II.

The Two Expeditions-The Tonquin and her Commander-Quarrels on BoardIll-humour of the Captain-Opposition of the Partners-The Captain's Complaints to Mr. Astor-Arrival at the Sandwich Islands-Unappreciated Botanists and Explorers-Arrival at the Columbia River-Difficulty of Landing-Loss of a Boat's Crew-Foundation of Astoria-Description of the Red Indians.

AND now, preliminaries having thus been settled, Mr. Astor deter

mined that one party of the new colonists should proceed to their destination by sea, and another by land. The land expedition was to travel up the Missouri, across the Rocky Mountains, and down the Columbia river, exploring the country, and noting the points where trading stations could be established. Mr. Hunt, the American partner, was appointed leader. For the expedition to proceed by sea round Cape Horn, and thence to the Columbia river, up the Pacific, a fine ship called the Tonquin had been provided, and furnished with every requisite for the new colony; even to a little schooner to be used in trading up the river. The vessel was well armed, moreover, and placed under the command of Captain Jonathan Thorn, of New York, who had been a lieutenant in the United States Navy. Some artisans went in her, and also thirteen Canadian voyageurs. The partners Messrs. Mackay and Macdougal were among the passengers, and several young men went out as clerks.

It was on the 8th of September, 1810, that the Tonquin started on her voyage; and she had not been at sea many hours before unmistakeable symptoms appeared, foreboding difficulties of various kinds between Captain Thorn and his passengers. The honest captain was the most single-minded of men. He knew that Mr. Astor, the originator of the expedition, had himself borne the whole expense; and the captain accordingly bent all his energy towards saving Mr. Astor's purse, and consulting Mr. Astor's interest in every possible way. His one object, like that of an honest letter-carrier, was to convey his cargo to the destined port in the very shortest time; and, educated in the strict discipline of the navy, he considered himself entitled to carry out a despotic system of rule on his own quarterdeck. On the other hand, among his heterogeneous passengers there were many causes of discord. Macdougal and Mackay, and two junior partners, an uncle and a nephew of the name of Stuart, looked upon themselves as part

proprietors of the ship and cargo, and accordingly as entitled to command Captain Thorn. The Canadian voyageurs, unsurpassed in skill and resource on their own rivers and lakes, became peevish and morose under the influence of sea-sickness; and when they got well they complained of the man-of-war fare offered to them on board, requiring delicacies the very mention of which filled Captain Thorn with unmitigated disgust. "And these," he writes indignantly to Mr. Astor, "are the fellows who boasted that they could eat dog!" The young clerks, too, showed an aptitude at forgetting the main object of the voyage and a levity which was an abomination to Captain Thorn. Naturally enough, they kept journals in which they recorded many matters new and curious to them, though to the old sailor everyday occurrences; this the captain considered waste of time. The partners murmured at and disobeyed his "man-of-war" order to put out all candles at eight o'clock every night. He threatened to put the chief partner, Macdougal, in irons, and Macdougal swore that on such a thing being attempted he would shoot the captain through the head. Peace was only restored by the intervention of some quieter spirits. At one of the Falkland Islands the captain hove to, and sent a boat on shore for water. Messrs. Mackay and Macdougal took the opportunity to go on a hunting excursion, and were very nearly left behind; the indignant captain setting sail without waiting for the boat when his signals of recall were disregarded. Another time, on a similar occasion, he compelled Macdougal and the elder Stuart, with the boat's crew, to follow the ship for many hours, tugging hard at the oars; and even then, in spite of the threats of the younger Stuart, who feared his uncle's life would be sacrificed, he would hardly have given in, but that fortunately the wind came ahead, and the ship's way was stopped. In a letter written a day or two afterwards to Mr. Astor, the bluff captain says-"Had the wind unfortunately not hauled ahead soon after leaving the harbour's mouth, I should positively have left them; and indeed I cannot but think it an unfortunate circumstance for you that it so happened, for the first loss in this instance would, in my opinion, have proved the best, as they seem to have no idea of the value of property, nor any apparent regard for your interest, although interwoven with their own."

