ll haste, to throw up
temporary works for refuge and defense. In the course of a few days they
surrounded their dwelling-house and magazines with a picket fence
ninety feet square, flanked by two bastions, on which were mounted four
four-pounders. Every day they exercised themselves in the use of their
weapons, so as to qualify themselves for military duty, and at night
ensconced themselves in their fortress and posted sentinels, to guard
against surprise. In this way they hoped, even in case of attack, to be
able to hold out until the arrival of the party to be conducted by Mr.
Hunt across the Rocky Mountains, or until the return of the Tonquin. The
latter dependence, however, was doomed soon to be destroyed. Early in
August, a wandering band of savages from the Strait of Juan de Fuca made
their appearance at the mouth of the Columbia, where they came to fish
for sturgeon. They brought disastrous accounts of the Tonquin, which
were at first treated as fables, but which were too sadly confirmed by
a different tribe that arrived a few days subsequently. We shall relate
the circumstances of this melancholy affair as correctly as the casual
discrepancies in the statements that have reached us will permit.

We have already stated that the Tonquin set sail from the mouth of
the river on the fifth of June. The whole number of persons on board
amounted to twenty-three. In one of the outer bays they picked up,
from a fishing canoe, an Indian named Lamazee, who had already made
two voyages along the coast and knew something of the language of the
various tribes. He agreed to accompany them as interpreter.

Steering to the north, Captain Thorn arrived in a few days at
Vancouver's Island, and anchored in the harbor of Neweetee, very much
against the advice of his Indian interpreter, who warned him against the
perfidious character of the natives of this part of the coast. Numbers
of canoes soon came off, bringing sea-otter skins to sell. It was too
late in the day to commence a traffic, but Mr. M'Kay, accompanied by a
few of the men, went on shore to a large village to visit Wicananish,
the chief of the surrounding territory, six of the natives remaining on
board as hostages. He was received with great professions of friendship,
entertained hospitably, and a couch of sea-otter skins prepared for him
in the dwelling of the chieftain, where he was prevailed upon to pass
the night.

In the morning, before Mr. M'Kay had returned to t