16 The Fur Traders. 



Islands where fifteen islanders were added to the force of 

 the company, arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River, 

 on March 22, 1811. After spending three days and losing 

 four of the passengers and three of the crew in efforts to 

 sound the channel with small boats, the Tonquin finally 

 crossed the bar on March 25, 1811, and anchored in 

 Bakers Bay, as the estuary formed by the points of land 

 terminating in Cape Adams and Cape Disappointment is 

 called. Some time was spent in exploring the shores of the 

 bay for a suitable site before Mr. McDougal debarked 

 with forty-two of the company, all but four of whom were 

 British subjects, at a point about twelve miles from the 

 mouth of the river. Here a slightly elevated position had 

 been selected where on May 16th, the foundations of 

 Fort Astoria were laid. The Tonquin, with three of the 

 passengers, eight of the islanders, and the sixteen remaining 

 members of her crew, sailed on June 1st, on a trading voy- 

 age along the northwest coast. About three weeks later when 

 they were anchored off Woody Point on Vancouver's Is- 

 land, a large party of Indians who _ had been exasperated 

 by the insults offered to their chief by the Captain on a pre- 

 vious visit returned, and after some time spent in trading 

 at a given signal suddenly fell upon the ship's company. 

 Taken entirely unawares the crew and the passengers niade 

 a desperate resistance, but the Captain, Mr. McKay, and all 

 but five of the party who had escaped to the cabin were 

 quickly killed by the savages. The five in the cabin 

 finally succeeded in clearing the ship by firing through 

 the skylights and companionway. During the night four of 

 them left the vessel in the long boat, hoping to make their 

 way back to the river. The other survivor, who was 

 wounded, refused to accompany them, and the following 

 morning invited the Indians who had gathered on the shore 

 in large numbers to come on board. When the deck 

 was crowded with the natives he fired the magazine and 

 blew up the vessel, killing all who were on it. Three or 

 four days later the men in the boat were driven ashore in 

 a storm, and being captured by the Indians while trying 

 to make their way inland were put to a cruel death. The 

 Indians who committed this outrage were members of the 

 Wake-a-ninishes tribe. When the report of this disaster 

 reached Astoria late in the fall it had a depressing effect 



