12 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



confidence,, and at once prepared to anticipate Ameri 

 can possession of the Pacific coast. Mr. Astor coun 

 tered by engaging the best of the dissatisfied Nor West 

 ers for his Pacific Fur Company. Duncan MacDougall, 

 a little pepper-box of a Scotchman, with a bumptious 

 idea of authority which was always making other eyes 

 smart, was to be Mr. Astor s proxy on the ship to 

 round the Horn and at the headquarters of the com 

 pany on the Pacific. Donald MacKenzie was a relative 

 of Sir Alexander of the Nor Westers, and must have 

 left the northern traders from some momentary pique; 

 for he soon went back to the Canadian companies, be 

 came chief factor at Fort Garry,* the headquarters of 

 the Hudson s Bay Company, and was for a time gover 

 nor of Red River. Alexander MacKay had accompanied 

 Sir Alexander MacKenzie on his famous northern 

 trips, and was one Nor Wester who served Mr. Astor 

 with fidelity to the death. The elder Stuart was a 

 rollicking winterer from The Labrador, with the hail- 

 fellow-well-met-air of an equal among the mercurial 

 French-Canadians. The younger Stuart was of the 

 game, independent spirit that made Nor Westers 

 famous. 



Of the Tonquin s voyage round the Horn with its 

 crew of twenty, and choleric Captain Thorn, and four f 

 partners headed by the fussy little MacDougall in mu 

 tiny against the captain s discipline, and twelve clerks 

 always getting their landlubber clumsiness in the sail 

 ors way, and thirteen voyageurs ever grumbling at the 

 ocean swell that gave them qualms unknown on inland 



* The modern Winnipeg. 



f MacKay, MacDougall, and the two Stuarts 



