Chapter I (9)

[206] Dog Portage is that which leads over the Height
of Land between the Lake Superior and Hudson Bay
water-systems. It is about forty-five miles from
Fort William, and about a mile in length and five
hundred feet high. Authorities differ on the origin
of the name. One Indian tradition recites that two
enormous dogs slept upon the hill, leaving the
impress of their figures. Another relates that the
Indians carved upon a cliff the figure of a dog, to
commemorate a great battle between the Sioux and
Chippewa.

Boucher was apparently a free trapper, whom Henry
had found selling provisions in this neighborhood
as early as 1803.--ED.

[207] The brigade now passed down Little Dog River,
through Dog Lake, into the Kaministiquia River--a
short, rapid stream that falls into Lake Superior in
Thunder Bay. The Mountain Portage was at the Great
Falls, sometimes called Kakabeka, from the Indian
term for “Cleft Rock.” This cataract is twenty-two
miles from the mouth of the river, and the water
makes a leap of one hundred and twenty feet.
Between the falls and the mouth, the Kaministiquia
is a succession of shallow rapids. The Indian
significance of the name of this river is that of
“difficult entrance.” The entire length of the
stream is now followed by a wagon-road.--ED.

[208] The date of the building of Fort William is
variously given--the removal had begun in 1802,
but was not completed until 1805, and the new
post did not receive its name until 1807. See
_Henry-Thompson Journals_, p. 220. The site was
occupied as early as 1678 by a stockade built by
Duluth, the great _coureur des bois_. His fort had
fallen into ruins when that of La Noue was built
in 1717. The French maintained this post until the
close of their régime. In 1757 it was farmed to
M. Toussaint Pothier, and produced from sixty to
seventy bundles of furs. The English traders having
abandoned this route for the easier one of Pigeon
River, clustered at Grand Portage until Fort William
was erected. Lord Selkirk captured the post in 1817,
during the struggle of the Red River settlement with
the North West Company. Upon the coalition of the
latter corporation with the Hudson’s Bay (1821),
Fort William was abandoned, and two years later was
falling into ruins. The Canadian Pacific Railway
station of Port Arthur is eight miles beyond the
site of old Fort William. The classic account of
Fort William’s palmy days is that of Irving, in
_Astoria_.--ED.

[209] A Spanish mission or presidency, in about the 36th
degree of latitude.--FRANCHÈRE.

[210] Another Spanish presidency, in about the 38th degree
of latitude, and the first European establishment
to be met with south of the Columbia.--FRANCHÈRE.
_Comment by Huntington_: These now obsolete notes
are interesting as indicative of the period when
they were written.

{347} CHAPTER XXVIII

Departure from Fort William--Navigation on Lake Superior--
Michipicoton Bay--Meeting a Canoe--Batchawainon Bay--
Arrival at Saut Ste. Marie--Occurrences there--Departure--
Lake Huron--French River--Lake Nipissing--Ottawa River--Kettle
Falls--Rideau River--Long-Saut--Arrival in Montreal--Conclusion.

On the 20th of July, in the evening, Mr. D. Stuart notified me that he should start the next morning for Montreal, in a light canoe. I immediately wrote to my relatives: but the next morning Mr. Stuart told me that I was to be myself the bearer of my letters, by embarking with him. I got ready my effects, and toward evening we quitted Fort William, with fourteen stout _voyageurs_ to man our large canoe, and were soon floating on the bosom of the largest body of fresh water on the surface of the globe. We counted six passengers, namely, Messrs. D. {348} Stuart, D. M’Kenzie, J. M’Donald, J. Clarke, myself, and a little girl of eight or nine years, who came from Kildonan, on Red river.[211] We passed the first night on one of the islands in _Thunder bay_, so named on account of the frequent storms, accompanied with lightning and thunder, which burst over it at certain seasons of the year. On the 22d and 23d, we continued to range the southern coast of Lake Superior.[212] The navigation of this superb lake would be extremely agreeable but for the thick fogs which reign during a part of the day, and do not permit a rapid progress. On the 24th, we dined at a small trading establishment called _Le Pic_, where we had excellent fish.[213]

