LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER

through the fact that our earliest settlers and pioneers were French, or whether Napoleon’s almost magical fighting career attracted the Indian mind to the exclusion of lesser war- riors, I have never yet decided. But the fact remains that the Indians of our generation are not as familiar with Bonaparte’s name as were their fathers and grandfathers, so either the predominance of English-speaking settlers or the thinning of their ancient war-loving blood by modern civilization and peaceful times, must one or the other account for the younger Indian’s ignorance of the Emperor of the French.

In telling me the legend of The Lost Talis- man, my good tillicum, the late Chief Capilano, began the story with the almost amazing question, Had I ever heard of Napoleon Bona- parte? It was some moments before I just caught the name, for his English, always quaint and beautiful, was at times a little halt- ing; but when he said by way of explanation, “You know big fighter, Frenchman. The Eng- lish they beat him in big battle,” I grasped immediately of whom he spoke.

“What do you know of him?” I asked.

His voice lowered, almost as if he spoke a state secret. “I know how it is that English they beat him.”

I have read many historians on this event,

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