a volley. A bottle of Madeira
was broken against the flagstaff, the country pronounced a British
possession by the captain, cheers given, and eleven guns fired from the
bastions.

At this stage all accounts, particularly American accounts, have rung
down the curtain on the catastrophe, leaving the Nor' Westers
intoxicated with success. But another act was to complete the disasters
of Astoria, for the very excess of intoxication brought swift judgment
on the revelling Nor' Westers.

The Raccoon left on the last day of 1813. MacDougall had been appointed
partner in the North-West Company, and the other Canadians re-engaged
under their own flag. When Hunt at last arrived in the Pedler, which he
had chartered after the wreck of Mr. Astor's third vessel, the Lark, it
was too late to do more than carry away those Americans still loyal to
Mr. Astor. Farnham was left at Kamtchatka, whence he made his way to
Europe. The others were captured off California and they afterward
scattered to all parts of the world. Early in April, 1814, a brigade of
Nor' Westers, led by MacDonald of Garth and the younger MacTavish, set
out for the long journey across the mountains and prairie to the
company's headquarters at Port William. In the flotilla of ten canoes
went many of the old Astorians. Two weeks afterward came the belated
Isaac Todd with the Nor' Westers' white flag at its foretop and the
dissolute old Governor MacTavish holding a high carnival of riot in the
cabin.

No darker picture exists than that of Astoria--or Fort George, as the
British called it--under Governor MacTavish's _regime_. The picture is
from the hand of a North-West partner himself. _"Not in bed till 2 A.
M.; ... the gentlemen and the crew all drunk; ... famous fellows for
grog they are; ... diced for articles belonging to Mr. M.,"_ Alexander
Henry had written when the Raccoon was in port; and now under Governor
MacTavish's vicious example every pretence to decency was discarded.

"_Avec les loups il faut hurler_" was a common saying among Nor'
Westers, and perhaps that very assimilation to the native races which
contributed so much to success also contributed to the trader's undoing.
White men and Indians vied with each other in mutual debasement. Chinook
and Saxon and Frenchmen alike lay on the sand sodden with corruption;
and if one died from carousals, companions weighted neck and feet with
stones and pushed the corpse into the river. Quarrels broke out betwee