Uneasiness respecting the "Beaver."--News of the Declaration of War
between Great Britain and the United States.--Consequences of that
Intelligence.--Different Occurrences.--Arrival of two Canoes of the
Northwest Company.--Preparations for abandoning the
Country.--Postponement of Departure.--Arrangement with Mr. J.G.
M'Tavish.
The months of October, November, and December passed away without any
news of the "Beaver," and we began to fear that there had happened to
her, as to the Tonquin, some disastrous accident. It will be seen, in
the following chapter, why this vessel did not return to Astoria in the
autumn of 1812.
On the 15th of January, Mr. M'Kenzie arrived from the interior, having
abandoned his trading establishment, after securing his stock of goods
in a _cache_. Before his departure he had paid a visit to Mr. Clark on
the Spokan, and while there had learned the news, which he came to
announce to us, that hostilities had actually commenced between Great
Britain and the United States. The news had been brought by some
gentlemen of the Northwest Company, who handed to them a copy of the
Proclamation of the President to that effect.
When we learned this news, all of us at Astoria who were British
subjects and Canadians, wished ourselves in Canada; but we could not
entertain even the thought of transporting ourselves thither, at least
immediately: we were separated from our country by an immense space; and
the difficulties of the journey at this season were insuperable:
besides, Mr. Astor's interests had to be consulted first. We held,
therefore, a sort of council of war, to which the clerks of the factory
were invited _pro formâ_, as they had no voice in the deliberations.
Having maturely weighed our situation; after having seriously considered
that being almost to a man British subjects, we were trading,
notwithstanding, under the American flag: and foreseeing the
improbability, or rather, to cut the matter short, the impossibility
that Mr. Astor could send us further supplies or reinforcements while
the war lasted, as most of the ports of the United States would
inevitably be blockaded by the British; we concluded to abandon the
establishment in the ensuing spring, or at latest, in the beginning of
the summer. We did not communicate these resolutions to the men, lest
they should in consequence abandon their labor: but we discontinued,
from that moment, our trade with the natives, except for provisions; as
well because we had no longer a large stock of goods on hand, as for the
reason that we had already more furs than we could carry away overland.
So long as we expected the return of the vessel, we had served out to
the people a regular supply of bread: we found ourselves in consequence,
very short of provisions, on the arrival of Mr. M'Kenzie and his men.
This augmentation in the number of mouths to be fed compelled us to
reduce the ration of each man to four ounces of flour and half a pound
of dried fish _per diem_: and even to send a portion of the hands to
pass the rest of the winter with Messrs. Wallace and Halsey on the
Willamet, where game was plenty.
Meanwhile, the sturgeon having begun to enter the river, I left, on the
13th of February, to fish for them; and on the 15th sent the first
boat-load to the establishment; which proved a very timely succor to the
men, who for several days had broken off work from want of sufficient
food. I formed a camp near Oak Point, whence I continued to despatch
canoe after canoe of fine fresh fish to Astoria, and Mr. M'Dougal sent
to me thither all the men who were sick of scurvy, for the
re-establishment of their health.
On the 20th of March, Messrs. Reed and Seton, who had led a part of our
men to the post on the Willamet, to subsist them, returned to Astoria,
with a supply of dried venison. These gentlemen spoke to us in glowing
terms of the country of the Willamet as charming, and abounding in
beaver, elk, and deer; and informed us that Messrs. Wallace and Halsey
had constructed a dwelling and trading house, on a great prairie, about
one hundred and fifty miles from the confluence of that river with the
Columbia. Mr. M'Kenzie and his party quitted us again on the 31st, to
make known the resolutions recently adopted at Astoria, to the gentlemen
who were wintering in the interior.
On the 11th of April two birch-bark canoes, bearing the British flag,
arrived at the factory. They were commanded by Messrs. J.G. M'Tavish and
Joseph Laroque, and manned by nineteen Canadian _voyageurs_. They landed
on a point of land under the guns of the fort, and formed their camp. We
invited these gentlemen to our quarters and learned from them the object
of their visit. They had come to await the arrival of the ship _Isaac
Todd_, despatched from Canada by the Northwest Company, in October,
1811, with furs, and from England in March, 1812, with a cargo of
suitable merchandise for the Indian trade. They had orders to wait at
the mouth of the Columbia till the month of July, and then to return, if
the vessel did not make her appearance by that time. They also informed
us that the natives near Lewis river had shown them fowling-pieces,
gun-flints, lead, and powder; and that they had communicated this news
to Mr. M'Kenzie, presuming that the Indians had discovered and plundered
his _cache_; which turned out afterward to be the case.
The month of May was occupied in preparations for our departure from the
Columbia. On the 25th, Messrs. Wallace and Halsey returned from their
winter quarters with seventeen packs of furs, and thirty-two bales of
dried venison. The last article was received with a great deal of
pleasure, as it would infallibly be needed for the journey we were about
to undertake. Messrs. Clarke, D. Stuart and M'Kenzie also arrived, in
the beginning of June, with one hundred and forty packs of furs, the
fruit of two years' trade at the post on the _Okenakan_, and one year on
the _Spokan_.[O]
[Footnote O: The profits of the last establishment were slender; because
the people engaged at it were obliged to subsist on horse-flesh, and
they ate ninety horses during the winter.]
The wintering partners (that is to say, Messrs. Clarke and David Stuart)
dissenting from the proposal to abandon the country as soon as we
intended, the thing being (as they observed) impracticable, from the
want of provisions for the journey and horses to transport the goods;
the project was deferred, as to its execution, till the following April.
So these gentlemen, having taken a new lot of merchandise, set out again
for their trading posts on the 7th of July. But Mr. M'Kenzie, whose
goods had been pillaged by the natives (it will be remembered), remained
at Astoria, and was occupied with the care of collecting as great a
quantity as possible of dried salmon from the Indians. He made seven or
eight voyages up the river for that purpose, while we at the Fort were
busy in baling the beaver-skins and other furs, in suitable packs for
horses to carry. Mr. Reed, in the meantime, was sent on to the
mountain-passes where Mr. Miller had been left with the trappers, to
winter, there, and to procure as many horses as he could from the
natives for our use in the contemplated journey. He was furnished for
this expedition with three Canadians, and a half-breed hunter named
_Daion_, the latter accompanied by his wife and two children. This man
came from the lower Missouri with Mr. Hunt in 1811-'12.
Our object being to provide ourselves, before quitting the country, with
the food and horses necessary for the journey; in order to avoid all
opposition on the part of the Northwest Company, we entered into an
arrangement with Mr. M'Tavish. This gentleman having represented to us
that he was destitute of the necessary goods to procure wherewith to
subsist his party on their way homeward, we supplied him from our
warehouse, payment to be made us in the ensuing spring, either in furs
or in bills of exchange on their house in Canada.