WASHINGTON IRVING's ASTORIA. 559 



Months elapsed, and yet no tidings. More energetic movements 

 were requisite. The war continued, and the North-west Company 

 "made hay while the sun shone," by commissioning Mr. " La wry 

 Todd" to go round to the mouth of the river of promise. The times 

 were still more alarming, and Mr. Astor applied to the United States 

 government ; but in vain, for other and higher views engrossed their 

 attention. A fast-sailing vessel, yclept The Lark, was commissioned, 

 and after some delay put to sea early in March 1813. Mr. Aator's 

 despatch to Mr. Hunt is memorable. It is as follows, full of confi- 

 dence, even in the midst of difficulties : " I always think you are 

 well, and that I shall see you again, which, Heaven, I hope, will 

 grant. Were I on the spot and had the management of affairs, I 

 would defy them all; but as it is, every thing depends on you and 

 your friends about you. Our enterprise is grand and deserves success, 

 and I hope it will meet it" Mr. Astor very soon after received 

 accounts of Mr. Stuart's safe arrival at St. Louis ; and these happy 

 tidings were a gleam of sunshine dispelling every cloud and giving 

 hopes for the accomplishment of all his plans, hopes, alas, that were 

 doomed never to be realized. On the 27th of October 1813 The 

 Lark was wrecked off the Sandwich Islands. 



If we were to follow this interesting, but perhaps, rather apocry- 

 phal narrative through all its windings and digressions we might 

 occupy a much greater space than our readers would desire. We 

 leave, therefore, untouched a long episode respecting the adventures 

 of M'Kenzie, David Stuart, and Reed. Neither is it our intention 

 to accompany Mr. Hunt on his voyage aboard the Beaver, and to 

 detail his adventures among the Russians at New Archangel; nor 

 will we entertain our readers with the debauches of the Kamtschat- 

 kadales. We return rather to Mr. M'Dougal, the great Erie of the 

 American Fur Company, a gentleman, we fear, not altogether well- 

 affected towards the good cause, but still nominally attached to it. 

 Passing over the unpleasant and suspicious transactions of that gentle- 

 man, we proceed to a part of his biography which, as it presents 

 something original in the way of matrimonial anecdote, may not be 

 unacceptable to our lady-readers. Mr. M'Dougal, who turns out after 

 all to be a traitor, and worse than all an ally of the North-west 

 Company, eschews celibacy and courts the alliance of a native. The 

 following scene is, we think, worth reading: 



" M'Dougal, who appears to have been a man of a thousand projects, and 

 of great though somewhat irregular ambition, suddenly conceived the idea of 

 seeking the hand of one of the native princesses, a daughter of the one-eyed 

 potentate Comcomly, who held sway over the fishing tribe of the Chinooks, 

 and had long supplied the factory with smelts and sturgeons. M'Dougal, 

 in the course of an exploring expedition, was driven by stress of weather to 

 seek shelter in the royal abode of Comcomly. Then and there he was first 

 struck with the charms of this piscatory princess, as she exerted herself to 

 entertain her father's guest. 



"The 'journal of Astoria,' however, which was kept under his own eye, 

 records this union as a high state alliance, and a great stroke of policy. The 

 factory had to depend, in a great measure, on the Chinooks for provisions. 

 They were at present friendly, but it was to be feared they would prove other- 

 wise, should they discover the weakness _and the exigencies of the post, and 



