John Meares (1756-1809) was a lieutenant in the
Royal Navy who resigned in 1771. He served as captain of three voyages
from China to Nootka Sound. He was a fine observer of the Nootka Indians
of the late 18th century. He is remembered today as the author of the
travel account, Voyages made in the years 1778 and 1789, from China to the
North West Coast of America, (London 1790) in which is told a number of
Nootka traditions. One such story is of an "extraordinary stranger from
the sky". Meares asked the indians how they had become acquainted with
copper and why it was such an object of admiration among their people. The
indians explained that their ancestors had met a strange man in a copper
"canoe" and everything in this man's possession was made of metal. The
stranger told them that he had come from the sky, and he warned them that
one day their nation would be destroyed and they would all be killed. The
natives ended up killing the stranger and stealing his "copper canoe" and
thus starting their fondness of the metal.
