Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/51

Rh Company's establishment on the Columbia river. The governor could not grant him permission without receiving an order from the viceroy of Mexico; accordingly a courier was dispatched to Mexico, with letters to state our wishes to him. In the meantime, we had fresh beef and vegetables sent off daily. The people had liberty to walk and ride about the town, the Spanish men and women often coming on board. On Friday, the 16th of December, we received a final answer from Mexico to the following purport, viz; that they could not allow any gentleman to remain in the country; we might land the goods we had brought to barter, and the governor was to see to the collecting of provisions for us against our return from Canton; but the cooper was allowed to remain (as a great favour) to superintend the curing of the beef. With these terms we were obliged to comply. We accordingly landed the goods, consisting of bale goods, iron, sugar, tobacco, rum, etc. On the 17th, eight of our men deserted, and though we tried all means we possibly could devise to bring them back, we failed in that object. On the 21st of December we sailed from Monterey towards Bodago, a Russian establishment on New Albion, in the latitude 38° 0′ and longitude 123°, which we reached in due time.

On the 24th we saw a large storehouse on shore; Mr. McDougal and myself went in quest of its owners; we found it locked, and then pulled up a lagoon, where we saw a number of Indians collected round a large fire. We landed,