1 28 The Home of the IVdrvereuc and Beaver. 



bear malice in his heart, yet I know this, that had 

 he ever met Captain Thorn on land, that ruffian's 

 life had not been worth a beaver-skin. I have 

 heard him tell this story many hundreds of times, 

 and I have heard every particular confirmed by 

 others, yet never did he overcome the disgust and 

 indignation with which that man's needless bar- 

 barity inspired him. He had seen victims slowly 

 done to death by the redskins, amidst horrors at 

 which the blood runs' cold, yet to his dying day he 

 held the captain of the Tonquin as a barbarian 

 of infinitely blacker hue than the savage, for he 

 knew better. As for me," continued honest 

 Pierre, " my blood boils when I think of the man 

 coolly letting his fellow-creatures pe'-ish. But I 

 must get on with the thread of my story, unless 

 you are getting tired." 



" Oh ! no. Pray go on," replied Paul, who had 

 listened with wrapt attention to this strange 

 narrative, and once more filling and ligliting his 

 pipe the Canadian proceeded. 



\ " The ship continued standing off and on until 

 noon of the following day, when she anchored, and 

 an attempt to cross the breakers was made by some 

 of the passengers, which nearly ended in another 

 catastrophe. The bar at the mouth of the Columbia 

 River is a fearful one, at least three miles in length, 



