Nathanial McLoughlin

“ McLoughlin's quick ear caught their meaning. One word from the Hudson's Bay Company and those Indians would rise as one man to cut off the incoming Americans. The possible tragedy seemed about to open with all the horrors of tomahawk and scalpingknife. Rushing upon the savage, with uplifted cane, the doctor grabbed him by the throat,
"Who is the dog that says it is a good thing to kill those Bostons?" ”

“ McLoughlin gave his heart to good deeds and to prayer. Only now and then did his quick temper emit a volcanic flash. Distrusted by England because he had befriended Americans, distrusted by Americans because he had been an Englishman, he exclaimed bitterly:
"In my old age I find myself a man without a country. Having renounced my allegiance to Great Britain, now I am rejected by the United States."
The Klickitats came down from the mountains to trade for the last time. To their surprise they saw the " Bostons" picketed in the sacred enclosure at Fort Vancouver. ”

“ THE New Year of 1841 opened a new act in the drama on the Columbia. In his lonely cabin on the Willamette, Ewing Young, the Tennesseean, lay dead. Outside, his herds grazed on the hillsides, without a visible heir. The little handful of Americans, scarce thirty-six all told, gathered at his funeral. Jason Lee deeply felt the situation. No law, no court, no government, nothing from the Spanish land to Sitka, but the arbitrary will of Dr. John McLoughlin. "He is a good man," said Jason Lee, "but the one man power is not American." ”

“ McLoughlin 's personal qualities and his superb command and influence over men of all kinds. He was the autocrat of the country, yet ever tempered austerity with kindness, justice and mercy. His subordinates and the Indians soon came to know that he was a man of his word whether it was for reward or punishment. He had no police or armed men, except the regular trade officers of the company and its employees and servants. No one ever understood how to manage Indians better than he. ”

“ But the sleepless watch was on the walls, the guns were set. Chief Kesano, a friendly Multnomah, rallied his tribe to aid the traders. All night the savages blew their shells and beat their drums. The next morning Dr. McLoughlin called a council. One by one the hostile chiefs were admitted. Douglas was there, and Pambrun, and Kesano with his sub-chiefs. McLoughlin had men concealed, ready to fire at a sign of treachery. The chiefs were sullen when into their midst came Colin Fraser, a six-foot Highlander in Scottish kilt
and flowing plume and played the bagpipes. ”

“ Every summer our brigades go up the Columbia with supplies for the interior. Your credit shall be always good. Our stations at Fort Walla Walla and Fort Colvile are open to your orders."
While their husbands were gone, looking at the upper country, Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding remained guests at Fort Vancouver. In a day their love unlocked the hearts of Madame McLoughlin and her stately daughter Eloise and the charming Mrs. Douglas. The trader's children crowded about the delicate Mrs. Spalding like bees around a honeysuckle. ”

“ McLoughlin in the hot, explosive interview, "before you arrived I had warnings of you. Our schooner ' Cadboro' ' returning from Monterey brought word from the governor of California that Ewing Young, journeying to this country, was chief of a gang of banditti, horse-thieves, sir;
that is the word he used. As head of a great company trading to California, what can I do in face of such a charge and from such a source?"
"Do?" cried Young, white with rage, "why, give a fellow-man a chance. Demand the proof. I myself will probe this thing to the bottom, if I have to go to Monterey to do it." ”

“ Such were the first white men who broke the way for pioneers on the northwest coast.
La Framboise's brigade wound along gorges and canyons, through the Rogue River valley with its orchards of sunlit manzanita and hillsides of gnarled madrono and chinquapin, into the Switzerland of America, where Mt. McLoughlin on the summit of the Cascades was the most conspicuous landmark on the southern trail. One more pull over the Siskiyous and they have crossed the Spanish border. ”

“ Mind ye! "was McLoughlin's message. "Ye cannot profit by disasters to vessels nor murder white men for plunder."
Weeks passed. Peltries accumulated in the hands of the Clatsops. Their ammunition was out, but no one had courage to face the White-Headed Eagle at Fort Vancouver. Dr. McLoughlin divined this and sent Celiast down to conciliate her people. Three daughters had Coboway, chief of the Clatsops, Kilakota, Celiast, and Telix, all wedded to white men. Donning her gayest dress and spreading a blanket sail in her little canoe, Celiast and her cousin Angelique glided down to Clatsop. ”

