USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 8
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29 In 1842 he married Miss Maria Pambrun, daughter of Pierre C. Pam- brun, by whom he had five children. The rules of the company prohibited. him from leaving the fort to practise his profession. But in the early settle- ment of Oregon it was the custom of the Americans to go to the fort for medical advice, which was always freely given. He was seven years mayor of Oregon City, nine years a councilman, and eighteen years coroner. Ever attentive to the duties of citizenship, strictly honest, sagacious, and benevo- lent, he was trusted and esteemed by all. Doctor Barclay died at his home in Oregon City, May 14, 1873. Oregon City Enterprise, May 16, 1873; Olympia Standard, May 24, 1873; Portland Oregonian, May 17, 1873; Portland Her- uld, May 17, 1873; S. F. Call, May 16, 1873.
30 It was during this year that the ship William and Ann was cast away when a little distance inside the bar of the Columbia, and all on board, 26
41
MANSON AND MCLEOD.
In 1829 Manson accompanied Ogden to establish Fort Simpson, north of Langley; and in 1830 a post on Milbank Sound, Fort McLoughlin, where he re- mained in charge until 1839, when he was granted a year's absence. Returning in 1841, he succeeded Mr Black, who had just been murdered at Kamloop; and in 1842 he succeeded John McLoughlin, mur- dered at Stikeen. In 1844 he was appointed to the command of the district of New Caledonia, where he remained as executive officer until 1857, when he resigned. Soon afterward he purchased a farm at Champoeg.31
Donald McLeod, born about 1811, in one of the western isles of the county of Ross, Scotland, came to Oregon in the company's service in 1835 by sea. He was leading trapping parties in the Snake country with Thomas McKay in 1836, and remained in this occupation ten years, when he settled on a farm in the Tualatin Plains, where he died February 26, 1873, leaving a large family.32
persons, lost. This, however, was before the arrival of the American vessels or Mr Manson at the mouth of the river, and there were none but Indian wit- nesses. The crew gained the shore with arms wet and defenceless, and were all massacred by the Clatsops. This was avenged, and the two Clatsop chiefs killed. The Isabella, Captain Ryan, ran aground on Sand Island in 1830, and was abandoned by the crew, who probably dreaded the fate of those of the William and Aun. The vessel was lost. Had the men remained by the ship until the tide turned they might have saved her. A part only of the cargo was lost. Lee and Frost's Or., 106-7; Roberts' Recollections, MS., 15. The loss of another vessel two years later, quite as much as the occasional visits of American traders, caused the company to occupy the post at Astoria con- tinnously after 1830.
31 Trans. Or. Pion. Assoc., 1879, 56; Bacon's Mer. Life, MS., 22-3; Grim's Emigrant Anecdotes, MS., 12; Portland Oregonian, March 28, 1874; Id., April 8, 1876; Id., Feb. 5, 1876; Salem Farmer, March 17, 1876. Mr Manson's wife was Felice Lucier, of French Prairie, whom he married in October 1828, at which time her father had been two years settled in the Willamette Valley.
32 Portland Pacific Christian Advocate, March 6, 1873. McLeod while in the mountains suffered so severely with piles that he could neither ride nor sit, but was carried on a litter between two horses. The Indian wife of an American trapper, Ebberts, gave him a tea made from pounded roots gathered near Fort Vancouver, which cured him in a few days. He presented her with some gay dresses and other trifles; and to Ebberts, who was in need of a saw and two augers, he sent a whole chest of tools. Ebberts' Trapper's Life, MS., 42. James Birnie of Aberdeen, Scotland, who entered Oregon in 1818, succeeded Dunn at Fort George, and remained at that post for many years. He finally retired to C'athlamet, where he died December 21, 1864, aged 69 years. He
42
LIFE AT FORT VANCOUVER.
