With these conditions Mr. Ogden
was fain to comply. Upon this the great Tamaahmaah deputed his
favorite, John Young, the tarpaulin governor of Owyhee, to
proceed with a number of royal guards, and take possession of the
wreck on behalf of the crown. This was done accordingly, and the
property and crew were removed to Owyhee. The royal bounty
appears to have been but scanty in its dispensations. The crew
fared but meagerly; though, on reading the journal of the voyage,
it is singular to find them, after all the hardships they had
suffered, so sensitive about petty inconveniences, as to exclaim
against the king as a "savage monster," for refusing them a "pot
to cook in," and denying Mr. Ogden the use of a knife and fork
which had been saved from the wreck.
Such was the unfortunate catastrophe of the Lark; had she reached
her destination in safety, affairs at Astoria might have taken a
different course. A strange fatality seems to have attended all
the expeditions by sea, nor were those by land much less
disastrous.
Captain Northrop was still at the Sandwich Islands, on December
20th, when Mr. Hunt arrived. The latter immediately purchased,
for ten thousand dollars, a brig called the Pedler, and put
Captain Northrop in command of her. They set sail for Astoria on
the 22d January, intending to remove the property from thence as
speedily as possible to the Russian settlements on the northwest
coast, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British.
Such were the orders of Mr. Astor, sent out by the Lark.
We will now leave Mr. Hunt on his voyage, and return to see what
has taken place at Astoria during his absence.
CHAPTER LIX.
Arrival of M'Tavish at Astoria.- Conduct of His Followers.-
Negotiations of M'Dougal and M'Tavish. - Bargain for the Transfer
of Astoria- Doubts Entertained of the Loyalty of M'Dougal.
0N the 2d of October, about five weeks after Mr. Hunt had sailed
in the Albatross from Astoria, Mr. M'Kenzie set off with two
canoes, and twelve men, for the posts of Messrs. Stuart and
Clarke, to appraise them of the new arrangements determined upon
in the recent conference of the partners at the factory.
He had not ascended the river a hundred miles, when he met a
squadron of ten canoes, sweeping merrily down under British
colors, the Canadian oarsmen, as usual, in full song.
It was an armament fitted out by M'Tavish, who had with him Mr.
J. Stuart, another partner of the Northwest Company, together
with some clerks, and sixty-eight men - seventy-five souls in
all. They had heard of the frigate Phoebe and the Isaac Todd
being on the high seas, and were on their way down to await their
arrival. In one of the canoes Mr. Clarke came as a passenger, the
alarming intelligence having brought him down from his post on
the Spokan. Mr. M'Kenzie immediately determined to return with
him to Astoria, and, veering about, the two parties encamped
together for the night. The leaders, of course, observed a due
decorum, but some of the subalterns could not restrain their
chuckling exultation, boasting that they would soon plant the
British standard on the walls of Astoria, and drive the Americans
out of the country.
In the course of the evening, Mr. M'Kenzie had a secret
conference with Mr. Clarke, in which they agreed to set off
privately before daylight, and get down in time to appraise
M'Dougal of the approach of these Northwesters. The latter,
however, were completely on the alert; just as M'Kenzie's canoes
were about to push off, they were joined by a couple from the
Northwest squadron, in which was M'Tavish, with two clerks, and
eleven men. With these, he intended to push forward and make
arrangements, leaving the rest of the convoy, in which was a
large quantity of furs, to await his orders.
The two parties arrived at Astoria on the 7th of October. The
Northwesters encamped under the guns of the fort, and displayed
the British colors. The young men in the fort, natives of the
United States, were on the point of hoisting the American flag,
but were forbidden by Mr. M'Dougal. They were astonished at such
a prohibition, and were exceedingly galled by the tone and manner
assumed by the clerks and retainers of the Northwest Company, who
ruffled about in that swelling and braggart style which grows up
among these heroes of the wilderness; they, in fact, considered
themselves lords of the ascendant and regarded the hampered and
harassed Astorians as a conquered people.
On the following day M'Dougal convened the clerks, and read to
them an extract from a letter from his uncle, Mr. Angus Shaw, one
of the principal partners of the Northwest Company, announcing
the coming of the Phoebe and Isaac Todd, "to take and destroy
everything American on the northwest coast."
This intelligence was received without dismay by such of the
clerks as were natives of the United States. They had felt
indignant at seeing their national flag struck by a Canadian
commander, and the British flag flowed, as it were, in their
faces. They had been stung to the quick, also, by the vaunting
airs assumed by the Northwesters. In this mood of mind, they
would willingly have nailed their colors to the staff , and
defied the frigate. She could not come within many miles of the
fort, they observed, and any boats she might send could be
destroyed by their cannon.
There were cooler and more calculating spirits, however, who had
the control of affairs, and felt nothing of the patriotic pride
and indignation of these youths.
