A year before, Rooney hired Eda’nsa, a Haida chief, as a pilot for his ship
Susan Sturges. Eda’nsa was baptized in 1884 by an Anglican Priest as
Andrew Edward Edenshaw. He was an ideal pilot because he knew the local waters. In 1852, Rooney was warned
by the Hudson’s Bay Company officers to stay away from the
Queen Charlotte Islands due to the
bold and daring character of the natives.
2Rooney continued illicit trading with the First Nations on
Queen Charlotte Islands, even after being advised to
leave the coast
by
Kuper. On September 26, 1852, soon after Edenshaw was hired, while sailing with a small
crew, Rooney’s ship was seized, overpowered, and destroyed by the Masset First Nations.
3Douglas, in response to Rooney’s behaviour wrote that Rooney
displayed a lamentable want of judgment, and a total disregard of those precautions
which reason and humanity should have taught him were necessary for the safety of
the lives and property under his care.
4
After his work on the coast of British Columbia, Rooney was sent to China and comissioned
to protect harbours against pirates.
5 In 1863, his ship,
Caldera, was destroyed by Chinese pirates. A week after the attack, Rooney escaped; he reported
the event to the French Vice-Consulat.
6
- 1. De la Becke to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary), 28 April 1853, 4655, CO 305/4, p. 281.
- 2. Douglas to Newcastle, 8 June 1853, No. 2, Executive [Queen Charlotte Islands], 8062, CO 305/4, p. 45
- 3. Tim Murray, The Archaeology of Contact in Settler Societies (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 58.
- 4. Douglas to Newcastle, 8 June 1853, No. 2, Executive [Queen Charlotte Islands], 8062, CO 305/4, p. 45
- 5. Douglas R.G. Sellick, Pirate Outrages: True Stories of Terror on the China Seas (Freemantle Press, 2010), 132-133.
- 6. Angela Mia, Piracy of Intellectual Property in China. Journal of International Law and Practice (1995), 335; Relations, United States. Congress. Senate. Commitee on Foreign. Compilation of Reports of Committee. Vol 1. 1901. Reprint. (London: Forgotten Books, 2013), 468-469; United States Congress
House, House Documents, Otherwise Published as Executive Documents: 13th congress, 2d session-49th congress,
1st session (1869), 195.