Page:Letters to Mrs. F. F. Victor, 1878-83.djvu/24



Mrs. F. F. Victor

I duly recd yours the 5th Inst but have been so busy with a/cs &c I've had no time to write earlier. I will now try to answer your queries. Ist as to the attack on Nisqually-it was a trifling affair. Tolmie was at Nisqually & I at the Cowlitz farm both establishments of the Puget Sound Agricultural Co. Two men a Mr Lewis & a Mr Wallace (the latter has still a brother at Monticello) went to get a few things from Tolmie that I couldn't supply. While there a row occurred between the Squally Indians & a weak neighbouring tribe to whom the Dr (Tolmie) gave shelter when the trouble began, & Wallace & Lewis happened to be in the way when the gates were being shut. Wallace was killed and Lewis wounded. One of the Companys men Thibeault shot an indian from a bastion but none of the Company's men were hurt. Tolmie or [Edward] Huggins can tell about it. The Americans I think were in no way involved....

The present Cementville or Knappton was called Todds Bay from that ship-she anchored there and sent word to Astoria to have them come for the cargo there, as she was in the river & the cargo to be delivered at the tackle ends. Mr [Donald] McTavish went over to induce them to come to Astoria & was drowned. It is his tombstone at Astoria that is so often talked of there, the earliest in the Country. This McTavish was no relation of Dugald McTavish late of Vancouver.

Solomon Smith came with Wyeth & had the school at Vancouver in 1833 and a part of '34. He was in a measure thrown upon the Company; so was J. K. Townsend the Ornithologist. Townsend undertook the medical duties of the Fort, both were employed to relieve them from dependance. I know Smith ran off with the old canadian bakers wife. At the time she had two boys about Io years of age. The old lady is still living at Clatsop-her oldest boy Xavier, died of leprosy. I knew of many cases of this disease. Our medical men treated it with arsenic-this was only a temporary stimulant. It usu-