on her coasting voyage at the end of
June, and on the 1st of July Mr. Hunt went on board: but westerly winds
prevailing all that month, it was not till the 4th of August that she
was able to get out of the river; being due again by the end of October
to leave her surplus goods and take in our furs for market.

The months of August and September were employed in finishing a house
forty-five feet by thirty, shingled and perfectly tight, as a hospital
for the sick, and lodging house for the mechanics.

Experience having taught us that from the beginning of October to the
end of January, provisions were brought in by the natives in very small
quantity, it was thought expedient that I should proceed in the
schooner, accompanied by Mr. Clapp, on a trading voyage up the river to
secure a cargo of dried fish. We left Astoria on the 1st of October,
with a small assortment of merchandise. The trip was highly successful:
we found the game very abundant, killed a great quantity of swans,
ducks, foxes, &c., and returned to Astoria on the 20th, with a part of
our venison, wild fowl, and bear meat, besides seven hundred, and fifty
smoked salmon, a quantity of the _Wapto_ root (so called by the
natives), which is found a good substitute for potatoes, and four
hundred and fifty skins of beaver and other animals of the furry tribe.

The encouragement derived from this excursion, induced us to try a
second, and I set off this time alone, that is, with a crew of five men
only, and an Indian boy, son of the old chief Comcomly. This second
voyage proved anything but agreeable. We experienced continual rains,
and the game was much less abundant, while the natives had mostly left
the river for their wintering grounds. I succeeded, nevertheless, in
exchanging my goods for furs and dried fish, and a small supply of dried
venison: and returned, on the 15th of November, to Astoria, where the
want of fresh provisions began to be severely felt, so that several of
the men were attacked with scurvy.

Messrs. Halsey and Wallace having been sent on the 23d, with fourteen
men, to establish a trading post on the Willamet, and Mr. M'Dougal being
confined to his room by sickness, Mr. Clapp and I were left with the
entire charge of the post at Astoria, and were each other's only
resource for society. Happily Mr. Clapp was a man of amiable character,
of a gay, lively humor, and agreeable conversation. In the intervals of
our daily duties, we amused oursel