Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/98



before the Tonquin crossed the bar and anchored safe in the river. Then the Astor party selected a site for their fort, and began the erection of the Pacific coast emporium of the fur trade, which was appropriately named Astoria. "Spring, usually so tardy in this latitude," says Franchere, "was already well advanced; the foliage was budding, and the earth was clothing itself with verdure. We imagined ourselves in the garden of Eden."

Fate of the Tonquin. On the 5th of June the Tonquin left the river on her northern cruise in search of furs.^ From this voyage she never returned, nor did a single one of the fated men who sailed in her from Astoria live to tell the gruesome story of the Tonquin' s destruction. That awful tale is known only from the report of a Gray's Harbour Indian, who was taken on board as an interpreter to the northern tribes, and who escaped death when the ship was blown to atoms, with several hundred natives on board, in the bay of Clayoquot.

The overland party; Wilson Price Hunt. About the time of the Tonquin's arrival on the Pacific coast another detachment ofg^stor's men was preparing to cross the continent by following the trail of Lewis and Clark. This company was under the direction of

1 One of the partners, Mr. Alexander Mackay, was on board as chief trader. He was a former Northwest Company man, and had been the companion of Mackenzie on his famous journey to the Pacific in 1793. He was a man of abilit}', very popular among his associates, and his death in the Tonquin disaster was deeply lamented.