Tillicum: spose mika engine cockshut…
An advertisement in Chinook Jargon, in a post-frontier BC newspaper.
As we often see in this time period, settlers could be expected both to be literate and to comprehend the pidgin.
[My clarifications are added in brackets.]
Tillicum
[Friend]Spose mika engine
[If your (boat) engine]cockshut, Cochrane
[isn’t working, Cochrane]hyak mamook chahko
[will quickly order]chee iktas kopa Van-
[new goods from Van-]couver, tenas mah-
[couver, ]kook. Mika cumtux
[cheap. You know]Cochrane halo kap-
[Cochrane won’t]swalla.
[rob (you).]D. Cochrane
Groceries Dry Goods
Hardware
— The Queen Charlotte Islander, volume 2, number 12, Monday, November 18, 1912, page 1, column 4
