e on their way down to await their arrival. In one of the canoes Mr.
Clarke came as a passenger, the alarming intelligence having brought him
down from his post on the Spokan. Mr. M'Kenzie immediately determined to
return with him to Astoria, and, veering about, the two parties encamped
together for the night. The leaders, of course, observed a due
decorum, but some of the subalterns could not restrain their chuckling
exultation, boasting that they would soon plant the British standard on
the walls of Astoria, and drive the Americans out of the country.

In the course of the evening, Mr. M'Kenzie had a secret conference with
Mr. Clarke, in which they agreed to set off privately before daylight,
and get down in time to appraise M'Dougal of the approach of these
Northwesters. The latter, however, were completely on the alert; just as
M'Kenzie's canoes were about to push off, they were joined by a couple
from the Northwest squadron, in which was M'Tavish, with two clerks,
and eleven men. With these, he intended to push forward and make
arrangements, leaving the rest of the convoy, in which was a large
quantity of furs, to await his orders.

The two parties arrived at Astoria on the 7th of October. The
Northwesters encamped under the guns of the fort, and displayed the
British colors. The young men in the fort, natives of the United States,
were on the point of hoisting the American flag, but were forbidden
by Mr. M'Dougal. They were astonished at such a prohibition, and were
exceedingly galled by the tone and manner assumed by the clerks and
retainers of the Northwest Company, who ruffled about in that swelling
and braggart style which grows up among these heroes of the wilderness;
they, in fact, considered themselves lords of the ascendant and regarded
the hampered and harassed Astorians as a conquered people.

On the following day M'Dougal convened the clerks, and read to them
an extract from a letter from his uncle, Mr. Angus Shaw, one of the
principal partners of the Northwest Company, announcing the coming of
the Phoebe and Isaac Todd, "to take and destroy everything American on
the northwest coast."

This intelligence was received without dismay by such of the clerks as
were natives of the United States. They had felt indignant at seeing
their national flag struck by a Canadian commander, and the British flag
flowed, as it were, in their faces. They had been stung to the quick,
also, by the vaunting airs assumed b