The lives of these men, separated by thousands of miles from the civilized world, and entirely deprived of the companionship of cultivated women, might easily have been barbarous through the lack of example and emulation which everywhere exists in the world of intellect and refinement. The highest praise that can be bestowed upon them is that under these temptations they never forgot themselves. As nearly as possible McLoughlin maintained the fashions of manor life in England, the hospitality, the courtesy, the riding, hunting, and conversation. A dinner at Fort Vancouver was a dignified and social affair, not lacking either in creature comforts or table-talk. As early as 1836 there was good living at this post; plenty of cattle, sheep, swine, salmon, game, and an ample garden. The table was set off with a display of fine English glass, and ruddy wines. No liquors were furnished. McLoughlin never drank either wine or liquor, except on great occasions, to open the fes- tivities. He presided, and led the conversation, the
was the first white man to descend the Umpqua River to its mouth. The second wife of George B. Roberts was a sister of Mr Birnie. James Grant was in charge of Fort Hall when the first overland immigration to Oregon crossed the continent, and until quite a late period. No man in Oregon has been more remarked upon, not to say reviled, by the American immigrants, though with what justice let him who reads decide. The same might almost be said of William McBean, successor to Mckinlay at Fort Walla Walla. The history of events will point to the justice or injustice of popular opinion. Archibald McDonald, for a long time in charge of Fort Colville, and who had a daughter famous for her beauty, talents, and horsemanship; Angus Mc- Donald, in charge of Fort Hall, and afterward of Colville; Henry Maxwell, John Ballenden, and Dugald McTavish, who were the last chief factors at Fort Vancouver-were some of the yet larger number of gentlemen who graced these halls with their constant or occasional presence. In the early days the selection of officers for the service of the Hudson's Bay Company was made chiefly with regard to strength of constitution and general probity of char- acter, family influence, of course, regulating the selection. In after years the necessities of their position, in consequence of the active rivalry of the Northwest Company, demanded the infusion of more energetic elements, and in this way a body of officers was gradually introduced who fully equalled in all respects the pushing characteristics which marked the service of the Northwest Company. Anderson's Hist. Northwest Coast, MS., 87. 'Connected with the Hudson's Bay Company there are also many gentlemen who would do no discredit to any circle of society. These gentlemen sustain the forms and courtesies of civilized life much more than Americans engaged in the same pursuits.' Edwards' Sketch of Oregon Territory, MS., 25. Take them all in all, they were a body of men who, for physical strength, courage, cool- ness, and general intrepidity of character, were rarely equalled, and perhaps nowhere excelled.
43
SOCIAL CUSTOMS.
others being seated according to rank. No more time was consumed at table than was convenient; there was present neither gluttony nor intemperance.33 If guests were present the chief devoted some time to them; after dinner he showed them the farm and stock, offered them horses and guns, or perhaps made up a party to escort them wherever they wished to go. Did they remain at the fort, there was the oppor- tunity to study a whole museum of curious things from all parts of the savage and civilized world, all kinds of weapons, dresses, ornaments, mechanisms, and art. When these were exhausted there were the pipe and books, and the long-drawn tales of evening. Where were met together so many men of adventurous lives, mariners who had circumnivigated the globe, leaders of trapping parties through thousands of miles of wilderness, among tribes of hostile savages, in heat and cold, in sunshine and storm, contending always with the inhospitable whims of mother nature, there could be but little flagging in the conversation. Some- times the story was a tragedy, sometimes a comedy ; but no matter what the occasion for mirth, discipline was always preserved and propriety regarded.
Many Americans found shelter and entertain- ment at Vancouver, as we shall see, most of whom have made suitable acknowledgment, testifying to the generous assistance given to every enterprise not in conflict with the company's business. Whether it was a rival trapping party like Jedediah Smith's, which found itself in trouble, or an unlucky trader like Wyeth,34 a missionary, a naturalist, or a secret
33 ' I can see our old Vancouver dinning-hall, with the doctor at the head of the table suddenly pull the bell-tassel. "Bruce!" and in a few minutes Bruce would be on hand with an open mnull, from which a pinch would be taken, without a word on either side. The doctor never smoked; chewing was out of the question; he occasionally took snuff, but seemed afraid to trust himself with any.' Roberts' Recollections, MS., 38.
34 When Wyeth returned home he sent out a keg of choice smoking-tobacco with a friendly letter, to the gentlemen of Bachelor's Hall. The doctor and he were great friends, and corresponded for many years afterward. Allan's Reminiscences, MS., 9. The tobacco sold by the company was mostly from Brazil, twisted into rope an inch in diameter, and coiled. It went by the name of trail-rope tobacco among the American settlers.