On the 26th, we crossed _Michipicoton bay_, which, at its entrance, may be nine miles wide, and twenty fathoms deep.[214] As we were nearing the eastern point, we met a small canoe, having on board Captain M’Cargo, and the crew of one of the schooners owned by the company. Mr. M’Cargo informed us that he had just escaped from _Saut Ste. Marie_, whither the Americans had {349} sent a detachment of one hundred and fifty men; and that having been obliged to abandon his schooner, he had set fire to her.[215] In consequence of this news it was resolved that the canoe on which we were proceeding, should return to Fort William. I embarked with Mr. Stuart and two men, in Captain M’Cargo’s canoe, while he and his crew took our places. In the haste and confusion of this exchange, which was made on the lake, they gave us a ham, a little tea and sugar, and a bag containing about twenty-five pounds of flour, but forgot entirely a kettle, knives, forks, and so on, all articles which Mr. M’Cargo had not time to take when he left _Saut Ste. Marie_. We subsisted miserably in consequence for two days and a half that we continued to coast the lake before reaching any post. We moistened in the bag a little flour, and having kneaded it, made cakes, which we baked on flat stones by our camp fire.

On the 29th, we reached Batchawainon, where we found some women, who prepared us food and received us well. It is a poor little post, {350} situated at the bottom of a sandy cove, which offers nothing agreeable to the eye. Mr. Frederic Goedike, who resided here, was gone to see what had taken place at Saut Ste. Marie.[216] He returned the next day, and told us that the Americans had come, with a force of one hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major Holmes;[217] and that after having pillaged all that they considered worth taking, of the property of the N. W. Company and that of a Mr. Johnston,[218] they had set fire to the houses, warehouses, &c., belonging to the company and to that gentleman, and retired, without molesting any other person.[219] Our canoe arrived from Fort William in the evening, with that of Mr. M’Gillivray; and on the morrow we all repaired to Saut Ste. Marie, where we saw the ruins which the enemy had left. The houses, stores, and saw-mills of the company were still smoking. {351} The schooner was at the foot of the rapids; the Americans had run her down, but she grounded on a ledge of rocks, whence they could not dislodge her, and so they had burnt her to the water’s edge.

_Le Saut de Ste. Marie_,[220] or as it is shortly called, _Saut Ste. Marie_, is a rapid at the outlet of Lake Superior, and may be five hundred or six hundred yards wide; its length may be estimated at three quarters of a mile, and the descent of the water at about twenty feet. At the lower extremity the river widens to about a mile, and here there are a certain number of houses. The north bank belongs to Great Britain; the southern to the United States. It was on the American side that Mr. Johnston lived. Before the war he was collector of the port for the American government. On the same side resided a Mr. Nolin, with his family, consisting of three half-breed boys and as many girls, one of whom was passably pretty. He was an old Indian trader, and his house and furniture showed signs of his former prosperity. On the British side we found {352} Mr. Charles Ermatinger, who had a pretty establishment: he dwelt temporarily in a house that belonged to Nolin, but he was building another of stone, very elegant, and had just finished a grist mill.[221] He thought that the last would lead the inhabitants to sow more grain than they did. These inhabitants are principally old Canadian boatmen, married to half-breed or Indian women. The fish afford them subsistence during the greater part of the year, and provided they secure potatoes enough to carry them through the remainder, they are content. It is to be regretted that these people are not more industrious, for the land is very fertile.

On the 1st of August, an express was sent to _Michilimackinac_ (Mackinaw) to inform the commandant thereof what had happened at _Saut Ste. Marie_.[222] While expecting the return of the messenger, we put ourselves in a state of defence, in case that by chance the Americans should make another irruption. The thing was not improbable, for according to some expressions which fell from one of their number who spoke French, {353} their object was to capture the furs of the Northwest Company, which were expected to arrive shortly from the interior. We invited some Indians, who were camped on _Pine Point_,[223] at some distance from the _Saut_, to help us in case of need; which they promised to do. Meanwhile we had no provisions, as everything had been carried off by the American forces, and were obliged to subsist on such brook trout as we could take with hook and line, and on wild raspberries.

On the 4th, the express returned, without having been able to accomplish his mission: he had found the island of Mackinaw so completely blockaded by the enemy, that it was impossible to reach it, without running the greatest risk of being made prisoner.

On the 12th, we heard distinctly the discharges of artillery which our people were firing off at Michilimackinac, although the distance was nearly sixty miles. We thought it was an attempt of the enemy to retake that post, but we afterward learned that it was only a royal salute {354} in honor of the birthday of the prince regent. We learned, however, during our stay at Saut Ste. Marie, that the Americans had really made a descent upon the island, but were compelled to retire with a considerable loss.[224]

On the 19th, some of the partners arrived from Fort William, preceding the flotilla which was coming down richly laden with furs. They sent on Mr. Decoigne in a light canoe, with letters to Montreal, to order provisions to meet this brigade.

