our were rent with a terrific explosion, and the sea was drenched
with the blood of the slaughtered savages. The only remaining white
man, the wounded Lewis, had blown up the powder magazine. He perished
himself in order to punish the marauders.

Had this story been known at Astoria when Thompson arrived, he would
have found the Astorians in a thoroughly dejected condition. As it
was, murmurs of discontent were heard. Here they had been marooned on
the Columbia for three months without a ship, waiting for the
contingent of the Astorians who were toiling across the continent.[2]
Not thus did Nor'westers conduct expeditions. What Thompson thought of
the situation we do not know. All we do know is that he remained only
a week. On July 22, fully provisioned by M'Dougall, he went back up
the Columbia post-haste.

{113}

One year later we find Thompson at Fort William reporting the results
of his expedition to the assembled directors of the North-West Company.
He had surveyed every part of the Columbia from its source to its
mouth. And he was the first white man on its upper waters.

The War of 1812 had begun, and a British warship was on its way to
capture Astoria. At the same time the Nor'westers dispatched an
overland expedition to the Columbia. Among their emissaries went the
men of New Caledonia, Alexander Henry (the younger) of Rocky Mountain
House, Donald M'Tavish, and a dozen others who were former comrades of
the leading Astorians. They succeeded in their mission, and in the
month of October 1813 Astor's fort was sold to the North-West Company
and renamed Fort George.

The methods of fur traders have been the same the world over: to
frighten a rival off the ground if possible; if not, then to buy him
off. It is not all surmise to suppose that when Thompson was sent to
the Pacific there was in view some other purpose than merely to survey
an unknown river. But exploration and the fur trade went hand in hand;
and whatever the motives may have been, the {114} result was that,
after more than four years of arduous toil, Thompson had given to
commerce a great waterway. His exploration of the Columbia closes the
period of discovery on the Pacific coast.

[1] To explain what may appear like a confusion of names, it may be
stated that in the history of the fur trade from 1800 to 1850 there
were at various stages as many as sixteen differently situated
fur-posts under the name of Rocky Mountain Hous