WASHINGTON IRVfNO'B ASTORIA. 549 



" The voyageurs are generally of French descent, and inherit much of the 

 gaiety and lightness of heart of their ancestors, being full of anecdote and 

 song, and ever ready for the dance. They inherit, too, a fund of civility and 

 complaisance ; and, instead of that hardness and grossness which men in la- 

 borious life are apt to indulge towards each other, they are mutually obliging 

 and accommodating ; interchanging kind offices, yielding each other assistance 

 and comfort in every emergency, and using the familiar appellations of 

 jf cousin ' and ' brother/ when there is in fact no relationship. Their natural 

 good- will is heightened by a community of adventure and hardship in their 

 precarious and wandering life. 



" No men are more submissive to their leaders and employers, more capable 

 of enduring hardship, or more good-humoured under privations. Never are 

 they so happy as when on long and rough expeditions, toiling up rivers or 

 coasting lakes ; encamping at night on the borders, gossiping round their fires, 

 and bivouacking in the open air. They are dexterous boatmen, vigorous and 

 adroit with the oar and paddle, and will row from morning unto night with- 

 out a murmur. The steersman often sings an old traditionary French song, 

 with some regular burden in which they all join, keeping time with their oars. 

 If at any time they flag in spirits or relax in exertions, it is but necessary to 

 strike up a song of the kind to put them all in fresh spirits and activity The 

 Canadian waters are vocal with these little French chansons, that have been 

 echoed from mouth to mouth and transmitted from father to son, from the 

 earliest days of the colony ; and it has a pleasing effect, in a still golden sum- 

 mer evening, to see a bateau gliding across the bosom of a lake and dipping 

 its oars to the cadence of these quaint old ditties, or sweeping along, in full 

 chorus, on a bright sunny morning, down the transparent current of one of 

 the Canadian rivers. But we are talking of things that are fast fading away. 

 The march of mechanical invention is driving every thing poetical before it. 

 The steam-boats, which are fast dispelling the wildness and romance of our 

 lakes and rivers, and aiding to subdue the world into common- place, are prov- 

 ing as fatal to the race of Canadian voyageurs as they have been to the boat- 

 men on the Mississippi. Their glory is departed." Vol. i. p. 6064. 



On the 8th of September, 1810, the Tonquin set sail. Without 

 delaying- our readers by a recital of all the desagrements between the 

 stickler for naval discipline and the lubberly fresh- water sailors of 

 the lakes, and passing with some unwillingness over the scenes en- 

 acted in Hawaii and others of the Sandwich Islands, which are full of 

 genuine humour, we pass at once to the arrival of the adventurers at 

 the Columbia or Oregon river; at whose mouth, that is, at point 

 George, they founded their trading house on April 1*2, 181 1, to which, 

 as the embryo metropolis of the new colony, they gave the appropri- 

 ate name of ASTORIA. The various stores in the ensuing month were 

 disembarked ; and, after various delavs, on the 5th of June the Ton- 

 quin set sail on a coasting expedition northward, leaving Mr. M'Dou- 

 gal and his followers to their own resources and the mercy of the na- 

 tives and the north-westers. Alas ! the gallant ship sunk for ever on 

 the horizon of the land-party. In the harbour of Newetee the perfi- 

 dious natives worked on the temper of the precise Captain Thorn: a 

 quarrel ensued the savages overpowered and massacred the adven- 

 turers, who met their death like heroes. One solitary interpreter con- 

 veyed the tidings to Astoria. Other causes of disquietude had oc- 

 curred to Mr. M'Dougal and his followers, but they were struck with 

 a dismay at this disastrous intelligence that almost paralyzed their ex- 

 ertions. We here leave for the present the settlers at Astoria ; but 



M.M. No. 6 2 R 



