Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/209

Rh unquestionably the first whites to cross the Rocky Mountains. It is with these last that the Indians associate the most familiarly.

The commercial movement is quite considerable at Fort Van Couver, because this is the point where the products of the other forts of the Territory generally arrive; and it is also from there that the caravans leave, and the brigades which go to distribute the goods to the stations of the interior. The result is that Fort Van Couver, which on the exterior resembles a large farm, surrounded with buildings for agricultural purposes, is in reality, within but a shop and counting-house of the city of London. About fifteen clerks are employed for bartering with the Indians, for making the sales and for the accounts; they assemble at their desks at the sound of a bell, at seven o'clock in the morning, and work there till nine o'clock at night, save for the time necessary for meals, which are taken in common, and are presided over by the governor.

In the evening the young clerks come together to smoke in a room called Bachelor's Hall; each tells of his travels, his adventures, his fights with the Indians; one has been forced to eat his moccasins, another is so sure of his rifle that he takes aim at the bears only in the mouth, so as not to damage the skin; and then sometimes as the Scotch melodies mingle with the Canadian songs, one sees the hardy Highlanders enlivened by the gaiety of the French. The dwellings are a kind of barracks, where nothing recalls the comforts of the English. The furniture consists of a little table, a chair or bench and a camp bed of boards, infested with insects, with two woolen covers. We must say, however, that this modest furnishing would seem superb to any one who has passed two years sleeping in the open air, and whole weeks exploring the rivers in uncovered canoes, in cold and incessant rains. On Sunday the dining room is converted into a chapel, and one of the employes reads the prayers