On the 21st, the canoe on which I was a passenger, was sent to the mouth of _French_ river, to observe the motions of the enemy. The route lay between a range of low islands, and a shelvy beach, very monotonous and dreary. We remained at the entrance of the aforesaid river till the 25th, when the fleet of loaded canoes, forty-seven in number, arrived there. The value of the furs which they carried could not be estimated at less than a million of dollars: an important prize for the Americans, if they could have laid their hands upon it. We were three {355} hundred and thirty-five men, all well armed; a large camp was formed, with a breast-work of fur-packs, and we kept watch all night. The next morning we began to ascend the French river, and were soon out of reach of the dreaded foe.[225] French river flows from the N. E. and empties into Lake Huron, about one hundred and twenty miles from Saut Ste. Marie. We reached Lake Nipissing, of which it is the outlet, the same evening, and encamped. We crossed that lake on the 27th, made a number of portages, and encamped again, not far from _Mattawan_.[226]

On the 28th we entered, at an early hour, the river _Ottawa_, and encamped, in the evening, at the _Portage des deux Joachims_.[227] This is a grand river, but obstructed by many falls and rapids on its way to join the St. Lawrence; which caused us to make many portages, and so we arrived on the 31st at _Kettle falls_.

The rock which here arrests the course of the _Ottawa_, extends from shore to shore, and so completely cuts off the waters, that at the time we passed none was seen falling over, but sinking by {356} subterranean channels, or fissures in the rock, it boiled up below, from seven or eight different openings, not unlike water in a huge caldron, whence the first explorers of the country gave it the name of _Chaudière_ or Caldron falls. Mr. P. Wright resided in this place, where he had a fine establishment and a great number of men employed in cultivating the land, and getting out lumber.[228]

We left the _Chaudières_ a little before sunset, and passed very soon the confluence of the _Rideau_ or _Curtain river_. This river, which casts itself into the Ottawa over a rock twenty-five by thirty feet high, is divided in the middle of the fall by a little island, which parts the waters into two white sheets, resembling a double curtain open in the middle and spreading out below. The _coup d’œil_ is really picturesque; the rays of the setting sun, which struck the waters obliquely as we passed, heightened exceedingly their beauty, and rendered it worthy of a pencil more skilful than mine.[229]

We voyaged till midnight, when we stopped to {357} let our men take a little repose. This rest was only for two hours. At sunrise on the 1st September, we reached _Long-Saut_, where, having procured guides, we passed that dangerous rapid, and set foot on shore near the dwelling-house of a Mr. M’Donell, who sent us milk and fruits for our breakfast. Toward noon we passed the lake of the Two Mountains, where I began to see the mountain of my native isle.[230] About two o’clock, we passed the rapids of St. Ann.[231] Soon after we came opposite _Saut St. Louis_ and the village of _Caughnawago_[232] passed that last rapid of so many, and landed at Montreal, a little before sunset.

I hastened to the paternal roof, where the family were not less surprised than overjoyed at beholding me. Not having heard of me, since I had sailed from New York, they had believed, in {358} accordance with the common report, that I had been murdered by the savages, with Mr. M’Kay and the crew of the Tonquin: and certainly, it was by the goodness of Providence that I found myself thus safe and sound, in the midst of my relations and friends, at the end of a voyage accompanied by so many perils, and in which so many of my companions had met with an untimely death.

[211] Kildonan is a parish north of Winnipeg, sometimes
called Frog Pond Parish. It was named by Lord
Selkirk in remembrance of the Scottish parish from
which his settlers had migrated, and was the centre
of the Red River establishment.--ED.

[212] Thunder Bay, at the western end of Lake Superior,
lies between the high promontory of Pie Island
and the cliffs of Thunder Cape, the latter over
one thousand three hundred feet high. The region
is noted for its picturesqueness and the Indian
traditions which cluster around it. See Henry’s
_Travels_, p. 205. Franchère’s statement is an
obvious mistake, as the usual route from Thunder
Bay was along the northern coast; and the places
mentioned indicate that this was followed by the
present expedition.--ED.

