TJie Home of the IVolvej-ene and Beaver. 1 69 



destined to misfortune. I mentioned that Mr. 

 McDougall was a man of bad temper, and he suc- 

 ceeded in making himself so unpopular that one 

 fine morning four men were found missing ; they 

 were, however, seized by the Indians when they 

 had gone eighty miles up the river, and delivered 

 up on payment of a heavy ransom. Their desertion 

 was so far productive of good that it opened the 

 leader's eyes to the discontent which prevailed 

 around him ; and when six more men ran away — 

 to be returned in the same manner — he changed 

 for the better, serving out tents for the sick, and 

 allowing them little delicacies which he had hitherto 

 reserved for himself That Mr. Astor showed little 

 of his usual foresight in not sending a medical man 

 with the expedition is now universally acknow- 

 ledged, 



"But internal feuds were not all the party had 

 to contend against. Comecomly and his followers 

 spread a report that the neighbouring tribes were 

 uniting for the purpose of destroying the ad- 

 venturers, and a foreboding of approaching danger 

 was added to their other troubles. To convince the 

 natives that no harm was designed them several 

 parties were sent into the interior, and my father 

 accompanied Mr. McKay in a canoe up the river 

 until they reached the Cascades, a distance of nearly 



