M'Lennan with three men set off with the horses on his return to Spokan, and we embarked in the canoes. The current was swift, and we arrived early the following day at the mouth of Lewis River, a little below which we found the parties of Messrs. McKenzie and Stuart, where we had appointed to meet them on our separation the preceding autumn. From this place we proceeded together, and arrived at Astoria on the 11th of June, 1813, without incurring any material accident. We found all our friends in good health but a total revolution had taken place in the affairs of the Company. Messrs. John George M'Tavish and Joseph La Rocque, of the North-west Company, with two canoes and sixteen men, had arrived a few days before us. From these gentlemen we learned for the first time, that war had been declared the year before between Great Britain and the United States; and that in consequence of the strict blockade of the American ports by British cruisers, no vessel would venture to proceed to our remote establishment during the continuation of hostilities: added to which, a trading vessel which had touched at the Columbia in the early part of the spring, had informed our people that the ship Beaver was blocked up in Canton.