[213] This post was situated at the mouth of Pic River,
two hundred miles from the entrance of St. Mary’s.
The name is an Indian word meaning “mud,” and was
applied because of the reddish yellow color of the
stream, due to the beds of clay through which it
flows. When the stream is swollen, it colors the
lake for a mile or more from its mouth. The North
West Company had an important post on this river,
which was the centre of a department; it produced
more valuable furs in the early years of the century
than when Franchère passed. Later, it was maintained
by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Canadian Pacific
Railway crosses the river near its mouth.--_Ed._

[214] Michipicoton Bay is one hundred and twenty-five
miles from St. Mary’s River, by canoe travel. The
shore at the entrance is high and rocky; but at the
bottom of the bay, where the Michipicoton River
empties, it is low and sandy. The French had a
fur-trading post near the mouth of the stream, which
was abandoned in 1763. The post of the North West
Company at this place was tributary to that at Pic
River.--_Ed._

[215] When Colonel George Croghan sailed from St. Joseph,
July 20, 1814, on his way to attack Mackinac, he
detached Major Holmes with two small vessels, to
destroy the British post at Sault Ste. Marie.
Holmes met with no resistance, as the men had gone
to the defense of Fort Mackinac. He burned the
warehouses of the North West Company, and carried
away considerable plunder. See M’Afee, _History of
the Late War in the Western Country_ (Lexington,
Kentucky, 1816).--ED.

[216] Frederic Goedike was an old employé of the North
West Company, having been on the Assiniboin
(1801-05) and on the Peace (1808-09). He seems to
have retired to this small post upon Batchewana Bay,
forty-five miles from Sault Ste. Marie.--ED.

[217] Major Arthur Hunter Holmes was a Virginian and a
friend of Jefferson. He was stationed at Detroit,
as captain, when (February, 1814) he was placed
in charge of a detachment ordered to attack the
enemy at Delaware on the Thames. He succeeded,
although with a force much inferior to the British.
Immediately after this expedition he was promoted
to be major. After plundering Sault Ste. Marie he
rejoined the main army two days after it reached
Mackinac, and was killed in the attack on that
place, August 4, 1814. When the Americans again
obtained possession of the fort at Mackinac, the
name of Fort George was, in his honor, changed to
Fort Holmes.--ED.

[218] John Johnston, born at Craignear, Giant’s Causeway,
Ireland, in 1763, came to Canada in 1792. Lord
Dorchester introduced him to the partners of the
North West Company, and he quickly decided to cast
in his lot with the Western fur-traders. First
settled at La Pointe, he married the daughter of
an Indian chief. In 1794 he removed to Sault Ste.
Marie, and lived there until his death in 1828.
Although living on the American shore, he sided
with the British in the War of 1812-15. Hearing of
Colonel Croghan’s expedition, he armed all his men,
about a hundred in number, and embarked with them
for Mackinac, thus leaving his property at the mercy
of Major Holmes. Johnston’s son served as lieutenant
on the “Queen Charlotte,” and was captured by
the Americans in the naval battle on Lake Erie.
Bigsby, on his journey through the lakes in 1824,
visited Johnston, and commented upon the value and
extent of his library--“a thousand well-bound and
well-selected volumes, French and English, evidently
much in use, in winter especially.” For further
details of his career, see Masson, _Bourgeois_, ii,
pp. 137-142.--ED.

[219] The N. W. Company having raised a regiment composed
of their own servants, and known as the _voyageur
corps_, and having also instigated to war, and
armed, the Indian tribes, over which they had
influence, had brought on themselves this act of
retaliation. Mr. Johnston also had engaged actively
in the war against the United States.--FRANCHÈRE.

[220] For a brief history of Sault Ste. Marie, see J.
Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii of our series, note
38.--ED.

[221] Nolin lived at Sault Ste. Marie until 1819, when
he sold his property to Ermatinger and removed to
Pembina, in the Red River Valley.

Charles Ermatinger was the son of a Swiss merchant who
removed from the English colonies to Quebec after
Wolfe’s capture. He became, next to Johnston, the
wealthiest trader at the Sault. Bigsby describes him
as “every inch a trader, public-spirited, skilful,
sanguine and indefatigable.”--ED.

[222] For a short account of Mackinac, see Thwaites,
“Story of Mackinac,” in _How George Rogers Clark won
the Northwest_ (Chicago, 1903).--ED.

[223] This is about six and a half miles from Sault Ste.
Marie. It is a broad, low point thickly covered with
pines, sheltering a good harbor at the expansion of
St. Mary’s River.--ED.

