Page:Letters to Mrs. F. F. Victor, 1878-83.djvu/21

 giving liquor to Indians & another man was in his wake for Coasting—he got off somehow—promising never to return. One of the charges for seizing the Steamer Beaver was for landing my present wife at Nesqually instead of going up to Olympia where there was only two or three huts & no accommodation whatever. I had better not say more. The case of the "Albion" was a sad one & the government in Washington did what they could to set things right, but then think of the anxieties and delays it required a long time then to hear from Washington. We did not like those things I fancy I am pretty cool about them now, but it did rather damp my democracy. I often heard Dr McLoughlin say these Englishmen when they first come are such rabid democrats, and in a few years they are always conservative at least.

Old Mr [Rev. Samuel] Parker wintered with us at Vancr in 35—he was suffering for exercise—wanted McNeil to wrestle with him, but McNeil thought there would be little honor for him, but rather any amount of fun at his expense if he failed with the old man—he taught our baker to make salt rising bread, a very good old fanatic with some few peculiarities, such as licking his plate &c. [T.J.] Faruiham was a jovial jolly fellow in batchelors hall. Douglas fitted him out from his own wardrobe so as to be presentable at mess—he speaks in his work for himself.

At that time we lived well; plenty of cattle, sheep, swine, salmon, game & an ample garden. The decanters & fine English glass set off the table & made it look I suppose superb to those who had come across the country with hardly the commonest necessaries. . . . The numberless missionaries had little to complain of, so far as I could see, & why Gray should be so embittered is a marvel to me. Why, he & his superiors could not have existed without the constant aid they had.

The Revd Herbert Beaver & wife came out I think in '36 he had I believe been Chaplain to a regiment at St Lucia in the West Indies—he was of the fox hunting type & was soon