“ John McLoughlin was one of the greatest and most noble philanthropists I ever knew. He was a man of superior ability, just in all his dealings, and a faithful Christian. I never knew a man of the world who was more admirable. ”

“ He turned and faced the stalwart form of Yellow Serpent. The Walla Walla's long black hair rippled over his beaded buckskin. The eagle-plumes in his head-band gave a regal touch to the haughty face.
"Ah, my son! "said Dr. McLoughlin, "I am glad to see you here. What news from the Walla Walla? "
"Bad news, my father. My people are full of fears. I have come a long journey to show you my heart. Dorion says Dr. Whitman will bring white men to take our lands and kill us all."
"Tut, tut, tut! Why does the naughty Dorion frighten my people? The white men will do no harm. They are your friends. ”

“ McLoughlin became so excited in discussing the Peace of Amiens that Allen records in his journal, "The doctor hurt me so that I wished Napoleon and the Peace of Amiens far enough! "
Well bred, well read, were the magnates of Fort Vancouver. Scholars loved their society. Many a mile the library of standard, leather-bound, weather-stained volumes travelled by canoe, to cheer the lonely traders around their soughing fires in the northwest forest. Scott, Burns, Shakespeare, these were daily food. The arrival of the American Irving's books created a great sensation. ”

“ On such a ride as this they caught sight of the Montreal express and dashed to greet McLoughlin, the chief of chief factors. As in some glen of the Highlands, Scotch plumes and tartans flew. Scotch Macs clasped hands with other Macs famous in the fur trade. Demonstrative Canadians fell on one another's necks with tears and laughter. Indian wives and children clamored for recognition. Delighted voyageurs dandled their terra-cotta babies on their knees with gifts of beads and bells bought in Canadian shops for this happy hour. ”

“ Yellow Serpent came to me for advice and told me the same tales. My brother, I tremble for your safety."
Dr. Whitman sat in a large, leather-covered chair in the doctor's sitting-room. Dr. McLoughlin had risen and laid his hands upon his shoulders. Entreaty shone in his eyes and in every line of his noble countenance. " Listen to me," continued the governor. "Indians are not to be trifled with. Leave them. Come here and stay. By and by they will invite you back. Then you can go in safety." ”

“ It was a phenomenally dark and heavy day. Not even when the great forest fire came down and threatened the fort had it been so oppressive. Dr. McLoughlin went out to observe the lurid sky. Candles were lit in the hall, and the cattle came lowing up from the marshes at midday. The air was full of fine, light ashes that fell over a radius of fifty miles. For the first time in the memory of man the white robes of St. Helen's were blackened with dust.
Down by the boat-house Dr. McLoughlin saw old Waskema, landing from her canoe. ”

“ In 1828 Jedediah led the first party that ever crossed the Sierras into California. The Spaniards viewed them with suspicion. Out of the hands of the Spaniards they fell into the snares of the Indians out of eighteen men three only escaped to the Hudson's Bay Company fort on the Columbia. Dr. McLoughlin was astounded. " Stay! "he cried. "McKay! Tom McKay! This American has been robbed, his party massacred. Take fifty men, ride light, and go down to the Umpqua." ”

“ McLoughlin saw most quickly and most clearly, and as elsewhere narrated, began to transfer his interests to the American side. This fine old man was big-brained, big-bodied, and big-souled, a natural American, though compelled to work for the British fur monopolists for the time. He admired the independent spirit of the incoming Yankee immigrants, even when the joke was on him. He afterwards told with much gusto of an American named Woods crossing the Columbia to Vancouver to try to get goods. ”

