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men, of opposite religious faiths yet of equally noble hearts, had always entertained for each other the warmest friendship.
Whitman was always direct in speech. "Doctor McLoughlin," he said, "I come to Vancouver to thank you in the name of humanity for your kindness to my countrymen. That very act disarmed that company of a thousand prejudices that had worried me all the way. By a single act you turned presumptive foes into the warmest friends."
Dr. McLoughlin reddened. It was hard to stand thus and be thanked by one who had just returned from the errand of a rival, and that, too, for succoring the very ones who, confessedly, came to take the country from the government to which he owed allegiance. And he, himself, had he been loyal to Britain? Banish the doubt. There is a law above all personal consideration, the law of common humanity. In feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, in saving fellow-men from the tomahawk of the savage, no mere worldly policy but a divine principle had governed his action.
Justified of God, he smiled and grasped the hand of Dr. Whitman "Do not thank me, Doctor, I could not help it. I could not see those people in want while I had stores of plenty. But there was another reason, a more potent one yet. I stood on the shore that day and saw your first stragglers coming up in their canoes, and I read in the looks of the excited Indians that there was danger. I said to myself, ' If these savages see that the Hudson's Bay Company receives these people as friends they are safe,' so I did what I could. I was racked with fear that if your excitable countrymen learned the situation there would be fighting, and so,