Thus, amid much jarring and wrangling, the voyage proceeded uncomfortably enough. Especially between Macdougal and the captain there existed a kind of chronic feud. Mr. Macdougal considered him

self, reasonably enough, as the proxy and representative of Mr. Astor during the absence of Mr. Wilson Hunt, while the captain was bent on arrogating all authority to himself. Occasionally Mr. Macdougal required that some packages of the cargo should be opened to supply the men with new clothing and other necessaries; and on such occasions the wrath of the captain was sure to break forth at a proceeding which he stigmatised as contrary to all custom and precedent, and subversive of discipline and authority.

Early in February, 1811, the Tonquin reached the Sandwich Islands, and anchored at Owyhee, the island where the enterprising and humane navigator, Captain Cook, had been murdered not many years before. Captain Thorn's object was to obtain provisions, especially a supply of pork and fresh vegetables, and then to sail away at the earliest moment; the travellers, on the other hand, were rather inclined to protract their stay to the utmost possible limits; for the partners wished to cultivate the friendship of the chiefs with a view to future trade, and even to the formation of a settlement, in connection with their enterprise; the voyagers who were of a scientific and botanical turn were delighted with the new genera of plants they found in these favoured regions; and the younger clerks were vehemently disposed to cultivate the acquaintance of the dusky beauties, by whose smiles several of them were fairly captivated. All this was a weariness and vexation of spirit to gallant Captain Thorn, who inveighed against everything that could cause delay, and whose letters to Mr. Astor show an increasing bitterness of spirit as the voyage "dragged its slow length along;" at length the partners seriously threatened to deprive him of the command, and the prospect of a mutiny was added to his other vexations. This effectually soured his temper, and increased his impatience at anything that seemed to him like interference or contradiction; and matters were in this unsatisfactory condition when the Tonquin arrived opposite the mouth of the Columbia river on the 22nd of March.

For many miles from the point where it pours its waters into the Pacific Ocean the Columbia river forms a broad estuary, whose navigation is exceedingly intricate by reason of many banks and shoals. The weather had been stormy during the last days before the Tonquin's arrival, and the voyagers beheld a surf tumbling angrily on the shore or leaping high into the air, where it encountered the impediment of a rock, so that the whole mouth of the river was masked by a broad

belt of foam. Accordingly the captain, not deeming it prudent to bring the ship near shore until a channel should be found, ordered

Mr. Fox, the first mate, to take with him in a boat three Sandwich Islanders, who had embarked with our voyagers at Owyhee, and Martin, an old and experienced sailor, who had been in those regions before. The mate demurred; he represented that in a service of such danger he ought at least to have his boat manned by part of the regular crew, and appealed to the partners, who sided with him and remonstrated with the captain. But this interference only made Captain Thorn more determined than ever to be obeyed to the very letter; and poor Fox put off with tears in his eyes, and with dark forebodings that he was going to his death. Very sadly were those forebodings verified; the crew and passengers gazed after the little boat so long as it remained in sight; after awhile the waves hid it from view. All that day, and during the restless and anxious night which followed, they waited for the return of the boat and her crew, but nothing more was ever heard of either. After several attempts to land in the pinnace, another boat was despatched, manned by three sailors and two Sandwich Islanders; this was swamped, and two out of the three

sailors perished in the waves. The remaining sailor, Stephen Weekes, with the two Sandwich men, succeeded in reaching the shore; but one of the latter died the same night from exhaustion and cold; and thus, when at length the Tonquin was able to stand in for the mouth of the

river and make her way up the channel, eight of her company had already perished, and the natural feeling of sorrow at their loss was embittered by the unavoidable thought that some of these lives had been sacrificed through the obstinacy of Captain Thorn.

The gloom which this calamity naturally cast over the colonists was in some measure dispelled by the necessity for immediate exertion. For the next few weeks there was much to be done in exploring the region round the mouth of the Columbia river, and fixing on a site

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