“ Others go far below the level of the most vicious beast. Men like Alexander MacKenzie and Doctor McLoughlin braced themselves to the shock of the sudden transition from civilization to barbarism and rose to renown—one as explorer, the other as patriot; but in the very same region where [14] Alexander MacKenzie won his laurels was another MacKenzie—James—a blood relative, who openly sold native women to voyageurs and entered them as an asset on the Company’s books; and in that very Oregon where McLoughlin won his reputation as a saint, was his son McLoughlin, notorious as a sot. ”

“ Hood. "Cannot the White Eagle throw his medicine beyond the Dalles? "they said. Five days was quick time to Walla Walla in March, but then, who could move camp with McLoughlin? Charlefoux was at the bow. Over and over again Charlefoux had travelled that route, the safest guide if not the boldest. Every summer he conducted the yearly express to Fort Garry on Lake Winnepeg, and there turned back with the new recruits from Canada.
"I will visit you when I pass," had been McLoughlin's message to Dr. Whitman, with a gift of apples, rare as gold dollars on the Columbia. ”

“ McLoughlin brought to Oregon City the same spirit of enterprise that had made Fort Vancouver the metropolis of the fur-forts. He gave employment to immigrants, built the best house, built saw and grist mills, and his loud voice might be heard in the streets directing his Indian servants as they grubbed up the stumps. Many yet living remember the white-headed man in swallow-tailed coat and brass buttons waving his cane like a truncheon at the head of the Falls " A canal can be cut from this basin to the gulch beyond the bluff, and this whole canyon can smoke with factories." ”

“ Not always. There was a time, after Astor's people left, when the Cascade Indians levied toll like the robber barons on the Rhine, a time when sixty well-armed men guarded every caravan, a time when the brigades made the portage at the Dalles with a lighted match above a loaded cannon. In a dim corner of the furroom there hung a chain armor worn by a Northwester in the early times. One hot night when he took it off, the skin came with it.
Long after McLoughlin came in 1824, the river bristled with danger. Once the Dalles Indians, the banditti of the Columbia, united to make him pay tribute. ”

“ At Walla Walla Chief Factor Pambrun comes down from his tower to greet his chief; there are letters for Dr. Whitman; the Shoshonie brigade sweeps into line with thirty packs of the best beaver of the mountains. The boat song rings in the narrow gorge. The Frenchmen sing in times of danger; the Iroquois are silent and stern as death as they let fly the canoe through the hissing and curling waters like a race-horse. There were times when Monique ran the swift and narrow Dalles; down the Cascades he shot with arrowy wing, but not to-day. Dr. McLoughlin is along and Charlefoux is guide. ”

“ Again the bastions roared a welcome; even the mission ship caught the enthusiasm, and waved her flags and fired her guns. The fort gates opened to receive not knights in armor clad, but the brigade of gay and happy trappers with their winter's catch of skins.
Dr. McLoughlin, with an eye to business, lingered a moment. Clerk Roberts called, "Pack in the bales, pack in the bales." The voyageurs leaped to the task and trundled up the furs.
Chief Factor Ogden, homely and kind, passed on up to the fort with Dr. McLoughlin and the other factors of his fleet. ”

“ As Pythias waited for Damon, so McLoughlin had waited for McKay. His tender heart was touched by the sorrows of one so fair. Her well-bred ways whispered of home. No white woman could go into the Indian country, but Margaret could go because she had Indian blood.
Dr. McLoughlin married the widow Margaret McKay. There was no priest at Sault Ste. Marie, that lonely trading outpost eighty years ago, A brother chief factor said the service. That was all; enough for a loyal heart like John McLoughlin's. ”

“ McLoughlin's feelings and principles were for rule by the people under a republican form of government. Through his whole life he was ever the friend of the distressed and the champion of the oppressed. ”

“ McLoughlin was toiling abroad for the aggrandizement of England on the Pacific, Jason Lee, the missionary, was lecturing in the States. He woke up Congress, suggested that a mile square of land be offered to immigrants. He stirred the entire country. Through him Caleb Gushing, of Newburyport, conceived the idea of trading in the Columbia. In response to his call for men and money, the Methodist Board granted $40,000, and a mission colony of fiftythree persons, ministers, mechanics, farmers, and teachers, sailed out on that ship "Lausanne "from New York harbor. ”