that
the white men were good and confiding, and saw a little bread, and a
saw and some tools, and a musket and a pistol, the devil came to them
and said, 'Kill these white men, do not stop because they gave you
bread when you were hungry; kill them, and take the saw and the musket
and the bread.' These things the devil put on his hook with which he
was fishing for the souls of the Indians, as men put a small fish on a
hook to catch salmon and halibut. And the Indians listened to the voice