[224] The American troops under Colonel Croghan were not
strong enough to attack the fort, but landed on the
west side of Mackinac Island with the hope that
the British would advance to meet them in the open
plain. Not far from the place of landing they found
the enemy waiting for them at the edge of a wood,
and succeeded in driving them back. Thinking pursuit
among the trees would be dangerous, they returned to
their boats and abandoned the expedition. It was in
this onslaught that Major Holmes was killed.--ED.

[225] French River has so many islands and deep and narrow
bays, that it often appears more like a number of
parallel streams than a single river. It is about
seventy-five miles long, and sometimes broadens into
a lake. About twenty miles from Lake Nipissing are
the Récollets Falls. This river owes its name to
serving as the early waterway from Lower Canada to
the Upper Country. See J. Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii
of our series, note 36.--ED.

[226] This was at the junction of the Mattawa River with
the Ottawa--the limit of Champlain’s exploration in
1613. This was a well-known post on the Ottawa River
route to the Upper Lakes, and now a station of the
Canadian Pacific Railway.--ED.

[227] These rapids are three-quarters of a mile long;
being, in fact, low cascades. They are about
twenty-five miles below the forks of the Ottawa.--ED.

[228] The Kettle (Chaudière) Falls are opposite the city
of Hull, Quebec. In 1800, Philemon Wright, “the
father of the town of Hull,” came from Woburn,
Massachusetts, and settled at the foot of the falls.
He brought twenty-five men with him, bought the land
from the Indians for twenty dollars, immediately
began to clear the forest, and in a short time had
become a well-to-do proprietor. He died in 1839, at
the age of seventy-nine.--ED.

[229] This is the site of Ottawa, founded in 1825, and in
1865 made the seat of government for Canada. The
curtains are of unequal width; the longer being
about three hundred, the shorter about a hundred
feet.--ED.

[230] The Long Sault Rapids, about sixty miles below
Ottawa, are nine miles long and full of islets,
rocky bars, and narrow passes. For the heroic
defense of this place, see Parkman, _Old Régime in
Canada_ (Boston, 1875), chap. iii. At the base of
the rapids the Ottawa widens into the Lake of Two
Mountains, twenty miles long and from two to three
miles broad.--ED.

[231] “Far-famed and so well described,” adds Mr.
Franchère, in his own translation, but I prefer
to leave the expression in its original striking
simplicity, as he wrote it before he had heard of
MOORE. Every reader remembers:--

“Soon as the woods on shore grow dim,
We’ll sing at St. Ann’s our parting hymn.”
_Canadian Boatman’s Song._
--HUNTINGTON.

[232] For a sketch of the Indian mission at Caughnawaga,
see J. Long’s _Voyages_, vol. ii of our series, note
9.--ED.

{359} CHAPTER XXIX

Present State of the Countries visited by the Author--Correction of
Mr. Irving’s Statements respecting St. Louis.

The last chapter closes the original French narrative of my travels around and across the continent, as published thirty-three years ago. The translation follows that narrative as exactly as possible, varying from it only in the correction of a few not very important errors of fact. It speaks of places and persons as I spoke of them then. I would not willingly lose the veri-similitude of this natural and unadorned description, in order to indulge in any new turns of style or more philosophical reflections.

But since that period many changes have occurred in the scenes which I so long ago visited and described. Though they are well known, I may be pardoned for alluding to them.

{360} The natives of the Sandwich islands, who were in a state of paganism at that time, have since adopted a form of Christianity, have made considerable progress in imitating the civilization of Europe, and even, at this moment, begin to entertain the idea of annexation to the United States. It appears, however, that the real natives are rapidly dwindling away by the effects of their vices, which an exotic and ill-assimilated civilization has rather increased than diminished, and to which religion has not succeeded in applying a remedy.

At the mouth of the Columbia, whole tribes, and among them, the _Clatsops_, have been swept away by disease. Here again, licentious habits universally diffused, spread a fatal disorder through the whole nation, and undermining the constitutions of all, left them an easy prey to the first contagion or epidemic sickness. But missionaries of various Christian sects have labored among the Indians of the Columbia also; not to speak of the missions of the Catholic Church, so well known by the narrative of Father De Smet {361} and others;[233] and numbers have been taught to cultivate the soil, and thus to provide against the famines to which they were formerly exposed from their dependence on the precarious resources of the chase; while others have received, in the faith of Christ, the true principle of national permanence, and a living germ of civilization, which may afterward be developed.

