SKETCHES OF WESTERN LIFE.
_"Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental" McDonald._
In the early fifties of the 19th century, there appeared on the waters
of Puget Sound an eccentric character answering to the name of Joe
Lane McDonald. He was a corpulent man of low stature, short bowlegs, a
fat neck, a "pug" bulldog nose, with small but very piercing eyes and
withal a high forehead that otherwise softened the first unfavorable
impression of him.
The writer is relating personal observations of this unique character
as he frequently saw him at the new and then thriving town of
Steilacoom, then the center of trade for all of Puget Sound and to the
Straits of San Juan De Fuca.
McDonald enjoyed the distinction of being among the first, if not the
very first, trader among the 6,000 Indians of Puget Sound, for at that
early day, 1853-55, there were but few whites to be seen. His sloop,
about the size of an ordinary whaleboat, was decked over fore and aft
and along each side, leaving an oblong open oval space in the center
from which the captain, as he was frequently called, could stand at the
helm and manage his sail, and eat a lunch easily reached from a locker
nearby.
When once engaged in conversation, the unfavorable impression made by
his physical deformities and unkempt condition disappeared, as he was
glib of tongue and possessed a world of ideas far in advance of his
compeers, and with knowledge to back up his theories. He would declaim
almost by the hour portraying the grand future of Puget Sound, the
"Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental Trade", as he put it, that
would certainly come in the near future and the grand possibilities for
the embryo center of trade, the town of Steilacoom.
"Harping" upon the topic so much, McDonald came to be known more by the
sobriquet of "Occidental, Transcontinental, Oriental" McDonald, rather
than by his own given name.
The keep of his sloop was as neglected as that of his person, which of
itself is saying a good deal. It was a fact that the odor from his boat
(not to give it a worse name) could be detected, with favorable wind,
a hundred paces away and from McDonald himself uncomfortably so in a
close room.
Notwithstanding all this he was an interesting character, and always
arrested attention when he spoke, though of course with differing views
of his theories advanced.
McDonald clearly pointed out what was going to happen and what has
happened, the building of a vast overland and oversea trade far beyond
his greatest "flights of fancy," as so many of his pioneer friends were
wont to call his teaching.
But the Indian war came, some white people were massacred, some Indians
went on the warpath, the remainder of the six thousand went to the
reservations and McDonald's occupation was gone, his sloop was taken
over for Government use and he himself disappeared, doubtless to reach
an early and unmarked grave.
These scenes were enacted now nearly sixty years ago. The then
silent waters of Puget Sound, save by the stroke of the paddle upon
the waves and the song of the Indians, is now displaced by great
steamers navigating these waters; the overseas tonnage is in excess of
McDonald's prophecies.
The transcontinental traffic that McDonald so prophetically pointed
out is now almost beyond computation and cared for by six great
railroad systems; the "Oriental" trade has assumed vast proportions,
cared for in part by the regular sailing of 20,000 ton steamers; the
coast tonnage has grown far beyond the most optimistic prophecy; the
"dream of the star" to the flag has come true for the great State of
Washington, as depicted by the poet:
"For the land is a grand and goodly land,
And its fruitful fields are tilled
By the sons who see the flag of the free,
The dream of the star fulfilled."