ent,
or make off for the interior.

These considerations, however, had no weight with Mr. M'Dougal, or were
overruled by other motives. The terms of sale were lowered by him to the
standard fixed by Mr. Stuart, and an agreement executed on the 16th of
October, by which the furs and merchandise of all kinds in the country,
belonging to Mr. Astor, passed into the possession of the Northwest
Company at about a third of their value. * A safe passage through the
Northwest posts was guaranteed to such as did not choose to enter into
the service of that Company, and the amount of wages due to them was to
be deducted from the price paid for Astoria.

The conduct and motives of Mr. M'Dougal, throughout the whole of this
proceeding, have been strongly questioned by the other partners. He
has been accused of availing himself of a wrong construction of powers
vested in him at his own request, and of sacrificing the interests
of Mr. Astor to the Northwest Company, under the promise or hope of
advantage to himself.

He always insisted, however, that he made the best bargain for Mr. Astor
that circumstances would permit; the frigate being hourly expected,
in which case the whole property of that gentleman would be liable to
capture. That the return of Mr. Hunt was problematical; the frigate
intending to cruise along the coast for two years, and clear it of all
American vessels. He moreover averred, and M'Tavish corroborated
his averment by certificate, that he proposed an arrangement to that
gentleman, by which the furs were to be sent to Canton, and sold there
at Mr. Astor's risk, and for his account; but the proposition was not
acceded to.

Notwithstanding all his representations, several of the persons present
at the transaction, and acquainted with the whole course of the affair,
and among the number Mr. M'Kenzie himself, his occasional coadjutor,
remained firm in the belief that he had acted a hollow part. Neither
did he succeed in exculpating himself to Mr. Astor; that gentleman
declaring, in a letter written some time afterwards, to Mr. Hunt, that
he considered the property virtually given away. "Had our place and our
property," he adds, "been fairly captured, I should have preferred it; I
should not feel as if I were disgraced."

All these may be unmerited suspicions; but it certainly is a
circumstance strongly corroborative of them, that Mr. M'Dougal, shortly
after concluding this agreement, became a member of the North