Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/94

Rh others being seated according to rank. No more time was consumed at table than was convenient; there was present neither gluttony nor intemperance. If guests were present the chief devoted some time to them; after dinner he showed them the farm and stock, offered them horses and guns, or perhaps made up a party to escort them wherever they wished to go. Did they remain at the fort, there was the opportunity to study a whole museum of curious things from all parts of the savage and civilized world, all kinds of weapons, dresses, ornaments, mechanisms, and art. When these were exhausted there were the pipe and books, and the long-drawn tales of evening. Where were met together so many men of adventurous lives, mariners who had circumnavigated the globe, leaders of trapping parties through thousands of miles of wilderness, among tribes of hostile savages, in heat and cold, in sunshine and storm, contending always with the inhospitable whims of mother nature, there could be but little flagging in the conversation. Sometimes the story was a tragedy, sometimes a comedy; but no matter what the occasion for mirth, discipline was always preserved and propriety regarded.

Many Americans found shelter and entertainment at Vancouver, as we shall see, most of whom have made suitable acknowledgment, testifying to the generous assistance given to every enterprise not in conflict with the company's business. Whether it was a rival trapping party like Jedediah Smith's, which found itself in trouble, or an unlucky trader like Wyeth, a missionary, a naturalist, or a secret