o Public Library.]

Meanwhile, M'Loughlin ruled in a sort of rude baronial splendour on the
banks of the Columbia. The 'Big House,' as the Indians always called
the governor's mansion, stood in the centre of a spacious courtyard
surrounded by palisades twenty feet high, with huge brass padlocks on
the entrance-gates. Directly in front of the house two cannon were
stationed, and piled up behind them ready for instant use were two
pyramids of balls. Only officers of some rank dined in the Hall; and
if visitors were present from coastal ships that ascended the river,
Highland kilties stood behind the governor's chair playing the
bagpipes. Towards autumn the southern and eastern brigades set out on
their annual hunt in California, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho. Towards
spring, when the upper rivers had cleared of ice, the northern brigades
set out for the interior of New Caledonia. Nothing more picturesque
was ever seen in the fur trade than these Oregon brigades.
French-Canadian hunters with their Indian wives would be gathered to
the number of two hundred. Indian ponies fattened during the {120}
summer on the deep pasturage of the Willamette or the plains of Walla
Walla would be brought in to the fort and furbished forth in gayest of
trappings. Provisions would then be packed on their backs. An eager
crowd of wives and sweethearts and children would dash out for a last
good-bye. The governor would personally shake hands with every
departing hunter. Then to bugle-call the riders mounted their restive
ponies, and the captain--Tom Mackay or Ogden or Ross--would lead the
winding cavalcade into the defiles of mountain and forest, whence
perhaps they would not emerge for a year and a half. Though the
brigades numbered as many as two hundred men, they had to depend for
food on the rifles of the hunters, except for flour and tobacco and
bacon supplied at the fort. Once the brigade passed out of sight of
the fort, the hunters usually dashed ahead to anticipate the stampeding
of game by the long, noisy, slow-moving line. Next to the hunters
would come the old bell-mare, her bell tinkling through the lonely
silences. Far in the rear came the squaws and trappers. Going south,
the aim was to reach the traverse of the deserts during winter, so that
snow would be available for water. Going east, the {121} aim was to
cross the mountain passes before snow-fall. Going north, the canoes
must ascend the upper rivers before ice