 The memoir, according to the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography", is a major source of information about the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.Jewitt's father was a blacksmith and trained his eldest son for that trade, intending that his younger son go into one of the learned professions.Accordingly, from the age of 12, John attended an academy at Donington that provided an "education superior to that which is to be obtained in a common school" (p. 6).