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/284

 *cal gentleman engaged as resident physician at the fort.

The two first-named gentlemen, from their long experience of Indian living, knew well the little luxuries that would be most grateful to men so long debarred from the enjoyments of civilized life; and they accordingly brought out a few casks of bottled porter, some excellent cheese, and a quantity of prime English beef, which they had dressed and preserved in a peculiar manner in tin cases impervious to air; so that we could say we ate fresh beef which had been killed and dressed in England thirteen months before! Acceptable as were these refreshers to our memory of "lang syne," they brought out another object which more strongly recalled to our semi-barbarised ideas the thoughts of our "dear native home," than all the other bonnes choses contained in the vessel. This was neither more nor less than a flaxen-haired, blue-eyed daughter of Albion, who, in a temporary fit of erratic enthusiasm, had consented to become le compagnon du voyage of Mr. Mac. Miss Jane Barnes had been a lively bar-maid at an hotel in Portsmouth, at which Mr. Mac had stopped preparatory to his embarkation. This gentleman, being rather of an amorous