1 86 TJic Home of the lVo/rerc//e and Beaver. 



unarmed, permitted them to come on board ; and 

 shortly afterwards several other canoes followed, 

 and the ship was thronged with natives. The 

 officer in charge now felt some alarm, and running 

 down below, called the captain and Mr. McKay, 

 who speedily appeared upon deck; when the former, 

 perhaps anxious to atone for his previous insults, 

 received the chiefs with protestations of friendship, 

 and neglected to observe the precautions usual in 

 the Indian traffic, though their observance had 

 been repeatedly impressed upon him by Mr. Astor 

 both by word of mouth and by letter. In his 

 instructions Captain Thorn was enjoined "to be 

 courteous and kind in his dealings with the savages, 

 but by no means to confide in their apparent 

 friendship, nor to admit more than a few on board 

 of his ship at a time!' How he obeyed the first 

 part of these orders has been already related ; we 

 now come to the consequences of his total disregard 

 of the second. 



Notwithstanding that the natives were apparently 

 unarmed, the interpreter noticed that they all wore 

 short fur mantles, under which it was quite possible 

 that weapons might be concealed ; and mentioning 

 his suspicion to Mr. McKay, that gentleman urged 

 the captain to clear the ship and get under weigh ; 

 bu^ he took no notice of the warning until the 