44
LIFE AT FORT VANCOUVER.
agent of the United States in disguise, one universal law of brotherhood embraced them all. Their charity sometimes went so far as to clothe as well as house and feed wandering stars of American wit, as in the case of Thomas J. Farnham, who visited Fort Van- couver in 1839.35
Likewise there were other resources at hand. The annual ship brought books, reviews, files of news- papers ; and the mail was brought overland by express from York Factory, Red River, and Canada. With every such arrival the leading topics of the time were discussed, more closely perhaps from the length of time before the next batch of subjects could be ex- pected. Very early in Fort Vancouver life, owing to the relative positions of the two governments, British and American institutions and ideas were com- pared, and defended or condemned according to the views of the disputants.36 But after the advent of the first missionaries and settlers as an American element, these discussions became more frequent, and in fact developed a great deal of patriotism on one side, and a liberality not to be expected on the other. John Dunn relates that in those days, from 1834 to 1843, there were two parties at Fort Vancouver, patriots, and liberals, or philosophers.37 The British, or pa- triots, maintained that the governor was too chival- rous, that his generosity was thrown away, and would be unrequited, that he was nourishing those who would by and by rise and question his own authority, and the British right to Fort Vancouver itself. This party cited the American free trapper, and the advo- cates of the border lynch-law, as specimens of Ameri- can civilization. They had no faith in American
35 ' Farnham was a jovial, jolly fellow. Donglas fitted him out from his own wardrobe so as to make him presentable at iness.' Roberts' Recollections, MS., 17.
36 ' The doctor was very fond of argument, especially on historical points connected with the first Napoleon, of whom he was a great admirer, and often entered into them with Captain Wyeth.' Allan's Reminiscences, MS., 9.
37 Dunn was very illiberal toward the Americans, having been excited by the competition on the north coast, while stationed at Milbank Sound. Roberts' Recollections, MS., 4.
45
PATRIOTS AND LIBERALS.
missionaries, nor approbation for American traders. In short, the term American with them was synony- mous with boorishness and dishonesty.
The liberal party, of which McLoughlin was under- stood to be the leader, though they admitted that Americans were not exempt from charges of trickery and tyranny, being slaveholders, and sometimes even as states repudiating honest debts; and that the half- apostolical and half-agricultural character of the missionaries was not, in their judgment, the highest example of clerical dignity ; and that the American traders did domineer over and corrupt the natives; yet he thought that Americans ought not to be ex- cluded, because they had some claims to the right of occupancy, claims really existing, though feeble, which would make it both impolitic and unjust to prevent them any possession. And as to American lynch-law and other usages repugnant to justice and humanity, they were rather exceptions to the American code than examples of American principles of legislation, which in commercial and civil matters was, generally speak- ing, just and humane, and from which even British legislation might derive some useful hints. They had hopes, too, that the Americans, by the influence of the gentlemen fur-traders, would become more civilized. Such sentiments amused Farnham when he was at Fort Vancouver,3% and troubled many later comers, who felt their national dignity assaulted by British patronage of this sort.39
There was an Arcadian simplicity about Fort Vancouver life, in its early days, that awakens some-
38 'Another was a Mr Simpson, a young Scotchman of respectable family, a clerk in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. This was a fine fellow, twenty-five years of age, full of energy and good feeling, well informed on general topics, and like most other British subjects abroad, troubled with an irrepressible anxiety at the growing power of the States, and an overwhelming loyalty toward the mother country and its sovereign skirts.' Farnham's Cali- fornia and Oregon, 8.
39 ' I often heard Dr McLoughlin say: "These Englishmen when they first come out are such rabid democrats; but in a few years they always are at least conservative."' Roberts' Recollections, MIS., 17.
46
LIFE AT FORT VANCOUVER.
thing of poetry and sentiment. It is a bit of feudal life in the wilderness. The fort is the duke's castle ; the other posts the dependent baronies; the leaders of trapping parties the chiefs who sally fortli to do battle for their lord. Every summer, when the season is at its height, the fortress gates are opened to re- ceive, not the array of knights in armor, but the brigade of gay and happy trappers home from the mountains with the year's harvest of furs. It is like the return of the conquering heroes. It does not need a bugle at the gates to announce the arrival. A. courier has been sent in advance to give notice. When within two miles of the fort, the song of the boatmen can be distinctly heard, keeping time to the oars bright flashing like Toledo blades. The company's flag waves proudly from the tall staff. Everybody is eager and excited, from the servants to the grand master himself, who stands at the landing with the rest. Presently the boats sweep round the last point into full view. The number depends on the success of the year's traffic; there may be twenty- five, or less; and each can carry fifteen or twenty tons. Down they come with the current, in perfect order, amidst shouting and cheering from the shore, every voyageur in gala dress, ribbons fluttering from Cana- dian caps, and deerskin suits ornamented with beads and fringes.
