Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/217

 M'Tavish, in purchasing the stock of the American Company. They acquainted us that the North-west Company's ship called the "Isaac Tod" sailed from London, under the convoy of a sloop of war for the Columbia, and would arrive early in the autumn, with a large cargo for the Indian trade. These gentlemen brought several newspapers; and having heard nothing from the civilised world for two years, we devoured their contents. Mr. M'Gillivray had served the preceding campaign in the American war as a lieutenant in the Canadian chasseurs, a corps commanded by his father, the Hon. William M'Gillivray, and composed chiefly of the gentlemen and voyageurs of the North-west Company. He had been engaged in several smart affairs with the enemy, and was at the taking of Michilimacinac, at which, and other places, he had considerably distinguished himself. He was therefore our great chronicler of recent events, and during our passage downwards our thousand and one interrogatories seldom allowed his tongue half an hour's rest. None but those who have been so long debarred from the passing scenes of the great world can form an idea of the greedy voracity with which exiles so circumstanced swallow the most trifling