THE NOR WESTERS COUP 23 



Saskatchewan, thence across the plains to Athabasca, 

 over the northern Rockies, past Jasper House, through 

 Yellow Head Pass, and down half the length of the 

 Columbia through Kootenay plains to Astoria. One 

 has only to recall the roaring canons of the northern 

 Rockies, with their sheer cataracts and bottomless 

 precipices, to realize how much more hazardous this 

 route was than that followed by Hunt from St. Louis 

 to Astoria. Hunt had to cross only the plains and the 

 width of the Rockies. The Nor Westers not only did 

 this, but passed down the middle of the Rockies for 

 nearly a thousand miles. 



Before doubling the Horn the Isaac Todd was to 

 sail from Quebec to England for convoy of a war-ship. 

 The Nor Westers naive assurance of victory was only 

 exceeded by their utter indifference to danger, diffi 

 culty, and distance in the attainment of an end. In 

 view of the terror which the Isaac Todd was alleged to 

 have inspired in MacDougall s mind, it is interesting 

 to know what the Nor Westers thought of their ship. 

 &quot;A twenty-gun letter of marque with a mongrel crew * 

 writes MacDonald of Garth, &quot;a miserable sailor with 

 a miserable commander and a rascally crew.&quot; On the 

 way out MacDonald transferred to the British convoy 

 Raccoon, leaving the frisky old Governor MacTavish 

 with his gay barmaid Jane * drinking pottle deep on 

 the Isaac Todd, where the rightly disgusted captain 

 was not on speaking terms with his Excellency. &quot; We 

 were nearly six weeks before ive could double Cape 

 Horn, and ivere driven half-way to the Cape of Good 



* Jane Barnes, an adventuress from Portsmouth, the first 

 white woman on the Columbia. 



