The Ho)iie of t lie Wolverene and Beaver. 197 



day. When the news of the Tonqnin's loss reached 

 them, their hearts fell, for many valuable stores 

 belonging to the settlement were destroyed in the 

 vessel. Captain Thorn having proposed to land 

 them on his return from the North, by which time 

 suitable buildings would have been prepared for 

 their reception ; now they saw themselves, a mere 

 handful of men, bereft of the supplies on which 

 they had relied, and encompassed on every side by 

 daring and treacherous foes. 



At this juncture Mr. McDougall had resource to 

 a device that reflects credit on his powers of 

 invention. Some years previously the small-pox — 

 that fatal gift of the white man, by which whole 

 tribes of their red brethren have been exterminated 

 — had broken out, and ravaged the wild regions 

 west of the Rocky Mountains. Though it had now 

 fulfilled its destructive mission and had died out, 

 the Indians were in daily dread of its re-appearance, 

 the knowledge of which prompted the governor of 

 Astoria to practice on their credulity in the 

 following manner. He summoned the chiefs whom 

 he believed most deeply implicated in the conspiracy 

 against the white men, entertained them hospitably 

 and then made them a speech. He said that he 

 was fully aware of the loss of the Tonquin, and of 

 the treachery of the Vancouver Island tribes, for 



