Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/108

96 Many are the incidents that Mr. Matthieu relates illustrating his qualities. Once, he says, an Indian was brought to him charged with committing a gross offense. "Is he guilty?' asked the doctor. "Yes," they replied, ,and presented the proof . "Tie him to that cannon," he replied, pointing to one of the two pieces of artillery that commanded the entrance to the fort. When this was done, he said, "Give him fifteen lashes.' Soon after a white man was brought, charged with the same offense. Doctor McLoughlin made the same inquiries, and finding him guilty administered the same punishment. This illustrates why his authority was so absolute among the Indians. His administration exactly filled their conception of justice.

The services of McLoughlin to the immigrants of the year '42, and later, until he resigned his position as chief factor, are fully vouched for by Mr. Matthieu. The doctor advanced everything needed, and furnished the use of bateaux to any in distress. The concluding portion of the immigrants' journey, that from The Dalles to Oregon City, was often virtually provided for by McLoughlin. For all these advances, he was held to the last penny by his company, and as Mr. Matthieu learned, he was obliged to render every cent not paid by the immigrants a sum so large as to very nearly bankrupt the man.

Upon the return of Mr. Matthieu, in 1858, for a visit to his home in Canada, he took the pains to visit some of Doctor McLoughlin 's relatives at their place of business in Quebec, whom he found to be men of much the same magnificent physical mould as the chief factor. He inquired of them as particularly as he dared as to Doctor McLoughlin 's fortune, venturing to remark that he supposed he was very rich. "He was wealthy at one