Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/256

200 physically: "A singular looking person of about fifty. He was plainly dressed, quiet and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all around, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears just above the eyebrows. His complexion was of the gardiner's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply furrowed features were friendly and intelligent, but his cut short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed the Welchman. No living person possesses a tithe of his information respecting the Hudson's Bay countries, which from 1783 to 1813 he was constantly traversing. Never mind his Bunyon-like face and cropped hair; he has a powerful mind and a singular faculty of picture-making. He can create a wilderness and people it with howling savages, or climb the Rocky Mountains with you in a snowstorm, so clearly and palpably, that only shut your eyes and you hear the crack of the rifle, or feel the snowflakes on your cheek as he talks." This quotation is from an address delivered recently before the Royal Geographical Society of London by the eminent engineer already mentioned, Mr. J. B. Tyrell, to whose personal research and interest the world is chiefly indebted for its growing knowledge of David Thompson.

Paddling down the Columbia in July, 1811, David Thompson landed at a large Indian encampment near to where you are now accustomed to "keep your eye on Pasco" and there erected a pole with this written notice upon it: "Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories, and that the NorthWest Company of Merchants from Canada finding the factory of this people inconvenient to them do hereby intend to erect a factory in this place for the Commerce of the Country around."

Intelligent students of American history today candidly admit that American diplomats did exceedingly