Emigration has also carried to the Oregon the axe of the settler, as well as the canoe and pack of the fur-trader. The fertile valleys and prairies of the Willamet--once the resort of the deer, the elk, and the antelope, are now tilled by the industrious husbandman. Oregon City, so near old “Astoria,” whose first log fort I saw and described, is now an Archiepiscopal see, and the capital of a territory, which must soon be a state of the Union.[234]

Of the regions east of the mountains described in my itinerary, little can be said in respect to improvement: they remain in the same wild state. The interest of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as an association of fur-traders, is opposed to agricultural {362} improvements, whose operation would be to drive off and extinguish the wild animals that furnish their commerce with its object. But on Lake Superior steamboats have supplanted the birch-bark canoe of the Indian and the fur-trader, and at Saut Ste. Marie, especially on the American side, there is now every sign of prosperity. How remote and wild was the region beyond, through which I passed, may be estimated by the fact that in thirty-eight years the onward-rolling wave of our population has but just reached its confines.

Canada, although it has not kept pace with the United States, has yet wonderfully advanced in forty years. The valley of the Ottawa, that great artery of the St. Lawrence, where I thought it worth while to notice the residence of an enterprising farmer and lumber merchant, is now a populous district, well cultivated, and sprinkled with villages, towns, and cities.

The reader, in perusing my first chapter, found a description of the city of New York in 1810, and of the neighboring village of Brooklyn. It {363} would be superfluous to establish a comparison at this day. At that time, it will be observed, the mere breaking out of war between America and England was thought to involve the sacrifice of an American commercial establishment on the Pacific, on the ground of its supplies being necessarily cut off (it was supposed), and of the United States government being unable to protect it from hostile attack. At present it suffices to remark that while New York, then so inconsiderable a port, is now perhaps the third city in the world, the United States also, are, undoubtedly, a first-rate power, unassailable at home, and formidable abroad, to the greatest nations.

As in my preface I alluded to Mr. Irving’s “Astoria,” as reflecting, in my opinion, unjustly, upon the young men engaged in the first expedition to the mouth of the Columbia, it may suffice here to observe, without entering into particulars, that my narrative, which I think answers for its own fidelity, clearly shows that some of them, at least did not want courage, activity, zeal for the interests of the company, while it existed, and patient {364} endurance of hardship. And although it forms no part of the narrative or my voyage, yet as subsequent visits to the West and an intimate knowledge of St. Louis, enable me to correct Mr. Irving’s poetical rather than accurate description of that place, I may well do it here. St. Louis now bids fair to rival ere long the “Queen of the West;” Mr. Irving describes her as a small trading place, where trappers, half-breeds, gay, frivolous Canadian boatmen, &c., &c., congregated and revelled, with that lightness and buoyancy of spirit inherited from their French forefathers; the indolent Creole of St. Louis caring for little more than the enjoyment of the present hour; a motley population, half-civilized, half-barbarous, thrown, on his canvas, into one general, confused (I allow highly _picturesque_) mass, without respect of persons: but it is fair to say, with due homage to the talent of the sketcher, who has verged slighty on caricature in the use of that humor-loving pencil admired by all the world, that St. Louis even then contained its noble, industrious, and I may say, {365} princely merchants; it could boast its _Chouteaus_, _Soulands_, _Céré_, _Chéniers_, _Vallées_, and _La Croix_,[235] with other kindred spirits, whose descendants prove the worth of their sires by their own, and are now among the leading business men, as their fathers were the pioneers, of the flourishing St. Louis.

With these remarks, which I make simply as an act of justice in connection with the general subject of the founding of “Astoria,” but in which I mean to convey no imputation on the intentional fairness of the accomplished author to whom I have alluded, I take a respectful leave of my readers.

[233] For the history of Catholic missions in Oregon,
see journals of Father De Smet, which are to
be published in volumes xxviii and xxix of our
series.--ED.

[234] Oregon City is situated at the falls of Willamette
River. It was laid out in lots in 1842, when the
rivalry for the possession of this site between
McLaughlin, Hudson’s Bay factor, and Waller, of the
Methodist Mission, was at its height. The rapid
growth of Portland has prevented Oregon City from
becoming the important place it once promised.
In 1900 its population was only thirty-five
hundred.--ED.

[235] For these early families of St. Louis, consult
Billon, _Annals of St. Louis_ (St. Louis, 1886).--ED.