- try to identify this Hancock of Port Townsend
- May 27th [of 1853]. We went on a walking expedition today over to the straits. Here we found the claim of a Mr. Ross, his wife and son. I could see no sense in his location, for although the timber is fine there is no market for it; that is, no mill at hand, and he has no cattle to haul it and no pasture to feed the cattle. The extent of his farm is a productive garden which he has planted on an old Indian camping ground.
- We returned by way of Point Wilson, in order to see a stratum of what Mr. Hastings called “ignite.” We failed to see any bear, of which there were many indications, but we killed a few grouse and Dr. Haden wounded a large eagle, which I was foolish enough to approach. He attacked me fiercely, sinking his bill and claws firmly into my leg, causing intense pain. I was only released after I had cut his head off with my knife.
- At Mr. Hastings’ his wife had prepared a dinner of native products, which our walk of about ten miles had prepared us to enjoy. There was clam soup, a saddle of bear which I had sent up, fresh bread, butter and buttermilk and currant and gooseberry pie.
- This evening I paid my respects to the lords of the country. There were also some distinguished Americans among their number. “Gen. Taylor” showed a letter of recommendation he had received from Moses16, post collector; “John C. Calhoun” sold to us a pretty little canoe for the sum of $5.50 which we proposed to use as a tender to our launch in shallow water. The “Duke of Clarence” has stretched my bearskin for me.
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago