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The haughty Douglas stood in his canoe and watched the Argonauts go by. Nelia, his wife, never looked more matronly than on that spring morning of 1849 when sitting there, with her rosebud family around her, she looked her last on Oregon. Allen dropped off at Fort Vancouver, and with him some of the Canadian servants with their piles of $30,000 and $40,000 apiece. Ogden sat with his head on his hand; the fort was desolate, trade abandoned.

"Yes, Douglas is gone," he said sadly. "He saw how matters were going. He could n't stand it, he left; he was too strict a disciplinarian to stay and see the rack and disorder."

Allen had a conference with Ogden in the office, then he took $150,000 in silver coin, nailed it in little boxes, loaded it into a canoe, and followed Douglas up to Puget Sound. They reached Fort Victoria on Vancouver's Island in safety. Three years later James Douglas became the first governor of British Columbia, and his first official act was to summon all the Indians around Victoria and pay them in full for their lands. Sir James, knighted by the queen, ruled long and wisely. Settlers came from England and built their ivied halls and wayside inns, and for many a year Lady Douglas led the noble dames of British Columbia in graces of person, mind, and heart.

There were other passengers in that ship from San Francisco.

After infinite trials, Joe Meek, the trapper, had made his way to Washington, to find his own Virginian cousin the charming Lady of the White House.

He says: "When I heard the silks rustling in the passage I felt more frightened than if a hundred Blackfeet had whooped in my ear. A mist came over my