376 T. C. ELLIOTT
brigade which left Astoria on April 4th, 1814, and carried to Mr. Astor the papers of final settlement with the North- West Company and the draft in payment. He then joined the North- Westers again and returned to the Columbia in 1816 to take full charge of the fur trade of the interior or upper river. Alex. Ross, in "Fur Hunters of the Far West," is our authority for his presence in the Snake country in the winter of 1820 in charge of a large trapping party there. Evidently he kept this document in his own possession until able as an American citizen to present it for probate at Mayville, New York, where he resided from 1833 until 1851, the date of his death.
The suggestion has been made that Washington Irving was inspired when he stated that John Day died within a year. This suggestion may be enlarged upon at some future date when it may be possible to relate the story of Donald MacKenzie's collection of the bequest to his daughter Rachel, being the moneys due from John Jacob Astor to John Day for services rendered the Pacific Fur Company. The document follows :
Before God and the subscribing witnesses, I, John Day the son of Ambrose Day in the County of Culpepper, State of Virginia, being sound in mind but infirm of body, do hereby make and constitute this my lawful Will and Testament, and I appoint Mr. Donald MacKenzie as the sole Executor of the same as follows :
First. I hereby give and bequeath to the said Donald Mac- Kenzie two hundred and forty acres of landed property given to me by the Spanish Government formerly at St. Louis in Louisiana. The said property of two hundred and forty acres of land is situated about a mile from the banks of the Mossouri, on the south side and lying upon the creek Lavudze right hand side of that creek adjoining the lands of Mons'r Cheauteau. All papers concerning the said landed property I have placed in the hands of Mr. James McKay, residing about nine miles below the town of St. Louis. I therefore request and desire of the said James McKay, his heirs administrators or Executors that he or they will give and deliver up or see given
