John R. Jewitt's story of being captured and enslaved by Maquinna, the great chief of the Mowachaht people, is both an adventure tale of survival and an unusual perspective on the First Nations of the northwest coast of Vancouver Island.
On March 22, 1803, while anchored in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Boston was attacked by a group of Mowachaht warriors. Twenty-five of her 27 crewmen were massacred. Only two survived. This is a dramatic reimagining of their 28 months spent as captives of Maquinna of the Nuu-chah-nulth people on the Pacific coast of what is now Canada. Most of the script has been taken from John Jewitt's personal memoir. It is a major source of information about the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.