Life at Fort Vancouver
Many notable personages visited Fort Vancouver in those early days—among them scientists and artists. Messrs. Nuttall, Townsend, Kane and others have told us of its culture and refinement. Through them we learn something of the masterful way in which Dr. McLoughlin dealt with the many different tribes of Indians—part of a wild race of human beings, who realized that they were being robbed of their best hunting and fishing grounds by the incoming tide of civilization.
While at Fort Vancouver Mrs. Whitman completed her journal of the trip across the Continent and sent it to Dr. Whitman's relatives in the State of New York, stating that he "had been pressed above measure with care, labors, and anxieties all the way."
She relates her interesting story in a style most charming, and we can do no better than to quote from her diary as she tells of the trip taken down the Columbia River in the olden days from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Vancouver. Under date of September seventh, 1836, she says: "We set sail from Walla Walla yesterday at 2 P. M. Our boat is an open one, manned with six oarsmen and a steersman."
"I enjoy it much: it is a very pleasant change in our manner of traveling. The Columbia is a beautiful river.
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