Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/207

Rh are to be feared the engages are subjected to a sort of military service. In all the forts, except Van Couver and Nesqually, the population is composed only of the English agent, who is in charge of the post, a small number of French Canadian engages, trappers, porters, boatmen, and some Indians and "Bois brules," or half breeds.

The headquarters and the most important of the English establishments is the one founded in 1824 by Doctor John MacLoughlin, and which he named Fort Van Couver. It is situated on the right and north bank of the Columbia River, thirty leagues from its mouth, in a little plain a mile wide and extending two leagues along the river. The ground rises gradually; the lower part is prairie, and the hill is crowned with fine timber. The situation is extremely picturesque; before the fort in the distance extend immense plains covered with verdure; in the foreground, the limpid waters of the river, shaded by gigantic trees, and to the southeast, Mount Hood, whose eternal snows contrast with the sombre color of the pine forests which surround it.

The fort is three hundred meters from the bank; the stockade which looks to the south has a clearing of two hundred and forty by one hundred and thirty meters in depth. There are neither moats, nor armament of any kind; in the middle of the court yard two old spiked cannons only. The wall encloses thirty different buildings: Lodgings of the Governor, the superintendent, and the other employes of the Company and their families; carpenter shops, iron mongery, cooperage, blacksmith shops, storehouses for furs, warehouses for European goods, a pharmacy and a Catholic chapel used as a school. All these buildings are of wood, except the powder magazine, which is of brick and stands by itself. A