THREE COMPANIES IN CONFLICT 21 



through the woods neither game nor Indian scout 

 could detect his presence. With a noisy cavalcade of 

 sixty-four all this was impossible. Broken into de 

 tachments, weak, emaciated, stripped naked, on the 

 verge of dementia and cannibalism, now shouting to 

 each other across a roaring canon, now sinking in de 

 spair before a blind wall, the overlanders finally reached 

 Astoria after nearly a year s wanderings. 



Mr. Astor s second ship, the Beaver, arrived with 

 re-enforcements of men and provisions. More posts 

 were established inland. After several futile attempts, 

 despatches were sent overland to St. Louis. Under 

 direction of Mr. Hunt, the Beaver sailed for Alaska 

 to trade with the Russians. Word came from the 

 North- West forts on the Upper Columbia of war with 

 England. Mr. Astor s third ship, the Lark, was 

 wrecked. Astoria was now altogether in the hands of 

 men who had been Nor Westers. 



And what was the alert North-West Company 

 doing ? * 



* Doings in the North-West camp have only become known 

 of late from the daily journals of two North-West partners 

 MacDonald of Garth, whose papers were made public by a 

 descendant of the MacKenzies, and Alexander Henry, whose 

 account is in the Ottawa Library. 



