Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/79

28 they were compelled to a life of comparative virtue by way of example to their subordinates. He who respected not his own marriage relations, or those of others, must suffer for it, either by incurring the wrath of the company, or the vengeance of the natives, or both. Licentiousness could not be tolerated, and this was one reason why, with so many discordant elements in the service, such perfect order was maintained. And this discipline was as rigidly enforced outside the fort as within it.

Notwithstanding the conjugal relations here described, society at Fort Vancouver embraced many happy elements, and numbered among its members men who would have graced a court.

Foremost among these, we may be sure, was John McLoughlin, always a pleasing character to contemplate. On the consolidation of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay fur companies, he had been sent to