THREE COMPANIES IN CONFLICT 13 



waters little need be said. Washington Irving has 

 told this story ; and what Washington Irving leaves un 

 told, Captain Chittenden has recently unearthed from 

 the files of the Missouri archives. 



The Tonquin sailed from New York, September 6, 

 1810. The captain had been a naval officer, and cursed 

 the partners for their easy familiarity with the men 

 before the mast, and the note-writing clerks for a lot 

 of scribbling blockheads, and the sea-sick voyageurs for 

 a set of fresh-water braggarts. And the captain s ami 

 able feelings were reciprocated by every Nor Wester 

 on board. 



Cape Horn was doubled on Christmas Day, Hawaii 

 sighted in February, some thirty Sandwich Islanders 

 engaged for service in the new company, and the Co 

 lumbia entered at the end of March, 1811. Eight lives 

 were lost attempting to run small boats against the 

 turbulent swell of tide and current. The place to land, 

 the site to build, details of the new fort, Astoria all 

 were subjects for the jangling that went on between 

 the fuming little Scotchman MacDougall and Captain 

 Thorn, till the Tonquin weighed anchor on the 1st of 

 June and sailed away to trade on the north coast, ac 

 companied by only one partner, Alexander MacKay, 

 and one clerk, James Lewis. 



The obstinacy that had dominated Captain Thorn 

 continued to dictate a wrong-headed course. In spite 

 of Mr. Astor s injunction to keep Indians off the ship 

 and MacKay s warning that the Nootka tribes were 

 treacherous, the captain allowed natives to swarm over 

 his decks. Once, when MacKay was on shore, Thorn 

 lost his temper, struck an impertinent chief in the face 

 with a bundle of furs, and expelled the Indian from the 