The arrival of the brigade was the great event of the year at Fort Vancouver, and as we have noticed before, the occasion when McLoughlin relaxed his abstemious rule, and drank a glass of wine to open the festivities, which were expected to last twenty-four hours, and during which everybody did as he pleased. There was in the gentlemen's dining-hall a grand dinner on such occasions, at which jollity, anecdote, and wit enlivened the table more than the red wine that was drunk.40
Another picturesque feature of this early Hudson's # Applegate's Views, MS., 17.
47
THE TRAPPER'S CARAVAN.
Bay life in Oregon was that of the chief trader's caravan when it moved through the Indian country ; or when the governor himself made a tour through the Willamette Valley, as occurred at rare intervals. On these occasions Indian women were conspicuous. In addition to the trappers' wives, there was the grand dame, the wife of the bourgeois, or leader. Seated astride the finest horse, whose trappings were ornamented with colored quills, beads, and fringes to which hung tiny bells that tinkled with every mo- tion, herself dressed in a petticoat of the finest blue broadcloth, with embroidered scarlet leggings, and moccasons stiff with the most costly beads, her black braided hair surmounted by a hat trimmed with gay ribbon, or supporting drooping feathers, she presented a picture, if not as elegant as that of a lady of the sixteenth century at a hawking party, yet quite as striking and brilliant.
When the caravan was in progress it was a pano- rama of gayety, as each man of the party, from the chief trader and clerk down to the last trapper in the train, filed past with his ever-present and faithful help- mate in her prettiest dress. After them came the Indian boys, driving the pack-horses, with goods and camp utensils. When the governor went on a visit, it was like a royal promenade; the camp equipage con- sisted of everything necessary for comfortable lodging, and a bountiful table, the cook being an important member of the numerous retinue. Here was feudalism on the western seaboard, as I before remarked. The Canadian farmers were serfs to all intents and pur- poses, yet with such a kindly lord that they scarcely felt their bondage; or, if they felt it, it was for their good.41
41 ' It was a most remarkable condition of things. The old doctor would go down to Champoeg, and whatever he told them to do, they would do. If they were shiftless, he would not give them half what they wanted. If they were industrious, even if they were not successful, he would give them what they wanted. He kept himself constantly informed about those people, as to how they were doing. If they went around horse-racing, he would lecture them severely, and make them afraid to do so. There were no laws or rules. If
48
LIFE AT FORT VANCOUVER.
So absolute was McLoughlin's authority that pre- vious to the settlement of Americans in the Willamette Valley no legal forms had been thought necessary, except such as by the company's grant were so made ; the governor and council having power to try and punish all offenders belonging to the company or any crimes committed in any of "the said company's plantations, forts, factories, or places of trade within Hudson's Bay territory." The Canadians and other servants of the company yielded without question to the company's chartered right to judge and punish. But with the Americans it was different. The charter forbade any British subject from trespassing upon the company's territory for purposes of trade ; but it could not forbid Americans or other people. The charter permitted the company to go to war, on its own account, with any unchristianized nation; but the Americans could not be styled unchristianized, though they might, if provoked, become belligerent. The Americans, though so lacking in civilized conceptions. according to the ideas of the gentlemen at Fort Van- couver, were stubborn in their legal rights, and were, besides, turbulent in their habits, and might put. thoughts of insubordination into the minds of the company's people.
Foreseeing the troubles that would arise on this account, McLoughlin took timely measures to pro- vide against them, and procured, by act of parliament, the appointment of justices of the peace in different parts of the country, James Douglas filling that office at Fort Vancouver. These justices were empowered to adjudicate upon minor offences, and to impose pun- ishment; to arrest criminals guilty of serious crimes and send them to Canada for trial; and also to try and give judgment in civil suits where the amount in dis-
there were any disputes, he settled them arbitrarily. Just what he said was the law.' Crawford's Miss., MS., 10. 'He was a disciplinarian, strict and stern to those under him. He had a great many Indians and kanakas. Whatever he told them to do they had to do. He was often very violent with them.' Bacon's Mer. Life Or., MS., 20.
49
ENGLISH AND AMERICANS.
pute did not exceed two hundred pounds; and in case of non-payment, to imprison the debtor at their own forts, or in the jails of Canada.
