i8o 



CHAPTER IX. 



. STUART established a station at 

 i *il/i - Oakanagan, and in due time the over- 

 C(^) land party, after encountering the 

 )Y^ ""^ most fearful hardships, chiefly on the 

 west side of the Rocky Mountains, 

 ^ arrived at Astoria, where rumours were 

 T already rife of the loss of the Tonquin. The 

 account of that terrible catastrophe to the infant 

 settlement is thus reported by an Indian named 

 Kasiascall, or Lamazu, who had witnessed the 

 whole affair. 



Pierre Lefranc said that the Tonqinn left Astoria 

 on the 1st of June, which was the case, but owing 

 to contrary winds she was prevented from crossing 

 the bar at the mouth of the river until the 5 th. 

 The number of persons then on board was twenty- 

 three, inclusive of Messrs. McKay and Lewis. 

 Shortly after leaving the Columbia, the Tonqtiin 

 anchored for the night in a small bay, and was 

 there boarded by a canoe containing several Indians, 

 one of whom was Lamazu, and as this man had 



