The pleasure I experienced in joining an establishment, every member of which was a fellow-subject, was mingled with deep regret at parting from so many of my late associates, for some of whom I entertained a sincere regard,—a regard which I feel pleasure in saying was mutual, and which the difference of country could not diminish. My friends Clapp, Halsey, and Matthews were genuine Americans of the Washingtonian school, and consequently untinctured by any of the unnatural and acrimonious hatred to the land of their forefathers which, among a large portion of their countrymen, was so prevalent at that angry period. And though the sanguine hopes they had entertained of realising in a few years an independence were destroyed by the war, I feel pleasure in being able to add, that they are now happily flourishing in their native country.
As Mr. M'Tavish expected dispatches overland from the directors at Montreal, and as it was necessary to acquaint the gentlemen inland with the change that affairs had taken at Astoria, Mr. La Rocque and I proceeded with two canoes and sixteen men well armed to the interior, with orders to leave letters at Oakinagan and Spokan,
- [Footnote: North-west Company, which he refused. He however remained
until the following spring.]