Dunn relates that in the discussions at Fort Van- couver the liberal party had an advantage, even in his estimation, when the neglect of the home gov- ernment, and of the British and Foreign Missionary Society, touching the conversion and civilization of the natives, was brought up. The patriots were forced to admit that this state of affairs was highly censurable, and that since England had so grossly neglected the natives, they could make no proper objection to American missionaries. Even should they prove to be as bad as other Americans in the country, contact with the British residents would render them more gentlemanly, tolerant, and honest.
Sunday was observed both in the matter of reli- gious services and suspension of labor; but the latter part of the day was allowed for amusements. After the first American missionaries came to Oregon, the doctor questioned whether it was right to be without a chaplain at Fort Vancouver, or dignified for so great a company to pay so little regard to religious forms. The American ministers might not be to his taste, but some there should be who were. These Ameri- cans, uncouth perhaps in dress and bearing, had set themselves to teach not only the children of the Cana- dians, but those within the fort, his children, and the sons and daughters of gentlemen high in the com- pany's service.
Should he not have to acknowledge that they had been missionaries to him ? Such an admission might never pass his lips; but in many ways he must ac- knowledge his approbation of the work, and his heart was full of friendliness toward them, which alas! they did not always requite with kindness. They could not be so liberal toward him as he had been with them. He followed their lead whenever he saw good in it, even when he was doubtful of its being the best
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 4
50
LIFE AT FORT VANCOUVER.
or the safest course, because he could not refuse to encourage the right.
As early as 1836 the lever was applied to the foun- dations of the old society that was destined to over- turn it. The boasted civilization of this English com- pany, aristocratic and cultured, could not stand before the face of one white woman. The Nereid, coming from England and the Sandwich Islands, brought a chaplain to Fort Vancouver-a direct result, it may reasonably be inferred, of the American Mission. The name of this new officer on the governor's staff was Rev. Herbert Beaver, an appropriate name for the service, and one which the junior clerks undoubtedly repeated among themselves with the highest satisfac- tion. Mr Beaver had been chaplain of a regiment at Santa Lucía, in the West Indies. He was of the fox- hunting type of English clergymen, and had been much diverted by the manners of his fellow-passenger from Honolulu, Mr Lee, whom he was constantly in the habit of quizzing. From the glimpse Dunn gives of the sentiment of Bachelor's Hall, his gibes at his Methodist brother must have provoked responsive mirth. But the inmates of the fort, grave, dignified, disciplined, and accustomed to respect, did not always escape the reverend gentleman's sallies of wit ; nor, as it proved, his strictures on their immoral and uncivil- ized condition.
Gray, who saw him at Fort Vancouver, describes him as rather a small person, with a light complexion and feminine voice, who made pretensions to oratory, entirely unsupported by the facts. Also, his ideas of clerical dignity were such that he felt himself defiled by association with the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver. McLoughlin was uncivil, the clerks boors, the women savages. Here was a fine beginning of English mis- sionary work ! And yet the feudal lords could not deny it. There was Mrs Jane Beaver, who had accom- panied her husband. They might kick the chaplain,
ɔ̃1
MIGHTY MRS BEAVER.
but the chaplain's wife had a way with her, recognized in all Christian communities, of calling such manner of living vile. These lords of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany were compelled to chew the reflective cud, and to stifle their warmth at clerical interference, while they slowly made up their minds to take the only alternative left them, if they would associate with clergymen and clergymen's wives. It was not enough for the Beavers that the governor, the chief factor, chief traders, and clerks attended the Sunday service and observed decorum. There was an abomination within the walls of the fort that Christianity could not tolerate.
Had Beaver's objections to the domestic relations of Fort Vancouver been his sole ground of criticism, his natural flippancy and professional arrogance might have been tolerated. But he found many things that were wrong in the practices of the Hudson's Bay Company, and so reported to the Aborigines Pro- tection Society at London, to which he complained that his attempts to introduce civilization and Chris- tianity among one or more of the neighboring tribes had not succeeded, because his efforts had not been seconded by the company. The truth was, that Beaver was quite too nice for the task of civilizing Indians in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver. He was dissatisfied with the plain quarters assigned him, the parsonage being only a cottage built of rough lum- ber, uncarpeted except with Indian mats, which Mrs Beaver pronounced filthy, and unfurnished with any of the elegancies of an English parsonage. He despised and disliked the natives, and abhored the practice of the gentlemen at Fort Vancouver of cohabiting with them.
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