THE BANGERS OF THE WOODS. 



437 



TRADING WITH THE NATIVES ON THE COAST. 



The well-known result of this plan was the sending out of 

 a ship, the Tonquin, to establish a post near the mouth of 

 the Columbia river. She sailed on the 8th of September, 

 1810 ; arriving at her destination, the adventurers of the ex- 

 pedition on the 5th of April, 1811, founded the little town of 

 Astoria. The ship afterwards sailed to the northward, leav- 

 ing the settlers at Astoria. Captain Thorn, the commander 

 of the Tonquin, arrived at Vancouver's Island, and anchored 

 in the harbor of Neweetee. Here in attempting to negotiate 

 with the natives for the purchase of furs, he provoked their 

 hostility, and the captain with nearly all the crew were mas- 

 sacred. Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk, being wounded, took 

 shelter in the cabin, and afterwards blew up the ship, killing 

 a great number of the natives. On the declaration of war, 

 in 1817, Astoria fell into the hands of the British. Among 

 the persons composing the expedition, in the Tonquin, were 

 thirteen Canadian voyageurs. These people are thus described 

 by Mr. Irving : 



" The ' voyageurs' form a kind of confraternity in the Ca- 

 nadas, like the arrieros, or carriers of Spain, and, like them, 

 are employed in long internal expeditions of travel and traffic ; 



37* 



