The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 125 



Sandwich Islands to Mr. Astor saying so ; and he 

 was only prevented from carrying his purpose into 

 effect by the determined conduct of Mr. Stuart, one 

 of the partners, who seizing a brace of pistols 

 threatened to shoot the unfeeling savage unless he 

 bore up to the rescue.* 



" From what I have already said you may be 

 able to form some idea that the Tonqnin was 

 hardly a Paradise, and since the murderous attempt 

 I have just related the enmity between the captain 

 and his passengers was undisguised. Most of the 

 latter were Scotchmen, and they talked to each 

 other in Gaelic, whilst the Canadians spoke only in 

 French, neither of which languages the captain 

 could understand, and he therefore became possessed 

 of the idea that they were plotting to displace him, 

 and assume the command of the ship themselves, 

 an idea which worried him half out of his life, for 

 some of the younger men, anxious to repay him for 



* It seems incredible that Captain Thorn should have confessed his 

 deliberate intention to desert the party on shore, but in Washington 

 Irving's " Astoria " the following extract from the original letter 

 i« given : — " Had the wind," writes Thorn to Mr. Astor, " (unfor- 

 tunately) 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." — 

 "Astoria" (Bohn's Edition, 1850), p. 34. 



